Industry 4.0, the next stage of the industrial revolution already showed its competitive edge in the digital ecosystem. The technology is well embraced by highly developed countries like Germany, Japan, the USA, and Singapore. Will it be a success in India?

The impact of the COVID-19 has been huge on the economy as well as in the labour market. The shift of the way work needs to be done to finish the deadline changes the mindset to accept and be flexible with digital technologies. The digital ecosystem is not far from India. With the new technology start-ups and young entrepreneurs’ mindest, a new revolutionary approach can be adopted.

As per Ramesh Nair, Chief Executive Officer, India & MD, Market Development, Asia, “ India is at the cusp of a digital edge where young talent plays leading roles through their start-ups, and organizations are adopting technologies for a paradigm shift. This is the era where Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and Cloud Computing Act, analyze and alert for the next steps of decision making.” stated in economic times.

Why India should adopt Industry 4.0?

McKinsey’s analysis shows with an increase of 40% rise in operation costs, key growth can be achieved in sectors like production, logistics, supply chain, and procurement.  

The reasons to adopt Industry 4.0 are:-

• Manufacturing capacity and product quality can be improved due to advanced data analysis and also preventing production defects.
• Automation reduces manufacturing cycles, decreases cycle time, and also wasteful capital use is reduced.
• The cost reduction due to the digitalization of the manufacturing process improves the consumer experiences.
• The supply chain lead times can be decreased by IoT and man-machine.

The various programs and initiatives are pulling India or even pushing India towards Industry 4.0. The result of such efforts by the FICCI-EFESO Consulting (India) survey on manufacturing Excellence in Q4-2020 are:-

• The structured operational excellence methodology such as TPM, TQM, WCM has been adopted by more than 50% of participating companies
• Digital technology is being leveraged by more than 13% to predict product, equipment, and process failures.
• IIoT-based sensors are used by more than 30% of organizations for data collection.
• Industrial assets are monitored by 18% of participants in real-time.
• AI and ML are integrated by more than 15% of the organization in their plant operation.

The sectors India should target to adopt Industry 4.0 are FMCG, Telecommunication Industries, and Healthcare sectors. The decision based on the data-driven method is mostly used. Even though some data are questionable of its authenticity but still it is needed to get the right results.

The different ways India is approaching to adopt Industry 4.0 are:-

• A report by the Indian Brand Equity Foundation’s analysis, the manufacturing sector share is going to rise from 16% to 25% as per the Indian government plans, resulting in the “Make in India” initiative being a competitive success.
• The small scale to medium industries is being supported to adopt Industry 4.0 by the Ministry of Heavy Industry and Public Enterprises.
• In Bangalore, at the IISc, the first Smart Factory was built. The center is mainly for Product design and manufacturing. The Themes like IoT and data transfer are supported by the smart factory.