Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Digital – only the beginning of a new era” – New Technology

CHRONICLE. Recently, Apple released a new model of the Iphone, which immediately created a "want-have"feeling among many consumers.

In Sweden we are far ahead in terms of telecommunications and the youth of today are very comfortable with the tiles, smartphones, and other electronic equipment, far down in the ages.

In Sweden we have a 1.5 mobile phone subscriptions per capita, a figure that is extremely high if you compare with the rest of the world. Does this mean that we can anticipate an equally large impact of digitisation within the industry?

In Sweden, the accounting industry today for around 17% of our GDP and if we look at exporting businesses it accounts for over 75 per cent. Thus, we can conclude that the industry has been very great importance to our prosperity and to the digital impact in the industry will also be of great importance for the rest of our society.

Industry 4.0 or the "fourth industrial revolution", aimed at the smart, connected factory, was created in Germany, where the manufacturing sector accounts for approximately 29 per cent of GDP. A considerable high figure. After the steam engine, electricity and electronics, Germany thinks that it is Industry 4.0, which should be the next transformative factor of change that is required to strengthen and further develop the German industry. It is this fourth industrial revolution that will take the Swedish industry forward, and what it is we do to get there?

In the report, "the Digitization of Swedish industry"(Hauke Bossen and Johan Ingemansson), it is stated that the digital impact will vary between different branches of industry, for the automotive industry specifically, it will be transformative. We know what revolutionary means? Will it be as revolutionary for a subcontractor in the automotive industry each year the wait for new orders of the Iphone 7, or how will it look like?

Personally, I think we know as little about this as we knew what it really meant on the 9th January 2007 when Steve Jobs revealed the first-generation Iphone.

In The book "The Fourth Industrial Revolution" (Klaus Schwab 2016) he summarises the development as follows:

Speed: unlike the industry’s previous three forms of revolution is the current utvecklingshastighet exponential rather than linear. This is due to an already high uppkopplingsfaktor and that the new technology gives birth to even newer technology.

Width and depth: the Digitization leads not just to change the "what and how" without also changing "who we are".

Systeminverkan : The digital development involves the conversion of the whole system, across (and within) countries, companies, industries and society as a whole.

If we return to the beginning of today’s mobile phones – we in the industry are in the same stage as Steve Jobs on 9 January 2007. We do not yet know how the development will change the Swedish industry, even though we may have a view.

the Question is how and who should drive the development. We like to think that someone like Steve Jobs to present the Swedish Industry 4.0, but is now pushing our youngest employees on the development, there is soon a queue to the technical courses, and no hesitation anymore about the industry’s importance.

Tomas Berg, managing director at Schunk Intec and member of the think tank Automathink

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