Industrial Automation Magazine India

Industry 4.0 is an umbrella term for a group of path-breaking technologies

Published on : Tuesday 30-11--0001

From just a concept a few years ago, Industry 4.0 is now a reality. Is the Indian industry keeping pace with these rapid developments?

The Indian Industry today is very much aware – at least at a high level – of the possibilities from Industry 4.0. As such there is much openness to learn about the same and to understand how it may help them achieve higher productivity.

Surya Automation helps companies implement Industry 4.0. What is the typical profile of your customer?

The typical profile of our customer is that of a large scale manufacturer. We have done a lot of implementations for the market leading automotive OEMs and their Tier 1 vendors.

What is the scope of services that you provide?

A key differentiator for Surya Automation is that we provide the solution end-to-end; right from the Strategy Consulting piece to the commissioning of the actual machines that will execute the strategy. As such we are in a unique niche.

Industry 4.0 is an umbrella term for a group of path-breaking technologies, including Robotics, Mechatronics, Industrial IoT, Additive Manufacturing, Augmented Reality, Big Data Analytics, Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence (including Machine Learning) and Data Security. We use different combinations of these technologies, based on the actual problem to be solved for the customer.

Surya Automation offers clear RoI-based solutions that guarantee parametric improvements such as increased production output, lowered cycle time, reduced rejection rates, lower cost of production and so on. At the same time we integrate data across all machines and platforms with the MES and ERP, provide transparency through tracking as well as remote monitoring and control of machines and other assets, minimise downtime through Condition Based Monitoring, add Traceability (of batch or individual unit, as may be required), and provide custom reports which can drill down to the real-time OEE at an individual machine level!

How do you deal with the dilemma of accommodating the legacy equipment?

Almost all large manufacturers in Asia have legacy equipment and legacy software on the Operational Technology (OT) front. For example, an old injection moulding machine may have its internal parameters displayed on Andon boards, but these are not being recorded or monitored over time, so there is no history of the same, and very valuable data is being lost. In such cases we put in devices to bring such OT data into the IT network, where  the data can be harvested, cleaned, analysed and valuable insights can be drawn to improve productivity, quality, reduce down-time and scrap, and so on.

So our approach is to not throw anything away: We typically retrofit an intelligent layer over the legacy equipment, or we just simply implement ways to integrate the legacy devices and legacy software seamlessly into the new technology landscape.

Often potential customers are looking for piecemeal solutions. How easy or difficult it is to convince a customer to go for a holistic approach?

Most customers want to see something working first. So while most of them insist on starting with piecemeal solutions, once they see a small working piece actually improving productivity and cost efficiency, they become more amenable to a holistic approach. Gaining their trust involves a slow and steady approach.

Cost is often the most important factor. What kind of RoI is realised with Industry 4.0 solutions?

We today have the technology that allows us to think ambitiously. If in earlier times a 5 to 7% productivity improvement would have been phenomenal, we today have cutting-edge technologies that allow us to aim to 25 to 35% improvement, which is a very substantial RoI for any manufacturer.

As a service provide and integrator, what are your challenges in executing a project?

The three biggest challenges are also ironically the very enablers for Industry 4.0: Data, Technology and Connectivity.

In terms of Data, either this is not being collected at all, or what is being collected is not very relevant, or a lot of it has been collected for ages, but nobody has a clue what to do with it!

In terms of Technology, typical challenges include integrating legacy systems. Often the solution includes integrating products of different technology providers, which in the absence of a common interoperable platform is a difficult task to implement, and equally difficult to maintain. Since Industry 4.0 is a sunrise industry, finding people with the right technical skills is a challenge, and significant investment has to be made in constant training and upgrading.

In terms of Connectivity, the digitalisation efforts done inside the client organisation, do not always find a digital supply chain in the external world to integrate to (though this is slowly coming into place).

Do you have enough use cases to convince a fence sitting manufacturing enterprise?

Yes, we certainly have enough use cases, which show Faster Output, of a Better Quality at a Lower Cost (which are three factors that could almost be considered the Holy Grail of old-style manufacturing), and which today, with Industry 4.0, we can upgrade to connected smart systems that ensure Remote Real-time Monitoring, Predictability, Unit-level Traceability and Data Security.

In one of our projects for the Indian vendor cluster of a European car maker, we showed a clear overall RoI of nearly 35%, by implementing process automation that reduced the process cycle-time by 60%, reduced the low skilled contract labour component by 80%, increased accuracy level to over 99.9%, provided real time tracking of OK and Reject parts, and also provided unit level traceability by shift, operator, batch and model number. The data being collected, is also being continuously monitored and analysed to provide insights on continuous improvement.

What kind of challenges may cause an organisation to avoid or go slow on implementing Industry 4.0 technologies?

First, is the cost of acquiring the required skill-sets and transformation technologies to implement Industry 4.0 – and here they should realise that most Industry 4.0 technologies have a clear RoI that pays for itself.

Second, would be the fear of change – Digital Transformation brings huge changes in process and organisation structures, which require moving out of existing comfort zones.

Third, there could be a lack of vision in the decision making layer – a mind-set of why change if things have been working fine for decades, and so the need is not seen to prepare for the inevitable disruption that the future will bring. But again, they may not realise that if they do not disrupt themselves, the future inevitably will.

Vikas Dhawan is an alumnus of IIM-Calcutta, with almost 30 years of technology experience. He is also a public speaker on various technical subjects, the most recent talk being at the annual Pune Data Conference (http://punedataconference.com/) where he spoke on the role of Big Data Analytics in Industry 4.0.