SME Times News Bureau | 22 May, 2009
Automation is an important aspect of operating businesses; it gives quick paybacks and innovation is the long term cost-effective flexible solution for enterprises. Both the practices, therefore, should find industry recognition, said Mr. R Dayal, Executive Officer (Production Engineering) Maruti Suzuki India Ltd.

He was speaking at International Conference cum exposition on ‘Control & Automation Technologies: The Bedrock of Competitiveness’ organized today by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The topic of the conference assumes importance especially in the backdrop of ongoing financial downturn, which has created a need for leaner manufacturing and process optimization than ever before.

Dayal further added industry should deploy India specific technical solutions for continuous reduction in manufacturing cost; meeting demand and review processes. Automation supports a modular approach of faster delivery of service and response time, he added.

V G Ramakrishnan, Senior Director – Automation & Transportation – South Asia & Middle East Frost & Sullivan said the Indian automation industry today is pegged at INR 40 billion. The industry calls for applications on machine-to-machine charter, plant to enterprise level automation and including robotics technology in enterprises’ operations. Automation also offers a scope of maintaining green aspects of manufacturing while observing higher levels of production. He said automation can have a paradigm effect on operations in food & beverage industry, natural gas supply, and automobiles sector amongst others.

Highlighting that India must quickly finish with catching up mode to acquire a leadership role in the global arena, Harpal Singh, Chairman, CII Northern Region & Mentor & Chairman Emeritus Fortis Healthcare Ltd, stated that future wealth of nations will be determined by the quantum of knowledge that they contrive, which is later transformed into innovative products and services. Innovation, therefore, should become part of business model for every endeavour.

Earlier in the opening remarks, Jayany Davar, Conference Chairman & Vice Chairman and Managing Director Sandhar Technologies Ltd pointed out that automation should trickle down to small, middle and micro level enterprises. Automation is fastly catching up as a highly visible industry for example in manufacturing and medical practices.

While delivering the concluding remarks, Arvind Kapur, Vice Chairman, MSME Sub Committee, CII NR & Managing Director Rico Auto Industries Ltd endorsed that all the enterprises should have an innovation cell. He said that Indian industry should not copy-paste foreign technology, but should have capabilities to develop indigenous home grown technological to suit industry specific requirements.

The exposition organized along with the conference witnessed participation of Taikisha Engineering India Limited, Captronic Systems Pvt. Ltd., B C Technomation Pvt. Ltd., Chemin Controls and Instrumentation Pvt. Ltd., Coatec India, Wintech Engineers Pvt. Ltd., Statcon Power Controls Ltd. and Palas Software Pvt. Ltd.