Monday, August 14, 2017

MALAYSIA AUTOMOTIVE INSTITUTE (MAI) Launches its Design Centre - A Product of the Malaysian Government, Perodua & Their Vendors

Today marks another milestone in the Malaysian Automotive Industry. The Malaysia Automotive Institute (MAI), an agency under the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), has officially launched the MAI Design Centre in Rawang, Selangor. The centre is a collaboration between MAI, acting on behalf of the Government of Malaysia, and national car maker Perodua which come into this picture together with their vendors.


This is the second resource centre that MAI has launched this year. Prior to this MAI launched the MAI Resource centre in Bukit Berunting which is utilised to develop human capital and automation practices within the automotive industry. This new centre was established with the purpose of enhancing the implementation of Industry 4.0 (the next level to achieve, basically) in the Malaysian automotive industry specifically in the areas of design engineering, simulation and prototyping. 

According to MAI, the centre will have an open sharing Industry 4.0 platform whereby any OEM and vendor from various tiers can leverage on the hardware and software available, such as a Fused Deposited Material 3D Printer, Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) 3D Printer for the additive manufacturing, Augmented Reality, the MAI High Performance Computing Server and many more. 

The centre is equipped with state of the art design and manufacturing technology which can be utilised by the industry players. This easy availability of new tech will assure quality, and improve productivity of new model development thus ensuring good user-experience in the finished product. It is also a short cut in many ways as the manufacturers do not have to invest heavily in the technology themselves. Sharing is a good thing if the cost is high.

The establishment of MAI Design Centre will also promote a more conducive environment for the industry to innovate and to have strategic alliances and collaboration, which is vital for our local industry to remain competitive and to be a part of the global supply chain. The facilities at MAI Design Centre is well equipped with technologies which enables its’ utility to cut across other industries such as the aerospace industry and the overall transportation sector.

This is one of the reasons MAI is pushing for Industry 4.0 - to allow Malaysian vendors to go global aside from making the technology available for the people in the industry. The thing about manufacturing is that it is about quality and also time. With the latest in design techniques, it shortens the time required from prototyping to actual production of a part. Less time required is also less man-hours spent. Which means more productivity. Industry 4.0 is about Malaysia being competitive globally. 

There are many factors in play here and it is good to see that aside from MAI, Perodua is also playing a big part in this.





MEDIA RELEASE
LAUNCHING OF MAI DESIGN CENTRE

RAWANG, 14th August 2017 – Malaysia Automotive Institute (MAI), an agency under
the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), has been entasked with
enhancing the competitiveness of the Malaysian automotive industry. MAI has been
at the forefront of various Industry 4.0 initiatives to be deployed by the Malaysian
automotive ecosystem. The focal point for these initiatives is the MAI Design Centre
located in Rawang, which will act as a catalyst for the automotive community to build
upon MITI and MAI’s Industry 4.0 initiatives.

The MAI Design Centre is the second centre to be launched by MAI this year. In
January, MAI launched the MAI Resource Centre in Bukit Beruntung, which is the focal
point for human capital development, technology validation and adoption of
automation practices. Today, the Deputy Minister of International Trade and
Industry, Y.B Datuk Haji Ahmad Bin Haji Maslan, launches the MAI Design Centre.

The Minister was accompanied by Dato’ Nik Rahmat Nik Taib, Deputy Secretary of
Industry MITI, Datuk Isham Ishak Deputy Secretary of Trade MITI, Wan Suraya Wan
Mohd Radzi, Deputy Secretary of Strategy and monitoring, Mr Sunao Matsubayashi,
Director (Research and Development), Daihatsu Motor Co. Ltd. Datuk (Dr) Aminar
Rashid, CEO and President of PERODUA, and Dato’ Madani Sahari, CEO of MAI.

The MAI Design Centre is established with the purpose of enhancing the
implementation of Industry 4.0 in the Malaysian automotive industry specifically in the
areas of design engineering, simulation and prototyping. It is a product of Government-
Industry cooperation between MAI, PERODUA and their vendors. It will be an open
sharing Industry 4.0 platform whereby any OEM and vendor from various tiers can
leverage on the hardware and software available, such as the Fused Deposited
Material 3D Printer, Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) 3D Printer for the additive
manufacturing, Augmented Reality, the MAI High Performance Computing Server and
many more.

MAI Design Centre will also enable the automotive industry to conduct simultaneous
engineering between the OEM and their vendors during the product development
stage of a new model. This will assure quality, and improve productivity of new model
development thus ensuring good user-experience in the finished product.

The establishment of MAI Design Centre will also promote a more conducive
environment for the industry to innovate and to have strategic alliances and
collaboration, which is vital for our local industry to remain competitive and to be a part
of the global supply chain. The facilities at MAI Design Centre is well equipped with
technologies which enables its’ utility to cut across other industries such as the
aerospace industry and the overall transportation sector.

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