TIL has been working on digital manufacturing platform since the last 15 years.
Pinaki Niyogy Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, TIL What do you think are the latest ‘smart technology’ trends in the manufacturing sector, especially in the manufacturing of construction and mining equipment and what do you think is the
– Pinaki Niyogy
Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, TIL
What do you think are the latest ‘smart technology’ trends in the manufacturing sector, especially in the manufacturing of construction and mining equipment and what do you think is the impact of this on the manufacturing processes, enterprise value chain and supply chain?
While Smart Technology trends cover a wide gamut, to put it simply – it is about exploring innovative ways to improve processes and efficiencies. In the sector we operate, it depends largely on the type of machines, production volume and product variants being handled in the same production line. Nowadays the focus is to make the manufacturing process leaner and efficient which in turn gives a company the capability to handle more volume, varieties while maintaining the same production line and at the same time ensuring that the WIP remains within control and does not shoot up on the higher side. The efficiency of the production process is directly proportional to the amount of data captured during the production process. The overall focus is to have ‘Demand Flow Manufacturing’ which can increase the inventory turn dramatically thereby improving the company’s bottom-line.
Can you elaborate on the manufacturing philosophy and production principles of your company?
At the core of our, philosophy remains the customer. To this end our objective has always been to make the machines in the most efficient way, with zero defect and to deliver on time. We endeavor to pursue efficiency and productivity through continuous improvements and rigorous quality assurance.
We need to be cognizant of the fact that TIL machines are large capacity and not mass production machines. For our production process, we focus more on high strength steel fabrication and welding, Structure machining and then final assembly of the complete machines. In order to improve the quality and productivity of welding, we have deployed digital welding machines. These machines have integral data logger and can continuously transmit the data related to the welding parameters being followed during the welding. It also enables us to monitor the productivity of individual welders through monitoring of the arc time which is also recorded and transmitted through the data loggers. We always believe in the ‘human-touch’ factor and our highly skilled welders with digital welding machines provide exceptional results both in terms of welding quality and also the productivity. Other than the digital welding machines, we are also exploring the scope of using digital torquing tools which can capture the data about the torque setting of the tool while the various connections are being done during assembly. The objective is to have Zero snags way before the testing phase.
To what extent has your company imbibed digital technologies on manufacturing and how have you been able to leverage the digital platforms / flexible and scalable technology in your manufacturing set up?
TIL has been working on digital manufacturing platform since the last 15 years. We do our line balancing and line layout simulation through various digital manufacturing software which helps towards making the production line more efficient as we can carry out various iteration / simulation even before the physical implementation of the production line. Our Kharagpur facility in West Bengal has a built up area of 58000 sq m & shop floor area of 22000 sq mtr.
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