Sustainable and Dynamic Competitiveness towards Technological Leadership of Industry 4.0: Implications for East African Community

Abstract

The war to technology and economic powers has been the driver for industrialization in most developed countries. The first industrial revolution (industry 1.0) earned millions for textile mill owners, while the second industrial revolution (industry 2.0) opened the way for tycoons and captains of industry such as Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, and J.P. Morgan. The third industrial revolution (industry 3.0) engendered technology giants such as Apple and Microsoft and made magnates of men such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Now, the race for the fourth industrial revolution (industry 4.0) is on and there is no option, and every country whether developed or developing must participate. Many countries have positively responded to industry 4.0 by developing strategic initiatives to strengthen industry 4.0 implementation. Unlocking the country’s potential to industry 4.0 has been of interest to researchers in the recent past. However, the extent to which industry 4.0 initiatives are being launched globally has never been divulged. Therefore, the present study aimed at exploring industry 4.0 initiatives through a comprehensive electronic survey of the literature to estimate the extent of their launching in different regions. Inferences were drawn from industry 4.0 initiatives in developed nations to be used as the recommendations for the East African Community. Results of the survey revealed that 117 industry 4.0 initiatives have been launched in 56 countries worldwide consisting of five regions: Europe (37%), North America (28%), Asia and Oceania (17%), Latin America and the Caribbean (10%), and Middle East and Africa (8%). The worldwide percentage was estimated as 25%. This revealed that there is a big gap existing between countries in the race for industry 4.0.

Creating a Competitive Advantage: New Challenges Ahead

“…Generally, according to UBS (UBS, 2016) flexible economies will have more benefits form Industry 4.0, flexible in terms of labor markets, education, infrastructure, etc. Bongomin et al (Bongomin, Nganyi, Abswaidi, Hitiyise, & Tumusiime, 2020) found that most of the countries developed strategic initiatives and therefore positively responded to Industry 4.0 challenges. Before the Industry 4.0 it can be stated that competitive advantage depended upon primarily cheap and skilled labor force.…”

Exploring contributions of drones towards Industry 4.0

“…Drones are on the verge of becoming a reality, according to several positive indicators. Cellular networks are already well-suited to meet the dependability needs of drone applications and further upgrades to standards that will increase their efficacy (Bongomin et al, 2020a(Bongomin et al, , 2020b(Bongomin et al, , 2020cSaid et al, 2021). The primary research objectives of this article are as follows: RO1.…”

“…Warehouses provide a wide range of options for automation. Automated material storage and retrieval systems, smart shelves, smart picking robots and cobots and automated and intelligent sorting, picking and packaging systems, as well as drones for inventory inspection, are among the technologies that are being developed (Maskuriy et al, 2019a(Maskuriy et al, , 2019bBongomin et al, 2020aBongomin et al, , 2020bBongomin et al, , 2020cGuerber et al, 2021).…”

“…Drone applications create massive data transmitted in real time, requiring high uplink data rates on the cellular network. Drones transceiver devices can view many more base stations than terrestrial devices, which creates considerable uplink interference for other users in the system (Bongomin et al, 2020a(Bongomin et al, , 2020b(Bongomin et al, , 2020cPugliese et al, 2020).…”

Simulation metamodeling approach to complex design of garment assembly lines

“…The disruptive transformation in textile and garment industry is well-known today as Fashion 4.0 or Apparel 4.0 [ 1 ]. In fact, most countries are currently revitalizing and retrofitting all their manufacturing sectors including garment industry in order to harness the sustainable competitiveness [ 3 ]. Therefore, for the garment industry to remain competitive, it must be able to satisfy customers’ demand by improving the line efficiency and productivity by adopting advanced assembly line design techniques such as simulation, metamodeling and optimization [ 4 ].…”