Quality Alchemist (品質煉金術師): FITMI Seminar on Smart Manufacturing to explore the opportunity in GBA

The seminar named “Smart Manufacturing to explore the opportunity in GBA (智能製造拓展大灣區新機遇)” was organized by Hong Kong Federation of Innovative Technologies and Manufacturing Industries (FITMI) and EPICOR on 7^th Sep 2018. Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) is one of major economic development policies in Hong Kong and Industry 4.0 (i4.0) is the mega trend in the world. This seminar aimed to share the view of practical i4.0 and overview the risk and opportunity of GBA for smart manufacturing. In the beginning, Mr. Lai (Chairman of FITMI) gave welcome speech and he said smart manufacturing could enhance the accuracy and efficiency.

Then Mr. William Yam (Committee member of FITMI) gave opening speech and he said GBA was the economic engine of South China.

The first speaker was Ms. Gina Au (Senior Solutions Manager) and her topic named “Integration of production and executive monitoring for automatization”

Firstly, Ms. Au briefed some survey data of top management thinking for our overview as follows:

i) 86% - improved manufacturing responsiveness

ii) 75% - Faster and better decision making

iii) 81% - Improved capacity utilization

iv) 74% - Understanding true manufacturing costs

v) 71% - Improved manufacturing quality

Then she integrated EPICOR Solution into the i4.0 drive type under enterprise strategy.

After that she demonstrated some interface of their system for manufacturing such as customer portal, visualize shop floor scheduling, work order traceability, web-based monitoring, etc. Their solution had demonstrated in HKPC i4.0 Smart Factory Showcase.

The second speaker was Mr. Robert Yan (Committee member of FITMI; Owner of Rocket Data Technology) and his topic named “How to implement ERP, MES, APS, TPM, WMS and Mobile to manage factory effectively and competitively”. His solution was integrated all systems into one.

Firstly, Mr. Yan introduced business objective of plastic factory included equipment up time, core staff, material and quality.

He told us the first step was paperless. He said their factory implemented LEAN for 5 years. It was effective in the first two years but he observed the data collect expense was higher than the benefit it generated. Therefore, electronic production should be employed.

Then Mr. Yan showed how their staff input the data of process and material taken through mobile that showed the real time data. So that he could monitor the scrap, material taken, returned material and stock records, etc. Staff working hour record also employed mobile for start and end of working hour.

Finally, Mr. Robert Yan showed how to integrate all systems including TPM, APS, OPC and PLC together for digitalization (i4.0). The video named “工業4.0 / 中國製造視頻介紹” was demonstrated to introduce their solution at http://youtu.be/0XIq0GfpMFM .

The third speaker was Prof. KB Chan and his topic entitled “Greater Bay Area (GBA) Expectation and Reality! Opportunity or Challenge to Hong Kong?” Prof. Chan briefed worlds’ 4 Bay Area included GBA, Tokyo Bay, San Francisco and New York.

In China’s planning [135] and Belt & Road national strategy, GBA to be number 1 among the 4 bay areas by 2030. The following table summarized their information and prediction of GPD in 2030.

Then Prof. Chan asked the following questions:

i) Are the expectations achievable?

ii) If yes, how and with what economic elements?

iii) What does it translate into real terms?

iv) What are the opportunities? Challenges and Risks?

v) How will it benefit Hong Kong?

vi) Implication for Hong Kong manufacturing industry.

vii) What will be the strategy?

And then Prof. Chan showed the GDP Growth forecast of 9 cities in GBA and found that Hong Kong would be marginalized.

After that Prof. Chan briefed the implication for GBA. He said Guangdong’s success in the past 40 years was based on “Manufacturing & Export”, “HK Investment”, “Low Cost in labor & land”, “Low Tech Consumer Products”, “OEM model”, “Government Incentives”, “Minimal Respect for IP” and “Stable Social Environment”. On the other hand, he mentioned new expectation in GBA in coming 20 years such as GDP grow 3 times, population increase up to 140M+, new, high value and technology industry, etc.

Prof. Chan analyzed the 8 national strategic technology developments and based on President Xi speech in Jul 2017 and highlighted 5 of 8 were more important (red color)

i) Super computer

ii) Moon exploration

iii) @Beido satellite system

iv) @High speed train

v) Manned space flight

vi) Quantum communication

vii) Deep sea exploration

viii) Aero plan

5 out of 8 are related to aero space! @ means likely to be introduced to GBA.

Prof. Chan also discussed latest global geo-political development included US-China trade war/conflict, containment policy, Belt & Road and US political interference, etc. The world becomes VUCA!

Finally, Prof. Chan shared his view on Hong Kong expectation in GBA participation.

Lastly, he pointed out six strategies for Hong Kong manufacturers reference.

i) Be serious and go deep into China market – domestic sales

ii) Adjust culture, re-engineering the whole organization

iii) Speed, cost effectiveness, quality and reliability

iv) New business model – game changer, platform

v) Joining the dots – increase competitiveness and technology contents more urgent than innovation and R&D

vi) Form alliance with leading & sizable China companies

He added all product / service should included IoT, 5G, Cloud computing, Big Data, Analytics, AI, i4.0 and Robotics.

At the end, Prof. Chan demonstrated AI education robot which he invested in Shenzhen company.

The last speaker was Mr. Thomas Hung (Regional Director, Epicor Software Limited) and his presentation named “New Generation of ERP can help Digital Transformation for Manufacturers”.