Empowering Make in India Movement with Digitalisation for SME Manufacturers

The COVID crisis was particularly hard on the Indian small-scale manufacturing sector. It had to deal with sudden plant shutdowns, reverse migration of workers, inventory management issues and even cyberattacks on their data banks.

Considering that manufacturing companies contribute significantly to the country’s GDP, a sustainable growth plan is critical for the sector.

Although the COVID-driven crisis accelerated digitalisation across many industries, the small, medium enterprise sector (SME) manufacturers have been struggling to keep up with technology adoption. The key challenges that they face in this regard are:

• Small-scale manufacturers have limited growth capital – this makes technology implementation and digitalisation difficult
• Buying and maintaining complex hardware and upgrading IT infrastructure at pace with evolving technologies entails additional expenditure
• Storing, analysing, and managing structured and unstructured data to make business decisions is complex for SMEs in the manufacturing sector
• Most manufacturers do not have effective cybersecurity systems to keep their enterprise applications and critical data secure
• Some companies struggle to hire and retain digitally savvy teams that can work effortlessly with cloud, SaaS and IoT solutions

As the government pushes the economy to get ‘Vocal for Local’, manufacturers must modernise their operations for better customer experience and more robust bottom-line growth. They need to execute plans that help them bounce back with greater resilience and preparedness for the future. SMEs’ use of evolving technologies is also critical to materialise India’s vision of a $5 trillion economy by 2025.

To capture the full potential of digital transformation in business and contribute effectively to the ‘Make in India’ movement, manufacturers should focus on five tenets:

• Business value – Instead of following trends, choose tools that bring measurable returns for YOUR organisation
• Transform using an integrated approach – Establish a cross-functional setup and centre solutions and follow agile ways of working
• Build capabilities for technology deployment – Combine new and existing capabilities for higher productivity
• Keep scaling tech - rich capabilities with business growth – Stay future-ready with instant and managed upgrades
• Manage impact capture – Assign clear responsibility and accountability within the business units and among P&L owners

Deploying custom digital tools in manufacturing environments

At Tata Tele Business Services (TTBS), we have a cluster of tech-rich systems to support SMEs in their digital transformation journeys.

While enhancing operational efficiency, they are easy to deploy and cost-effective to scale. They also help you create an Industry 4.0 environment for your brand without the investments in complex IT resources.

The tools include:

IoT Solutions

Supply chains faced some of the biggest disruptions when COVID hit the world. The impact was more acute on SMEs who did not have sophisticated setups to track the movement of their products and raw materials.

TTBS’ IoT-based asset tracking and fleet tracking services ease the introduction of visibility into supply chain operations.

As a plug-and-play device that can be placed inside your consignment vehicle, our asset management system delivers real-time information on products being transported. The solution is easy to deploy, and once charged, the battery lasts for 3-4 days.

Like the asset management system, our fleet tracking solution enables you to track the movement of your vehicles. Besides monitoring the routes followed by drivers, it also allows you to check their driving behaviour and vehicle fuel consumption.

You can access the information captured by these IoT devices through a secure and user-friendly interface on any desktop or mobile connected to the Internet.

Cloud CRM

To keep your organisation customer-centric in a dynamic industry, you need a customer relationship management (CRM) system that offers actionable insights and is easy to use.

We have devised the TTBS Cloud CRM to help manufacturers enrich their customer relationships and win bigger market shares. Our solution supports your business in demand forecasting, product quality improvement, and supply chain management.

By capturing all information on customers in a secure repository, Cloud CRM helps your sales team understand their varying order values, frequency of placing orders and preferences for particular products. It has pre-sales, sales and post-sales modules along with several bespoke features to improve customer retention and streamline marketing efforts.

Audio and Web Conferencing

Although the COVID-led pandemic pushed the need for virtual conferencing systems, such systems would have become essential for all businesses in the long run. Employees in manufacturing organisations need to collaborate with colleagues, vendors, and customers frequently on issues ranging from product engineering and production initiatives to final product reviews and order fulfilment.

Using the TTBS audio-visual conferencing system, you can establish quick connectivity between remote teams while realising time and cost savings for business meetings.

Our audio and web conferencing system offers instant access to authorised users and makes data sharing easy. It also comes with comprehensive admin control and customisation options for engaging meeting experiences.

Cyber Security

As per the Acronis Cyber Readiness Report for 2020, India recorded more cyber-attacks than any other country in the world. SMEs find it more challenging to secure their data and network against sophisticated cyber threats with their limited budgets. Using a stack of multiple solutions – that are often incompatible when sourced from different vendors – is time-consuming, complicated, and expensive.

TTBS offers structured solutions and threat intelligence services to help you secure your network, devices, cloud usage and enterprise apps. Our managed cybersecurity systems protect your operations from online threats, irrespective of where your employees work from. We provide Email Security, Endpoint Security, Multifactor Authentication, Virtual Firewall and Web Security to protect your enterprise from viruses, malware, ransomware, spyware, phishing, data breach and unauthorised usage.

Deploying and managing compatible cybersecurity capabilities by an experienced TTBS team opens the doors for optimising controls related to people, processes, and technology. Early risk mitigation in manufacturing also brings better profitability and growth.

More from TTBS

In addition to such solutions for digital transformation, TTBS offers data voice and custom cloud services to manufacturers to build connected, cognitive, and collaborative ecosystems.

As you contribute to the Make in India initiatives, we help you re-imagine your operations with Digital India’s potential.

To know more about our solutions for your organisation, contact us at 1800-266-1800.