The Indian Manufacturing Industry Needs to Get ‘Smart’ https://www.infosys.com/insights/digital-future/Pages/the-indian-manufa...

The Indian Manufacturing Industry Needs to

Get ‘Smart’

Infosys Limited

by

Sudip Singh
Senior Vice President and Global Head, Engineering Services, Infosys

Digital Future

We are just days away from the India Economic Summit, and as I prepare to be a
panelist for the discussion on ‘Future of Production in India’, I cannot help but dwell
on the Indian manufacturing sector and how it needs to prepare to integrate
emerging technologies, especially Industry 4.0 into its DNA.

In FY 2017, the manufacturing sector in the country grew by 7.7 percent, and by any
economic standard, such growth is significant. Yet the Government of India is
determined to step up the pace, and expand the share of manufacturing to 25 percent
of the gross domestic product (GDP) by 2022. How will they make this ambitious
plan a reality considering the diversity, legacy, and scale, of the sector?

The Government has responded by launching the ‘Make in India’ initiative – an

effort to transform the country into a global design and manufacturing hub. As such,
the government has implemented policies and offered tax sops to encourage
industries – Indian and foreign – to manufacture and export globally. But beyond
policies, that which will truly jettison the ‘Make in India’ initiative into the realm of
global competitiveness will be ‘smart manufacturing’ or Industry 4.0 – the
automation and data exchange between cyber-physical systems, IoT, artificial
intelligence, and cloud computing – to generate knowledge and make manufacturing
intelligent and more cost-effective.

Brown-field industries which are in existence for over five or six decades can harness
the technological advantages of Industry 4.0, to go digital, re-orient production, and
arrive at substantial operational efficiency. Existing legacy infrastructure need not be
replaced, and alternate technology options can be accessed to make the enterprise
4.0 enabled. Meanwhile, green-field industries can deploy best of Industry 4.0

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technologies to reduce energy consumption, automate manufacturing processes,

streamline inventory, improve logistics, gain competitiveness, and more.

Industry 4.0 is exactly the direction toward which the global manufacturing sector is
moving, and India had better move quickly or lose out on an opportunity that has
been essentially handed over to the nation on a platter.

Why India has the potential to become a manufacturing powerhouse

Though the county’s GDP grew by a remarkable 7.1 percent in 2017, it is still
considered conservative, and in the years ahead, we can expect even higher growth
rates propelled by increasing consumer demand.

Moreover, half of India’s 1.2 billion citizens are under the age of 26. By 2020, the
median age is expected to be 29 years, making it the youngest country in the world.
Thus the manufacturing sector can expect to access all the vitality of youth, diversity
of skillsets, innovation of sharp minds, and a massive consumer base. As a leader in
IT, the country also has significant exposure to emerging technologies, such as IoT,
AI, and robotics.

One example is India Stack – a set of APIs that enable governments, enterprises, and
developers to utilize unique digital infrastructure to create innovative products.
Projects that harnessed the India Stack framework include the electronic Know Your
Customer (eKYC), Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the Unified
Payment Interface (UPI) that facilitates digital money transfers, and a Digital Locker
facility for secure issuing and verification of digital documents. It is about time the
manufacturing sector leveraged India Stack or a similar platform to create a product
that can better guide its growth trajectory and technology implementation in
Industry 4.0.

Is your manufacturing enterprise ready to implement Industry 4.0?

This is a question that usually leaves even high-level executives and decision-makers
tongue-tied, if not confused. Industry 4.0 does not offer a one-size-fits-all
solution/protocol. It need to be custom configured to each enterprise and industry
based on their challenges and priorities. To simplify the process and enable
enterprises to access a benchmark, Infosys and Acatech, also known as the German
Academy of Science and Engineering, developed an Industry 4.0 Maturity
Assessment Index. It helps enterprises evaluate themselves across six maturity levels
and create a roadmap for successful adoption. These six maturity levels are:

1. Computerization: Are tasks in your manufacturing enterprise supported by data

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processing systems or robotic process automation? Automation could relieve

employees from repetitive manual tasks and enable them to focus on analytical and
creative activity instead.

2. Connectivity: Are the data processing systems at your enterprise structured and
linked, and are core business processes reflected in IT systems?

3. Visibility: Does your enterprise have a digital shadow which enables it to take data-
based decisions?

4. Transparency: Does your enterprise access analytics to understand why events

happen? Doing so will enable you to recognize and discover knowledge pools.

5. Predictability: Does your enterprise have visibility into the future which enables it
to make informed decisions?

6. Adaptability: Does your enterprise react autonomously, in that, does the system
control itself and is it fully viable?

Responses to these queries require significant expertise both in business and

technology, and Infosys has guided numerous enterprises through this evaluation
process.

In conclusion, I think the Indian manufacturing sector has the unique opportunity to
leverage the country’s IT and Operational Technology (OT) expertise, innovatively
gear up for Industry 4.0, and become locally and globally competitive. But the
billion-dollar question is, can it do so fast enough?

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