With the launch of the world’s first ‘Smart Manufacturing Competency Centre’ (SMCC) in Ahmedabad, India’s best innovators will accelerate the adoption of smart manufacturing solutions. Amit Saluja, Senior Director and Head of NASSCOM centre at Gandhinagar, explains to us how the SMCC in Ahmedabad is helping SMEs and guides us through the latest in the manufacturing sector, covering a wide variety of topics ranging from the importance of CoEs to the impact of Industry 4.0 on the Indian manufacturing sector.
Centers of Excellence, what are they and why are they necessary? What is the role of the CoE in the manufacturing sector?
Today, organisations are facing unprecedented situations from multiple factors like market trends, economic situations, etc. Hence, there is a requirement for a centrally located body/institution that could guide them through the evolving challenges and support their growth journeys. Thus, to support businesses/sectors, the Centre of Excellence (CoEs) are being set up that offer leadership guidance, support, research, and the facility required by organisations to scale up their businesses.
CoEs play a pivot role for many sectors, and one of the key sectors which fall under its purview is manufacturing. The CoEs help the manufacturing players with the required set of research, support, and innovative facility under one roof to solve real-world manufacturing concepts. For the same, we at NASSCOM have a CoE centre in Gandhinagar to accelerate industry 4.0 adoption and build the largest collaborative ecosystem to co-create solutions that can improve productivity, efficiency, and safety in manufacturing plants through the adoption of AI & IoT led digital technologies. The centre is set up with support from the Ministry of Electronics and IT and the Gujarat Government and is focused on digitising the manufacturing sector by bringing together enterprises, startups, research, and government on a common platform.
We are also running several initiatives for this ecosystem to create awareness of the value of digital and enable companies to co-create solutions working with startups and technology companies. Along with this, we also have a Manufacturing Innovation Challenge, a flagship program for large enterprises to find solutions to complex manufacturing challenges. We also have dedicated programs for the MSMEs with the name of Udyam 4.0 – Nayi DISHA, which aim to guide MSMEs on where to start and how to start.
Furthermore, we have developed a first-of-a-kind virtual Smart Manufacturing Competency Center which is a platform to enable manufacturing leaders to experience a diverse range of Industry 4.0 solutions being showcased by innovative solution providers.
Industry 4.0 market size is projected to reach USD 222.4 billion by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 19.6% from 2021 to 2028. How do you see this market evolving in India?
In India, the concept of Industry 4.0 has evolved from merely being a digital transformation enabler to a crucial element in delivering superior customer experiences and sustainable business models. Hence, we are currently witnessing an increase in the investments being made by manufacturing businesses within this space. In fact, according to NASSCOM Industry 4.0 report 2022, Indian Manufacturing has started pivoting to digitalisation, with USD 5.5 – USD 6.5 billion spent on Industry 4.0 in FY21. Today, over 75% of the Industry 4.0 spend is by leading discrete manufacturers in Auto, Electricals and Electronics, while Chemicals and Pharma lead in the process manufacturing segment.
Moving forward, we expect further synergies with Industry 4.0 technologies that will enable businesses to rethink their silo-ed business and operational KPIs, coupled with a seamless flow of data and the ability to make real-time decisions. An enterprise-wide adoption view is expected to further take a form that will further break it into smaller projects rather than integrating multiple PoCs. In the next 18-24 months, companies plan to ramp up investments in emerging network tech, big data analytics, central and remote-controlled monitoring, and automation. A strong focus on supplier de-risking strategies, coupled with traceability needs, will further push for value chain digitalisation.
The term Industry 4.0 includes a variety of key enabling technologies such as cyber-physical systems, IoT, AI, big data analytics, and digital twins, which can be considered as the major contributors to automated and digital manufacturing environments. Please elaborate on how Industry 4.0 technologies would help achieve sustainability in business practices.
In an increasingly globalised world, and especially with the continuing uncertainties surrounding the pandemic, manufacturing enterprises need to realise that just having high-end machinery and equipment is not good enough to claim that they are digitised and ready for the future. Automation can only take them to a certain level, but to survive and thrive beyond that, they need to have cyber-physical systems and adopt smart manufacturing solutions to further reduce costs and achieve greater efficiency. The future is about flexible manufacturing, where the output can be adjusted in no time as per demand and evolving market trends.
Manufacturers need to focus not only on agile and integrated supply chain but also on seamless operations to drive a reduction in the use of raw material, human resources, and the risk of low-quality products. Along with this, businesses should also leverage digitalisation as the key element for their growth. Digitalisation has the potential to transform the supply chain, boost productivity and improve manufacturing operations. It includes the adoption of Industry 4.0 solutions for areas such as production, quality, compliance, procurement, logistics, R&D, and workforce development. Digital solutions for paperless operations can digitise the data recording and generate insights from analytics to optimise processes.
Furthermore, the manufacturers could take support from technology to monitor critical equipment’s condition and prevent them from unwanted breakdowns. They could also deploy computer vision-based quality inspection of manufactured products that can highlight defects that workers can miss. Augmented Reality-based virtual plant visits can also drive customer and partner engagements. In addition, AR/VR solutions can help in remote collaborations and workforce training. Smart warehousing and supply chain solutions provide asset tracking, theft security, and movement tracking solutions
Where do you see the market for Industry 4.0 in the near future?
The Industry 4.0 market has witnessed a decade of transition since 2011, wherein it only comprised 5% of the total manufacturing spend to 20% in the year 2021. This rise in spending has been brought about due to the need for smart solutions as well as business sustainability needs. We can further expect businesses to ramp up the adoption of Industry 4.0 solutions to bring about greater operational flexibility and agility, servitisation, and integrated customer and employee experience.
The government of India is also working towards boosting the adoption of 4.0 technologies through various initiatives and policies like the Industrial Corridor Policy, PLI, and GST developments. Aided by this push and the increase in private sector investments, the Indian manufacturing sector is destined to adopt digital technologies, achieving the target of a 25% contribution to GDP by FY26.
Despite multiple advantages of Industry 4.0, one crucial segment is missing the digital journey – MSMEs. How can small businesses overcome barriers to Industry 4.0 adoption?
We are in a situation where there is a huge disparity in technology adoption. Until recently, most large companies were deploying smart manufacturing solutions, whereas medium and smaller enterprises were largely giving them a miss. The reason is a lack of awareness, accessibility and affordability of digital solutions. This disparity doesn’t just impact the SME sector, and there is an equal effect on the large companies also as these companies work with each other in the ecosystem. The question is how we reduce this wide gap and make enterprises resilient to future disruptions.
Seeing the gaps between MSMEs and large companies increasing, we launched the Smart Manufacturing Forum to make 100 MSMEs digital so that they can become role models and inspire other MSMEs to replicate their success. Through this initiative, we aim to address the awareness, accessibility and affordability challenges that manufacturing enterprises face in technology adoption.
The smart manufacturing forum will help enterprises through
• Skill & Capacity building
• Hand holding for the digital journey
• Branding & market reach
• Tell us about the ‘Smart Manufacturing Competency Centre’ (SMCC) in Ahmedabad.
Smart Manufacturing Competency Center is a virtual platform designed to build the deep tech innovation ecosystem in India by bringing together manufacturing and technology enterprises, deep-tech startups, academia, researchers, and the government. It brings together solution seekers and providers under one virtual roof with an opportunity to understand the manufacturing challenges and co-create solutions. SMCC offers a cohesive end-to-end system that enables manufacturers to learn about Industry 4.0 solutions, watch demonstrations of the digital solutions, collaborate with solution providers, attend thought leadership’s keynote sessions, and visit product launches and showcases. It will showcase cutting-edge and future-ready Industry 4.0 applications focusing on and applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), AR/VR, Robotics, and similar technologies. Its interactive user interface will help solution providers to showcase their capabilities through video demonstrations, and in addition, they can also share their marketing collaterals, get visitor’s analytics, track interest from manufacturers and interact with them through live video calls and chat.
What is the need for SMEs in the manufacturing sector to adopt smart processes?
While every SME manufacturing unit with processing equipment has automation, procedures are still manual as not all units have ERP systems, records are kept in registers, and the inspection procedure is manual. All of this leads to inefficiencies since historical data is unavailable for analysis, inventory levels are high, and quality inspection is heavily reliant on worker skills. These methods will not last since we must be cost-competitive in order to function in a global context. Future systems will need to be connected so that humans and machines can communicate through data, and this will require digital infrastructure.
It is a strong recommendation to start looking for digital capability as a must to have to get ready for the future. There is no choice, and SME leaders must invest their time and resources in digital adoption.
How are Smart Manufacturing Forum and SMCC from NASSCOM set to help SMEs in their transformation journey
NASSCOM, through its Smart Manufacturing Forum, is looking forward to supporting SMEs to kickstart their digital journey. The forum members’ benefits go beyond capability-building and cost savings by deploying digital solutions. It will help extensively promote the success stories through various media channels that give them national and global visibility. This will further help the companies build a brand as a smart manufacturer creating additional business opportunities. So, while the direct benefit is saving on operational costs and improving overall profitability and competitiveness, the initiative will also help MSMEs grow business. We will be inviting MSME leaders to present their success stories at the national level and give them a chance to establish themselves as thought leaders.
Smart Manufacturing Forum will enable manufacturers to get round-the-clock access to SMCC to learn about Industry 4.0 solutions and best practices. The virtual experience will enable manufacturers to experience, interact and choose from the most suitable solutions, whereas the solution providers will get industry insights directly from the manufacturing enterprises. The platform is envisaged to become a go-to platform for manufacturers as it will help them kickstart/accelerate their digital transformation journey.