VK Saraswat | Vijay Kumar Saraswat

In my last post , I wrote about the numerous openings and opportunities Industry 4,0 presents as it dawns a new era upon us.  As with any new or developing technology introduced into a relatively traditional sector of functioning, the implementation of Industry 4.0 too comes ridden with challenges. For the major part of India’s history, the focus was on agricultural systems, IT being an introduction only in the later years of it’s development.  Therefore, there’s a baseline assessment of requirements and incorporation of digital manufacturing elements and existing capabilities that’s required, due to the diffused nature of the Indian Manufacturing industry. This documentation is a prerequisite to the introduction of Industry 4.0 in these sectors. Since more than 80% of the manufacturing industry in India is in the MSME sector, the implementation of Industry 4.0 is a major challenge. The replacement and/or upgradation of legacy systems and produc...

In a nutshell, Industry 4.0 is deployment of significantly faster, more flexible, higher productivity & efficiency, and self-managing production processes where people , machines, equipment, logistics systems and work-in-process components communicate and cooperate with each other directly increasing competitiveness, resulting in high quality and low cost products. Industry 4.0 is digital transformation applied to manufacturing – bringing with it all the change, opportunities and challenges that are required today. Industry 4.0 connects the supply chain and the ERP system directly to the production line to form an integrated, automated and, potentially, autonomous manufacturing processes that make better use of capital, raw materials, and human resources. According to a Boston Consulting Group (BCG) bcg.perspectives blog post: "Industry 4.0 technologies represent a paradigm shift in industrial manufacturing that is comparable to the introduction of computer-a...

Who doesn’t need inspiration ? Sometimes we need inspiration right before we set up a new project or a new business, sometimes ideas to innovate are our biggest inspiration, sometimes we get inspired by the simplest of things, some other times by the greatest of men. I have, in my career, been blessed to have experienced both. Today, I sit here trying to get through this post without getting too emotional or nostalgic. It’s been exactly a year since Dr. Kalam’s tragic demise, a man who has been a mentor, a colleague, and a dear friend. This isn’t the first time I’ve chosen to write about him in my blog space, and this isn’t going to be the last either. Today, however, is a day on which I’d like to pay him a special tribute - for all that has been to the world, for all that he has been to the country, for all that he has been to science, for all that he has been to me. Dr. Kalam lived as an example to inspire and motivate his generation, to live up to the best of their potenti...

Meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the quality of future generations to meet their  needs, can be described as the simplest way to define sustainability. We talked about this in the previous post; balancing economic development, social equity and environmental protection help organisations move towards a sustainable standing. What about sustainability on the global scale ? Sustainability and sustainable development are about striking a balance between environmental concerns of natural resources, techno-economic systems and their development and societal concerns of human capital, and social expectations. A melange of all these systems leads to meeting our present needs without compromising on the needs of the future. This definition forms the basis for defining all categories of sustainabilities in different areas of human activities. Now, environmental sustainability may be seen as the ability of an ecosystem to maintain and progress...

                                      A great man is always willing to be little. This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson couldn’t hold truer in the case of Dr. Kalam.  It’s in the most unexpected of circumstances that the most unlikeliest character traits often manifest themselves. If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. We all knew Dr. Kalam to be the strong visionary and impeccable leader that he was. Our interactions with him on a daily basis though, pleasantly let us in on the humble greatness of this legendary soul. An incident from the first launch of the Prithvi missile comes to mind… The reviews and safety considerations were planned from SHAR.  As was the norm, the range authorities had to clear the mission from safety considerations before the final check.  During a review by the SHAR team, some concerns...

All of us have good days and bad days. Some days things just don’t go as planned and we end up losing our cool and our temper. Professionally though, this is definitely going to be frowned upon. In the real work space, we are expected to be courteous, disciplined and polite, losing our temper is not something that goes well with our peers and our superiors. A true leader or manager then, is one who gets the best out of his team, without letting them feel any lesser about themselves. Dr. Kalam was regarded as a father figure by all.  His style was never confrontational and he had a vast reserve of patience.  He always worked towards building a consensus rather than ramming down decisions.  He rarely lost his cool.  If someone upset him, all he would say were terms like “Funny Guy” / “Who is the hero?”  and “ Get me that famous mechanic.” On the days that he did end up being displeased, his style of showing it was unique.  The Prithvi-03 flight h...

Almost every achiever is asked at least once who his/her inspiration or role model is. We often look up to someone for their admirable qualities and look to inculcate the same in our lives.   Dr. Kalam often told that he had three Gurus, namely, Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, Dr. Sateesh Dhawan and Dr. Brahm Prakash.   He always acknowledged their contribution in his growth.   I remember him saying he learnt the importance of having a vision from the Dynamic Dr.Sarabhai. From the no-nonsense Dhawan he fathomed how to convert a simple vision into a mission and evolve fail-safe systems.   And from the soft spoken Brahm Prakash, the first Director of VSSC, he learnt the art of converting the mission on hand into achievable goals. It just goes to say dreams aren’t enough; dreams that become goals are what matter. All these qualities made Dr. Kalam an outstanding manager of technology – a rare quality . But the most important quality his mentors taught him was, how to ha...