HTC Global Services, a global provider of IT solutions and Business Process Outsourcing solutions, is recognised widely as IT and IT enabled service provider. The company also has a walk-through in manufacturing solutions especially to automotive industry. Automotive industry’s major hiccups are identified and need-based-solutions are coded by the company. Artificial intelligence is the topic which has been highlighted by the company. The three-pronged strategies like machine learning, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions and predictive maintenance are also featured.
Chary Mudumby, Chief Technology Officer, HTC Global Services
Data analysis is the only solution in the market as more and more technologies are getting evolved. That is going to be the root cause for research and development. Artificial Intelligence will optimise the processes and reduce the R&D expenses. Data analysis gets varied with the patterns. In turn machine learning depends on the patterns within the data. Managing a large amount of data is cumbersome and ‘Big Data’ has come to us as a rescue. The ‘Big Data’ is capable of analysing extremely large sets of data and reveal patterns, trends and associations. Irrelevant associations and patterns at times will give solutions for a stagnant issue. The processed data can identify the patterns and machines can learn from the algorithms and predict any failure involved in the components well in advance.
Any company which does predictive maintenance could get a cost leverage of up to 20%, the company stated. “We are working with OEMs, component suppliers (Tier-1s) to comply with the standards and regulations. We also give shop floor solutions through which lean manufacturing techniques are adapted. Traditional way of statistical calculation does give solutions computing the data but the patterns keep on changing. Hence the process has to be recurrent and will be incommodious. But with artificial intelligence machines are able to adjust the algorithms correlating with the patterns,” Chary Mudumby, Chief Technology Officer, HTC Global Services, said.
With ERP in place there are a lot of advantages not only in deducing patterns from data but also in the Supply Chain Management. For data analysis through ERP, SAP HANA (High Performance Analytic Appliance) is involved. Based on the data from different sources any upstream changes could be handled. It is also not necessary to go for customised coding as the investment is capital-intensive. Through cloud available algorithms can be subscribed and component-wise betterment is achieved through data analytics. Traceability down the level is a major challenge as tier-3 suppliers lack the needed infrastructure. In order to leverage advantage from the scratch, a bottom-up approach is needed. Cloud computing is advisable which will not fire the pocket of the tier-3s and concurrently highlights the lacunae.
The factories which have predictive maintenance in the shop floor can increase their efficiency. They can work on downtime, inventory management and change-over lags. The machines also need to check their health and that is also possible. “We are automating the operations where the machines can identify the temperature and humidity. For electronic components this will be more applicable. The data flow has to be seamless and there should be concurrence in engineering system, ERP system and execution system,” highlighted Mudumby.
The company also provides telematic solutions to the companies. In the ERP system itself, the company interfaces telematics. Every information is recorded like the driver behaviour, speed of the vehicle, the path followed which will act as data for various solutions to be arrived at. The company is using its telematic solutions to keep a track of its own fleet. “With 10000+ workers we need telematics to track our own fleet. We are also working on various complaints and code solutions,” Mudumby said.
The future plans in manufacturing sector is orienting towards technology areas like machine learning, the company stated. “We have Python like tools which facilitate machine learning. India is a very big market for us next to the US. In China we support the companies that have base in the US and India and using our solutions but we have not designated China as one of our ‘Development Centres’, concluded Mudumby.
