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Business News/ Opinion / Views/  'The pandemic has given a big push to automation'
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'The pandemic has given a big push to automation'

While many companies would like to adopt Industry 4.0 principles, it is still a challenge because one does not know at what size one must do it
  • New companies would like to adopt the principles from day one whereas legacy companies will do it in phases
  • Photo: iStockPremium
    Photo: iStock

    NEW DELHI : It has become fashionable to talk about automation post covid-19. Factories need less people on the floor while services industries contact-less delivery. Nevertheless, there is another reason why manufacturers must adopt automation — the world wants traceability and it is easier to trace a problem when machines are connected and the records digital, said Sandeep Maini, chairman at Maini Group, a diversified manufacturer, during an interview. Excerpts:

    Post covid-19, even the smaller manufacturing companies are talking of automation. Is this a knee-jerk reaction because of labour shortages?

    This is a trigger. Tomorrow, if covid and social distancing goes away, I don’t think these companies will stop the foray into automation. The realisations are well beyond social distancing and migrant labour issues — the realisation that this how things are going to go in the future. We got a good trigger to say let’s make it happen.

    What progress has India made in automation thus far?

    The first two phases are Enterprise Resource Management (ERP) and automation of systems and software which are used in design or in Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machining. These are the low hanging fruit — more easily understandable to most of the companies. Lot of systems are now available at low cost. The next phase is Industry 4.0 where machines are seamlessly connected. This is in the initial stages in most companies including us. One must do this not only because it is bringing in a lot of efficiency, removing human errors and streamlining the system, but also because of what the world is asking today in terms of liability issues; around traceability.

    If you have digital records, it is easy to trace things down. While many companies would like to adopt Industry 4.0 principles, it is still a challenge because one does not know at what size one must do it; one does not know when it gives you a payback; one also does not know how to make the paradigm shift in the team you are working with because they are so used to working in a legacy manner. New companies would like to adopt the principles from day one whereas legacy companies will do it in phases. We did it in a new plant and decided not to do it in our older plants. The new plant had younger people and the idea was to create a new culture.

    Considering India’s demographic how easy will it be to up-skill our workforce for Industry 4.0? And what is the window of time India has?

    This is a question which is up in the air. It is discussed at every industry forum, at every government interaction. People have different ways of looking at it — some cynically, some positively. The fact is automation is the future and we have to up-skill. Instead of plotting various scenarios and the timeline by when it could happen, we need to get down to the job. Covid-19 is a trigger to do things much earlier than you wanted to.

    What is a good place to start the job?

    The strongest area is our ITIs. The government ITIs, from a facility point of view, from a training point of view and from an experience point of view, are outstanding. The challenge is that they are stagnating. They are not moving to the future as fast as they should. They have not made the change to robotics, programming of robots etc. Today when we hire people in our factory, we have to take them through a three-month programme. However, the ITIs should be the home ground for up-skilling.

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    Published: 21 Jul 2020, 05:42 PM IST
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