HKPC's International Conference Gathers Global Experts to Share Insights on Industry 4.0

(Hong Kong, 8 November 2018) The Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) firmly believes that the key for an enterprise to succeed in the digital Industry 4.0 (i4.0) era lies in its ability to collect and analyse vast amount of data. Being the leading pioneer in promoting i4.0 and related knowledge and technology transfer in Hong Kong, HKPC today hosted the "International Conference on Industry 4.0 Smart Manufacturing Data Analytics Technologies" to introduce the latest trend and applications of smart data analytics. Ms Annie Choi, Commissioner for Innovation and Technology of the HKSAR Government, was the Guest-of-Honour at the opening ceremony.

Speaking at the opening, Mr Willy Lin, Chairman of HKPC, said, "HKPC, being the champion and implementer for reindustrialisation, positions itself to be a platform to gather international expertise for knowledge transfer to local businesses, accelerating their i4.0 transformation, as well as Hong Kong's development into an international innovation centre and smart city. This international conference aims to facilitate enterprises to apply smart data analytics technologies to visualise all processes along the supply chain in real time, enabling them to provide agile response to meet the ever-changing market needs."

"In addition, the INC Invention Centre, or the Hatch, which we jointly launched with Germany's renowned Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology (IPT) recently, offers to help local businesses make smarter use of data collected, and apply the appropriate analytics methods for new product and service invention," Mr Lin continued.

As the first systematic design thinking workshop venue of its kind in Asia, the Hatch offers training on smart product and service innovations for local enterprises, allowing them to respond with timeliness and agility to industry development and prototyping demands by leveraging the expertise, technology networks and facilities of HKPC and Fraunhofer IPT. Apart from the opportunity to work together with Hong Kong and German experts on the design of novel smart products and services, members of the Hatch can also access HKPC's advanced facilities and participate in activities to learn the latest technology trends and interact with global R&D talents.

At the Conference, HKPC also announced the establishment of the inaugural Executive Committee of the Smart Industry One Consortium, with Mr Edmond Lai, Director (Business Development) of HKPC, elected as Chairman. Mr Lai said, "The Smart Industry One Consortium is a new cross industry platform for Hong Kong companies to keep abreast of the latest development in i4.0. As the Chairman of its Executive Committee, I would lead this platform and facilitate information and knowledge exchange, enabling local enterprises to move towards i4.0 at a faster and more agile pace."

The Conference was funded by the Innovation and Technology Fund of the HKSAR Government. Other speakers included Dr Benny Drescher, Business Development Asia-Pacific, INC Invention Center, Aachen, Germany; Mr Hendrik Mende, Technology Management Researcher, Fraunhofer IPT, Germany; Dr Qian Xiao Hu, Assistant Professor, College of Management, Shenzhen University, China; Dr Kaoru Fueda, Professor of Faculty of Data Science, Shiga University, Japan; Mr Hwan Lee, Managing Director, Wizcore Inc., Korea; and Mr Paul Ngai, Vice President, Digital Transformation, UL, United States.

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Mr Willy Lin, Chairman of HKPC, gives welcoming address at the "International Conference on Industry 4.0 Smart Manufacturing Data Analytics Technologies"

Ms Annie Choi, Commissioner for Innovation and Technology, delivers opening speech

Ms Annie Choi, Commissioner for Innovation and Technology (front row, sixth from left); Mr Willy Lin, Chairman of HKPC (front row, sixth from right); and Mr Mohamed D. Butt, Executive Director of HKPC (front row, fifth from left), pose for a photo with members of the inaugural executive committee of the Smart Industry One Consortium