India becoming ‘Global Manufacturing Hub’ is a reality soon

January 3, 2022 4:29 pm

Industry 4.0, OEE, Remote operations, Automation, Robotics, predictive maintenance etc., are now essentials for even small scale units.

Certainly, there are positive signs of market recovery. Economists have predicted that India would be one of those economies to bounce back sharply. RBI has predicted GDP growth by 9.5 percent in 2022-23. Many sectors including engineering are witnessing the demand growth. At the same time there is a fear of Corona variant Omicron or any other striking back. In fact, it has already struck in many European countries. But the silver lining is that human mankind is better prepared to face the calamity. 

Expectations from IMTEX Event 

Therefore everybody – exhibitors as well as visitors are eagerly looking forward to the long awaited IMTEX 22. In addition, for the first time in history, this IMTEX will be the combination of Metal cutting and Metal forming. So certainly, we expect more quality visitors than mere crowds. Incidentally FIBRO India serves both segments. 

New features, products and manufacturing technologies expected to be displayed 

We would be launching a new high precision, modular design of Metal cutting Rotary Tables ‘FIBROMOD’ and a new EM-NC series of FIBROTOR tables for the automation industry. We would be also launching a new series of Aerial CAM units, punches and ejector pins, Nitrogen Gas springs etc. for the metal forming segment. I would not like to dwell upon more on these new products at present as one must visit to see these new launches as ‘Seeing is Believing’. 

Need for smart factory is inevitable 

The last two years of the pandemic have taught us many new things. One of them stands prominently is IoT. ‘SMART’ became the buzz word and it forced everybody to become Smart. Starting from kids` education to ordering daily household goods and making payments using smartphones became common. Then the need for a Smart Factory became inevitable. Industry 4.0, OEE, Remote operations, Automation, Robotics, predictive maintenance etc., are now essentials for even small scale units. The goal is the consistent optimum output in any adverse situation. Irrespective of the business you are in, the customer expects shortest lead time, best quality and lowest price and if you are unable to meet this requirement, he finds another supplier meeting his requirement. As such you have to be on your toes all the time. 

Views about the manufacturing outlook for 2022 in the country 

As a result, I expect the manufacturing to undergo rapid change to ‘Smart’ manufacturing. The customer expects the machine tool to be Industry 4.0 compliant. The IT infrastructure in the manufacturing plant would undergo modernisation. More jobs would be created for IT professionals in the manufacturing industry. I am sure we will be able to see all these modern gadgets at IMTEX 22. 

Apart from this, I hope to see manufacturing technology for the Electronics industry as the Government has announced PLI schemes for chip and other electronics components. Secondly the sectors like defence, Railways & Metros, Components for Aerospace industry are on the rise. They would certainly look for the suitable machinery at IMTEX 22. 

These all developments will drive the growth in the exports of engineering as well as automation projects. 

With this happening, India becoming a ‘Global Manufacturing Hub’ would be a reality with the manufacturing industry contributing 25 percent to the GDP of $ 5 Trillion sooner than later.