Tag: Services

Convenience-store squeeze shows deflationary dilemma facing Bank of Japan

Convenience-store squeeze shows deflationary dilemma facing Bank of Japan

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags are seen attached to boxes of Ezaki Glico Co. Pocky snacks at a FamilyMart convenience store in Tokyo on Feb. 23. | BLOOMBERG Takanori Sakai works the graveyard shift four nights a week at the FamilyMart store he owns in Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, because he can’t afford the higher pay employees demand these days.

“More and more stores can’t secure a profit,” the 57-year-old said. Problem is, with competition just down the street, raising prices to cover higher wages risks turning off customers who have become accustomed to steady prices for a generation.

Sakai and his fellow […]

Republican Senator Thad Cochran Says He Will Resign April 1

Republican Senator Thad Cochran Says He Will Resign April 1

Labor crunch, shrinking market drive investment in technology

This frustrates Bank of Japan now but could fuel growth later

Takanori Sakai works the graveyard shift four nights a week at the FamilyMart store he owns in Himeji, central Japan, because he can’t afford the higher pay employees demand these days."More and more stores can’t secure a profit," the 57-year-old said. Problem is, with competition just down the street, raising prices to cover higher wages risks turning off customers who’ve become accustomed to steady prices for a generation.Sakai and his fellow convenience-store owners are on the front lines […]

Opinion: Robots help close the gap between designing and making

Opinion: Robots help close the gap between designing and making

Andrew Watts, CEO Newtecnic , discusses the construction industry’s move towards robotics and mass-customization that brings designers and makers together for positive disruption within and beyond the industry

Digitalization, robotics and automation, have produced significant quality and productivity benefits in manufacturing over several decades.

In construction, however, while digitalization has very successfully automated design, the disconnect between designing and making is ripe for an industrial revolution.And while innovative product manufacturers use technology to move from mass-production to mass-customization, the construction industry is only just picking up on DfMA (Design for Manufacture and Assembly) for repetitive mass production of […]

Trump’s deplorable vision for US steel industry

Trump's deplorable vision for US steel industry

When US President Donald Trump met executives from US steel and aluminum industries last Thursday to announce his tariffs on imports, he said "we’re going to build our steel industry back and we’re going to build our aluminum industry back".

"I remember when I was growing up, US Steel, that was the ultimate company. And today, you have so many closed plants," said Trump, with David Burritt, president and chief executive officer of the US Steel sitting next to him.

Trump was right. US Steel, headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was once the largest steel producer and the largest corporation in the […]

Adapting to excel amid rapid impermanence

Adapting to excel amid rapid impermanence

Robot vs humans. (Photo: SNS) A recent Price water house Cooper’s study of 200,000 jobs in 29 countries said evolving technology like automation and robotics could deliver good and bad news: predicted changes adding $US 15 trillion to global GDP, but also causing about 44 per cent of workers to lose their jobs within two decades.

India was not included in the PwC study released in February (probably due to the juicy reputation its accountants have in the country), with Japan, South Korea and Singapore being the only major Asian economies featured. PwC researchers estimated effects of three waves of […]

OPINION: No slave to the machine: AI to enable humans

OPINION: No slave to the machine: AI to enable humans

“A fundamental risk to the existence of human civilisation,” says Elon Musk. “Potentially the worst event in the history of our civilisation,” says Stephen Hawking.

CAPE TOWN – Despite the reservations of several leading technologists and scientists – most notably among them Messrs Musk and Hawking – Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the most exciting and possibly useful technological developments in our history. It has the potential of driving productivity and economic growth by facilitating unprecedented human-machine collaboration.

There are hopes that AI will improve competitiveness and ensure citizen well being. It will liberate us from mundane, unfulfilling tasks and […]

Workforce Gap Grows as Boomers Retire

Workforce Gap Grows as Boomers Retire

Manufacturers are having difficulty finding skilled workers. Many are trying creative approaches to close the gap.

The manufacturing industry is experiencing growing pressure as it becomes more difficult to find available talent to run operations. A perfect storm of issues has formed, making it increasingly difficult to find skilled labor. One of the biggest challenges is the retirement of the Baby Boom generation. Many of the industry’s highest skilled workers are now beginning to leave. The number of Boomers retiring will increase precipitously over the next five years. Building the right team of skilled workers is a puzzle that is […]

MEI: Signs of optimistic hiring outlook in 2018

MEI: Signs of optimistic hiring outlook in 2018

By SIOW NAN YEE / Graphic By TMR

ONLINE hiring activity in Malaysia showed a 2% yearon- year (YoY) growth, according to data collected from the Monster Employment Index (MEI) by Monster.com in December 2017.

The global employment website said hiring activities in Malaysia grew during the second half of the year and this optimistic sentiment is expected to continue in 2018.The overall MEI Malaysia results showed that the information technology (IT), telecommunication and IT-related operations, and oil and gas (O&G) industry led the online recruitment activity among other sectors.Meanwhile, the retail sector and customer service roles had registered the […]

How to Make or Break Your Financial Goals

How to Make or Break Your Financial Goals

Opening my inbox yesterday, the headline that greeted me was:

‘Stocks sink to the worst monthly decline since 2016’

My thought bubble was one of feigned surprise… Shock horror…markets actually fall.I continued scrolling down and I came across an article from Geopolitical Futures titled ‘The Middle of an Era’.Given that my days are consumed with writing a book on impermanence and that nothing stays the same forever, the title drew me in. What era are we in the middle of, I thought?The article looked at the changing geopolitical landscape every two decades from 1900.Here’s an extract up to 1960: […]

As machines take over mundane tasks, what skills will be needed in the modern corporation?

As machines take over mundane tasks, what skills will be needed in the modern corporation?

A vast global revolution is changing every aspect of our modern existence and, unsurprisingly, there is much doom and gloom about its impact on our working lives. In a study of 46 countries, The McKinsey Global Institute predicted that around half of all jobs worldwide have the potential to be automated. Another 2017 study for the US National Bureau of Economic Research, found that robots were replacing around 400,000 manufacturing jobs a year.
Others are less apocalyptic. The OECD, for one, estimates that just nine per cent of jobs are high risk of being automated with another 25 […]