NASSCOM Summit focusses on industry 4.0

The seventh edition of National Association of Software and Services Companies’ (NASSCOM) annual engineering summit held in Pune on October 7-8, 2015 was aimed at exploring the viability of adopting the industry 4.0, which is also called as industrial internet wherein machines execute operations by seamlessly communicating with each other, in the Indian manufacturing space.

Industry leaders at the event highlighted that the concept of smart manufacturing brings together the advances of two transformative revolutions – machines (from industrial revolution) married to seamless information exchange, computing and communication (from information age) among each other.

Among the major topics that were discussed during the seminars and panel discussions were big data and analytics (opportunities and challenges in processing the real time footage, information), internet of engineered things (IOET), smart manufacturing (fully automated factories and independent factory-to-factory communication), 3D printing – reshaping the manufacturing world and others.

The verticals covered during the summit included automotive, aerospace, energy, heavy machinery, construction, electronics and others.

According to a report co-authored by Strategy& (global strategy consulting unit at Pricewaterhouse Coopers) and NASSCOM, a trade association of the Indian information technology and business process outsourcing industry, the engineering research and development (ER&D) spend is expected to reach US$ 850-900 billion by 2020 from approximately US$ 700 billion in 2012-13. Of this, the automotive, aerospace and industrial machinery sectors are expected to account for 24 percent of the overall corporate ER&D spend, which also means that the amount would be close to US$ 200-210 billion.

The report also suggested that electronics and embedded software accounted for 20 percent of the cost of the vehicle a decade ago and today it stands at more than 35 percent. Richard Welford, chief strategy officer, Tata Technologies told Autocar Professional that the proportion of this spend will soon grow beyond 50 percent of the total development cost of passenger cars.

While product development is one part, experts anticipate that the manufacturing operations will also shift towards the digital platform wherein supply chain, quality check, production and other areas – all will be digitised within the gamut of smart manufacturing.

In this context, Samir Yajnik, president, sales and COO – Asia Pacific, Tata Technologies, said: “The deployment of industry 4.0 is a necessity in the manufacturing space and this can be attributed to high level of personalisation as the customer demand is trending in that direction. This not just requires a flexible production environment but also a design-anywhere, manufacture-anywhere approach. An ecosystem of connected enterprises is the need of the hour and fortunately technology is also evolving to enable the same. Despite the existence of a few challenges, India, in many ways, is more than ready for industry 4.0 and companies that look at manufacturing in India should consider making investments in this direction.”

“Work on the front of policy corrections and policy interjections taken up by NASSCOM, along with the government departments, is an ongoing process. Public private partnership (PPP) is the right and most pragmatic approach to go forward as it creates a conducive environment even on the side of skill development. Skills in the R&D and fundamental research (material research, connectivity, technology and other areas) should be honed up,” he continued.

To give a real picture of industry 4.0 in the automotive manufacturing space, Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India (MBRDI) had showcased a full-scale dummy model of the laser welding process carried out by two robotic arms communicating with each other and working in tandem to execute the operations.

Giving his perspective from the R&D side, Manu Saale, managing director and CEO, MBRDI told Autocar Professional that “the R&D in India is ready for industry 4.0. The industry will soon see full-scale digitisation of factories, supply chain, manufacturing, and other operations. Internet of things in manufacturing domain will gain prominence and jobs such as vehicle quality check will happen in real time without waiting for stock availability or manpower. One of the takeaways from the Modi-Merkel meeting was that the German companies are looking for partnering Indian firms for industry 4.0.”