The automotive industry has been undergoing a major transition since the onset of COVID-19, and as we near the end of 2021 and venture into a new year, the time couldn’t have been more right to address the challenges of the automotive industry. Publish Industry India, in association with Technology Partner - Siemens Digital Industries Software and Autodesk Fusion, 3D Printing Partner - Markforged, Trusted Automotive Partner - Lumax, Association Partner - Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicle (SMEV) and Skill Development Partner - Automotive Skills Development Council (ASDC), came out with the third edition of its flagship event International Automotive Manufacturing Summit (IAMS) 2021 in a hybrid format. The event was an amalgamation of industry stalwarts discussing everything right from the changing landscape of the automotive industry to the key trends to watch out for. The topics of the summit included digitalisation in automotive, the landscape and future of EV, connected vehicles and more. Here is what the speakers discussed:
Changing skills landscape in automotive manufacturing
Our education ecosystem needs to do a – in manufacturing term – repair work/rework. Our methodology needs to incorporate project- and work-learning- based modules to ensure that the student learns the specific technology aspects in a collaborative environment and not a single teacher-student interaction alone.- Arindam Lahiri, CEO, ASDC
From sensors to business - Reimagining automotive
The definition of Industry 4.0 is that it is mass production with mass customisation in a cyber-physical system. The products of the future factory will be more intelligent, which will be connected with one’s next generation manufacturing execution system (MES), which will help with the process and analysis. - Rakesh Pandey, Industry PID Leader, Siemens Digital Industries Software
Pervasive insight of automotive products for efficient design, manufacturing and operation
With digital prototyping, the user is conducting simulation throughout the entire product development cycle from ideation to design to manufacturing and operation in the product. Analysis and data points from digital prototyping gives the user confidence to cut down the cycle, make variations and improve the quality of the product. - Rafiq Somani, Area Vice President - India and South Asia Pacific, Ansys
The EV evolution: Understanding the past, present and future of EV in India
The past two-three years have been the turning point for EVs in India because discussion have evolved from ‘why it (EV mainstreaming) shouldn’t happen or do it’ to ‘how to make it happen’. Now on, the growth of 5x/10x is easily imaginable because if it made sense to first 1 million adopters, it would make sense to the other 100 million also. - Sohinder Gill, CEO - Global Business, Hero Electric & DG, SMEV
Automotive industry: Shifting gears to ‘digital’ as the new normal!
Digitalisation is no longer a choice but an imperative to create sustainable revenue stream, enhance customer experience, safety & reliability, develop new business models and improve margins. As more software come in, a car is no longer a passive product but an active equipment, part of your everyday life. - Aloke Palsikar, Executive Vice President & Head of Growth Industries, Tata Technologies
Pressing accelerator on the growth of EV – The status quo
It is high time, we realise that if at all we are having any second doubt, EV is the future. Overall initial pricing of EVs need to be worked upon. There is going to be huge requirement for skill sets as we move towards EVs. - Manish Manek, Chief VLE, MG Motor India
The great chip shortage: Addressing the semiconductor shortage challenge, finding opportunities & solutions
We have to create design clusters for sensors, power devices, etc, and Indian automakers need to ask for specific capacity in fabs. Moreover, one of the important things that automakers need to ensure is to get full visibility to the supply chain to avoid unexpected disruptions - K Krishna Moorthy, CEO & President, IESA
Battery manufacturing, creating infrastructure & reducing raw material dependence as India bets on e-mobility
The EV market is right here now. We can be the urban mining capital of the world but we need differentiated solutions for India. New-age mobility will have huge opportunity for AI and Big Data. - Venkat Rajaraman, CEO, Cygni Energy
Indian automotive industry perspective in the digital & electric era
In the era of Industry 4.0, speed to market is going to be key to success for any organisation. As we move forward, personalised vehicles will be moving under the ‘premium scenario’, from a customer preference point of view. - Malind Kapur, Executive Vice President Corporate Strategy & Communication and Business Head Piaggio Vehicles
Software solutions for competitive edge in manufacturing
Product development cycles in manufacturing is broken and complex. The solution for this lies in integrating workspaces together; businesses need to connect their designing department to ECAD department which can send original PCBs to the manufacturing department using the same interface.” - Vipul Agrawal, Technical Head, Autodesk Fusion
Driving in circles: Automotive working on sustainability using circular economy
Circularity and sustainability go hand-in-glove. While industries are adopting sustainable production methods, sustainability does not mean coming up with new innovation that is actually causing even more challenge for the individual implementing it. - Rajashree Rao, ex-Head – AI Innovation Hub & Partnership & Ecosystem (APAC), R² Data Labs, Rolls Royce & Advisory Board Member, Atal Incubation Centre – BIMTECH
Fire side chat: The impact of AR/VR on automotive manufacturing
The primary reason for increased adoption of XR is that today; the pipelines for adoption got easier in its pre-existing format. Secondly, the hardware prices dropped and the portability, form factor, capability, etc have also expanded over the years. - Thirukumaran Saravanan, Co-founder & Chief Business Officer, XR Labs
Manufacturing reinvented with 3D Printing
The only way out of a situation, like a pandemic, is innovation, either businesses are forced to change the product or the way they manufacture the product. Amongst the top technology in 2021 that have helped businesses manage change is 3D Printing. - Anuj Budhiraja, Country Manager - India, Markforged
Key trends shaping the Indian automotive industry
Unification of devices & technologies coupled with unification of space and comfort and safety and regulation is the way automotive industry is moving. It was always moving in this direction; it is just that the pace has increased now, so much so that we have started feeling the change. - Vineet Sahni, Group CEO, Lumax Group
High tech jobs in the automotive industry
There is an impact on existing jobs due to the ACES disrupting in automotive industry. It has led to simpler assembly, especially with EVs, less moving parts with eventually less assembly work involved, squeezed dealer networks and increased transparency. - Viraj Kalyani, Founder & CEO, Kalyani Studio
INDUSTRY PANEL DISCUSSION: Learning the key trends, creating opportunity for innovation & change for automotive industry
The pandemic has led to a lot of opportunities and helped manufacturing work in a leaner and smarter way. In today’s world, manufacturing has became more about trusting people and letting them work in an open environment and innovating with digitalisation. These are the new mantras of today’s world, and they will continue to exist. - Amit Chitnis, Director, Royal Enfield UK
During the pandemic, for OEMs, the priority was to keep the workplace safe. The very first thing we did was training, just to ensure that COVID prevention behaviour is cultivated in each and every individual and that becomes a part of our culture. - Pramod Khot, Vice President, Fiat
Looking at the pandemic and the lockdowns, the future is very uncertain. The only way to thrive during this period is to relook at one’s digital strategy and the technologies that are available. - Jimmy Jonathan, Head of Sales – India & ASEAN, Autodesk Fusion
Innovation starts from the market and not from the product. There is no point by first developing a product and then finding a buyer; one needs to first analyse the customer needs and wants and then develop a product to meet his requirement. - Dr Rajeev Ranadive, Chairman & Managing Director, Pixy Electric Cars
During the pandemic, digital engineering has gained prominence so much so that in the calibration process is also moving to digital engineering. Across the value chain, digital engineering is on the need list and the industry has embraced it rather well. - Yogesh Umbarkar, Vice President, Convergent Science
