Digitalisation becomes bedrock of manufacturing process
Digitalisation heralds upskilling in the country and the same has been discussed in the ‘CII’s Tamil Nadu Manufacturing Summit’ with the theme ‘Leveraging Digital Manufacturing’. The industry captains briefly discussed the manufacturing challenges and hiccups at the one-day conference organised in Chennai recently by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
The ‘Skill India’ campaign is very relevant in the manufacturing sector. The mundane tasks are going to be automated. Hence the importance of upskilling of the employees was discussed in the conference. In his inaugural address, Vikram Kapur, Principal Secretary, Industries, Government of Tamil Nadu said, “Manufacturing plays a vital role in the country and it contributes 17% of GDP. Statistics says India contributes 2% of the global manufacturing output. The digitalisation has benefited the service sector a lot. The recently culminated ‘Global Investors Meet’ attracted 98 MoUs out of which 68 hit the ground. This conversion is phenomenal and this has become realised at the back of good infrastructure, man power, connectivity to name a few in Tamil Nadu. Digitalisation has not spared the manufacturing sector. Empowering workers for the new age technologies is needed to be globally competitive. There are challenges imparting skills due to socio-economic and geographic backgrounds. But digitalisation calls for it and excuses are not encouraged. There is a need for manufacturing companies and CII like bodies to tie up with research institutes and work together for a common goal.”
He highlighted that digitalisation generates huge data and it has to be shared to derive the desired benefits. Do-ability of business is ranked now and this is a welcome move as the states will come forward and break the stereotype in process soon.Tamil Nadu has its strength in winning over the ranks.
Vivekanand Vanmeeganathan, Country Manager and MD, Caterpillar India, said, “The momentary spikes should be given to manufacturing sector and the burning platform will warrant us the output. The demarcation should be nullified between the blue collar and white collar workforce. The digital hitting the stage, will change the environment totally. Customer’s expectations are not going to be constant as they are not driven by his individuality but by his customers and in turn the chain continues. Hence disruption at any level should be invited. Cyber physical integration will be the bottom line upon which the industry 4.0 is based. The manufacturer should be able to address the customer needs, workforce skills and lead time by leveraging the technology.”
When digitalisation is pervading all areas, manufacturing cannot be an exception, S, Srinivasan, VP and Head, RPM Business Unit, L&T Rubber Processing Machinery said. He said that the platform should connect technology, leadership, finance, operations, products, services and innovations. The web or digital portal should be customer-friendly and analyse customer behavior. It should give customised suggestions as additional inputs. The quality, reliability, cost, service everything should go hand in hand and the brand should speak and convince the customer.
Speaking on the occasion, Muthuraman Ramesh, Chairman, TN Manufacturing Summit 2016 and Director, Caterpillar India said, “The government of India has embarked upon many initiatives to digitalise all the sectors. We are leveraging the digital manufacturing techniques and have outlined the smart factory environment in our plant. Our factory is paperless now and machines are interconnected. We have a closed loop system where everybody has access to information at their finger tips. With this, asset is utilised effectively, quality is better and the payback is lucrative. Our efficiency has gone up. With this digitalisation there is no ‘trail behind concept’ and everyone has the same goal, to reach ‘number one’. The organisation has to introspect and prepare itself and succeed in this digital world.”