Lack of skilled labour make Indian SMEs deploy robots on factory floors

With high labour costs and skilled workers hard to come by, India's small enterprises are deploying robots on their factory floors, writes Peerzada Abrar

Tucked away in a lane in the Bengaluru suburb of Peenya, and surrounded by temples, garment shops and provision stores, lies the nondescript factory of Suparna Plastics. It is a small, privately-held company which makes ball valves that are mainly used in irrigation piping and plumbing systems. Inside, the hangar-like building reverberates with grinding metallic sounds as humans and robots work together.  
 
Suparna Plastics introduced robots on its factory floor in early 2018 as it was finding it tough to maintain operations owing to rising labour costs and lack of skilled workers.
 
“During peak season, we often could not fulfil our orders due to a shortage of labour,” says Arun Bhat S, 32, director at Suparna Plastics. “It has been a relief after we went for automation,” he adds. The company has seen a 30 per cent growth in profits and a 20 per cent growth in revenue after introducing its robotic workforce. Today, it is able to cater to more orders and ensure consistency in quality.

 

Suparna Plastics is one among hundreds of small companies in the country which are embracing automation to scale up production and improve efficiency. With skilled workers hard to come by — many have been absorbed in IT parks, malls and ride-hailing firms such as Uber and Ola — and growing labour costs, robotic workers are being seen as the way forward.
 
Of the 10 robots deployed at Suparna’s factory in Peenya, seven were procured from the Japanese electronics company, Epson. Most of them are Epson SCARA (Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm) robots. The company makes around 20,000 ball valves per day, which are sold under the brand name ‘Krishika.’ Earlier, it needed one operator and one helper per shift for each injection moulding machine.

 
“Now one Epson robot caters to two injection moulding machines, which only requires an operator and frees the helper, who can be assigned other work,” says Bhat, a second generation entrepreneur and a mechanical engineer who decided to go for automation after being inspired by Elon Musk’s Tesla Gigafactory. “Once the robots are fed with the input component material, they run uninterrupted for a given period of time,” says Bhat.
 
The robots have also prevented stress-related injuries amongst Suparna’s workers and helped in quality control by detecting leakages in the valves.
 
Based on the applications needed by Suparna, each Epson robot costs Rs 7-8 lakh. The firm expects to achieve return on investment soon. It is now expanding its facilities in Tumakuru, another industrial town in Karnataka, and plans to introduce robots there as well.

 
Experts point out that the trend of small and medium enterprises adopting automation is new in India. “While there is a higher penetration of robots and cobots (collaborative robots) in large enterprises, small and medium enterprises are now catching up,” says Jaspreet Bindra, leader, digital, at management consulting firm, Praxis Global Alliance.
 
In fact, observing the demand for automation among SMEs in the country, robot makers such as Epson, Danish firm Universal Robotics and Swiss-Swedish automation giant ABB are betting big on the Indian market. Epson, which has installed 495 robot units in India, expects to take that number to 800 by the end of this year.

 
“We are steadily progressing and improving our installation (of robots),” says Satyanarayana P, director of large format printers, visual products and robots, Epson India.
 
At present, China is the world’s largest market for industrial robots. Experts say that India is also witnessing an uptick in the adoption of robots due to the US-China trade war which would throw up opportunities for the country. About 200 companies are expected to shift their manufacturing units from China to India. “Hence, we definitely expect the robotics business to grow because they would all want to ensure that the technology is in place while moving from China to India,” says Satyanarayana of Epson.

 
According to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), in 2017 India’s robot density (number of installed industrial robots per 10,000 employees) in the manufacturing sector was 3 as compared to the global average of 85. This indicates the country’s untapped potential in this segment.
 
Subrata Karmakar, head, robotics business, at ABB India, says that large manufacturing enterprises in India, especially in the automotive, food and beverage and consumer electronics segments, are much ahead of the curve in adopting robotics and automation solutions. “However, we can expect this situation to change as robots are becoming smaller, easier to programme, and less capital-intensive, thereby justifying the investment,” he says. 

 
Universal Robots is wooing small Indian businesses by offering collaborative robots or cobots that can work side by side with humans. These can be easily integrated into existing production environments and automate various production and manufacturing tasks. With six articulation points and a wide scope for flexibility, the cobots are designed to mimic the motions of the human arm. They operate in confined spaces and can move in a 360-degree rotation on all axes. Universal Robots says its cobots do not need complex programming and are as easy to use as mobile phones. The company expects to deploy around 1,000 cobots in India by the next year.

 
According to Pradeep David, general manager, South Asia, Universal Robots, the demand for cobots are now coming from small companies in places such as Indore, Rajkot, Raipur and Jharkhand. “These guys want to automate and be part of ‘Industry 4.0’,” says David.
 
Gurugram-based Sri Sai Markers & Engravers is a Universal Robots customer. When the company, which supplies components to some of India’s largest auto makers, decided to go for automation, one of its biggest concerns was whether a robotic solution would fit into a confined space. This was addressed by Universal Robots, whose cobots work safely beside a human co-worker on the factory floor. Sri Sai witnessed a dramatic improvement in its operations soon after it deployed these cobots. Within two months, there was a huge reduction in the rate of rejections.

 
Another Universal Robots customer, Sri Lakshmi Agro Foods, which sells staple food brands, wanted to automate its production lines for greater consistency of output. The Chennai-based company was seeking the right solution for secondary packaging. Today, the cobots on its factory floor have helped it meet high levels of demand, especially during holidays like Diwali, by ensuring 24x7 output. Also, the company’s primarily female workforce do not need to work late night shifts anymore, thanks to the cobots which ensure uninterrupted production.