Industrial Transformation: Forging ahead with Industry 4.0

The Asia-Pacific region's go-to platform for exploring Industry 4.0 solutions, Industrial Transformation ASIA-PACIFIC – A HANNOVER MESSE Event, or ITAP, launches its third edition tomorrow with its first hybrid event format responding to the changed business landscape and customer needs.

The new format continues to support the manufacturing industries in Asia Pacific region in their digital transformation and cater to their needs in a COVID-safe world, enabling stakeholders to share, learn, network and collaborate with one another via a custom-built interactive platform called ITAP CONNECTED. Designed and built by SingEx, the platform is powered by an AI recommendation engine to tailor each person’s learning journey and user experience, as well as physical bolt-on activities that takes place at specific locations across Singapore.

Designing personalised experiences guided by customer insights

With COVID-19 accelerating the pace at which event formats must continually evolve to meet customers' needs, industry stakeholders’ continued participation in trade events like ITAP cannot be taken for granted. Feedback from these stakeholders to SingEx uncovered that in the new normal, they wanted ITAP to allow them to explore Industry 4.0 (i4.0) solutions, optimise their business operations to lower costs, source for new partnerships, maintain their brand visibility, identify and acquire new markets, redesign their customer outreach and help their businesses pivot into emerging sectors.

To achieve the above intents and provide a dynamic platform for workers to learn about i4.0, SingEx designed ITAP CONNECTED with a hyper focus on customer-centricity, where users can access a full suite of enriching and relevant interactive content personalised to their preferences, powerful solution showcase opportunities, valued networking opportunities as well as physical bolt-on activities that will enable them to optimise engagement and knowledge transfer opportunities anytime, anywhere.

Professor Alfred Huan, Assistant Chief Executive of the Science and Engineering Research Council at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), said, "The COVID-19 outbreak has been an unprecedented crisis that has disrupted supply chains and altered manufacturing business models. The nature of jobs has changed too, and we must continue to preserve Singapore's ability to compete globally for jobs. To strengthen the resilience of the manufacturing ecosystem in Singapore and help local companies pivot into new markets, A*STAR has worked with fellow public sector agencies and the rest of the innovation ecosystem to implement initiatives including workforce training, public-private partnerships, and accelerated adoption of Industry 4.0 solutions. Advanced manufacturing technologies will be valuable assets to manufacturers as they transform and reinvent themselves, to keep up with the pressing need for digitalisation and innovation."

"COVID-19 has reinforced the importance of manufacturing and diversified supply chains, and the need for businesses to transform in order to stay globally competitive. Singapore works closely with our ecosystem of manufacturers, suppliers and solution providers to accelerate transformation, drive innovation and build relevant Industry 4.0 capabilities for long-term growth. The Industrial Transformation Asia Pacific (ITAP) will continue to facilitate the exchange of industry insights and ideas, and build partnerships that will allow our businesses and people to overcome challenges, ride the Industry 4.0 wave and capture opportunities in the region and beyond," said Mr Lim Kok Kiang, Executive Vice President, Singapore Economic Development Board.

Redesigned hybrid event formats for increased audience engagement

The power-packed showcase kickstarts on the morning of October 20th with an opening address and an exclusive dialogue with Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister, Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies and Minister for Finance Mr Heng Swee Keat, as well as opening remarks by German Minister of State for Digitalisation at the Federal Chancellery Ms Dorothee Bär. The dialogue will be part of a special live opening ceremony segment at 10am SGT, which will be held both in-person with a live studio audience at MAX ATRIA @ Singapore EXPO and simultaneously broadcast on ITAP CONNECTED. Both audiences will be able to interact on the platform at the same time.

The in-person event is the first held at Singapore's largest purpose-built MICE venue since COVID19, and since it was repurposed as a Community Care Facility. It is one of the events signalling the safe restart for Singapore’s business events industry, with hybridisation and reinforced safe event management measures in place in accordance to the Industry Resilience Map (IRR), formulated by Singapore Association of Convention & Exhibition Organisers & Suppliers (SACEOS), Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and Enterprise Singapore (ESG) to equip and pave the way forward for enterprises in Singapore’s MICE industry.

From 20 to 22 October 2020, ITAP CONNECTED will live-stream several key industry conferences, including the Future of Manufacturing Summit, Global Additive Manufacturing Summit, Germany Singapore Business Forum Connect, Standards Forum and the Market & Sector Leaders Forum. This suite of conference content will be available on-demand beyond the three days to empower users in learning at their own pace. Subtitles in five languages (Bahasa Indonesia, Chinese, English, German, Japanese and Russian) will also be made available for on-demand content.

With the impact of COVID-19 on the workforce still top of mind, topics at the conferences will cover the themes of workforce upskilling, resilience and recovery, organisational transformation and digitalisation for a COVID-safe world. Notable keynote speakers sharing their experiences include:

Datuk Michael Kang, President, SME Association of Malaysia • Dr Ling Ka Yi, Co-Founder & Chief Scientific Officer, Shiok Meats • Dr Michael Schmidt, Vice President of Innovation, Covestro Asia Pacific • Mr Adam Gilmour, CEO, Gilmour Space • Ms Anne Patricia Sutanto, Vice CEO, PT. Pan Brothers Tbk, Indonesia • Mr Deepak Subramaniam, VP for Marketing (Homecare, Southeast Asia, Australia & New Zealand), Unilever • Ms May Yap, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Jabil • Ms Melissa Snover, CEO & Founder, Nourish3d • Ms Pamela Mar, Executive Vice President – Knowledge and Applications, Fung Academy, Fung Group, Hong Kong • Mr Phil Ward, CEO, Molyworks Material Corporation • Mr Seah Kian Hoe, Founder & Managing Director, Heng Hiap Industries, Malaysia • Mrs Shinta Widjaja Kamdani, CEO, Sintesa Group & Vice Chairwoman, Indonesian Chamber of Commerce & Industry • Ms Sissi Chao, Founder, REMAKEHUB

Accompanying these conferences are Digital Sandboxes driven by communities in the advanced manufacturing sector, aimed at directing conversations and debates to address challenge statements and explore practical solutions in adopting i4.0 progressively. Singapore-based participants can also partake in physical bolt-on activities, i.e. face-to-face engagement tours to locations in Singapore exemplifying some of the best industrial transformation showcases and deployment concepts for Industry 4.0. The in-person activities will also be streamed concurrently on ITAP CONNECTED to allow virtual participants to interact with physical attendees.

Redefining interaction to power continuous learning, engagement and collaboration 

On top of the above, ITAP's signature Learning Journey Approach, exhibitors' showcase areas and thematic zones - Gateway to i4.0, Robotics Experimental Experience Zone and the Collaboration Lab – will also be digitally showcased on ITAP CONNECTED and designed to optimise interaction and enhance the user experience. One example is an interactive 3D Smart Factory Interface modelled after a real factory. Users can navigate pit stops in the Smart Factory via animated avatars and 'visit' all the above areas anytime and anywhere at a tap of the finger or a click of the mouse, where they will be able to interact with one another via the live chat, connect and ‘schedule meeting’ features.

"With today's unprecedented disruptions and complex digital economy, all businesses need to learn to pivot and adapt quickly. Being able to provide the right and customised experience is key. By leveraging this new and dynamic plSatform at ITAP, we hope attendees will be able to 'experience' SAP Industry 4.0 solutions, understand the importance of an intelligent digital supply chain to predict and respond to global dynamics and gain insights into how to continue to innovate and be resilient in the new normal," commented Graham Conlon, Head of Digital Supply Chain, SAP Asia Pacific Japan.

To enable continuous learning and recommend engagement opportunities tailored to each user, ITAP CONNECTED offers hyper personalisation powered by AI where users can shortlist their learning intents as well as interest areas, products and services. The AI-powered engine will then build the user’s personalised digital learning journey, recommend relevant content across the vast and comprehensive on-demand knowledge base, and provide business-matching opportunities that users can partake in throughout the year.

"Industrial Transformation ASIA-PACIFIC – A HANNOVER MESSE Event is all about connecting people, businesses and ideas and the challenges from COVID-19 brought upon immense opportunities to redefine the future of how we engage with one another, providing rich observations, learnings and insights for industries as they build resilience or pivot to survive and thrive. With ITAP CONNECTED we are excited to embark on this new endeavour to uncover more customer insights, and deepening collaboration with our partners and stakeholders to meet them." said Mr James Boey, Executive Director of the Events Business for SingEx. 

Interested personnel may sign up to participate here. For more information on ITAP 2020 and ITAP CONNECTED, please visit the official ITAP website.