MAJLIS BELIA MALAYSIA

Preparing Future Smart Youth 4ir

By:

Jufitri Bin Joha

President Malaysia Youth Council (MBM)

Early of July, I was invited to be one of the speakers in the panel discussion in conjunction with the launching of National Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) Policy. The event organized by Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) and Economic Planning Unit (EPU) Prime Minister Department. Hence I would like to jot down some of my ideas and thought during the panel discussion.

Industry 4.0 refers to the current trends of process automation and data exchange using advanced manufacturing technologies. These include the Internet of Things (IoT), Industrial IoT, cyber-physical systems (CPS), cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), cognitive computing, 3D printing, predictive maintenance, smart sensors and others.

After the evolution of Industry 4.0, Malaysia has learned to infuse automation into their systems and core business processes. Evolution does not depend on how many technologies the industry has rather, it largely depends on how well one has applied them to their core functions. Malaysia is among those nations that have successfully acquire the skills in utilizing efficient manufacturing technologies and applying advanced digitalization to add value to their products and services. This facilitates automation of all critical processes without human dependence, thus increasing efficiency and productivity.

The 4IR policy was launched to drive digitalization and Industry 4.0 transformation of the manufacturing and other associated sectors in Malaysia and a number of initiatives have already been taken by the Malaysian Government and industries at the national, state and regional levels. According to the founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF), Klaus Schwab in his book The Fourth Industrial Revolution, “the Fourth Industrial Revolution was marked by the emergence of supercomputers, smart robots, driverless vehicles, genetic editing and the development of neurotechnology that allows humans to further optimize brain function.”

Based on the Klaus Schwab concepts, human life will be made easier with the help of robots who will become our “friend” taking care of daily matters and tasks. For instance, the pizza we ordered through our phones will be delivered via drones, we no longer have to turn on the engine and face rush-hour traffic every day, all household matters such as washing clothes, feeding pets and turning off the air-conditioner can be directed through our smartphones thus no longer needing housemaid services. However, in retrospect, as Among Tong, UCLA economics undergraduate and Rachel Gong, a researcher at Khazanah Research Institute described, “Despite being the backbone of Malaysia’s business environment, SME’s perform relatively poorly in digitalization. There exists a digital divide among businesses in Malaysia.”

With that said, there are numerous challenges our industries are facing from lack of awareness regarding the need and impact of Industry 4.0 technologies, especially among SME’s, to lack of easy access to vital data to understand the industry’s best practices and analyze the relevant use cases, shortage of the necessary skills, talents and knowledge for adopting Industry 4.0, especially in areas like AI, IoT, robotics, cybersecurity and many others and higher adoption costs and a longer payback period for the 4IR processes and technologies. With increasing technological advances, jobs that are repetitive, rule-based and involving limited or well-defined physicality will most likely be automated.

Our youths are not safe either where The World Economic Forum (WEF) estimates 65% of kids enrolling in primary education today will end up working in jobs that have not been created yet. The industry will demand higher qualification candidates to be working in this new era of industrial revolution and the education sector acting as a provider of said candidates will have to adjust its training method in order to prepare students for the industry in the future with complex problem solving, critical and creative thinking to be among the skills graduates should possess to prepare for the IR 4.0 as listed by a World Economic Forum report titled The Future of Jobs. Thus, a new term coined by researchers and educators arise dubbed, Education 4.0.

From the above analysis of the common challenges and issues, five key themes are identified to encourage the growth of an end-to-end 4IR ecosystem in Malaysia. Firstly, a significant evolution in collaborative platforms and innovation capabilities to develop and have access to more efficient and cost-effective technologies for addressing specific consumer needs. Second, powerful digital infrastructure is needed to secure 4IR operations, thus increasing reliability and safety. Next, focused funding strategy and support is required for faster and more efficient Industry 4.0 adoption, inclusion of SME’s to encourage better involvement for enhancing productivity and finally, upskilling and reskilling all the existing as well as future talents.

With the onset of the 4IR, we have to accommodate to the new normal introduced where for instance, it will be a strong wake-up call for companies that have not implemented Industry 4.0 prior to COVID-19. 4IR will be more relevant moving forward in a sense that production plans will change frequently due to changing demands and availability of raw materials, key staff and assets. It will also serve as a platform to develop new, more resilient business in the medium to long term. Additionally, when the pandemic struck, SME’s priorities had changed. Some companies that were originally open to exploring full implementation of IR4.0 technologies, with interconnected machinery, were not keen on doing so as their core businesses were severely disrupted. A lot of SME’s does not digitalize their documents and were heavily dependent on manual labor. During the Movement Control Order, they were unable to operate remotely and are now seeking solutions to cater to such problem.

In regards to Society 5.0, by utilizing the technology provided by Industry 4.0 as a catalyst and driver, Society 5.0 looks for the general welfare of citizens and aims for a super-intelligent society. Society 5.0 places the person at the center of Industry 4.0. The Japanese concept of Society 5.0 assumes four previous societies; the hunting, the agricultural, the industrial, the information (where they collect the successive industrial revolutions and the current fourth) and a fifth that integrates the online with the offline, (i.e. information or cyberspace), with the real physical world in a sustainable way.

Date : 26th July 2021

LEBIH BERITA DISINI

BERITA

KENYATAAN AKHBAR

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