Manufacturing 4.0 resonates at the Sify TEQzest, Delhi

By: Suksham Sharma

Manufacturing sector in India is under spotlight as it is believed to have the potential to change India’s economic landscape. Modernization of this sector is the first step in achieving the goals set for this sector. Keeping this mind, Sify recently organized "TEQzest" in Delhi in association with Dataquest. The evening programme, hosted for the CIOs belonging to the manufacturing sector, was aimed at highlighting the importance of ‘Manufacturing 4.0’ in today’s hyper-competitive environment. Manufacturing sector which contributes close to 16 % to India’s GDP has the potential to grow manifold and so is envisioned by the government under its ‘Make-in-India’ initiative to contribute further.

Industry 4.0: The Way Forward

At the Sify TEQZest Delhi, various issues pertaining to the sector were raised, deliberated and discussed. Particularly the issue of adopting new technologies such as AI, robotics, machine learning, IoT and cloud under the Industry 4.0 roadmap which helps organizations become more efficient and competitive. The sector needs to adapt to the modern needs and adopt global practices that help it create more than 25% of the GDP and 100 mn jobs by 2022 which is the target set by the government for this sector.

The excellent line of speakers at the conference addressed the gathering and elaborated majorly around the theme ‘Manufacturing 4.0: Pathways to Drive Digital Adoption’. The conference became a platform where the manufacturing CIOs engaged, interacted and shared their thoughts and views on digital transformation.

As the veterans speak

The programme opened with a welcome address by Onkar Sharma, Editor, Dataquest, CyberMedia in which he pointed out at the manufacturing landscape in India and welcomed the guests. The chief guest of the evening was Bhupinder Singh Bhalla, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, GOI who stressed upon on the "Digital Transformation of the Manufacturing Sector”.

Bhalla shared his perspective on the broad and micro issues and advised a way forward keeping in mind the business requirements of the sector. He further talked about the efforts that the manufacturing industry is making to bridge this gap.

Vijay Sethi, CIO, Hero MotoCorp talked about the changing fundamentals of the business and urged CIOs to take a business-driven approach. While drawing an analogy between the Manufacturing 4.0 and the CIO’s role in this sector, Sethi said, “This is the time when CIOs need to shun the traditional ways and become CIO 4.O. While it sounds simple, it needs a bit of work to align to the industry trends and industry requirements.” Vijay shared his broad perspective on the sector and told how the whole manufacturing sector is affected by the digital transformation.

The CIO, HeroMoto Corp also gave some valuable advices to his peer CIOs as he explained the ten traits of a forward-looking CIO 4.0.

The role of a service provider in Industry 4.0

Technology providers like Sify Technologies do have a key role in transforming the manufacturing sector and make them adopt the 4.0 practices. Kamal Nath, CEO, Sify Technologies discussed about the different generations of the industry and put forth Sify’s roadmap to transform the manufacturing sector. Addressing the community Nath talked about the role of ICT service providers in manufacturing 4.0.

Further Nath discussed about the different value creators in the industry like time-to-market, supply/demand match, quality, asset utilization, and resources etc. He also revealed how Sify has transformed in the past few years to align to the needs of customers.

Pathways to Drive Digitalization

The evening ended with a Panel Discussion based on the theme of the event - “Pathways to drive digital /industry 4.0 adoptions for manufacturing competitiveness".

The Panelists included Manish Sanghi, MD, Everest Industries; Priyank Garg, MD, Advance Valves; Sanjeev Shriya, Founder Owner- Smart Chip; Vipul Anand, Group CIO, Jindal Steel & Power; Pallab De, Partner, PwC India; and Kaushik Mitra, President and Business Head of Application Services, Sify Technologies.

Onkar Sharma moderated the session by asking straight questions on Industry 4.0, real cases of digitalization in the sector and GST. Interesting insights surfaced in the discussed which was widely applauded by the audience through counter-questions in-between.

The panel was summed up emphasizing on the significance of Manufacturing 4.0 and technological aspects in today’s time.