TEXTILE 4.0 – Global and Indian Perspective

Textile 4.0 conference gets an overwhelming response from industry

The Textile Association (India), Mumbai Unit organized International Textile Conference on “Textile 4.0 – Global and Indian Perspective” on 22^nd & 23^rd March 2018 at Hotel The Lalit, Mumbai. This was the first such conference on the subject to be held both in Asia and India and therefore, received an overwhelming response from the industry.

Mr. V. C. Gupte, Chairman, TAI, Mumbai Unit and also the Convener of this Conference took the lead in selecting the innovative topics & speakers for the success of this conference. The entire organising work of this conference was done under his able leadership.

Mr. Vilas Gharat, President, TAI, Mumbai Unit welcomed the Chief Guest, Dr. Kavita Gupta, IAS, Textile Commissioner, Ministry of Textiles, Government of India  and Key Note Speaker, Mr. R. D. Udeshi, President-Polyester Chain, Reliance Industries Limited. He also welcomed Mr. Shailesh R. Sheth, Director & Strategy Adviser, Jost’s Engineering Co. Ltd., the Awardees, Speakers, Press, Media and delegates.

Mr. T. K. Sengupta, President, TAI welcomed all the dignitaries and thanked them for their presence in the conference inspite of their busy schedule. He congratulated TAI, Mumbai Unit for selecting innovative topic as the theme of the conference.

Dr. Kavita Gupta, the Chief Guest in her inaugural address said “With the implementation of Textile 4.0 and automation, we should maintain a balance between man and machine and be careful that machines don’t overtake human beings.” She observed, we need human beings and a little bit of unpredictability in our lives to keep it interesting.

Mr. R. D. Udeshi in his Key Note Address highlighted Indian textile industry has to focus on holistic growth across the value chain and needs to focus on building quality and scale. This will be possible only by adopting digitalisation and cyber physical systems, which will accelerate growth and build excellence both in manufacturing and consumer experience.” He emphasised on planning today for a new and better tomorrow. In terms of changing dynamics because of automation and Industry 4.0, sourcing needs are also changing. Buyers do not just want to purchase a product, rather they are looking for end to end solutions.

Mr. G. V. Aras, Conference Chairman while giving the highlights said that the world is on the threshold of a new industrial revolution characterized by Automation, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things etc. Industry 4.0 is the future of manufacturing which is based on cyber-physical systems, Internet of things, digitalization which would create a “Smart Factory”. These new technologies will enter our manufacturing and supply chain sooner than expected and will have disruptive effects on the present processes followed by the industry.

 Mr. Shailesh R. Sheth in his theme presentation said that “Factory of the Future is here and can no longer be ignored. For Textile industry’s global competitiveness, we have to grapple with the complexities and chalk out a roadmap for us to implement.” In this VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) world, companies want to ensure their future investments and time of returns on investments. The objective of Textile 4.0 is to optimise inputs and maximise output.

 Mr. Prashant Agarwal, knowledge Partner of the Conference elaborated the Textile 4.0 introduces a new concept called “smart factories” in which technology monitors physicals systems & processes and makes decentralized decisions. Adoption of Industry 4.0 tools and technologies in textiles would result in increased efficiency, reduced lead time, improved production quality. Indian textile companies are functioning at various stages of automation depending on size of company. The organized companies need to prepare the way forward for adopting textile 4.0 and the semi organized and un organized sector needs to develop roadmap towards bridging the technology gap and gear up to align with the industry going forward. He said all teammates including top management professions like CEOs etc, need to be educated, trained and aligned with this technological advancement.

Honouring the best in class

The Textile Association (India), Mumbai Unit has set a precedent of felicitating the textile professionals for their outstanding contribution in the field of textile industry. In this Conference, the TAI, Mumbai Unit felicitated Shri Sanjiv S. Lathia, Technical Director, Lathia Rubber Mfg. Co. Pvt. Ltd. with “The Lifetime Achievement Awards” and Shri S. K. Khandelia, President & CEO, Sutlej Textiles and Industries Ltd. with “The Industrial Excellence Award”.

Knowledge and Informative technical sessions

The two-day conference saw several informative sessions. The theme of the first session was “Opportunities in Global Scenario”.

In this session first paper was presented by Mr. Ashish Bhat, Executive Vice President and Head – Digital Factory, Siemens Limited on “Textile 4.0 – Opportunities in Global Scenario”. He pointed out, “Digitalisation is changing everything, since 2000 over half of the top 500 global companies have disappeared, since they couldn’t change with time. The world is changing at a rapid speed; it took 16 years for mobile to have its first 100 million users and only three years for WhatsApp to cross 100 million users.  Industry 4.0 is not about the technology, it is about new business models. Digitalisation is already a part of our day to day life through mobile, social media and others, it is time we make digitalisation a part of our business. In my opinion, ‘Disruption’ is slightly a negative word; I would rather like to use Adoption   instead of disruption. The whole idea of Industry 4.0 is to ability to produce single customised product as mass customisation at the same cost as mass production.”

Mr. Ram Sareen, Founder, TukaTech, USA presented the paper on “Textile 4.0: Process by Technology Providers’ Perspective”. He observed Disruptive Process is nothing but taking status quo process and simplifying. He believe change is constant, growth is optional.”

Mr. Stephan Kehry, Sales Manager India, Mahlo GmbH Co. KG, Germany made the presentation on “Textile 4.0 – Chances and Risks of a Visionary Revolution”. He quoted his owner Dr Mahlo and said, “We can’t manage, what we can’t measure” indicating that it is important in today’s business to have information and data to make informed decisions. He also mentioned that in Industry 4.0 and IoT “Human element gains on overreaching significance in development of Industry 4.0.”

Mr. Prabhat Pande, Manager – Professional and Business Services (India & Sri Lanka), EFI Optitex presented the paper on “‘Retail Apocalypse’ and Technological Disruptions”.

The Second Session began with Panel Discussion on “Opportunities & Challenges in Implementation of Textile 4.0 : Indian/Asian Stakeholders Perspective” which was moderated by Mr. Prashant Agarwal, Co. Founder & Jt. Managing Director, WAZIR Advisors Pvt. Ltd. The Panel comprised Mr. Rajendar K. Rewari, MD, Morarjee Textiles Ltd., Mr. Sanjiv S. Lathia, Technical Director, Lathia Rubber Mfg. Co. Pvt. Ltd., Mr. Arvind Mathur, CEO, Raymond Uco Denim Pvt. Ltd., Mr. Updeep Singh, Deputy CEO, Sutlej Textiles and Industries Ltd. All the Panel Members emphasized that textile industry in India has no choice but to adopt this new revolution if they want to sustain in global market. This revolution will attract technically qualified young generation to the textile industry and present workers will need to upgrade themselves to new technologies. It was a very interesting and memorable session.

The Third Session was on “Textile 4.0- Approach to Textile Manufacturing from Fabrics to Finishing” which were presented by eminent speakers from India and abroad.

Mr. Gianangelo Licini, Sales Area Manager and Mr. Francesco Gozio, Marketing Department, Marzoli Machines Textile srl made the presentation on “Textile 4.0 – Industrial Cyber – Physical Systems”. In their presentation they explained how Marzoli focuses its development on innovation and digital integration of Spinning Mill production processes:

Dr. Indu R. Keoti, Dy. General Manager, Sales & Marketing, EcoAxis spoke on “Industrial IoT for Textiles”.  She highlighted how a textile enterprise can become smarter by using industrial IoT solutions. She also discussed challenges in implementing and adopting these technologies in the textile industry.

Mr. Hans Gerhard Wroblowski, (Area Sales Director SEA & Head of Denim Technology), A. Monforts Textilmaschinen GmbH & Co. KG, Germany presented the paper on “Textile 4.0 – Internet of Things “Overview / Outlook”.

Mr. V. Bino George, Head of Business Consulting, Infor South Asia presented the paper on “Innovations & Competitiveness in Textile Industry”. He said that the Fashion industry of today is facing a unique and dynamic set of challenges. From the rise of modern consumers to the increasing speed with which new products need to be brought to market, the technology is essential to remain competitive.

Mr. Ashish Sharma, Vice President-Sales & Mktg., Truetzschler India Pvt. Ltd. showed “Trutzschler’s approach to Industry 4.0”. He said the term “Industry 4.0” originates from a German government’s project as high-tech strategy to promote the computerization of manufacturing process. Trützschler Line Commander connects complete Blow room line and cards together, which itself is basis of IoT concept long before Industry 4.0 conceptualized.

The Fourth Session was on “Textile 4.0 – Demonstrative Approach to Manufacturing from Fibre to Fabrics”.

Mr. Gunish Jain, Managing Director, Royal Datamatics Pvt. Ltd., presented the paper on “The Role of Machine Learning in the Textile Value Chain”. He explained what activities and processes will be part of the first wave of AI and Automation.

Mr. Akshar Chandra, Strategy & Business Excellence, MD Office, Grasim Industries, Aditya Birla Group expressed his views on “Future of Textile is Upon Us – Digitalization enabled Connected Value Networks”.

Mr. Ramakrishnan Pongirivasan, Country Manager (India), IAS – India (Canias ERP) made the presentation on “Textile 4.0 – Combination of Process and Technology (In term of Business Process Management) know how”.

The theme of the Fifth Session was “Government Initiatives and Industry Interface”.

Mr. R. Girish, IAS, Commissioner for Textile Development & Director of Handlooms & Textiles, Govt. of Karnataka, presented the paper on “Invest Karnataka”.

Mr. Mihir Parekh – Director Mega Textile Park, Department of Handloom & Textiles, Government of Telangana discussed about “Textile and Apparel Sector in Telangana – Opportunities and Initiatives”.

Mr. Damodar Kulkarni, Deputy Secretary, Dept. of Textiles, Govt. of Maharashtra presented the newly introduced “Textile Policy of Government of Maharasthra and its advantages to various sectors”.

Dr. J. V. Rao, CEO, Textile Sector Skill Council (TSC) presented a paper on “Future of Textile Jobs – A Perspective”. He said that the impact of Industry 4.0 on the nature of jobs would result in four different possibilities –some new jobs would be created or some of the existing jobs wound demand additional skill sets, while some jobs would continue to exist without any change in skill sets and some would disappear. The jobs that would disappear are those which require Routine Manual (RM) or Routine Cognitive (RC) skills. All such jobs would be automated. The jobs which require Non-Routine Manual (NRM) and Non-Routine Cognitive (NRC) skills will continue to survive with or without additional new skill sets.

The Sixth Session was on “Risk Management”.

Mr. Badruddin Khan, Sr. Manager – Product Management Team, Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd. (MCX) made the presentation on “Awareness on Cotton Price Risk Management”.

Mr. Sajal Gupta, Head – Forex & Rates, Edelweiss Securities Limited and Mr. Vivek Acharya, Manger – Business Development (Currency & Debt), National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE) made the joint presentation on “Forex Risk Management: Currency Insurance – Protection against Volatility”.

The Seventh Session was a Workshop on the theme “Demonstrative Approach in Processes in Textile 4.0” which was presented by Marzoli Machines Textile srl.

Mr. Sanjay Chawla, Editor-in-Chief & Publisher & CEO, DFU Publications presented the Audio Visual Show on – Textile 4.0 which was appreciated by all.

All the Papers received very high response as well as interactions from the participants.

Mr. A. V. Mantri, Hon. Secretary, TAI, Mumbai Unit proposed a vote of the thanks. The Conference was a grand success and was attended by 450 participants.