Embrace change through education

By OEM Update Editorial June 17, 2019 5:08 pm IST

Lack of knowledge of government initiatives among MSMEs is one of the major factors why the small scale industries are still lagging behind in accepting the change, says Amitoj Singh, Managing Director, Originative Solutions Network Pvt Ltd., in an interaction with Aultrin Vijay of OEM Update.

Make in India boosting manufacturing sector
As far as Make in India and India’s manufacturing sector is concerned, on the local level, several new industries and startups are coming up and Indian products are now quite competitive globally. China was earlier considered to be the topmost priority, but now, India is really making its presence.

MSMEs still using conventional technologies
The MSMEs or small companies are still using conventional and old technologies. As far as adoption of new technologies are concerned, there are some challenges, which needs to be addressed. Fund crunch, availability of local resources to upgrading the technology, and proven results for those technologies are some of the challenges, which obstructs MSMEs from shifting to newer technologies.

Educate MSMEs
Educating the MSMEs should be done in a proper way. Also, MSMEs and entrepreneurs who really want to invest in technology should come together to take advantage of all schemes provided by the government.

Training is essential
When a factory is upgraded to Industry 4.0 or some digital platform, to which local operators are not familiar with, they should be trained to use that technology, so that they can utilise it better in their production work. However, there are some issues with Industry 4.0 such as lack of availability of reliable high speed Internet, which needs to be addressed.

Transition to Smart Factory
You can start from the basic food and beverage industry to high production steel rolling mills. There are some small MSMEs, which are dependent only on one machine. Those areas should be considered for making the transition to smart factory.

Future prospect of cloud solution
Cloud solutions are proving to be a boon to manufacturers, because you can assess the data at anytime and from anywhere, also you can see what’s happening in real time. So, as far as machine tools are concerned, the machine’s production data can be used with algorithms, which can easily find out ways to improve the machine and process.

As far as big industries are concerned, they are adopting cloud solutions very fast. But, the small industries are reluctant in adopting these technologies. Big factories are now using smart sensors and Industry 4.0 platform, but for small factories and MSME sectors, it is still a distant dream.

MSMEs must be provided initial knowledge and their value proposition. If that can be done in right way it would help a lot to the small manufacturers.

Spreading awareness
There are some government schemes, which are available to promote Make in India and Skill India. As a technology provider, we are providing solutions for technological upgradation. We keep on updating our customers what benefit they would get, but lack of funds always become a roadblock in adopting new technologies.

Big factories are now using smart sensors and Industry 4.0 platform, but for small factories and MSME sectors, it is still a distant dream
Amitoj Singh, Managing Director, Originative Solutions Network Pvt Ltd.