On March 2, 2018, Dr. Sameer Kumar, Senior Lecturer, Asia-Europe Institute, delivered a special talk at Marketing and Recruitment Centre (MRC), University of Malaya, on "Industry 4.0 (Industrie 4.0) and its implication on ASEAN" to a visiting group of Postgraduate students and faculty members of a well-known business institute in India.
Industry 4.0 is the fourth major manufacturing reset involving a basket of disruptive technologies, such as Cyber Physical Systems, Internet of Things, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Block chain etc. that would impact our jobs and lives in the 21st century. Whereas, the 2nd and 3rd Industrial revolutions were characterised by mass production, the 4th Industrial revolution would see an ushering of mass customization. Tomorrow’s managers would be more specifically, technology managers and Industry 4.0 would demand right skills in order for them to take better decisions. ASEAN, an association of 10 South-East Asian nations, has been keen to adopt Industry 4.0, realizing fully well the immense socio-economic benefits it could bring to its citizens. Countries like Thailand and Singapore already have national policies on Industry 4.0, while other ASEAN member nations are formulating strategies and policies to benefit from it.
The talked delved into finer aspects of Industry 4.0 (i.e. smart factories) and ASEAN (i.e. open regionalism), before gauging the possibilities and risks of Industry 4.0 on ASEAN. The audience engaged in a Q&A after the talk.