SMEs and Smart Manufacturing- The new technological industrial revolution

With the smart manufacturing becoming as an emerging trend, it might get troublesome for the SMEs in the manufacturing sector, in particular for those focused only on the local market. Smart manufacturing is an emerging sector which involves automated and IT driven tasks. It also involves analyzing machine data which ultimately improves the operational efficiency. With the most recent demonetization move, the Prime Minister has clearly shared his interest of promoting IT-enabled services in every industry. SME is one sector which, with the help of technology can increase their business and presence multi-fold. With all the sectors getting ‘Modi-fied’, the Small and Medium Enterprises will have no option left, but embrace these changes.

For the design and manufacturing SMEs in India, it is a high time that they start embracing technology. Digitization of manufacturing impacts every aspect of the operations and supply chain of the SMEs. Smart manufacturing technologies connect design, planning, production and distribution to drive process improvements, reduce operational costs and increase efficiencies'. With facilities like industrial IoT optimization throughout the enterprise and reduces production costs, big data and analytics changing the way manufacturers works, IIoT strategies and technologies to deliver enterprise transformation and value and so on, we need to raise awareness on these technologies. By framing ways to help SMEs in training themselves and their existing workforce, we need to capture and make the most from the entrepreneurial opportunities emerging from technologies. A very simple example being of 3D printing. 3D printing makes product development and prototyping much faster and easier and can also be used to manufacture smaller batches of the product.

Brands like Tata Services are aiming to double their number of its local customers from the small and medium enterprise through marketing and connectivity solutions. Company officials have shared that out of a million small medium enterprises, around 8 lakh are under-served, which Tata wants wants to tap. The SME market is about Rs 12,000-14,000 crore. While industry experts feel that the SMEs are much more likely to adopt new technologies as compared to large enterprises, at present there biggest concern is about becoming  visible in the market. As the Internet of Things continues to be the future of manufacturing, smart manufacturing will change how everything is made. At such a point is essential for the SMEs in this domain  to have a better understanding of what this means for them. Starting from the advanced manufacturing technologies to the tools, processes and practices used in development and production; SMEs need to master these technologies to grow quickly.

Thus, only after experiencing how automation and new technologies are changing the landscape, SMEs will have no option other than to stay up-to-date on other techniques to stay in the competition.