Industrial Transformation Forum

I4.0 LEADERS

Visionary Keynote:  

The Great Reinvention - Don’t Get Left Behind: Digitalizing Your People, Processes & Technology To Remain Competitive 

A reality check for today’s C-suite on Industry 4.0. The time of experimenting is ending. Change for the future is not all about adopting new technology. It involves strategising business and operating model challenges. Leaders must become bolder in vision, strategy, and action while inspiring every employee to come on board. The revolution has begun, and it will keep transforming rapidly. This session is effectively a call to action for raising the bar for 4.0 leaders in strategising their digital transformation journey to remain relevant to the rapidly changing market needs. 

Intelligent Manufacturing

The Industrial Metaverse and the Future of Manufacturing

 Microsoft has been developing the technology foundations for building virtual environments, empowering our customers across industries, including manufacturing. Companies across the region are using these underlying technologies to drive innovation and unlock value for their customers.

Microsoft has been working with many manufacturing organizations globally and in Asia to expedite business processes, enhance collaboration, and improve safety, all while reducing costs through the process of creating digital models and replicas of the real world. From Azure Digital Twins, Microsoft HoloLens, and Dynamics 365 Mixed Reality products – organizations have a variety of entry points that enable them to innovate with the industrial metaverse.

This session will cover how digital transformation can build more resilient businesses. With the effective adoption of digital technologies, how can they help reduce costs and improve the sustainability and flexibility of manufacturing industries?

Sustainable Manufacturing

Panel Discussion:   

Sustainability and Its Influence on the Future of Manufacturing

Many manufacturers recognise the significant financial and environmental benefits of sustainable business practices. Evident ways to achieve sustainable manufacturing include reduction of energy and water use, cutting emissions from manufacturing processes and reducing physical waste and recycling. This thought-provoking session will share emerging trends and opportunities on the mega forces that will drive the future direction of sustainable manufacturing.

BEYOND THE HYPE OF I4.0

Panel Discussion:

Driving Your Industry 4.0 Journey: Identifying & Overcoming Implementation Challenges 

Through investment in digital transformation, businesses can lay the foundation for long-term resilience to future crises. From modernising supply chains to prioritising digital solutions, organisations must act to keep pace with digital transformation to drive growth and profitability. The recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic affords a massive opportunity for the world to prioritise digital transformation to future-proof their businesses. In today’s reality, as we get back to routine, manufacturers will need to create a tactical box recovery plan to set their near future. History shows that the most vital players came out of crisis even more critical. This session will cover some manufacturers' most significant, most important issues today.

Key issues that will be addressed:

• How to optimise operations across the value chain
• Data availability, integration & insights
• Lack of people, skills, and knowledge  
• Cost vs ROI on adopting digital solutions  
• Success stories

AI In Manufacturing

Panel Discussion:

When will AI redefine manufacturing? Status quo, outlook and main challenges.

AI will impact society, industry and the environment. It will redefine competition and disrupt organizations. After two AI winters, this transformative technology has reached the maturity for deployment in the industry at scale. Image analytics for quality assurance, process optimization or preventative maintenance of assets are just a few examples that have already found their place in manufacturing organizations, not to mention all the AI components in IT systems, used for e.g., talent recruitment or demand forecasting. However, large-scale systems with a high degree of autonomy are still part of future concepts only. In this panel, we want to share the current status of AI adoption in manufacturing, its potential and the main challenges.  

SUPPLY CHAIN FOOTPRINT & RESILIENCE

Digital Transformation in Supply Chain: Designing Resilience into Digitalised Global Supply Chains 

Exploring options for diversifying and regionalising manufacturing and supply networks, COVID-19 is just one of many sources of disruption that companies face today. Others include climate events, political upheavals, trade disputes, and more. All of which calls for supply chains that are as resilient as they are efficient. The pandemic is only the latest disruption to uncover the fragility of global supply chains, reinforcing the need to rebuild for the future. 

This session will discuss key steps for building rebalanced and resilient supply chains

• How companies can explore various ways to build more resilience into their manufacturing and supply networks fast
• How to mitigate risk and secure better access to supplies and markets 
• Adding backup production and distribution capacity, and optimising inventory
• Steps to improve supply chain flexibility & risk-monitoring capabilities
• What are the vital considerations to expanding production footprint into Asia Pacific
• How to strengthen due diligence processes to shortlist the suitable locations
• How local partnerships can help reduce entry risks and costs