Technology has always been one of the core catalytic factors that stimulate improvement or revolution in the way we live and work. Ever since the First Industrial Revolution in 18th century, the human has learnt to harness the power of mechanized production facilities to grow the production capacity beyond the physical limit of human’s hands. The discovery of electric power during the Second Industrial Revolution and its adaptation into assembly lines for mass production had further expand the possibility of human’s creation. The electronic and information technology from Third Industrial Revolution, again opened up tremendous transformative changes with the introduction of computers and automation into industrial production.
However, it was only until the emergence of internet in last century that truly bring an astonishing change by connecting everyone around the world together. This has brought the transformation unlike anything mankind has experienced before. Brand new business models leveraging on the internet and information technology are being introduced every day and this fundamentally changed the way people approach and solve everyday problems.
Over the last two decades, we see tremendous number of technological breakthroughs in emerging technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, internet of things, 3D printing, autonomous vehicle, renewable energy etc. These emerging technologies has formed the cornerstones for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is expected to bring another round of exciting transformation that will uplift the quality of life and work.
The phrase Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) was first coined by Klaus Schwab, the executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, in a 2015 article in Foreign Affairs. The 4IR is characterized by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital and biological spheres. The speed of current breakthroughs has no historical precedent and the 4IR is evolving at an exponential rather than a linear pace. Most importantly, it is disrupting almost every industry in every country in the areas of production, management and governance.
Traditionally, the industrial revolution has been closely associated with manufacturing and production activities. However, the non-manufacturing industry sectors are also inevitably affected by the advancement of technology. The 4IR technologies have brought bringing billions of possibilities along the value chain of almost every single industry.
Below are several samples of 4IR technologies provider and its adoption in non-manufacturing sectors:
Healthcare | Cohealo is a Big Data Analytics system that allows for healthcare providers to share medical equipment across facilities, to optimize spend, accelerate cash flow and improve access to care. Prior to this creation, it was estimated that hospitals use any given medical machine about 42% of the time. Leveraging on the Big Data Analytics and System Integration, Cohealo rolled out a software platform to hospital systems that catalogs and organize their equipment inventory, and then allow doctors or nurses to simply tap and order what they need when they need it from any hospital in their network. This business model is also being referenced as the Sharing Economy, like the Grab and Airbnb.
Transport | Daimler is a truck provider based in the USA that supply semi-autonomous trucks that use a combination of radar, lasers and camera systems. Using Artificial Intelligence (AI), Autonomous Robots, and Internet of Things (IoT), Daimler Trucks can identify obstacles and boundaries of the road which effectively reduce the chances of crashes that caused by distracted or drowsy drivers. Moving in convoys, driverless trucks avoid unnecessary overtaking and, by using the slipstream of the vehicle in front and by optimizing accelerations and decelerations, they can reduce fuel consumption by 20%. The combination of safer, faster and more economical truck transport through autonomous technology could lower the overall cost of goods, bringing greater value to the end-users.
Construction | Apis Cos is a start-up housing company that used 3D printing for construction of houses. With the help of Additive Manufacturing, Advanced Materials and AI, Apis Cor built its first home new Moscow in just one day with $10,13 worth of materials. This technological breakthrough will contribute to solving the issue of supply in affordable housing. Furthermore, its layer-upon-layer approach which qualifies construction companies to create objects using various materials like plastic, metal, or concrete at the same time to simplify the engineering process.
Banking & Finance | AuditXprt is software provider that provides automated auditing and compliance check for financial institutions. The current regulatory compliance assurance process used by the Bank’s Financial Crime Assurance Team is largely manual, very long (6 months), expensive and yet high risk as it relies on sampling (0.05% sample of the customer data population). Audit XPRT has developed an intuitive platform that uses AI, Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning to automate auditing and compliance process. This innovation has effectively reduced compliance costs by up to 90%. The financial institutions can now review 100% of the documents in a fraction of the time as compared to the sampling method which are manual and time consuming, yet prone to human errors.
The samples above are just a tip of the iceberg. The human is merely at the starting point of realizing what the 4IR technologies could do to our life. Technology advancement and revolution are inevitable, with proper adaptation and implementation, a business or value chain can achieve significant improvement in the productivity and quality. However, the key to this goes back to the human factors. The industry leaders and practitioners have to embrace the change and openly explore the possible adaptation of 4IR technologies into their business activities to fully unlock the potentials.
Written by Ivan Yee, Principal Consultant at 27 Advisory.
Having more than 27 years in business, 27 Group is able to provide you with the access to investors for competitive funding needs while providing better ways to operate your business through financial and corporate advisory. We are the only 100% Malaysian owned local consulting firm that is fast, flexible and focused with unique expertise that blends of local socio-economic policy setting, engineering built assets globally and detailed in financial analysis.
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