Industry 4.0 Readiness of India - With the focus on Auto Industry
This blog is a quick summary of a research paper on Industry 4.0 and India Readiness around 2016.
Industry 4.0 has highly intelligent connected systems that create a fully digital value chain. It particularly is based on cyber-physical production systems that integrate communications, IT, data, and physical elements and wherein these systems transform the traditional plants into smart factories. Here the objective is that the machines talk to other machines and products and information is processed and distributed in real-time resulting in profound changes to the entire industrial ecosystem.
An industrial change is likely to be witnessed which could be fueled by the advancement of digital technologies.
Prospectively, the fusion of physical and virtual worlds into a cyber-physical system may have a huge impact on every element of the manufacturing and automotive sector.
The vision of Industry 4.0 is likely to be adopted worldwide and it might influence other initiatives and cooperative efforts. In general, there are nine key technological components that progressively make up the foundation of Industry 4.0: Autonomous robots, big data, augmented reality (AR), additive manufacturing, cloud computing, cybersecurity, IoT, system integration, and simulation.
It can be precisely said that Industry 4.0 is a convergence of disruptive digital technologies that are set to change the manufacturing sector beyond imagination, driven by the astonishing rise in data volumes, system integrations and connectivity, the emergence of advanced analytics and business intelligence capabilities, machine learnings, improvements in the transfer of digital instructions to the physical world.
There is no escape from integrating principles of Industry 4.0 with the “Make in India†initiative if Indian Manufacturing has to win against global competition.
India has a unique opportunity to innovatively pave its own road to Smart Manufacturing.
Is India ready to leapfrog into Industry 4.0?
Networked Readiness Index
Holistic research by World Economic Forum (WEF) is used to demarcate the adoption of the Networked Readiness Model by various countries.
WEF investigated different countries and scored them on a seven-point scale.
The networked readiness Index is a key indicator of how countries are doing in the digital world. It depends on whether a country possesses the drivers necessary for digital technologies to meet their potential, and on whether these technologies are actually having an impact on the economy and society.
Notably, India’s rank on the Network Readiness Index in 2013 was 61. In 2016, India ranked 91 out of 139 countries.
At 91, India was ahead of Pakistan (110) and Bangladesh (112), but behind Sri Lanka (63), Malaysia (31), and China (59). Singapore topped the rankings for the second year in a row. The US was placed at 5th position.
India Readiness
According to IBEF, the Government of India has set an ambitious target of increasing the contribution of manufacturing output to 25 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2025, from 16 percent currently. There is no escape from integrating principles of Industry 4.0 with the “Make in India†initiative if Indian Manufacturing has to win against global competition.
It can skip several steps that other countries adopted in their evolution from an agrarian society to their current stage of development. Industry 4.0 is expected to transform manufacturing in India by bringing operational efficiencies to manufacturing industries like automotive, electrical, and electronics.
领英推è
India’s first smart factory, moving from automation to autonomy, where machines speak with each other, is being set up in Bengaluru.
It is making progress at the Indian Institute of Science’s (IISc) Centre for Product Design and Manufacturing (CPDM) with an investment from The Boeing Company. A smart factory, armed with data exchange in manufacturing and the Internet of Things (IoT) is the future and experts are calling it revolution Industry 4.0. Reports peg the smart factory industry to touch US$ 215 bn by 2025 and all major economies are likely to accept?it.
Automotive Industry
Indian Auto industry occupies a prominent place on the canvas of the Indian economy. Due to its deep forward and backward linkages with several key segments of the economy, the automotive industry has a strong multiplier effect and is a critical driver of economic growth. The well-developed Indian automotive industry ably fulfills this catalytic role by producing a wide variety of vehicles: passenger cars, light, medium, and heavy commercial vehicles, multi-utility vehicles such as jeeps, scooters, motorcycles, mopeds, three-wheelers, tractors, etc.
India is expected to become a major automobile manufacturing hub and the third-largest market for automobiles by 2020.
It is the sixth-largest producer in the world with an average annual production of 24 mn vehicles in 2016. India has the fifth largest passenger vehicle and commercial vehicle market contributing to 7.1 % of India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by volume. India’s automotive industry is well-positioned for growth, servicing both domestic demand and, increasingly, export opportunities both demographically and economically.
In consonance with Industry 4.0, automotive manufacturers and suppliers could majorly be confronted with increasing complexities such as
- Increasing numbers of products and options,
- Shorter technology cycles,
- Increasing pressure to innovate and global supply networks.
- Constant competitive pressure to cut down their time to market.
- Changing customer preferences w.r.t performance characteristics, safety features, entertainment options, etc.
- Technologically enhanced vehicles, like ‘connected cars’ and
- Better fuel efficiency
Industry 4.0 Adoption; A must for India
The manufacturing landscape is changing. Countries are constantly being challenged on technical capabilities and manufacturing value adds. Specifically, India faces competition from China and Europe and there is a risk of her being crowded out by the increasing technical capabilities of these regions as they are focusing on medium value segment where India has always been prominently operating. Historically, China has focussed on the low technology-low manufacturing value add space while Europe has focussed on high technology – high value add segment. India’s manufacturing zone of comfort has been in the middle, both on the technology and value add axis.
Should India look at Industry 4.0 as an additive advantage for manufacturing and a lucrative investment destination by other countries?
Industry 4.0 will enable information to flow not only from manufacturer to product, but between producers, products, and, most importantly, customers. The ability to embrace Industry 4.0 and use the opportunities that will rapidly (and, in many instances, unexpectedly) present themselves will be a key to success in the new global market. Enabling that innovation to proceed from a concept to a mass-produced product will be critical for success, and ensuring a talent pool in the manufacturing workforce that can move those innovations rapidly forward will be equally important.
India has a number of programs to enable innovation and ensure the talent pipeline for manufacturing.
Some are well established, and others are quite new and very innovative. It is clear that Industry 4.0 presents tremendous opportunities, and this fact highlights the need for a highly trained and flexible workforce and production capacity that can answer the needs of tomorrow as well as those of today.
Conclusion
Indian Manufacturing companies certain fast track Industry4.0 adoption to realize the competitive advantage. There is certainly a need to raise our score on Networked Readiness Index to be globally competitive and achieve success in the Make IN India. Automotive Industry is expected to lead other industries in the manufacturing sector.
Want to read the complete research paper. Please find the link : https://www.gita.org.in/Attachments/Reports/India’s Readiness for Industry 4.0.pdf