Boost your profitability with innovative automation

August 13, 2016 2:31 pm

Indian industries need to implement more efficient manufacturing practices that reduce cost of production and increases throughput and new automation technology.
There is an urgent need for a very strong awareness and information campaign about how innovation in machine automation, assembly automation and end of the line packaging or logistic automation can affect profitability, says Ajey Phatak, Head – Marketing, Beckhoff Automation Pvt Ltd. He feels that automation should be implemented at all stages of manufacturing.
Bring in innovative automationAutomation industry in India is more primitive and cost centred. It is also legacy driven rather than new technology driven. Innovative automation is not applied in manufacturing as in developed nations. Though there is lot of interest in implementing automation technology in manufacturing, absence of a more holistic approach is missing. This makes the efforts unproductive. There is a huge opportunity to implement techniques of automation and engineering. While consumer demand is growing, Indian manufacturers are not able to take advantage of the situation. However, many foreign company manufacturers having access to automate manufacturing technology are eating the pie. Very few selected industries are found conscious about automation technology for manufacturing and demand use of high technology to their machine vendors.  However this is restricted for very exclusive and elite products only. Thus high technology automation is still a selective market and not a mass market.
Indian industries need to implement more efficient manufacturing practices that reduce cost of production and increases throughput and new automation technology such as open automation or PC based automation, high speed machine automation, smart monitoring across the manufacturing plant is the only answer. Its expertise is easily available to many industries and hence PC based automation that integrates IT technology for higher machine performance can be of great help.
Indian SME manufacturers need not think of highly complicated customised manufacturing as attempted by developed nations but should focus on implementing automation at all stages of manufacturing. This can overcome the basic challenges of the shop floor and can optimise the cost of goods manufactured increasing profitability.
Focus on innovative packaging of finished goods can be supportive to sales growth. This is another area where automation plays an important role.
Addressing competition somehow is a price driven concept and not efficiency driven activity.   A more top bottom approach for implementing automation is needed rather than bottom up approach.
Beckhoff’s market positionBeckhoff enjoys a sizable market share in terms of high technology automation applications that demand higher RoI to the investors in manufacturing industries especially in highly specialised precision product manufacturing processes like plastics, packaging, pharmaceuticals, printing, automotive, testing and measurements, steel, metal forming and cutting etc. Other industries with special presence are HVAC and building automation, urban automation, renewable power generation, research and development, and space technology.
Prime offeringsBeckhoff is into very high end automation technology business and strongly promotes PC based automation and Ethernet based field bus communication technology like EtherCAT which increases machine performance, output quality and reduces reworks. Higher production, less wastage directly contributes to higher profits.
Machine level automation and interoperability with multiple machines and with factory automation software like MES/ SAP/ ERP is an added advantage to the manufacturers. Global manufacturing industries and those implementing IoT consider Beckhoff as one of the best technology providers.
Beckhoff is still a very young company in India and we are enabling Indian innovators to design and produce state-of-the-art machineries for manufacturing, assembly and packaging applications. Beckhoff enables ‘Made by India’ concept and not only ‘Make in India’.
New entrantsLinear transport systems are currently the topic of lively discussion in the packaging industry. XTS eXtended Transport System) – the linear transport system from Beckhoff, presents a drive technology that combines the advantages of two well-known drive principles in a single system.