BFW & WIN

Industry News | BFW & WIN

Ravi Raghavan, MD, BFW (Left] shakes on the partnership with WIN’s CEO Pratik Kumar

True Automation Empowers People

BFW and Wipro Infrastructure Engineering recently joined hands to offer comprehensive industrial automation solutions

Ravi Raghavan, Managing Director, Bharat Fritz Werner Ltd (BFW) and Pratik Kumar, CEO, Wipro Infrastructure Engineering (WIN) say that industrial automation is just about making the machines smarter, it also must make people working in that environment smarter. Presenting, excerpts from a conversation with DMI.

What are the factors that brought forth the collaboration between BFW and Wipro Automation Solutions? Ravi Raghavan [RR]: We felt that there was a huge need for factory automation and digitization in India. However, due to a lack of clarity and understanding, these technologies [automation and digitization] are not used widely and therefore their benefits are not seen.

Therefore, in order for customers to gain from these technologies, we have presented the deployment of these technologies as solutions. BFW’s strength lies in its range of offerings of smart machines and associated solutions. Wipro brings in its expertise in many areas of automation. Combining the strengths and skills of two entities, we are able to deliver a complete set of solutions; that’s why this partnership.

Our solutions can be used for all purposes – be it a factory upgrade or a Greenfield project, or the design of a factory ecosystem from ground up. Pratik Kumar [PK]: WIN Automation is a business of Wipro Infrastructure Engineering (WIN) catering to the full-service line of Industrial Automation needs of Indian & ASEAN manufacturing industries. Our focus is on bringing an affordable and scalable automation solution for the SME segment, particularly for the automotive ancillaries and other similar industries.

Furthermore, we do a complete software integration to make the machines ‘talk to each other’ as well as upload the data to the cloud that helps us apply the complete analytics framework. This partnership with BFW is to jointly offer integrated, modular, scalable and comprehensive factory automation solutions in milling, turning and special purpose machines to customers. These solutions comprise smart machines, intelligent material handling systems that will sync the material flow to manufacturing needs, provide data analytics to maximize OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness), productivity, and quality.

Will the collaboration’s integrated solution be affordable to the MSMEs? PK: There are four main cost heads for an MSME. One is the energy that the unit consumes, the second factor is human resources with the perhead productivity output taken into account, the third factor is the raw material, and the fourth aspect is the machine which is a capital costhead. If an MSME owner is able to track these four cost factors, he will be able to understand the exact cost incurred at each of these sources. Today, the owner has to sit and micro manage his factory every single day. Even the customer finds it difficult to understand what’s going on at the factory where there products are being made. Now, automation and digitization will help an MSME monitor these variables on a real-time basis to understand the per-unit cost as well as see the wastage that the unit is generating. The owner will be able to monitor the machines’ uptime and downtime and therefore perform predictive maintenance. An MSME needs to understand that manufacturing is unlike any other activity where the first four hours of the morning are very productive, and the second four hours are less so. What happens with a balanced automation system is that you help the factory worker not just use his hands and legs but also empower his cognition better – that’s where smart manufacturing comes in. It’s not about just making the machines smarter, automation makes people working in that environment smarter as well, in an affordable and scalable manner, thus lowering the per-unit cost and increasing the per-unit productivity.

www.bfwindia.com Key Highlight: An MSME needs to understand that manufacturing is unlike any other activity where the first four hours of the morning are very productive, and the second four hours are less so.

BFW and WIN Automation Partner for Industrial Automation Solutions

On January 25, 2019, Bharat Fritz Werner Ltd. (BFW) announced its partnership with WIN Automation Solutions to jointly offer to customers modular scalable and comprehensive factory automation solutions with most comprehensive range of offerings in Milling, Turning and Special Purpose Machines. These solutions consist of smart machines, intelligent material handling/automation systems synchronizing the material flow to manufacturing/assembly needs, providing data analytics to maximize OEE, productivity, quality, inventories etc. Announcing the partnership, Mr. Ravi Raghavan, Managing Director, BFW, said, “In sync with our purpose to “Enable Progress” through solutions, we aim to comprehensively address the future of our clients by deploying digitization. For this purpose, we will pursue collaborative approach and partnership with WIN Automation which is an important step in this journey.” Mr. Pratik Kumar, CEO, Wipro Infrastructure Engineering (WIN), said, “Industrial automation for manufacturing is a US $ 150 Billion opportunity globally and India is a nascent market. It is expected to grow rapidly and exponentially. With WIN Automation Solutions, we are in the right place at the right time to capture this market opportunity.” Indian Manufacturing is poised to grow exponentially to USD 1 Trillion by 2025 and aims to rank within top 3 economies of the world. To accomplish this, manufacturing sector needs to overcome challenges related to productivity, competitiveness, flexibility and agility of response to swiftly changing business environment. Seamless integration of material, information flow and digital environment with deployment of comprehensive Industry 4.0 compliant solutions are going key imperatives for companies in India and in Asia.