Railways launches pilot project for ushering in Industry 4.0

New Delhi: The Ministry of Railways has launched a pilot project for ushering in 'Industry 4.0' in India. The ministry has joined hands with the Department of Science & Technology and IIT Kanpur for taking up a unique project on 'Industry 4.0' which will be implemented at Modern Coach Factory, Raebareli.

The project launched on Saturday would be undertaken under the aegis of "Technology Mission for Indian Railways" (TMIR). It would be implemented by a consortium of Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Human Resource Development and Ministry of Science & Technology on an investment-sharing model for taking up identified railway projects for applied research and use on Indian Railways for advancement and modernisation.

What is the project about?

Industry 4.0 is a complex cyber/physical digital system. Therefore, the architecture that will be conceptualised and formulated in MCF would be gradually expanded in a phased manner to encompass all the complexities that constitute Industry 4.0 in all manufacturing spheres in the country.

Full transition to the digital factory using 'Industry 4.0' across the entire Railways value chain, from design to production, will help enhance productivity hugely by providing insights into the production process to take the decisions in real-time basis, minimising human errors by effective monitoring to ensure that resources are put to the best utilisation and are measured by, what is called, the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE).

What is Industry 4.0?

'Industry 4.0,' commonly referred to as the fourth industrial revolution, is a name given to the current trend of automation, interconnectivity and data exchange in manufacturing technologies to increase productivity. Industry 4.0 is a complex Cyber-Physical Systems which synergizes production with digital technologies, the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data & Analytics, Machine Learning and Cloud Computing.

'Initiative will make India advanced Industrial economy'

Speaking on the occasion Secretary, Department of Science & Technology, Ashutosh Sharma said that his department has recently launched a new programme "Interdisciplinary Cyber Physical Systems (ICPS)" to foster and promote R&D in this emerging field of research. He said about Rs 4,000 crores are expected to be spent in the years to come in this area. Railway Board Member (Rolling Stock) Rajesh Agrawal said that the initiative is expected to make India an advanced Industrial economy with exponential growth in jobs.