Manufacturing smart with the right solutions is the order of the day
IN ITS THIRD LEG OF THE SERIES AT CHENNAI, CISCO presented the Manufacturing Today Think Turf Series on ‘Making the Shop Floor Smart for Manufacturers’. The round table was represented by an exclusive group of 15 manufacturing and plant heads who articulated on topics such as digitisation on the shop floor, smart manufacturing, skill development, investment, and low cost manufacturing. Manish Kulkarni of BDB Consulting, the knowledge partner, discussed issues that are at the crux of shop floor operations along with S Prabaharan, regional manager, systems engineering, Cisco Systems.
The panellists included Saurabh Gupta, works manager, Akzo Nobel India Limited; DC Rajaraman, head, manufacturing, production, ABI Showatech India
Ltd; Felix Homburg, VP, Daimler India; Ashok Kumar Chopra, VP, new product quality, Ashok Leyland; S Sreenivas, GM, production, Delphi-TVS Diesel Systems; Uma Shankar, head, manufacturing engineering, Delphi-TVS Diesel Systems; Rajesh Shankar, assistant VP, Hi-Tech Carbon (Aditya Birla Group); KA Unni Nayar, DGM, engineering, VP, works, JK Tyres, Chennai; Ravindran G, GM and head, Manapakkam plant, L&T Valves; H Shanmugavel, plant head, Kancheepuram plant, L&T Valves; Paratha Sarathy, plant head, Ramco Cement; Ravindra Bharadwaj, plant head, Schneider Electric Infrastructure Ltd;
Ashok Malhotra, plant head, SRF Limited; SK Premramesh, DGM, production engineering, TAFE; and Deepak Kacker, VP, factory operations, Kobelco Construction Equipment India.
IN HIS KEYNOTE address, Vinay Dua, business development manager, industry solutions, Internet of Everything, Cisco Systems India, said, “Although we have huge focus on digitisation, the idea is finding a goal to as to how technology can aid convergence of the top floor and the shop floor. A second point is increasing productivity on the shop floor without additional investments on existing IT platforms most of you already have in place. We know that manufacturers would like real time visibility of how their plants and machines are performing so that proactive action can be taken that can help save money. We see the factory floor evolving with the advent of open standards systems that are not proprietary in nature. For instance, you may want remote asset monitoring and predictive maintenance and it may not be possible to depute people. We would love to hear in this discussion your plans.”
Speaking on the elements of a shop floor, Malhotra said that his company has built a system comprising coding and sensors and that it was moving to the next step of vibration analysis. However, for Homburg, smart would be a technology that allows humans to concentrate on what they really should do, which is being creative, leaving the monotonous things to the ‘smart’ systems.
Simultaneously, Chopra of Ashok Leyland says that smart technology would be emulating Walmart’s way of tracking materials with complete accuracy.
Most companies prefer mechanisation so as to reduce manual labour. Partha Sarathy said, “Our integrated plant is controlled through a central control room. Our challenge is ensuring quality of material going out into the marketplace on the date of despatch which is also the date of production.”
CONSIDERING THAT CONNECTED manufacturing does not work to its full capacity, Sreenivas and Uma Shankar explained how installing software in pockets can hamper productivity as upgrades too are costly and cannot be done every time.
For most companies, smart is not a destination, but a journey. Some of them already deploy robots and RFIDs. But there is a dire need to enhance features akin to the mobile revolution and e-commerce. Some of the panellists are waiting for a healthy interaction with machines directly. Currently, analysis is done by a supervior and decision making is thus delayed. Both Gupta of Akzo Nobel and Rajaraman said that they look forward to improvements in man, machines, movement, materials, inventory, etc. Their focus would be to measure their current activities so that the right solution can be deployed. They added that understanding and training of the existing data and software would greatly help.
What often cropped up was the imperativeness of asset management and product lifecycle management. Product manufacturers are eager to developing
smart products that will have sensors fixed on it. So besides building smartness on the shop floor, they are also looking at building it into products.
While managements are willing to spend on the backbone software, there are other systems also required at the shop floor. Shanmugavel and Ravindran
opined that the challenge is tracking customer orders without losing the flexibility they now have because of longer lead times. Both their companies handle 500-600 projects simultaneously and have to deliver to the customer on time with least cost. So they need the right technology to minimise the thousands of components needed for the projects.
The use of algorithms and logic can be used for data analysis between shop floor and top floor. KA Unni Nayar explained how data should be made available to the shop floor personnel thus allowing them to take decisions quickly while ensuring a smoother supply chain.
Premramesh and Bharadwaj speaking about the concept of modular assembly lines said that a pure systems driven approach will enhance manufacturing
capabilities and allow the shop floor person to switch models on assembly line thus helping the company to service customers faster and smoothly.
While Rajesh Shankar wants smart processes, smart product and smart people, along with innovation; Kacker wants agility and the ability to forecast thus allowing quicker decision making processes.