Digitisation will improve India’s competitiveness and pave the way for newer, agile and flexible business models.
India is one of the frontrunners when it comes to the adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) in the Asia Pacific region, and the domain of industrial IoT solutions is expected to lead this change. Keeping pace with this development, when it comes to smart manufacturing, also referred to as cyber-connected manufacturing systems or Industry 4.0, Bosch has a dual approach. It is a lead supplier and user in its own manufacturing plants. This strategy enables Bosch to be an industry leader in this sector. The Group, focusses on offering software solutions with intuitive human machine interface (HMI) and user experience, which results in full grade connectivity, final transparency and reduced complexity. In the space of logistics and production, Bosch India offers end-to-end monitoring and coordinating of inter-and- intra-logistic solutions. And, finally in the sphere of service and consulting, Bosch India offers consultation based on its experience of automation solution, lean production and logistics, as well as software solutions and services.
“At Bosch India, we expect the future to be driven by key trends such as digitisation, growing energy needs, urbanisation and better ecological solutions. With the largest development center outside of Germany, Bosch India is committed to offering connected smart manufacturing solutions,” stated Vijay Ratnaparkhe, Managing Director and President, Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions. While national initiatives, such as ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India,’ intend to build the brand and competitiveness of India’s core sectors, Ratnaparkhe remarks, “Digitisation will improve India’s competitiveness while also helping businesses move faster to market.”
A digitally driven India will lead to overhauling of manufacturing facilities
India’s manufacturing sector is going through a transformational phase with smart manufacturing gaining increasing ground in the scheme of regional business operations. The Bosch Group is equipped to offer India a broad range of technology solutions and services in this area, such as drives, automation, sensors, software and predictive maintenance. These solutions are for instance suitable for the automotive manufacturing industry, tier 1 component manufacturing organisations, healthcare and pharmaceutical.
Smart Manufacturing is no longer just a concept, it’s the new norm among manufacturing companies. Today, connected machines – the adaptive cyber-physical systems can think, make decisions and communicate key technological breakthroughs in Additive Manufacturing, Industrial Robotics and Industrial Internet of Things, which are transforming existing factories into state-of-the-art production workshops. India intends to increase the share of GDP by manufacturing sector to 25 per cent from the existing 17 per cent. Manufacturing pioneers and early adopters realise the potential of disruptive innovations in smart manufacturing. Pragmatic national policies including ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’, regional presence of global manufacturing leaders and adoption of best practices in Industry 4.0 augment the prospects of smart manufacturing across diverse industry verticals in the country.
“India’s core pressure points in the manufacturing sector have been reducing cost, improving quality and process visibility, among others. It is precisely in these areas smart manufacturing can ease stress levels,” commented Mr. Ratnaparkhe. Smart manufacturing can improve India’s productivity and optimise operations, apart from initiating and bringing about a structural reform in operations as it paves way for newer, agile and flexible business models.
Turbocharging India’s production activities
In the consumer goods space, Bosch has partnered with one of India’s leading air conditioning and commercial refrigeration company to create the complete blue print for its digital journey. This includes connecting its research and development, manufacturing, and customer experience through Industry 4.0 solutions. As part of the pilot project, the company will automate the entire production planning, apart from implementing condition monitoring for selected machines. Additionally, Bosch India will also enhance the company’s customer experience through augmented showroom solutions.
For one of India’s largest two-wheeler manufacturers Bosch India has identified areas, in the maintenance function that could further be improved. Bosch has proposed a solution that combines preventive maintenance and status dashboards, operator mobility solutions on tablets and mobile phones, and remote diagnostics including real time status and control. The dash board provides detailed information on the breakdown, such as name and description of the breakdown, location, date, time, duration, operator and shift details. The maintenance solution will allow operators flexibility and mobility solutions as they can access notifications on the go. The remote diagnostics tool enables analysis of breakdowns over the Intranet and the Internet.
Speaking on the occasion Dr Stefan Azmann, Senior Vice President – Innovation Cluster Connected Industry, Robert Bosch GmbH shares his view on Industrie 4.0 with us.
Overview of the industry size which is connected to Industrie 4.0
We are not consultants who play around with figures. One can see reports from the W.C. McKinsey Boston Consulting they have all different figures what we cannot just orally say. It’s a multi billion dollar market definitely and opportunities are very big so we are targeting for more in those areas where we all can work for service. We concentrate on Automotive, electronics packaging. These are our most addressed areas. So in whatever area, you have to tighten things. It can also be an airplane so we’re not in a specialist airplane but manufacturing has so many communities that we can have meaningful solutions a lot of branches and we’re not targeting any specific volume.
Adoption of these technologies
Definitely adoption is necessary because 4.0 is not a magical formula that you have to adopt. Most industry which are failure that they do not do their homework at the very beginning. So for example we see that introducing lean principles we have all Bosch production. The first exercise one should do and can gain a lot of benefits by already doing. So if somebody has a poorly organised manufacturing, just going for technology, then he will not gain the benefit or end up in the chaos and so therefore we see it as that they even have not reached Industrie 3.0. They should look over for 4.0 and let’s start with lean approaches have basic automisation and then you can add up connectivity. This is up phase and just jumping from stoneage to future will not be successful.
Today it is IoT, what is the next thing?
Iot is such a huge topic today and the next thing in common. Because there are so many things now, I don’t expect that there is a big bang new topic arriving in the next years but I may be wrong. I think there is so much opportunity by leveraging that and when you see in history all Industrie 2.0, 4.0 thing they are so many. From 1.0 to 2.0 it took hundred years. So I do not expect something very significantly coming up. So I think plenty of opportunites just by we’re just at the beginning and when technology is more and more capable more role then that’s a kind of thing with these things probably won’t even imagine.
Affordable in India
We are working on it and we have already a lot of low cost solution for a very elaborated automated system that might work for example in Germany. In all the areas we have adapted solution because a lot of the Bosch plants and different stages are in different regions so there’s not a one size fits all. And the examples are energy management that I’ve shown. There’s a highly sophisticated systems where you can adapt thousands of machines and huge plans. That’s another thing as when you start in a small country like India, the company that has just five machines and one oven, it is very energy consuming. The day you can start with just energy measurement gauges for maybe 100-150 you’ll machines, adopt them showed the consumption and just by this you get inside an opportunity to do so we have already had scalable easy to start kick for India and this can be sure. Already the day in the Bosch plants for example in Nashik where we invite customers where they can see what we doing and so on.
Technology ADOPTION in India
I see that they are starting to be introduced. And as I said not on the high end level but on the meaningful depending where the majority of the company is and we are optimistic that India has a perfectly requisite to do this because on the one hand there’s a huge manufacturing base. Second is there are young workforce who are eager to learn and to develop. Third thing is it’s a huge source for I.T. talents of India and the fourth is that I would love to be connected to.
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