Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Factories of the Future: A Dialogue with experts


The Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre (ARTC), a research institute under the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) in Singapore invited me to facilitate a panel discussion during their inaugural Future of Manufacturing Summit. The panelists were Dr. Masahiko Mori from DMG Mori, Dr. Koji Tanaka from IHI, Dr. Hamid Mughal from Rolls-Royce, Mr. Amos Leong from the Univac Group and Dr. Michael Eder from Voestalpine.


I had the honor of interacting with these thought-leaders and solicit their views on the 4th Industrial Revolution and how the advanced manufacturing scene would play out in the coming decade. I am sharing some of my observations from this discussion. 

We are on the cusp of a technology evolution with unprecedented magnitude. The digital evolution goes by many names – some call it the 4th Industrial Revolution or Industry 4.0; others term it Cyber-physical systems or Industrial Internet of Things. But if there is only one thing everyone agrees on, it is that we are heralding the next era of global growth and innovation.  Augmented by the exponential advancements in computing power, sensors, an explosion of data and network connectivity - this disruptive tsunami is sweeping through almost every industry across the world. 

Many industries and countries have already embarked on the “Smart Industry” or “Smart Nation” journey, and manufacturing is no exception. Aided by the advent of additive manufacturing like 3D printing technology, various technology leaders and think tanks are offering up different strategies on cloud infrastructure, frameworks or turnkey solutions to accelerate the adoption of Industrial Internet of Things for smart factories. While technology is fueling this revolution, a successful transformation is still dependent on a complex ecosystem of human capital, management and governance.

Smart manufacturing harnesses data, artificial intelligence and human innovation to accurately predict and execute every aspect of the business. What lessons can we learn from this emerging trend?

Those are some of the questions I put forth to the panelists during the forum. As the dialogue continues with each panelist offering their opinions and forward looking vision, overarching themes clearly emerged.

Impact on Human Capital
Factories of the future are often labelled with the negative connotation of eliminating jobs or replacing blue-collar roles with technology. Successful transformation to the next generation shop floor requires collaboration between humans and robots. Human capital should be viewed as the principal resource as they possess the moral acumen and decision-making ethics that artificial intelligence at this stage will not be able to replicate.

We will see a structural shift jobs, as demand surges for new roles such as data scientists, R&D engineers, simulation experts etc. But at the same time, we also expect to see the lines blurring between blue and white collar employees as operators upscale and equip themselves with the knowledge and capability to operate complex machines, synthesize commands or feedback to the cloud while working in tandem with robots.

Need for Organizational Alignment
We all acknowledged that the C-suite and technologists may not always keep at the same pace. After all, executives are responsible for managing the company’s operational and capital expenditures prudently in order to deliver a profitable business. Technologists on the other hand, are largely concerned with the acceleration of value chain optimization through digitalization as quickly as possible. 

Gaining management support and organizational alignment is of paramount importance should we want to implement a smart manufacturing initiative successfully. Converting traditional manufacturing processes to a smart factory infrastructure can be costly. The executives need to balance between the impact of investments in new technologies on the bottom lines in the short/medium term and the return on investment in the long run while looking after the interests of the company, employees and shareholders.

During the discussion, all the panelists - who are respected technologists and business leaders in key leadership positions offered the same word of caution: that one must carefully balance the decisions made due to short term constraints with the long term viability of the business in mind. Company leadership must have the right mix of technology investment with business acuity. 

Clarity on Data Ownership
Smart factories are built on the premise of transparency and open information flow within the supply chain to identify gaps, forecast demands and optimize efficiency. Manufacturing processes generate massive amount of data every day with sensors, wireless connectivity and data processing tools, yet organizations are always resistant to data sharing within their supply chains because of data ownership concerns.
There are huge benefits to reap from data sharing: combining different data streams can derive additional information-driven intelligence to use for analysis and projections. Organizations should overcome their reticence and work with their supply chain stakeholders to design collaborative structures that supports transparency and openness while setting guardrails in place to prevent contention. 
Conclusion
An organization that takes time to design a deliberate roadmap that fuses artificial intelligence, data management, suppliers/partners and governance into its ecosystem will thrive well into the 21st century. As the advanced manufacturing landscape is still evolving rapidly, I see opportunities for the technology leaders to take the lead in public-private partnerships with academia and national agencies to accelerate adoption of the Smart Manufacturing initiatives worldwide. When done the right way, this can lead to global growth, jobs creations and improved quality of life for the world community. The caveat is that academic institutions need to start reviewing and redesigning their current curriculum now, to future-proof our next generation workforce in this increasingly digitalized world.

Credits
I will like to give thanks to the following panelists and esteemed thought-leaders for sharing their visions and insights:

·       Dr. Koji Tanaka – Deputy Corporate R&D Head, IHI


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