CII organized an International Conference on Cost Effective Manufacturing on 16th February 2013 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. The Conference was inaugurated by Mr Ajay Shankar, Member Secretary, National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council (NMCC). A CII – Avalon report on “Automation in Manufacturing: Improving Quality and Productivity while Sustaining Competitiveness” was also released during the Inaugural Session. The Conference highlighted mainly on the following points :

• India actually has the building blocks to become a leader in affordable automation (IT skills, engineering sector and engineering graduates) but there are still gaps that need to be bridged – like quality of engineering graduates, technology gap with best in class in automation and lack of industry-institute partnerships in IP development.
• Manufacturing has to be competitive to survive in an increasingly global world. And automation is one of the critical inputs.
• Automation need not be restricted to only manufacturing but can be extended to transfer of material, accounting, logistics etc. However, we need to develop India specific solutions i.e. automation that is affordable (able to sustain power failures, easy to maintain etc.)
• Automation is no more optional but a part of achieving excellence and driving profitability. Going forward automation even has the potential to substitute for human senses. E.g. Camera for sight.
• Entire factory and its operations could be simulated digitally. This can enable a project team to consider multiple what-if scenarios, reduce waste, detect and eliminate problems at an early stage. This will minimize the investment risks.