New Delhi, May 10 (KNN) As industry 4.0 is making a headway globally, whether Indian SMEs are ready for this major technological transformation is a big question and to know the ground reality on this, KNN India spoke to  Anup Wadhwa, Director, Automation Industry Association , on the sidelines of unveiling of ‘The Smart Manufacturing Cyber Physical Facility highlighting PTC Digital Tools and Technologies’.

He said that lot of industries in the SME sector are somewhere between 1.0 and 2.0 and India’s unique challenge is to get them automate their machines, refine processes, develop the skill and talent so that they can actually begin to understand where the next big platform is.

Wadhwa said “Our roadmap is to take the MSMEs from a lower level to higher level and to make this journey meaningful what we are trying to do is, we are creating levels of SAMARTH to take them forward from one level to another."

Under SAMARTH UDYOG program, IIT Delhi and Automation Industry Association has set up a fully integrated Smart manufacturing and learning facility for small and medium Indian manufacturing enterprises to address the challenges that are faced by the industry due to disruptions caused by innovation in technologies.

When asked about what impact of Internet of Things (IOT) have on smart manufacturing, he said, IOT is actually going to disrupt the way customers will want to interact with the machines.

On asking how smart manufacturing and industry 4.0 shaping up in India he mentioned that the buzz is there, the excitement is there and in many cases the CEOs have started requesting for training programs, but the journey requires people, the organization culture, the operating processes and technology understanding to all start happening simultaneously. (KNN/CM)