Robotics, 3D printing, IoT, Big Data will transform Indian manufacturing sector: Industry leaders

The Indian manufacturing sector is witnessing massive transformation due to explosion of smart technologies including artificial intelligence, machine learning, 3D printing, Big Data, and 5G.

Major manufacturing companies are shifting gears and investing heavily in modern technologies to meet evolving expectations of customers and partners, reduce costs, timely delivery, real-time monitoring, decision making, predictive maintenance and more.

Furthering the perspective of adoption of next gen technology, Cisco in association with CNBC-TV18 has initiated a ‘Cisco Idea Lab’ series to throw open insightful discussions with industry leaders on tech innovations’ impact across businesses in India, starting with the manufacturing sector.

In the first episode of the series, industry leaders Nishant Arya, ED, JBM Group; Sanjay Bhutani, MD-India & SAARC, Bausch+Lomb; Mahesh Gupta, CMD, Kent RO Systems; Vijay Sethi, CIO, Hero MotoCorp; and Daisy Chittilapilly, MD- Digital Transformation Officer, Cisco India & SAARC spoke about how tech that can unlock the true potential of the manufacturing sector.

Speaking about the scope of manufacturing and way forward, Arya said the Indian economy is pegged to grow to $5 trillion and about 20% contribution, i.e. $1 trillion, is being looked at from the manufacturing sector for which the sector will have to look at various aspects.
“The infrastructure, skilling, technology interventions, opportunities and a seamless integration with the whole economy and the environment is going to be very essential and it is not going to be only domestic but international, so quality standards, time to market and a global perspective is going to be very essential and inclusive in nature,” said Arya.
Through apps, centralised systems, etc., companies are constantly looking at out-of-the-box ideas to reach out on time to well-informed consumers who are spoilt by choices now.
“Delivering on time to the consumer is very important otherwise people would move to competition or may be to alternative products. For instance, ‘if you are not getting contact lenses, let me try spectacles for a while’. So, it’s important for us specifically like large number of SKUs, how do you reach faster to the consumer, that’s very important, which is working well for us,” said Bhutani.
Likewise, companies like Kent RO and Hero MotoCorp are leveraging CRM, IoT, and smart machines to create hyper-personalised experiences.
“We are one of the biggest users of 3D printing, IoT to make sure the maintenance requirements of machines go down… you can predict a lot of things there, behaviour of lot of other equipment we use IoT on some of our data centres, etc. Machines that used to be dumb are now smart machines and you pick up lot of data from that, take actions to reduce costs significantly, ensure customer experience is very good and supply chain becomes the biggest competitive differentiator,” said Sethi.
Meanwhile, Gupta said, “Digital marketing is taking a lot of importance today and we need to share the experiences of the consumers in our data to market not only product but upcoming products also not intruding into their privacy, simultaneously. Digital marketing is going to take over the normal source of marketing very shortly.”
Since the consumers are connected, the value of data is increasing by the day, replacing oil as the most wanted resource. During the conversation, Chittilapilly said data driven insights were causing shift in manufacturing processes.
“There is this consciousness that connecting things will get us data and data will get us value. But we see customer journey in three distinct phases, first is about connecting things then you start to do real monitoring and control, and when you have some success with that then you have the volume and quality of the data that you really need and to be able to get some insights and that insight you transfer to a transactional process, then you get to the outcome of customer experience that you want,” said Chittilapilly.

In a nutshell, robotics, IoT, Analytics, 5G, smart factories, and more will drive the manufacturing sector. The Indian government, too, has envisaged a tech-led manufacturing sector for the country through its proposed National Artificial Intelligence Center and National AI Portal so as to drive next level ideation in the manufacturing paradigm.

Watch the full panel discussion here. Get access to India’s fastest growing financial subscriptions service Moneycontrol Pro for as little as Rs 599 for first year. Use the code “GETPRO”. Moneycontrol Pro offers you all the information you need for wealth creation including actionable investment ideas, independent research and insights & analysis For more information, check out the Moneycontrol website or mobile app.