Higher levels of automation will be integral to manufacturing: Baba Kalyani

Automation will allow of appropriately sweating the assets, said Bharat Forge MD at ACMA event

ACMA Centre for Technology (ACT) summit in Pune

Last Updated : Jan 16 2017 | 10:29 AM IST

Higher levels of automation will be integral to manufacturing since this is critical to the growth of the sector to meet global quality and productivity levels, said Baba Kalyani, chairman & managing director, Bharat Forge Ltd, at an event organised by the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA) in Pune last week.

He added, “Years of sustained efforts by the auto component sector and a pro-active government policy framework have transformed a relatively small domestic industry into one with world-class manufacturing practices and a global footprint. The rapid developments in the fields of automation and the robotics in recent times have helped the automotive industry to significantly improve quality, productivity, delivery and at the same time reduce cost. Moreover, with India being a volume driven market, high automation will allow of appropriately sweating the assets.”

The second ACMA Centre for Technology (ACT) summit, held of January 9 and 10, 2017, focused on topics ranging from automation, digitisation, future manufacturing, innovative business models, optimising resources, zero defect quality and various others.

Speaking on the occasion, Anant Geete, Union Minister for Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises, said, “The issues of environment and technology are becoming critical as we evolve and this summit, is certainly the apt forum to advocate innovation in manufacturing. I congratulate ACMA on their efforts to drive the industry forward in a responsible manner and assure that the government will extend full support to ACMA in realising the Prime Minister’s vision of Make in India.”

The Indian Auto Component industry is at a point of inflection, quality and technology will be the key differentiator for industry’s competitiveness. With the ‘Make in India’ initiative and thrust on increased localization by OEMs, the component industry is actively focusing on delivering enhanced quality products, as well as, on R&D and innovation.

In the backdrop of this summit, ACT signed two MoUs with Cardiff University of UK and DuPont for higher education and ‘Train the Trainer on Safety’ program respectively. “ACT is playing a major role in industry upgradation and I am happy to note that 300 companies including Micro, Small, Medium, Large industries and OEMs, are part of the present running clusters,” commented Nirmal Minda, vice president, ACMA.

According Srivats Ram, past president of ACMA, chairman of ACT & managing director, Wheels India Ltd, ACT clusters are now considered as a proven approach to building manufacturing excellence in the auto component sector. “Over the years, ACT has successfully transformed more than 650 manufacturing plants with a special focus on upscaling the SMEs in the area of productivity, quality and manufacturing competitiveness, energy savings, better inventory management, space optimisation and total employee involvement. Besides, ACT is driving various other programs to optimise resources in such a way that there is ‘zero effect’ on the environment,” he added.