By Sandeep Shroff
Digitalization
has definitely arrived. There is absolutely no doubt about this. What one need
to know is how one needs to address and tackle this key area in our business.We definitely need to embrace and strategise a proccess of digitilasation and we show you how we do it.
Independent consulting companies, confederations
of industries and international organisations confirm the importance of the
digital world. They show us that most Indian industries have initiated
activities of checking out on next generation of digital technologies. Some of
them are the Internet of Things (IOT), Mobile Technologies, Robotics, 3D
printing, Cloud Computing and Data Analytics as handles of digitization. As we
are aware, these set of digital technologies are set to bring a major ‘Business
Disruption’. They shall alter the way in which the product design , manufacturing,
and equipment operation will be done in near future. Optimistic predictions
suggest that IIoT Business will be in a range as high as $15 trillion of the global
GDP by 2030. These sheer numbers and the initial successes obtained by the
manufacturing setups of the developed countries are now creating a pressure on Indian
industries to take the process of digitalization very seriously.
Hence,
many of the Indian industries are banking on the domestic market to experiment
and sharpen their digitalization strategies. Many organisations particularly in
the automotive domain have initiated digitalization activities in partnership
with their parent organisations.
Government
initiatives
Even
the government is supporting this. Conducive initiatives such as ”Make in India” and “Adaptive Manufacturing”
(Industries 4.0) of Government of India (GOI) have been launched. The government
is also opening up large markets for companies to launch new-to-the market digitally
enabled products with new scalable digitally enabled manufacturing techniques.
However,
just copying the strategies of manufacturing setup of developed countries will
not yield success. We need to consider the different scenarios of the typical
Indian manufacturing setup and the different psychological factors involved.
One needs to get in the depth of these subjects and then design one’s strategy
of a suitable digitalization. I would like to caution the readers that there is
no one strategy that fits all the manufacturing industries of different
domains. Each of them will have to tweak it based on their digitalization
maturity and needs.
Hence,
we would like to outline a generic strategy which would generally suit the Indian
manufacturing setups. Before this, we should clarify that the digitalization of
a manufacturing setup is not a single domain problem and cannot be handled by an expert with a single
skillset.
The
digitalization strategy recommended for a typical Indian manufacturing setup
shall be as shown below. Instead of a two stage activity that is mostly adopted
and followed in the developed countries for digitalization, we need a 4 stage
one.
Four
Step Process
The
Indian manufacturing companies will need a four staged digitalization approach
in order to register a high success and better sustainability of the digitalisation
program. As recommended, the first 2 stages shall be very crucial phases. The
entire success of the digitalization program will depend on the proper implementation
of these phases.
Stage-1 Ã Digitalization
Strategy & Implementation Planning
The
kick-off this stage should be done with suggested several steps. One very
crucial aspect that needs to done at this stage is identification of a champion
within an organisation who is sufficiently motivated to entirely run the digitalization
campaign.
It
is also recommended that detailed study should be done in the form of
prefeasibility and feasibility studies during this stage to find out the ‘as-is’
condition of the manufacturing setup. We would highly recommend that the
organisation should not shy away from seeking external expertise if one may not
be available within the organisation. This step is highly recommended as the
external expertise shall bring experience and learnings of the previous
implementations. It is recommended to take help from an expert who is vendor or
product neutral in this study. This will help to obtain a critical and clear
view of the ‘as-is’ condition. Based on the findings of this activity, and the
vision of digitalization, a picture of ‘to-be’ manufacturing setup and the shape
of the organisation’s digitalization plan should be carved out.
It is also highly
recommended to carry out psychometric survey at the organisation level to gauge
the pulse of perception of Digitalization program within the organisation. The
Human Resources (HR) department of the organisation can be roped in to perform this
activity as they are best suited resources to carry out such a survey. Based on
all the findings, a detailed digitalization strategy, the probable areas of
digitalization and a roadmap along with time frame and required investments needs
to be prepared.
Stage-2 Ã
Organizational Awareness and Transformation:
As
a part of the core strategy, the leaders of the manufacturing industries could prepare
their organization and support functions for a cultural changes and skills
upgradations during the journey of digital transformation.At this stage, more
details of probable stakeholders, partners and their roles and level of
engagements need to be identified. An organisational level awareness campaign and
buy-in campaign can be kicked-off on the goals of digitalization and its
benefits. It is also recommended that maximum organisation resources are made
to be the stakeholders. The several levels of engagements and activities can be
identified involving all the levels of organisation hierarchies. A separate
level of engagements and enrolment in digitalization program be carried out
where union and labour issues exist. Generally, this could mean job reductions and hence is a
very sensitive issue. It needs to be handled by industrial psychology experts.
The successful roll out of this stage will identify the speed and momentum of
the overall digitalization program within an organisation.
Stage-3 Ã
Digitization / Computerization / Data Generation:
As
a core strategic step, most of the manufacturing industries weave heir
digitization plan by implementing automation (data generation) & connectivity
as one of the basic step. Manufacturing industries connect and integrate its Information
Technology (IT) Systems and Manufacturing Operations Systems (MOS), both
horizontally and vertically such that it can allow data transfer to happen
seamlessly amongst them.
As
a part of the connectivity sub-strategy, most of the manufacturing industries
need to upgrade their existing standalone automation systems into sophisticated
Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) / Internet of Things (IOT) solutions. Special
efforts need to be made to integrate geo-spatially separated facilities so that
all the data is brought to a centralized locations for better decision
making. The latest technological
advances like Hardware Virtualization, Cloud Computing, Internet Protocol
Version-6 (IPV6), Micro Electro – Mechanical Systems (MEMS), faster and
reliable microcontrollers, ubiquitous internet connectivity and better
bandwidths are needed here. This can provide a major boost to the Indian
industries and particularly their IOT plans. An important booster to the IOT is
advances in the field of wireless and mobile connectivity. These technologies
need to be leveraged in a right way to reap its benefits. It is advised to the digitization
leadership that a meticulous study of the existing systems by vendor
independent experts is done. This can help prevent unnecessary removal of
brownfield manufacturing setups and can help in saving a sizable expenditure.
The
industries need to boost their production numbers and qualities by integrating
Robotics and Plant Automation. There is a vast variation in the amount and
level of automation in the Indian Manufacturing setups. The increase of level
of automation and integration of it with IT systems should be one of the core
element of the digitalization plan. With recent advances in the field of MEMS
sensors, Vision based systems, navigation systems and Algorithms, Robotics as a
technology has got major boost in emergent areas of Swarm Robotics and
Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs). Coupled with these technologies and RFID,
manufacturing industries can bring in automation of the stores, warehouses and
distribution channels. Incorporation of these technologies in the digitization
plan can substantially improve the business efficiencies of the Indian
manufacturing industries. Another important thing which should be made the
cornerstone of the Automation and IT enablement is the standardization of Automation
Systems, their Interfaces and their expandability. Deep thinking during the
planning and design phase needs to be done on these aspects. Attention paid in
the initial phase on these factors can help reduce the implementation hiccups.
One
important aspect to be taken care during the horizontal and vertical integration
of the Information Technologies (IT) and the Operational Technologies (OT) is
the definition of the ownership and responsibility of work. Until now, in most
of the Indian industries, the IT and the OT worlds have been physically
isolated and had very minimal overlaps. Both these fields operate differently
and are governed by different operational criteria’s. IT-OT Integration also
brings in the additional responsibility of managing and mitigating the risk of
Cyber Security. Hence the Digitalization leadership needs to think deeply and
understand the organizations operation, the skills of the resources and the
existing state of the IT-OT Convergence before handing over the IT–OT integration
responsibility.
Last but not the least, I would
suggest is the inclusion of the Mobile and Internet technologies in the
Connectivity sub-phase of digitalization. The mobile and Internet technologies
can be effectively utilized by the manufacturing industries in various areas
like sales, support and after sales support. These technologies can be used for
effectively coordinating with their movable staff. Further, mobile technologies
can be used as an aide to a mobile workforce. The front line Sales team can be
effectively connected to the IT systems by integrating mobile sales application.
This could enable them to create opportunity details, track Sales follow-up and
help in sales and production planning.
Mobile applications using heuristic trouble shooting algorithms can be
effectively be used for first hand troubleshooting and remote hand holding of
the customer’s by the after Sales support teams. These kinds of mobile technology
adaptations can reduce the sales and support cycles and can effectively improve
the customer satisfaction.
Stage-4 Ã
Industry 4.0:
Now
there is seamless transmission of data across the industry layout. This provides
immediate visibility of the entire manufacturing setup. This can help the
decision makers get new insights and can help bring in transparencies. The
available real-time data can be collected in big databases and then can be
provided to data analytical /Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning
(ML) and Deep Learning tools to build insights about the behavioural patterns
and signatures and thus help in improving predictability and cognitive actions.
In
Sum
Thus
the entire Digitalization program can help the Indian manufacturing industries
to usher in the fourth industrial Revolution. It can help face threats of
‘Increasing the Productivity Gaps’ and superior quality aside from the
competition of developed countries.
During
my various interactions with responsible authorities of the Industries on the
impact of digitalization on the Indian businesses in upcoming years; I understand
that many leaders are seeking for right guidance from plethora of confusing
data available on the net and jargons of new technologies (Automation,
Networking, IIoT, Big data / Clouds tools, Machine Learning, Deep learning, Robotics,)
and Cyber Security concerns to handhold them during their journey of digitalization.
All
in all, it seems that the good times are just about starting with industry-4.0
and Digitization. Initiatives like C4i4 labs is one such step towards
demystifying the Digitalization / Industry 4.0 and make it easy to understand
and implement it.
About the Author
Sandeep Shroff has more than 22+ years of experience. He core expertise is in architecting, design and development of real-time systems in the Industrial Automation, Embedded Systems & Software space professional.
He possesses a very rich experience of IOT and has successfully conducted various projects, sessions and credit courses on Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Process & Plant Automation, Embedded system design, Instrument Detail Designing & Software Engineering areas in various reputed institutes.
Essentially, he is an IIOT evangelist. He has a unique advantage of having end-to-end design and implementation experience of IIoT and Industry 4.0 projects and has wide spectrum expertise spanning from right Sensors selection to right Intelligence tools. He provides consultation in the prefeasibility/ feasibility /proof-of concept and hand holding for IIoT and Industry 4.0 projects. Presently, he is a part of the C4i4 Lab core team.
His additional details are mobile: 9922573482 / 9511892140 Email: shroffsp@gmail.com www.linkedin.com/in/sandeep-shroff
AUTOINTELL Services -- (Proprietor). In brief, he is a S/W, Embedded Systems, Control & Instrumentation and IIoT e vangelist, consultant and technical mentor
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