Talk on Industry 4.0: SMEs urged to embrace it

Neeraj Shah, director of Pune-based Silver Bright Industries, advocated the adoption of the IoT by the SMEs. “It’s not that the companies, which fail to embrace IoT, will not work, but early adopters will definitely get an advantage,” he said.

The small and medium scale enterprises (SME)s, Shah said, can be green field investments and captive markets for entrepreneurs in the IoT space. “SMEs are financially strong and are looking to invest in IoT. This can be a mutually beneficial partnership,” he added.

Touted as the fourth industrial revolution, Industry 4.0 aims at bringing together computers and manufacturing. It involves using innovation, IoT, cloud computing and automation to create what is being called a smart factory. The programme, which had several well-known speakers on board, was meant to demystify and discuss the ways to go about bringing in the next big revolution in industry, which is being called Industry 4.0.

The discussion was opened by adman Alyque Padamsee through a pre-recorded video. Padamsee spoke about the wide range of possibilities 4.0 could bring. Former Finance Director of Tata Sons, Ishaat Hussain, and entrepreneur Vandana Poria also addressed the discussion.

Hussain discussed how he had seen a shift from 2.0 to 3.0 in his career span and now was seeing the shift towards 4.0. While he spoke about the meaning of 4.0, he also emphasised the importance of strong leadership, leading from the absolute front. “You can dream of change and those changes can be brought about by good leadership,” he said. He added that the concept of 4.0 was still hazy, the industry was still coming to grips with it.

Hussain was followed by Kishore Jayaraman, president, India and South Asia Rolls-Royce. “Industry has never seen such a disruption, a change such as now. But it should not be a change for the sake of it,” he said.