“Make in India” building an ecosystem of products and components

By OEM Update Editorial June 5, 2024 6:27 pm IST

Shivkumar Srinivasan, Chief Operating Officer, highlights that MELSS supports manufacturers in scaling up through data-driven decision-making, automation, and Industry 4.0 practices. It offers customised, turnkey solutions with continuous support to optimise production and improve ROI.

Please recommend technology and engineering solutions to scale up manufacturing.

The obvious answer is to ensure that Industry 4.0 is practised. Data-driven decision-making enables production efficiency improvement. We have noticed that organisations that have implemented different solutions to collect data do not analyse it sufficiently and take appropriate actions to improve the results. For example, implementing tools such as OEE and studying the various downtimes will allow companies to take action on specific losses and improve the results. Similarly, a traceability solution, combined with mistake proofing, can enable organisations to reduce quality losses and unnecessary rework, thus improving efficiency.

How does MELSS involve itself in handholding customers through their Industry 4.0 journey?

All solution discussions start with defining the objective. With this objective in mind, we work with the customer to map all the relevant processes in their workflow and identify required data capturing, control and mistake-proofing mechanisms. Our experience in automation and software gives us an edge on this. We can select and implement the required sensors and field devices from the building blocks to achieve this. The software platforms integrate with these field devices to deliver the required objective.

Our customisation capabilities have also allowed us to integrate seamlessly with various modules of customers’ ERP and production planning systems, such as BOM Control, warehousing, production orders, quality, production schedules, and fulfilment. We do not address solutions as a one-off. The road map for Industry 4.0 is drawn out with the customer, and the solution is addressed in a modular fashion. The solution does not end the installation. To make it successful, we have teams working with customers to evaluate utilisation and working with the management team to see its result.  A permanent employee is often deployed at the customer site post-implementation for continuous handholding support.

What strategies are being adopted in robotic automation to enhance ROI and productivity?

Industrial Robotics has come a long way over the years. The rise of Collaborative robots has also made it possible to deploy robotics in many applications, otherwise not so easy in the past. Machine vision combined with AI has made it easy to deploy robots in use cases where object detection or identification is required. We have deployed different applications for customers with mounting robots on motion platforms, enabling a single robot to be used for multiple stations. Similarly, innovative end-of-arm tools are available in the market, making the robot flexible enough to handle different tasks and easy to deploy for varied applications.

Please talk about the benefits of the Make in India initiative to scale up manufacturing.

The great advantage of Make in India is that technology is available locally. The Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of solutions come down significantly for the customer – from the material procurement to implementation to post-implementation support. The Make in India initiative is also helping build an ecosystem of products and components. When a solution is being built locally, over time, the ecosystem for the forward and backward supply chain revolves around it. It also allows easier customisation that is specific to our requirements. With TCO coming down, accessibility of the solution increases, and more organisations will adopt technology solutions.

What distinguishes MELSS in delivering turnkey solutions for process and discrete automation?

With over three decades of experience, we have worked with different types of industries handling different requirements. As a team, we can ideate from this experience and put a solution to solve a specific problem. While we use several standard equipment/devices as part of our final solution offering, MELSS takes up projects as turnkey and customises parts of the project to cater to the specific requirements.

With our capability in electromechanical, instrumentation, control systems, and software domains, we can implement the complete solution. As we use modular approaches to our solutions, upgrades or modifications of the solution required by the customer can be made at any point in time. We also have our sales and support offices spread across the country, making it easy to support our customers.