Digital transformation high on manufacturing sector's agenda: PwC India survey

New Delhi: Digital transformation is high on the agenda for the manufacturing sector and 54 per cent of the companies have implemented artificial intelligence and analytics for business functions, according to a PwC India survey.

PwC India said it conducted the survey to understand the current digital landscape in the Indian manufacturing industry and assess the prospect of laying down the future roadmap.

CXOs of organisations in the domestic market, including multinational companies (MNCs), were interviewed to gain insights into the digital transformation trends of the manufacturing sector, it said.

"Indian manufacturing companies currently prefer to adopt one standardised digital solution across plants compared to global companies which prefer one standardised digital solution with different functionalities or modules. Indian companies are showing an upward trend towards adopting analytics and AI with a current implementation rate of 54 per cent," the survey showed.

Further, 38 per cent of Indian companies that had participated in the survey revealed that they do not have any plans to adopt digital technology for their businesses.

"According to the research, digital champions from across the six sectors in India believe that being resilient, transparent, and sustainable will prepare them for future growth. However, they also opine that greater innovation and faster time to market will help them to stay relevant in the competitive landscape in the coming days," PwC India said.

Ankur Basu, Partner and Digital Operations Leader at PwC India, said that though many companies have implemented fit-for-future technologies in some capacity to solve operational challenges, only a few are able to implement them successfully across the value chain.

"Adopting digital technologies effectively at scale requires the commitment of the leadership team besides a clear roadmap for implementation and skilled people," Basu said.

Sudipta Ghosh, Partner, Industrial Products Sector and Data and Analytics Practice Leader, PwC India, said that organisations are focusing on improving the efficiency of processes, such as reducing the downtime of assets, minimising the maintenance cost of expensive equipment, and automation of processes like connected workstations using IoT for better visibility at the shop floor and workflow-based automated solution for efficient scheduling.

The survey also found that Indian organisations are focusing on personalisation and customer-centric digital transformation solutions while global counterparts are inclined to innovation.

Another finding is that the payback period for technology deployments is lower for India as compared to globally.

It has also recommended strategies for the successful digital transformation of factories and outlined a strategic route focusing on people, processes, and technology. These relate to digital strategy, IT architecture design, and vendor strategy.