Hitachi Vantara : making intelligent manufacturing happen
Watch the 3 dimensions of industry 4.0
Hitachi Vantara ’ s head of global manufacturing consulting explains the approach of the company to intelligent manufacturing
Hitachi Vantara is , in the words of Dev Ramchandani , Senior Director and Head of Global Manufacturing Consulting , “ a global technology leader and a catalyst for sustainable societal change . We respond to global dynamic changes with insight and agility . Our unique approach helps deliver sustainable measurable business results and a better consulting experience .”
Ramchandani insists that while Industry 4.0 has been a buzzword , there are now material successes to point to . He breaks down the Hitachi Vantara view into three key areas . One : “ We need to start with a business outcome or a business driven approach , not a technology driven approach . So we need to have the business objective in mind and then go ahead and identify the relevant technologies , which will help us achieve that .” Two : “ We need to reimagine operations . We need to keep thinking of the technical limit in our minds , because that is what we are headed to . We need to figure out how we can disrupt the current cycle and reach there .” And three : “ People . This calls for a different skill set and we need to nurture people .”
In what he calls the “ five-box model ” – process , mindsets , capabilities , technology , data – Ramchandani sets out his blueprint for the company ’ s approach to “ sustainable behavioural change ”, leading to sustainable impact .
Hitachi Vantara is one of RPG ’ s most important partnerships , and Ramchandani calls the experience of working with the manufacturing group a “ pleasure ”.
“ We at Hitachi have a very keen focus on harmony , sincerity and pioneering spirit , and these three elements are ingrained in RPG as well . Given the values were aligned , it has been an excellent journey working together .”
Two other key ingredients in the relationship are a win-win mentality and open and trust based communication .
That journey has been marked by a focus on ‘ intelligent manufacturing ’ leveraging a combination of business excellence methodologies , such as Lean , TPM and TQM , and technological enhancements like IoT , predictive and prescriptive analytics to better address the challenges of waste , variability and inflexibility across four key dimensions Ramchandani collectively refers to as “ 4M ” ( man , machine , material and method ).
“ I would say intelligent manufacturing for us is to find the next S-curve of operational excellence across the dimensions of SQPCDM ( safety , quality , productivity , costs , delivery and morale ). We go about doing that by addressing waste variability and flexibility . These are the core challenges , so we address waste variability and inflexibility across all the 4M dimensions . Each of these has some inherent waste variability and flexibility , so we try to address that in order to achieve the next S-curve of operational excellence .”
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