By: Ajit Vichare, Head LoB – Manufacturing Practice, Invenio Business Solutions
Manufacturing is pivotal for economic progress of any country and in India it contributes about 16% of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP). As India is poised to be a manufacturing hub primarily due to its growing domestic demand, with foreign players venturing into the Indian market, there will be great demand for both liquidity and talent. There is a vast domestic market with surging wages, as well as uncertainties and cost economics from global angles that guides this preference. Backed by policies and plans by the Indian government, manufacturing has witnessed a massive upswing.
However, in order to remain competitive in the global arena, Indian manufacturing sector has to really gear up as competition is intense and low-cost destinations are always around the next corner. The challenge is integration of IT and to train and enable an optimum man-machine interface which convinces management and employees to adopt new systems and processes and supports smooth roll out of the same.
ERP EVOLVING THE INDIAN MANUFACTURING SECTOR
ERP systems solve a number of challenges and provide invaluable benefits to manufacturers seeking to reduce costs, manage growth, streamline processes, and gain a competitive advantage. The system enables the manufacturers and distributors to function promptly, which will be able to improve the volume of production and fulfilment of orders while reducing costs. By optimizing manufacturing and distribution operations with ERP, the companies are also able to focus on new business opportunities. Here are the ways in which IoT-based ERP implementation is fine-tuning the Indian manufacturing sector:
#1 Streamline Processes: As manufacturers grow, their operations become more and more complex. ERP manufacturing software automates all business operations, providing accurate, and real-time information.
#2 Cost Reduction: With one source of accurate, real-time information, ERP software reduces administrative and operations costs. It allows manufacturers to proactively manage operations, prevents disruptions and delays, breaks up information logjams, and helps users make decisions more quickly.
#3 Flexibility: Modern ERP software systems are robust, flexible, and configurable. They are not a one-size-fits-all proposition, but can be tailored around the unique needs of a business. ERP systems also have the ability to adapt with the ever-changing needs of a growing business.
#4 Competition: ERP systems may require an investment, but there’s also a cost to do nothing. Manufacturers cannot afford to put off an ERP implementation while their competition invests in ERP and starts reaping the benefits.
#5 Greater Efficiencies in Material Planning, Supplier Management and Reduce Logistics Costs: Established uniform processes are based on recognized best business practices that streamline processes and workflows with a single integrated system. Also it reduces redundant data entry and processes across the department.
#6 Improved Compliance: ERP solutions provide organizations with enhanced record keeping capabilities, assuring that industry-specific compliance regulations are being followed and documented.
#7 Social, Mobile, Cloud: More organizations are considering moving their operations to the cloud, in part because of the immense complexities of technology today. Implementing these solutions will drive improvements by combining business processes and analytics with social, mobile and cloud collaboration tools, thus allowing organizations increased interactions across an entire enterprise.
The Way Ahead
Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the most talked about technology trends today. However, there are some voices that warn that IoT is today overhyped, and that it will take a few more years for the real use cases and benefits of IoT to become visible. IoT has reached a level of maturity where the major challenge seen in its adoption is not the cost involved or the RoI but infrastructure constraints and scalability. However, India cannot afford to miss this IoT wave which is essential to the future of the country. But, this is the time for India to focus on hardware and software ‘products’ in addition to services and manufacturing. There will be tremendous opportunities to innovate from components to devices to systems to datacenters to software analytics to services.
While the challenges can be overwhelming, the following steps can help organizations jump start their IoT journeys and build competitive differentiation.
- Analyze sensory architecture
- Create an IoT vision tailored to the organization
- Initiate engagement and employee communication
- Focus on application development and infrastructure
- Rapid deployment, monitoring, and modification planning
- Developing product features and embedded sensors
.It is imperative that companies continuously incorporate new technologies that will dramatically improve their business operations. In order to ensure IoT is effective in India, we need a strong collaboration and coordination between government and the industry to provide IoT products, solutions, and services.