BUTTERWORTH: Smart Global Holdings, a specialty memory and storage solutions manufacturer headquartered in California, aims to contribute to Malaysia’s aspiration of increasing its pool of highly-skilled workforce from the present 18 per cent to 35 per cent.
The group, which employs about 500 people for its Malaysian operation, plans to increase its workforce here by 10 to 15 per cent within a year, Smart Modular Technologies Sdn Bhd general manager Vejay Kumar told Bernama after a media briefing and tour of the company’s manufacturing facility at Seberang Jaya here.
Smart Global Holdings executive vice president Jack Pacheco, who was in Malaysia for the briefing, said the latest industrial revolution would allow for higher productivity and efficiency in the manufacturing industry but at the same time require a well-trained and prepared workforce competent to adopt agile, innovative and game-changing technologies.
Pacheco, who is also the Smart Global Holdings chief operating and financial officer, announced the company’s partnership with computer hardware company IBM Malaysia to transform its manufacturing operations to meet the demands of the evolving technology landscape.
He noted that based on the 2019 International Data Corporation report, the nation’s gross domestic product relied heavily on high-tech manufacturing, and digital transformation could potentially add US$10 billion (RM41.5 billion) to the Malaysian economy by 2021.
“Digital Malaysia, the government’s economic development programme to position Malaysia as a leading digital economy player, encourages manufacturers to leverage new manufacturing tools and skills to reap the economic benefits of the fourth industrial revolution,” he said.
Meanwhile, IBM Malaysia managing director Catherine Lian said IBM’s role in the partnership included the delivery of IBM Enterprise Design Thinking workshops to upskill and reskill Smart’s workforce, as well as the development of factory automation through AI-powered, collaborative robots (cobots) to enhance human abilities.
She said that the cobots are programmed by IBM PowerAI Vision, which included an intuitive toolset that empowered subject matter expert to label, train, and deploy deep learning vision models without coding or deep learning expertise.
“By deploying cobots, we aim to take human error out of the equation and to maximise cost-efficiency and business outcome,” she said. – Bernama
