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Intelligent manufacturing: Prospects in Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan is a resource-rich, doubly-landlocked country, strategically located in
the heart of Central Asia with population of about 32 million in 2018 (UNDP, 2019).
Main sectors
of economy are agriculture, accounts 21.37% of GDP in 2018 (Asian
deployment Bank, 2019) and industry manufacturing1 37.69% of GDP in 2018 (ibid).
According to investigations of the Center of Economic Research (2014), the ultimate
development goal for the Uzbekistan is to join the group of upper middle-income
countries by 2030.
Since its independence in 1991, the attraction of advanced technologies, foreign
investments and modern management styles were set as the priority policy to the
government. It could be seen that industrial sector has shifted its focus from capital
intensive basic industry to developing manufacturing sector that produce goods of
higher technological level and contribute to employment growth.
Altogether, it is
leading to an increased share of industry in GDP of the country.
Uzbekistan has a high potential for practical demonstration of improved
productivity and other economic indicators at this stage of development. They depend
on the level of technological development and planning of ICT projects in business
practice. However, “due to lack of initiatives to introduce
ICT at large enterprises,
organizations and business associations, improvement of technological processes and
management systems sows down.” In this regard, President of Uzbekistan Shavkat
Mirziyoyev signed a decree «On Uzbekistan’s Development Strategy». The document
has approved Uzbekistan’s Five-Area Development Strategy for 2017-2021 which was
developed following comprehensive study of topical issues,
analysis of the current
legislation, law enforcement practices, the best international practices, and following
public discussion. He noted «introduction of ICT in the economy, social sphere and
management» plays crucial role in economic growth and liberalization, in the third area
of Development Strategy2.
The digitalization technologies with involvement of ICTs are promoting Industry
4.0 can boost manufacturing industry of Uzbekistan, thus leading to re-
industrialization, resulting in increased product quality and technological content,
improved process performance and higher work quality. Kambarov et al (2018)
declared in the research, Industry 4.0 strategy may play an important role in reaching
economic development of Uzbekistan. However, Smart Manufacturing paradigm is not
fully formed in Uzbek manufacturing systems yet. Some of the technology advances
representing the basis for Industry 4.0 are already used in manufacturing systems of
the country (ibid). Best example can be automobile industry of Uzbekistan. Center of
Economic Research (2014) mentioned that additive
manufacturing systems and
autonomous robots have been implemented, as well as ICT solutions have been
adopted in automobile industry. Another example (Kambarov et al., 2018), the GM-
Powertrain system consists of flexible production lines and automated machining
systems
for cylinder block, cylinder head and crankshaft manufacturing assisted by
computers.
1
Includes textiles, food processing, machine building, metallurgy, mining, hydrocarbon extraction, and chemicals;
2
Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On the strategy of action for the further development of the
Republic of Uzbekistan” // Collected Legislation of the Republic of Uzbekistan, 2017, No. 6, article # 70
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Technological (Ehlers et al 2016) development through ICTs, as the most
important factor and an important prerequisite of general development encompasses
the development and application of new technologies
and imposes the need for
restructuring of existing, as well as designing new plants with new settings. In this
paper, the importance of ICTs and development of Industry 4.0 concept were
presented. Some gaps between current situation and Industry 4.0
requirement were
identified. The research showed that involvement of ICTs and Industry 4.0 concept at
industrial enterprise are worth to invest.
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