I was invited to talk on the above topic at ““Symposium on Manufacturing with Nanotechnology – Towards Industry 4.0” organized by IC-I Nanotechnology, SIRIM Berhad on Nov. 6-7, 2017.

The original article below was first published here – “Industry 4.0 is the “Energy Pill” for IoT in Malaysia”

The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) said the Industry 4.0 was critical to boost the industrial and economic growth and for Malaysia’s economy to reach RM2 trillion target within the next eight years as announced recently by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

Will this be another hype? Will it face similar skepticism as Smart Cities development in Malaysia? Will it go beyond than just Strategies, Blueprints and Frameworks?

How do you jumpstart IoT?  One thing that you can do is by getting a company as big as Siemens AG to announce that it will be providing some €100 million (RM468.85 million) worth of software grants to local universities and colleges to boost re-skilling and increase training capabilities in preparation for the next industrial age in Malaysia.

“We offered to the (Malaysian) Prime Minister yesterday that Siemens can provide first-class help in establishing software tools for the industrial Internet to be applied to areas of manufacturing like Industrie 4.0, and will willingly grant the sum of €100 million worth of software to universities and colleges so that the young generation can learn to simulate in the virtual world of manufacturing,” its president and chief executive officer (CEO) Joe Kaeser said in a statement on April 14, 2017 recently.

This is a welcoming news for the whole IoT industry. Nothing moves without proper investment. The industry needs a boost, need to get its feet off the ground, need to act fast – and that amount of €100 million is a real “energy pill.”

There is 3 key success factors Industry 4.0 can realize IoT in Malaysia faster than Smart Cities:

1. Survivability – If SMEs in Malaysia want to compete and remain relevant, there is no other way but to introduce cyber-physical technology such IoT, Big Data Analytics, and automation. With the rising costs of resources and challenging economic situation, the only way to ensure sustainability is to reduce operational costs and increase productivity.
2. Stakeholders – Unlike smart cities deployment that needs to go through multiple stakeholders, the introduction of Industry 4.0 to their manufacturing facilities are made by the smaller individual companies. The criticality and urgency of their situation far surpass the life of a city.
3. Scale – SMEs are far smaller than a city. Thus, any implementation is less risky and have better control. Build small but think big.

When Siemens AG plan to introduce Industry 4.0 to the Universities and Colleges, it shows that education is essential and must start at the very early stage to produce a new generation of engineers and software developers.

Industrial Revolution 4.0 has been mentioned in the recent 2018 Budget by the Government of Malaysia as one of the core activity to transform the Smart Manufacturing and turn the Nation into a Digital Economy.

About the Author

Dr. Mazlan Abbas is currently the Co-Founder and CEO of FAVORIOT Sdn Bhd. He is an IOT Evangelist and a Thought Leader. He received an award as 50 Most Impactful Smart Cities Leaders by World CSR 2017. He is ranked No. 20th Thought Leader in IOT by 2014 Onalytics Report – “The Internet of Things – Top 100 Thought Leaders”, ranked Top 10 in IoT Top 100 Influencers by Postscapes 2016/2017, ranked Top 100 in Smart Cities Top Experts by Agilience Authority Index May 2016. You can reach him on LinkedIn or Twitter. Check all his presentation slides HERE.

In an effort to increase the pace of talent development in IoT skills, FAVORIOT’s Training Partner, MyDuino, conducted a 2-days Train-the-Trainer IoT Workshop for Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation (APU) on 3-4 November 2017.

APU and FAVORIOT have signed an MOA to build IoT talent and collaborate in R&D recently.  See photos of the Workshop below (credit to MyDuino.com)

You can contact our FAVORIOT IoT Training Partner, MyInvent (MyDuino.com) for FAVORIOT IoT Workshop. Telephone 03-5523 5321 or contact En. Mohamad Ariffin Zulkifli at 017-787 5232 if you require training at your Institution/University/College.

FAVORIOT offered a very affordable pricing plan as shown below:

The Beginner Plan is very suitable for University students who have been assigned or chose IoT project as their Final Year Project. A single device such as Raspberry Pi or Arduino that collects from several connected sensors can stream to the IoT platform. A simple dashboard is provided to visualize the measurements. This plan is also suitable for an individual developer or hobbyist that would like to familiarize with IoT platform, conduct self-learning or participate in IoT Hackathons. At RM 8.33 (or less than USD 2.00) per month, you can become the next Generation-IoT and on your way to be one of the rare talents in the job market today!

The Startup Plan is perfect for Freelancers or SMEs or Startups to provide IoT solution for a medium size project up to 150 devices. In fact, they can also create multiple projects or applications but limited to the total number of 150 devices.

The Business Plan is great for developing big commercial IoT project. It can support up to 300 devices for many smart applications. However, if a company requires connecting thousands of devices, they may contact/email their customised requirements to sales@favoriot.com

Kuala Lumpur (Oct. 30, 2017) – FAVORIOT and Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation (APU) exchanged the MOA documents in a simple ceremony at Prof. Ron Edwards, Vice Chancellor’s Office in APU New Campus.

The purpose of this Memorandum of Agreement is to set to:

• building industry capable talent for IoT industry
• supporting the collaborative research in industry relevance areas
• exploring research funds for R&D in the identified areas

Specifically, both parties will cooperate to develop

• APU curriculum development – introduce FAVORIOT’S IoT platform to APU’s IoT specialism students as a tool to demonstrate the usage of IoT.
• FAVORIOT’s IoT solutions – APU student community can be the testing ground for any FAVORIOT’s IoT solutions.
• APU can support in providing internship students to FAVORIOT if required and jointly work on providing industry related final year projects for APU students.

Dr. Mazlan said, “FAVORIOT is a leading IoT player in Malaysia and wishes to see the IoT eco-system grow faster to support Malaysia’s 4th Industrial Revolution mission. With our expertise, we will provide consultation on APU curriculum development and offer FAVORIOT IoT middleware platform to be used by APU staff and students for the projects. Although we have our own Smart Health solution for the Senior Citizen called favorwatch, we also wish to see more IoT talents that we called Generation-IoT to create more innovative IoT solutions”

FAVORIOT has unique expertise and experience in the following areas:

• Internet of Things Sensing as a Service to various sectors with the focus on Smart City and Smart Health
• Internet of Things Platform for various vertical solutions

APU has unique expertise and experience in the following areas:

• Build the talent pipeline by identifying high potentials and accelerate their growth
• Design, develop and execute courses based on new and innovative technology trends