HKSTP & TecONE Conference on Re-Industrialisation

The conference named “Re-Industrialisation – Impact and Opportunities for Hong Kong” was organized by Hong Kong Science & Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) and TecONE (HKPC) on 22^nd Feb 2016.  “Re-Industrialisation”, one of the outlined initiatives in the Chief Executive’s 2016 Policy Address, is a potential new direction that drives the city’s economic growth and era of smart manufacturing.  In the beginning, Mr. Andrew Young (Chief Commerical Officer, HKSTP) gave welcome remarks for Mr. Allen Ma (CEO, HKSTP).  He said Venice (威尼斯) was business centre in the past but it was not able to keep their position about environment changed (new sea travel route discovered).  Therefore, HKSTP began hosting the Smart Living@Science Park exhibition as showcasing solutions that innovated, designed and made in Hong Kong.

Then Mrs. Agnes Mak (Executive Director, HKPC) gave welcome remarks.  She said they aimed to attract high value-added industries back to Hong Kong for three areas:

i)             Brand Value-added (e.g. CEPA, IP)

ii)          Operation Model (e.g. Automation & Smart Manufacturing)

iii)        Product and Service Innovation (e.g. coop with Universities and R&D centres; Market oriented)

Group photo

The first keynote speaker was Mr. Nicholas W. Yang, JP (Secretary for Innovation and Technology).  He said government would like to promote “Re-Industrialisation” enhancing Hong Kong Industries.  Hong Kong has for advantage of industries included:

i)      Good Manufacturing Technology structure
ii)     Good IT infrastructure
iii)    Large Mainland Market
iv)    Brand (e.g. Testing and Certification)

Moreover, HKSTP had developing three platform included Health Aging, Robotic and Smart Centre.  HKPC had assisting Industry upgrading, as well as, IE provided one-stop-shop services, etc.

The second keynote speaker was Mr. Kay Matzner (International Project Manager, bei Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft) and his presentation topic named “i4.0 in Germany and successful examples”.  In the beginning, Mr. Matzner showed the video named “The Fourth Industrial Revolution” as introduction.

Mr. Matzner briefed the evolution of Industry in Germany and successful examples.  He told us to prepare the evolution from Present to Future and became Smart Factory.  It related the development by interaction of many individual technologies including Computer performance, Miniaturisation, connectedness, Data storage, Identification, Position systems, Robots and Simulation.

Then he mentioned the domains and challenges of Industry 4.0 (i4.0) as follows:

i)      Progressive computerization of the workplace (Production: Mobile computing devices, App technology, IT marketplaces and Internet-based services)

ii)     Digitalisation of the workplace (Availability and analysis of big data, Early fault detection and Preventive Maintenance & Servicing)

iii)   More Flexibility (Decentralisation and Networking, Machine condition monitoring, Remote diagnostics and remote control)

The following table summarized the potential savings in i4.0.

After that Mr. Matzner stated the German Road to i4.0 through consistent merging of the digital and real world, the increasing dynamic and complexity would be manageable and AI of devices were key for the next industrial revolution.  Then they needed to strengthen of material and production research, comprehensive digitization of the production value chains, affordable Clean Energy Strategies, Open Innovation and Human Capital.

He addressed four major challegnes of i4.0 in German as follows:

-          Competitiveness of our high-wage location

-          Demographic change

-          Resource and energy efficiency

-          Urban production

Some impacts of i4.0 were “Salaries of a region would not matter anymore” and “Until 2020 globally 7 million traditional jobs would be lost and 2 million jobs with new profiles created”.  

Lastly, Mr. Matzner suggested to develop Hong Kong as China knowledge base for Industry 4.0 technologies by upgrading Universities, upgrading research centres, HKSTP, etc.  The Road to i4.0 for Hong Kong companies was shown as following diagram which included government and company funded in order to achieve Smart Work System.  Smart Work System characteristics had Zero-defect manufacturing, Shortened assembly time, Reliability in the process chain, high Flexibility for quantities down to 1, Sustainable quality documentation, Validation and optimization of critical processes and Early certainty for suppliers, OEM, Immediately recognizable safeguarded zones and Ergonomic interaction.

The third keynote speaker was Ir. Prof. Daniel M. Cheng, JP (Chairman, Federation of Hong Kong Industries) and his topic entitled “How can HK Industries Capitalize on Re-Industrialisation”.  Firstly, Prof. Daniel Cheng briefed the old style manufacturing assembly line of Hong Kong Industry.

Then Prof. Cheng introduced the concept of Smart World that everything was connected together.  Some examples were mentioned including Renewable Energy – Bahrain World Trade Centre in Manama, Robot People Carrier, Hands-free sustainable energy vehicles, etc.

Prof. Cheng said the new positioning of Hong Kong would be serving the Smart City in 50 years.  It would be incorporate IoT, Robotics to assist in manufacturing to make process SMART through Licensing, IP and E-commerce.  Then he shared Dunwell bio-toilet (DMBR) to enhance of toilet cleaning efficiency.

Prof. Cheng told us there were 124 bio-toilets built in Hong Kong and all connected into internet for routine operation and maintenance.  Recently, China had ordered DMBR for travelling area and the number of order was huge!

During the tea break, I met Prof. Winco Yung (Professor, ISE Dept., PolyU; Centre-in-Charge, PCT Technology Centre) and took a photo for memory.  Prof. Winco Yung was HKSQ exco member since 1996.

Mr. Kevin Ko (Managing Director, Radius China (a Jabil company)) was the fourth speaker and his presentation named “From Ideation to Production”. Mr. Ko briefed Radius aims which was “to help clients develop and deliver innovative, meaningful product solutions that improve experiences and enhance lives.”

Mr. Ko introduced their Ideation Framework and Approach. They were not used Business & Technology-Driven Innovation but using Human Centric-Driven Innovation. Human Centric-Driven Innovation approach was to draw from a range of design methods to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.

Then Mr. Ko focused on “User Journey” to understand the use cycle and then briefed Radius Approach using Discover, Design, Develop and Deliver.  

Lastly, Mr. Ko explained Innovation Realized that Innovation mean “What to make / user experience design and Realized mean “How to make it / robust Design for Manufacture (DFM) development”.  The cycle enhanced to quickly Design, Build & Test.

Ir. Thomas K.K. Lee (General Manager, Materials & Manufacturing Technology Division, HKPC) was the fifth speaker and his topic was “Transformation from Intelligent Manufacturing (i-mfg) Towards Smart Manufacturing”.  Ir. Lee highlighted the topics such as Evolution of i4.0, transformation of i-mfg to i4.0 Smart Manufacturing.  

Firstly, Ir. Thomas Lee explained Intelligent Manufacturing (i-mfg) that connected all machines into one platform as Advanced Manufacturing Automation System. Industry faced a problem was huge hardware and software investment, lack of local expertise and support, as well as, lack of supply of major automation components. HKPC approach was to develop some major automation components, to integrate of existing machinery and to assist local manufacturers to realize mold automation wit minimum hardware investment.

Then Ir. Lee stated the evolution of the 4^th Industrial Revolution in the following diagram.  Obviously, degree of complexity had increased in each revolution and they expected to use i-mfg (including Cyber Physical Production system) to achieve SMART manufacturing.  Ir. Lee stated the definition of i4.0 that “The basis for the fourth industrial revolution is the availability of all relevant information in real time by connecting all instances involved in the value chain.” (Source: Platform Industry 4.0, Translated from German)

Finally, Ir. Lee introduced that HKPC was going to set up “Industry 4.0 Smart Demo Factory” through upgrading the existing “i-mfg Centre” for demonstrating the principle of future factory operation to Hong Kong industry.  It aimed to demonstrate “future Factory” which applied concept of Internet of Things (IoT), Cyber Physical Production System (CPPS), Flexible Manufacturing Technology (FMT), Collaboration of H2M & M2M, etc.

Dr. T. John Koo (Director, Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), ASTRI) was the last speaker and his presentation entitled “Opportunities and Critical Success Factors for the Development of Cyber-Physical Systems in Hong Kong”.  Dr. Koo briefed the research background of ASTRI and they had 400 R&D engineers in which had 27% with PhD degree and more than 50% had master degree or above. 

Firstly, Dr. Koo mentioned Intelligent Manufacturing Initiative (IMI) R&D Focus & Strategy as follows:

i)        Virtual Prototyping Platform (by using the Virtual Prototype to reduce the design and development cost on the actual system: >50% reduction in new product time-to-market.)

ii)         Surface Defect Inspection (by using the Vision Technology and Defect Inspection: ~8% manpower saving and ~65% manufacturing yield loss reduction)

iii)       3D Power Electronics Module (by using the Virtual Technology for 3D power module: >50% reduction in new product time-to-market)

Then Dr. Koo explained that Cyber-Physical Systems are physical, biological, and engineered systems whose operations are integrated, monitored, and/or controlled by a computation core.  The behavior of CPS is a fully-integrated hybridization of computation (logical), physical and human action.  The systems development life cycle (SDLC) was described and which enhanced the cycle time of new system delivery through “Design Death Spiral”.

At the end, Dr. Koo briefed ASTRI supported Industry 4.0 through ICT Driven from different R&D teams (involving Hardware and Software).  

Reference:

HKSTP - http://www.hkstp.org

TecONE - http://tecone.hkstp.org/t1_web/

The Fourth Industrial Revolution video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCGV1tNBoeU