SIRIM assists firms adopt right technologies

SIRIM has been mandated by the government to lead technology development for industrial application and technology transfer. Since this year SIRIM has been collaborating with local and foreign technology partners for the industry to adopt Industry 4.0 related technologies.

SIRIM is committed in assisting the industry to build capabilities and capacities in such technology.

SIRIM president and group chief executive Prof Ir Dr Ahmad Fadzil Mohamad Hani elaborates further.

Q: As Industry 4.0 gains momentum in the manufacturing world, what are SIRIM’s efforts in assisting the industry to meet the demands?

A: A company needs to define a tailored Industry 4.0 strategy to overcome the challenges and embark on the journey of industrial revolution.

SIRIM assists them by adopting the right technologies that suit their needs and maximises performance. We believe it is essential for manufacturers to adopt technologies that are valuable to address specific pain points and improve operation and processes.

In helping them to meet the demands, SIRIM is planning to develop sectoral-based industry standards and monitor the development of Industry 4.0 standards at international levels.

With more than 40 years of experience in standards development activities, SIRIM is focusing on the development of organisation and industry standards to support the government’s initiatives towards creativity and innovation.

SIRIM will continue to support Malaysia through its one stop resource centre for standards in Shah Alam. We have in our collection, more than 100,000 national, international and industry standards. We build human resource competencies through training on Industry 4.0 Technology Pillars and act as Total Solution Providers, focusing on the following:

 Conduct readiness assessments to determine organisation maturity levels and competency gaps.

 Provide solution on how to move up the levels and close the gap incrementally.

 Building competencies and capabilities through training and consultancy across all levels.

Q: Technology adoption is still low in the manufacturing and services industries in Malaysia. How can SIRIM assist in addressing these issues?

A: SIRIM will take one step at a time when assisting industries. The change process must be incremental and shall take into consideration the following:

 How Industry 4.0 accelerates operational improvement, how can a company integrate new and existing capabilities and technologies.

 How to make information systems a critical enabler (integrating machines, equipment, and plants that have traditionally operated in silos).

 Establish Industry 4.0 transformation road map, and approach Industry 4.0 as a change project.

SIRIM continues its efforts to be the strategic partner for smart manufacturing and related services in Asia-Pacific while being the primary destination for high tech industries as the total solution provider for advanced technology.

Another challenge is to transform Malaysia’s economy from being a consumer of technology to a producer. Thus, SIRIM is working with collaborators such as:

 FMM on Industrial Standards Development and Technology advisory and services.

 KISMEC on competency and capacity building.

 HUAWEI on competency and capacity building for SIRIM engineers as well as SMEs management and awareness training on digitalisation and cloud computing.

 JAPAN on competency and capacity building for SMEs and technology adoption through business matching.

SIRIM, together with the government is set to increase collaboration to assist SMEs adopt smart manufacturing technologies with the Malaysia-Japan collaboration programme and to engage the Japan industry consortium JACTIM, Japan Embassy in Kuala Lumpur and Japan External Trade Organisation or JETRO, for experience sharing, best practices and project showcases as we help the SMEs to gear for Industry 4.0. Q: How can the MalaysiaJapan collaboration help the Malaysian industry?

A:

The collaboration programme shares the Japanese basic production and management systems on Industry 4.0 by introducing Japanese companies’ solutions for SMEs in Malaysia.

The programme focuses on:

 Capacity and capability building via technical trainings on Industry 4.0 to reskill and upskill Malaysia’s SMEs’ personnel and establish a pool of local expertise in Industry 4.0.

 Industry Standards development with new industry standards, guidelines and best practices on Industry 4.0.

 Technology innovation and commercialisation on smart technologies to transform SMEs towards Industry 4.0 and develop and commercialise new technology innovation on smart technologies and workshops to provide business matching opportunities between Malaysian SMEs and Japanese solution providers.

Q: How would the industry know their capabilities in adopting smart manufacturing technologies?

A: SMEs need to adopt new technologies to grow and not remain stagnant. Thus, the government has developed the methodology on Readiness Assessment for Industry 4.0 and it is made available for manufacturers.

This initiative will help to drive digital transformation of Malaysia’s manufacturing sector.

The readiness assessment helps the SMEs to assess their capabilities and readiness to adopt Internet of Things (IoT) platforms, cloud computing, big data analytics and augmented reality.

This is in line with the government’s aspirations to transform Malaysia into one of the main destinations for the high-tech industry sectors by 2025.

Once the SMEs have gone through the assessment, they will know their level of readiness and identify the areas of their operation that need to be improved in line with Industry 4.0.

To date, 24 companies have been assessed by SIRIM and it is planning to discuss further with the FMM and its manufacturing members to initiate specific project-based programmes that can benefit SMEs. Q: What are strategies or projects being lined up to assist SMEs towards Industry 4.0?

Obtaining the right certification and meeting standards will also be crucial in a virtual economy.

SMEs should obtain the necessary certifications and adhere to standards to ensure the quality of their products and services. This will help to build better rapport with consumers and penetrate new markets, locally and internationally.

SIRIM has established the Centre of Excellence (CoE) on Smart Manufacturing with three roles:

 Standards for interoperability — Five Industry Standards drafts under development

 Competency & capacity building — organise training programmes for talent development, MasterClass collaboration with KISMEC with three MasterClass conducted to date and four seminars under collaboration with Japan.

 Technology Adoption — R&D programmes for smart innovation & cyber-physical system and commercial-ready smart manufacturing technologies:

— Power Triggering Monitoring System — An IoT (Internet of Thing) based device that monitors the failure of lighting system. The device measures street light current and voltage and sends the data to Cloud Server in real time continuously via GSM Module

— Automated Trolley Flow Management System using Auto Guided Vehicle — Deploy 100kg AGV with fleet management system to transfer semi-finished products from Production Line to Proofer and return and from Proofer to Blast Freezer and return

— IoT Application — Kelulut Integrated Information System (KIIS) — Uses IoT sensor to measure the temperature and humidity of stingless bee hive automatically, periodically and in real time. Diagnostic analysis is done in cloud for further action

— Finished Product Tracking and Verification System — Uses RFID Technology to identify each apparel to tackle miscounted and fake product. The system developed on Web and handheld platform

— Water Treatment Plant Health Monitoring — To monitor incoming water supply quality such as pH, Chlorine, Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and Hardness in real time with integration of IIoT for remote diagnostic and monitoring

The CoE has four programmes : —P1 on Routing the Future Readiness: focuses on Development of competent and high skilled workforce

—P2 on Standardisation: focuses on Development of standards, guidelines, best practices, specifications

—P3 on Innovation Accelerators: focuses on New smart innovation development programmes based on Regulatory / Innovation Sandbox

—P4 on Cyber Physical Progression: focuses on Retrofitting machines to enable Industry 4.0

SIRIM president and group chief executive Prof Ir Dr Ahmad Fadzil Mohamad Hani says SMEs need to adopt new technologies to grow and not remain stagnant.