Industrial Automation Magazine India

The iFactory solution paves the way for digital transformation

Published on : Tuesday 02-11-2021

Barathiraja M, Key Account Sales Manager, Advantech.

Advantech has a long and illustrious legacy starting with industrial PCs. How would you describe the present business of the company in the overall Industry 4.0 context?
Yes, the main business of Advantech is industrial computers, but currently we offer many different hardware and software solutions in the Industry 4.0 context. These include box PCs, panel PCs, human-machine interfaces (HMIs), IO modules, Ethernet switches, etc., in addition to other hardware solutions and energy monitoring devices, i-Factory smart manufacturing suite, CNC monitoring solutions, and ESRP software packages.

The presentation mentioned the challenges to scale up in Industry 4.0. How does Advantech help customers overcome these, for example, the i-Factory solutions?
The Advantech i-Factory is a solutions ready package so, the customer can directly utilise it for the deployment. It has features of OEE, EHS and EAN, so it paves the way for digital transformation.

In the overall automation adoption, discrete manufacturing has an edge in adoption. What explains the slow pace in process industries and are there any specific solutions?
For discrete manufacturing industry workflow and management are key roles, and our iFactory solution suites are having these features so it helps for the digital transformation.

What are the new products and solutions you launched during the recent Automation Expo Connect?
At the Automation Expo Connect virtual event last month we launched our iFactory solution suite.

Advantech products are not new to India. How does the company operate in this market, which is a huge one?
Advantech products are well known in the Indian market. Our diverse product ranges and solution suites enables us to provide different solutions across the automation industry.

Going forward, what potential does Advantech see in the Indian market which is now making strong efforts to scale up manufacturing?
Most of the organisations understand the key factors of digital transformation in manufacturing industry and Advantech iFactory solution suites will be an exact solution for deployment to scale up the manufacturing.

Barathiraja M, has over 7 years of experience in Sales & Marketing, Business Development & Stakeholder Management at Advantech, handling product and solution based companies on the verticals of industrial automation, energy and transportation in India. Have managed the entire sales life cycle including prospecting lead qualification, product service presentation, proposal presentation and sales closure, he works closely with clients to accelerate development and reduce time-to-market, to deliver innovative products.

Advantech’s corporate vision is to enable an intelligent planet. The company is a global leader in the fields of IoT intelligent systems and embedded platforms. To embrace the trends of IoT, big data, and artificial intelligence, Advantech promotes IoT hardware and software solutions with the Edge Intelligence WISE-PaaS core to assist business partners and clients in connecting their industrial chains. Advantech is also working with business partners to co-create business ecosystems that accelerate the goal of industrial intelligence.