Apr 08
Technology Conclave VIII - Gearing Up for Industry 4.0
Technology Conclave VIII - Gearing Up for Industry 4.0

To the uninitiated, the term Industry 4.0 may sound futuristic and in some sense distant, but those from the industry are already witnessing the fourth industrial revolution take shape right before their eyes. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are already changing factories and production environments. There’s 3D modelling being used to map shopfloors in real-time and modular automation to design plants and factories such that they can scale up or down production overnight with minimal effort. Sensorisation and things like Augmented Reality (AR) are letting service teams detect issues in advance and get a fix on problems before they arise. Industry 4.0 does not lie in some distant future, it is already here.

L&T is already a part of this new “reality” thanks to initiatives like the Technology Conclave where it calls on its best and the brightest to showcase their ideas that can be adopted at its facilities. At the 8th iteration of the annual event held in Hazira from February 7th to 9th, participants took to the theme of Industry 4.0 and presented their ideas through technical papers and demonstrated practical applications of how digital technologies could be employed to automate, streamline, and enhance existing processes.

The three-day event witnessed a gathering of a number of senior L&T-ites and external subject matter experts who not only encouraged the participating teams but also shared their own thoughts on a variety of topics for everyone’s benefit. Mr. Yogi Sriram, SVP, Head - Corporate HR & Member ECom, and Mr. Y.S Trivedi, SVP, Head - HEIC & Member ECom, graced the inauguration ceremony on Day 1 of the event. The duo highlighted the urgency with which businesses needed to ready themselves for Industry 4.0 and said that unlike the past industrial revolutions where one could get by with incremental change and adopt technologies at a slower pace, with Industry 4.0 the pace of innovation had to be much faster. To this end, learning from one another’s experiences was crucial they said, and platforms such as Technology Conclave afforded them the right stage.

Anchoring the event, Mr. B.S. Saluja, Head - Corporate Training and Mr. B.A. Damahe, Principal, LTIT ensured that the gathering stayed the course and the themes chosen for the event were thoroughly dissected. There were five subthemes selected by the organisers viz., Artificial Intelligence in Business / Analytics; IIoT in Service Industry; IIoT in Manufacturing Industry; IIoT in Project Industry; and Data Management and Security Solutions.

The event also saw 18 speakers (10 from L&T and 8 from outside) speak to the audience about the said subthemes. From L&T, the speakers included Mr. Saurabh Indwar (EVP & Grp. CE (Designate) LMB), Mr. A.T. Ramchandani (EVP - GMA, Defence IC), Mr. S. Mulgaonkar (Defence IC), Mr. Atik Desai (HZMC CS), Mr. Rashid Hashim (LMB), Mr. Sriram Ayyar (LTHE), Mr. Yagnesh Desai (LTHE), Mr. Sanjay Mishra (Construction), Mr. C. Chockalingam (SW&C), and Mr. Satish Patil (Corporate Digital), while Mr. Kittur Nagesh (Cognito), Dr. Navalgundkar (C4I4), Mr. Tejas Patel (Strategic Alliance), Mr. Sudhir Panditrao (San Techno Mentors), Dr. Arvind Tilak (Ascent Intellimation), Mr. Mayur Agare (PTC India), Mr. Prafulla Wani (Microsoft), and Mr. Ajay Deshkar (3D Engineering) made up the external speakers’ list.

From a total 57 papers submitted by participants from across all the ICs, 25 were selected for publication in a compendium and four teams were awarded for demonstrating use of digital technology. A team from Heavy Engineering took home the top honours this year for its Implementation of Digital Technology in Smart SAW Welding Stations. The winners Hardik Butani, Vicky Modi and Rahul Kushwaha were felicitated by Mr. V.V. Risbud, Head - RPV PBU, HEIC and Mr. Sanjay Sharma, Chief Executive - LTSSHF who acted as the chief guests for the award ceremony on day 3. The first runner-up prize went to a team from Corporate IT for its project on ‘Real Time Comprehensive Analysis and Report Generation in F&A for Faster Decision Making’ while another team from Defence IC won the second runner-up prize for deploying an ‘Integrated Asset Management System through RFID’. There was also a consolation award given to a team from HEIC for coming up with a ‘Handheld / Portable Device for Business Oriented Communication in a Mobile Restricted Shop Floor’.

The guests congratulated all the winners and appreciated them for their innovative spirit and solution oriented approach.

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