SME, Local Firms to Benefit From Microsoft's Smart Manufacturing Toolkit

GEORGE TOWN (Penang), Nov 21 (Bernama) -- Local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and large companies are set to benefit from using the Smart Manufacturing Toolkit which is capable of reducing the maintenance costs of their production machinery. Penang Skills Development Centre (PSDC) Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Muhamed Ali Hajah Mydin, said the centre was working closely with Microsoft, Moxa Inc and Omron Electronics to provide access to the Smart Manufacturing Toolkit, developed by Microsoft. He said Microsoft was also setting up a Federated Lab at PSDC to train local manufacturing companies in using newer technologies through cloud solutions. “With the savings, they could invest to enhance their competitiveness. Currently, about 25 companies are keen to use the Smart Manufacturing Toolkit,” he told reporters after the launch of PSDC Industry 4.0 week by Special Adviser to Prime Minister (Northern Corridor Economic Region), Zainal Abidin Osman, here Tuesday. Also present was Northern Corridor Implementation Authority CEO, Redza Rafiq. Muhamed Ali said Moxa and Omron were the partners providing the hardware connectivity for the manufacturing companies to use Smart Manufacturing Toolkit, which enabled manufacturing companies to perform predictive maintenance that would save them up to 15 per cent on maintenance cost. Meanwhile, Zainal Abidin said, since its inception, the Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER) had attracted RM79.9 billion worth investments and created 103,597 jobs as of Dec 31 last year. He said the NCER Development Blueprint 2016-2025, launched by Prime Minister Najib Razak recently, was set to transform Peninsular Malaysia’s four northern states into a world-class economic region with an economy worth RM300 billion by 2025. "Focusing on seven catalytic growth node projects, 28 transcending border projects and 45 localised high-impact projects, it will create 161,197 jobs across (the states of) Perlis, Kedah, Penang and Perak,” he told reporters after the launch of PSDC Industry 4.0 week,” he said. He said as an enabler in the implementation of Industry 4.0, the government played the major role to initiate joint efforts in facilitating and supporting enterprises, besides setting up education and research centres to support the workforce in adopting Industry 4.0. Earlier, the event also saw an exchange of memorandum of understanding between PSDC and five industry partners – Microsoft Malaysia, Moxa, Omron, Hexagon Measurement Technologies and Malaysia Productivity Corporation. -- BERNAMA