Industrial Automation Magazine India

Robots actually boost productivity and efficiency of the shop floor employees

Published on : Saturday 01-08-2020

Rajesh Nath, Managing Director, VDMA India Services Private Limited, German Engineering Federation (VDMA).

What explains the relatively low adoption of robots in India even as Asia leads the boom? The primary reason for India delaying to implement the applications of robots is that we are a labour intensive economy. A notion exists that the implementation of automation will make several jobs redundant. The annual installations of industrial robots in the Asia region will see a steady growth rate of 13.7% from 2019 onwards till 2022 as compared to the 5% growth rate in the US and Europe region. China is leading the industrial robot installation market with 154,000 installations in 2018. India on the other hand is way behind in installing around 4,300 robots in 2018. The low adoption in India is clearly visible from this statistic. Moreover, the industrial robotics market size will grow from USD 48.7 billion in 2019 to USD 75.6 billion by 2024, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 9.2% during the forecast period.

The dependence on human intervention is deeply embedded in the mind-set of Indians. Furthermore, the capital expenditure required to set up a completely automated manufacturing process is quite large, and owing to this reason, several businesses shy away from exploring this option further as they prefer to believe that ‘Let things be the way it as long as it’s working’.

Why has the Indian manufacturing industry in general not followed the success of the automobile industry, which also leads in robot applications?
The underlying fact is that manufacturing process in the automotive industry is a high volume game and there is a great degree of standardisation in these processes. The automotive industry attracted Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) worth US$20.85 billion during the period April 2000 to December 2018, according to the Government’s Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP). In this scenario, India’s automotive industry (including component manufacturing) is expected to reach US$51.4-282.8 billion by 2026. We can understand that there is success in the automotive industry with robotics applications due to the large capital injection and that the industry is growing every year. It is estimated that by 2021, India will emerge as the third largest PV manufacturer.

Other industries like electronics, food processing and warehousing have tremendous growth potential to implement robotics and automation to aid their operations. The warehousing industry is growing, with India spending 14.4% of its GDP on warehousing and logistics as compared to the 8% spending by other developing nations. Moreover, the GST system has benefitted this industry leading to a 2.5% reduction in its cost structure. With this visible growth, there is massive scope to implement automation and robotics in this growing sector. Other manufacturing industries will be able to share the same success once capacity utilisation increases and when these industries undertake forward and backward integration of activities.

Job losses is often cited as a reason against robots, but the industry also faces skills shortage – is there some contradiction here?
A common notion when it comes to robotics and automation is that they make jobs redundant and this leads to laying off employees. This is not necessarily the case. Robots are here to aid and assist us in our shop floor activities. They actually boost productivity and efficiency of the shop floor employees by reducing fatigue and increasing output.

Robots substitute labour activities but do not replace jobs. Less than 10% of jobs are fully automatable. Increasingly, robots are used to complement and augment labour activities; the net impact on jobs and the quality of work is positive. Automation provides the opportunity for humans to focus on higher-skilled, higher-quality and higher-paid tasks. Various forecasts show the productivity improvements of 30% over the next 10 years, spurred particularly by the uptake of robots in SMEs as robots become more affordable, more adaptable and easier to program.

Cobots and articulated robots are being introduced in various industries in India in a slow but steady manner. The Indian workforce still lacks the required skills to successfully understand and thrive in the robotics and automation sector. One solution that could alleviate this problem to a certain extent is the collaboration between companies and colleges in order to introduce a curriculum which contains a mixture of theoretical and practical learning similar to the ‘Dual System’ being followed in Germany. This curriculum needs to follow a dynamic process in order to adapt to new industry requirements every year.

There are a few robot companies in India that are in the news. Can these companies compete with established global majors?
As far as competing with established companies is concerned, competition based on innovation is viable. However, when it comes to installation, there cannot be a comparison. China remains the world´s largest industrial robot market with a share of 36% of total installations. India on the other hand accounts for 1.12% of total installations. India has made its ambitions to become a manufacturing superpower abundantly clear and in view of the Industrial Revolution 4.0, rolled out a manufacturing policy to push its share to 25% of GDP by significantly consolidating the Make in India campaign.

As of now, competing with established global players on multiple fronts is far from reality, but India is moving towards a digital and technological growth phase which can put it on par with global leaders in the robotics industry in the years to come.

Given the present Covid-19 crisis, is this the right time for more automation in general, robots in particular?
The Covid-19 crisis showed the vulnerability of our operations. This crisis has presented a great opportunity by shedding light on the way forward by implementing automation. Human safety and social distancing will be a major part of the new normal and automation in general along with robots in particular are the most feasible tools to alleviate these concerns.

As industries resume production with truncated work force, manufacturers are looking for solutions to ensure that there is no loss of efficiency. Cobots are within reach of the MSME sector, given the machines’ low demand for space and maintenance. The demand for cobots is global and the demand for cobots grew 31.3 per cent in volume in 2019, after a big boom in the previous year, this number was up by 68%.

Studies have shown that there is an 85% decrease in idle time when humans and robots work together. We can infer that it is the right time for more automation in general and robots in particular, not only with respect to the Covid-19 crisis but also in relation to better manufacturing processes. This pandemic has sort of shown us that we do need to move forward technologically, not only to improve operations, but also to safeguard human life.

What is the VDMA perspective on this subject for India?
While in the pre-crisis era, automation was viewed as a means to innovate, reduce cost and gain a competitive edge, now the purpose has shifted to survival and damage limitation. To mitigate global supply chain risks for future crises, manufacturers will consider bolstering their in-house capabilities instead of out-sourcing manufacturing to other countries. The pandemic will intensify the need to automate. In fact the focal point in this drive to automate would be especially in jobs that have the 5 D factor – dull and repetitive, difficult and complex, dangerous and hazardous, dirty and polluting and the new dimension of distancing and safety. Although, the degree of adoption may vary depending on the industry and the readiness of the companies to make huge investments at this time, the Covid-19 crisis has certainly acted as a catalyst in the transition to automation, especially in building resilience among businesses for future disruptions.

The need of the hour is to adopt “baby steps” in automation which can generate a faster Return on Investment (RoI) and can be implemented without high capital expenditure. Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and Robotics would drive businesses to help manufacturers to produce quality products at a better cost and through that to give them the competitive edge to progress and prosper in these challenging times. The important role of automation in manufacturing is here to stay and the journey to enhance automation and robotics in the reboot phase is just beginning.

Rajesh Nath, a graduate Mechanical Engineer followed by International Business Program from IIM Kolkata, has 30 years of experience in Indo-German trade working with several reputed German and Indian companies in various sectors. Since 1999 he has been working with the German Engineering Federation (VDMA), which he is heading as Managing Director, India. He has played a pivotal role in promoting and strengthening the business and economic ties between India and Germany. In 2017 Rajesh Nath was conferred the ‘Cross of the Order of Merit’, Germany’s highest civilian honour awarded to individuals for their services to Germany. It is Germany’s only honour that is awarded to both Germans and foreigners in all fields of endeavour. It is the highest tribute paid to individuals for achievements in economic, social, political or intellectual realm.