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Industry 4.0 has been spoken about for some time, but uptake seems less than ideal. Why?<\/h3>\n
Around 70\u201375% of manufacturing companies are still stuck in the pilot stage of trying new solutions and applications but not yet seeing the impact that Industry 4.0 can deliver. In most cases, it\u2019s because the organisation lacks a clear vision or strategy for transformation. There\u2019s a lot of noise around individual technologies and it\u2019s important to move away from the hype \u2013 Industry 4.0 is not about stand-alone innovations. It\u2019s about finding the best combination of technologies to overcome very specific operational or business challenges.<\/p>\n
Then there is the issue of digital literacy. Manufacturers must upskill or reskill their people so they become confident and comfortable with the new technology. Companies also tend to find the upfront capex costs of transformation daunting. They need to realise that Industry 4.0 is a long-term game \u2013 you may not see rewards in the next quarter.<\/p>\n
Today, manufacturers are experiencing the most pressure they\u2019ve faced in recent history to be more productive while reducing costs. That\u2019s exactly why they need to prioritise Industry 4.0 transformation now more than ever.<\/p>\n
Urgent digitalisation is required to drive efficiency, build agility and achieve the resilience necessary to respond to the next pandemic-level disruption. However, manufacturers must first understand where they stand, benchmark themselves, and identify the right partners \u2013 from technology and solutions providers to universities, governments and international organisations. INCIT, the new independent, not-for-profit organisation that has been established to take the Smart Industry Readiness Index programme to the next level, is uniquely positioned to help with this.<\/p>\n
How are other parts of the supply chain and ecosystem supporting Industry 4.0 transformation?<\/h3>\n
Having a fully connected value chain is vital to the success of Industry 4.0. It\u2019s not just about digitising your own facilities \u2013 which is why many larger manufacturers have started to bring their suppliers on board the transformation journey too. This makes it possible to power not only productivity, efficiency and growth, but also to enable new business models.<\/p>\n
Governments also stand to benefit from Industry 4.0\u2019s ecosystem, both in terms of economic growth and job creation, and can play an active role to help accelerate the transition \u2013 whether by designing better policies, strengthening support mechanics, or providing incentives for digitalisation.<\/p>\n
Smart Industry Readiness Index is a powerful tool for catalysing transformation. Having clear frameworks, tools and assessments backed by international benchmarks will help both manufacturers and governments get clearer insights into how digitally mature they are, how they stack up against the competition, and what opportunities are available for improvement.<\/p>\n
Smart Industry Readiness Index is now becoming the international standard for Industry 4.0 transformation in manufacturing. What is fuelling its global adoption?<\/h3>\n
Four to five years ago we realised that most companies were still stuck with their transformation efforts. It became part of WEF\u2019s mission to help the global manufacturing community gain a better understanding of challenges and opportunities, and incubate new collaborations and initiatives to help accelerate industry transformation.<\/p>\n
The Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) is a very active partner of WEF. We\u2019ve worked closely with them for close to 40 years, and when they developed Smart Industry Readiness Index and rolled it out with such success in Singapore, we both thought it would be amazing to make the tool available globally. We worked closely for a full year to scale Smart Industry Readiness Index from national to global level.<\/p>\n
As more and more companies came on board, the difference that Smart Industry Readiness Index made became obvious. It\u2019s quite a unique tool because it can spot areas where both company-level interventions or ecosystem-level collaborations are most needed. It is not just extremely helpful for companies to adapt their plans, but also for governments to know how to support their local manufacturing community.<\/p>\n
To further scale Smart Industry Readiness Index in the years ahead, we realised we needed a dedicated entity and team. That\u2019s why INCIT was established. The INCIT team is already working with the global manufacturing community to accelerate the deployment of Smart Industry Readiness Index and develop new tools.<\/p>\n
What do you think the manufacturing sector will look like in three to five years?<\/h3>\n
I expect the future of manufacturing to be much more sustainable and inclusive, and Industry 4.0 will be the main driver of this. The global manufacturing community will play a big role in the fight against climate change and the fight for social inclusion, and I believe that the digitisation process will allow manufacturers to deliver on these broader ESG goals. There have already been many use cases of Industry 4.0 being effective in reducing carbon emissions and water consumption, while increasing energy efficiency and workplace safety.<\/p>\n
With Smart Industry Readiness Index, companies will be better informed of the next phase of their transformation strategy to ensure adherence to these goals and alignment with stakeholder expectations. If we\u2019re successful with rolling out Smart Industry Readiness Index worldwide, we\u2019ll be able to come together collectively as a global manufacturing community \u2013 not just companies but governments as well \u2013 to make the right investments that will further accelerate progress towards a more sustainable and equitable industry.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Prior to 2020, Industry 4.0 was seen by most as an exciting subject with huge potential benefits \u2013 but not an immediate concern. Case in point: only 5% of manufacturers had an Industry 4.0 strategy in 2019. That figure has since jumped, reaching 31% in 2020. Confronted with the largest health and economic crisis of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":35279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thought-leadership"],"acf":{"topic":"digitalisation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/incit.org\/en_au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/incit.org\/en_au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/incit.org\/en_au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/incit.org\/en_au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/incit.org\/en_au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/incit.org\/en_au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35282,"href":"https:\/\/incit.org\/en_au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855\/revisions\/35282"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/incit.org\/en_au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/incit.org\/en_au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/incit.org\/en_au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/incit.org\/en_au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}