The Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) Manufacturing Council organized “Smart Manufacturing Summit 2015” at The Eros Hotel, New Delhi, on 27th November 2015. Three Faculty members Mrs. Tanushree Bhattacharjee, EEE deptt, Mr. Anil Kumar Gillawat, ME deptt. and Ms. Amninder Kaur, ECE deptt from Dronacharya College of Engineering, Gurgaon attended the event.

The objective of the summit was:

1. To bring together business leaders and policy makers for a discussion on the Indian 4.0 industrial ecosystem.

2. To make India the leading market for advanced materials, innovative products & disruptive manufacturing processes.

3. To revitalize Indian manufacturing sector and strengthening its long-term competitiveness.

4. To impel Indian industry and policy makers’ to focus on Value Added Manufacturing and for it to serves as a key driver of research, innovation, productivity, job creation and exports.

Key Speakers

Following were the key speakers of the workshop:

Mr. Anant G Geete, Minister of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises Government of India

Mr. Jayant Davar, Co-Chairman, CII Manufacturing Council

Mr. Amitabh Kant, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Government of India

Mr. Nigel Harris, President & Managing Director Ford India Pvt. Ltd.

Mr. Arun Bhatia, Managing Director, Carrier Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Ltd

Mr. Dilip Sawhney, Managing Director, Rockwell Automation India

Dr. Andreas Wolf, Executive Vice President, Manufacturing & Quality Bosch Ltd

Mr. Sukaran Singh, MD & CEO, TATA Advanced Systems Ltd

Mr. Ashwath Ram, Vice President Industrial Engine BU, TCL;

Mr. J. S. Deepak, Secretary, Department of Electronics And Information Technology, Government of India

Mr. Satish Jamdar, Managing Director, Blue Star Limited

Mr. M. M. Singh, Chief Operating officer, Maruti Suzuki India

Mr. Vinod Sharma, Chairman - CII National Committee

The welcome speech at the inauguration was delivered by Mr. Jayant Davar. The chief guest of the event, Mr. Anant G Geete said that India has the potential to become one of the manufacturing leaders of the world. He mentioned about The Make in India program that includes the government of India’s major new initiatives to facilitate investment, foster innovation, protect intellectual property, and build best-in-class manufacturing infrastructure. He highlighted that the government is taking initiatives to reduce complexity, and significantly increasing speed and transparency for entrepreneurs who wants to do business in India.

Mr. Amitabh Kant discussed that Smart Manufacturing has been heralded as the future of manufacturing, and the future for India is in ensuring its spot as the "digital factory of the world". India's thrust towards "Make in India" should be kept in cognizance and we should begin its positioning in this space.

Mr. Nigel Harris briefed that countries such as the United States and Germany have already established large scale collective initiatives such as the ‘Smart Manufacturing Leadership Coalition’ (US) and ‘INDUSTRIE 4.0’ (Germany) to embed IT in their manufacturing industries. Simultaneously, the European Commission is investing nearly $2 billion to develop ‘Factories of the Future’, a public-private partnership to develop blueprints for a smarter manufacturing sector. He discussed the key attributes of a future factory in the Indian scenario.

Mr. Arun Bhatia said that the fourth industrial revolution is already on its way. He told that Industry 4.0 is a meeting of real and virtual worlds in manufacturing and involves the full integration of manufacturing technologies and systems to make a 'smart factory' and linking of all productive units in an economy.

Dr. Andreas Wolf discussed that the “Make in India” strategy has to be a blend of policy mix that not only encourages large-scale manufacturing but takes along the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to make the growth process more inclusive. Industry 4.0 emphasizes the idea of consistent digitization and linking of all productive units in an economy.

The participants got an opportunity to listen to some of the country's manufacturing experts and came to know the reason of these corporate leaders shifting their paradigms and embracing innovation and knowledge creation in order to survive, thrive and grow.

Mr. Sukaran Singh briefed that the world is experiencing trends and events that are having profound implications for the process manufacturing industry in a global economy. The understanding of uncertainty and risk has become fundamental to managing processes and ensuring optimum economic and environmental operation within a safe and responsible operating envelope.

Mr. Aswath Ram discussed that India's manufacturing industry contributes around 16 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) each year and less than two percent of the overall global manufacturing output. With nearly 250 million people set to enter the workforce in the next 15 years however, the adoption of Industry 4.0 will be an inevitable necessity for the Indian economy in realizing its plans of elevating its manufacturing industry to global levels of excellence.

Mr. Satish Jamdartold that the next big shift in the Industrial Manufacturing Industry is not just about quality and numbers, but also about adapting to the digital age of technology and information.

Mr. M. M. Singh discussed that producing classy and efficient products is not enough, they should be clubbed with performance based services that bind customers into a sustained relationship. These services must be tightly integrated with the product along with a robust support ecosystem to create a success story.

Mr. Vinod Sharma gave a vote of thanks during the valedictory function. Overall this workshop provided a platform to interact with Industry leaders and learn how they have adopted Continuous Improvement in their environment for sustainment in the industry.