3. R&D, INNOVATION AND THE FOURTH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION FOR PRODUCTIVITY AND COMPETITIVENESS 3.1 Greening the industry. The R&D capacity in the country should assist the industry to become ”green”: investing in the growth of the industry provides an opportunity to “green” the industry, to reduce emissions, to use less water and electricity and to produce less waste, or to implement circular processes. The use of the hydrogen economy is important. However, moving to green production can imply substantial initial costs, which the industry may at this stage be reluctant to invest. 3.2 The Department of Science and Innovation has committed to working with the Steel Master Plan to ensure that its KPAs properly reflect the concerns of industry and contribute to its competitiveness and product development. There is a great deal of excellent R&D capacity available in South Africa and there has been important IP development, but relatively little uptake by local industry. IP has reportedly been sold or licensed to global companies but products are not produced locally. To ensure that some of the research and development is driven by problem-solving and innovation of processes and technology needed by the local industry, the DSI will work with the Steel Oversight Council to identify key areas where innovations can be commercialized, or which are required for the development of new or improved products or processes or new industry sectors, as well as finding innovative ways of increasing competitiveness and localization of production and adaptation to the challenges and opportunities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). 3.3 The use of embedded sensors in processing and production lines (and in mining equipment and other machinery) allows for predictive maintenance and productivity optimization and for the increasing use of machine learning to optimize processes and supply chains. While the use of sensors, predictive maintenance and machine learning are becoming widespread among major OEMs and international steel mills, many other companies are unclear how to incorporate these 4IR concepts into their businesses and the DSI and the dtic, with the universities and businesses which advise on and implement process optimization, can provide a very useful service in this respect. Other examples of “Industry 4.0” are the ability to quickly develop innovative design of consumer products and new materials, the hydrogen economy, new ways of making foundry moulds, rapid prototyping, battery storage for green energy and the use of rare earths for the power trains of the new electric or hybrid vehicles. 3.4 This work stream, together with the unions in the steel industry and social scientists, should also report on the opportunities and challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution for the industry and for labour. It should take into account the work done by the Presidential Commission on the 4IR. The team should aim to produce an initial report within twelve months
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The South African Steel and Metal Fabrication Master Plan 1.0
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