At the Third Edition of Manufacturing Day 2018, Bharat Fritz Werner Provided a Platform for the Industry to Push for Smart Solutions

• 

In its third edition of Manufacturing Day 2018 hosted today by Bharat Fritz Werner Ltd. (BFW), India’s leading solution provider in the area of machine tools, had a wide range of companies from the manufacturing world come together. This day-long conference provided a platform for deliberations with key leaders who shared their thoughts on the importance of digitisation in engineering, simultaneously fostering innovation and entrepreneurship in manufacturing. The theme for this year is ‘Towards Globally Competitive Indian Manufacturing’. The sessions focused on three pillars – Innovation, Factories of Future and Entrepreneurial spirit.

Chief Guest Kamal Bali, MD, Volvo India, Keynote Speaker – Sonam Wangchuk, Engineer, Innovator & Education Reformist, Shailesh Sheth, Member of the Board, BFW, Ravi Raghavan MD, BFW and Praful Shende, Head Sales & Marketing, BFW, lit the lamp.

In his opening address, Ravi Raghavan, MD, BFW highlighted the importance of Manufacturing Day. He said, “The spirit behind the Manufacturing Day is for us to celebrate our contribution, share and learn for a new exciting journey ahead.”

He further stated, “Innovation is never out of fashion. It has reinvented itself since time immemorial. We are here to salute the ‘Factory of the Future’. Today, innovation means new solutions that bring significant value to the innovator as well as the users. Solutions might be products, processes or business models, and users might be markets, governments, society or ecology. The power of innovation is extraordinary. Each generation feels that innovation is critical to growth more than ever before.”

The event had a galaxy of notable speakers from across industries. After the welcome address by Ravi Raghavan, the delegates were addressed by Kamal Bali, followed by Sonam Wangchuk who is a Ramon Magsaysay awardee.

Chief Guest – Kamal Bali spoke on Making Indian Manufacturing Globally Competitive. He said, “Manufacturing has to become the centerpiece of our conversations. In India everything is stacked against manufacturing. We are 17 percent of the global population but we contribute only 2 percent to global manufacturing. Every manufacturer has to wear two hats for the industry to evolve – we have to promote our companies as well as the manufacturing industry. Manufacturers have to become conscious of branding. To be a global leader, India has to create the culture of manufacturing.”

Keynote Speaker – Sonam Wangchuk received a thunderous applause when he was felicitated. He spoke on Innovation in real life. He said, “Innovation is important but we have to also keep sustainability in mind. Innovation solves problem, in every area of life – be it education, living standards or any other area of life. Sometimes innovation can be made out of thin air. We applied simple high school science principles to the elements of earth, sun, ice to create sustainable solutions in harsh environment of Ladakh and we’ve found that this is enough to bring winters alive in Ladakh.”

Session 1: Innovation – Speakers:

• Lakshmi U, Plant Head & General Manager – Kirloskar Brothers Limited
• Murali Shankar, Director – Super Auto Forge
• Subramanya, Head of Digital Factory – Siemens Technology Service, and
• Shiva Subramaniam, Chief Innovation Officer – Gopalakrishnan Deshpande Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship

The leaders discussed how imperative Innovation was for the growth of industries beyond manufacturing.

Second session: ‘Factories of the future’ – Speakers:

• Shailesh Sheth, Corporate Advisor – Endress & Hauser (India) Pvt. & Board of Directors – BFW
• Vijay Pratap Singh, Head of Business Development, Machine Tool System – Siemens, and
• Krishnakumar Srinivasan, President, Strategic Business – Bharat Forge Ltd.

In the second session, the speakers highlighted that factories of the future will have to adopt digitisation to create sustainable Smart Manufacturing enterprises. Disruptions will be endemic and manufacturing processes will need to be flexible to adapt. The session focused on various facets of such manufacturing facilities.

Third session: ‘Celebrating Entrepreneurship’ – Speakers:

• Manickam Mahalingam, Chairman & Managing Director – Sakthi Group
• Vidyashankar Krishnan, Managing Director – MM Forgings Ltd.
• Lakshmanan Natrajan, Managing Director – Dolmatic Group

This engaging session highlighted why aspirational entrepreneurs are the backbone of manufacturing along with the producers. Success stories of entrepreneurs in the manufacturing sector had the audience spellbound.

Platinum sponsor of the event was Siemens. Gold sponsors of the event were – SHUTONIPIRANGA IAZ Group, HEMA, SCHNEEBERGER, PMI, Mitsubishi Electric, Miki Pulley, Nikken, NSK, and U-TECH.