In recent years, the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) has been often talked about in public. Meanwhile, the US-based 3D modelling and related software giant’s Dassault Systèmes SOLIDWORKS Corporation CEO Gian Paolo Bassi suggests the term Industrial Renaissance instead of revolution.
“Revolutions are destructive; and it’s not a pleasant way of transformation. During revolutions, many people lose something; there is always a losing side. The three previous revolutions created new value for some part of the society, but others were rejected and ostracized. Historically, Renaissance was different from revolution, because humans were at the centre of the action. The period embraced the middle class, manufacturers and inventors,” G. P. Bassi says. According to him, a printing press was one of the most important inventions of the period, because it made knowledge available to a lot of people. “This is what is inspiring us. We believe that current changes – automation, artificial intelligence – should not eliminate people, but empower them, expand their knowledge and capabilities,” says the CEO of SOLIDWORKS. He likes to focus on the changes which are brought about by the Industrial Renaissance.
Cost reduction is no longer at the heart of successful business
All three previous industrial revolutions were focusing on lowering the costs of mass production. According to G. P. Bassi, now you can’t increase value through further cost reduction – value is created through innovation, which gives the users fascinating and interesting new experiences focused on a particular person and their needs. “The Fourth Industrial Revolution brings changes to our mentality and the model of consumption. Today, users do not want to buy functionalities performed by mass production goods – they want to buy experiences. When people buy famous or exclusive brand goods, they choose experience not an item itself. Of course, often it is the result of marketing,” notes SOLIDWORKS CEO.
According to G. P. Bassi, under these developments countries most at risk are those reliant on low cost manufacturing: “China is already concerned. In its vision “China 2025”, the country is moving away from “Made in China” to become “Designed and Invented in China”. Otherwise it will not survive. South Korea faces similar dilemma. Both countries seek to become a part of creative economy, where value is created through innovation, and not through cost reduction”.
Value of innovation is measured differently
While visiting “LinkMenų fabrikas” – a creativity and innovation centre at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VGTU) – G. P. Bassi noted that such places is the best example of current developments. We are moving away from an economy based on mass production to the one which tries to adapt to users and their individual needs.
“Value is created in places like “LinkMenų Fabrikas”, because innovations are developed here. In economy based on innovation value is created though totally different parameters. That’s why some industries face very big challenges under the new conditions – they can digitalise their processes, but I don’t think it will help them to create more value. In addition to digitalisation, they must redesign the processes completely. Old processes with a sprinkle of digitalisation will not withstand the rising tide of innovation,” he says.
The importance of education grows
According to G. P. Bassi, the importance of education grows as the importance of innovation increases. “Often innovation happens unexpectedly, but there must be the right circumstances for it, the right background. Education is the right “soil to sow the seeds” for innovation. With time, manual work becomes irrelevant: automation is replacing it. Currently, robots are capable of doing most of manual tasks. Future employees will be highly educated, and if society wants to survive and thrive, they must educate their citizens. Education is central to prosperity of society. I think it is happening in Lithuania,” he notes.
SOLIDWORKS Corporation is very active in education sector in Lithuania. Last spring, an authorised “Dassault Systemes SOLIDWORKS Corporation” centre for technical support and training in Lithuania and company IN RE in cooperation with Lithuanian engineering industries association LINPRA, provided 3,5 thousand of SOLIDWORKS EDU Edition 2018-2019 Multi-Site Network (SOLIDWORKS EDU) software licenses to education institutions in Lithuania.
In the beginning of this year, during VGTU’s project “Future engineering”, SOLIDWORKS EDU education programme training took place. A 6-hour training course was organised for teachers from various secondary education institutions. They learned about 3D design, virtual modelling and visualisation with SOLIDWORKS software, which can be used for education purposes by integrating it into the classes of IT, technologies, life sciences and other.
