Industry 4.0Thai industries urged to embrace the fourth revolution driven by four disruptions
THE WORLD is believed to be in an early stage of the fourth industrial revolution, or Industry 4.0, that followed three previous industrial upheavals – the commercial steam engine and the mechanical boom of the 18th century, the harnessing of electricity and mass production around the start of the 20th century, and the automation age that took off in the 2000s.
McKinsey, a global consultancy, defines Industry 4.0 as the next phase in the digitisation of the manufacturing sector, driven by four disruptions.
First is the astonishing rise in data volumes, computational power and connectivity, especially new low-power wide-area networks.
Second is the emergence of analytics and business-intelligence capabilities.
The third disruption is new forms of human-machine interaction such as touch interfaces and augmented-reality systems.
And finally, there have are improvements in transferring digital instructions to the physical world, such as advanced robotics and 3-D printing.
PM Office Minister Suvit Maesincee, an architect behind the military-led regime’s “Thailand 4.0” scheme, said that as the world was experiencing major upheaval brought by the fourth industrial revolution, it was unavoidable that the Kingdom had to embrace major changes in all fronts.
“The key is in the people. How can we create ‘Thais 4.0’?” the minister said.
An executive with a machinery-supplier multinational company told The Nation some sugar factories in Thailand used automated systems “but the workers just don’t like to push the buttons” and continue to work in the manual way.
Suvit said “Thais 4.0” must use the “four Hs”: head, hands, health, and heart. And he said this required the reform of the educational system, which had to develop people who were purposeful, innovative, mindful, and “action-based”.
The labour force also needs to be “re-skilled” and up-skilled to work in the 4.0 era, otherwise there will be high unemployment, he added.
He said that as the world was entering more of a service economy, the border between products and services was blurring. Manufacturers had excelled in providing services in order to survive.
Because of this, Suvit called for the formation of a “Pracha Rath” public-private sector collaborative platform for the industrial sector that would include the Industry and Commerce ministries as well as manufacturers and service providers.
Federation of Thai Industries chairman Chen Namchaisiri said most manufacturers belonged to the 2.0 or 2.5 eras and they should first be upgraded to 3.0 through automation.
“Only some are ready to go to 4.0,” he said.
He said it was a misunderstanding to think that Industry 4.0 would cause many job losses since the automation for it belonged to the 3.0 era. In fact, he added, the new era created many new jobs.
To forge ahead, Thailand is also attempting to foster new industries and upgrade existing ones. For example, as electric vehicles are likely to be a “disrupter” of the current automobile and auto-parts sector, the government is striving to promote the aerospace and medical-equipment industries and encourage parts-makers to shift into these more promising industries.
To steer the task, the Industry Ministry recently initiated the Industrial Transformation Centre, where engineering experts advise manufacturers wanting to commercialise their innovations, shift into a new industry, apply automation, or enhance productivity.
Another major element of Thailand 4.0 is the promotion of research and development and innovations. The Industry Ministry recently established the Industrial Design Centre to provide a design consultancy to manufacturers.
The government, working through the Thai Chamber of Commerce and the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC), is also attempting to |create new kinds of entrep|reneurs and small and medium-sized enterprises such as the so-called innovation-driven e|ntrepreneurs (IDE) and st|art-ups.
“We need these new economic warriors,” said Science and Technology Minsiter Atchaka Sibunruangm.
UTCC rector Saowanee Thairungroj said IDE would be a new breakthrough for Thailand.
“We want to create an ecosystem so that Thailand is ready for IDE. It is the mission that we want to do with TCC to help SMEs,” she said.
To create the IDE Centre and support the development of materials, coaches and mentors, UTCC is partnering with the US-based Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The partnership is the result of three years of cooperation including participation in MIT’s Entrepreneurship Development Programme, and UTCC serving as a partner in MIT’s Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Programme.
