India has great ambitions to become a smart manufacturing hub. However, the nation’s ambition is blocked by deep-rooted systemic issues and cultural practices.
Awareness and Cultural Barriers: The importance of safety and environmental protection is still not acknowledged at managerial levels. These concerns are rarely integrated into management information systems, limiting transparency and informed decision-making.
Changing Family Business Dynamics: Many Indian family-run businesses cling to traditional hierarchies, slowing innovation. Younger generations support digital and sustainable change but face resistance from senior leaders.
Cost Sensitivity: Indian manufacturers prioritise immediate costing over long-term value, often treating safety and environmental investments as optional expenses instead of necessities.
Safety and Environmental Oversight: Organisations tend to address safety and environmental risks only after incidents or legal issues, rather than integrating them into routine operations.
Building a smart factory without addressing systemic and cultural issues such as safety and environmental risks is akin to installing the latest security system but leaving the front door open.
Tackling the Challenges Systematically
Companies must integrate risk management into their digital transformation strategies to ensure safe, sustainable, and resilient operations. It should begin with the implementation of proactive operational and maintenance systems and improving transparency through data-driven management.
1. Mitigate risks with operational and maintenance systems
Companies should establish systems for maintenance, incident analysis, and standardised operations, to address safety hazards and environmental risks.
What You Can Do
- Establish comprehensive preventive maintenance programmes. A preventive maintenance system and schedule ensure consistent monitoring of equipment and helps assess capital expenditure requirements, thereby preventing unforeseen equipment failures that could lead to safety hazards or environmental spills.
- Integrate Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) into problem-solving routines. Systematically identifying and eliminating underlying causes mitigates operational risks that could impact safety or the environment.
- Standardise procedures (SOPs) and implement the 5S methodology to enhance operational discipline and workplace safety. The 5S methodology (Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardise, Sustain) directly contributes to a safer, cleaner and more organised work environment by reducing hazards.
Cost savings through operational efficiency for manufacturer
Paper mill cuts material loss by 300% with maintenance planning
Cost savings through operational efficiency for manufacturer
Paper mill cuts material loss by 300% with maintenance planning
Ready for a change in your organisation?
2. Improve transparency and accountability through data-driven management systems
The first step towards smart factories is to leverage digital tools to enable real-time visibility, allowing performance monitoring to integrate safety and environmental concerns into core management while systematically reducing waste.
What You Can Do
- Implement real-time performance monitoring and digital dashboards with explicit safety and environmental KPIs. These processes can facilitate ISO 14001 (environmental management) and ISO 45001 (occupational health and safety management) certifications, providing direct evidence of a company’s commitment to and adherence to environmental and safety standards.
- Establish robust review mechanisms to identify and resolve performance deviations promptly. This could include capturing real-time downtime data to manage hourly production versus targets. Such frequent reviews enable the quick identification of operational anomalies that could signal safety or environmental risks.
- Reduce waste and optimise resource consumption through systematic tracking and process improvement. Reducing material waste contributes directly to environmental sustainability and cost efficiency.
Smart factories offer tremendous benefits but jumping ahead without addressing underlying, existing issues means it will not be a foolproof strategy. From an economic perspective, resolving systemic and cultural issues can lead to significant cost savings, increased productivity and enhanced competitiveness in the global market.
With more than thirty years of experience, Renoir has supported hundreds of companies across various sectors, including manufacturing, in overcoming obstacles that slow innovation and growth by conducting thorough “as-is” assessments and delivering customised solutions. Our success lies in the change management approach where we work closely with our clients as partners – from blueprint to execution – using a top-down, bottom-up, end-to-end approach. By the end of the project, our clients are equipped with the tools and capabilities to maintain a culture of continuous improvement.
Lead with Safety and Sustainability
