Asia is recognised as the manufacturing hub of the world and is a strong driving force for the Industrial Internet of Things market, which some are calling the Industry 4.0 revolution. In particular, Southeast Asia has the potential to leapfrog ahead of other developing nations as the region is forecast to grow at least five per cent annually until 2020, exceeding the global growth of 3.5 per cent.
People are augmented with, and empowered by, Technology Early adopters of automation are already seeing measurable gains including increased energy efficiency and a better return on capital expenditure. Reports show that manufacturing companies can see a 10 to 20 per cent increase in productivity when they migrate to a digitised lean assembly line that uses sensors, interfaces and basic analytics. Productivity rates can soar by a further 300 per cent with the deployment of Industry 4.
For instance, machines and automation should be seen as an enabler for people to drive new and different procedures in operational efficiency and energy efficiency, breathing new life into traditional workflows and empowering the human workforce. These intelligent new technologies will require organisations to upskill human operators in order to drive the change.
To survive and to lead in today’s business environment, organisations need to innovate and transform how operations are run. Savvy use of intelligent automation starts as a competitive advantage and will become, over time, table stakes.