Engineering Services: Having a Multi - Faceted Role in Various Industrial Reforms
Ninad Deshpande, Head- Marketing, B&R Industrial Automation
Product differentiation is a term of the past, with most organizations today, having competing products with identical features. Service, support and customer satisfaction are some of the differentiating factors organizations are focusing on in order to become successful. Today, large number of organizations are increasingly adopting such approaches. Even the new industrial revolutions have a major focus on technology & collaboration. We also have to be realistic and understand that such nature is also inspired by our daily activities, where we are spoilt for choice, whether is a cab hailing, ordering food or online shopping. There are multiple competing companies, but we are loyal to one or two out of the whole loT.
This is most likely owing to our prior experiences or quality of service. Rushing to the airport to catch a flight and the driver from one cab hailing company reaches before time, opens the trunk, loads your bag in it and opens the door for you and at another instance another driver from another company cancels your ride without prior intimation. Most likely, for obvious reasons you would prefer the former as an ideal choice. These choices are solely dependent on the service one gets. Today, our needs of being served better have made their way into offices & industries making services as the differentiating factor. Services in engineering are thus playing a major role in industrial & digital transformation.
Implementation of Specialized Skills for Project Building
Adopting new technologies needs new skillsets. We all in our daily lives have undergone digital trans¬formation in some form a couple of years ago, when we moved from older generations phones to smart phones and we needed some amount of adjustment, skilling and learning. At this point, unlearning played a vital role. Similarly, such scenarios are evident in industries. It is very important for an individual, as well as a collective organization to unlearn before we move into such transformations. As it would act as a major deterrent in learning & adopting new technologies and adjusting in the new environment. However, it is also critical to note that at no point are jobs at risk; industry has to invest in reskilling of work force in order to benefit from the multiple industrial reforms & technology innovations. It is important to note that the workforce too is interested to learn new technologies and become smart. In addition, such activities of reskilling will not happen at training centers, universities or institutions, and have to
be taken up seriously by industries& manufacturing units.
With new technologies, users face new challenges related to security, maintenance, shop floor connectivity and many more. The lack of adequate skills & education acts as a major deterrent to adopt new technologies. Workplace education programs can help current employees of manufacturers gain knowledge and equip them for technology changes. On the other hand, for manufacturers, labor and productivity are equally important. Considering the current trends and future challenges, few manufacturers have already started investing in training and skill development centers. These centers allow their employees to try complex concepts in industrial processes. However, the gap between adoptions of fast evolving technologies and skilling is huge, and is continuously expanding.
Effective Equipments & System Design Plans: An Adequacy to Project Delivery
Today, operational costs are continuously increasing and factories aim to reduce such expense. System engineering is playing a vital role in helping factories by providing efficient machines with nextgen technologies. However, in India most factories are operating for over decades with legacy systems and factories are working hard to optimize production at the same time increasing efficiency. Thus, factories are focusing on overall equipment effectiveness(OEE) to monitor efficiency of machines on the shop floor. This helps them to monitor not only energy, condition of machines, but also to monitor losses.
Many factories manufacture desired products but are not aware of the exact expense incurred, raw material used and wasted while manufacturing this product. They only get an overall view of wastage and energy, and then this data is used to calculate the costs. Overall equipment effectiveness helps the factories to find the availability, quality & productivity of machines and make the shop floors more efficient. This helps them for achieving higher margins and become more profitable. Factories are aware that even a small increase in OEE could results in large savings.
The Paradigm Shift: From Latest Business Models to Vigorous R&D
Most successful organizations across the globe owe their success to innovations & technologies. Market leaders in any field have always trusted on innovations and a high investment in R&D. Technologies keep evolving and today the influx of new technologies is very high. In some industries before the arrival of a new technology, there are already others in pipeline rearing to hit the market. A simple example is of Ethernet. It took decades for a speed of 10Mbps to reach 100Mbps and another couple to reach 1Gbps. But then suddenly when 1Gbps hit the market there was already news of 10Gbps chips and speeds being researched-on and within no time even 40Gbps were available in the market. Thus, we are seeing a paradigm shift from adoptions of new technologies to innovating new technologies. Organizations do not wish to be a ‘me too’ company or having a ‘me too’ product, whereas they wish to be technology leaders & innovators. They are investing heavily in R&D activities. Even Indian organizations are no longer willing to just explore & adopt technologies coming in from the western countries and are on steady course to innovate and bring next generation products and technologies driving the market.
With new technologies, users face new challenges related to security, maintenance, shop floor connectivity and many more. The lack of adequate skills & education acts as a major deterrent to adopt new technologies. Workplace education programs can help current employees of manufacturers gain knowledge and equip them for technology changes. On the other hand, for manufacturers, labor and productivity are equally important. Considering the current trends and future challenges, few manufacturers have already started investing in training and skill development centers. These centers allow their employees to try complex concepts in industrial processes. However, the gap between adoptions of fast evolving technologies and skilling is huge, and is continuously expanding.
Effective Equipments & System Design Plans: An Adequacy to Project Delivery
Today, operational costs are continuously increasing and factories aim to reduce such expense. System engineering is playing a vital role in helping factories by providing efficient machines with nextgen technologies. However, in India most factories are operating for over decades with legacy systems and factories are working hard to optimize production at the same time increasing efficiency. Thus, factories are focusing on overall equipment effectiveness(OEE) to monitor efficiency of machines on the shop floor. This helps them to monitor not only energy, condition of machines, but also to monitor losses.
Many factories manufacture desired products but are not aware of the exact expense incurred, raw material used and wasted while manufacturing this product. They only get an overall view of wastage and energy, and then this data is used to calculate the costs. Overall equipment effectiveness helps the factories to find the availability, quality & productivity of machines and make the shop floors more efficient. This helps them for achieving higher margins and become more profitable. Factories are aware that even a small increase in OEE could results in large savings.
The Paradigm Shift: From Latest Business Models to Vigorous R&D
Most successful organizations across the globe owe their success to innovations & technologies. Market leaders in any field have always trusted on innovations and a high investment in R&D. Technologies keep evolving and today the influx of new technologies is very high. In some industries before the arrival of a new technology, there are already others in pipeline rearing to hit the market. A simple example is of Ethernet. It took decades for a speed of 10Mbps to reach 100Mbps and another couple to reach 1Gbps. But then suddenly when 1Gbps hit the market there was already news of 10Gbps chips and speeds being researched-on and within no time even 40Gbps were available in the market. Thus, we are seeing a paradigm shift from adoptions of new technologies to innovating new technologies. Organizations do not wish to be a ‘me too’ company or having a ‘me too’ product, whereas they wish to be technology leaders & innovators. They are investing heavily in R&D activities. Even Indian organizations are no longer willing to just explore & adopt technologies coming in from the western countries and are on steady course to innovate and bring next generation products and technologies driving the market.