Mr A N Chandramouli is a Mechanical Engineer by education from NIT, Tiruchirappalli and a Management Post-graduate from IIM Bengaluru. He carries over four decades of industrial experience with specialisation in Marketing, Manufacturing, Quality, Team building, Kaizen, Cost management.
Issues and solutions for survival, recovery, and post recovery after the pandemic
Adapting more ‘Smart Manufacturing’ processes reduces the dependency on human workers. Factories can reduce the size of a shift without downsizing the production. It also means guaranteeing the workers–whoare present–have a lower chance of exposure. Although businesseshave had a reason to embrace digital workflows in the past, the coronavirus has provided another powerful incentive to move towards‘Smart Manufacturing’ and ‘Smart 3D Printing’ processes.
‘Robotics and Lights-out Manufacturing’ refers to a fully automated work environment. Whereas, people and machines work alongside one another in a smart factory, lights-out factories do not need a single person present on the premises. A fully functional factory floor, that needs no permanent human staff means, means uninterrupted production output.
‘Robotic Process Automation’ (RPA) is a technology that is integrated with business processes, to automate certain activities, minimize human errors, and maximize productivity. One well-known German automaker recently implemented RPA and successfully automated 28 different tasks.Not only that, the automated activities can now be undertaken 24 hours a day and seven days a week.
Benefits of using RPA in the manufacturing industry
Virtual work is not just for the office anymore; it is a new reality that will fundamentally change the work environment in manufacturing and help speed up a trend towards lights-out facilities. With social distancing measures in place, manufacturers may lose up to 50% of their on-site personnel. As manufacturers face his dilemma, we will see the rapid adoption of remote diagnostic, management, and collaboration tools. This will cause the emergence of a ‘virtual shift’. A team of specialists will be connected remotely and constantly online–to guide and support the reduced ‘physical shift’ of onsite personnel. Enabled by real-time data, AI-based insights and a range of communication and collaboration tools, the ‘virtual shift’ will help digitize and scale up the much-needed expertise across the organization, and enable the onsite workforce to become more focused, effective, and significantly more productive.
Supply chains are experiencing an unprecedented level of shock, especially for the manufacturers that rely on long and inflexiblesupply chains from a limited set of suppliers; in the short-term,manufacturers are looking for ways to quickly ensure continuityand introduce flexibility. Greater visibility and coordination acrosthe supply chain will enable better collaboration with a wider baseof supplies, ultimately driving decoupled, highly efficient, andmore resilient supply chains. Digital tools such as ‘Block Chain’ andprocesses that help manage supply chain risk, accuracy and flexibilitywill ramp up across the industry, leading to faster digitization ofsupply chains.
It is clear from events unfolding before us that one of the major weaknesses is a lack of real-time visibility across the business. Visibility is essential to support critical business decisions. Most ERP system architectures currently consist of a heterogeneous mix of applications and data silos. This architecture results in latency of information, and a lack of a single real-time view of the business status. Many questions are now being asked during and after the lockdowns.
Data visibility and traceability are merely speeding up Industry 4.0 adoption, leading companies across the industries into a more mature state of IoT technology and workflow.
Much of the Industry 4.0 involves using improved data collection and analysis (made possible by IoT devices) to streamline workflow and manufacturing processes.
Following the Great Recession in 2009, the resilient companies also invested in software technologies that gave them greater predictability and efficiency, resulting in a significant competitive edge. In the past decade, advances in AI and IoT technologies have enabled tremendous efficiencies in predictability, capacity, availability, and flexibility of supply chain and manufacturing operations. For manufacturing, greater connectivity will mean significantly accelerated deployment of Industrial IoT, including sensing, data visualisation, remote collaboration tools, and AI-based insights across their operations.
Up to 2019, many of these technologies and solutions were seen as a ‘nice to have’. Many were waiting to enter the mainstream adaption. Industry 4.0 has a different role from 2020 onwards:
Rather than retreating away from them, I believe we should think about how we can use these technologies now and in the future.
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