About the industry expert
Disclaimer: The views expressed in interviews are personal, not necessarily of the organisations represented.
Chinmay Kamat
( Aspiring Entrepreneur | Network Marketer | Marketing and Sales Strategist | Product Marketing | IIoT Automation Specialist | Digital Twin and Virtual Commissioning Expert )
Barring a few engaged in essentials, the manufacturing sector has come to a near standstill in past weeks. What are the dimensions of impact of this lockdown?
- Covid-19 Pandemic has adverse effects on the Indian economy due to plunging revenue for various MSME, especially in a developing country like India.
- When things restarts again , there will be Positive as well as Negative impacts on people, organisations and entire ecosystem.
- Due to pandemic lock down and curfew imposed , it has taught the whole world the Importance of Time. Working as per guidelines and policies with safety as top priority.
- Work From Home is another logical initiative that cannot be neglected as it saves lot of Time and avoids contamination of virus in crowded public places.
- Our Infrastructure is not completely ready to start implementing the necessary measures but indeed, the pandemic impacts have created a vision which will improve this systems.
Since different companies in supply chain will gear up at different rates, how is a plan for kickstart of regular operations after lockdown to be evolved? How do you plan to cope with shortage of skills in this phase?
- India is a Developing Nation with amazing talent within the country and various MSME in several states of India.
- MNC's and Tier 1 organisations should start supporting their vendors and manufacturing supply chains, so that the business can kick start of regular operations.
- It is true that here in India, Manufacturing and Production Sectors cannot work from home due to lack of Infrastructure in certain sectors, especially the professionals working on Assembly Lines.
- But this is the best time to develop and improve our existing infrastructure and migrate most of the process to Semi-Automatic or Fully-Automatic Cloud Based Systems , this will help cover losses and benefit in future.
- Micro , Small , Medium Organisations might take few more time to restart back with normal conditions as compared to MNC's and Tier 1 companies.
Going forward, what strategies should manufacturing companies adopt to minimise the impact of lockdown like situations in future?
- Safety should be the utmost Top Priority.
- Migrating majority of the process on Cloud Based Systems.
- Internet Service Providers needs to deliver flawless service , so that Working From Home is easy and also avoids people at Crowded public places.
- Will have to adapt with lot of other different Sanitation Techniques and methods.
- Digital Twin and Virtual Commissioning can help various Manufacturing Sectors. Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality would be add on advantage.
- Simulating Machines and Models in Cloud Environment would be a great Initiative.
COVID-19 has reshuffled the pack, as far as preferred destination for outsourcing is concerned. How should India gear up to derive maximum advantage?
- India is equipped with skilled professionals and outstanding human workforce in several domains and various Industry Sectors.
- After pandemic crisis, various MNC's are looking to setup their Factories and Plants in India from overseas , this will boost up lot of employment opportunities here in India and Products that will be manufactured here will be much more in Quantity without neglecting its Quality and will be ready to compete in the market.
- Products that can be Made in India , should be supported more rather than importing those products overseas.
- We wont achieve success overnight but eventually we will have a good hold in the market.
In what way has COVID-19 changed the parameters for evaluation of digital transformation in terms of cost, RoI, and man power?
- As the Business and Economy is hit hard, it might take few weeks to settle down. Meanwhile we cannot miss this opportunity to plan strategically for after effects of Covid-19 Pandemics.
- Hereafter, every individual will have to efficiently work for his/her organisation to operate everything back in normal condition.
Will this lead to an increased demand for robots and cobots?
- YES, Indeed i personally feel that with such great population people need to be more responsible now on.
- Robots and Cobots can be used in Sanitation of Public Places and Work Places , if this technology is implemented there wont be much human intervention and will save one's life in future from getting contaminated by virus.
Since the future is going to have many people in the “work-from-home” status, how do you plan to change your recruitment, training and other HR policies?
- Now there will be a lot of Improvements in Workplace , Recruitment and various other HR Policies.
- Work From Home will save an Individual's Travel Time and the Risk of Contamination from different viruses and infections by avoiding crowded public places.
- As the Covid-19 Pandemic Virus is contagious in nature and can be transferred through any of the carrier, now it will be quite difficult to work like before in respective organisations as most of the organisations have Closed Loop Centralized Air Conditioned Systems, because of which the virus might spread very quickly within.
- As various organisations are trying to implement Work From Home policies in a long run with flexible hours, it may help lot of organisations in various ways like Utilizing less Electricity and Less use of Transportation.
#April 2020 Covid Special
To say the world is passing through trying times is to state the obvious. Also evident is the fact that for too long the world has been ignoring the warning signs of environmental degradation fuelled by human excesses and greed. But this is no time for ifs and buts, nor recrimination. Instead, the crisis should be used as an opportunity to make the required course correction to make the world a safer place for all living beings, and the ecological balance, restored.
Industrial Automation invited a cross section of industry leaders to offer their views and possible course of action as a way forward from this situation, even as governments across the world and the people are trying to make sense from the still evolving scenario.
To read the full cover story Please click here
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