‘Focus on talent in adoption of Industry 4.0’
PETALING JAYA: Malaysia should focus on talent and manpower training in the adoption of Industry 4.0 to tackle the shortage of skilled manpower, said Taipei Economic & Cultural Office in Malaysia director of economic division David Hsu.
He said Malaysia’s Industry 4.0 is similar to Taiwan’s Productivity 4.0, which encompasses Manufacturing 4.0, Agricultural 4.0 and Business 4.0.
“Basically, they’re similar to each other because the final goal is to upgrade our economy’s overall capacity and capability so that our technologies and products can compete in the global market,” Hsu told reporters at the Pikom Leadership Summit 2018 yesterday after speaking at a panel session on Industry 4.0 – What Businesses Need to Know the Taiwan Experience.
He said Malaysia and Taiwan can cooperate in the promotion of Industry 4.0 policies. Taiwan can provide assistance such as integrated supply chain, on how to optimise production process and the two countries can work together to develop the international market.
He pointed out that Malaysia should also amend its laws and regulations to create a friendly environment for Industry 4.0.
“In Taiwan, Germany, Japan, US and Korea, we don’t have so many foreign workers to fulfill this obligation. We have to rely on our own people. This is why we have to try our best to cultivate talent for different sectors.”
Hsu said Taiwan is now more focused on technical and vocational set-up and has allocated more resources to universities to provide technical courses, as well as having post-studies for vocational training. Taiwan is encouraging its SMEs to have on-job training and SMEs who undergo training courses will be able to obtain financial assistance from the government.
“We’re forcing our private enterprises, directly or indirectly, to go for talent training because this is core of Taiwan’s economic development.”
He said sectors that are seeing strategic promotion by the Taiwan government are agriculture, food manufacturing, information technology, logistics, machinery & equipment, retailing, textile and transportation.
“We hope Taiwan can be the main suppliers for turnkey solutions, not just cutting edge hardware but also innovative and efficient software and services and we hope we can create smart manufacturing ecosystems. We think Productivity 4.0 is a correct and necessary policy direction for Taiwan government to adopt and we persuade our enterprises to follow this policy.”
As an example, he said Taiwan’s bicycle industry has successfully incorporated high technology knowledge and has evolved into a competitive bicycle industry in the world, which is a successful model for Taiwanese SMEs to follow suit.
Taiwan Excellence, which represents the best of Taiwan’s products and services, is a partner for the summit this year, bringing with it three Taiwanese brands – ICP Das, Hiwin and Advantech to share how Taiwanese enterprises can be Malaysia’s best partner towards Industry 4.0.
Taiwan is one of the first in Asia to invest in the development of Industry 4.0 by focusing on its advantages in research and development (R&D).
Taiwan Excellence is an annual initiative sponsored by the Taiwanese government with the aim of selecting the best product each year based on excellence in design, quality, marketing, Taiwanese R&D and manufacturing. With many of the recent winners being smart products, Taiwan Excellence is a good indicator of Taiwan’s progress in Industry 4.0.