The current Gross Value Added (GVA) from the manufacturing sector was estimated at US$350.27 billion by the end of the financial year 2021. On balance, it accounts for 19% of the country’s Gross Value Added. A recent survey estimates the capacity utilization in the manufacturing industry to stand at 63% in the second quarter of FY21.

IHS Markit complied Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) increased by 1.3 from December 2020 to January 2021. According to the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation, the country’s industrial output reached 135.2 in December 2021, while the industrial output indices for the manufacturing sector alone stood at 135. in January 2021.

INDUSTRY 4.0 BENEFITS FOR THE SECTOR

Industry 4.0 aims at automation and data exchange in the current manufacturing technologies, including cyber-physical systems, the Internet of things (IoT), cloud computing and cognitive computing and creating the smart factory.

• MSME manufacturers can receive immediate and long term benefits by digitizing the shop floor. These include instant analysis of production status, error elimination and so on.
• The initiative promises long term benefits of increased operational efficiency, quality and a flexible reporting process.
• Not only the real-time production analysis provides an update to our perspective, but it also gives a better insight into the machinery, personnel and efficiency.
• Furthermore, the associated digital documentation eliminates the errors and sets a proper approval hierarchy in place simplifying the entire process.
• Digitization helps saving time while reducing expenses. The manufacturers can focus on competing in the market.
• The use of AI for predictive maintenance of the process machinery is an established commercial tool. The smart prediction algorithms increase equipment availability for operations and thence, reduces costs.
• Systems integrated with predictive maintenance software generates alarms. In any event, the errors can be rectified and resolves without stopping the entire process.
• Tool-sets like production scheduling, workflows and inventory management improves operations and process flows.
• We the transition, we can now save time on recording, documenting, correcting data and checking on machinery. Engineers are now able to track more variables, improving the preventative maintenance results.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN THE MANUFACTURING SECTOR

The government of India set up a 22 member Inter-ministerial Committee in November 2020. It presented the idea of strengthening the Capital Goods sector, enabling its contribution towards the goal of achieving the US $5 trillion economy. The data includes the US $1 from the manufacturing sector. Up to the present time, they have already set a target of increasing the contribution of manufacturing output to 25% of our GDP by 2025.

This committee’s agenda includes technology development, global value chains and skill development as per the global standards. They are working on improving custom duties procedures to make the sector stronger on international platforms. Given these points, India could become the manufacturing hub of the world. In January 2021, the 6th inter-ministerial Review Committee for Capital Goods scheme gathered to plan the creation of an eco-system for R&D for manufacturing technology. The development of based open manufacturing technology innovation platforms is the step towards it.

Conclusion

It is known that an increasing number of industries and professionals are beginning skill enchantment programmes. It is not only for immediate implementation but also to make the employees ready for the future. Industry 4.0 Digitization is becoming popular with time. However, a hitch in the mindset of the industry personnel still exists for participating in the automation projects and training.

The approach seems to be the way ahead even in the MSMEs. Senior level managers would be required to take this initiative forward so India could paint the globe with its vibrant manufacturing economy. K & D Communication Ltd puts forwards ENGIMACH 2021 as our share of contribution in the learning process. ENGIMACH is a platform for the Indian engineering and manufacturing industry to come out and address the innovation, trend and scope of the industry.