Published on December 28, 2016
Tata Network Forums (TNF) India - East organised a session on 'Digitisation in Manufacturing' on December 19, 2016, at the Oberoi Grand, Kolkata. Held under the banner of operations excellence and quality, the programme was spearheaded by Sanjiv Paul, MD, Tata Metaliks, for TNF India - East. The event brought together 48 Tata executives representing 18 Tata companies.
The session witnessed domain experts from various Tata companies working on the subject in their respective organisations. Speakers included Prateep Mishra, Technology Head - IoT Group, TCS Innovation Labs; Dr Arpan Pal, Principal Scientist and Head, Embedded Systems and Robotics, TCS Research and Innovation; Sarajit Jha, Chief, Digital Value Acceleration Team, Tata Steel; Santosh Kumar Pattanayak, HOD - ITS, Tata Sponge, and Amitav Sahay, AGM - Central Maintenance and Auto Transport, Tata Motors.
The day-long programme began with context setting and opening remarks by Mr Paul. This was followed by a session on Internet of Things (IoT) by Mr Mishra who spoke about IoT in the industry focusing specifically on how it can be leveraged in manufacturing. He explained that this essentially consists of sensing the processes by using sensors, creating visibility, processing the data so captured with other information to identify patterns or relations ie. generating insights to enable control or decision making or to enhance user experience. He also shared some examples of ongoing work in this area.
Dr Pal gave insights into robotics in manufacturing. Speaking about the immense potential of IoT, he shared several examples of how drones are being used to give live feedback and data for various purposes in various areas like wildlife conservation or even measuring temperatures. A major part of his talk focused on automation and robotics. He also expressed that with advancements in technologies like tactile sensors, augmented reality and cloud robotics, also called 'bots with head in clouds' a new future is emerging.
Post lunch, Mr Jha spoke about the digital journey of Tata Steel and his experience with value creation. Explaining that a digital solution to Tata Steel is something which is scalable, connected, rapid, intelligent, personalised, technological and secure, he stated that Tata Steel's digital journey is decentralised ie. every unit or function is left to ideate its own idea and identify value creation opportunities.
Mr Pattanayak spoke about how Tata Sponge has evolved its processes to a stage where operational data has become visible, accessible and usable. As an illustration, he shared examples of how operators in its three kilns generated approximately 600 data points in each shift that included critical process parameters like the kiln temperatures and stored them in log sheets, quality assurance department generated metal characteristics every hour and the ERP system had data about all business transactions. Going ahead they evolved a KPI-tracking process built around the myriad data captured from e-Logbook, SAP, PLC Data via DTS and QAS which has helped them in daily decision making.
The last session for the day was taken by Mr Sahay. He gave a brief about how Tata Motors has built a digital ecosystem to deliver its customer promise throughout its product lifecycle. The product engineering phase enables execution of manufacturing using robots. These robots know what to make based on a Manufacturing Execution System which tracks which order is to be sequenced next in the production line. The system also goes on further to enhance the customer experience by using telematics to give services like fleet management.
The programme was managed by a core team that comprised of Rahul Sahay, Munmun Pal and Kalyan Banerjee from Tata Metaliks, R Santoshi from Jamipol and Niranjan Rout from Tata Bluescope Steel.
The session on digitisation in manufacturing triggered several thoughts among the audience which got reflected in the Q&A session as well and it was very evident that the participants were enthusiastic about the subject. The day ended with a vote of thanks by Subhrajit Basu, Senior Consultant, TBExG, and coordinator for TNF India - East.