IFS Forum puts 4th Industrial Revolution in the spotlight

By Kiyoshi J Berman

IFS held a knowledge sharing session themed ‘4th Industrial Revolution – Technologies for the Next Generation,’ with Bob Gill, General Manager South East Asia of ARC Advisory Group Singapore, followed by an IFS roadmap debriefing by Antony Bourne, the Global Industry Director for manufacturing and High Tech at IFS. 

The 4th industrial revolution is about automation, computing, mobility, robotics, genetics and super intelligence. These technologies will affect how you work; how you run your business and how you take you take decisions. Understanding its potency is important as you lead businesses.

Gill began his presentation with an introduction to the World Economic Forum which is a non-profit foundation based in Cologny, Geneva many where many business leaders and celebrities attend. 

“The World Economic Forum is probably the most prestigious conference of this type in the world. This year’s conference was held under the theme ‘Mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution’. Well, it must be very important and topical to be the theme of this conference,” he said. 

He explained that Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, has been at the centre of global affairs for over four decades. “Klaus is a believer that we are at the beginning of a revolution that is fundamentally changing the way we live, work and relate to one another.”

‘4th Industrial Revolution’

Further clarifying the term ‘4th Industrial Revolution,’ Gill said: “If we look back into the late 18th century, the First Industrial Revolution used water and steam power to mechanise production. The Second in the late 19th century, used electricity to power industrial equipment that led to mass production. Around hundred years after, we started producing electronics and using information technology. This led to an increasing amount of automation in manufacturing. Now we are creating the Fourth Industrial Revolution based on the concept of cyber physical systems that has been occurring since the middle of the last century. It is characterised by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres.”

“If you think about driverless cars, you need sensor capability, you need connecting software to connect the car with the real world and recognise people, road signs, go to the right direction and stop when it’s required to. So software has become a very large and important component,” he added.

‘Industry 4.0’ and IoT

There are a number of technologies that enable the ‘Industry 4.0’, some of the core technologies are augmented reality, big data analysis, additive manufacturing, the Cloud, vertical and horizontal integration, the industrial IoT. There are other technologies as well, and all these together will create the 4th industrial revolution.

He explained that there are lot of innovations happening around IoT (Internet of Things), a lot of news and many different definitions. It is not very easy to explain as there are different interpretations. ITU defines the internet of things as ”global infrastructure for the information society, enabling advanced services by interconnecting (physical and virtual) things, based on existing and evolving interoperable information and communication technologies.”

With a few examples, Gill showed how IoT devices can become a part of our daily lives. For example Kolibree— first smart sonic toothbrush turns tooth brushing into a game, educates kids, and empowers parents by connecting the brush with a mobile app that gives information to the user about the brushing patterns and techniques. He also mentioned how technology can help people improve in sports by showing an IoT tennis racquet that can capture the movements of the player.

Industrial IoT— IIoT will significantly change the world. You won’t participate with conventional thinking and an incremental approach. An IIOT device is typically an industrial asset with a platform for new apps, services that are remotely manageable and it securely integrates to the ecosystem. 

IIOT   will open up major opportunities for improved asset performance, new service offerings, improved operational efficiency, and completely new ways of offering value to customers.  

Traditional and new business models

Comparing the traditional and new business models, Gill pointed out those industrial companies used to have a product transaction model but the future should be a customer relationship model. Industrial Machine manufacturers can potentially grow their business by introducing digitised products and expanding their aftermarket services. Potential new service opportunities are enabled by IIOT, and competitive strategy and positioning.

Gill cited a famous quote from the CEO of GE (General Electric), Jeff Immelt: “If you went to bed an industrial company, you’re going to wake up a software and services company.” Then he emphasised that this does not mean the company will start selling software instead of manufacturing but it means that software will be an important part of whatever you’re making. GE has spent five years and a billion dollars learning how to become a software and analytics company and learnt some amazing lessons on the way. 

Gill explained the concept using the example of BP’s connected oil well. BP has partnered with GE to connect its oil wells with IIoT technology in an effort to further boost oil production. As a result, the GE’s data management software will be used to access the data sets from the wells in real-time hopefully helping them improve efficiency, prevent failures and minimise costly downtime. Initially across 650 of BP’s wells will be connected, but over the next several years BP plans to expand up to 4,000 wells around the world.

Machine learning and augmented reality

Diverting into the concept of machine learning, Gill said: “Machine learning is a type of artificial intelligence that provides computers with the ability to learn. Beyond the theoretical knowledge, it is being used in real industry applications today.” 

Speaking of augmented reality, Gill showed an example of a warehouse application where the user wears a smart glass that allows him to conduct the picking operation using RF scanning. He also displayed a slide with the latest Amazon Prime Air technology which delivers the goods in 30 minutes using drones. 

While there are certain limitations to these technologies at the moment, this is where the industry is heading. 

“Overall, digital transformation enables you to get the most of your assets, update and streamline work processes, get new insights into operations and increase efficiency while you become more responsive to customers,” he concluded.

IFS perspective

Antony Bourne delivered his presentation on the perspective of IFS on the 4th industrial revolution. 

“I want to make sure what we’re developing with IFS, is not only meeting your requirements of today but will continue to meet your requirements of tomorrow. We want to make sure what you’ve invested, what you’ve put your hard-earned money in will last,” he said.

“We are here to help you to choose what technologies you should use. You don’t have to use all technologies of the 4th industrial revolution. That’s fine; we don’t want you to use all of it, unless it is relevant to you. We want you to choose what can give you the most benefits.”

He summed up the applications of Industry 4.0, “It’s using the latest technologies and using them to create revenues. But it doesn’t come easy. It will cause disruption to your business. Your competitors are doing it as well. They are using it for their advantage and trying to combat the competition. You can’t ignore this; you have to accept that this is actually happening and think what you’re going to do about it. It will involve you transforming your business. You will create new business using new revenue streams and there may be other areas of business that may fall a little. But that’s fine, it is all a part of growing.”

Referring to a study done by IFS last year, Bourne said, “We asked companies ‘have you heard of Internet of Things?’ and 86% knew about it. But when we asked if they intend to use it, only 25% answered positively. A lot of people have heard about IoT from various sources but only a quarter of them were willing to introduce such technologies in their companies.”

“So you have the opportunity when you go back to think about, how do we do this? How can we use latest technologies to maximise our company’s competitiveness, profitability and revenue.”

Bourne further explained using several diagrams how IFS implements Industry 4.0 technologies and how it increasingly tries to connect more of real world objects and extract data in the most effective and efficient ways possible. 

“IFS technologies would enable a business to access data in real-time, extract this data and transfer them to the Cloud where the data will be analysed and used to make business related decisions. If you look at five or ten years ago, you couldn’t do this. You couldn’t do this because of the sheer volume of data what these objects would give us— we’re talking millions and millions of transactions,” he added. 

He brought up several real-world examples of technology applications such as 3D printing. While holding up a 3D-printed mike made in Sri Lanka, he went on to explain some other objects such as parts used in aircrafts that are being 3D printed. 

He reminded the audience, “go back and look at ways to use technology to increase the efficiency and productivity of your businesses and differentiate your product from the market.”

“From an IFS point of view we have been investing in this either delivering products or researching products because we want to make sure, we are one step ahead of you. We want to make sure that when you say, we have a business problem that can be solved with augmented reality, what is new IFS? We have got things to help you. We should be able to say, we’re going to get better in the future so when you’re ready, talk to us about it because we got things to help you,” he concluded. 

To give the participants a taste of the 4th Industrial Revolution, a drone was flown across the hall during the networking session to capture the video of the gathering.