“Industry 4.0 – the future Concept of Manufacturing” – VDMA Symposium

World over, the new concept - ‘Industry 4.0’ is fast gaining momentum world over. This new disruptive technology based on digital innovations has recently found its curve of progression and has transformed and reshaped the way things are viewed in the manufacturing segment.

According to International Yearbook of Industrial Statistics 2016- published by UNIDO with its ranking going up by three places, India has now been ranked sixth among the world’s 10 largest manufacturing countries. India is no exception to this global trend and is steadily increasing its share of Global Manufacturing GDP. The country has a unique opportunity to innovatively pave its own road to Smart Manufacturing. Industry 4.0 is expected to transform manufacturing in India by bringing operational efficiencies to manufacturing industries like automotive, electrical and electronics, Aerospace

Against this backdrop and to sensitize local manufacturing industry, VDMA India organised 1^st international symposium on “Industry 4.0 – the future Concept of Manufacturing” on 6^th June at Sangri La hotel in Bangalore and on 8^th June at Hyatt, Pune respectively.

The event focussed on implementing Industry 4.0 in Manufacturing focusing Automotive, Aerospace, Machine tools, Construction & Material Handling, Food Processing & packaging, Heavy and process engineering sectors. Around 250 delegates comprising industry veterans, policy makers, academia, research institutions, media from both the cities participated at the symposium.

In Bangalore The event started with the traditional Lighting of the lamp by the Chief guest Mrs. Margit Hellwig-Boette, Consul General, Federal Republic of Germany, Bangalore flanked by the “Guest of Honour” was Mr. S.R. Mukherjee, Chief Executive officer, TATA Advanced Materials Ltd; Mr Dietmar Goericke, Managing Director, Forum Industrie 4.0 at VDMA Frankfurt and Mr. Rajesh Nath, Managing Director, VDMA India.

In his welcome address Mr. Nath covered the various aspect of Indo-German bi lateral relation, India’s potential as Global manufacturing hub. He also emphasised the importance of adapting Industry 4.0 concept to achieve the ambitious target of making India a global hub for manufacturing, design and innovation, and augmenting the share of manufacturing in the GDP from the currently 17% to 25% by 2022.

Mrs. Margit Hellwig-Boette, the next speaker, spoke on the Development of Industry 4.0 in Germany. Mr. In his speech, Mr. S.R. Mukherjee, highlighted the overview and potential of Aerospace industry in India and briefly touched upon the importance of Industry 4.0 in aerospace sector. The last speaker of the inaugural session in both the cities was Mr. Dietmar Goericke. In his brief presentation He emphasised on Industrie 4.0 - How VDMA supports the transformation of German mechanical engineering industry in close coordination with member companies, research bodies and academic institutions.

Similar to Bangalore, the event in Pune started with the lamp lighting by the Chief Guest Mr. Andreas Jahn, Vice President- Manufacturing Engineering Planning, Volkswagen India Pvt Ltd along the Guest of Honour, Mrs. Rashmi Urdhwareshe, Director – Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), Mr. Dietmar Goericke and Mr. Sandip Roy, Regional Head – East.

In his welcome address Mr. Roy outlined on the digital disruption, Industry 4.0 and its significance to the manufacturing industry and how the VDMA members can support the Indian manufacturers towards process optimization through automation.

The next speaker was Mr. Andreas Jahn who spoke on the Application of Industry 4.0 in Automotive Industry” with case study of implementing of Industry 4.0 in their factory at Chakkan.

Mrs. Rashmi Urdhwareshe, made a presentation on the Industry 4.0- initiative of the Government of India and also mentioned about the activities of the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI). She also congratulated VDMA for bringing together the various stakeholders of Industry 4.0 in this forum.

There were total 8 speakers under Technical session in Bangalore and 7 in Pune from VDMA member companies like  Beckhoff Automation, EPLAN software, HARTING India, Pepperl + Fuchs, Pilz India, SAP India,  Shaeffler Group and Zimmer GmbH. Mr Ajey Phatak, Manager Marketing, Beckhoff Automation Pvt Ltd made a presentation on PC based Control Technology- Foundation for Industry 4.0 in Bangalore only.

Mr. Umesh Pai B, Managing Director, EPLAN Software and Services Pvt Ltd made a presentation on Digital Twin – Single Source of Truth in both the cities. He underlined the importance of creating a twin for every product and while implementing Industry 4.0 in shop floor.

The topic of the presentation from Mr. Girish Rao, Managing Director, HARTING India Pvt Ltd. was Industry 4.0 - Walk the Talk with case studies on the advantages of embracing the Industry 4.0 in their own production unit in Germany.

Mr. Ravi Agarwal, Managing Director, Pepperl & Fuchs Factory Automation Pvt Ltd was the first speaker in the technical session in Bangalore and set the tone with his presentation on “Implementation of Industry 4.0 in India” and how the country can benefit by harnessing automation in manufacturing sector and become a preferred destination of Global companies thus to realising the “Make in India” initiative of the Indian Government.

In his presentation on Challenges on the way to Industry 4.0, Mr. Sanjay Kulkarni, Managing Director, Pilz India Pvt. Ltd highlighted the data safety and security of the systems and and solution offered by the  Pilz India.

Ms. Ekta Arora, Vice President, IOT and Digital Supply Chain, and Mr. Neeraj Athalye, Vice President – Innovation & Digital Business was the speakers from SAP in Bangalore and Pune respectively. Both of them spoke on Industry 4.0: Digital transformation in Manufacturing and the various initiatives undertaken for skilling and re skilling of the workforce.

Unlike other speakers who mostly covered on the digital part of the Industry 4.0, speakers from Schaeffler Group and Zimmer GmbH made their presentation on the physical part of the Industry 4.0. Mr. Pramod Francis, Sr. Application Engineer, Schaeffler India talked about the Schaeffler Smart EcoSystem for Machine Tool.

Mr. Markus Böhmer, Head of International Sales System Technology, and Mr.Ulrich Doll, Head of Project Management, Zimmer GmbH spoke on Zimmer Innovative 4.0  products for handling and clamping Technology in Bangalore and Pune respectively.

Both the technical session was followed by Q&A session.

The event was moderated by Mr. S. Manohar, Regional Head – South and Ms. Jamly John, General Manager, VDMA India in Bangalore and Pune.

The daylong symposium concluded with a Hi-tea and B2B session which offered a good interaction and networking opportunity for both the audience and the participating companies.