The Mumbai-based Faclon Labs is a deep tech IoT (Internet of Things) company started by IIT-Bombay alumni. Faclon aims to become the digital backbone of the manufacturing sector by being a single source for all the digitalization needs of enterprises. In this interview, Rishi Sharma, CEO & Co-founder, Faclon Labs, explains importance of modern technologies for increasing India's competitiveness and how Faclon is assisting companies in their Industry 4.0 journey.

Could you brief us about Faclon Labs?
Founded in 2016, Faclon Labs started as a deep-tech IoT and data management company to address the growing need for Industry 4.0. With this mindset towards improving sustainability and reliability, Faclon is now a leading home-grown IoT and AI (artificial intelligence) company providing IoT platform I/O sense to cater to the wide range of digitization challenges faced by manufacturing, commercial as well as utility segments.

Faclon’s expertise lies in data acquisition and data enablement, coupled with generating business insights helping customers increase productivity, reduce operating costs and manage compliances better.

With strong subject matter expertise and ready-to-scale solution offerings, Faclon is a pioneer in taking Industry 4.0 mainstream in India and seven other countries where we have a presence.

What are the major shifts in trends you are seeing in the manufacturing industry?
Due to a boost in adhering to compliances, various government and corporate initiatives, market competition, and tighter budgets (that we are seeing in the post-Covid era), manufacturing industries are trying to figure out ways to operate their facilities in the most streamlined and effective way possible. Significant steps are being taken toward digitalization by industrial plants, facility managers, and OEM manufacturers to diminish inefficiencies and improve specific production metrics.

India aims to become a manufacturing superpower of the world. How important will be the adoption of modern technologies for increasing India's competitiveness?
Capital flows in the direction of leverage if one really wishes to thrive in a globally competitive landscape. The adoption of technologies such as automation, robotics, AI, and IoT enables cost-competency and production excellence, which are going to be major levers for the growth of the Indian manufacturing industry.

In fact, Falcon Labs is a home-grown deep-tech company that strives to not only provide world-leading IoT and AI offerings to the Indian market but also take the India stack to the global landscape.

What does Faclon do in terms of digitalization?
Faclon Labs becomes the digital backbone for its customers, enabling them to consolidate all kinds of process, sensor, and other industrial data and provide various analytical, automation, and AI tools to reduce the cost of operations and improve productivity.

In our engagements, we enable plug-n-play data access from any utilities, sensors, and assets across tens-of-thousands of nodes on a real-time basis (I/O Connect). This data forms the foundation of all algorithmic analytics (I/O Sense), precise automation (I/O Rules), as well as AI/ML interventions for predictive analytics (I/O deep sense). These data driven insights help businesses take smart and forward-looking decisions, which otherwise would be impossible to even conceive.

What does "Smart Manufacturing" mean to you?
Smart is a buzzword for most technological improvements or improved practices using existing technology. To us, it refers to uniting all data-driven aspects of an enterprise, such as utilities, assets, and processes, and enabling that data to drive intelligent analytics and automations.

How can SMEs contribute towards making India a manufacturing superpower?
SMEs are the backbone of any booming economy who are quick enough to capitalise on the market needs and quickly fill those needs through their offerings. With the growing SME base in India taking up complex challenges, they are the drivers to make India a manufacturing hub.

Falcon Labs is helping various SMEs in taking steps towards significantly improving their unit economics, resulting in increased profitability.

What are the key hurdles in the adoption of modern technologies in the SME sector? What are the solutions to overcome these hurdles?
The major hurdles to the adoption of modern technologies are lack of awareness and clarity in the adoption roadmap. Technology is becoming more readily available. One simply needs to be open-minded and make sure to implement best practices around it. Investments in technology made today will bear fruits in the future. Faclon has made digitization fairly straightforward to implement, but a transition in the way things are managed takes time.

Are there cost-effective ways for SMEs to make manufacturing more efficient/smart?
SMEs are on the lookout for cost-effective, market-tested solutions, as there is little room for experimentation. By making minor upgrades over a larger period of time and planning a future roadmap for digitalization, SMEs can validate and improve manufacturing to make it more efficient.

What is the vision of Falcon Labs?
For Faclon Labs, the future looks quite promising and exciting. As an increasing number of enterprises are starting to realise the value of digitalization, Faclon aims to become the digital backbone of any manufacturing enterprise, by becoming a single source for all the digitalization needs tailored for each enterprise, enabling them to achieve manufacturing excellence, increased productivity and significantly reduced operating costs.