By Jayashree Kini Mendes
The traditional lighting of the lamp.
The success of an event can only be judged by those attending it, and those behind it. Going by the outcome of the 7th Annual Manufacturing Today Conference & Awards, we, as the organisers, would like to label it as an outstanding success. Most people outside the world of manufacturing show little interest in understanding the industry; the keenness goes far only in the novel products it is capable of producing. Even though it’s the manufacturing sector that serves as a beacon to the overall growth of a country’s GDP, few could still be compelled to understand it better. In such a situation, Manufacturing Today has manifested itself as the only magazine to have uncovered the industry’s coreness, thus letting its readers understand the immense knowledge, technology, skill-sets, and impressive operations, it has to offer.
The first panel discussion in progress.
The awards is our way of bringing together people across divisions and helping them glean new aspects of functions that hitherto was only hearsay or read in passing.
In its 7th year, the awards could not have shone more brightly. Importantly, we held it in Mumbai, moving away from the comfort zone that Pune had offered us the last few years. And the people flocked.
The second panel discussion in progress.
Considering that this industry is perhaps the only one that is no stranger to morning and late night shifts, we began our day with the lighting of the lamp.
Welcoming everyone, Bibhor Srivastava, group publishing director, ITP Media Group (India), pointed out that when people work in partnership with their team members, any venture will turn out to be a success. He thanked all our partners who believed in us and continued to support us year after year. Continuing with tradition, the presenting partner was Aditya Birla Group, powered by Mahindra World City, in association with Loctite, Mitsubishi Electric India and Infor, with SAP as innovation partner, Tyrolit as exhibit partner, TVS Logistics Services Ltd as networking partner, and BDB as knowledge partner.
Mrs Poonam Yadav of Aditya Birla Group hands over the trophy and plaque to the winning team of Reinventing the Future.
The highlight of the day was the industry keynote by Mrs Christina Ruggiero, CEO, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (HCCB). “India has its strongest roots in agriculture and manufacturing. The latter is in higher demand. The industry has evolved and as an aspirational one, it offers immense opportunities. This is more evident when one sees the aspirations and ambitions in smaller towns. Manufacturing brings with its complexities and this can affect supply chains. There is a growing desire among people to be true to their roots, while realisation dawns that we are also global citizens. So accessibility becomes important. Complexity and customisation will not go away. It means reaching out to smaller towns will continue to stay challenging. There’s a need to be proactive to offer the best products, but while managing safety at the heart of the factory. Technology and automation will continue to change constantly. It’s time that India makes the best of everything. The country stands on the cusp of change and India is capable of changing very fast,” she said.
The first presentation for the day was by Ashish Kawale, sr. solution consultant, South Asia, Infor, who chose to speak on Manufacturing Industry 4.0. Speaking about the advent of technology, Kawale said that Industry 4.0 focuses on end-to-end digitisation of physical assets and putting them into the digital ecosystem. Right from procurement to supply chain to operations to increasing revenue and productivity, can be achieved through business applications and an artificial intelligence-led user experience.
The keynote address for the day was delivered by Dr Santrupt Misra, director HR, business head – chemicals, and, CEO, Carbon Black, Aditya Birla Group. “Aditya Birla Group started as a manufacturing organisation and continues to do so. We attribute our achievements to manufacturing. There is so much more to achieve. We need to reach new frontiers and one way to do that is to make the Group an aspirational place for manufacturing professionals. As professionals, you carry a huge responsibility and there is so much contribution you make that is sometimes not recognised or understood by others. But as long as you know your contribution and are self-driven, that should make you proud. Whether it is 5S or TPM processes, the germs of the Swacch Bharat was embedded on what we do on the factory floor,” he said.
The patient audience stayed with us till the end of the day.
Meeting of minds
The first panel discussion for the day was Manufacturing Profitability: Addressing the key issue of rising cost. Moderated by Sandeep Balooja, managing partner, S&L Consultants, the panellists comprised Alok Singh, plant head, Pune CV business unit, Tata Motors; Ankur Singh, DGM, manufacturing, ACC; Deeksha Vats, jt. president, sustainability, Aditya Birla Group; Dr Ashok Kumar, ED, Pudumjee Pulp and Paper Mills; KA Unni Nayar, VP (works), JK Tyres & Industries; Kailash Zanzari, sr. VP, (manufacturing), Bajaj Auto; and Ashutosh Apte, director, discrete industries, SAP. Balooja set the tone by explaining how the government has been proactive in promoting manufacturing in the country. Manufacturing needs to reach a GDP of 25% to make it sustainable for an economy. Improving productivity with zero defect should also be a strong focus. Singh of Tata Motors said that besides all the above, customers insist on knowing the value that an OEM is offering them. “The supply chain needs to be keenly looked at and one needs to look at reducing losses while pushing up quality and processes,” he added.
Zanzari of Bajaj Auto spoke about how his company follows the TPM model to implement lean manufacturing. The lean philosophy hinges on capital equipment, manpower, materials, transportation handling, etc. Various TPM functions are defined for each of them.
Apte of SAP said that most global manufacturing is high on variety and low on volume. There’s a third category that is unique to India, which is high on variety and high on volumes. Leapfrogging to high volumes and variety requires technology push and this should be taken as the key lever.
Nayar of JK Tyres & Industries spoke about how people in manufacturing have changed over generations. His company touched on behavioural safety for the employee and people around him. Multi-skilling was another aspect that the company believes in. This ensured that the personnel is not put off with the same job role year after year.
Dr Kumar of Pudumjee Pulp and Paper Mills, stressed on how streamlining manufacturing must sync with technology. This ensures that deliveries are smooth and there are no glitches in the supply chain. A good production plan involving all cross-functions can reduce stress and improve delivery.
Singh of ACC said that while equipment continues to remain standard, it’s the performance that varies. That’s because people work differently across factories. While there’s an inclination to retain people, there is also a compulsion to move people when needed.
Vats of Aditya Birla Group said sustainability must be acceptable across the value chain of the business. Right from sourcing to manufacturing and delivery, sustainability should be built in. It should straddle across functions and when using enablers, it only makes it better.
The next presentation was by Manish Singhal, business director India, general industry adhesives, Henkel Adhesives Technologies, who spoke on Limitless Solutions in Manufacturing. The world of manufacturing is no more dirty, squalid, and slippery. Technology has made shop floor clean and we have contributed a world of change to the mechanical changes. As a rule, the company spends 3% of its turnover on R&D, and that has made a big difference.
Helping Hands
Abhishek Majithia performed his Mind Reading stunt that was a huge hit with the audience.
The pre-lunch session saw the Grand Finale of the Aditya Birla Group presents Manufacturing Today: Reinventing the Future 2018. In its 5th Edition, this time the event was held across five cities. BEL (Chennai), HCCB (Bhubaneswar), Blue Star (Indore), and Mahindra & Mahindra (Rudrapur) who were regional winners made their presentations in Mumbai.
The Jury for the finals were: Amit Deshpande, director, supply chain, Kone Cranes; Amit Chaturvedi, head supply chain, petrochemicals, Reliance Industries; Deeksha Vats, jt. president, sustainability, Aditya Birla Group; Bibhu Mishra, president & head of manufacturing excellence, Hindalco Industries; BS Pani, director, Span Resources Management; and Manish Kulkarni, director, BDB Consulting.
Over the next hour, each team made a presentation for 10 minutes and the Jury was then out to take a decision on the winner and runner-up.
The second panel discussion for the day Leveraging Digitalisation for more Functional and Easy-To-Maintain Manufacturing, and was meant mainly for CTOs/CIOs and Supply Chain Heads.
Moderated by Rahul Mishra, principal, AT Kearney, the panellists were Amit Chouhan, head supply chain, construction chemicals, BASF India; Bhanwar Lal Bishnoi, head–embedded design & development centre –EDDC, L&T Electrical & Automation; Dr Rakesh Sinha, global head – supply chain, manufacturing & IT, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd; Nishesh Gupta, VP – SCM, NITCO; Rajesh Menon, GM – manufacturing, Asian Paints; and Suresh Iyer, CIO, Blue Star India.
Mishra opened the panel discussion by asking the delegates about the new-age technologies that have emerged and how are manufacturing companies taking to them. Iyer of Blue Star said that it’s not just one technology that is causing disruption. It’s an amalgamation of technologies and their interactions that is opening up new possibilities. There are new technologies that the company is using across divisions, and it has helped the company immensely.
Bishnoi of L&T Electrical & Automation mentioned some companies could be guarded in their approach in deploying new technology in critical functions. Success stories are created when technologies are deployed through proper training, thus leading to increase in adoption rates.
Gupta of Nitco realises that with time to service consumers reducing, it has become imperative to deploy technologies that will allow frictionless way of functioning. Supply chains are becoming more flexible and this will make even old-age companies to invest in technology.
Chouhan of BASF India cited the example of his plant in Germany where material moves from one plant to another, thus taking the moves to 200 such production plants. Industry 4.0 has taken over manufacturing plants in Europe and this is working well for them.
Menon of Asian Paints said that Industry 4.0 works well when skill-sets match the needs. Building capability of people to understand the change and use it to the fullest extent could help greatly and ensure that RoI is quicker.
Dr Sinha of GCPL said in TOC one needs to identify the constraint. Each shift needs to be analysed to understand the problem areas. IoT provides data in a granular manner and it becomes easier to understand why production is lagging on each machine. Accuracy and granularity is what is needed to know the root cause of production issues.
An interesting presentation on e-F@ctory: The Factory of the Future, was delivered next by Sunil Mehta, GM, technical, Mitsubishi Electric India. For years, companies have been aggregating data from a variety of devices and storing it in a database in its raw format or in spreadsheets. Rarely is it used to provide any value to the organisation. With the e-Factory IoT, customers can identify which facilities, production lines, work cells, and shifts are underperforming compared to other areas of the organisation. The factory automation solutions can help solve the significant challenge of increasing the performance of existing plant infrastructure, with its mixed control systems and legacy systems architecture, by improving the delivery of plant information to MES/ERP systems.
Random glimpses of the delegates who were seen mixing well with the industry.
Of Skills and Labour
The early evening saw the announcement of the winner of the Aditya Birla Group presents Manufacturing Today Reinventing the Future. Poonam Yadav, group talent head, Aditya Birla Group, gave away certificates to the participating IIT (Mumbai) students and then announced the winners. Blue Star Ltd emerged runner up, while the winning team was HCCB.
A novel concept introduced this year was a fireside chat between Shyam Kalyanasundaram, business head, Mahindra Industrial Park Chennai and Arijit Sen, CMD, Parker Hannifin on World-class Industrial Infrastructure in India. The discussion revolved around how manufacturing companies need to scout for the right location to set up a factory and whether the right skill-sets would be available in the neighbouring areas that will help match the investment. A strong belief in the state government, infrastructure such as power, water, etc. should also be easily available.
Random glimpses of the delegates who were seen mixing well with the industry.
The talk was followed by the third and last panel discussion for the day. People, Process and Technology: Bringing the Best Together was moderated by Rajesh Nath, MD, VDMA India. The panellists included V Anbu, director general, IMTMA; Bibhu Mishra, head, Manufacturing Centre of Excellence, Hindalco Industries; Bhadresh Dani, VP, drives & automation, Bharat Bijlee; GK Pillai, MD & CEO, Walchandnagar Industries; Aditya Ahuja, head of human resources, Henkel Adhesives Technologies; R Sridhar, CEO, Pune facility, Essar Steel; Shyam Kalyanasundaram, business head, Mahindra Industrial Park Chennai; and Vinayak Marathe, sr. VP, Reliance Industries.
Nath of VDMA began the session asking the panellists on how they anticipate the new technologies that are coming their way.
Marathe of Reliance Industries said the company’s decision to conduct a business transformation helped them scale up and vastly save costs. IIoT helps save billions if we use it wisely and well.
Sridhar of Essar Steel spoke on how elimination of a process helped it save 36% in terms of cost. A loss making proposition has become profitable. Process innovation can help companies in keep manufacturing agile.
Pillai of Walchandnagar pointed out that there could be a tendency to put people in the background. But technology and processes can always be copied, but what cannot be made readily available is people. Indian companies need to cultivate and develop its people and inculcate skill-sets in them.
Anbu of IMTMA said that India needs to get its manufacturing depth right. New product development, which adds to the success of a company, is a long drawn process. R&D, innovation are not factors that are looked at closely.
Mishra of Hindalco Industries highlighted his experience in how he spotted some young engineers working on projects for overseas companies. Most of them are quite content doing that.
Aditya Ahuja, head of human resources, Henkel Adhesives Technologies, believes that upskilling of employees is necessary so that it leaves a sense of hope among them. One needs to know whether we are investing right into the next generation.
Dani of Bharat Bijlee explained that seamless integration of people, process and technology is quite rare. Sometimes when companies want to deploy automation, they meet with resistance. Change management is a necessary evil.
Kalyanasundaram of Mahindra Industrial Park Chennai stressed on the infrastructure that his company provides so that manufacturing companies can have a plug-and-play kind of outfit. Gone are the days when companies needed to struggle to set up operations and faced a long gestation period.
The last speaker for the day was Ashutosh Apte, director, discrete industries, SAP. Cyber physical systems that most touched upon is a big change that is coming. It offers high level of agility and and modularising lines so as to give inter-operable lines.
The conference ended with much approval from the audience.
It was followed by a highly interesting seesion by the much talented Mind Reader Abhishek Majithia. His stints on the stage left everyone seeking for more. Majithia is renowned for asking you a question and penning it on paper even before he can receive a reply. The audience gasped several times when each time he got the reply right. Half hour of this was not enough. But, it was time to move on to the Awards.