HKIE – Manufacturing, Industrial & Systems Annual Conference 2020

Manufacturing, Industrial & Systems (MIS) Annual Conference is the annual flagship event of HKIE-MIS Division. Themed “Digital Transformation - Challenges and Opportunities for Engineering and Construction Industry”, the Conference brought together distinguished speakers from various industries to share how to gain an advantageous position through digital transformation.  The HKIE MIS Annual Conference was held online on 28^th Oct 2020.  Definitely, digitalization is one of the most fundamental drivers of transformation ever and, at the same time, a unique chance to shape our future. We expected to find some insights through the Conference.  In the beginning, Ir. Dr. Eric Liu (Deputy Executive Director, VTC) gave a welcome speech.  

Ir. Prof. PL Yuen (President, HKIE) gave an opening speech.  Construction Industry is challenged by digitalization.  It would enhance efficiency, cost saving and safer in construction project using new technology, especially Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA) in Construction.  Innovation is the key for engineer.

Ir. Dr. Hon Lo Wai-kwok (Legislative Councilor for Engineering Constituency, HKSAR) gave an opening speech.  Dr. Lo supported using Systems into MIS division rename.  Government provided funding for AI and Robot in 2018 and support innovation in construction such as BIM. He believed today’s conference could bring insight for strategic direction to overcome pandemic challenge. 

The first keynote speaker was Mr. Peter Lam (Chairman, The Hong Kong Federation of Electrical and Mechanical Contractors) and his topic was “Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA) and Process Management through Digitization in Engineering & Construction Industry”.  In the beginning, he introduced his experience and believe that “Industry is a sum of all stakeholders. Company is a sum of individuals. Quality is a sum of many good things.”

Then Mr. Peter Lam introduced DfMA that transferred construction to manufacturing process through Design for Manufacture and Design for Assembly. And then he briefed government policy included Modular Integrated Construction (MiC) in 31 Mar 2020.

After that Mr. Lam compared Service and Product which were similar to Construction and Manufacturing. Service – Don’t see the deliverable and Product – Don’t see the process.

Finally, he introduced the DfMA framework from tier 0 to tier 3 and then shared some case studies such as AMC.

The second keynote speaker was Mr. Gary Yeung (President of Smart City Consortium) and his topic entitled “How’s Your Smart City Readiness in a Digital Era?”  In the beginning, he played a video to show the future smart city.

Then he mentioned smart city 1.0 was technology driven.  Now, Data is “New Energy” and model was showed in the following diagram. He also said smart city 2.0 was government driven by leveraging IT infrastructure and incorporating innovative solutions in urban planning. 

Finally, Mr. Yeung introduced smart city 3.0 that was driven not just by technological expertise, but also by the citizens’ overall demand for a better quality of life. (People-Centric). Lastly, he briefed idea about GBA smart city cluster and the overall framework was demonstrated.

The third speaker was Prof. Jack Cheng (Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, HKUST) and his presentation named “BIM + With Blockchain for Engineering Design: Opportunities and Challenges”.  Prof. Cheng firstly briefed BIM-based engineering analysis. 

He briefed the future impact and likelihood of new technologies in Construction especially in BIM that located in the upper right side.  Then he also mentioned the BIM plus VR/AR to enhance user experience. 

Finally, BIM information management (for design) with blockchain-based common data environment (CDE) were demonstrated (e.g. ISO 19650-2:2018). 

Lastly, Prof. Jack Cheng summarized all into People, Process and Technology for smart tech adoption in BIM with Blockchain for Engineering Design.

The fourth speaker was Ir. CK Ng (CEO, dROW Limited) and his topic was “Digital Construction According to ISO 19650”.  Firstly, Ir. Ng briefed ISO 19650 in Digital Construction including BIM and changing our digital behavior. 

Then Ir. Ng briefed ISO 19650 UK guidance from part 1 to 5 and from A to F.  The standard structure was showed in the following diagram.  Some changes and challenges were discussed such as EIR from Employer IR changed to Exchange IR (Information Requirement), Level of information need, and from single source CDE to multiple CDEs (where CDE stands for Common Data Environment).

Finally, Ir. Ng discussed several ways to follow ISO 19650 that including OIR, Digital behavior, CDE and Security.  In guidance C, it stated CDE requirement that should be findable, reliable and reusable.  Your CDE should be digital hub rather than digital silo.

The last speaker was Mr. Stephen Au (Managing Director, MTECH Engineering Co., Ltd.) and his topic entitled “Digital Twins for Asset Life Cycle Management”.  

Mr. Au briefed the contact of talk including digital twin, creation and its facility management.

Then Mr. Au introduced building lifecycle management including BIM and Digital Twin.

Lastly, Mr. Au briefed the process of developing digital twin and demonstrated some cases such as 2008 Beijing Olympic Stadium, Swire building and Nan Fung group project, etc.

Panel Discussion

Mr. Francis Leung (Chairman, Hong Kong Institute of Building Information Modeling) was moderator.  

At the end, Mr. Eddy Wu (Chairman, MILESAA, PolyU) gave vote of Thanks.

Reference:

HKIE-MIS - http://mi.hkie.org.hk/

MIS Division (previous MI Division) related seminar:

20190907: HKIE Seminar on Smart Manufacturing – How to use digitalization management to improve productivity? - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2019/09/hkie-seminar-on-smart-manufacturing-how.html

20170811: HKIE Seminar on “When Electronics Meets Medical Science” - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2017/08/hkie-seminar-on-when-electronics-meets.html

20170320: HKIE Seminar on Quality Innovation – Introduction of Extenics - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2017/03/hkie-seminar-on-quality-innovation.html

20170225: Technical Seminar – The Opportunities and Challenges of Incubatees in Hong Kong - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2017/02/technical-seminar-opportunities-and.html

20170106: HKIE Seminar on Continuous Education for Career Development in HK Industry - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2017/01/hkie-seminar-on-continuous-education.html

20160429: HKIE-MI AGM Seminar on Developing an Innovation Workforce - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2016/04/hkie-mi-agm-seminar-on-developing.html

20160415: HKIE MI Division Gala Dinner 2016 - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2016/04/hkie-mi-division-gala-dinner-2016.html

20160229: HKCIE Seminar on Extenics (可拓學) - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2016/02/hkcie-seminar-on-extenics.html

20150820: HKIE Seminar on Industry 4.0: The 4th Industrial Revolution - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2015/08/hkie-seminar-on-industry-40-4th.html

20140329: HKIE MI Symposium – Innovation and Technology for Business Evolution - https://qualityalchemist.blogspot.com/2014/03/hkie-mi-symposium-innovation-and.html