RPG GROUP
RPG is a global diversified conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai , India . Samip Mutha , Vice President – Digital and Innovation , talks about how people are the key to a successful digital transformation
Enabling digital transformation in a manufacturing business is no simple task . The manufacturing industry is exceptionally analogue by nature and has been working on multiple improvement frameworks like ISO , Six Sigma , TPM , WCM , Demings , TRIZ , etc , to name a few . The success of Digital in manufacturing depends on your ability to take people along and raise its quotient across the employees in different functions , front line as well as backend .
For the shop floor , digital challenges are enormous . For legacy businesses with old plants , the need to embrace digital arises , especially with old assets and systems which obviously can ’ t retire overnight given the large capex involved . Digital in manufacturing is akin to performing surgery on a person , it needs to be highly customised , leave breathing space for recovery and have an airbag for side-effects . To want to embrace Digital in its entirety and build future-ready factories without any stoppage or impacting business , the need to balance the approach of Plant-Wide building for future , the so-called Smart Factories vis-à-vis machine ( critical ), as well as the process-level tactic is a given . When the question of building a strong Digital core in large global and distributed manufacturing operations arises , it strongly resonates as more of a “ when ” as opposed to a “ why ” with Mr . Mutha .
100 % culture The 3 Ms of manufacturing , namely Machine , Method and Materials , are important , as are smaller concerns compared to the 4th M - Man ( Culture ) according to Mr . Mutha .
“ The digital success stories are 100 % culture ,” he says . “ We are still a generation of people who are driving digital projects with an analogue mind , then blaming the technology , without realising our weaknesses . Every digital project requires an acceptance of the new normal . It merits believing unseen possibilities . The letting go of age-old habits seems more arduous in comparison to embracing new and future-friendly practices . The operator who , so far , has been regulating the machineries in and out , is likely to face a mental challenge
“ I ’ M NOT A FAN OF DIGITAL STRATEGY . WE HAVE A BUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE DIGITAL NEEDS TO EMBRACE THAT TO TRANSFORM OR BUILD NEW BUSINESSES ”
SAMIP MUTHA , VICE PRESIDENT - HEAD OF DIGITAL AND INNOVATION , RPG
94 April 2021