Tech Mahindra sets up 'Factory of Future' lab

Tech Mahindra on Tuesday unveiled its ‘state-of-the-art’ lab here which works on future technologies that are expected to power the factory floors.

Interacting with DH, Tech Mahindra President and COO L Ravichandran said the lab known as the ‘Factory of the Future’ lab will showcase solutions and products which will help in manufacturing with a focus on Industry 4.0.

“The lab has solutions in the areas of digital manufacturing, connected machines, additive manufacturing, robotics and automation, artificial intelligence and analytics, and augmented reality and virtual reality,” he said.

Ravichandran said the industry is now at a cusp of embracing the next generation of automation. “Robots will work alongside humans in a connected factory floor. Increased use of big data and analytics in decision-making will bring a paradigm shift in manufacturing,” he said. He also pointed out that system integrators like Tech Mahindra will play a pivotal role in coming up with solutions along with hardware vendors like Bosch, Siemens, Universal Robotics and software partners like GE and IBM.

“The modular solutions will showcase industry 4.0 concepts that are very much important in building the digital backbone of clients. We are building capabilities in these areas by recruiting more data analysts, mathematicians and inter-disciplinary experts,” he said.

“The infrastructure and the assets in the lab are already being monetised to create customer-centric solutions. We already have some references while some of the customer use cases are being tested,” Tech Mahindra Senior VP and Global Head of Manufacturing Aloke Palsikar said.

The company is also giving primacy to co-innovation to develop solutions that are deeply aligned with the customer’s requirements.