Under the theme ‘Building Capabilities through Collaborations’, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) organised the 9th edition of the Manufacturing Innovation Conclave with the aim to highlight the ongoing trend of innovative automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies which can revolutionise the way businesses are operated and run today.
Big Data plays a significant role in manufacturing sector uncovering new insights to drive innovation enhancing productivity and efficiency gains said by Chief Guest Prof Ashutosh Sharma, secretary, Department of Science & Technology, government of India. He added that data is the key to any successful implementation that comes out of the stable of artificial intelligence. He opined that there is a need to work towards translating good ideas around data generation, data flow, data preservation, building of data and bringing value to data.”
Setting the context of the conclave with his opening remark during the inaugural session Kishore Jayaraman, conclave chairman and president, India & South Asia, Rolls-Royce, said,“The unfolding Fourth Industrial Revolution will fundamentally alter the way people will live and work across the world. India will be no exception. India’s manufacturing sector is on a positive growth trajectory, helped by encouraging regulatory policies and enablers, increased private sector participation and global attention. Apart from building long-term competitiveness on the global stage, India stands to gain significantly from adopting Industry 4.0.”
Guest of Honour Dr Sudhir Mishra, CEO & MD, BrahMos Aerospace said that manufacturing has huge potential to generate wealth, employment and can create a completely different culture. He added that manufacturing can help transform India to a developed country like Japan and Germany, where find a predominantly manufacturing culture. He further mentioned that we have to create infrastructure, generate demand and gear for collaborative approach to build the nation.
Sameer Gupta, chairman, CII (Northern Region) & chairman & MD, Jakson Group, said that future of manufacturing sector looks bright and can be seen significantly growing in next 10-15 years. He also said that India has lots of potential and opportunity; we just need to unleash it. He added that global economy alongwith the steps taken by government will positively impact the performance in manufacturing sector. He opined that we need to focus on key issues across the manufacturing sector to facilitate growth, enhance competitiveness and generate business opportunities for both local and foreign investors.
The usage of new concept technologies like IoT and apps are actually taking over the market place and it is important to look at such technologies that are converging said by Pankaj Dubey, conclave co-chair and CEO & director, Eicher Polaris and country head & MD Polaris India. He added that IoT adds a new dimension with connected assets and sensors capable of measuring, recording and transmitting performance in real time. He further added that data analytics can help them capture, cleanse and analyse machine data to reveal insights that can help them improve performance.
Dilip Sawhney, MD, Rockwell Automation India, said that adoption of contemporary technologies is an imperative for the Indian manufacturing sector to realise the vision of $1 trillion manufacturing economy in the near future and to enhance our global competitiveness. He further said building a connected enterprise is essential to realising this vision through the convergence of IT and OT to access and capitalise on operational, business and transactional data for improved enterprise, plant and supply chain performance.
Rajeev Singh, partner, Deloitte India, Knowledge Partner of the Conclave said that increased momentum is required across the manufacturing industry in India towards adopting innovative technologies to solve complex problems. He also said that today manufacturers are converging digital and physical worlds in which sophisticated hardware combined with innovative software, sensors, and massive amounts of data and analytics is expected to produce smarter products, more efficient processes, and more closely connected customers, suppliers and manufacturers. He added that In Industry 4.0, manufacturing systems and the objects they create are not just connected but also drawing information from the physical world into the digital realm.
Speaking around integrated smart factories for tomorrow Pradeep David, GM, South Asia, Universal Robots, pointed out that collaborative robots are the big equaliser that allow SMEs and MNCs alike to jump aboard the Industry 4.0 bandwagon and enable affordable automation. He highlighted that, “Cobots allow humans and robots to be interdependent and focus on what each of them does best, safely. This is especially beneficial in the Indian manufacturing industry, where labor-intensive conditions and cobots go hand-in-hand in empowering companies of all sizes to Make in India with the utmost quality and precision through this distinctive technology.’’
Dr Ravikumar GVV, AVP & Head, Advanced Engineering Group, Infosys said, “One of the biggest challenges of cyber manufacturing is on how to realise the value of implementation. The low hanging fruit of value realisation is through improving efficiency of the manufacturing shop floor across four dimensions – operations, maintenance, information and energy. We believe this value can be realised equally for both brown field and green field implementations by identifying and reducing the current gaps utilising the best of IT and operational technology (OT) together.”
The Conclave witnessed the presence of speakers from Panasonic, PTC, Universal Robots, IBM, Infosys etc and was well attended by over 200 participants from various manufacturing companies.