Capabilities and Services Offered by Malaysian Learning Centres in Assisting Manufacturing Enterprises in Their Digital Transformation Journey

Abstract

Industry 4.0 encompasses a plethora of notions and technologies aimed at assisting manufacturing entities, particularly small and medium-sized firms, in gaining a competitive edge. Hence, an effective implementation of technology in the domains of asset integration, digitization, and automation is dependent on meeting plenty of demanding requirements. The role of learning centres in assisting these firms is critical to ensuring the country's overall digital transformation is a success. An exploratory quantitative survey was carried out in Malaysia to ascertain the learning centres' strengths and gaps in aiding the country in spearheading the Industry 4.0 (I4.0) agenda. The survey's primary result is that learning centres must further equip themselves to act as a catalyst in assisting the manufacturing industry in realising the I4.0 potential, albeit there is also a need to strengthen commercialization between learning centres and manufacturing enterprises. Additionally, the survey discovered that learning centres should strengthen their collaboration and affiliation with the country's primary industries in order to accelerate the adoption of I4.0 in Malaysia. Another significant outcome of the survey is the call for the establishment of a one-stop-centre for I4.0 services such as funding and policy inquiries, as well as the promotion of learning centres’ services, which are critical to assisting manufacturing enterprises in their digital transformation journey.