Industry 4.0 to triple India’s combined factory output : Rockwell Automation
Rockwell Automation, Inc. (NYSE: ROK) is tapping into the need for a major shift towards Industry 4.0 technologies if India aims to triple its combined factory output in gross value added (GVA) terms to $1 trillion by 2025.
“We want to take the lead in building India’s first industry 4.0 ecosystem of partner companies that will create solutions for The Connected Enterprise that can analyze machine conditions in advance to avoid breakdowns and enhance productivity but also improve on quality and compliance parameters,” said Dilip Sawhney, Managing Director, Rockwell Automation India.
The company is expanding its Partner Network in India to allow local manufacturers access to a collaborative network of companies mutually focused on developing, implementing and supporting manufacturing solutions across industry verticals. Rockwell Automation organised its annual User Group conference ‘Rockwell Automation on the Move’ 2019 in Bangalore today.
“Globally, digital-induced disruption is inevitable. To maintain and improve global competitiveness, Indian manufacturers need to accelerate the adoption of Industry 4.0. While India has a lot of catching up to do in this respect, it can accelerate digital transformation by leveraging its strengths in the IT services sector and tapping the entrepreneurial spirit seen in the start-up sector,” said John Watts, Regional Marketing Director, Asia Pacific at Rockwell Automation.
Rockwell Automation has in the past partnered with L&T, Cisco, Microsoft, Endress+Hauser, and Wipro Infrastructure Engineering to develop smart manufacturing solutions in India.
“Of the 74 trillion global economy only 15 percent is digitised. By 2020 this number is expected to be 25 percent. The digitisation journey is like the invention of currency. Because of the digital economy all industries are connected. The globalisation impact on the digital economy of India is real. However, digitisation is driving a tremendous amount of nationalism and protectionism,” said Sameer Garde, President, Cisco India while speaking at the event.
The APAC region accounts for around fifteen per cent of the company’s global revenue, with China being the biggest contributor. “The Chinese economy is slowing down but it’s still good. They have been struggling with capacity utilisation over the past 6 to 7 years, having invested a lot during the global financial crisis,” said John Watts, Marketing Director, Asia Pacific at Rockwell Automation. The slowdown in the Chinese economy, with its annual growth being the slowest since 1990, is not news in itself as Beijing has broadcast this for several years.
“There is a lot of room for growth in digitisation. The dollar spend is in manufacturing and supply chain. Often people think that digital transformation is for large companies but there is a lot of opportunity for small companies,” said John Watts.
Rockwell Automation has an R&D centre in Bangalore and a Global Engineering Centre in Pune and Noida. The company currently has 1200 employees across 17 locations in India. “The last five years have been great growth years for us,” said Dilip Sawhney, Managing Director, Rockwell Automation India.
The company’s Bangalore Design Centre focuses on new product development efforts. “We continue to ramp up this team. It has grown from a ‘startup’ eight years ago to 200 people now. The team works on automation platforms and power control products. We are tapping into the talent pool of ASIC designers, signal integrity engineers, power packaging and design library expertise. Bangalore is a good place to further scale up the team,” added Sawhney.
Infrastructure and BS6 regulations to accelerate growth
The company expects further growth to be driven by the rising infrastructure investments in India and the BS6 regulation which will be in place by 2020 — Fuel companies (refineries to retail) and automotive companies will have to be ready for this.
“A lot of information technology (IT) / operational technology (OT) convergence is being seen. There is a huge untapped opportunity in the manufacturing world for digitisation. Consumer facing industries like F&B and Pharma are growing fast. Process centric industries are also growing,” said Dilip Sawhney.
Rockwell Automation & Endress+Hauser to strengthen India partnership
At the event Rockwell Automation and Swiss instrumentation & process automation major Endress+Hauser announced plans to further strengthen their 15-year alliance with a focus on India to meet the needs of local manufacturers by jointly delivering process automation solutions.
“While Rockwell Automation is deeply rooted in the world of systems, Endress+Hauser is in process measurement engineering. Most major automation companies market their products under the aspect of project handling. The end customer — especially the process engineer who wants to optimize the process — eventually loses out,” said Kailash Desai, Chief Operating Officer, Endress+Hauser India.
