Smart Manufacturing Conclave held near Mumbai

More than 100 IT functionaries from manufacturing companies from across India participated at the event where role of IT in pharma was discussed

The Indian Express Group’s Express Computer magazine recently organised its maiden Smart Manufacturing Conclave in Khopoli near Mumbai, where  more than 100 IT functionaries from manufacturing companies participated from across India. On the sidelines of the conference, the Smart Manufacturing Awards recognised organisations from the manufacturing sector, for their innovative use of new-age technologies.

A panel discussion ‘Lessons from digital transformation: The Pharmaceutical Industry Perspective’ was held during the event, having panelists Gyan Pandey, CIO, Aurobindo Pharma; Naga Prasad Vaitla, Vice President – IT, Granules India; Suryamohan Surampudi, Sr Director and Head, GxP IT Administration and Assurance, Dr Reddy’s Labs; Avadhut Parab, Global CIO, Wockhardt. Parab informed about the initiatives taken in the last one year on the digital front. The idea of making the medical representative (rep) as a super representative was initiated. The rep was empowered with a chatbot, that has a 360-degree view of the doctor. Also, a Zoom software is being tested, which will lessen the travel time of the rep. The company is exploring to use AI in biotechnology to increase yield by over 20 per cent; and in capacity forecasting too.

Vaitla informed about using technology in the area of training. VR is being used for employees to be trained on various apparatus because all the equipment to be used cannot be bought separately for training. A curriculum has been created for the said purpose. Aurobindo is also running various projects enabled by IT. In the field of logistics, technology adoption has resulted in efficiency in the movement of goods. The adoption of IT is slow but regulation is kicking in faster technology acceptance and serialisation is an example to demonstrate and so is electronic batch records, because auditors are doubting the integrity of the manual record.

At Dr Reddy’s, the company is into its third year of the digital journey, which began in 2016. The senior management was taken into confidence before taking up the digital roadmap. It had three pillars: data availability, centralisation of data and data analysis.