S uccess in business comes when companies adapt the most appropriate strategies suiting the times and leverage the available enabling technologies for gaining sustainable competitiveness. In this framework, ARC Advisory Group recently organised a forum on ‘Driving business transformation through innovative manufacturing and supply chain solutions’ in Bangalore on November 12-14, 2009. It provided an excellent opportunity to track new industry trends and gain a good understanding of the market dynamics.
Focus & agenda
The focus of the three-day forum was on the challenges of the discrete industry and solutions required to overcome them. Driven by the relevance of the forum theme, the event attracted over 230 delegates from various discrete manufacturing industries along with suppliers of factory automation systems and manufacturing IT solutions. The knowledge transfer came from case study presentations, interactive panel discussions, workshops, and peer-to-peer networking. The forum started with workshops on ISA-95 and CAN bus. ARC, recognising the importance of adhering to standards by the manufacturing industry, had included this session on Standards.
The Chief Guest for the inaugural session on November 13, 2009 was T Parabrahman, Chairman, CII Karnataka State Council and Managing Director, Kirloskar Toyoda Textile Machinery. The forum’s agenda covered collaborative manufacturing imperatives and successful strategies. With India emerging globally as a compact car hub and as a growing market for the aerospace industry, it was only natural for the forum to have two separate breakout sessions. On November 14, 2009 the Forum held two separate sessions, one on automotive/heavy equipment industry, and the other on aerospace/defense.
Poised for growth
India is emerging as a manufacturing hub; already automotive giants such as GM and Nissan have established production facilities in the country. Equally promising are the potential and prospects of the aerospace industry. Over the next twenty years, Asia would account for almost 30 per cent of the demand for airplanes, with India emerging as one among the big spenders. Leading aerospace companies globally are beset with aging workforce challenges and they have either set up their own captive design and development centres in India or are working with global service providers, such as TCS and HCL.
From discrete manufactuing companies’ perspective, their growth opportunities would not come from demand side constraints. However, the success in the market would be determined by their ability to innovate, collaborate, and become globally competitive.
Fostering collaboration
Manufacturers must invest in factory automation systems and enterprise solutions including Manufacturing Execution Systems and Lifecycle Management Solutions, and integrate them seamlessly. Discrete manufacturing companies in India can compete by striving for continuous improvements in production processes by working collaboratively with independent product design, development, and engineering service providers. These and other related manufacturing IT (MIT) topics formed core issues in most of the presentations.
Andy Chatha, President, ARC, delivered the keynote presentation on the Collaborative Enterprise. Collaboration within the enterprise and outside partners is critical for success. Managing multiple facilities is a critical aspect of collaborative enterprises. Enterprise systems must provide real-time visibility and business process control across distributed facilities, share real-time production data with major suppliers and business partners, and provide customers with real time information visibility as needed. In an efficient supply network, companies must implement shared business processes and data across organisational boundaries. Many other presentations, including the one by Rajabahadur Arcot, Director, South and South-East Asia, ARC, focused on the importance of collaboration.
Winning together
At the end of ARC’s strategy sessions, Dr A N Saxena, Vice President of World Academy of Productivity Sciences (WAPS) and Andy Chatha bestowed Fellow awards on the distinguished professionals.
ABB, Cisco, Infor, ISA, Oracle, QuEST Global, Rockwell Automation, SAP, Siemens, TCS, and Titan Automation were the forum sponsors; AIA, AIMO, IMTMA, and SIATI were the industry association sponsors; A&D and EM were the media sponsors. While the forum provided the sponsors an opportunity to place their value proposition before end users, end users gained from case study presentations and workshops that included industry’s best practices, business trends, and emerging technologies. ARC created the necessary platform and the rich content with this event.
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