THE 5TH ANNUAL MANUFACTURING TODAY AWARDS HONOURED people who changed the rules of the game, and excelled
by jayashree kini-mendes
Legacy is fundamental to what it is to be human. Without a sense of working to create a legacy, people lose meaning in their lives. It helps one to decide the kind of life one wants to live and the kind of world that could be created. The same would also apply to the corporate world. From a purely practical standpoint, if companies don’t pass on their experience by leaving a legacy, the wisdom gained through decades of difficult learning will disappear. Legacy represents a company’s body of work at each stage of their career as they establish the foundational building blocks and accumulate the required wisdom to contribute to growth, innovation and opportunity both in and outside of the workplace. The legacy grows with each new experience and with each previously untested idea that are courageous enough to deploy, and each time a company inspires others to see something through to fruition.
That is exactly what Manufacturing Today set out to create when we instituted the Manufacturing
Today Conference & Awards six years ago. We wanted companies to celebrate every aspect of manufacturing in a world where glamorous professions are celebrated more than professions that contribute a major slice to the economy. This year, we went with the theme of Competing for Growth, fully knowing that the growth in sales and profit is not what it used to be. In keeping with our tradition, we maintained our platform of conferences/panel discussions during the day and reached the finale with the Awards function.
An event is only as successful as the people who attend it. Going by this standard, the Manufacturing Today Conference & Awards can boast of a crowd of 300-plus, not to forget our distinguished guests and delegates who arrived in Pune from 37 cities ranging from distant places such as Himachal Pradesh, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, smaller towns of Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Jharsuguda, among others. In addition, we had the backing of our partners, leading with Aditya Birla Group as presenting partner, Mitsubishi Electric India Private Limited as associate partner, and Nilkamal as the Material Handling Solution Partner. Our other partner companies were Tyrolit, Ambily Technologies, Ricoh, UCAM, Grind Master Machines and Kone Cranes. BDB India was the knowledge partner.
STRAIGHT FROM THE HEART
The morning began with a keynote address from Satish Pai, MD, Hindalco Industries who spoke about how manufacturing is an integral part of a developed country. He said, “Essentially, manufacturing is creating products out of the natural resources available in the country. We must use these resources carefully. Manufacturing is also about people productivity, and goods and market productivity.” Speaking about how India ranks on the global scale in terms of manufacturing prowess, Pai held that while Japan, US, Germany and South Korea are way above, China and India come next. “MNCs would prefer India as a manufacturing base as wages are far lower than any other country; but wages have a tendency to rise. Once upon a time South Korea was a low-cost manufacturer, today that is not the case. It is for this reason and also the fact that manpower productivity is lower here that India can afford to hire five persons for a job when one will suffice,” he added. Citing an instance from the Hindalco unit at Orissa, he said that the manufacturing cost per tonne is cheaper in South Korea than in Orissa. Improvement can only come when India stresses on education and infrastructure. “Our Prime Minister wants India to go from a Rs 2 trillion economy to Rs 10 trillion and to achieve this, we need to grow 9% consistently over 20 years. We are a democracy and implementing decisions take longer as compared to China who can take a decision one day and implement it the next. But ease of doing business is much better now in India. What India needs to boost manufacturing is a change in mindset and adherence to processes, quality, hygiene, etc, he said. He ended by saying that India should ensure that growth is not confined merely to the coastal states and even the central parts of the country needs to be catered to as that is where the natural resources are.
Delivering a short special address, Jagmohan Singh, regional director India, Sri Lanka and Maldives, Lockheed Martin India, said that defence is poised to grow well for India. “Today, we import 70% of components and source 30% through local demand. But that 30% comes mainly from PSUs and Ordnance Factories and less from the private sector. Interestingly, there are some major joint ventures happening and this shows India’s willingness to take up defence contracts. It is fascinating to know that even DRDO is looking at the private sector now,” he added.
TOP GUNS
There’s no better way to start an event than making CEOs talk. Highly obliging people when it comes to sharing and imparting knowledge at forums and there is a sense of keenness to add value to a panel discussion. Our eminent panellists for the morning comprised Satish Pai, Nitin Chalke, MD, Eaton India; R Sridhar, CEO, Essar Steel; Arun Misra, VP (Project Gopalpur) and MD (Tata Steel SEZ Ltd), Tata Steel; Ravi Raghavan, MD, BFW; and Rajesh Nath, MD, VDMA. The panel was moderated by Naresh Raisinghani, CEO and ED, BMGI – India Division.
The round table dialogue highlighted ‘Redefining and embracing strategies for manufacturing growth’. Raisinghani threw open the first question to the panellists on how India has evolved since the Licence Raj ended and the way manufacturing has shaped up since. “I hear a resounding yes to manufacturing in India. However, if you look at China’s GDP, they have grown because they focused on manufacturing. Moreover, looking at the new age brands in India such as Samsung and Apple, and none of them being Indian, is innovation mere lip service?” he asked.
Without any prodding, R Sridhar shot back saying that India must continue to create jobs for manufacturing. Even a country like Rwanda has leapfrogged. The roll out of GST has eased the supply chain issue. We at Essar Steel have done much innovation and managed to save Rs 300 per tonne through process innovation. Today we sell to 100 countries and have a 51% market share in colour-coated sheets in the country. Our closest competitor China has a capacity of one billion tonnes of steel and manufactures about 700-800 million tonnes, of which it exports 112mt. Which country can survive this tsunami? We need to aggregate capacity because most companies are using full capacity.
Giving his opinion to the questions, Misra said that a country cannot evolve without manufacturing. Having worked in mines, the GDP of any country starts from below the ground. If one were to consider the manufacturing proficiency per acre, it is low because automation and other things have emerged. But nothing can beat the indirect jobs created in manufacturing and that gives a good fight to the service sector. Indians prefer applied research and our innovation is confined to process modification. Tata Steel has survived for so long and that is not mere chance. In its endeavour to reach the world benchmark of agglomerates in blast furnace burden it introduced the Bedding, Blending & Sinter Plant known as BBSP2. This was achieved by putting young minds to work. Metal companies also need to work at expansions quickly as more often than not they are the holders of the patented technologies. The only pitfall here is availability of land.
Seconding Misra’s opinion on pressure on natural resources, Raghavan said companies need to consider manufacturing powered by innovation. “Even agriculture should be included in manufacturing. In the West, not only capital expenditure exceeds that of India but companies innovate on a regular basis. We need to consider what will work for us, but one thing is certain, we take our own time to grow. There are new types of changes happening in the country, hitherto unheard of in manufacturing. And it is for this reason that skilled workers must look at adopting these changes. The country has a lack of skilled workers,” he added.
When asked about why automation is important to Indian companies, Rajesh Nath said that the country’s growth can only come from agriculture. Currently, the GDP of agriculture is stagnant and we continue using manual power. There is huge scope for mechanisation. India, by far, has the lowest spend on R&D. We need to increase the percentage of GDP spend on R&D. At present, India has allocated about 0.9% of GDP spend, which is way below the West, which stands at 4.5%. The innovation that happens comes from government sponsored institutes. The private sector contributed 30% to innovation and Universities 7%, while abroad it is the other way round. In Germany, the mid-sized manufacturers, collectively known as the Mittelstand, are often praised as a group for providing the backbone of the world’s fourth-largest economy. Here even students are required to go through training to be ready for the corporate world.
Speaking from a corporate standpoint, Chalke said that while the service sector had grown in India, we need to focus more on growing manufacturing as there is a vast population of young people in the country. “The service industry and manufacturing should grow side by side. Once policies are inclined towards better health and infrastructure, we should be set on the growth path. Manufacturing companies need to keep a sharp eye on ensuring that the ecosystem of innovation thrives. We need a work culture like those brought in by Apple and Google. Eaton has recently established the new Eaton India Innovation Centre (EIIC), a strategic programme that is focused on enhancing organisational capabilities by leveraging high-end engineering talent and best-in-class infrastructure,” he said.
When asked about how innovation has taken precedence in the West, Pai said that most of them started out as contract manufacturing companies. There was little innovation, and so they first set up a manufacturing base, took in what they could from others and then took the path of innovation. Speaking about products that are made in India, Pai said that he recently discovered that Japan has imposed something called an “India discount” on aluminium foil. It tells us that we need to delve deeper into the kind of products we are bringing into the market and sending abroad. India needs to first take up manufacturing and R&D will follow. The problems companies face when they want to expand is not for want of technology or capital. It is the sheer lack of people skills. There is a dire lack of stress on vocational training.
The concept of e-F@ctory
Our first partner presentation for the day was from S Sriram, GM, marketing, factory automation and industrial division, Mitsubishi Electric India. Speaking about how solutions can MEIL can take the manufacturing industry forward he said that manufacturing is all about connectivity. The shop floor and top floor needs to be connected and both need to collect data at the right time. People want functional capabilities within their product and what can further this is IoT. MEIL would like manufacturing companies to take up smart manufacturing and that is all about linking processes. This way defective products on the assembly line can be eliminated as it offers the right kind of traceability. One needs to build intelligence into the system. The e-F@ctory solution is an integrated concept to build reliable, offers flexible manufacturing systems, and high speed information to drive manufacturing. e-F@ctory bridges the gap and manages the operations at the point of implementation to supporting management processes and decision making to enabling business execution.
The age of smart machines
Our second panel discussion focussed on ‘Smart investments for smart manufacturing with smart strategies’. Pradeep Bhargava, director, Cummins India, moderated the panel that comprised Vinayak Marathe, sr. VP, head, planning, services & IP, Reliance Technology Group; AHB Narayana Reddy, sr. director, plant head, Whirlpool Corporation; Amit Deshpande, VP, operations, Kone Cranes India; Sunil Mehta, GM, technical service department, Mitsubishi Electric India, and chairman, CLPA India; Jagdish C Belwal, CIO, Tata Motors; Raj Singh Rathee, MD, KUKA Robotics India; Sachin Bhawsar, head, manufacturing engineering, engine, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) India; and KN Pandey, GM (projects), CNH Industrial (India).
Delivering the opening note, Bhargava said that it was interesting that the event is held in Pune as it is a manufacturing hub for the Western region. Looking around at the panel, he commented that there was not a single woman in the panel and this shows us the gender diversity in manufacturing. Companies need to rope in smart women for smart manufacturing. Cummins had 3% women workforce 15 years ago; this has now gone up to 28%. Manufacturing companies are stuck in a sandwich of technology push and demand pull. There is continuous demand in terms of being lean, reducing downtime, etc. The industry is constantly seeing something smart. There are new things affecting the industry such as IoT and everything is a revolution. There is a new kind of invasion that has entered the shop floor and this is not confined to only ticket and movie shows booking. Some of the things that have woken us up is data analysis and the ability to predict the behaviour of machines and that is what IoT is all about. We need to eliminate bureaucracy and there is a constant rush to be answerable to the government who complain about the packaging and product quality, etc. But this is slowly changing.
Throwing open the floor to the panellists, he asked the panellists around to give their understanding of smart manufacturing.
Speaking about how technology and innovation go hand-in-hand, Bhawsar said there is a belief that technology calls for high investment, which is not the case. Technology can be implemented with better innovation, economics, and at lower cost.
Offering a simple view about how technology initially meant getting an ISO, Marathe said that it was only in year 2000 that companies began thinking of putting in place business processes and then quickly moved to integrating them. What mattered most when the new-age processes came in was ensuring asset reliability, risk mitigation and optimising production at minimum cost. Along the way, new technologies came in and it was adopted. The realisation to optimise dawned when companies realised there was too much of technology platforms and with it came the need to standardise and digitise as to retaining or simplifying or eliminating.
Agreeing with this, Belwal’s views were that since most large companies have several plants, most activities are done in a regimental fashion. There is a tendency to low tolerance. One reason why manufacturing companies tend to be slow to change is because any change has a cascading effect on the supply chain. It is a good thing that there is so much information available with us that it can help in decision making. But there is a dire need to rethink the regimental way of doing things. Smart strategies will step in when we communicate to the team and the workforce more accurately and create options for people orientation and learning.
Giving his understanding of how smart manufacturing and smart investments are happening in India, Mehta asserted that any manufacturing process will give data, but few companies take care to integrate automation and people. Most people work in silos and here is where PLCs help. Smart manufacturing is integrating of data from sensors to the ERP level and analytical data is generated and all this needs to be processed so manufacturing becomes effective and enhances the speed of manufacturing.
A lot of activity happens on the shop floor. But getting the marketing department to respond to the challenges of different products is a task, said Deshpande. A plant has two main aspects to it: When it is set up and when actual operations commence. Flexibility has to be thought of and put in the facility as demands change with seasonality and fluctuations. Smart strategies will come in when companies are able to offer product validity and verification (PV&V) in production planning. The top floor and the shop floor need to devise ways to ensure a cost perspective to the people down the line. We must remember that after all response is by human beings and not SAP all the time. We should stop being fascinated by facts and data and that adds to the stress on people and resources.
But if one works for a consumer durables company, then smart manufacturing essentially means digital, said Reddy. It is critical that they deploy digital capabilities and digital technology. It helps in increasing agility and improving manufacturing when supported by strong people skills and innovation. There are three layers to digital manufacturing: Using real time data collection and using advanced IT and improving business through people. Big data analytics and advanced robotics matter in today’s times. Collaborative robotics that can work with humans without safety guidelines are critical as production cycles have increased. There is a lot of intelligent technology out there and deploying some of it will contain the competition.
Pandey asked whether smart manufacturing would also mean the customer. For him, smart manufacturing is complex and customers are smarter. The whole idea of smart manufacturing is to provide value for customers. Companies must gauge their core competencies and ways they can evolve future factories.
Coming to the non-technical side of manufacturing, Rathee said that smart investment should be sustainable and ethical. It is possible to do business with these aspects in mind.
moving stories
Our next presentation was by Nilkamal’s Anil Mistry, VP, business development, and he highlighted how Nilkamal has changed the industry looks at material handling. On an ad hoc basis, there’s a space crunch that everyone faces. Space crunch comes in when companies keep adding machines. They are constantly looking at bringing down cost and increasing productivity. For instance, there is a possibility that components might be lying on the rack for months, but this is not the case with injection moulding machines as they retain the components for a mere 30 seconds. Material handling needs planning right from the raw material stage to finished goods, not to forget that more often than not goods are handled 50 times across a single chain. The shop floor needs to unitise material in a new plant and the quantum of material that is going to be handled must be noted. There are several types of equipment we have for material handling and storing of the pallets in an integrated way is important, which is the reason Nilkamal also makes customised equipment.
The pre-lunch session saw a special competition session for each of the winners from the four-city event of the Aditya Birla Group presents Manufacturing Today Reinventing the Future Summit. Each regional winner was asked to showcase their presentation and the Jury was to choose one winner in the national round. Leading the show was S Saikumar, deputy MD, ITP Publishing India, who called on each company for the last leg of the competition. So Gabriel India (winner at Indore), SRF-TTB (winner at Coimbatore), Asian Paints (winner at Vadodara), and Paradeep Phosphates (winner at Bhubaneswar) gave off their best in the final round. The Jury judged Asian Paints the national winner and Satish Pai was happy to give away the Award. Similarly 15 institutes had showcased simultaneously across the four cities and the top two who were adjudged winners were IIT (Delhi) and IIT (Indore). Ashok Ramchandran, group executive president, HR, Aditya Birla Group, was called on to give away the award.
Highlighting the importance of the people side of manufacturing, Ramchandran said that senior people must groom young talent who are left to do things by themselves. “Very often, key senior personnel from the company are so caught up in their own schedules that they are unaware of how the young new trainees are faring. Seniors should not further their own interests, but instead attend to the next generation. At the Aditya Birla Group, we celebrate manufacturing and find a need to commemorate youngsters and bring people from distant locations into the organisation. We also attempt to recognise them thus making manufacturing a profession to aspire for. Corporate also needs to partner with educational institutes. Unless people at the workplace are encouraged, they will not reach new heights in their careers,” he added.
Up in the air
Our final panel discussion for the afternoon was the much-looked forward to Manufacturing for the Aerospace & Defence Sector in India. The session was moderated by Kishore Jayaraman, president, Rolls Royce and the panellists included Jagmohan Singh, regional director India, Sri Lanka and Maldives, Lockheed Martin India; SR Mukherjee, CEO, Tata Advanced Materials; Ashwani Bhargava, director for enterprise supplier management, Boeing India; SM Vaidya, executive VP & business head, Godrej Aerospace; Rajesh Khatri, executive director & CEO, TAL Manufacturing Solutions; and Ashish Saraf, VP (industry development, partnerships and offsets), Airbus Group India.
Speaking about the geopolitics, the technology and the need to create skills, Jayaraman said there is a need to bring in foreign OEMs in the country. Rolls Royce has begun leveraging talent in the country and that’s how the company started its journey. “From a cost arbitrage point of view, after setting up our operations here, we then built the supply chain. We then formed a JV with HAL for manufacturing here, but mainly our job has been about exporting from India to make for the globe and that is because of the volumes and with volumes comes skills and processes.”
Speaking about the systems that Airbus Group India has in place, Saraf said the company analyses countries and puts them in a 4×4 matrix. “The X axis is for competitiveness in terms of cost, quality, enablement for export etc. The Y axis is market. India offers cost competitiveness, skills and export enablement, and huge market opportunity. Over the last decade, we have increased our spending in the country by 16 times. Last year, we crossed $500 million in terms of sourcing. Every A320 aircraft has a passenger door that is made in India, and so also the flat track beams, which is a safety critical component. The evacuation slides for the A380 are also made in India. We have suppliers that started out as Tier 3 and today are Tier 1, and have 45 suppliers—most of them in avionics, composites, cargo, actuators, etc,” he added.
Speaking of how the theme of manufacturing resonates well with what Boeing is doing in India, Bhargava said the company recognises 12 suppliers annually out of 20,000-30,000 suppliers that it has. “In India, we are more focused on manufacturing, are strong on partnerships, determined to grow MSMEs in the country, and look strongly at skills (which is a gap in the ecosystem). The industry knows about the aft pylon and cargo ramp assemblies for the Chinook that is made in India. We have signed JVs with TASL who will be the prime supplier for attack helicopters called Apache. Growth in India will come if suppliers think of aerospace seriously. In terms of developing skills, we have partnered with NSDC to run training programmes at suppliers.”
Highlighting the government’s initiative of Make in India, Skill India and Start-up India, Singh said that Lockheed Martin has two advanced JVs—one in Hyderabad with Tata Advanced Systems and another for manufacturing large C130J aircraft. All aircraft that will fly from US for global customers will have Indian tails and centre wheel box. In fact the aircraft flying in India, the C130J special aircraft, has Indian components. The second JV is for the S92 cabin manufacturing facility and the cabin consists of more than 5,000 precision components. All these are made in India. The cabin is then sent to the US to be integrated with the rest of the subsystems. About a decade ago, we had initiated India innovation growth programme. In future, we are thinking of bring the F16 to India and if that happens it will be the only assembly for F16 for global supplies.”
Quality and precision is a critical ingredient for the aerospace and defence industry, says Vaidya. Way back in 1985, we contributed two of the powerful launch vehicles that ISRO has built now (PSLV and GSLV) and we made the liquid engines for both these rockets. We have just supplied the 120th engine for Vikas engine technology. Almost 100% of the metallic content of the supersonic cruise missile of Brahmos is built at Godrej. The Vikas engines we make gets fired the first time only when it is in orbit. You cannot test it at ground level and if you do, then most of the parts have to be replaced. So we make 20 engines, fire one and if that performs well then we assume that the other 19 will also perform well in orbit. When we started delivering for the missile programme, we had to give a 10-year guarantee. Some of the missiles are given upgraded life of 5 years or 15 years and a part that is produced will be used only once in 5 or 15 years. When we bag contracts, ISRO or DRDO send across their engineers to our plant to understand our quality processes. We need to qualify, calibrate and certify every activity. When we manufacture, we have to consider the residual life of the component,” he added.
Khatri highlighted how TAL has become a success story when Ratan Tata was approached by Boeing for a collaboration to make one of their most ambitious developmental programmes in terms of titanium hybrid floor beams for their 787-dreamliner. In October 2014, TAL manufactured and dispatched the first advanced composite floor beam. TAL had no idea about composites. But in short span of three years, it absorbed the entire capability which even Boeing was doing at its developmental sector in Seattle. Of the 550 employees at Nagpur, 80% are from local institutes. We dispatched the 5,000th part last month to Boeing and now have set up another generic facility to support another contract signed with Airbus for almost $170 million. Today TAL is the only company outside the US that supplies advanced composites to the 787 Dreamliner.
Speaking of how composites have become their largest business, Mukherjee said that composites are basically formed by a composition of materials that have different properties and bound together by a medium called resin. “We supply products to Airbus for their A320 and A350 and to Boeing for the tail cone, and also for the Chinook helicopters, engines to Rolls Royce, including their most modern ones. Composites are used where lightweight is required. The density of steel is 7.87, aluminium is 2.80, whereas carbon fibre is 1.75 and the epoxy used is 1.2. So it is 6-7 times lighter than steel and that is what the aircraft industry wants.”
Partners speak
Saurabh Mittal, marketing manager, manufacturing vertical, Ricoh explained how the company’s products can help plants and save on time, cost and quality. Companies need minimal time to market, new products, leading to lower cost and quality precision. One needs enterprise level manufacturing intelligence for efficiency and need data right on dashboards. Product data management solution is something that Ricoh has, which can help the companies hit the market correctly. Once inventory is out from the warehouse and hits the shop floor, Ricoh can help offer traceability.
Abhishek Baheti, co-founder & CEO, Ambily Technologies, has an invention. Having seen the crush on the logistics system, he stepped up to aggregate the ecosystem of truckers, trailers and warehouses and bring them online. Large organisations can design their supply chain in the most flexible way. Companies face distribution and scheduling challenges and there is a lack of visibility with agents/brokers. Reverse logistics too is a problem. So STEP helps the companies align with truckers and also makes sure that truckers too don’t have to wait too long at octrois. Ambily Technologies has tied up with 300 warehouses and has 2,000 trucks on board currently.
Nothing impressed the audience more than the fact that there is someone in the country who thought of Celebrating Manufacturing. Ravi Raghavan, MD, Bharat Fritz Werner (BFW) launched the new programme he has in mind — to be held in Pune on October 19 — which is celebrating manufacturing. The event will have elite panellists that will speak of Factories of the Future, sourcing talent, among other things.
It was time to move to the Awards evening.