Enterprise continuity throughout the pandemic with SMC Automation

As borders worldwide begin to reopen, Malaysia revives the EMAX and PMAX Expo in

Penang final July 2022. Throughout this occasion, Chipl Media sat down with Edwin Haw, Common Supervisor and Director of SMC Automation Malaysia, to get his ideas on what transpired throughout the previous couple of years within the business.

Let’s shortly unpack what was shared throughout our dialogue with Edwin Haw.

First, who’s SMC Automation Malaysia? They’re a manufacturing facility automation options supplier that has been round since 1976; that’s an astounding 44 years and counting! With borders opening up and COVID protocols easing, the world is prepared for the world economic system to return to regular.

With Penang’s ecosystem pushed by a major share coming from the manufacturing sector, reopening the EMAX and PMAX expo is a welcome glimpse again into the times earlier than COVID turned the world upside-down.

Haw talks about how SMC Automation tailored throughout the COVID-reIated lockdowns by going surfing to make sure enterprise continuity with their key prospects, an effort resonated with many others all through the pandemic.

Like the remainder of the world, many imports and exports had been affected, inflicting additional extensions in lead instances of supplies and, inevitably, larger prices, primarily because of the mandates that shut down many operations to include the aggressive unfold of COVID.

Then by February 2022, the fragile state of the provision chain was additional exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and in what continues to be an ongoing warfare, many uncooked supplies within the semiconductor sector counting on provides coming from each Ukraine and Russia have led in the direction of straining an already choking provide chain. Logistics suppliers worldwide needed to reroute their flight paths and supply routes to keep away from flying over conflicted air house, all amidst an ongoing pandemic.

In response to this financial disaster, the Malaysian authorities, by MIDA (Malaysia Funding Growth Authority), developed just a few packages to assist their budding manufacturing sector.

One such program encourages native manufacturing companies to localize their provide by the native sourcing facilitation program of MIDA. Much like packages like that within the U.S., the diversification and localization of sourcing assist reduce the dependence on different nations to produce key uncooked supplies and maintain merchandise flowing into cabinets and, ultimately, into customers ^l buying carts.

Not solely does this give producers in Malaysia extra flexibility to maintain manufacturing traces shifting, however it additionally offers a much-needed enhance to a neighborhood economic system that has undoubtedly suffered financially throughout the pandemic.

One other program noticed the upskilling of laborers and employees to have the ability to deal with a extra digital and distant office caused by COVID restrictions. This included coaching and expertise adoptions to maintain the workforce updated, albeit remotely. Haw additionally describes how MIDA inspired small native companies to offer their merchandise and repair to the SMEs and MNCs inside Malaysia to spice up the ecosystem. This transfer permits Malaysia’s smaller startups to achieve traction by servicing the wants of bigger and multinational companies. A superb transfer to maintain the Malaysian economic system intact and guarantee firms can survive the pandemic’s unfavorable monetary impacts.

MIDA has additionally been very lively in selling investments. In 2020, MIDA attracted almost RM64.8 billion value of investments within the manufacturing, service, and first sectors, thus creating over 1,700 initiatives and 37,000 job alternatives inside Malaysia. Lots of the Malaysian efforts centered on strengthening the native enterprise ecosystem.

Almost 70% of these investments had been home direct investments (DDI), whereas the remaining 30% had been international direct investments (FDI). After all, the biggest of those investments went into the manufacturing sector, contributing greater than half of the investments, roughly RM35.7 billion or US$7.85 billion going into manufacturing alone.

Haw then talks about how Malaysia must also modernize its ports, impressed by Singapore’s monumental announcement of a $14 billion funding to construct a mega port by 2040. One which will likely be extremely automated and meant to ease the provision chain points as we speak. Haw believes the modernization of their ports will maintain Malaysia aggressive.

MI DA’s efforts to push Malaysia’s enterprise ecosystem additional appear to be paying off because the company not too long ago signed with logistics big, Maersk, to assist flip Malaysia right into a aggressive regional logistics hub, a step in the direction of the identical path that Haw envisions for the nation to progress.

Wanting onwards to 2023

The excellent news right here is that the outlook for this 12 months appears to be like promising.

Globally, the electronics market is predicted to develop to $3,521.21 billion in 2022 with a compound annual development charge (CACR) of 10%. Pushed by rising applied sciences in 50, 10T, and electrical automobiles, this increase, as resonated by Haw, ought to proceed to drive development in 2023. The chip scarcity, nonetheless, isn’t fully gone. The world is slowly recovering from COVID, and enterprise is normalizing.

Though the capability of most semiconductor producers like Intel, Samsung, and others has improved after a sequence of investments, there’ll nonetheless be lingering points inside the provide chain. Nevertheless, the pressure is barely improved because of the actions of many massive gamers and governments to mitigate the impacts of this scarcity. Suffice it to say, the business isn’t solely out of the woods simply but, particularly with geopolitics presently nonetheless in play.

Within the meantime, be at liberty to discover your semiconductor wants by Chipl Trade and go to our web site, https://www.chipl.com/. Comply with us on Fb, Instagram, Linkedln, and You Tube.