Bhubaneswar: Industry 4.0, a concept transforming factories and
production floors across the world involving a wide set of technology that provide
a good platform for innovation and creative solutions, can revolutionize Indian
manufacturing, Prof. Jay Lee, internationally known Industry 4.0 expert and
Distinguished Professor at the University of Cincinnati, USA, said here on Friday.
“Industry 4.0, which denotes the fourth industrial revolution propelling the
world since 2015 with the aid of Cyber Technology, Cloud Computing, Artificial
Intelligence and Internet of Things, has the potential to change the face of Indian
manufacturing and become a quintessential part of the manufacturing revolution
in India,” Prof. Lee said at the 3-day International Conference on ‘Role of
Industrial Engineering in Industry 4.0 Paradigm’, being held at the SOA (Deemed
to be University).
The concept of Industry 4.0, currently in its infancy in India, needs a clear
definition for a systematic development and implementation in Indian
manufacturing industry, he said stressing the need to strategize the efforts
toward capitalising on this concept.
From the viewpoint of the Indian manufacturing industry, the ‘Make in
India’ initiative was spearheading the wider adoption of ‘Industry 4.0’, Prof. Lee
said adding it was important for manufacturing industry in India to adopt the
technology.
“Until 1991, India was a closed market which had made the Indian
manufacturing system economically irrelevant. However, the introduction of new
government reforms has led to the opening of the Indian market which has
significantly changed the Indian manufacturing industry,” he remarked.
Stating that the ‘Make in India’ initiative, launched in September, 2014
aimed at making India a global manufacturing hub, he said the Indian
manufacturing industry needed to equip itself with new technological capabilities
and service models “to leapfrog into manufacturing attractiveness”.
“The need is to enable the creation of a long-term ecosystem to
manufacture everything at global quality standards,” he said, adding “Cyber
Physical Systems, Cloud Computing, Industrial Internet of Things and Big Data
Analytics were the key pillars of innovation in the Industry 4.0 Paradigm.”
The conference, being held alongside the Diamond Jubilee National
Convention of the Indian Institution of Industrial Engineering (IIIE) since Thursday,
is being organized by the Odisha chapter of IIIE in collaboration with SOA.
