Thanks for your very interesting proposals for development of industries appropriate to the financial capabilities, market potential and other objective (material) and subjective factors relevant to Kelantan and its people. I have downloaded the PDF and will need to go through it in greater detail.
What Dr. Asma says is relevant to what I have observed about technology adoption not only in Malaysia but also in the less developed countries of ASEAN:-
“is also the tendency for Asian countries, including Malaysia, to deal with the issue of values in
development by importing many technologies and systems wholesale from abroad without going through the process of mental transformation necessary to master them fully. Although Malaysia is going through rapid transformation, our growth is one without development in the context of knowledge contribution to science, engineering and technology. As long as we are consumers and operators of sophisticated techniques, plants and technologies imported wholesale from abroad, we are to a certain extent undergoing a technology-less form of industrialization. This transformation of values
and attitudes is a key issue in the nation’s development agenda” (Asma 1995).
Dr. Asma correctly highlights the tendency I too have observed, where they blindly copycat technology adoption and application in the developed countries where the technology was developed without taking into account the real-world objective and subjective conditions of where the technology is being implemented or one might say being transplanted to, which can end up with the equivalent of transplanting apple trees from areas of temperate climes and soil conditions to an area of tropical climes and different soil conditions.
I have been writing a series of articles about the need for Malaysian industries, especially manufacturers to adopt Industry 4.0 generation production line operations in order to reduce industries' reliance on cheap, migrant labour.
However, a Director of Information Technology, Human Resources and Digital at a Malaysian supermarket chain which is open to technology adoption told me that the return on investment on the adoption of such advanced automation equipment and systems was 12 years, which is far too long for his business.
Whilst it is too easy for proponents of Industry 4.0 generation advanced automation systems and solutions to tell Malaysia and Malaysians that we need to embrace Industry 4.0 to remain competitive, however given the currently weak ringgit exchange rate, the high capital cost of investment in Industry 4.0 advanced automation equipment and systems, as well as the cost of replacement of parts which wear out, all of which are priced in US dollars or Euro, coupled with the local availability of the more highly skilled staff to configure and maintain Industry 4.0 systems and the higher salaries which they command, Malaysian business owners may just decide that it is more cost-effective to continue to rely on abundantly available, cheap migrant labour to perform the repetitive, low-skilled tasks on the production line, even though there are systems integrators in Malaysia who have developed fully-automated, intelligent line for packing items, such as medical examination gloves coming off the production line into boxes and cartons, and automatically routing the packed cartons to robots which will take them to parts of the store relevant to their customer.
The concept of the 4th Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) a.k.a. Smart Manufacturing in North America, was conceived as a means for capitalist-owned industries to reduce its reliance on high-cost, unionised labour especially on the factory floor, as well as with an ageing population, by relying on a intelligent production line equipment which are centrally coordinated and which also intelligently communicate with each other to coordinate production, and yes, it has been found to cut costs for manufacturers in in the advanced industrial countries.
However, will Industry 4.0 work in the same way in developing countries like Malaysia ???
The 12th Malaysia Plan (now at the half-way point acknowledges that micro enterprises and SMEs in Malaysia have been slow or are reluctant to adopt Industry 4.0 and advanced automation and wants to help them do so.
However, how far this objective can be realised, given the real-world conditions of Malaysian industry is left to be seen.
Thanks for your very interesting proposals for development of industries appropriate to the financial capabilities, market potential and other objective (material) and subjective factors relevant to Kelantan and its people. I have downloaded the PDF and will need to go through it in greater detail.
What Dr. Asma says is relevant to what I have observed about technology adoption not only in Malaysia but also in the less developed countries of ASEAN:-
“is also the tendency for Asian countries, including Malaysia, to deal with the issue of values in
development by importing many technologies and systems wholesale from abroad without going through the process of mental transformation necessary to master them fully. Although Malaysia is going through rapid transformation, our growth is one without development in the context of knowledge contribution to science, engineering and technology. As long as we are consumers and operators of sophisticated techniques, plants and technologies imported wholesale from abroad, we are to a certain extent undergoing a technology-less form of industrialization. This transformation of values
and attitudes is a key issue in the nation’s development agenda” (Asma 1995).
Dr. Asma correctly highlights the tendency I too have observed, where they blindly copycat technology adoption and application in the developed countries where the technology was developed without taking into account the real-world objective and subjective conditions of where the technology is being implemented or one might say being transplanted to, which can end up with the equivalent of transplanting apple trees from areas of temperate climes and soil conditions to an area of tropical climes and different soil conditions.
I have been writing a series of articles about the need for Malaysian industries, especially manufacturers to adopt Industry 4.0 generation production line operations in order to reduce industries' reliance on cheap, migrant labour.
However, a Director of Information Technology, Human Resources and Digital at a Malaysian supermarket chain which is open to technology adoption told me that the return on investment on the adoption of such advanced automation equipment and systems was 12 years, which is far too long for his business.
Whilst it is too easy for proponents of Industry 4.0 generation advanced automation systems and solutions to tell Malaysia and Malaysians that we need to embrace Industry 4.0 to remain competitive, however given the currently weak ringgit exchange rate, the high capital cost of investment in Industry 4.0 advanced automation equipment and systems, as well as the cost of replacement of parts which wear out, all of which are priced in US dollars or Euro, coupled with the local availability of the more highly skilled staff to configure and maintain Industry 4.0 systems and the higher salaries which they command, Malaysian business owners may just decide that it is more cost-effective to continue to rely on abundantly available, cheap migrant labour to perform the repetitive, low-skilled tasks on the production line, even though there are systems integrators in Malaysia who have developed fully-automated, intelligent line for packing items, such as medical examination gloves coming off the production line into boxes and cartons, and automatically routing the packed cartons to robots which will take them to parts of the store relevant to their customer.
The concept of the 4th Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) a.k.a. Smart Manufacturing in North America, was conceived as a means for capitalist-owned industries to reduce its reliance on high-cost, unionised labour especially on the factory floor, as well as with an ageing population, by relying on a intelligent production line equipment which are centrally coordinated and which also intelligently communicate with each other to coordinate production, and yes, it has been found to cut costs for manufacturers in in the advanced industrial countries.
However, will Industry 4.0 work in the same way in developing countries like Malaysia ???
The 12th Malaysia Plan (now at the half-way point acknowledges that micro enterprises and SMEs in Malaysia have been slow or are reluctant to adopt Industry 4.0 and advanced automation and wants to help them do so.
However, how far this objective can be realised, given the real-world conditions of Malaysian industry is left to be seen.