The Asian Productivity Organization (APO) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Singapore-based iPlast 4.0 Pte. Ltd. (iPlast) to strengthen its technical support to member countries through demonstration projects on digitization in industries. The MOU was signed by APO Secretary-General Dr. Santhi Kanoktanaporn and iPlast Principal Anston Tan recently.

APO Secretary-General Dr. Santhi Kanoktanaporn (L) and iPlast Principal Anston Tan signing the MOU on digitization in industry in Singapore.

Under the MOU, the APO will collaborate with the company to execute pilot projects on digitization in the manufacturing sectors in member countries. The initiative will enable manufacturers to improve their productivity by learning from best practices during the pilot-project phase before a full-scale roll-out of the digitization process.

Sharing the reasons for concluding the agreement, Secretary-General Dr. Santhi said that the APO was committed to catalyzing industrial upgrading in member countries, especially in response to the Fourth Industrial Revolution. “The APO has been supporting its member countries to build awareness and construct strategies for Industry 4.0 by sharing knowledge, experiences, good practices, and tools. This collaboration will reinforce our capability to provide technical assistance to our member countries to turn the shared knowledge into practical actions and results.” He noted that this partnership would facilitate the piloting of projects on digitization in factories and demonstrate the benefits brought by IT and Internet of Things technologies.

“With this collaboration, we look forward to sharing our Industry 4.0 ecosystem and expertise in smart manufacturing with APO member economies, working with each to formulate and launch enabling frameworks according to local needs,” said iPlast Principal Tan.

The APO conducts demonstration projects in member countries to develop model organizations that showcase good practices of productivity improvement with the support of technical experts and national productivity organizations and the commitment of the recipients. Through capacity building, recording of improvement processes, and dissemination of the results, such demonstration projects share success stories that others can learn from so that they can undertake similar improvements.