Food & Beverage Industry Increasingly Adopting Industry 4.0 Methods

JAKARTA -  Digital transformation has yielded positive impacts such as an increase in investment and productivity in the industrial sector, and has also helped generate competent workers. This means that the Industry 4.0 revolution has brough a multiplier effect to the national economy, due to its role in supporting industrial activity during the pandemic.

Based on the Making Indonesia roadmap, the food & beverage industry is one of seven sectors that have stepped up adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies. “We hope that this strategic step will help improve the performance of leading industry sectors,” says Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita in a written statement on Monday (19/4).

The Industry Ministry (Kemenperin) notes that the food & beverage industry’s performance between 2015 and 2019 grew on average by 8.16%, above the 4.69% growth average of Indonesia’s non-energy processing industries. Throughout the fourth quarter of 2020, the non-energy processing sectors experienced a contracted growth of 2.25% while the food & beverage industry was able to grow positively by 1.58%. In the first quarter of 2021, the food & beverage industry managed to grow by 2.45% year-on-year.

The food & beverage industry also holds an important role in contributing to Indonesia’s overall non-energy exports. Between January and December 2020, the total number of exports by the industry reached US$31.17 billion, contributing 23.78% to the US$131.05 billion generated by non-energy industries in the export market.

Meanwhile, the Kemenperin’s head of standardization and industry service regulation body (BSKJI) Doddy Rahadi said that his department will continue to actively encourage industry actors to forge more partnerships with the government as part of transformation efforts towards Industry 4.0. To achieve that, the BSKJI, along with 24 technical service units spread across Indonesia, are prepared to guide and help companies and businesses who are interested in performing Industry 4.0 transformation efforts, through assessment, consultation and certification.

“Considering the global changes brought on by and after the COVID-19 pandemic, we can play a role in driving economic transformation through the Making Indonesia 4.0 roadmap, in line with Indonesia’s growth targets that emphasize the role of information technology in improving services such as certification, bureaucracy simplification and regulation reform,” Doddy explained.

The Industry Research and Standardization Institution (Baristand) in Surabaya, one of the technical service units under SEKJEN Kemenperin, is focused on improving industry competitiveness and providing adequate industrial services in East Java, and are preared to support the Industry 4.0 transformation efforts.

“On par with the BSKJI’s goals, we will be actively supporting Industry 4.0 transformation efforts by providing assessment and certification assistance using Industry 4.0 tools for industry actors in East Java and its surrounding areas,” the Surabaya Baristand head Aan Eddy Antana explained.