“Make in India” is empowering automation

January 2, 2021 10:46 am

The intention behind promoting ‘Make in India’ scheme is to promote local production and services and boost income and employment in our country.

Ninad Deshpande – Head – Marketing & Corporate Communication, B&R Automation

Ninad Deshpande – Head – Marketing & Corporate Communication, B&R automation, had an exclusive interview with OEM update magazine, where he explains the real need for “Make in India” nation.

Machine tools and manufacturing sectors contribution towards country’s GDP

Indian manufacturing is experiencing swift progress owing to various factors coupled with our governments vision of making India a global manufacturing hub. This in turn fuels growth and drives demand for adoption of advanced automation and technologies as they act as enablers for improving efficiency of operations as well as reducing costs. B&R helps machine builders build intelligent machines making factories efficient, utilise lesser energy, reduce wastage and become highly productive. The use of such next generation technologies is helping Indian manufacturing to enhance their productivity with profitability. We are a global leader in offering industrial automation solutions, providing complete end-to-end solutions for machine automation, factory automation, motion control, HMI and integrated safety technology. We have always kept our customers at the core, which has helped us grow. We continue to lead the market with innovations and work for our customers, enabling them to achieve success. We are proud of the fact that we are a preferred automation partner for many machine builders and factories. 

Trending and emerging automated technologies in Indian manufacturing

Digital revolution is changing our manufacturing industry, society and economy in many ways. Advanced technologies are already generating value with various personalised products, smart manufacturing processes, services, thus, enhancing lifestyles. Over the years, automation has gained momentum in India with automated shop floors, smart buildings and vehicles, automated grocery stores, smart homes and intelligent connected vehicles. Factories and plants have incorporated automation, robotics and digitisation in all their operations. Today, factories look at connecting to their assets and machines to the IT infrastructure with a possibility of accessing them from anywhere across the world. Therefore, automation and other technologies are the future and there is no denying to that. Next generation automation technologies will further throw up endless possibilities in industrial manufacturing. As per reports, pandemic is driving the demand of various automation and robotics, thus, boosting adoption of digital and smart technologies. Some factories and plants have relied on remote maintenance and remote digital services as people were unable to travel to their workplaces.

Your views on democratisation of automation in manufacturing sector becoming a reality in the near future

Without a doubt, automation technologies have been contributing in transforming manufacturing industry. Today, many machine, lines, factories and plants are automated. Yet, there are many which are still dependent on semi-automatic or manual operations. It is only a matter of time that these move in the direction of automatic operations. Moreover, it is just not automating machines or operations. It is more about making them smarter, intelligent and autonomous. Thus, with automation and digital technologies becoming more of a necessity over luxury, we will witness more adoptions in the near future. In addition, the use of technologies has made it possible for machines and human to collaborate in order to increase efficiency. Automation and digitisation not only make processes flexible and versatile but also makes it cost effective in the long run and increase scalability of manufacturing businesses.

Making India becoming a ‘plus one’ destination under “Make in India” by reducing imports

The intention behind promoting ‘Make in India’ scheme is to promote local production and services and boost income and employment in our country. However, the current financial year started with lockdown and it is still affecting many businesses. On the contrary, it made us realise the importance using technology in improving operations, efficiency and enhancing customer service. Indian manufacturing sector can be competitive if everyone decides to collaborate and support domestic manufacturing. With some initial support from government, domestic manufacturing ecosystem can be certainly improved and then can slowly transform India into a successful manufacturing hub.

The next big possible technology acting as a catalyst towards transformation of Indian manufacturing

The new trend will be cloud applications by using business intelligence, artificial intelligence, machine learning and virtual reality. ‘Asset Performance Monitor’ is B&R’s first cloud application based on ABB AbilityTM, ABB’s unified, cross-industry offering of digital solutions. This gives OEMs a reliable overview of all their machines in the field allowing them to identify potential improvements, taking service operations to the next level and unlocking new business models and revenue streams. ‘Asset Performance Monitor’ delivers around the clock, data about production rate, energy consumption and temperature. Users can define which information is required, and the application automatically calculates key performance indicators (KPIs) such as overall equipment effectiveness and provides opportunities for improvement. Asset Performance Monitor prepares data and displays it in a clearly organised dashboard. OEMs can then use this data to implement well-targeted machine upgrades and offer their customers next-level service.