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UAE adopts ‘smart industry readiness index’

The index will help companies understand their current digital maturity as well as contribute to increasing their awareness of 4IR applications.

The UAE announced on Tuesday the adoption of the Smart Industry Readiness Index (SIRI) to identify the level of technology adoption within industrial players.

The Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology (MoIAT) said in a statement that the index, recognized by the World Economic Forum as a global standard for Industry 4.0, “is an essential tool in the development of an accurate, customized roadmap for each company in order to successfully integrate advanced technologies to increase efficiency, reduce costs and increase the competitiveness of the production process.”

Sarah bint Youssef Al Amiri, Minister of State for Advanced Technology, said evaluations are an essential part of supporting the ‘UAE Industry 4.0’ program. The information and data collected will contribute to understanding the path towards the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), along with identifying the necessary programs that will circumvent challenges, alleviate risk and provide the right incentives for technology adoption. “We understand the challenges that are associated with adopting technology, and we are working closely with the key industrial players to ensure that the ecosystem enables technological advancements.”

“The index will help companies understand their current digital maturity as well as contribute to increasing their awareness of 4IR applications. It also provides them with high-level recommendations to enable them to take the next step toward their digitalization journey. This index will drive the UAE’s manufacturing sector to start thinking of the benefit reaped from adopting industry 4.0 solutions in terms of efficiency and productivity,” said the ministry.

Omar Suwaina Al Suwaidi, Undersecretary of UAE Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology, during a keynote speech at the Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit 2021, said the index would provide companies in the UAE with a vital benchmark for their capacity to adopt the tools of the 4IR, equip them with frameworks to facilitate integration, and highlight the tangible benefits of digital transformation.

The announcement follows the evaluation of 70 industrial companies in the UAE to assess their digital maturity and the extent to which advanced technology has been adopted across the nation’s industrial sector.

The GMIS also witnessed the launch of the ‘Global Initiative for Future Industrial Safety’ to promote industrial safety technologies.

Launched in partnership with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (Unido) and Lloyd’s Register Foundation, the new global safety drive will bring together a global coalition of stakeholders that puts safety at the heart of Fourth Industrial Revolution developments and aims to make the world a safer place by developing tools and resources to advance safety capabilities in the manufacturing sector.

The partnership was announced by Namir Hourani, managing director of the GMIS and member of the GMIS organising committee; Philip Rice, managing director and consultant of Lloyd’s Register Group, and Sergey Korotkov, director of the Unido Centre for International Industrial Cooperation in the Russian Federation.

Bernardo Calzadilla-Sarmiento, Unido managing director, Directorate of Digitalization, Technology and Agri-Business, said innovation is happening at a rapid pace which means disruption not only surpasses safety but produces uncertainty. “Sharing knowledge and expertise, innovative approaches and technologically driven solutions are critical to enable secure industrial safety globally. Adopted at local, national, regional and international levels, this newly emerging industrial safety paradigm will be decisive in addressing industrial safety and security risks, ensuring high productivity and efficiency of enterprises and preventing devastating disruptions, while boosting competitiveness and impacting economies and societies at large,” said Calzadilla-Sarmiento.

— issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com