IPF’s 3i EXPO aiding transition towards Industry 4.0

This will be India’s first of its kind expo comprising 3 events – Exhibition, Conference and IPF Industry Excellence Awards – dedicated to discuss on innovative approaches and strategies for the adoption of Industry 4.0 in India will the involvement of the key stakeholders – the Government, Industry and Academia.

In their quest for speed, flexibility, quality and efficiency in manufacturing and business processes, companies are increasingly banking on advanced automation and digital tools. With India aiming to become a manufacturing factory of the world, adoption of modern manufacturing technologies (including Industry 4.0) becomes imperative. To fulfil this need of the manufacturing, Industrial Products Finder, or IPF, (published by Asapp Info Global Group that also owns The Indian Textile Journal publication) – a 50-year-old publication that has been a partner in India’s industrial growth since its inception in 1972 – is hosting 3i EXPO 2022 (IPF for Industry 4.0 & Innovations Expo) with the sole aim of making India ready for Manufacturing 4.0.
The Expo – to be held at Nehru Centre (Mumbai) from May 20-21, 2022 – will bring together all key stakeholders in Industry 4.0 (I4.0) transition — i.e., providers of I4.0 solutions/products, adopters (i.e. manufacturers) of I4.0 solutions, policy makers and education institutes — under one roof to deliberate on the future course of action.

Celebrating the Golden Jubilee
Industrial Products Finder (IPF), launched in 1972, is today one of the oldest and most trusted brands in the industrial publication space in the country. It is one-stop-shop solution provider for all the sourcing/procurement needs of the Indian manufacturing sector. Published by Asapp Info Global Group, IPF offers a comprehensive coverage on industrial & engineering products services and provides manufacturers a dual forum (print and online) to display their all latest, innovative solutions. IPF is the country’s true pan-India publication with presence in all major cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Ahmedabad, etc.
Every month IPF reaches more than 100,000 readers through its magazine and website which offers an assortment of news, views/interviews, technical articles, product information, etc. IPF is widely circulated to manufacturing sectors including automobile and auto components, electrical & electronics, machine tools, hydraulics & pneumatics, printing & packaging, plastic processing, chemical & pharmaceuticals, mining & steel, FMCG, and general engineering industries. The magazine reaches out to various government institutions for their sourcing requirements including Defense, Railways, Science & Technology, and Research & Development.

Smart manufacturing is the future
The growing adoption of Industry 4.0 & industrial automation in manufacturing processes, and increasing complexities in supply chains are driving the growth of smart manufacturing market. Globally, the smart manufacturing market is estimated to grow from $ 214.7 billion in 2020 to $ 384.8 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 12.4% from 2020 to 2025.
With such rising development of smart factories, the market for smart manufacturing in India is expected to propel in the near future. The India smart manufacturing market is influenced by product development and advancements conducted by the market players. The key players of the smart manufacturing market include ABB Ltd, Emerson Electric Co, SAP SE, Schneider Electric SE, Siemens AG, Honeywell International Inc, General Electric Co, and Intel Corp. These players are playing a significant role in the growth of the smart manufacturing market by providing various products and adopting several strategies such as merger and acquisition, partnerships and collaboration, technological development, and others.

3-in-1 Bonanza
The 3i EXPO 2022 will be a 3-in-1 event comprising Exhibition, Conference and IPF Industry Excellence Awards (for innovative products, progressive companies & start-ups, and enterprising entrepreneurs).
3i Conference: Industry 4.0 is revolutionising the industry by focusing heavily on interconnectivity, automation, machine learning (ML), real time data, etc. During the conference at 3i EXPO, experts will deliberate on innovative approaches and strategies for taking Indian manufacturing sector to the next level by establishing a right ecosystem of suppliers/service providers and skilling/training people to make them future ready. Two-day conference will have experts speaking on Industry 4.0, Robotics, AI, ML, Advanced Automation, Exports, 3D Printing (Additive Manufacturing), etc.
IPF Awards 2022: As part of its extension programme to connect better with the stakeholders, Industrial Product Finder (IPF) annually hosts IPF Industrial Excellence Awards – the only event that recognises innovative products in a wide range of categories. Awards are presented to companies and individuals to appreciate and acknowledge their contribution to the growth of the manufacturing sector. The 6th IPF Industrial Excellence Awards will be hosted along with 3i EXPO 2022 and present awards in following categories:

• Fastest Growing Manufacturing Companies
• Innovative Products
• Emerging Start-ups
• Enterprising Entrepreneurs (Male & Female)

3i Exhibition: Over 50 companies will exhibit at the Expo and showcase their innovative products and solutions that can propel Indian manufacturing sector’s journey towards Industry 4.0. Visitors can gain knowledge on the most trending technologies and engineering processes for meeting the need of Industry 4.0. Exhibitors will include companies from sectors such as automation & robotics, additive manufacturing (3D printing), Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML), Augmented Reality (AR)/ Virtual Reality (VR), connectivity modules, data analytics, electronics components, industrial IoT solutions, sensors, motors & drives, rapid prototyping & tooling, vision systems, etc. The Expo is expected to attract visitors from leading engineering segments such as automobile & auto component, process equipment, construction equipment, electronics & electricals, heavy engineering, machine tools, welding & fabrication, etc.

3i Expo Webinar series
Run up to the 3i EXPO in May 20-21, 2022, IPF is hosting multiple webinars to create awareness of various aspects of Industry 4.0.
The first webinar in the series was titled “Aatmanirbhar Bharat: The story so far”. The panelists of the webinar included Anup Wadhwa, Director of Automation Industry Association (AIA); Milind Kulshreshtha, Founder & CEO of AiKiaros; Samiron Ghoshal, Senior Partner of Amrop; Sanjay Deshmukh, Head of Global Presales at Findability Sciences; and G Sundararaman, Senior Vice President & Head, Wipro PARI Automation business.
Commenting on the present status of India’s manufacturing sector, Sundararaman said, “If you intend to become a global manufacturing hub, comparison with China is inevitable. In China, robot density is 200 robots per 10,000 employees. In India, robot density stands at 4-5 robots. If you compare China and India (in terms of manufacturing scale), it is 1:10 in China’s favour. Gap is very big between the present scale of India’s manufacturing sector and where it should be to a strong contender for a global manufacturing hub.”
However, according to Sundararaman, India has been taking some measures to improve its manufacturing capability and the country is moving in the right direction. “Productivity will be important for ensuring scale. In manufacturing, we need to relentless focus on automation & digitalisations as they are important tools to improving efficiency and productivity,” he added.
Samiron Ghoshal, opined, “When you are fighting against Goliath you cannot win the battle by fighting frontally. We need to analyse competitiveness sector-by-sector and identify areas/sector where we have an advantage. There are sectors where we are already a part of global value chain (for example auto, pharma, etc). We need to go into areas where we already have a connect with the OEMs and try to fill-in the gaps that exist (or may exist) as big companies are planning to replace China as a sourcing destination.”
Speaking about the key hurdles in achieving the goals of Aatmanirbhar Bharat goals, Milind Kulshreshtha stated, “This is the decade that will be very important for India to take big strides and grow its share in the global manufacturing sector. Collaboration between Government and private sector will be important to reach the goals that we have set for our self. Industry 4.0 should be looked at not just for cost advantage, but also to build capabilities for any manufacturing units. It requires workforce skilling, innovations, quality, and sustainability factor (which has become important globally). Industry 4.0 and other technologies will also be important for integrating with global value chain.”
Post-Covid world seems to be different from before with lots of geo-political changes and supply chain disruptions. This could provide many opportunities to Indian manufacturers globally. Sanjay Deshmukh said, “Covid triggered disruption in the supply chain. US-China trade tension and Suez Channel blockage compounded the situation further. All these factors have made companies realise that supply chain has to be more resilient. For having extra agility and flexibility, global majors are looking at alternate sourcing destinations like India. To be a part of this new global supply chain, Indian manufacturers will have to plan for digital transformation that provides sustainable, competitive advantage.
Explaining the importance of adoption of advanced automation and manufacturing technologies for Indian manufacturing companies, Anup Wadhwa, who is an Evangelist of the Samarth Udyog Ecosystem that integrates the efforts of different agencies in Government and Academia, said, “Industry 3.0 (i.e. automation) should become essential part of the manufacturing infrastructure because unless you have electronic based controllers on the shopfloor you will not have the bases for connectivity and digitalization that we are now talking about in the Industry 4.0 era. For becoming a key part of global value chain, some of the essential ingredients are quality, productivity, repeatability, safety, etc. If you do not have the basic automation infrastructure in place, then it becomes difficult to compete. Government should focus on making conducive policies for encouraging automation and building people capabilities.”

Aiding sustainability in manufacturing
As highlighted in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, sustainability has to be the core business strategy for the future. Some researchers estimate that Industry 4.0 technology alone could reduce emissions by up to 15% by 2030. Against this background, IPF hosted the second 3i EXPO series webinar – titled “Industry 4.0 for Manufacturing Sustainably” – to dive deeper into how Industry 4.0 can help in reducing carbon footprint and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Panellists for panel discussion included industry experts like Abhishek Das, Director (Technology and Digital Risk Consulting), EY; N D Mhatre, Director General (Technical), Indian Textile Accessories & Machinery Manufacturers’ Association (ITAMMA); Rajeev Solanki, DGM (Manufacturing Technology & Process Development), Schneider Electric; and Zurvan Marolia, Senior Vice President, Godrej & Boyce.
Being one of the big contributors to greenhouse gases emission, the textile industry is taking various steps to reduce their carbon footprint. “Textile industry is one of the biggest employment generators. Within the textile industry, there is spinning, weaving and processing. The main greenhouse emissions come from the wet processing industry where the consumption of water, dyes and chemicals are more. Of the three, weaving segment employs the maximum manpower. Automation happens only in the shuttle-less looms but constitute hardly 0.4% of the industry. For sustainability, we have to focus on the handloom industry. But to control emissions, we have to concentrate on the processing industry,” said N D Mhatre.
For cleaner production application, the industry needs to focus on reducing waste & resource consumption, reusing/recycling and product modification. “Harmful synthetic dyes should be replaced with eco-friendly dyes. Equipment modification should produce less waste and ensure more effective and efficient production
process using modern and efficient technologies. While waterless dyeing is a good option, recycling machines can be used to convert waste fibres and yarn to useful raw material,” said Mhatre.
Explaining the importance of sustainability to the industry, Zurvan Marolia said, “India has achieved
25% reduction in the emission intensity of the GDP already from the base year of 2005 up to 2016 and is well on the path to achieving a 40% reduction by 2030. We have committed to doubling energy productivity by 2030, using FY2017 as a base and aim to reduce carbon intensity by 60% in 2030. All our plants are water positive which is another very important aspect and we are at nearly zero waste to land fill.”
The manufacturing sector contributes about 16-17% of India’s GDP. As the contribution of manufacturing sector increases more emphasise should on reducing carbon footprint of the sector. “To achieve the committed national targets of reducing emissions, we have to increase the use of renewable energy and discard all emission-related energy production systems. We offer eco-friendly products and employ green manufacturing processes. Sustainability revolves around 3 R’s but Schneider has 5 R’s, i.e. reduce, reuse, recycle, replace and reengineer,” said Rajiv Solanki.
Abhishek Das stated, “Our benchmark is to be carbon-zero by 2025 and we feel proud that in 2021 we were carbon negative and sustaining it further. Today, manufacturing is one of the biggest contributors to emission with 31%. Technology can play a massive role in lowering it.”
Industry 4.0 is a new era in manufacturing combining technology, robotics, AI, and automation to create an efficient and effective manufacturing process. “In the textile industry, we have seen that from man, material and machine, the machine has undergone lot of developments through Industry 4.0. The maintenance had two main aspects—cleaning and lubrication— which contribute to the major problems in the industry. Both are now automated and incorporate predictive maintenance. However, textile industry is vast and quite labour intensive. Hence, introducing such systems is not easy. Many improvements in machines have helped in reducing maintenance costs while enhancing productivity and product quality (by reducing downtime),” said Mhatre.

A must visit EXPO
3i EXPO will offer participants an opportunity to network with government decision-makers, business leaders, buyers and investors from across the region. It will be definitely be a place to identify trends and issues that will shape the future of India’s manufacturing sector. Be there to witness the Fourth Industrial Revolution!