Due to the pandemic, our dependence on technology has increased manifold. The Prime Minister exhorted citizens to go vocal for local; to turn India into a manufacturing and a technology hub for the world. This shows the relentless drive by the Indian Government to help local industries, small or large, to flourish and fuel economic growth. However, to achieve this efficiently in the new-normal, one of the critical aspects of the strategy is to leverage technology and digital solutions.
One aspect of such a strategy is to think of ‘remote-everything' in the manufacturing sector. Remote collaboration, remote engineering, remote manufacturing/testing, remote monitoring and maintenance and remote expert assistance, to name a few. This essential shift in thinking remote-everything will help our industries operate safely, efficiently, and sustainably. In recent singular times, a few other technological advancements like AI, Machine Learning (ML), Robotics and Industrial Internet of Things have improved operational safety and increased business productivity. The 'remote-everything' capability will further enhance their application to help the Indian industry.
While the concept of remote operations is not new, the pandemic has accelerated its adoption and the related innovation. The demand for remote access and remote work will continue to grow as industries adopt and enforce social distancing norms to bolster employee safety related processes. It is estimated that around a million employees from the Indian technology industry will continue to work from home even after the lockdown is lifted completely.
Needless to mention, manufacturing industries are now focusing on strengthening their remote working capabilities, building an effective IT infrastructure, and deploying remote technologies and applications to promote business continuity. Remote solutions are making remote industrial operations easier, safer, and more productive by providing advanced instructions on upcoming tasks, providing expert assistance, and enabling collaboration between various stakeholders who may be geographically separated. All this can now be done through a secured IT infrastructure that assists in maintaining a digital logbook and an audit trail, enable a video chat, sharing critical documents, and closing the loop faster between identification of a critical task and taking an action to close the loop. A manufacturing company can nowcontrol and limit the number of people on-site while the experts continue to work remotely and assist multiple sites/people at the same time. This helps adherence to social distancing and leverages the technology to deploy fewer people.
The acceleration of digital remote technologies and their adoption in the industries is encouraging.However, these technological advancements and remote connectivity often put security of critical infrastructures at risk if ignored.
Organisations leading digital transformation are deploying cybersecurity solutions that drive greater consistency and protection across operational technology (OT) environments. Cybersecurity solutions coupled with other industrial digital/remote technologies help identify insights regarding the vulnerabilities and threats, and avoid expensive downtime due to possible attacks.
Manufacturing operations will rapidly continue to be different from what we have been used to. Manufacturing industries need to invest in the right technologies to adapt and evolve to stay relevant. It is vital to unlock new opportunities that these new technologies offer, to make their future safer, smarter and more sustainable.The future of manufacturing belongs to India and a rapid technologies'adoption will help the nation to take its manufacturing to a thriving future.
The writer is Ashish Gaikwad, Managing Director, Honeywell Automation India Limited