Introduction
In line with the government’s emphasis towards ecosystem creation and sustenance in the strategies outlined in the 12th Malaysia Plan, a resilient robotics ecosystem will sustain innovation and value creation in robotics and thus, become the key indicator for Malaysia’s competitiveness in this field. Malaysia recognises the importance of different players in co-creating robotics technology for adoption across multiple sectors toward value creation and socio-economic impact. Value creation ecosystem aims to solve high-Impact problems (mostly done by the MNC) and creating high-Impact innovative solutions (mostly done by the SMEs). The high impact innovative solutions need to be a game changer that gives disruptive solution towards Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).
Based on the local robotics industry landscape, there are USERS (increase adoption of robotics technologies) and PRODUCERS (build capacity and capabilities to develop homegrown robotics products in becoming regional robotics hub). However, imbalance in between the numbers of USERS and PRODUCERS exist in the ecosystem due to the socio-economic landscape. Besides that, the level of depth for Malaysian robotics ecosystems remains fragmented whereby majority of support for robotics development is focused towards selected sectors such as the manufacturing sector. Despite being ranked at the 14th place in 2018 Automation Readiness Index there are setbacks that hinder the sustainable development of the local robotics industry in transforming Malaysia into a producer of innovative products, services and subsequently enable Malaysia participation in the higher end of the global value chain.
Vision of National Robotics Roadmap
The National Robotics Roadmap 2021-2030 has envisioned for Malaysia to become a regional robotics hub in Services (Retail & Healthcare), Agriculture and Manufacturing by 2030 as these three high-impact sectors have significantly contribute to country’s GDP. The study will further narrow down the niche areas under these 3 sectors and analyse on adoption of Industrial, Collaborative and Service Robot to address the challenges. In the value creations study, the strength of local robotics industry in solving high-impact problems and creating high-impact innovative solutions and its socio-economic contribution to the 3 high-impact sectors will be analysed in this study. The end goal in mind is to elevate Malaysia’s socio-economic development and competitiveness through robotics adoption and application for Malaysia to reach high-tech nation status by 2030.
Value Creations
Value creations creates the shift that will balance both USERS and PRODUCERS in the ecosystem by promoting the shift from a Value-Add to Value Creation ecosystem that is sustainable in tackling the addressed issues. The direct connection between the PARTNERS (technology developers) and technology USERS in the collaborative model provides a channel for market information and robotics knowledge to be shared and applied for value creation. Despite lacking on having a homegrown manufacturing company for industrial robots such as robot arms and COBOTS, the value creation ecosystem will be able to compensate it with high-impact problem solving and high-impact innovative solutions based on its impacts on capacity and capability building as well as productivity rate, safety, and efficient improvement.
As a next step, data and information on robotics installation and deployment for each sector will be gathered from industry players and stakeholders to have an accurate insight into the overall progress of robotisation for the high-impact sectors leading to a significantly faster and more targeted decision-making process. This will feed into the development and subsequently, maintenance of a holistic robotics anatomy for the country. In relation to this, MyRAS would like to invite players in robotics arena to participate in the survey, as it is imperative for us to analyse the inputs and facilitate in channeling your voices and feedbacks to the relevant authorities in formulating the direction of robotics in Malaysia.