(upbeat music) >> Live from Bahrain. It's the CUBE. Covering AWS Summit Bahrain. Brought to you by Amazon Web Services. >> Hey, welcome back everyone. We're here live at Bahrain. This is the CUBE's exclusive coverage of the Amazon Web Services Summit here. Where Amazon, AWS, is launching a region in early 2019. It's been announced. This is going to change the game. And also, it's creating a lot of gravity. A lot of people coming together. Of course, the CUBE's first time here. We have lots of observations, lots of commentary, an amazing new guest on the CUBE. We're super excited. Our next guest is Samer Aljishi. Who is the group president of BFG. Welcome to the CUBE. >> Thank you John. Nice to be here >> So, what is BFG? Take a minute to explain. What is BFG? >> Big friendly giant, no. So BFG is an industrial firm where one of the first industries in Bahrain was set up in 1975 as a composites manufacturer. It has grown over the years. So it's been 43 years and it has grown to become a small multinational concentrated in about let's say, quite diversified but broadly covering four different product centers. So, we are working in the architectural area as a supplier of facets and complete building envelopes. Utilizing composites plus other types of innovative building materials. If you look at the building's design for the likes of Saja Hadid where you got parametric architecture and its got unrepeatable shapes. Architects are looking for different types of materials. That are able to achieve those visions, which are quite grand and inspirational. And achieve them cost effectively and efficiently. So we are one of the top players in this area. A second key area for the BFG today, we are recognized as one of the largest suppliers of components to the real industry. So, we serve most of the real industry in Australia, in the Asia, in Europe, and the Americas. Some of the parts are structural, some of them are decorative. Structural parts, we make the front ends, for example, we make the front ends of the TGV. We build the toilet cabins for the majority of trains. A highly sophisticated, integrated product and all of the interior linings. Sol transportation is a big area for us. We also work in renewable energy. We work with BE, cements, and others. It's a supply generator housings for winter months. And then, we have a very strong program on waste treatment management. It's quite a lot of different sectors. They're quite varied. It's quite interesting. I think ,in a way, we'll be talking about industry 4.0. The variety that we have in types of client and the products for those... >> So, what is industry 4.0? Explain that. What is industry? >> Now that's a great question. And it's actually a hard one to answer simply. Industry 4.0 is, I think just to begin with, let's talk about the industry 3.0. >> So, industry 3.0 was a time when you had relational data bases like SAP or Oracle or any other product. Or Microsoft and others come in. In order to put some structure into manufacturing organization and to provide information and visibility. And we have ,also, robotics. A substantial amount of robotics coming in. Industry 4.0 goes a step further from this. In that, what we are now doing with industry four, we have the capability today through the cloud and through machine learning, deep learning, and other tools. We'll able today, to do real time optimization. And that's a big difference between industry three and industry four. I will say ,simply, industry four ,in short, is bringing out real time optimization out of a disordered environment. When you look at manufacturing, manufacturing is not a very ordered system. You've got suppliers that have different delivery schedules that are never matching. It's either ahead or behind. Different quality levels, different capacity levels. You have the supplier of your suppliers if you go one step up. Then you've got operators so I will do something in a different way and speed than you would do it. Even though, it's the same process. So you've got variations in people, variation people skill, variation people's quality. And then you've got machines that could ,perhaps, do a certain process a little bit faster than they do in other process. But ,also, they could fail. They could sometimes fail unpredictably. And if you take all of that and you look at one failure, it could affect a complete program that you had for... >> You get a great software for this. You can program this. Is that what four is? >> Yeah, basically. >> It's much more programmable. >> Basically. It's taking the... >> Not the old static, you know. >> Absolutely. >> Known process. >> Absolutely. >> Or known technology, not very flexible. >> Absolutely so like, the all of the ERP systems of industry three will give you a program for a day. But they wouldn't really recalculate what happens in the middle of a day. And they're not learning. So, they're based on data that is input statically. With industry 4.0, we're putting real time data acquisition on the factory floor. We are putting in tons of IOT sensors, imaging sensors, cameras, operator, measurement systems... >> So flexibility is pretty critical. So, I talk to a lot of people who use cloud and I've met many manufacturing gurus like you. But, the ones that are kind of in operational management roles, they say. The old days we had processes, they were locked in and we kind of did tech and we kind of managed it. Looked at the dashboards, looked at the data, had meetings, tried to fix it. Now, we have kind of new technology but the processes are changing in real time so that at any given time, we might want to deploy a new process. >> Absolutely. Not only this but if I take it forward, a few years forward with artificial intelligence. Now that you're breaking up all of this data and a computer looks at it. It will be able to enter some suggest optimization processes. You no longer need people to do so. The computer will actually see that a particular operator has done something in a different way. It resulted in improvement. It in itself can go and change that operating procedure. >> Well, okay I've got to ask you the question. My mind is going into operating system mode here. I'm writing the kernel in my head. Okay so let's do that. We just built this cool system but now, where's the data? The data really is the key here. If you have good data, you're going to have a real good flexible AI. Bad data is bad AI. >> Exactly. >> How do you view that? How do you set up the architecture? How are you thinking of architectural frame works for managing great data quality? >> Well , you've got to have. First of all, you have to have a good and reliable sensor suite and good sensors for it's captured environment or parameters venture. Other types of vibration. Other types of either motion or sensing or different types of temperature, humidity. And then, you have actually the operators themselves become connected. So you have to find how to connect that operator and extract data of what they're doing into the cloud. You could go as far as actually measuring their exact motion in the future. We don't yet have the hardware or the tech to do so. But, imagine if you can actually measure their motion or you could have very intelligent imaging. Where you got a camera that actually looks like an operator, understands what it does. >> Still coming in. >> That's a lot of data and so the challenge is not just the data centers like Amazon. But it's also creating that bandwidth to feed data from the factory into the cloud. And that's going to be very important. >> Well, I want to ask you about your biggest challenges that you guys are doing right now. But I want to get, 'cause I want to jump quickly into something different . I want to get your opinion since you're an expert. The number one question I had coming over here on this trip was, Amazon, why do they put their region over there for? It's hot as hell. Cooling is the biggest problem. Why would they go to the hot place? So weird with the data center. So , again, the question is since someone who has been involved with sustainable building materials. What do they do? I mean, that's the number one question I get. How do you make it work? It's to cut cooling challenges off season solar. Sun's a friend. Sustainable, renewable energy is going to be a key piece of this data center. What's your opinion? Are you working on it or do you have an opinion on it? >> Well, I just think from like a data center perspective. Yes, it is a hot area in the world and cooling is an issue. But, you know, this region supplies fuel for a large part of the world... >> They've got plenty of oil. >> So we do have energy in plenty. And we certainly have sunshine in plenty in this area. And with solar energy becoming so cross competitive today, we believe that it can very quickly return the additional cost of infrastructural cooling or even the operating part. >> So you see solar, no problem, supporting what they need in cooling and power. >> For sure. For sure. >> Okay so let's get back to your challenges as you go into industry four. Which, by the way, I think it's a whole new management practice. I don't think, you know, the Peter Truckers of the world wrote those books. I think that was industry one, wasn't it? I'll give him some credit. We'll call 'em 2.5 maybe three. >> I think three. >> Okay give him three. 4.0 is a new paridine ship. You're in the cutting edge of it. What are some of the challenges that you're facing that are opportunities? How are you thinking about them? Your thoughts. >> They're a lot of challenges. Technology is still developing so they're a lot of things we would like to do but are not yet available. Certainly, let's just talk from our implementation brain. The skill gap is still one of the key areas. So , in my team and the FTI, taking in about 12 young engineers. Fresh graduates. And we're getting them acquainted with the process because we want to develop homegrown talent. We believe, industry for out of Bahrainians is going to be big. But it's important to have the local skills. >> Need the young guns. Young talent. >> Absolutely and they have to get involved quite early. So that's from the local angle. We have a lot of support coming in from government and other bodies of Bahrain Everybody is fully aligned with this. When we look ,however, at the actual implementation of the development. There's certainly still a certain gap. For example, they're a lot of things that we believe require a higher degree of image recognition and image analysis. I'll give you an example. You got a robot. If you have a robot, you've got to position. Robots are dumb machines. >> Yeah. >> Unless something is placed exactly in the right place. >> I know a lot of people are building more robots more than ever. So there's more robots out there. >> And you know what's surprising, we're discovering that the robots aren't very connected and they're not yet to day. The programing of the robot doesn't enable you to develop them or to connect them or to implement industry four on this. Just seeing that announcement, recently. Microsoft, for example, is ruling out robot programming languages. Which would be a great start and that's what you need. So, we find that they're quite a lot of missing technologies to make industry four really, really operational. Related to our robotics imaging and date acquisition. >> The phase we're in now is connect and then being intelligent. So IOT and robotics is like "Let's get connected." "Let's get power to it." And then make it more intelligent. >> Absolutely. So today I think we're at the stage where we can collect data. We can analyze it. We can project what's optimized. And I hope that we're yet at the stage where we can take that optimization and actually implement into very quickly real time on the software because of certain interface issues. >> Interfaces are data bases. Are they technical or business challenges? >> They're both technical. >> Okay, okay. >> But the technology is developing so quickly that I think a lot of these challenges will disappear in a couple of years. >> What are you most excited about? Assume that the connecting and the power parts happening that's easy to do. On the making more intelligent, what are you excited about? What are you looking at? What are some of things you're really investing your time on? >> Well, I think this technology is very interesting and can be applied to. When industry four rolled out, it was mainly the large processing industries that adopted this. Or maybe even large mass, production type industries which adopted this. I think there's tremendous, tremendous potential for this with the medium and small enterprises. Particularly those that are doing what we call discreet manufacturing. Which is producing limited series or limited amounts of parts. And where you have a high amount of human interaction and labor and know how. With the ability to do this, you'll be able to create something that's equivalent of factoring a box. So you can actually box that know how and you'll be able to transport it anywhere in the world. And be able to localize or become international very quickly. >> That was un-gettable in the old model because of the cost and the size of the equipment and the requirements to do it. >> And the fact that know how was really still even if it's written. It was mainly in somebody's head. >> Yeah. And this is going to impact everyone from street vendors to... >> Absolutely. >> All kinds of businesses. >> Absolutely. >> And this is going to make, hopefully, create more efficiencies. >> Hopefully, yes. >> Around smart energy maybe. >> Absolutely. Like industry two to three and three to four. It has its own number because it will create such a large transformation of business as we see. >> Well, I really appreciate Samer coming on the CUBE this year and your insights. Great conversation. >> Thank you. >> I like your talk about processes improvement. It's one of my dark, little secret hobbies. Manufacturing, although, I'm not a big operational guru. I'm not a detailed person but I love the operating system concept around manufacturing and system. >> We love to have a conversation a few months from now and show you how the demonstrator has gone ahead. >> I'd love to keep in touch. Final question before you break. I know we got to go. Just quick thoughts on the impact of having a region of Amazon here in Bahrain. >> Well, I think having Amazon here is a huge, huge thing. For the country and for the region. So just the presence of Amazon, not only is it an enabler but it by itself would create such a great support for the developing ecosystem here of star clubs. The Bahrainians , we as Bahrainians, I often tell people. Innovation, entrepreneurship is built into the Bahrainians since thousands of years ago. >> It's a learning culture. >> It's a learning culture. I'm always surprised by the level of skill, the level of enthusiasm for know how, for innovation that happened. Having Amazon come here, I think reinforces this. With the people in Bahrain and in the region. And I think it's going to leap for all that development. >> It's a free economic new energy. >> Absolutely. >> One thing, I'll just, I know we have to go. But , I wanted to comment, I've seen Amazon do this before. It's not just big businesses, developers are going to scale up. And this whole skill gaps thing, we've seen it now for nine years. I've witnessed it and talked about it. Here's the common strength, the pattern. It doesn't matter if you're 15 or 50, you can level up and be the next guru in months. I know people who went from eight weeks are doing serious employments. Gripto, these new AIs. You can literally come from any point. >> Absolutely. >> And level up and be one of the best. Versus the old linear. >> Absolutely. >> Education. So if your culture's got that mojo learning. >> This could transform and we no longer are limited by just capital. Now we're just limited by creativity. And you could have that any place. You can find some global links rising out of Bahrain very quickly. >> I was really bullish of you guys. My advice when I was at the crown table yesterday was, you guys got a good community. They're active, they're vibrant, they complained a lot which is a good sign. Because they should be. You have capital, then you have a power source coming in here with Amazon and resources. Let the ecosystem organically develop. The soil's been planted. Let it grow. >> Absolutely. >> Don't try to make any forced decisions. Feed it. Get out of the way when you have to. Help it when you need it. Nurture it. Don't worry about it, it'll figure itself out. I think that is a good pattern. It's hard to get the community. You can't like buy a community. >> You can't forced innovation. You can't go and tell somebody "Please be creative, be innovative today." >> You can't buy a community. You can't buy the advancements. Thanks so much Samer. And we're at the CUBE. We went a little bit over but , you know, we like getting all the action and getting all the smart people. Creating some great insights and we're going to continue all day. So stay with us for more coverage after this short break.