With the country and the economy slowly opening up bit by bit, India is ending the national lockdown except for in the containment zones. It is a given that all industries will feel the pressure of the lockdown, especially the manufacturing sector. They will be expected to work with cost-cutting, reduced human dependency, and more efficient processes. This will push the manufacturing sector to create and use innovative processes that make use of the latest technologies such as Internet of Things ( IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Blockchain.
The sector has to be ready to adapt to huge amounts of automation considering the opportunities which will open up as the world starts divesting from China. Many governments around the world have asked their firms to reduce or cut the dependency on China for parts or products. Japan has announced a $2.2 billion stimulus package to facilitate its manufacturers to move their production capabilities out of China. India has announced a production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for its electronics sector allocating over Rs 40,000 crore.
Artificial Intelligence is already being used by manufacturers for predictive maintenance like recognising and tracking faults in parts, machinery or manufacturing processes and reporting them on a real-time basis. AI can also forecast demand and the returns on supply and therefore can be of great use in optimising the supply chain industry. When data is fed into an AI model, it comes via the network of industrial IOTs that are deployed on the production floor. The network of industrial IOTs is made of sensors that are mounted on devices that collect data about the functioning and performance of the machine in real-time.
Furthermore, the COVID-19 crisis has unveiled the vulnerabilities in the supply chain network. Blockchain can assist in recognising the point of disruption by linking all stakeholders in an extended network, allowing them to plan for potential challenges that could arise in the future. A sophisticated RPA bot could gather information across manufacturing ecosystems such as warehousing, inventory, suppliers, logistics, vendor systems, and use the cognitive capabilities in the tool to implement actions that improve the overall efficiencies of the complete ecosystem.
This pandemic has given us a chance to introspect and understand the importance of automation as we realise that moving forwards, the world will be a different place.
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