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Strong winds of change blowing

The time fordigital transformation is now, as customers begin to demand better – read, moreproductive – machines and manufacturers eager to satisfy their needs. AreConstruction Equipment manufacturers listening? Darshan Patel believes that they are.

 

The arrival of theInternet of Things (IoT) and smart technologies in a growing digital world havedriven an era of transformative change, creating new opportunities to achievegreater productivity and reduce costs. As the Construction Equipment industrycontinues to embrace digitalization – albeit slowly – organizations areacknowledging the efficiencies that a digital transformation can contribute totheir business, to safeguard and enrich their competitive position.

Digitalization ispushing the boundaries of what can be delivered to organizations and their products.Digital technologies are essential to optimizing experience, acquiring betterbusiness intelligence, improving employee morale and retention, and increasingrevenue of an organisation. If organizations want to compete globally, theymust leverage these digital technologies to reap cost savings and operationalefficiencies that affect the corporate bottom line.

Access to new typesof data is giving decision-makers the ability to make more informed decisions.Traditional manual manufacturing processes are now being automated andstreamlined, and the line between Information Technology (IT) and OperationalTechnology (OT) is blurring.

This is alsobringing about a revolutionary change in the way users are communicating withtheir machines. Today, for instance, a backhoe loader owner has much moreinformation in his hands while still not being anywhere close to the machine –thanks to IoT. Also, sensors fitted on the machine are providing up-to-date,real time information to the operator on the health of the machine, while alsoalerting him of any impending dangers or service issues.

The road to digitaltransformation, however, is not clear-cut and identical for everyone. OriginalEquipment Manufacturers and operators must understand the potential oftechnology, and then decide how they can modify their business models andprocesses to make the most of their technology investments.

In the construction equipment market, domesticplayers are expediting their adoption of industry 4.0 given the twin advantagesof quality with productivity.

 

Data,the new oil

Industry 4.0 has made data as one of themost valuable aspects in terms of manufacturing. Companies that are strong indata collation, analysis, and storage, will have an edge over others. Thebuilding blocks of artificial intelligence, smart machines, and decisioncontrol systems hinge upon the quality, functionality, and analysis of data. Thishas created new requirements for storage and protection of data from externalthreats.

 

Technologymoving towards wireless and cloud storage

Sensors, transmitters, etc., which wereearlier connected using wires, is shifting towards wireless and will betransferring information directly to cloud using certain protocol. Theautomation market has to, therefore, adapt itself towards the new reality bywelcoming open protocols an improve inter-communications to aid data collectionand analysis.

Given the security concerns, Indiangovernment is ensuring the usage of domestic secure data centres for domesticassets. Cyber security is another major area which has to ensure protection ofdata.

 

Domesticpenetration is still at nascent levels

Globally, industrial automation market hasdoubled to US$68-bn in the last five years at 16 per cent CAGR. Malaysia and Chinaare among the fastest growing nations, while Germany and Japan have reachedmaturity.

India is significantly underpenetrated. Theonly way for domestic market to become globally competitive in terms ofquality, productivity and consistency is through rapid adoption of latesttechnology. Hence, the sector is set to witness strong winds of change.

 

Roboticusage penetration in India at entry level versus China

As per International Federation of Robotics(IFR) data, annual sales of robots stood at US$16.5-bn in 2018, with a volumeof 422,000 units. China is the largest market with 36 per cent of totalinstallations accounting for 154,000 units.

Seventy four per cent of global installationsin 2018 were accounted by China, Japan, Korea, US, and Germany, while India’sinstallation is ~4,000 units per annum. Hence, the only way the domestic marketcan keep pace with global technology is through increased adaptation ofrobotics and automation.

 

Morecollaboration and open protocols are the need of the hour

Industry 4.0 requires machines tocommunicate seamlessly with each other despite the manufacturing company or theautomation provider. This requires more open protocols and simplification ofdifferent languages so that information flows seamlessly. Most automationproviders are coming together to ensure this while simultaneously protectingtheir respective patents.

 

Domestic automation market

Automationmarket can be broadly classified as:

  • Industrialautomation, and

  • Buildingautomation.

     

    Industrial automation

    Industrial automation encompasses severalclasses of equipment across many industries. Products are oriented along threecategories:

  1. Continuous process control applications,as in chemical, oil and gas, power generation and waste water management, etc,

  2. Job work and batch production applications,as in automotive industry, fabricated metals, plastics and packaging, etc., and

  3. Power transmission anddistribution control system, which works in multiple layers of sensors – fromSCADA to ERP.

    Industrial automation products largelyinclude programmable logic controllers-human machine interface (PLC-HMI),supervisory control, and data acquisition (SCADA), distributed control system(DCS), and electrical drives (AC, DC and servo drives) among others.

     

    Building automation

    Building automation largely includeselectronic security and safety, heating ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC),and lighting control equipment, home comfort solutions and fire safety. Themarket can be segmented in four categories:

  1. Building automation and controlsystem (BACS),

  2. Heating ventilation and air-conditioning(HVAC),

  3. Lighting control solutions, and

  4. Home control solutions.

     

    Process automation market

    The key variables that are measured in theprocess automation are pressure, temperature, flow, liquid analysis, gasanalysis. The controls are done using PLC, SCADA, or DCS.

    Communication is done either through wireor using wireless. Under wireless, the communication of up to 600mt isaccomplished without the use of repeater. Up to 10km of communications can bedone with the aid of a repeater. Wireless communication using IPV6 protocol isthe latest technology.

     

    Robotics

    Tata, in association with Melior Motion forGears and Keba (a German company) for controllers, is the first Indian companyto manufacture robots. They target the MSME market by supplying robots that arecost-competitive.

    The Indian market is currently pegged at ~4,000units of robots per annum. Of this, ~20 per cent is the market share of ABB India,which imports the robots from their Chinese factory. Roughly 50 per cent of thedemand for robots in the domestic market is driven by the auto sector.

     

    Factory automation

    As per independent analysis of certainconsultants, the adaptation of smart factory in the domestic market hasincreased from 48 per cent in 2018 to 68 per cent in 2019.

     

    Conclusion

    Big data analytics, intelligent machines,wireless sensors working along with the legacy knowledge are going to usher ina new paradigm. Indian industry is gradually accepting this new reality and, albeitslowly, the adaptation has increased by large companies. This has to graduallytrickle down to MSMEs, along with re-skilling of work force is inevitable inthe current context if Indian manufacturing has to be globally competitive.

     


    Keyplayers in domestic automation market are:

    Processautomation: Emerson, Honeywell Automation India,ABB India, Endress + Hauser, Yokogawa, Siemens India. Factoryand discrete automation: Siemens India, RockwellAutomation, B&R Automation (unlisted subsidiary of ABB global), Beckhoff,Mitsubishi Electric. 

  5. Buildingautomation: Siemens India, Honeywell AutomationIndia, Johnson Controls, Carrier.

  6. Robotics: ABB India, Kuka, Fanuc, Brabo (a Tata company).

     

    EvolvingTechnology

    IoT, while being atechnological phenomenon, is driving transformational opportunities inorganizations. According to Cisco, the number of connected devices on theinternet will exceed 50 billion by 2020. By 2022, one trillion networkedsensors will be embedded in the world around us, with up to 45 trillion in 20years. As the infrastructure of IoT increases and improves OTplatforms, it has been essential in accelerating the integration of OT and ITsystems.

    IoT offers thecapabilities to provide connectivity for the sharing of big data, while also scaling storage for that data beinggenerated. Because of these abilities, both OT and IT have a higher level ofprocessing power and enhanced insights to make more informed businessdecisions. How an organization is able to access, use, understand and trust itsdata throughout every business function will determine its ability to achievedesired results – including innovation, efficiency, compliance and progression.Big data must be embraced as a strategic asset and transformational tool.

    Other technologiesgrowing popular because of IoT and big data are automation, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) andcloud computing. The number ofactions that can be automated and streamlined is increasing rapidly andproducing opportunities to control areas of the business that have alwaysrequired a person to manually manage. AI and ML are benefiting organizations byunderstanding and reacting to new data and identifying patterns to proficientlyrecommend decisions without human involvement. With cloud computing,organizations can easily store data on cloud servers, substantially reducing thecosts of managing and maintaining data, while increasing scalability andsecurity for organizations.

    Source:Honeywell Automation India.


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