Technology will play a key role in the era of industry 4.0, panellists said at the sixth edition of the CXO conclave organised by the South Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI) on Friday.
At the conclave on “Technology and Manufacturing — Trends, Policies and Perspectives” in Chennai, A. Sumathi, chief operating officer, Sterlite Copper, part of Vedanta Group, spoke about how there was digital intervention in every stage in the group right from raw material procurement, supply chain processes, operations and maintenance (which accounts for 60% of cost) to marketing.
Raghunathan Rengaswamy, professor of IIT Madras, said technology obsolescence cycle was rapid and one had to quickly adopt to it. He said there was no “one size fits all” solution and requirements differed for large and medium industries.
M.V. Subramanian, managing director of Future Focus, and SICCI technology committee chair, stressed on the need for MSME to transform themselves into data-driven organisations and it needs push from both the Centre and the State governments. He pointed out that the Centre provided ₹10 lakh grant for research and development, but MSMEs in Tamil Nadu had hardly utilised it.
Ram C. Sekar, founder, Canfan Pvt. Ltd., said medium and small companies would only adopt to technology if it helped them cut cost and improve quality.
Gopi Koteeswaran, former CEO of Latent View Analytics and SICCI Start-ups Committee chairman, moderated the session.
Addressing the gathering virtually, Ar. Rm. Arun, president of SICCI, said there should be more focus on manufacturing.
In his welcome address, V.N. Shiva Shankar, vice-president of SICCI, said future of manufacturing was about technology, Internet of Things, big data and so on.
At the event, Sterlite Copper launched coffee table book Hi I'm Copper. The book was unveiled by Mayur Karmakar, MD, International Copper Association India, with Ms. Sumathi.
The Hindu was the media partner for the event.
