The Asian Productivity Organization (APO) will launch a self-learning e-course on Smart Manufacturing through its digital learning platform eAPO on 1 May 2018. The course will assist manufacturing production or floor managers to acquire basic knowledge of smart manufacturing and Industry 4.0 and is part of the organization’s MOOC initiative to help productivity professionals learn about cutting-edge technologies and processes through self-paced, anywhere, anytime learning.

Starting with an overview of current digital transformations including additive manufacturing, the APO course includes modules on the evolution of cyberphysical systems, which are the core of Industry 4.0. Infrastructure components in cyberphysical systems are addressed primarily from a user perspective of the IT and operational technology (OT) convergence to achieve data-driven manufacturing.

The course will illustrate how dynamically evolving operational data can be securely stored in the cloud for strategic decision making via online machine learning, for tactical decisions via human-machine collaboration on the shopfloor, and for localized self-organizing automated decision making via machines and devices.

The APO online course includes modules on introduction to smart manufacturing, the digital thread, and the Industrial Internet of Things. The modules also include additive manufacturing, intelligent collaborative robotics, and details on how the Internet, communication, and OT are converging to make manufacturing smarter and drive the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The concept of smart manufacturing is based on the merging of the physical and virtual worlds, with the potential to open new areas of innovation to optimize the entire sector and create higher-quality products, improve productivity, increase energy efficiency, and make plant floors safer.

Enrollees from APO member countries who complete the course with a minimum 70% score on the final examination will receive APO e-certificates. Those who pass the Self-learning e-Course on Smart Manufacturing (Basic) will also be eligible to join the advanced APO courses on related topics.