Industrial Automation Magazine India

There is a lot of misconception or lack of knowledge about Industry 4.0

Published on : Friday 11-11-2022

Industrial Automation in conversation with:

Mr Dattatraya Navalgundkar, Director, C4i4 Lab.
Mr Sunil Mehta, President AIA, and General Manager, Mitsubishi Electric India Private Limited (Factory Automation & Industrial Division).
Mr Pradeep Arora, Managing Director, Turck India.
 
Please tell us something about C4i4 and the activities undertaken by the organisation in India.
Dattatraya Navalgundkar: The Centre for Industry 4.0 (C4i4) Lab at Pune is part of a national initiative named SAMARTH (Smart Automated Manufacturing and Rapid Transformation Hub) Udyog, which stands for competitive or capable industry. It is one of the four centres set up by the Department of Heavy Industries, Government of India. Of the four centres, one is based in Delhi, two at Bangalore and this one at Pune. Through this initiative, the Government, Industry, Academic Institutions, and Industry Associations have joined forces to promote digital transformation in manufacturing, to develop an ecosystem that nurtures innovation and drives growth. The objectives are to:
- Accelerate and drive the adoption of Industry 4.0
- Provide a platform for making manufacturing enterprises globally competitive, and
- Develop an ecosystem of technologically advanced manufacturing industries. 
 
What is the theme of this workshop and the relevance it has for the industry?

DN: The workshop we have today is on precision motion technology and today happens to be Engineers Day. 
 
There are four activities, the foremost being skill building with end users for automotive or engineering companies, to let them understand different applications and data technologies. Secondly, there is an experience centre where the companies can come and see, so they can actually believe it. The third is the how part – we help companies understand how to take this Industry 4.0 concept forward – it is more like an advisory; and the fourth area is, we are building an ecosystem together so that when companies are doing something new, they should know where they should go to source the technologies and understand the nuances. 
 
For today’s event, we have a few companies demonstrating their latest products – Festo, Hitachi Hi-Rel Power Electronics Pvt Ltd, Mitsubishi Electric India Private Limited, Janatics, Jendamark and Kuebler – and apart from industry representatives there are also students from a few educational institutes, who will also get the exposure to these products, have one-to-one interactions. Additionally, there are also a couple of seminars for educating the user industries. These are not sales pitch sessions, just informative, and there is no commercial angle.   
 
Coming to the Automation Industry Association how do you see this sync with C4i4 and how does the AIA look at this event?

Pradeep Arora: Our agenda is to bring automation to the industry, especially the MSME sector. The second thing is skill building, and third is to create campus connect between industry and educational institutions. To that extent, there are similarities in the activities of AIA and C4i4, as we also have these programs to create more awareness and train the faculties with the latest technologies. Another aspect is we are focusing on the MSMEs and their needs, to support them when they want to upgrade and update their manufacturing units. We are working together for knowledge sharing to bring technology directly to the user industries because AIA has a large base of members that include many manufacturers of automation products – so we have synergies with C4i4. As the automation need is felt by most companies today, this is a good initiative and we have a bright future.
 
Would you like to add more to this Mr Mehta?
Sunil Mehta: As Mr Pradeep has briefed on the common goals of the AIA and C4i4 we support each in events and activities. A couple of months earlier we did a focused event on Sensor and today for Engineers Day we have this event on precision motion technologies. Today most industries are moving towards automation, robotics and other emerging technologies so there is a need for more knowledge sessions for the industry, as well as for the faculties and students of educational institutions, to make them aware of the latest technologies. The idea is to promote technologies so that industry adopts these and we can guide them in implementation, towards their journey of digital transformation. With Campus Connect, we want to bridge the gap between the academy and industry, with this objective we are collaborating with the C4i4.
 
AIA formed in 2004, is part of CEFC at IIT Delhi through the AIA Foundation for Smart Manufacturing (FSM), which is the initiative of the Ministry of Heavy Industries. At the Delhi centre we have set up labs without promoting brands – this is more generic – and AIA members are mainly from the factory automation sector, software companies and integrators. Since January 2022, I have taken the position of the President of AIA and I am trying to make things more active and more visible.
 
A question relevant to both manufacturers and user industries – how prepared is the industry to adopt automation and the difference between pre- and post-Covid?

PA: As we talk of automation in Indian history, the industry had already picked up pace in pre-Covid time and the automation systems adopted by the manufacturing industry are already up to the mark. During the Covid times, there was the need for non-contact technologies that was felt much higher, and today with Industry 4.0, this has become the most relevant topic – the need for more non contact technologies with more automation. There is surge in demand and the disruption in the supply chain among others, are all the factors that contributed to the growth and implementation of automation technologies. So we now see a need for more motion control technologies, robotics, IIoT, track and trace, edge computing, cloud ecosystem, etc. As the machines have become more advanced, there are more robots coupled with vision systems for advanced automation. That is the reason automation has moved away from being merely PC-based and become more decentralised, which is what the present trends signify.
 
So what is the percentage of those ready, and the ones still unprepared?
SM: If you look at the automotive industry, it is highly automated – all 4- and 2-wheeler manufacturing operations and even their suppliers are all highly automated. The advancements they have made in the last 10 years are simply phenomenal. When you talk of implementation of Industry 4.0 in such factories, there has been movement happening for connectivity of the shop floor to their ERP systems. Still there is large scope to adopt latest technologies like Robotics, AI, and Machine Learning for preventive and predictive maintenance at these companies. 
 
Another point is about medium and small companies – most of them have understood the importance of small incremental changes, especially during the pandemic. They are now moving away from the traditional systems, they want to upgrade to the latest technologies and reduce their dependency on human intervention and skilled labour. Fortunately, there are several start-ups and small service providers who are serving these industries at a reasonable cost. They can have connectivity with smart phones or their home-grown ERP systems, all this is happening.
 
Coming to skill building, how do the two organisations – C4i4 and AIA – approach this area?
DN: We are working with a lot of companies in the automotive sector. There are two parts to this – automation technologies and data technologies. There are challenges in both these areas.  

C4I4 has programs to train the existing persons in decision making and managerial levels, which are already on the job, to train them to use new technologies and from that standpoint, have developed modular programs for advanced training in both digital and data fronts, for different factories. The outcomes are documented for future reference. Earlier vendors used to come and tell us that this is the product and can you help us in implementation, but today we have the industry talking about technology asking us to help them solve their problems. This is what will accelerate the adoption of Industry 4.0. Another thing is there is a lot of misconception or lack of knowledge about Industry 4.0 so we are developing trainers across India who can train individuals to clear the misconceptions about implementation leading to job losses or their work being continuously monitored. So far we have trained about 250 Champions for this, and about 50 Data Champions, because unless we are able to use the data correctly, there is no point in connecting machines and collecting data. Data must be analysed and acted upon. This is where Data Champions come in. Our trainers – about 100 of them – are people who talk the regional languages and communicate well with the workers, convince them and clear the misunderstandings and help them embrace technology.
 
For general awareness, during the last three years we have conducted many programs and training sessions where we have trained about 7000 personnel across industries.