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Over the past two decades,
India's service sector has
gained reputation in the world market for its high quality
and low cost. But the same cannot be said about its manufacturing
sector. Indian manufacturing, barring a few items, hardly has any
significant global presence. However, in recent years, with the ease in
foreign investment norms, a number of foreign companies have set
up businesses in India. The global as well as domestic markets
required meeting customer expectations, for which the traditional
approach followed by domestic companies proved inadequate. The high
quality and quantity of the products made by international companies helped
to transform the Indian market.
During this period, the concept of using industrial
automation techniques started creeping into the plant designs. As a result,
the automation industry in India began taking shape and growing.
The automation solutions brought about three major changes in
the production plants. First, it made product quality better and
consistent. Second, it increased the quantity produced by several times; and
third, it made the plants safer places to work, minimizing the risk
of accidents.
The genesis of automation began with the introduction of
Distributed Control System (DCS) and Programmable Logic
Controllers (PLC) during the late 1960s. Companies
like Honeywell, Yokogawa, Rockwell Automation and others,
invested heavily in research and development. These
companies were competing against each other, and thus
made proprietary products which were not mutually compatible. The
non-compatibility of proprietary products limited the popularity of
these products. This gave way to open source and inter compliant
products. This not only brought the prices down, but also increased the pace
of development. |
