Siemens announced Industry 4.0 Automation & Digitalization initiatives to spur growth of key vertical markets in propelling Penang as a smart city by 2030

In the next 12 years, the people of Penang will be digital leaders with the savviness to engage technology and digital innovations seamlessly in their operational and organizational environment. Think this is too lofty a foresight? Not quite, considering the Penang government’s recent declaration to dynamically transform the state into a fully smart state by 2030, backed by people-centric plans that are already in the making. The state government has also found itself an able partner in Siemens Malaysia which has formed strategic initiatives in support of the more immediate and long-term goal to developing a robust digital ecosystem. Propagating the advancement of technologies and the wave of digitalization, Siemens introduced comprehensive ways to boost the local economic landscape such as the Siemens Intelligent Plant Equipment Health Monitoring System, Siemens Remote On-Site Service Streaming, Digital Augmented Reality for smart building services, and EnergyIP solution. The official announcement was made during “The Siemens Digitalization Expedition” here at the Setia SPICE Convention Centre, presented with the forward-looking target of 2030’s goals. 
The full-day event attracted a crowd participation of about 300 participants comprising SMEs, government-linked-companies, industry players as well as key stakeholders, who got to witness the comprehensive portfolio of solutions driven by Siemens in sectors that span building technologies, smart manufacturing and automation, smart energy and even power generation at the centerpiece Marketplace showcase. Additionally, customers also had the opportunity to showcase and promote their best reference cases through their collaboration with Siemens at this exhibition, spanning the different vertical markets like pharmaceutical, F&B, medical devices, and E&E.

Guest-of-Honor The Chief Minister of Penang YAB Tuan Chow Kon Yeow officially graced the event before walking through the Marketplace booths together with Siemens Malaysia President & CEO Mr Indranil Lahiri. In his keynote address, Chow said the Industry 4.0 is already making in impact across the various industry sectors and effects are visible in the way that processes and operations are now being supported and developed. 

“In order to keep pace with the breakneck speed where systems are being revolutionized, Industry 4.0 needs to be swiftly deployed in the manufacturing industry and automation of factories. It’s important for Penang to keep progressing and to stay competitive on both the national and global level, and for us to leverage on technology to improve on our state GDP productivity,” added Chow. The Penang government, he added, is already leading digital efforts with its own Penang i4.0 Seed Fund for local technology start-ups, intended to increase their participation in the digital economy and as a continuous development of nurturing the right ecosystem and building local skilled talents. 

Indranil, in his welcome speech and overview presentation of Siemens digitalization efforts in the market, touched on how Siemens is positioned along the value chain of Electrification, Automation and Digitalization, creating value for customers through its competencies when it comes to resource optimisation, cost reduction, improved productivity and quality, increased efficiency and flexibility. 

“At Siemens, we whole-heartedly support customers on their journey of making changes throughout their end-to-end process. We are proud to be Malaysia’s preferred technology partner for the past 110 years since we made our first footprint (sales) in the country, supplying not just state-of-the-art, customisable solutions based on customers’ needs, but also in enabling knowledge and skills transfer to the local workforce to build up the pipeline. This has always been our commitment thanks to the trust placed upon us, and we are committed to accelerate the digital uptake for Penang for all of its identified vertical markets as it gears up to become a fully smart state by the 2030 timeline,” added Indranil.

Other activities organized throughout included Panel Discussions featuring focus topics of interest like “The Future of Mobility – Driving it With Digitalization”, “Digitalization in the New Energy Landscape”, “Making Efficiency, Productivity and Flexibility your Smart Manufacturing Goals”, as well as “Creating Intelligent Buildings with Digitalization.” Additionally, guests and customers had the opportunity to also participate in a digital maturity analysis and one-to-one meeting session together with Siemens experts for advisory services and solutions on their pain points or concerns with digital implementation.