Digitalization, Industrialization, and Skills Development: Opportunities and Challenges for Middle-Income Countries

The world economy is undergoing a period of structural and technological transformation, driven by the increasing digitalization of economic and social life. Digitalization is being experienced differentially across the globe, reflecting the different opportunities it offers as well as the particular challenges countries face in digitalizing their economic systems. This chapter looks at the opportunities and challenges of digital industrialization through the lens of the South African case. In South Africa, digitalization is occurring in an economy that has prematurely deindustrialized, where the digital capability gap in terms of digital infrastructures and skills is wide, and where organizations need significant investments to retrofit their existing systems. Despite this, South Africa has islands of excellence in which firms are embracing the opportunities provided by digitalization to achieve greater efficiency, process innovation, and supply-chain integration. These examples point to what is possible, while at the same time revealing gaps and shortcomings. The potential and shortcomings are evident both across firms (in terms of their investment rates) within global value chains (domestic firms; engagement with multinationals), and across public institutions and industrial policies. The development of digital skills in cross-cutting fields such as data science and software engineering, as well as transversal technologies in complementary services, are identified as particularly important. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the policy implications for South Africa and beyond

Development of a Risk Framework for Industry 4.0 in the Context of Sustainability for Established Manufacturers

The concept of “Industry 4.0” is expected to bring a multitude of benefits for industrial value creation. However, the associated risks hamper its implementation and lack a comprehensive overview. In response, the paper proposes a framework of risks in the context of Industry 4.0 that is related to the Triple Bottom Line of sustainability. The framework is developed from a literature review, as well as from 14 in-depth expert interviews. With respect to economic risks, the risks that are associated with high or false investments are outlined, as well as the threatened business models and increased competition from new market entrants. From an ecological perspective, the increased waste and energy consumption, as well as possible ecological risks related to the concept “lot size one”, are described. From a social perspective, the job losses, risks associated with organizational transformation, and employee requalification, as well as internal resistance, are among the aspects that are considered. Additionally, risks can be associated with technical risks, e.g., technical integration, information technology (IT)-related risks such as data security, and legal and political risks, such as for instance unsolved legal clarity in terms of data possession. Conclusively, the paper discusses the framework with the extant literature, proposes managerial and theoretical implications, and suggests avenues for future research

Mapping Cloud-Edge-IoT opportunities and challenges in Europe

While current data processing predominantly occurs in centralized facilities, with a minor portion handled by smart objects, a shift is anticipated, with a surge in data originating from smart devices. This evolution necessitates reconfiguring the infrastructure, emphasising computing capabilities at the cloud's "edge" closer to data sources. This change symbolises the merging of cloud, edge, and IoT technologies into a unified network infrastructure - a Computing Continuum - poised to redefine tech interactions, offering novel prospects across diverse sectors. The computing continuum is emerging as a cornerstone of tech advancement in the contemporary digital era. This paper provides an in-depth exploration of the computing continuum, highlighting its potential, practical implications, and the adjustments required to tackle existing challenges. It emphasises the continuum's real-world applications, market trends, and its significance in shaping Europe's tech future

White paper - Agricultural Robotics: The Future of Robotic Agriculture

Agri-Food is the largest manufacturing sector in the UK. It supports a food chain that generates over £108bn p.a., with 3.9m employees in a truly international industry and exports £20bn of UK manufactured goods. However, the global food chain is under pressure from population growth, climate change, political pressures affecting migration, population drift from rural to urban regions and the demographics of an aging global population. These challenges are recognised in the UK Industrial Strategy white paper and backed by significant investment via a wave 2 Industrial Challenge Fund Investment (“Transforming Food Production: from Farm to Fork”). RAS and associated digital technologies are now seen as enablers of this critical food chain transformation. To meet these challenges, here we review the state of the art of the application of RAS in Agri-Food production and explore research and innovation needs to ensure novel advanced robotic and autonomous reach their full potential and deliver necessary impacts. The opportunities for RAS range from; the development of field robots that can assist workers by carrying weights and conduct agricultural operations such as crop and animal sensing, weeding and drilling; integration of autonomous system technologies into existing farm operational equipment such as tractors; robotic systems to harvest crops and conduct complex dextrous operations; the use of collaborative and “human in the loop” robotic applications to augment worker productivity and advanced robotic applications, including the use of soft robotics, to drive productivity beyond the farm gate into the factory and retail environment. RAS technology has the potential to transform food production and the UK has the potential to establish global leadership within the domain. However, there are particular barriers to overcome to secure this vision: 1.The UK RAS community with an interest in Agri-Food is small and highly dispersed. There is an urgent need to defragment and then expand the community.2.The UK RAS community has no specific training paths or Centres for Doctoral Training to provide trained human resource capacity within Agri-Food.3.While there has been substantial government investment in translational activities at high Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs), there is insufficient ongoing basic research in Agri-Food RAS at low TRLs to underpin onward innovation delivery for industry.4.There is a concern that RAS for Agri-Food is not realising its full potential, as the projects being commissioned currently are too few and too small-scale. RAS challenges often involve the complex integration of multiple discrete technologies (e.g. navigation, safe operation, multimodal sensing, automated perception, grasping and manipulation, perception). There is a need to further develop these discrete technologies but also to deliver large-scale industrial applications that resolve integration and interoperability issues. The UK community needs to undertake a few well-chosen large-scale and collaborative “moon shot” projects.5.The successful delivery of RAS projects within Agri-Food requires close collaboration between the RAS community and with academic and industry practitioners. For example, the breeding of crops with novel phenotypes, such as fruits which are easy to see and pick by robots, may simplify and accelerate the application of RAS technologies. Therefore, there is an urgent need to seek new ways to create RAS and Agri-Food domain networks that can work collaboratively to address key challenges. This is especially important for Agri-Food since success in the sector requires highly complex cross-disciplinary activity. Furthermore, within UKRI most of the Research Councils (EPSRC, BBSRC, NERC, STFC, ESRC and MRC) and Innovate UK directly fund work in Agri-Food, but as yet there is no coordinated and integrated Agri-Food research policy per se. Our vision is a new generation of smart, flexible, robust, compliant, interconnected robotic systems working seamlessly alongside their human co-workers in farms and food factories. Teams of multi-modal, interoperable robotic systems will self-organise and coordinate their activities with the “human in the loop”. Electric farm and factory robots with interchangeable tools, including low-tillage solutions, novel soft robotic grasping technologies and sensors, will support the sustainable intensification of agriculture, drive manufacturing productivity and underpin future food security. To deliver this vision the research and innovation needs include the development of robust robotic platforms, suited to agricultural environments, and improved capabilities for sensing and perception, planning and coordination, manipulation and grasping, learning and adaptation, interoperability between robots and existing machinery, and human-robot collaboration, including the key issues of safety and user acceptance. Technology adoption is likely to occur in measured steps. Most farmers and food producers will need technologies that can be introduced gradually, alongside and within their existing production systems. Thus, for the foreseeable future, humans and robots will frequently operate collaboratively to perform tasks, and that collaboration must be safe. There will be a transition period in which humans and robots work together as first simple and then more complex parts of work are conducted by robots; driving productivity and enabling human jobs to move up the value chain

Just Green Transitions and Global Labour Organisations

This report presents the findings from two research projects undertaken under the programme Adapting Canadian Work and Workplaces to Respond to Climate Change: Canada in International Perspective, based in York University, Ontario, Canada

Prospects for Nuclear Microreactors: A Review of the Technology, Economics, and Regulatory Considerations

The nuclear energy sector is actively developing a new class of very small advanced reactors, called microreactors. This technology has disruptive potential as an alternative to carbon-intensive energy technologies based on its mobility and transportability, resilience, and independence from the grid, as well as its capacity for long refueling intervals and low-carbon emissions. Microreactors may extend nuclear energy to a new set of international customers, many of which are located where energy is at a price premium and/or limited to fossil sources. Developers are creating designs geared toward factory production where quality and costs may be optimized. This paper reviews the existing literature on the technology, potential markets, economic viability, and regulatory and institutional challenges of nuclear microreactors. The technological characteristics are reviewed to describe the wide range of microreactor designs and to distinguish them from large nuclear power plants and small modular reactor (SMR) designs. The expanding literature on the cost competitiveness of SMRs relative to other nuclear and nonnuclear technologies is also reviewed, with an emphasis on understanding the challenges of making microreactors economically viable. A major part of this study focuses on the deployment potential of microreactors across global markets. Previous work on SMR market assessment is reviewed, and the adaptation of these studies to the deployment of microreactors is more fully examined. Characteristics that differentiate microreactors from SMRs and other energy technologies may make microreactors suitable for unique and localized applications if they can be economically competitive with other energy technologies, as well as meet regulatory and other societal requirements. Recent research on global markets for microreactors is evaluated and extended in this paper to a previously unevaluated use case in which microreactors can play a role in grid resiliency and integration with renewables. Further challenges associated with the commercialization of microreactors, in addition to cost competitiveness, are explored by examining the regulatory and safety challenges of microreactor deployment

Offsite manufacturing: Envisioning the future agenda

Off-Site Manufacturing (OSM) as a concept/approach is certainly not new, the origins of which rest in literature under various incarnations and typologies. Earliest examples include provision where “… a panelized wood house was shipped from England to Cape Ann in 1624 to provide housing for a shipping fleet” (Arieff, and Burkhart, 2003), through to the importation of housing in Australia (circa 1837), the delivery of Crystal Palace for “The Great Exhibition” in the United Kingdom (UK) (circa 1851), and for mainstream housing in the United States (US) with initiatives such as the Sears Modern Home “kit house” (circa 1908) and Lustron Home (circa 1945). However, there are several different terminologies in current use which describe OSM (Gibb and Pendlebury, 2006; Taylor, 2010); including: modern methods of construction, pod technology, off-site construction/fabrication/production, industrialised building systems, modular construction, pre-cast panels/foundations, volumetric/hybrid construction etc

Skills and capabilities for a sustainable and circular economy: The changing role of design

Implementing practices for a circular economy transforms the way companies do business, notably in the manufacturing industry. However, a circular economy requires a transformation of both production and consumption systems; the standard approach for creation, fabrication, and commerce of products is challenged. Authors repeatedly call for the development of new proficiencies to attend to system transformations, but these so far have not been described for design and engineering. Given that the design of a product directly influences the way a value chain will be managed, building circular, globally sustainable value chains inevitably signifies a fundamental change in the practice of design. Comprehensive analyses were conducted on case studies from a variety of multinational enterprises that are transforming their product strategies for climate change. Changes in design processes were identified, revealing a growing necessity for industry to employ new proficiencies that support closure of material loops. This paper contributes to existing literature by depicting successful practices being implemented in industry. A variety of new capabilities are key to design for a sustainable future; these range from deeper knowledge of material composition to rich understanding of social behaviour. Resulting from this research, learning goals are proposed to serve as guidance for manufacturing companies seeking to tackle climate change. Conclusions aim to encourage researchers and academics to respond to emerging needs by re-thinking education in design and engineering