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Set high aspirations: Setting right aspirations is critical to drive outcomes.
Policymakers should have clear, actionable, targeted and impactful objectives
for Industry 4.0 strategy. This helps bring the right attention and act as an
inspiration for the country.
Ensure the right level of focus: With such ambitious nationwide programmes,
it is easy to get too narrowly focused on a few sub-sectors on one hand or being too
broad on the other. Balanced coverage of sectors and technologies is critical. At the policy
level, the focus should be on building an enabling environment to encourage innovation
and adoption in priority sectors.
Pay attention to enablers: Enablers such as infrastructure, funding, skills and
We can draw the
following lessons
from the
experiences of
other countries in
charting the
transformation to
Industry 4.0:
technology create a fertile ground to encourage innovation and kickstart a virtuous,
self-sustaining ecosystem. Policymakers need to tailor emphasis to the current
realities of their country.
Include SMEs: Industry 4.0 technologies present both opportunities and risks for SMEs.
Thus, an inclusive programme is required to ensure that SMEs can make the
transformation to more advanced manufacturing processes or risk being left behind. More
importantly, Industry 4.0 provides an opportunity for the small companies of today to
become giants of tomorrow.
Provide access to funding: Availability of capital and incentives from the beginning
ensures that Industry 4.0 programmes have a solid start in the country. Funding and
incentives should be directed towards both R&D and adoption of these technologies in the
manufacturing process.
Implement from the top: Industry 4.0 is expected to have far reaching impact
across industries, societies and the broader economy. Thus, it is not a domain of any one
Government department or agency. Governance for such initiatives should be initiated at
the top most level in the country, with emphasis on strong cross-ministerial and agency
collaboration.
Several of the global and leading manufacturing countries have already embarked on their Industry 4.0 transformation and are in advanced stages of implementation, e.g.
Germany, the US, the UK, China and Republic of Korea. It is critical for Malaysia to learn from these experiences and move fast in its own Industry 4.0 adoption to not fall
behind in its global manufacturing position.
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