‘Industry is undergoing tremendous change due to increasing automation’
Published on : Monday 30-11--0001
An interview with Rajat Kishore, Managing Director and VP, PA Hub, Schneider Electric.
What is Digitalisation and its Industry Perspective?
On a fundamental level, Digitalisation is about harnessing digital technologies exploiting an exponentially expanding infrastructure of industrial internet of things connecting pervasive sensor data, communicating machines-to-people machine-to-machine and leveraging automation technologies superimposed with machine learning and big data analytics.
But in a more comprehensive sense, digitalisation needs to be viewed beyond the above definition of it being just a ‘thing’ rather more as a ‘.
With that perspective, for an industrial enterprise, a digitalised business needs to aim at leveraging digital technologies to enhance operations by collecting data and transforming actions that drive efficiency and boost output – but also to transform business models and provide value-producing opportunities.
The key is on how digitisation creates value, through:
- New frontiers of business by re-examining ways of doing business thereby unlocking new value in existing sectors or in adjacent businesses
- Customer experiences by understanding their value chain and rethinking how to use new digital capabilities to deliver the best possible experience, and
- Building foundational digital capabilities that allow an enterprise to be agile and use data to make better and faster decisions
The power of digitisation then is
What can the exhibitor showcase on Digitalisation at the Automation Expo?
Automation is at the centre of Digitisation. Traditionally, industries would look to automation to improve process efficiency by optimising process variables, while operating under technology constraints limiting financial value analysis to a business.
With the evolution and proliferation of digital technologies, it eliminates many of the traditional technology constraints. Consequently, Automation outreach has increased – it now opens for exhibitors an opportunity to showcase advancements they have made using the power of digitisation to bring new value to transform a business enterprise by improving efficiency, asset reliability, enhanced performance, greater safety and ultimately higher profitability.
An example is Schneider Electric, which is leading this transformation with EcoStruxure – their IoT-enabled open and interoperable system architecture. On that platform, Schneider Electric is able to demonstrate a number of digitised solutions encompassing all layers from smart connect devices to new-age edge control solutions through to analytics and energy management packages in from of ‘advisors’.
Automation is driving the industry today. How automated is the average Indian enterprise? While automation in some form or other is common in most enterprises, has the process of digitalisation of the entire operation started?
As we know, the industry is undergoing tremendous change due to increasing automation and technology advancement towards intelligent manufacturing through Industry 4.0.
In India, the contribution of the Manufacturing Sector is around 17% of GDP, which, when compared to global benchmarks in advanced economies, underscores massive untapped potential. Further, according to analysts, the share of automation in India’s manufacturing sector is only one-fourth to that of developed economies.
The good news is that this is evolving steadily. Favourable government initiatives such as Make in India, Smart City and Digital India have automation at the very core as a key success factor, and are contributing to growth of the manufacturing industry and of automation within.
The government is aiming, under Make in India, to create 10 crore new jobs by 2020 through increasing the share of manufacturing sector to 25% of GDP. To achieve this target, Indian industry has to accelerate adoption of Industry 4.0 to meet global manufacturing standards. Thereby automation in Indian industries shall continue rising to a great extent – it is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 10-12% till 2022.
Schneider Electric, the global specialist in energy management and automation, is putting digital innovation at the heart of its strategy providing smart and responsive products, solutions and services, for the benefit of its customers.
When we talk of Digital Transformation, the assumption is the entire organisation is involved. But is this happening in reality?
There is no running away from it. In this rapidly evolving world of digitalisation – unless we, as leaders, understand the full implications and take better control of this great disruptor, we are at risk dishing out piecemeal initiatives while missing out on and .
To gain full benefit of Digital Transformation for an enterprise it needs to be applied horizontally across the complete value chain and vertically from shop floor to top floor.
Consequently,
Apart from new economic opportunities and higher profit margins, organisations are bound to see significant improvements across key business areas like productivity and customer advocacy. As a result, businesses today, irrespective of their scale, size or industry, are looking to turn to digital technologies to improve business efficiency, become competitive and provide a better experience to their customers.
Having said that, it is believed that digital transformation is still in its early days. According to the study, while 90% of organisations in India are in the midst of their digital transformation, only 7% can be classified as leaders. And only about half of leaders (48%) have a full digital transformation strategy in place.
Are the necessary resources available in terms of trained manpower and system integrators?
The key factors for a successful
Having the domain expertise to apply the technology, is an imperative. A well-trained workforce is ultimately responsible for making digital transformation work. Employees across different business units must be ‘digitally enabled’ to transform each business process and reap the benefits. Skills training should take place across the organisation, in every department, and at every level.
Professionals across technology fields are looking at reskilling and upskilling themselves to stay relevant in their careers. The impact of digital technologies is now felt not just in the IT department, but across the entire organisation, creating a huge demand for digital skills.
It’s essential also to leverage an –. Frontline digital equipment and service providers are evolving an ecosystem of and that bring more and software applications or digital services. As customers , they get even as vendors improve on which then improves the potential value through the lifecycle.
At Schneider Electric, our vision is to develop a globally competitive talent pool in India, armed with futuristic skill-sets aligned to the requirements of the fast-evolving applications like energy management and automation. We bring all this together through our strategic partnerships, which support our customers by delivering solutions as well as training and skill development.
As a vendor, what would be your advice to enterprises going for Digital Transformation?
Digital transformation is not just about applying technology, it is a holistic endeavour that requires a thorough road map on how digital tools can be leveraged across various business functions in order to achieve organisational agility. With the pace of technology change bringing in more business applications and connected devices, organisations must keep up.
Unlocking the true value of digital technology capabilities revolves around translating into – which in turn lends itself towards better
So the requisites for an enterprise would be to Connect across, Collect data at every level from sensor to cloud, Analyse data converting it into meaningful analytics and Take Action through real-time information and business logic. and heterogeneous assets to facilitate a digital view of the plant enabling improving efficiency throughout the complete lifecycle. To do all this, what’s needed is a solid and a to pull it together.