Dr Mahesh Gupta, Chairman, KENT RO Systems Limited

The manufacturing sector has adopted ICT solutions such as industrial internet of things (IoT), as well as social media, mobile, cloud and analytics in a big way to integrate various stages of the production value chain and gain real-time insight into market trends and customer preferences. However, changing business needs and upcoming data security threats hamper the adoption of such solutions by the sector. Going forward, artificial intelligence and robotics will find many takers amongst manufacturing enterprises. IT heads of leading manufacturing enterprises comment on the key technology trends in this space, their IT strategies, and plans for upgrading their ICT infrastructure…

What are the key benefits and drivers of digital transformation for the manufacturing sector?

Some of the key benefits and drivers of digital transformation are as follows:

  • Agile and smart manufacturing, which reduces waste, thus bringing down costs.
  • Better monitoring and control through mobility solutions such as scheduling, plant utilisation, order and inventory management.
  • Improved customer centricity through faster feedback mechanism, better services and quicker complaint resolution.
  • Enhanced connectivity with each stakeholder in the manufacturing ecosystem, from consumers to channel partners.
  • Faster go-to-market time as digital platforms can be used to assess demand, identify the target market and ascertain the customer response to a newly launched product.

What are the telecom, enterprise and mobility solutions used by your organisation? How have they helped in enhancing business performance and efficiency?

KENT uses enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management and human resource management system-based enterprise applications. These applications are offered in the form of service engineer applications for KENT field service engineers, customer applications for users, etc. They allow us to get a holistic view of the business and enable us to deep dive into various aspects of the organisation.

What is the scope of big data analytics and IoT in the manufacturing industry? Is your company using or planning to deploy these?

Big data analytics and IoT are helping enterprises in collecting and analysing data. These technologies hold great po­ten­tial to shape the manufacturing landscape from shifting batch-level visibility to unit-level visibility wherein each unit of production can be seen at each step in the production process through machine-to-machine communication and minimal human intervention. IoT also holds great potential for quality control and overall supply chain efficiency.

We at KENT are already using advan­ced technologies to innovate and build our products. We are one of the pioneers in introducing IoT-enabled smart reverse osmosis (RO) water purifiers.

What are the challenges faced in managing the existing IT and telecom infrastructure, and deploying new technologies?

Some of the challenges faced by a typical manufacturing organisation on its path to digital transformation are:

  • Poor adoption by end-users: At times, users are not duly informed of the benefits of the new technology, resulting in poor end-user adoption.
  • Choice of the right technology: While it is important to keep pace with technology and invest in better solutions and systems, it is equally important to select the relevant technologies for different scenarios. Integration with other products/ technologies: Enterprises currently use multiple systems and technologies. It is, therefore, important that the new technologies seamlessly integrate with the existing systems and tools within the organisation.
  • Scalability: Scalability is another factor that needs to be looked at while deploying new technologies and systems. Enterprises must look at longer time periods and asses technology based on future usage and growth.
  • Data security threats: Even as technology has made it easy to store and retrieve data, it has increased the vulnerability to cyberthreats. Therefore, it is extremely important that data and enterprise systems stay protected from outside/inside data security threats.

What is your company’s IT and digital roadmap?

KENT has constantly focused on transforming the organisation into a digital en­ter­prise. The following are some of the key points for the company’s digital roadmap:

  • Setting scalable and clear targets is the first step in any transformation and roadmap. We have set clear targets for ourselves, which are measurable and results-driven.
  • The company is highly focused on mobile, analytics and IoT technologies.
  • We are looking at nurturing a digital culture, which will enable the organisation to go digital.
  • The company is keen on developing in-house capabilities for developing and im­plementing the latest technologies.
  • We aim to gauge various risks associated with cyberthreat while implementing any digital strategy.

Which technological trends are likely to drive growth in the manufacturing industry going forward?

Some of the technology trends that will drive growth in the manufacturing industry are as follows:

  • Automation and robotics will be one of the key factors that will help industries in reducing costs, improving quality and increasing productivity.
  • IoT has already created a new technological wave and is going to have a deep impact on the manufacturing industry. It will also allow enterprises to keep track of their manufacturing and logistics, and improve customer satisfaction.
  • 3D printing is still in its initial phase but in the future, most manufacturing companies will use this technology to produce quick product prototypes and reduce design-to-manufacturing cycle time, and hence improve the go-to-market time.
  • Machine learning will help enterprises improve their productivity and quality. Further, it will enable organisations to understand their customers better, resulting in improved product quality.