Page 8 - JCCI Business Focus Vol.1.3

TOWARDS THE 4TH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Martin Sanne, Executive Director, CSIR materials, nanocoating, self-
Materials Science and Manufacturing healing materials, biosensors,
5G, wearable electronics, LIFI
and the Internet of Things.
ew and emerging
technologies are
Nfundamentally changing The rapid rise and convergence
our world in ways previously of emerging technologies is
unimaginable. Technology- driving a Fourth Industrial
driven innovation has always Revolution, referred to in
caused business models to Germany as Industrie 4.0.
go extinct. Some companies The term refers to collective 1st 2nd 3rd 4th
couldn’t evolve and went out of technologies and concepts
business while others adapted, of value chain organisation,
seized opportunities and which draws together cyber- Mechanisation, Mass production,
thrived by taking advantage of physical systems, the Internet Computer and Cyber Physical
the new environment. What’s of Things (IoT) and the Internet Water Power, Assembly Line, Automation Systems
different today is that technology of Services (IoS). Industrie 4.0 Steam Power Electricity
is advancing at a pace never is enabled by the convergence
experienced before in human of other emerging technologies Industrial revolutions and future view (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industry_4.0)
history, and the pace will including virtual reality,
only increase. advanced communications, big
data management, product life Such disruptive technologies drawing on embedded sensors a perception that Advanced
Disruptive change enabled cycle management, artificial will change the nature of and open data Manufacturing has a negative
by emerging technologies intelligence, machine learning manufacturing at industry and ■ Becoming a ‘factory less’ goods impact on jobs, international
is happening in the global and smaller and more powerful firm level. Some of the expected producer capturing value by experience suggests the opposite.
manufacturing sector as sensors that have become cheaper. changes include the widespread selling technological know-how A World Economic Forum
much as (if not more than) adoption of: and leaving physical production (WEF) newsletter states that
in any other sector. This By enabling ‘smart factories’, ■ Adaptive and smart to others while technology is often blamed
fundamental discontinuity the 4th industrial revolution manufacturing equipment and ■ Remanufacturing end of life for unemployment, in practice
with the past presents a threat creates a world in which systems products to original jobs were not disappearing
as manufacturing firms that virtual and physical systems ■ Resource efficient factory specifications or better but evolving – job losses in
do not adapt quickly to this of manufacturing globally design ■ Creating value from new one sector often mean gains in
wave of change will not survive. cooperate with each other in a ■ Collaborative, mobile and strategic alliances within and another. It is also well known
On the other hand, firms that flexible way. Over the IoT, cyber- networked enterprises and between sectors that manufacturing activity is
prepare for and embrace the new physical systems communicate business models seamlessly associated with good economic
opportunities can become global and cooperate with each other linking supply chains to local ■ Exploiting new technologies multipliers and an International
players and grow exponentially. and with humans in real time, more rapidly Finance Corporation (IFC)
and via the IoS, both internal production study has also shown that the
Specific technologies that have and cross-organisational services ■ More customer focused Another specific element to be job multiplier effect rises as the
potential to fundamentally are offered and utilised by manufacturing linking aware of and respond to is that of manufacturing becomes more
change the nature of business, participants of the value chain. products and processes to catalytic innovations; defined as sophisticated, from about two for
work and society include, In a future in which production innovative services innovations that have potential traditional manufacturing to 15
inter alia, cloud technology, gets more networked, the New sources of value will to fundamentally change society. for the most advanced forms of
big data, predictive analytics, complexity of production and also be unlocked by this Catalytic innovations from manufacturing.
cognitive computing, artificial supplier networks will grow manufacturing paradigm, the past include photography,
intelligence, mixed reality, enormously. Networks have including: automotives, electricity, airplanes This correlation is reflected
agile robots, collaborative so far been limited to single ■ Opportunities to extensively and telephones. in a study by McKinsey which
industrial robots, robotic factories but in an Industrie 4.0 package services with products New products are currently concludes that the SA economy
exoskeletons, 3D printing/ scenario, these boundaries will being manufactured and new can grow by 1.1% higher than
additive manufacturing, be lifted to interconnect multiple ■ Sources of information on industries are being created the current consensus estimates
autonomous vehicles, bio-based factories across the globe. how products are used and age, which will create new jobs and and create 3.4 million new
factories that do not even exist jobs by 2030, led by a globally
competitive hub of Advanced
today. This shift in thinking Manufacturing. It is estimated
and manufacturing defines that Advanced Manufacturing
new rules of competition and can add R 540bn to SA’s GDP
ways of manufacturing. Failing and create 1.5 million new jobs
to embrace or scale this shift by 2030.
will lead to current industries
becoming absolute by 2025. Key imperatives identified
in that study to achieve this
Advanced Manufacturing growth include the need for
as a Catalyst for Re- manufacturing businesses to
industrialisation focus on achieving greater
Within the broader economies of scale through
manufacturing sector, Advanced aggressively pursuing export
Manufacturing has a particularly opportunities and to become
important role to play in re- more innovative in materials,
industrialisation and the products and manufacturing
creation of decent, well-paying processes. The need for increased
jobs. Competitive advantage investments in R&D and
is increasingly dependent on tighter and more collaborative
combining new knowledge and networks is also seen as critically
improved technologies rather important. 
than the traditional factors of
production like labour, materials For more information contact:
4th industrial revolution (https://medium.com/ REUTERS/Christinne Muschi) and energy. While there is MSanne@csir.co.za

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