The past five years have seen the global economy dip, then recover slightly and then dip again. The double dip recession has been particularly harsh because companies who invested during the brief recovery are now stuck with excess capacity. The recently held ValueForum 2012 gave Rockwell Automation, a global provider of industrial automation, power, control and information solutions, an opportunity to showcase its solutions which are reportedly helping companies not just survive, but thrive in these challenging times.
Introducing the speakers for the day, Rachel Shi, Marketing Programs AP, Rockwell Software indicated that while Shanghai was the venue for Asia’s first ValueForum, having the ValueForum in India this year signified the importance of the country as a recognised global growth opportunity.
| Dilip Sawhney, Regional Director, Rockwell Automation, India |
Welcoming attendees at India’s first edition of the company’s six-year old ValueForum series, Dilip Sawhney, Regional Director, Rockwell Automation (RA) spoke about how companies are going beyond surviving economic cycles, by increasing efficiencies and innovating faster. He urged delegates to experience the theme message of this edition of ValueForum: Smarter Business, Better Results.
He stressed that while 40 per cent of a company’s business might be driven by technology, the rest is actually about application of this technology and hence it is crucial that there is interaction and sharing of ideas and experiences between user groups. The ValueForum was conceptualised as a meeting ground where RA and information solutions partners like Cognizant, Emergys and MESTech services can engage with existing and prospective clients, with the highlight being the interactive customer speaker sessions.
Smart is the new green
| Panelists at the lifescience and consumer products industry breakout session |
Giving the keynote address, Anand Rangachary, Partner and MD, Frost & Sullivan, spoke about how the business environment has become very complex, therefore very competitive and how leading firms are transforming their future by driving growth through innovation.
“Innovation is the key to unlocking these complexities like resource scarcity, climate change, etc. Sustainability is no longer just a CSR activity, he opined, as stakeholders demand sustainability. Thus ‘smart is the new green’, when a company meets clean/green goals along with profitability. In conclusion, Rangachary opined that the downturn is a good opportunity to determine where the innovation should be.
Enabling smart manufacturing
Expanding on the philosophy behind the Rockwell Software Solution Portfolio, Swaroop Balakrishnan, Director, Information Solutions Sales, Asia Pacific, RA explained how the economic crisis calls for greater productivity and the need to align how different departments across an enterprise look at productivity. This calls for a ‘manufacturing convergence’ and RA’s response to this scenario, is to “enable smart manufacturing, by providing the tools, solutions and designs to achieve this,” said Balakrishnan. For instance, FactoryTalk Pharma Suite Dispense helps ensure regulatory compliance while reducing risk within weighing and dispensing operations.
Drilling down to the details, Alec Konynenburg, Regional Manager, Information Solutions, RA spoke about how the integrated architecture of RA’s solutions like FactoryTalk meant that the same solution could be deployed from ‘shop floor to top floor’. This meant that manufacturing data could be converted into real knowledge/information that could be used to drive business results, said Konynenburg.
Taming the technology
| Michael Cahill, Solution Architect, Fonterra Co-operative Group, New Zealand |
Post lunch, the delegates took a leap into the future with technology as KV Rehani, ex-Chief Engineer, Hindustan Unilever and currently proprietor, KVR Consulting, spoke about the manufacturing challenges in the consumer products and life sciences segments and the differences and similarities between the two sectors. He had a very important message for companies looking at deploying technology: “The complexity of systems could lead to a mismatch between plant and corporate (teams/agendas). Only if technology is tamed right in the beginning, can it lead to results.”
The audience got the opportunity to hear from one such pharma company, Dr Reddy Laboratories, (DRL) which seems to have tamed the technology. In his imitable style, Ramchandra Pandian, Director and Head – CTO Engineering, DRL engaged the audience on DRL’s year journey of deploying RA’s integrated platform for MES and process automation control in their API plant. Sharing the learnings from the three-year project, Pandian said it was important that managements spoke to all stakeholders across the company to understand their requirements before deploying any technologies. He also opined that there is no successful mediator who makes it right the first time but if the lessons learnt are tabulated, the next project would be better, though still not perfect.
The session concluded with a panel discussion moderated by Michael Cahill, Solution Architect, Fonterra Co-operative Group, New Zealand which saw an interactive exchange of insights and experiences. The event ended with a broad consensus that being more productive, innovative and sustainable were the three imperatives for any company to be globally competitive and technology solutions like RA’s FactoryTalk could be harnessed to acheive these goals.