Pushing the boundaries of what's possible. We pour resources into finding novel solutions to existing problems, opting for simplicity in complexity - we research for the future.
A quantum leap in processing power through revolutionary designs.
Mooring line tensions, ATEX zone monitoring, near-shore IoT networking, and disaster prevention algorithms.
Socioeconomic and political (net zero) analysis as well as demographic and cultural research.
Upstream and downstream integration - efficiency, environment, intra and extra plant integration.
As we draw physically closer to the limits of Moore's law, a new breakthrough in the semiconductor industry is desperately needed. The consensus among top industry experts is to traverse beyond the scope of classical computing and explore the possibilities of non-silicon-based technologies of electronic computing (electromagnetic, spintronic and magnonic), optical computing (light-based), and lastly, and perhaps the most widely known and invested in, quantum computing.
Entering the realm of non-silicon-based semiconductor technologies would also entail moving on from the then-legacy, fabrication processes entirely, where in other industries, shifting to new manufacturing process are typically be done in a gradual (or even iterative) stage - this however, does not entirely apply in a semiconductor environment.
In a typical fashion, fabs running the latest nanometre (or node) production facilities (mostly applies to pure-play players such as GlobalFoundries, TSMC, or UMC), would be heavily invested in ahead of demand. The investments made in these new facilities would not be recuperable over the first few years. Instead, the profitability model lies within the next few decades, where secondary (and typically fabless) chip producers would adopt the then-conventional nanometre process to manufacture their second-grade chips, making more financial sense. As for the pure-play manufacturers like TSMC, these periods would be where material revenues are generated from in order to fund the next-gen facilities as well as R&D - making it an endless cycle.
"Invest ahead of time → construct fab → compete in the cutting-edge nanometre process → researching next process technology → profit from the previous fab" - this is known as the pure-play model.
In this sense, our team here at INV Research have decided to split the adoption of the next era of semiconductor technologies into the following point of considerations:
According to a 2022 McKinsey report, the semiconductor industry is projected to break the trillion-dollar threshold by 2030. In particular, it is estimated that we will see the most growth in 2 sectors of the industry in particular: most notably, wireless communication as well as computing and data storage. Accordingly, we see significant potential in these two high-growth sectors, and are responding by designing specialised solution for these future demands.
In summary, the emergence of a new microarchitecture and its physical/hardware implementation and design will define the next era of humanity in all known ramifications. The first to propose an industrialisable and mass-market compatible specification will be able to revolutionise the industry. In this regard, we offer a highly competitive solution and implementation that will contend with other specifications to define the next era of semiconductor technology.
We have independently produced over 50 pieces of non-published, breakthrough literature in next-gen semiconductor tech centred around the following key areas:
We are driving a revolution in semiconductor supply chains, fabrication methodology, and ICs itself through microarchitectural changes and innovations. We are an alternative player to the current quantum computing mainstream as we continue to achieve private lab breakthroughs in alternative market-feasible specifications for the next era in semiconductor technology.
1. Research Editorial Team (Innovilage) - The Innovilage Industrial Research Division (I.I.R.D. or INV Research)
2. P. Chojecki (Built In, Inc.) - Moore’s Law Is Dead. Now What?
3. C.S. Davies, Y. Au, and V.V. Kruglyak (UKIP Media) - "Prototype magnonic device development" (pg. 54) in Magnetics Technology International
4. Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft (Volkswagen Group) - Where is the Electron and How Many of Them?
5. S.K. Saha (Scientific Research Publishing Inc.) - "Emerging Business Trends in the Microelectronics Industry" (04(01):105-113) in Open Journal of Business and Management
6. O. Burkacky, N. Lehmann, J. Dragon (McKinsey & Co.) - The semiconductor decade: A trillion-dollar industry
7. J. Guedj, W. Roelandts, I. Khandros, R. Madhavan, S. Hanson, E. Waldman, B. Lynch, S. Gupta, S.R. Appleton, et al. (Aspatore Books) - Inside the Minds: The Semiconductor Industry - Industry Leaders Share Their Knowledge on the Future of the Semiconductor Revolution
The term “sustainable development” was introduced back in 1980 by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (or IUCN), in a report titled "World Conservation Strategy". It encompassed three basic dimensions which were the economic opportunity, social inclusion, and the ecological sustainability. In this, was the undeniable importance of management software and the incorporation of digital systems - which in itself was not explicitly stated, though was nevertheless an integral part of making it all possible. Mentioned in one of the world's foremost authoritative literature is a publication called "Deep Information: The Role of Information Policy in Environmental Sustainability", released out to the world in the 90s.
This was the start of a defining era for what we now call an energy management systems or EnMS. In the journal, it states that the power of new age information systems are comprised of 3 key components; which in their words, were defined as:
It has since been introduced as an EnMS and standardised over the course of multiple iterations by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as seen below in the figure extract from ISO 50001:2018 specification.
So let's talk a bit about one of the key sectors of sustainable environment, which in essence, powers most of the 3 sustainable dimensions: energy. The energy industry can be roughly broken down into 2 categories: renewables and non-renewables. The latter being incompatible with sustainable development goals. Renewable sources includes ones such as solar, wind, geothermal, and hydropower. Non-renewable sources generally includes the different types of fossil fuel sources like oil, coal, and natural gas, as well as the more recently popular variant of natural gas, liquified natural gas or LNG. Sources like nuclear are also renewable, although that still falls into a contentious area of debate, primarily because it relies on supplies of uranium - or more specifically, U-235 isotope of uranium.
As we dive deeper into the energy side of sustainable development we can roughly draw out a pattern that power generation solutions can roughly be identified into 2 groups. In a typical fashion, onshore and offshore are usually terms related to wind power, as in onshore or offshore wind. In our definition, the two terms are referred to as "those that are deployed onshore" (or on-land) as well as "those that are deployed offshore" (or off-land).
During the process of our research, we've come to the conclusion that our current development model is unsustainable in all the 3 aforementioned dimensions, whereas, transitioning to a greener economy will create tens of millions of new jobs, foster sustainable enterprises as well as have better control over our consumption of resources that powers these developments.
Unfortunately, all these vision requires active cooperation such as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, a non-binding treaty, which eventually evolved into the Kyoto Protocol. Weighing the benefits of these policies, we have to delve deeper into the sociopolitical side of things, such as forms of government (aka the regime), market policy, as well as execution, which more often than not, have only served to hinder development and cause further debt rather than be realised into the green goals. Equally important, are the energy inflation that has hit the world due to a variety of sociopolitical factors such as the Ukraine War and boycotting of Russian and Chinese energy supplies, and in turn, a political retaliation through obstructing sales.
We at Innovilage, have since, turned our sights onto offshore energy solutions and how as a research-focused software company, we can help optimise the development, feasibility, and technological implementation of these solutions. These may come in the form of offshore floating solar panels, wind turbines, and hydraulics. These are still relatively new in the market and are early experimental stages. For instance, in 2022, the offshore wind energy market has surpassed USD 47.5 billion and estimated to expand at least 16% CAGR from 2023 to 2032. To make the development of offshore technologies possible, we need to identify potential hindrance factors as well as open up dialogue in the following aspects:
One of the key areas of our research, is in the assessment of suitability for installation of offshore structures, more specifically, the organisation and analysis of geotechnics in terms of information technology (IT) to facilitate smooth development of offshore energy. This comes in the form of both, production (supply) as well as consumption (demand) side of things. Our extensive research in various algorithmic as well as hardware (IoT) implementations has enabled us to move past the traditional challenges in operations and maintenance (O&M). Integrating strong data, software, and hardware and developing innovative middleware to bridge the gap between design to actual construction, risk mitigation as well as post-commission considerations: energy management and disaster prevention.
By repurposing the ATEX mark schemes for algorithmic criterias, we can create simple, universal, and actionable insights through software. This works in conjuntion with floating offshore probes, equipped with the sensor configuration as required, and using wireless technology such as Zigbee (for short range or near shore deployments) or cellular such as 4G/5G for long ranges, we can build autonomous sensor probes for assisting site surveys, long-range information acquisition for real-time analysis. This works especially well in all offshore pre-construction feasibility analysis and helps organisations better align and comply with the occupational health, safety, and planning.
1. Research Editorial Team (Innovilage) - The Innovilage Industrial Research Division (I.I.R.D. or INV Research)
2. M. Robertson (Routledge) - Sustainability Principles and Practice, 3ʳᵈ Edition
3. J. Felleman (Wiley-Blackwell) - "Deep Information: The Role of Information Policy in Environmental Sustainability" (p724-725, Vol. 50, Issue 8) from the Journal of the American Society for Information Science
4. CEN/CENELEC Members (BSI Standards Limited) - Energy management systems - Requirements with guidance for use (ISO 50001:2018)
5. ILO/UNEP Staff (International Labour Office) - Working towards Sustainable Development: Opportunities for decent work and social inclusion in a green economy
6. European Commission Staff (Directorate-General for Energy) - Offshore renewable energy
7. GMI Team (Global Market Insights Inc.) - Offshore Wind Energy Market - Industry Statistics
8. Rotork Staff (Schischek GmbH) - Classification and labelling of electrical explosion-proof equipment according to ATEX 2014/34/EU
9. Editorial Staff (InstrumentationTools.com) - Understanding Hazardous Area Classification
As we enter the post-pandemic recovery phases, we need to analyse how the global markets have changed with regards to resource flow (production, supply, demand, and logistics), management, international relations as well as changing market sentiment. The lockdown has forever changed the way we interact and communicate with one another and this is represented in the changing lifestyles and demands in a variety of industries, particularly in the technology, healthcare, and finance sectors.
Added to that is the political instability experienced across multiple continents which affects us all on a very fundamental level. On the private sector level (namely businesses), this means unstable sources and supply for which to procure products or raw materials from. Changing financial systems as well as international financial boycotting has also been particularly prominent as well. On the public sector, this means procuring basic everyday necessities such as energy supplies (oil, gas, electricity), as well as the chemicals and raw materials needed for water treatment and filtration has been increasingly challenging.
In essence, this means the profitability and sustainability of businesses in the current era needs to respond in order to survive a changing and uncertain environment, despite all the positive effects of economic growth over the past century. This means developing a holistic view of the world as well as innovative methods in order to survive during this uncertainty. We believe the key to overcoming this uncertainty is by addressing the following aspects.
Now, we need to take a look at the consumer side of things. In a traditional consumer psychology sense, the act of buying is usually associated with 2 key mental processes: thinking (objective) and feeling (subjective). The buying decision however, are usually associated strongly with the following principles:
However, in our research, our team have came across some incongruencies in typical consumer behaviour studies. The result is that we developed our own in-house model for the future of consumer psychology used within our organisation. We believe the act of buying is strongly bound by the circumstantial permissibility of the consumer in question. Put simply, different financial and living conditions leads to different behaviours in shopping and purchasing goods with 2 key axes: weighted decision (X) and circumstantial (Y).
In the near future, we predict that purchasing decision will gravitate from buyer psychology back to buyer rationale as more exacting social and economic circumstances will put people on edge, stressing the more rational as "the way to go". In practice, this means that the rational lateralism and buyer psychology will compete fiercely inside the buyers' minds and where, purchasing permissibility as well as social setting/institutional pressure will also contend for a place in the final purchasing decision.
1. Research Editorial Team (Innovilage) - The Innovilage Industrial Research Division (I.I.R.D. or INV Research)
2. Data Scientist & Dev Team (Innovilage) - Innovilage CoreEngine software division
3. REXUS Members (The REXUS Project) - Taking Water-Energy-Food Nexus analysis to the next level: identifying long-term strategies for resilience through System Dynamics Modelling
4. UN-Water (United Nations) - Water Facts -> Water, Food and Energy
5. WTO Staff (World Trade Organization) - World Trade Report 2022 - Climate change and international trade
6. R. Collis (CustomerThink Corp.) - Understanding Buyer Psychology
7. J. Asher (Sourcebooks, Inc.) - The Neuroscience of Selling: Proven Sales Secrets to Win Over the Buyer's Heart and Mind
Manufacturing, in one form or another, has existed in the human society for thousands of years, with its early forms relating to "workshops". Each period (or era) that has undergone major advancements in social industrialisation have been called a revolution, and in a general sense, there has been 4 industrial revolutions throughout the course of human history. In order to explore manufacturing in greater depth we have to establish its connection to industrialisation as the two are inextricable. The manufacturing-industralisation correlation comprises 3 independent yet interconnected developments: colonialism, military (wireless technology) as well as early sciences and algorithms.
In order to get the gist of manufacturing, we first need to look at the Paleolithic (or the Old Stone Age) period was a hunter-gatherer economy. A defining quality of that era was the rise of applied "know-how" to produce tangible items as an extension to their anatomical and behavioural qualities to achieve self-sufficiency by means of hunting, growing crops, and gathering. In response to "making efficient" of these daily routines and processes, tools were built from stones, cave paintings were carved to chronicise daily events, and fire pits were built to regulate ambient temperatures and ward off wild animals.
Pre-Industrialisation Era
Windmills were first seen in 9th century AD Persia to pump water and as gristmills, which later propagated to the Middle East and Central Asia, and eventually to 12th century AD Europe, namely France and the Netherlands. It was arguably one of the more significant predecessors to food manufacturing of today, where vertical gristmill innovations would serve as basis for greater efficiency of commercial agriculture later on.
Another key innovation leading up to this period was innovation in metalworks. Copper is believed to be some of the earliest forms of metals (as far back as 8700 BC) used within the verifiable domain. Gold would see uses in the making of jewellery and accessories, while silver would later be seen in Imperial China and the Roman Empire as basis for the monetary system. Ironworks dates as far as the 4000 BC from the Hittites of middle eastern Levant and upper Mesopotamia. To set context, ironwork mainly comes in two types: wrought iron and cast iron. It was also the Hittites that began extracting iron from ores (as opposed to extraction from meteorites) to produce weapons and tools. It was not until the mid-1600s that the French would use iron in decorative railings, window frames, and architecture. Lead, tin, and mercury would also be seen later in tools, water pipes, tombs, and some mechanical gadgets.
Let's briefly inure ourselves in a short review of the economic resource scene during the colonial era. In the 17th and 18th centuries, western empires would roam new lands and establish various entities and subsidiaries around the world under royal charters or government-sponsored initiatives. It was an effort to strengthen their trades (economics), expand their empire (influences and power), and explore new boundaries (curiosities and opportunity-seeking).
Generally speaking, Southeast Asia provisioned raw timber by carving down vast expanses of the rainforest, and were exploited for their minerals as well as opium, while India provided rubber, tea, and even jute. Meanwhile, Qing dynasty would be known for their exports on silk, porcelain, and tea. During the Qianlong emperor reign, China seeked to improve glass recipes from emperor Yongzheng's era, wishing to improve translucency, ornamentation as well as optics. This led to the boom of Chinese glass industries, and above all, serve as the theoretical basis for the feasibility of mass production of silica in an offshore point of manufacturing for the west later on. In another part of the world, continental Africa would be exploiting its vegetation and raw mineral resources for food oils, gold, ivory as well as skins and hides.
Laying in the middle and acting as a intermediary, the Gulf region would be thriving on trades relating to spices, salt, and more porcelain, where subsequent exclusive trading relations would be established between many western states and the Ottoman Empire. The European area would then process the raw materials to produce manufactured goods such as packaged foods, textiles, clothes, tools, and more. In essence, this plays a huge part in a highly sovereign yet industrialised nations.
A notable mention was Peter the Great's contributions to Russian industrialisation by opening up borders, building relations with neighbouring countries and perhaps his most notable accomplishments in building the city of St. Petersburg (or "Са́нкт-Петербу́рг"). It was a stronghold seized in 1703 from Sweden by Peter the Great, called "Nyenskans". It was quickly built to be a place of cultural and economic exchange with Western Europe and Scandinavia - which was a hub of imported culture, newly relocated nobilities (under compulsion from the Tsar), as well as the main naval base of the then-budding Imperial Naval force. In conjunction with educational and cultural reforms, the establishment of the first armament factory in Tula (in Russian "Императорский Тульский оружейный завод") by the Tsar were additions to the Russian Tsardom that inevitably set the foundations for its industrialisation under Soviet Union later on.
Industry 1.0 (1760 - 1840)
The next big innovation in industrialisation would arguably be the usage of steam power. It was first described back in the Roman Republic era by an architect-engineer named Vitruvius from his multi-volume treatise entitled "De architectura". In the 1st century AD, it was seen again from a Greek-Egyptian engineer mathematician, called an "aeolipile". It was however, not until the 16th and 17th century where it found its use in mines as a water pump. Soon after in 1712, Thomas Newcomen, an English inventor, developed the first commercially successful steam-powered pump that was later improved by James Watt in 1764 by adding a condensation valve, thus, improving the performance of the engine in relation to per unit of fuel used.
The first industrial revolution can roughly be characterised by the transition from craft production to mechanisation using tools and machines. These would entail mass adoption by factory owners to incorporate machine tools driven by water and steam into their production methods. The migration to steam drove up demand for coal leading to increased acquisition of coal domestically, particularly in the North East England. Quicker means of production would speed up output, increase exportable goods, and boosting overall wealth and economy which ultimately lead to an increased population.
Textiles and metals would be another part of the new lucrative economy with the textile industry be the dominant employer of British majority (wider wealth distribution), meanwhile ironwork technological innovations in metallurgy (extraction of pure metals), would take the industry a step further towards mass production of metal-based products and constructions. The British Parliament was also keen on keeping up the momentum with this new industrial boom. In essence, a "Select Committee" was established by the Parliament in 1854 to "consider the Cheapest, most Expeditious, and Most Efficient Mode of providing Small Arms for Her Majesty's service." - which marks a solid governmental policy shift to prioritisation on "modes of production".
The first internal combustion engine (or ICE) was also applied industrially by Samuel Brown in 1826. This invention would prove to fuel the automobile growth in the later half of the second industrial revolution, but was nonetheless a defining invention of this era. Another dimension would be the adoption of steam engines in ships and locomotives which sped up transporation of goods exponentially. This was a significant step towards expediting deliveries, even cutting the shipping times in certain trade routes by half, which was a crucial step towards globalisation and trade across the world, particularly in continental Europe. It was also around this time when the British overthrew the Mughal empire to form the British Raj, where certain infrastructure such as steam locomotives were built in the colony and slave were abused for their labour to help further the British economy. Meanwhile, in the US, the first bank and stock exchange was launched, starting a novel type of funding for newly established capitalist entities. Fueling globalisation and trade was transmission through electrical telegraphy facilitating efficient multi-party or two-way communications.
Existing in parallel to the British industrial age, was Netherlands' robust foundation in the financial market, particularly the Amsterdam Stock Exchange (now known as Euronext) which was the oldest of its kind dealing in securities trade. This made it the European trading capital and point of exchange for merchants hailing from Russia, Scandinavian region and western Europe. In conjunction with its established trading routes set during the VOC era and its ship building industrial district of Zaan, North Holland, this made it a worthy success story from which other European nations would come to learn from. It was also worthy to note that there were around 9000 windmills across the country with several notable towns with small scale industrialisation.
Industry 2.0 (1870 - 1914)
Automated mass production, new materials (synthetic & metal alloys), growth in chemical production (pharmaceutical and industrial), mass adopting in telephony, evolving automotive and transportation industries – they were some of the defining traits of the second industrial revolution. It would be also marked by the invention of light bulbs as well as the large-scale adoption or electricity as well as use of oil as means for energy production.
The adoption of modern oil refineries (as upstream for oil as energy) could roughly be traced back to Russia under Elizabeth in 1745, when a kerosine-based oil well and refinery was founded by F. Priadunov in Ukhta. These oil refineries were referred to as “distilleries” back then and were followed by a series of newly founded distilleries in France, Poland, Romania, Spain, and Czechia, until America’s first oil refinery was built in Pittsburgh, PA by S. Kier in 1853. This was the cornerstone for today’s oil industries, which is still applicable in a variety of applications that spans from automobiles to synthetic materials involving the use of polymers etc. The basis of oil industry would later also serve to grow industries using polymers technology in their products such as the children’s toy industries. These would also empower new innovations in plastics, particularly PF resins and plasticines, along with the invention of injection moulding machines in 1872.
It was also a period of gradual industrial adoption of electricity, starting back in 1832 when a French instrument maker named H. Pixii made an early AC generator where it follows the Faradaic principles of electromagnetic induction. In 1860 and 1867, an Italian physicist named A. Pacinotti improved the dynamo to produce a consistent and continuous DC output, followed by W. von Siemens as well as Z. Gramme who almost simultaneously produced better versions of the former generators called dynamos, which outputted higher consistent voltages, respectively. The newly invented dynamos quickly garnered interest from the likes of industrialists such as W. Armstrong and T. Edison who built a hydroelectric power station in 1878 and a coal-ignited power station in 1882, respectively – both of which were based in the UK. It was a switch from steam and water to hydropower and coal that would underpin the rapid paradigm shift during the second industrial revolution.
From the aspect of workers’ policy changes, western governments would introduce new laws aimed at increasing efficiency of factories and limited daily workload to reasonable hours, for example in the 1833 Factory Act, pre-teens are limited to 48 hours of work a week, whilst teenagers were limited to 12 hours a day. Equally important, was the increasing attention and intervention from private and public sectors alike to stay ahead of the curve and their bolster global competitiveness. It was particularly prevalent in the US, UK, Germany, Russia, Western Europe, and Japan where key ideological directions include the following:
Equally important, was the metal industry’s transition to mass-produced steel and the sudden increase in demand of said material. This was in part due to innovations in material sciences that has transformed the metalworks industry such as the “Bessemer process” that enabled financially feasible mass production of steel, the mass construction of railway tracks as well as the sudden boom of the newly emerging automobile industry. Now, due to the complexity of copious parallel developments across the continents, we need to subdivide the concurrent industrialisations happening across the world. These developments sparked in clusters almost like a chain reaction driven by scientific communities, socio-political shifts, and cultural adoption of the then-novel industrial economy.
Some of the earliest commercial iterations of wired communications originated from an experimental electrometer built by W.F. Cooke in 1836 after consulting M. Faraday. In 1837, however, Cooke partnered with C. Wheatstone to deploy the first electrical telegraph system from Euston to Camden station. This paved way for A.G. Bell’s invention and the securing of discovery rights for the first practical telephone in 1876. In the wireless communications space, prominent scholars such as O.J. Lodge perfected the “Coherer”, a radio wave detector by attaching a receiver end to process wireless transmission of Morse code signals and finally transcribed to paper with a jotter. On the chemicals front, it was also an important period for the rise of petrochemical industries in the UK followed by the first large-scale commercial refinery in 1851, manufacturing naphtha, lubricating oils, and paraffin (for fuel) from various coals (shale-like and bituminous). The second major petroleum refinery was opened by J. Young in Addiewell, Scotland in 1865. Electrification of the state was also one of the key breakthroughs during the second industrialisation, including the establishment of the Holborn Viaduct power station in 1882 by T. Edison, and while it was not long thereafter that it was closed in 1886 due to financial unviability, it represented the first successful electrical power plant in the world.
Meanwhile in the US, tobacco industry would be one of the key drivers of economic growth domestically in part due to the improvements in global logistics that has enabled local manufacturing using ingredients sourced from the south, produced locally, and shipped worldwide. The capitalist economic system of US has also enticed the European pharmacies for mass expansion and was also a turning point for pharmaceuticals in general. The feasibility of downstream distribution, which were arguably the outlets for the increasing manufacturing output, was the invention of “Ritty Model I” cash register in 1879 by J. Ritty that enabled more efficient, automated, secure way of handling retail commerce and its transactions. Finding new applications for the newly available electricity sources, also meant innovations in the electric light and photographic industry that ultimately led to motion picture, Hollywood, and the film industry we know of today. These turnkey innovations included the first film roll camera invented in 1881 by P. Houston, as well as the paper then nitrocellulose film rolls designed by G. Eastman and H. Reichenbach in 1888. On the other hand, the kinetograph (a camera for motion pictures) and kinetoscope (a peephole window for viewing films) was developed by T. Edison and W. Dickson in 1888 and 1890, respectively. It was also during this time; Kodak sold its first commercial camera. Soon after in 1903, H. Ford established the Ford Motor company after working with Edison Electric and debuted the Model T automobile in 1908 as well as the moving assembly line in 1913 – both of which revolutionised the US and world. The US also paved way for aviation, starting with the invention of the first aeroplane by brothers W. and O. Wright in 1903.
Japan was working hard to catch up with the incessant Western innovations while transforming its domestic socio-cultural organisation with a Japanese twist to accommodate for this new model of economy. This meant opening up borders for international technological exchanges, as well as government-assisted mergers and acquisitions that helped strengthen local businesses into conglomerates capable of holding their own on the international stage. For instance, telegraphy was first introduced to the Shogun Ieyasu (or “徳川 家康”) in 1854, although it wasn’t fulfilled, started a movement for demand of telegraphy. In 1868, however, the new government of Meiji decided to build a telegraph line between the Yokohama Court and the Yokohama Tomyoda Office (or “燈明台役所”) where it was completed a year later. A few months after, the Tokyo-Yokohama telegraph line was also completed, marking it the first public telegraphy service in Japan. In 1870, the Great Northern China and Japan Extension Telegraph Company (a subsidiary of today’s “GN Store Nord A/S”) was established, helping build government-run telegraphic projects around Japan. This was quickly followed up by the Ministry of Engineering’s commissioning of H. Tanaka to develop domestic telegraphic equipment forming the Tanaka Seizo-sho (one of the predecessors of Toshiba). In 1900, the first public telephones were installed in Shimbashi (“新橋駅”) and Ueno stations (“上野駅”), and along with the pre-existing telegraphic infrastructure, it eventually led to the formation of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation (or NTT).
One of the key developments in the electrical industries of Japan was the development of arc lamps in 1878 by I. Fujioka who founded Hakunetsu-sha that was later renamed Tokyo Denki in 1899, and in 1921, they invented the world’s first double-coil electric bulb. Japan’s first hydroelectric power generator was made in 1891 by N. Odaira, who later founded Hitachi that also produced Japan’s first induction motors in 1895. It was also the rise of the metalworks industry in Japan that helped fuel shipmaking and other industries. The first coal blasting furnace was the Hashino iron mining and smelting factory in Kamaishi, built by O. Takato in 1857. This led to the founding of Yawata Steel Works in 1896 and supported the shipbuilding, arms, and railway construction industries. A few of the companies that sprung up due to shipping or shipbuilding were IHI in 1853, Mitsubishi in 1870, Kawasaki in 1878, and the Japan Steel Works in 1907. It was also a time when Japanese chemical industries transformed from being auxiliary in industrial manufacturing to one capable of producing fertilisers, soaps, celluloids, and even explosives and food seasoning. For instance, in 1907, biochemist K. Ikeda discovered monosodium glutamate (MSG), this was also an important step in the manufacturing of processed food products as well as improving taste (attraction), thus, opening demand.
A Preample to Industry 3.0 & 4.0
Post-industry 2.0 was a period where scientific foundations from the early sciences and frameworks established were applied to the industry and the vast opportunities through application of said sciences were to be explored. For instance, the thermodynamics of the latter part of last century combined with Maxwell’s theories in what would come to be known as the “classical electromagnetism” gave rise to the incessant innovations in integrated circuits (or IC chip) industry. The new understanding of fundamental physical principles between electricity, light and electromagnetism was a crucial step for unifying these separate fields and paving way for development of industrial technologies.
The development of numericalisation was originally intended for use in telecommunications, large-scale calculations, as well as military purposes. In essence, it was an extension of what humans couldn’t do on scale, solving ever more demanding ways of scientific research, mass iterative operations as well as humanly unsustainable log scale and matrix multiplication calculations. The reason for the sudden demand for these large-scale “calculators” was to solve the up-and-coming missile trajectory equations that involved simulating multi-scenario aerodynamical outcomes. Equally important, was the need to run algorithms to manipulate, interpret, and analyse radio frequencies for interpretating, encoding, decoding, transmission and receiving. These were imperative for functional applications of digital signal processing. Hence, the utility of these newly developed “chips” was a huge step forward for realising these massive possibilities.
Modern computers are based on semiconductor (or transistor) technology today. Semiconductors are a successor to the vacuum tube technology first patented by A. Fleming in 1904 called a thermionic valve or “Fleming valve”. While punch card technology first appeared approx. 1750 for controlling textile looms. It was not until the 1890s that H. Hollerith invented the punch card data storage technology for use in the IBM100. Both vacuum tube and punch card technologies were compelling technologies for the development of computers.
In USSR, the first germanium triode was seen in 1948 called a “Кристаллический триод” (or a crystal triode). Meanwhile in the US, the first working transistors were invented by J. Bardeen, W. Brattain, and W. Shockley at Bell Labs in 1947. Due to the nature of the secretive nature of Soviet technological developments, it was mostly closed from outside and was developed independently. The semiconductor war was in fact not between the US and Russia as it was a “war of application” or “war of applied demonstration”, but rather an ongoing war between the US and “China” in the eyes of the US – a nation-demonym whose true definition and identity has been blurred beyond recognition throughout the 20th century. It is an extended war of betrayal and servitude spanning a course of over 100 years.
We at Innovilage sought out to find out the connection between scientific breakthroughs, wireless communications development as well as industrial manufacturing. We have concluded that the development of these technologies has always been driven by a few key factors: capitalisation of resources, long-term implementation of globalisation, and to consolidate resources creating a financial gradient.
Industry 3.0
The third industrial revolution can be characterised by the re-introduction of competitive “learned” advantage from emerging back to high-tech countries. When the world inclined towards emerging economies for more economised mass production as well as manufacturing, it brought back an upper hand to more developed yet less populated countries who were willing to adopt these new technologies and their know-how-focused approach. It meant making up for the smaller population (less available workforce) by being lean and efficient in productive means through strategic technological implementation.
The rise of the third industrial revolution can largely be attributed to the mechanical production know-how and maturity, in particular the production technologies, numerical hardware (computers), as well as “software” maturity; the thoughts, knowledge, and philosophical backbone that underpins the fundamental workings of these numerical hardware systems. Finally, it was the contributions from early sciences and cumulative knowledge that enabled engineers and scientists to work hand to hand to integrate the mechanical and software side to create a revolutionary system to solve complex scientific problems as well as achieve automation: greater control over all variables of a production facility – achieving higher QA and output guarantees.
Let’s look at how, automation from Industry 3.0 has changed both the economy and manufacturing. In this next section, we will take one product/invention from each of the major industry sectors, identifying their impacts, and explaining how and what problems do they solve.
Undeniably, the application of numerical technologies on manufacturing and factory systems required a huge base of scientific development, research, and a build-up of years of know-how to achieve. It was essentially a unified yet “coming-together” of “soft” philosophy (software), hardware development and implementations, as well as the know-how and scientific knowledge that manifested the third industrial revolution.
Industry 4.0
Industry 4.0 is an evolution of the numericalisation of traditional process. Its roots can be traced back to the German government back in 2011 when the BMBF (or Federal Ministry of Education and Research) when they took the initiative to request both the industry and academia to present proposals to change the manufacturing landscape, giving the domestic businesses first-mover advantage. In the same year, the term “Industry 4.0” was introduced at the Hannover Messe (or the HMI Fair).
In April 2013, the German Academy of Science and Engineering (or Acatech) introduced a proposal and implementation plan entitled “Plattform Industrie 4.0”. The term “Industry 4.0” was popularised after Klaus Schwab (founder of the World Economic Forum) introduced this in 2015.
According to the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), there are nine key pillars of the fourth industrial revolution, namely:
Through our years of experience in industrial technology, we have grouped the key features and the practical philosophical underpinnings of Industry 4.0 into the following points:
The Future of Industries: Responsive Manufacturing
As it currently stands, each evolution in industrial technology has only doubled or tripled the consumption of Earth’s resources. The consumption of these resources has exceeded the planet’s natural replenishment rate for basic resources (such as aquifer freshwater and mineral ores), as well as an exponential increase in non-biodegradable mass manufactured products. The sheer output of synthetic products (as a result of material science innovations) have drastically debilitated the biosphere’s ability to overcome such volumes. The current industrial manufacturing guidelines, principles, and methodologies can roughly be summarised in the figure that we have compiled below:
This is just one aspect of the mass manufacturing problem, excluding metals, and other synthetical materials production, spanned across multiple generations of industrial revolutions and their implications on the environment in terms of annualised production rates. We at Innovilage, see this as an opportunity for urgent development of responsive manufacturing targeting leverage-based manufacturing, responsive production facilities design, and circum-natura factory methodologies. The philosophy behind our development of responsive manufacturing is based upon four major considerations, namely, environment, resources, production, and integration.
In conclusion, we believe the future of industries is to A. follow the ideology of "circum-natura", and B. going back to the basics to understand where and how industrialisation came about, target those core principles and re-adopt the core fundamentals of what makes industrialisation possible.
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