In its sixth year, Aditya Birla Group presents Manufacturing Today Reinventing the Future summit, has gained immense popularity amongst the manufacturing fraternity over the years. The annual event, presented by Aditya Birla Group and Manufacturing Today for the last five years, has become a keenly awaited knowledge sharing platform for manufacturing professionals in the fields of plant operations, production management, quality control, technical & engineering and HR. Over period of six years, the summit has grown stronger and more vibrant.
This year, the case studies competition took place in five cities – Rudrapur, Indore, Chennai, Raipur and Vadodara. Continuing with the theme of ‘Great Teams at Work’, several reputed companies within and neighbouring cities participated on a single platform across six broad topics: Cost Optimisation, Quality, Safety, Technology, People Initiative and Sustainability. S Saikumar, MD, ITP Media Group (India) explained the rules to the participating companies before the start of each event.
The winning teams from each location competed against winners from other cities in a national competition held on September 25, 2019, in Mumbai, as part of the Manufacturing Today Conference & Awards 2019.
Raipur
Reinventing the Future summit was organised in Raipur for the first time. It received tremendous response in the city. In all, 15 case studies were presented during the course of the event.
During the day-long event, an interesting keynote address was presented by Ashish Panpalia, unit head, Rawan Cement Works. He emphasised on safety at the plant level. He mentioned that management and employees have an equal role to play in inculcating the safety culture in an organisation. The objective for an organisation must be a total comitment towards ‘Zero Harm, Zero Injuries and Zero Excuses’. To achieve this, process hazard analysis has to be done to assess hazards and undertake corrective action. Also, permanent and contractual needs to be inducted into safety policies as that is equally important.
The jury team included Chetan Srivastav, joint president and unit head, Hirmi Cement Works and Prof. Lalit Sahu, assistant Professor, National Institute of Technology, Raipur.
Atmastco was announced the regional winner at this edition. The team won the title for its case studies on Cost Optimisation and Technology. The company presented on the topic of ‘Improving business operations through automated process’ under Cost Optimisation while the topic for Technology category was ‘Overcoming challenges in fabrication of India’s important Bridge Projects’. Another winner in the Cost Optimisation category was Jayaswal Neco Industries which presented a case study on ‘Capacity utilisation of Balling Disc’.
AkzoNobel and Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (HCCB) were declared winners in Sustainability. HCCB presented a case study on ‘Energy efficiency & carbon footprint improvement’.
Even the category of Safety had joint winners. SARDA Energy and Minerals, and Hyundai Motor India bagged the award. Hyundai Motor India was declared the winner in Technology along with Atmastco.
Besides this, National Institute of Technology (NIT), Raipur and Government Engineering College (GEC), Raipur were felicitated during the event.
Vadodara
The keynote address was presented by HS Dagur, unit head, Indian Rayon, Veraval. In his speech, Dagur said, “Objective of such programmes is not winning but sharing and learning from each other. The word reinvent itself means forgetting few things in the past. The process starts with forgetting, clearing your brain and thinking afresh. So that gives one a new perspective to to look at things.”
The jury at Vadodara comprised HS Dagur; Vrajesh Parikh, joint president, pulp & fibre; and Vaishali Surawar, UH, Hindalco Industries, Taloja.
In Vadodara, 17 teams presented their case studies in the aforementioned six categories. AkzoNobel was the regional winner that had made a presentation on Safety. The team presented on the topic of ‘Safety culture improvement – Safety is not expensive it’s priceless’.
Blue Star, Dadra, was the winner in the Cost Optimisation category. The team was recognised for its efforts in ‘Redesigning of sheet metal components of commercial air conditioner indoor unit with help of automatic panel bender’. Asian Paints was declared as a winner under People Initiative for its presentation on ‘Great Teams at Work: People Initiatives and Sustainability’.
Axalta Coating Systems India and Wipro Enterprises were adjusted as joint winners in the category of Quality. Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages’ team presented on ‘Water, Energy & CIP Chemical Usage Minimisation in the Juice PET Line’, which was announced as the winning entry in the category of Sustainability. Mahindra Accelo was the winner in the Technology category.