Muscat: The second edition of OER’s Manufacturing Summit and Awards, a flagship event by the Sultanate’s premium business magazine, will be held at Al Bustan Palace, a Ritz-Carlton Hotel on May 18.

OER’s Manufacturing Summit 2022 will do a deep dive into the opportunities for the manufacturing sector in Oman, challenges impeding its growth and unlocking the potential of the sector. The topic of the Summit is ‘Smart Manufacturing: Enhancing competitiveness, innovation and transformation.’

The summit will focus on consumer-driven manufacturing, connected services, Smart factories, Industry 4.0 and the digital economy, sustainability, hyper-automation, real-time performance monitoring, lead time compression (order-to-cash), speed up a time to market, supply chain cost and reliability (inventory turns and cash conversion cycles), eliminating profit leaks across the value chain, leveraging data and analytics for superior customer insights, educating and up-skilling in Quality and Lean Manufacturing Practices and improving quality levels to achieve world-class performance.

The second edition of OER’s Manufacturing Summit will bring in government officials, C-suite executives, consultants and analysts to discuss a cross-section of issues impacting the manufacturing sector in Oman, possible solutions and the way ahead.

The Sultanate’s Vision 2040 plan under the far-sighted leadership of His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik envisages Oman to have a modern and technologically advanced manufacturing base, fully utilising the creativity of the Omani population together with the most innovative production techniques and focused on improving the wellbeing of the peoples in the region and the world at large.

Madayn, MIZAH, Credit Oman and Oman Manufacturers Association (OMFA) are the endorsement partners of the Summit, which is being organised by UMS Events. Times of Oman and Al Shabiba are the media partners, Alam Al Iktisaad Wal Amal magazine, the Arabic media partner and oerlive.com, the online media partner. SSA International is the Knowledge Partner.

According to the National Spatial Strategy as many as 16 industrial cities and related manufacturing zones are expected to form part of Oman’s expanding industrial base by the year 2040 — up from 11 presently — with the non-oil economy playing an increasingly important role in powering economic growth. Industrial exports are also expected to reach $27.7 billion (OMR10.7 billion) by the year 2040.

The manufacturing sector contributed 10.8 per cent of Oman’s GDP in 2020 and this is expected to rise significantly by 2040. However, the sector is facing stiff challenges in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic, shrinking exports, supply chain disruption, lack of skilled manpower, outdated technological practices etc. Economic demands and an increasingly competitive landscape will push manufacturing leaders to adopt Industry 4.0 strategies that address workplace safety, worker productivity, and bridge gaps in communication.

Manufacturing sector Excellence Awards 2022 in diverse categories will also be presented during the summit. The awards will recognise exceptional organisations and individuals in the sector.