Industrial Automation Magazine India

India is at a very interesting cusp in its manufacturing evolution

Published on : Thursday 07-09-2023

Suprakash Chaudhuri, Head – Digital Industries, Siemens Limited, India.

Digitalisation and automation are said to be game changers – what are the technologies deployed to facilitate this change?
A complete and holistic digitalisation flow across the manufacturing cycle using a ‘Digital Twin’ is a critical constituent in helping our customers in their digital transformation journey. The Digital Twin helps merge all the data from the entire lifecycle of products and production, from the initial concept to the finished products, as well as their production and feeds this back into a performance cycle where further enhancements are possible. Cutting-edge technologies like AI, Machine Learning, Big Data and Analytics using various cloud and edge applications, 5G technology and Cybersecurity make it possible to harness data and use it intensively across the manufacturing value chain.
 
With our deep domain know-how and vertical experience, we are helping our customers create a blueprint for their digital transformation across the vertical (the digital flow from the digital twin of the product to the real product) and horizontal dimensions (from OT to IT) and co-create solutions. Along with creating a level-playing field for Indian enterprises to compete with global players, we are also enabling Indian manufacturing enterprises, especially small and medium enterprises, to free up their capital expenditure and grow sustainably.
 
How will the Siemens Xcelerator platform facilitate this transformation? What about the compatibility issues?
To navigate complex environmental and business challenges, manufacturing enterprises need access to a wide variety of tools and platforms for maintaining data integrity, access and security, facilitating business decisions backed by intelligent insights, upskilling of the workforce and the management of complex cultural changes, amongst others.
 
Siemens has launched Xcelerator as an open and evolving digital business ecosystem with a curated portfolio of IoT-enabled hardware, software, and digital services, designed with the key principles of interoperability, flexibility and openness. It is aimed at supporting customer efforts to accelerate their digital transformation and create value for organisations of all sizes in industry, buildings, grids and mobility.
 
With partners across the spectrum, the Siemens Xcelerator ecosystem has IT/cloud partners and infrastructure services providers, consulting and service partners, and vertical solutions providers, all complementing Siemens solutions.
 
Its modularised functionality and APIs are integral to the journey towards next-generation software architecture that will significantly reduce integration effort and complexity. Due to this, micro services are accessible anytime, anywhere, enabling pay-as-you-grow business models while packaged business capabilities and its components can be easily reused or integrated.
 
Digital twins are increasingly deployed by sectors like aviation and automotive. How are other industries adapting to it?

With the Digital Twin, we enable manufacturing enterprises to create a virtual model of a product or a production plant. It displays their development throughout the entire lifecycle and allows operators to predict behavior, optimise performance, and implement insights from previous design and production experiences.
 
Thanks to our comprehensive domain expertise and optimised tools, Siemens is the only company that can offer this holistic approach for merging the virtual and the real world. With this, we enable our customers to reduce their product development times while at the same time increasing the flexibility, productivity and environmental efficiency of their production processes.
 
The adoption of digital twin technology varies across different industries and companies in India. Apart from aviation and automotive, industries such as manufacturing, construction, energy and utilities, and transportation have increased the adoption of digital twins. Its adoption in process industries like Pharmaceuticals, Oil, Chemicals and F&B is also on the rise.
 
Integration of IT/OT has always been a sensitive topic. Has the industry succeeded in breaking the silos?
While the horizontal integration – the bi-directional flow of data across the manufacturing chain using a digital twin, opens up opportunities, it is the vertical integration – that is, a secure communication and data exchange between Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) that is the backbone of digitalisation. However, responsibility for automation projects is splintered across departments, making it difficult for IT and OT teams to collaborate on digital projects. Firms also face challenges using data to enrich digitisation and automation efforts, including the lack of a unified data strategy across IT and OT.
 
If manufacturers are to succeed, they must cross the divide. Both sides must cross it with IT and OT meeting in the middle to share existing practices, learn from one another, and define new ways of working together. It is important to understand the requirements of both networks: Solution providers with experience in both areas understand industrial networks as part of automation, but also know the requirements of IT and calculate them accordingly. As a leading provider of automation technology, we know exactly how industrial networks must be designed. Our IT experience helps us with the digitalisation of plants and merging of the virtual and physical worlds.
 
With the proliferation of IoT enabled devices, data collection is humongous. But is all this data analysed logically and used to advantage?
It is true that many manufacturers have succeeded in only partially capturing the opportunities created by IIoT data and supporting systems. One of the greatest obstacles is the acquisition and utilisation of operational data from machines. There are two aspects here – analysing the enormous amount of data in real time and doing so closest to its source.
 
The focus should always be on the user's desired goal. The purpose also defines which data and information is made available from the field via connectivity. Close cooperation between the software manufacturer and the user (co-creation) is key to combining plant, process, and customer knowledge and meeting the defined goal. The clever analysis and combination of this data can increase its usability exponentially, thus enabling even higher savings than originally expected.
 
Skilled data scientists/experts with experience in the particular industry combined with the IIoT analytics solutions are imperative for managing, optimising and predicting business operations, ultimately leading to improvements in efficiency and profitability.
 
How can user industries ensure security and integrity of data and operations to protect against potential cyber threats?

Going by the nature of it, a smart factory is connected and thus cybersecurity risks are of a greater concern than in a traditional manufacturing unit. However, it is entirely possible to mount an effective defence.
 
Reducing risks and bringing them under control require a comprehensive security concept that considers the various elements and nature of these attacks. Strong cooperation between the various parties involved, viz., automation system operators, integrators, machine builders and vendors is also crucial. All aspects – from operating level to field level and from physical control to network and terminal protection must be tackled simultaneously to protect industrial systems against internal and external attacks. The most suitable approach for this is “defense in depth”, a multilayer security concept that gives plants both all-round and in-depth protection in accordance with the recommendations set out in IEC 62443, the leading standard for security in industrial automation. Any connected factory needs to have a strong foundation of cybersecurity.
 
To protect industries, Siemens relies on the multilayer defense-in-depth concept extended by Zero Trust principles because the only way to effectively counteract cyber threats is with a comprehensive concept that is applied at all the relevant levels. These levels are plant security, network security, and the system integrity of automation systems. Siemens offers a wide range of network and automation components with integrated security functions and the associated security services for implementing multilayer security concepts for industry.
 
How do these solutions help plants with legacy equipment and limited resources?
Security is an ongoing process, and it is important to regularly review and adapt your security measures as technology and threats evolve. While limited resources and legacy equipment may present challenges, a proactive and strategic approach can help mitigate risks and protect your industrial plant's operations and assets. Today, we can use data aggregators and communication cards to acquire data even from legacy systems. However, this is a ‘need-and-use’ based strategy and shall be defined based on a) the type of data that we intend to capture; b) use case for the captured data; and c) availability of IIoT device options that fit these legacy systems.
 
Overall, data protection and cybersecurity are no longer incidental to digital transformation; they are fundamental. Both have to be part and parcel of the company leveraging IoT. For example, Siemens teamed up with governmental and business partners in cybersecurity to implement the Charter of Trust, an initiative to protect data of individuals and companies, prevent damage to people, companies and infrastructure, and create a reliable foundation on which confidence in a networked digital world can take root and grow. Under plant security services Siemens security experts examine the whole system for specific vulnerabilities and security risks. This includes a security assessment, scanning services and industrial security consulting.
 
Companies today are under increasing pressure to follow sustainable practices that come at a cost and impact profitability. Is there a way out?
Through automation, digitalisation, and the intelligent use of data we can enable the industry to manufacture more sustainable products, make production smarter and thus more resource-efficient, and ensure greater transparency of a product’s CO2 footprint across the supply chain. If we can continuously optimise every product and every process digitally, we will use fewer resources, waste less energy and produce less waste, thereby improving profitability. Dashboards can show where the energy hogs are hiding. Virtual prototypes replace physical models, with their massive use of materials. And by taking intensive advantage of data all along the value chain, you can reliably determine and reduce a product’s ecological footprint. All of which transforms companies into true digital enterprises that can respond to all the real world’s requirements quickly, flexibly – and most importantly, sustainably.
 
What is the scenario in the Indian industry vis-a-vis these tech solutions for transformation?
We have been engaging a lot with our customers, and what we found is that nine out of ten customers see digital transformation as the most important future trend, placed above even globalisation and demographic change. These views are of key decision makers and senior management across industry verticals, from companies ranging in size from SMEs to large corporates. The importance of digital transformation has increased significantly since 2021, and so have the interest among our customers.
 
India is at a very interesting cusp in its manufacturing evolution. Rapidly increasing adoption of automation in production with an inherent prowess in software is going to be decisive for the future of manufacturing in India. The ability to respond flexibly and efficiently to rapidly changing demand and new challenges with the integration of automation and digitalisation is the opportunity for Indian manufacturers – be it food and beverages, pharmaceuticals or the automotive industry.