Nasscom's Centre for Excellence hosts successful 3rd edition of Manufacturing Innovation Challenge
#NASSCOMCoE #Startups #ManufacturingThe awards ceremony of MIC and its Fusion 4.0 conference put the spotlight on innovation and industry collaboration.
The COE has developed a reputation for playing catalyst to innovation among manufacturing startups with its Manufacturing Innovation Challenge. Pro MFG Media is proud to be associated with Nasscom's CoE on this initiative, which has - over three editions - encouraged manufacturing startups to push the envelope when it comes to innovation.
The CoE's goal through MIC (Manufacturing Innovation Challenge) is to bring the industry's best and biggest brains together with the aim of solving complex issues. The COE sees clearly that it will take every cog in the wheel - academia, government, established brands and startups - to overcome existing industry hurdles.
Sanjeev Malhotra, CEO of Nasscom CoE inaugural,"CoE has 4 labs across the country working closely with 1500 deep tech startups to nurture innovation and find solutions to the challenges faced by the industry by leveraging the startup ecosystem."
The latest edition of MIC took place between March 22 and June 4, 2021. A total of 60+ startups participated in the MIC this time around - a further growth over last edition's resounding response, with 180+ participants.
Saluting the winners
Every edition of MIC sees big brands present a challenge to participating startups and this edition was no different: Tata Steel, Titan, Mondelez and NBC Bearings each presented a complex use case to the competing startups. 10 startups wowed judges with their excellent ideas and it was a fairly tough choice. The entries that stood out and emerged as winners came from Stability Robotics, SiSoC Semiconductor Technologies, BnG Spray Solutions and ATAI Labs.
What do the winners get?
The awards were presented to the winning startups by Hareet Shukla, Secretary of Science and Tech at the Government of Gujarat. However, the journey of the victorious startups does not end with simply being conferred an honour. In the months to come, Stability Robotics, SiSoC Semiconductor Technologies, BnG Spray Solutions and ATAI Labs will have the opportunity to implement their innovative solutions in collaboration with the large manufacturing companies.
Amit Saluja, Senior Director and Centre Head, Nasscom CoE Gandhinagar, " Co-creation is a win-win strategy for manufacturing enterprises and solution providers as it can bring better agility. Startups are a critical element of this approach and need to be leveraged extensively for Proof of Concepts that can validate new ideas and reduce upfront investments."
Building bridges and industry intelligence with Fusion 4.0
Given that the MIC brings together the whole universe of Indian manufacturing stakeholders, the COE capitalised on the opportunity and packed in its Fusion 4.0 conference. Attendees of the virtual conference, therefore, had the chance to not only celebrate excellence among startups, but also gain insights from experts.
Jayanta Banerjee, Group CEO, Tata Steel Limited shared his ideas on Roadmap to advance digital technologies in manufacturing. He said manufacturing as a whole has a great scope for adoption of digital technologies under Industry 4.0. He also identified Mindset, Reference Architecture, Data Framework, Integration, Application, Benchmarking and Returns as the seven dimensions of transformational Roadmap.
Hareet Shukla, Secretary of Science and Tech, Government of Gujarat gave attendees insights into How the pandemic is advancing technology adoption. "The pandemic has pushed us to change our approach. In every field, there has been a quantum jump in the adoption of technology. The challenges presented by the pandemic are being solved by new-age technologies like IoT and AI. We have an evolving environment where companies are partnering with technology companies to find solutions, improve efficiency and co-create," he said.
There were also two panel discussions that had industry experts and veterans deliberated key thought points:
Panel 1: Paradigm shift for manufacturers through industry 4.0,
Panel 1 saw senior executives from an array of industries discuss the challenges and apprehensions in embracing Industry 4.0 , they dwelled on “how difficult or easy it is to embrace Industry 4.0, especially when it involves process change and capital investments.
Vinit Thakur, President and CDO - LafargeHolcim India ,Bangla Bose, Head of FFP Production – Asia Pacific, Bayer, Sheenam Ohrie, VP, Dell Digital Services Online were the panelists and the session was moderated by Amit Saluja, Senior Director and Head of Manufacturing Vertical, NASSCOM CoE.
Panel 2 : Co-creation - the evolving business model for digitization
A second panel discussion on “Co-creation - the evolving business model for digitization “saw the panellists discussing the challenges faced by manufacturing Industries, areas that need to be prioritized for digitalization, and how the startup ecosystem can be leveraged.
Ashish Ranjan, Chief Digital Officer - National Engineering Industries Ltd , Amit Kumar Chatterjee, Chief Analytics Officer, Tata Steel Limited, Sandeep Talgaonkar , Supply Chain Excellence Lead, Mondelēz India Foods Pvt Ltd., Sumant Sood, Head Innovation, Titan Company Limited were the key panellists and this session was moderated by Suneel TS, General Manager Open Innovation- Tata Group
Atul Govil, Chief Transformation officer & head for India Glycols appreciated NASSCOMS COE’s smart manufacturing initiatives like MIC. He highlighted that the impact of the initiative is reaching the industries by getting the real time solutions from the deep tech startups. He also agreed that the industries have expertise and experience but we need new age technologies with a fresh perspective to solve the manufacturing problems.
Overall the third edition of MIC and the fourth edition of Fusion, have given manufacturing stakeholders innovative ideas, food for thought, a roadmap for positive change and best of all a platform to connect with one another. We can't wait for the next edition!
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