Ã¢â‚¬Å“The future of automation lies in softwareÃ¢â‚¬Â

Home
Interviews
Ã¢â‚¬Å“The future of automation lies in softwareÃ¢â‚¬Â

Ã¢â‚¬Å“The future of automation lies in softwareÃ¢â‚¬Â

Interviews
Dec 01,18

The Indian economy is experiencing rapid growth, fueling the need for advanced automation concepts and best manufacturing practices.

Ã¢â‚¬Å“The future of automation lies in softwareÃ¢â‚¬Â

The Indian economy is experiencing rapid growth, fueling the need for advanced automation concepts and best manufacturing practices. The focus on smart manufacturing is encouraging maximum use of automation, robotics and digitization in facilities to lower production costs while enhancing efficiency, productivity and OEE, says Jhankar Dutta, Managing Director, B&R Industrial Automation Pvt Ltd, which acts as a key enabler for companies moving in the direction of Industry 4.0 by offering them technologies & solutions. In this interview Rakesh Rao, Jhankar Dutta explains why the adoption of next-generation automation technologies is important for Indian manufacturers to become globally competitive and shares growth plans of B&R for India.

How has been the journey of B&R in India?

B&R Industrial Automation is known worldwide among its customers for innovations and high performance products. B&R takes pride in delivering products at the cutting edge of technology. In many cases, the new products actually shape the market view of what can be done. In this sense, it is a market-leader situation. B&R has always offered to the Indian customers the latest offerings, because we consider Indian OEMs to be every bit as innovative and open to new technology as elsewhere in the world.

We at B&R also realise that a product with high features is not sufficient. That is why we focus on having a professional manpower, who have mastery over the products, to help our customers to select and implement the new product and all features. The future of automation lies in software. Automation Studio the single powerful programming tool provides an extensive simulation environment together with an excellent integration with Maplesim, Matlab & E-PLAN softwares. A decisive factor here is that all of the products work together seamlessly.

B&R has launched an absolute modern concept to develop machine software. Mapp Technology is one such innovation in recent times, which enhances software functionality and reduces development effort by 67 per cent. All B&R controllers are capable of handing robot programming, eliminating the need for a separate robot controller, thus, reducing costs. OpenROBOTICS has opened up new dimensions of robotics integration for machinery and production lines.

With completely uniform programming for every component in the line – including robotics – our customers around the world gain full benefit of holistic approaches to operation, diagnostics and maintenance. By our merger with ABB last year, who too are a world leader in process automation, our development activity gets a fillip. B&R with its innovations, products and technologies is an ideal partner for achieving a cost effective, high performance, modular machines, robots and production units.

How has been the demand for your products (in automation & robotics space) in India? Which are the key industries that you cater to?

In India, B&R is already satisfying various customer demands with modular, flexible and integrated automation solutions since last 20 years. We are a preferred automation vendor for market leaders from various segments. With our broad portfolio of products and solutions, we covers not just individual machines, but also an entire production line or factory automation for different industries like, automotive, printing, packaging, pharmaceutical, energy, plastics, maritime & offshore, metalworking, mobile automation, food & beverage, oil and gas, textiles etc.

What are the demand drivers for automation & robotics?

The use of automation and robots in manufacturing setups and shop floors is exponentially increasing, with many suggesting of this growth doubling in coming years in India. Automation and robots are primarily deployed for improving speed and precision and to increase productivity and human safety, avoid repetitive tedious tasks and efficient, safe operation in health hazardous areas.

Today, advanced automation and robotics, has opened up many additional capabilities such as, batch size one production, reduced energy consumption, quick RoI, increased OEE, reduced maintenance, highest productivity due to robot-machine synchronisation, human robot collaboration etc. Automation and robotics has enabled shop floors to have a smaller footprint for stopping, inbuilt intelligent safety functions, reduced wiring and incorporating electronic data sheets for easier and safe changeover. Definitely, this helps shop floors with better space utilisation, reduced wastage, lesser downtimes and easier restarts.

Are Indian manufacturers increasingly opting for automation & robotics?

Automation and Robotics is one of the rapidly growing segment in the world and there is immense potential for a developing country like India. The government's initiative of 'Make in India' aims to make India a global manufacturing hub, accelerating the adoption of automation and robotics. Automation is no longer a matter of choice; rather it has become a matter of survival.

Our government is strongly focusing on enabling and supporting small and medium sized enterprises in the adoption of next-generation automation technologies in order to become globally competitive. Today, Indian manufacturers wish to be technological leaders rather than low-cost players. India is a land of opportunity and the convergence of government policy and global trends makes it an extremely attractive market!

Is automation & robotics cost-effective for SMEs?

New technologies definitely come at costs, but the returns they yield are much higher due to higher efficiency, better optimization, higher productivity and throughput eventually leading to higher profitability. Thus, the returns are much higher than the cost invested.

Could you share with us some of the latest product/technology launched by you?

In India too, we are seeing a push towards technology adoptions and aspirational India no longer wishes to project itself as low cost hub, rather want to be best-of-class. B&R acts as a key enabler for companies moving in the direction of Industry 4.0 by offering them technologies & solutions, which helps to improve productivity, efficiency and flexibility of their machines and factories.

Our next generation industrial transport technology delivers key advantages for adaptive manufacturing. The flexible transport systems make production more efficient while simultaneously improving product quality making production lines more economic and effective at any volume – from mass production down to batch size one. Our Industrial IoT solutions for greenfield as well as brownfield facilities offer seamless integration and universal scalability, helping machine builders to cost-effectively adopt new technologies and become ready for the future.

What are the emerging trends in automation & robotics space?

Robots and humans working hand in hand and not bounded by cages is increasingly evident in the industry. B&R has already a successful implementation for a human robot collaboration application where the robot is not bounded by cage and works together with humans satisfying entire safety requirement.

What are your growth plans for India?

Customers will continue to play a pivotal role in our growth and success. In order to provide them with a unique experience, we are proud to introduce a new platform: Experience Center. This platform will help users understand, witness and experience the use of advanced automation and innovative manufacturing technologies. It will help them to optimize their machines and factories and build a strategy for adopting these technologies in their own processes.

In addition, we are expanding our Pune office space to match our projected growth. Globally, ABB is investing Euro 100 million in Austria to build a state-of-the-art innovation and training campus at the B&R headquarters in Eggelsberg, laying the foundation for around 1,000 new high-tech jobs. I am sure this collaboration will further accelerate our speed of growth and innovation in India as well.