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“Industry 4.0: Opportunities and Threats” Discussed

20.11.2019
“Industry 4.0: Opportunities and Threats” Discussed
The sixth of the Business World Workshops organized by the Faculty of Management was held on Tuesday, November 19, 2015 at Mukaddime Hall.

In the program, moderated by the faculty member of the School of Business of Ibn Haldun University (IHU) Assoc. Prof. Ali Osman Kuşakçı, each of Adem Kayar, Founder and Manager of MSC Group Companies, Assoc. Prof. Ulaş Akküçük, from the Department of Business Administration of Bosphorus University, Prof. Ercan Öztemel, from the Department of Industrial Engineering of Marmara University , and Salih Kükrek, Founder of SANLAB, participated as speakers. The Dean of the School of Business of Ibn Haldun University Prof. Mustafa Kemal Yılmaz gave the greeting speech of the workshop. In his speech, Yılmaz recalled that nowadays we are experiencing the fourth phase of a revolution that began in the 18th century. He added that the earlier stages directly affected the manufacturing industry and engineering activities, while what we now call Industry 4.0, represents an aspect that affects every unit of the enterprise and business as well as all segments of society. “In this sense, I consider Industry 4.0 as the pinnacle of optimization,” Yılmaz said. This is expected to have serious effects in all respects, but on the other hand, will bring along many important question marks, he added. Prof. Yılmaz stated that the opportunities and threats posed by the Industry 4.0 phenomenon will be evaluated in the workshop from the perspective of both academicians and business professionals and concluded his speech by thanking the participants. The moderator of the workshop, Assoc. Prof. Ali Osman Kuşakçı said that Industry 4.0 has many different components such as “Artificial Intelligence,” “Machine Learning” and “Internet of Things (IOT).” He pointed out that the workshop will address the Industry 4.0 phenomenon from the dimensions that concern the society. Then he briefly introduced the speakers.

“The society precedes the industry”

The faculty member of Marmara University, Prof. Ercan Öztemel who took the first word in the workshop, said that Industry 4.0 was first introduced in 2011, the countries began to develop policies in this direction by 2013, in Turkey different works were carried out until the issue was officially adopted in 2016, he said. “Industry 4.0, a symbol of social transformation, has also reached a stage in which society is transforming the industry. Society is ahead of the industry, we need to think about it,” added Öztemel. Professor Öztemel outlined the process from the Industrial Revolution to the present day. “When the machines and computers had the ability to perform many functions, a question of ‘Could the machine completely replace the humans?’ started to be asked,” Prof. Öztemel said. He added that there are three key driving forces behind the phenomenon of Industry 4.0, which, according to Öztemel, are: (1) developments in China, (2) innovation, (3) digital assistants. Professor Öztemel said that Germany is embarking on a move to the Industry 4.0 in order to take back the leadership that Germany has lost to the East in the manufacturing industry. He added that there are serious differences between Industry 4.0 and Industry 3.0 in the fields of “unmanned factories,” “automatic systems being replaced by autonomous systems” and “internet of things.” Öztemel also added that the applications of “augmented/ virtual reality” should be especially mentioned and discussed among the services provided by the Industry 4.0. Emphasizing the importance of having knowledge, Professor Öztemel stated that it should not be forgotten that the “human being” is the essence of the issue, the fuel of transformation is “information,” and the “intellectual wealth” will never lose its value.

“Industry 4.0 is pretty exciting for us”

Assoc. Prof. Ulaş Akküçük from Boğaziçi University started his speech by expressing that 5G telecommunication infrastructure came to the forefront in communication between devices, and gave examples of daily life to the internet of objects. He added that interdisciplinary studies on this issue should be increased in universities. The Co-founder and General Manager of Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), Adem Kayar At the beginning of his speech, Adem Kayar, the Co-founder and General Manager of Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), emphasized the difference between “digitalization” and “Industry 4.0”. He stated that there was a partial confusion about these concepts, which should be clearly defined before being discussed. Kayar said that when it comes to Industry 4.0 we need to understand the horizontal and vertical integration and communication of automation systems and thus make the system “smart,” and he gave some examples on the subject from his own industrial experience. Stating that the management of product lifecycle is now being discussed all over the world, Kayar expressed that looking at these and similar developments makes Industry 4.0 pretty exciting for us. He advised young people, regardless of their profession, to engage in digitalization and programming in some way. Kayar also noted that the digital maturity level of each business may be different, and therefore, it is not possible to look at the level of Industry 4.0 on the basis of country.

“Investors who invest in developing this area receive a significant support in Turkey”

“In our country, the concepts become popular at a time, and fade away in a very short time,” said Salih Kükrek the Founder of SANLAB. Kükrek continued his speech saying that we can say this for Industry 4.0. According to Kükrek, Industry 4.0 is essentially the official state policy of Germany, and each developed country has mentioned these new developments in our age with a different name and focused on different points of it. “When we look at these policies and concepts on a single component basis, we find that the US is at a very advanced level. We are at such a point that every social segment has the opportunity to easily access the products of this transformation,” said Kükrek. He added that Investors who invest in developing this area receive a significant support in Turkey. In this context, he emphasized the “Technology-Oriented Industry Move” carried out by the Ministry of Industry and Technology. The workshop ended with the presentation of plaques and taking a souvenir photograph.

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