The Writing on the Wall – ‘I AM’ Manufacturing

Introduction

The COVID 19 pandemic has hastened what was looking in-evitable; the END of Manufacturing as we have known it since the last 100 years. Discrete Manufacturing (manufacture of parts or units, as against continuous process) has been based on the concept of ‘Skilled’ Workers and Quality Inspectors. This model has been looking un-sustainable since the last 10 years, when expectations of customers (Near-Zero defectives per million supplied parts) became ‘out of synch’ with a workforce whose aptitude and appetite for jobs in manufacturing was declining because of more attractive jobs in the fast growing service sector.

The ‘Writing on the Wall’

Apart from the tragedy of life disruption, sickness and death, the COVID 19 pandemic has caused large scale disruption in the manufacturing sector which will have far reaching consequences, both immediate and long term. The immediate consequences are:

• Factories shut down as workers & managers stay at home.
• Return of migrant workers to their hometowns & villages, perhaps forever (some of them), as governments give them sops that make lower paying work in their home state more attractive than returning back to where they worked.

The long term consequences are that people all over the world will now live in the fear of the next ‘Black Swan‘ event.  A ‘Black Swan’ is a totally unexpected event with massive consequences:

• A new Pandemic
• A War that flares up suddenly and massively.
• A Huge terrorist attack.
• Economic Collapse of a big economy & payment default by its government.

But life has to go on. The people in rich countries will preserve their lifestyles, and the aspiring middle class in developing countries will continue to improve its lifestyle, and the poor will strive to rise out of poverty. Therefore manufacturing has to grow; and produce more Cars, more Motorcycles, more Dishwashers, more Phones, more Gas pipelines, more Wind-power towers, and more High Speed Trains.

But how do we reconcile the above NEED with the THREE PROBLEMS affecting manufacturing:

1. Reduction in available ‘skilled’ workforce.
2. Fear of next ‘Black Swan’ event that would disrupt their operations.
3. Intense competition, which makes lower costs & higher quality imperative to be competitive.

The answers lie in the vast and exciting domain of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0). Plucking the Low Hanging fruits of Industry 4.0 and arranging them in a sequence that addresses the Three Problems, we get a new way of working which we call ‘I AM’ Manufacturing.

‘I AM’ Manufacturing

This is Manufacturing with optimized processes, zero defect production & with vastly reduced dependence on experienced workers. A Manufacturing system that generates the PROFITS that make it resilient & competitive, with the capacity to absorb ‘shocks‘.

The three key components of this system are I, A & M.

I stands for IMPROVEMENT, both Process & Quality. Process Improvement is through use of super-optimized machines which are equipped with technologies that make them operate with faster cycle times and with reduced power & tool cost. Quality Improvement is through CLAP (Closed Loop Auto-corrected Production) with smart gauging stations ensuring that process mean is close to the tolerance mean.

A stands for AUTOMATION, which includes machine tending, transfer between machines & quality. Most importantly, Automation is Flexible with quick changes in setup to accommodate different members of a family of jobs or completely new jobs.

M stands for MONITORING, which more specifically is Cloud based Monitoring of Production, Quality & Machine Health. MONITORING is the ‘Thread’ that binds the system together and ensures that IMPROVEMENT is a continuous, closed loop process; & AUTOMATION really delivers promised benefits and is truly flexible.

‘I AM Manufacturing’ signals the end of manufacturing as we know it, and its re-birth as the driving force of global prosperity; AND  the ‘Shock-absorber’ when the next ‘Black Swan’ arrives.

Gaurav Sarup

5th April 2020