By Ravi Raghavan, MD, BFW
Since I was a student, I’ve been fascinated by the all-pervasive influence of manufacturing on our lives. With time, this feeling has only grown stronger. Look around you, almost everything has felt the hand of manufacturing on it whether it is the cell phone in your pocket, the laptop on your table, why even the table itself.
It may seem that we are living in a digital era or even an era of electronics but the truth is we are even more reliant on manufacturing today than we were 50 years ago. The more valuable ‘stuff’ becomes to us, the more valuable the process through which this very ‘stuff’ is made faster, quicker, better, cheaper and smaller.
I know manufacturing does not sound as High-end as software or as noble as healthcare, but it is the foundation on which all progress is based. All the benefits of telecommunications and ecommerce are available due to the ability to manufacture efficiently the hardware on which all the software resides. The finest robotic surgery is dependent on thousands of delicately, precisely crafted parts. On Feb 15th, when ISRO created history by launching 104 satellites, it was the power of science operating on a platform of manufacturing.
Manufacturing constantly combines with different forms of science to push the boundaries of progress. As an industry we need to acknowledge our contribution and be proud of ourselves for what we bring to the world.
Manufacturing Day, a BFW initiative is about celebrating the achievements of this wonderful, understated industry. It’s a time for industry leaders to come together and look at where we are headed, the challenges ahead of us and means of adding value.
We see Manufacturing Day not just as an event but a year-long platform where industry leaders will collaborate on knowledge creation to take the industry forward. Throughout the year, select panels of leaders will be working behind the scenes to create white papers that will benefit the industry.
There are 3 key areas that we feel are important at this time. The first is the increasing role of digitisation in factories and the roadmap as we evolve into becoming the Factories of the Future. The second is the huge challenge of training and re-skilling our people so they fit seamlessly into a new era of manufacturing. The third is about manufacturing innovation that can be created on the shop floor as this is a high potential yet much neglected area. This year the focus of all our knowledge sharing activities will be around these three topics.
The most visible manifestation of the Manufacturing Day platform will be our flagship event. This year we are hosting the Manufacturing Day conference at NCR (Gurugram, to be precise) on October 5. We have an exciting panel of speakers and interesting topics planned and I’m sure like the inaugural edition in Pune, it will be an event to remember.
Manufacturing Day means a lot to BFW because it emerges directly from our brand purpose of enabling progress. Our journey of enabling progress started in 1961 when we came into existence to support a young economy that needed industrialisation to grow rapidly. Industrialisation meant machines and machines needed machine tools.
Manufacturing Day is our way of adding legs to our journey that started 56 years ago but a purpose that is as true today as it was then.