At the end of November 2024, the InterAct team continued their series of InterAct Global research missions with a visit to Kuala Lumpa, Malaysia. InterAct Global is an expansion of the project, designed to bring insights from international manufacturing and technological innovation in the UK sector. The visit enabled the team to engage with those in the defence aerospace sector that are working towards an increasingly digitalised defence aerospace industry in Malaysia.
InterAct is hoping to create both local and global impact by exchanging knowledge with international players in the worldwide manufacturing ecosystem. These missions will help to better understand the competitive advantages of other countries, learn from them, and exchange best practices and processes. Providing these insights to UK businesses and policymakers, the project aims to tackle the future challenges of digital transformation across three key areas: ecosystems, economies, and workplaces.
Malaysia represents an interesting case study for innovation, with clearly defined priorities in the shift from Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) to aerospace manufacturing, as well as upskilling the future workforce and making the sector attractive to Gen Z. The team had the chance to explore this in more depth through various to companies including:
- AIROD
- Galaxy Aerospace
InterAct had the chance to expand upon these visits and discussions with two workshops, hosted in collaboration with National Defence University of Malaysia (UPNM) and Ministry of Defence Malaysia (MINDEF). These events brought together a range of high calibre attendees, including those from defence aerospace and civil aerospace sectors, as well as those from academia, to collaborate and strategise for their shared vision of a digital future.
These engaging sessions offered participants a chance to hear from the InterAct team, MINDEF and industry stakeholders as they discussed:
- The role of Malaysia in the 2040 defence aerospace Global Value Chain (GVC)
- The importance of academia in the future progression of the defence sector
- The future of work in the Malaysia defence aerospace industry
- Bridging skills gaps and Gen Z in the labour market
Attendees also contributed to an extended shared understanding of the challenges and opportunities for the sector through the workshops built around the approaches of the InterAct Future of Work and Future of Digital Manufacturing Ecosystems teams, led by Dr. Robert Stewart, Dr. Carolina Marin-Cadavid, Dr. Usman Ghani, Anna Mate, Jose Hernandez and Millie Rodgers.
We want to thank all of our generous hosts and partners for the success of this mission and look forward to bringing more insights from our further global engagement activities.
