Future Technologies

Clearing the Way: Accelerating Industry 4.0 Adoption through Global Benchmarking

Adam Sharman, Senior Partner, Dsifer Introduction As organisations look for productivity gains, competitive advantages in agility scalability and sustainability, more and more are looking to technology to support, augment or accelerate their operations. A recent report from Westpac identified that, whilst digital tech adoption is growing, New Zealand’s manufacturers have room to adopt these technologies and boost their productivity and the contribution of the manufacturing sector to New Zealand’s GDP. Overview & Adoption Through our work with manufactures in New Zealand and the UK, it is clear that, whilst most organisations understand the value and the imperative of digitisation, the roadmap to achieve it can be overwhelming. A quick Google search can pull up examples like Ocado’s lights-out warehouses and it can be a seemingly impossible task to achieve that level of digitisation Most companies both globally and locally are grappling with the concept of Industry 4.0 and the value it could bring for them. For these companies, questions such as What is Industry 4.0, and how can it benefit my company? Where should I start? What are my gaps today and where are the opportunities tomorrow? remain unanswered. To help organisations start to unpick these questions, there are tools to help cut through the complexity and develop an industry 4.0 transformation plan that is specific to their business. In this article we will provide an overview of a tool that is gaining traction around the world. The Smart Industry Readiness Index (SIRI). The Smart Industry Readiness Index (SIRI) Framework and an accompanying Assessment Matrix tool were therefore developed to help organisations assess their readiness and prioritise the highest impact interventions in industry 4.0 adoption. The SIRI Framework covers the 3 core building blocks (Process, Technology, and Organisation) critical to achieving future-ready facilities, and the Assessment Matrix tool is designed […]

CT Semiconductor Inaugurates ATP Chip Semiconductor Training Center

HANOI, Vietnam. On October 1st, 2024, The ATP Semiconductor Chip Technician Training Center CT Semiconductor (a member of CT Group) was officially inaugurated and commenced operations at the National Innovation Center (NIC) in Hoa Lac High-Tech Park, Hanoi. The ATP Semiconductor Chip Technician Training Center at NIC is part of CT Semiconductor’s broader activities, which include the establishment of three OSAT plants (two in the South and one in the North), two R&D centers in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, notably, two customer service centers in Silicon Valley and Phoenix, Arizona. Experienced engineers from various countries will provide specialized training for key personnel through a “Train the Trainer” program focused on semiconductor chip assembly, testing, and packaging. These engineers and final-year electronics students will be equipped to master ATP technology. One key feature is that interns will gain hands-on experience with the latest chip inspection machines and become familiar with different types of chips. This initiative is a practical step toward realising the plan to develop 10 OSAT plants in Vietnam, in line with Prime Minister’s Decision No. 1018/QD-TTg, which outlines the strategy for developing Vietnam’s semiconductor industry, issued on September 21, 2024. What sets CT Semiconductor apart is its independent technology approach, with a comprehensive foundation starting from ATP specialist training, which serves OSAT companies, R&D, and production under the 4.0 model. On this occasion, CT Semiconductor also introduced the AMB5600 semiconductor circuit and component testing machine, aimed at supporting research and training at the center. This is the first chip testing machine to be integrated into a training system in Vietnam. The leader of CT Semiconductor stated: “Only by mastering technology and attracting global talent can Vietnamese semiconductor industry develop sustainably and avoid the pitfalls of merely following trends and seeking FDI for reporting purposes. Twenty years […]

Rolls-Royce and TCS Collaborate on Hydrogen Research Programme

TCS expands its partnership with Rolls-Royce to research hydrogen fuel system technology, continuing to prove hydrogen could be a zero-carbon aviation fuel of the future. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a global leader in IT services, consulting, and business solutions, has expanded its partnership with Rolls-Royce, a British multinational specialising in civil aerospace, defense aerospace, services and power systems, to advance its sustainable initiatives. This collaboration involves research into hydrogen fuel system technology, continuing to prove hydrogen could be a zero-carbon aviation fuel of the future. TCS, leveraging its expertise as a trusted service provider, will provide engineering skills and support to Rolls-Royce as it addresses three key challenges in the journey to enabling hydrogen for use in aviation: fuel combustion, fuel delivery, and fuel systems integration with an engine. All elements must be confirmed to operate safely. This partnership underscores TCS’s commitment to driving sustainable transformation across industries, aligning with its broader mission to harness technology for positive societal impact. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has set ambitious targets for net zero carbon emissions by 2050, necessitating innovative sustainability solutions. Alan Newby, Director, Research and Technology, Rolls-Royce, said, “We welcome TCS to our hydrogen research programme and their engineering skills will play a valuable role in addressing our technology goals. We’ve already made great progress and having TCS with us gives us additional capability as we move forward on our journey to enable the energy transition for the aviation sector.” This expanded partnership was announced at the Farnborough International Airshow where TCS also showcased its technological prowess in the aviation industry. The partnership builds on a long-standing relationship between Rolls-Royce and the Tata Group, including engines and a strong supply chain commitment. TCS has also been working with Rolls-Royce since 2010 in the areas of design, manufacturing engineering, control […]

How leveraging smart factories optimises products and operations for manufacturers

Mei Dent, Chief Product and Technology Officer, TeamViewer Manufacturing processes and supply chains have become more complex over the past few years, making traditional methods insufficient to meet the demand for greater customisation and shorter production cycles. Manufacturers feel pressured by rising labour and material costs to find more efficient ways to produce high-quality goods. Additionally, the increasing need to meet environmental regulations and sustainability goals pushes manufacturers to adopt greener practices. As global competition intensifies, manufacturers must find ways to innovate and stay agile to respond quickly to market changes. Smart factories address these challenges by integrating advanced technologies to create a more responsive, efficient, and sustainable production environment. By leveraging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and the Internet of Things (IoT) to deliver predictive analytics and big data, manufacturers can optimise processes, manage inventory in real time, streamline logistics, and improve factory management. Smart factories collect, process, and use this data to gain valuable insights. Real-time production monitoring and closed-loop optimisations, along with collaboration between advanced robotics and humans, help create these transformations. However, a significant challenge in smart factory implementation is the disconnect between IT professionals and plant managers, particularly regarding data collection, outcome creation, and data protection. IT professionals often advocate for comprehensive data collection to optimise predictive maintenance, while plant managers are more concerned with the practical, immediate concerns such as knowing which machines are currently in production, how production is running, and maintaining seamless operations. IT professionals’ preference for leveraging cloud solutions can also clash with plant managers’ concerns about security and the usability of hyper-scale offerings. For example, IT professionals may push for automated updates and virtualisation, whereas plant managers worry about if production is operating at the level needed and the potential disruptions to long-established production systems. Bridging these […]

mimic joins race to develop first AI-driven collaborative robot

The race to develop the first commercially available humanoid robot has been primarily concentrated in the US – until now. Mimic, a Switzerland-based startup, is challenging US dominance and joining the robotics race to be the first to take a robotic arm and humanoid hand combination to market using generative AI, as it raises a pre-seed round of $2.5M. mimic’s $2.5M round is led by early stage Swiss investor Founderful, together with participation from German-based fund another.vc, UK-based Tiny.vc and an all-star lineup of specialised angel investors. Spinning out from the research university ETH Zurich, mimic was founded by researchers Elvis Nava, Stefan Weirich,Stephan-Daniel Gravert and Benedek Forrai in 2024. The founding team were working at the intersection of robotics and AI under Professor Robert Katzschmann’s Soft Robotic Labs when they became increasingly convinced that the latest developments in large scale generative AI models would upend a multitude of industries, beyond just language and image generation. The team set out to develop a foundation model for robotic manipulation and quickly realized how much value their idea held to revolutionise the way robotics fit into our everyday lives and economy. Today, global labour shortages are rocking businesses across multiple sectors and employers are struggling to find, hire and retain workers. Against the backdrop of a pronounced shift in work preferences, like reduced hours and enhanced flexibility to work from home, lab or shortages are especially severe in the case of menial, repetitive, and demanding manual tasks. mimic plans to ease these shortages with dexterous, human-like robotic hands that fit seamlessly into existing manual labour workflows, driven by state-of-the-art AI models trained directly from human demonstrations. This solution will enable a robot with humanoid hands to understand and imitate any behaviour, simply by watching a human perform it. This marks a departure […]

CSIRO telescope becomes stellar ‘speed camera’ in world-first measurement

In a world first, researchers have measured the jets of neutron stars to be moving at 114,000km per second – one-third the speed of light. The international team achieved this result using the European Space Agency (ESA)’s orbiting gamma ray telescope, Integral, and the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) on Gomeroi Country which is owned and operated by Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO. Neutron stars, like black holes, have huge gravitational pulls. When pulling matter from a nearby star, their extreme environments cause the occasional thermonuclear explosion and constant jets of matter shooting into space. Not much is known about these jets, including their composition and speed. These latest results, published today in Nature, revealed that thermonuclear explosions – detected by Integral – pushed gas into the jets. The jets were then tracked with ATCA allowing their speed to be recorded. Professor James Miller-Jones from Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in Perth was one of the project researchers. He said it’s typically hard to measure the speed of a jet, but discovering the jets are enhanced after every thermonuclear explosion provides a new way of measuring their speeds. “The explosion tells us when the enhanced jets were launched, and we simply time them as they move downstream – just like we would time a 100m sprinter as they move between the starting blocks and the finish line,” Professor Miller-Jones said. CSIRO’s Dr Jamie Stevens, who leads the ATCA operations team in Narrabri, describes the telescope as a world-class and adaptable instrument. “Radio telescopes are extremely versatile in the research they can do,” Dr Stevens said. “Five of ATCA’s six dishes, for instance, take on different configurations by moving along a track. It can be used to look at everything from nearby objects in […]

In the ‘age of AI,’ what does it mean to be smart?

As artificial intelligence gets better at predicting human behavior, a business psychologist encourages people to strengthen the uniquely human skills that machine learning has yet to tap. Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic has written, I, Human: AI, Automation, and the Quest to Reclaim What Makes Us Unique (Harvard Business Review Press). He explains why some AI algorithms model humanity as a simple species, how attention has become commoditised, and why the right questions are now more valuable than the right answers. Why did you write this book, now? I’m a professor of business psychology at Columbia University and UCL [University College London] and the chief innovation officer at ManpowerGroup. I, Human: AI, Automation, and the Quest to Reclaim What Makes Us Unique is a book about the behavioural consequences or impact of artificial intelligence, including the dark side of human behaviour and what we should do to upgrade ourselves as a species. The book is written at a time that, in my view, could only be described as the AI age. Humans have always relied on technological inventiveness and innovation to shape their cultural and social evolution. Now, even the wider public is talking about things like ChatGPT and other conversational interfaces, and the tech giants are described mostly as data companies and as algorithmic prediction businesses. The book was very much written in the midst of the AI age, or under the influence of AI, because I wrote the bulk of this at the height of the pandemic when we had very little physical interaction or contact with other people outside of our nuclear families. This means I was heavily influenced by hyperconnectedness and the datafication of me. Everything I did was being datafied and subjected to the predictive powers of AI during 2020 and 2021. I can’t say that there won’t be a better era […]

Navigating technology trends

“Did you see the article about blockchain on the paper’s home page? I think we need blockchain, too.” “We should give all our IT to an offshore system integrator—that will save a lot of money. Our competitors are doing the same thing.” “We need to do something about generative AI right away!” Many who work in IT have heard variations of these statements from well-meaning senior colleagues. And given how much technology underpins so many trends, as well as the increasing pace of innovation, IT leaders can expect to hear more of them and feel pressure to act on them. Sometimes it makes a lot of sense to act quickly on a trend. Innovation, after all, is a hallmark of successful companies. But not all trends are created equal. The annals of many IT organisations are littered with bold initiatives in trends that created a lot of excitement but not much value. Moving quickly to chase a trend often bogs an organisation down, leads to wasted spend, and takes attention away from important priorities. For this reason, the ability to evaluate trends quickly and communicate their relevance to the business is becoming a critical capability for the modern CIO. In practice, it is rarely as simple as saying “yes” or “no” to investment in a particular trend. Trends are unpredictable, change with time, and their relevance to a given business often waxes or wanes. Instead, CIOs need a clear set of parameters to rely on both for evaluating trends and for determining which posture to take for engagement with them: first mover, fast follower, slow adopter, or sometimes non-partaker. Four guides for determining a trend’s relevance Disruptive business value: The trend can result in measurable value to the business. Independence: The trend allows the organisation to work in smaller, more independent units. Connectivity: The […]

AI set to supercharge robotic automation

Digital transformation is an ongoing process so we can expect to see breakthrough trends continuing to shape society. But how will these trends impact robotics and automation and what can the manufacturing industry expect to see in 2024? AI will set a new pace of development in robotics and automation AI is transforming the world of software development, making it cheaper, faster, and more effective. Software is a key component of automation, and with AI, software developers will be able to create more customised and optimised solutions for various tasks and challenges. If software development has sometimes felt like digging with a shovel, the introduction of AI is like bringing two horses and a plough to the process. However, automation expertise will remain a scarce and valuable resource in the process of AI revolutionsing manufacturing. It has been interesting and perhaps surprising to see AI changing the lives of office workers before it touches working practices in most factories. The benefits of machine learning will reach more manufacturers in 2024. After all, the technology is already there – we have many partners developing applications using AI to allow our robots to perform more complex and diverse functions. For example, AI allows robots to have human-like perception, handle variation, move parts precisely, adapt to changing environments, and learn from their own experience. With time, these capabilities will lead to unprecedented flexibility, quality and reliability in manufacturing. Developments in robotics software will enable more sharing and reuse Robotics software is the glue that binds users to their mechanical counterparts – a digital connectivity that transcends physical interaction. Software developments are enabling a new dimension of collaboration – connecting the people that use robots. 2024 will see software developments leading to new levels of sharing and reusability. Imagine a world […]

Planting machines in “Machine-tending” — Operations in a collaborative Industry 5.0 world

-Shih Pin Tan, Asia Pacific, Universal Robots. Boasting a fleet of over 10,000 aircraft, taking a commercial flight in Asia might not be as novel as before. In generations prior, it was not as easy to manufacture these machines, with the average commercial jet airliner comprising of over 350,000 individual parts. In crafting these parts—whether metal or plastic, one process is essential: machine tending. A well-functioning manufacturing workflow relies on machinery consistently being loaded and unloaded with parts or materials. When done well, machine tending increases productivity and yields – driving down the cost of production over time. Without it, production would grind to a halt. As the sector looks forward into the future, advancements in manufacturing will rest on optimising this crucial task. The next industrial revolution Stemming from the early 2010s, Industry 4.0 saw manufacturers integrating new technologies into their production facilities and throughout their operations. Industry 5.0 builds on this, using R&D to transition to a more sustainable, human-centric and resilient industry. With that, collaborative automation has a vital role to play. Already integral to Industry 4.0, greater automation of machine tending – more specifically collaborative robotics – will help manufacturers transition to Industry 5.0. In fact, the European Commission sees Industry 5.0 as playing a vital role in providing solutions to challenges for society, including the preservation of resources and climate change. The future of manufacturing and the transition to Industry 5.0 rests on ensuring machine tending benefits from both human skill and automated consistency, something collaborative robots (cobots) are specifically designed for. The man-machine partnership Over decades, human machine operators have been slogging away at the repetitive and physically demanding task of machine tending. This poses a multitude of issues for both workers as well as manufacturers and must be addressed. For one, machine tending […]

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