BL Bengaluru Bureau, February 2 2022:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data Engineering consulting and solutions analytics firm Affine has set up a lab of manufacturing excellence in Jamshedpur. Affine says that the new lab will act as a centre of global innovation for Industry 4.0 excellence in manufacturing. The lab will focus on areas such as computer vision for quality and data analysis of real-time machine data for better visibility and efficiency, it added.
Affine said that it had chosen Jamshedpur to set up the lab as the city was a manufacturing hub for steel, commercial vehicles, cement, power, construction equipment, industrial equipment, vehicle engines, and tin-plate produced by SMEs. ‘Jamshedpur is practically the cradle of Industry 4.0 in India, with many powerhouse companies such as Tata Motors looking to leverage the technology,’ said the company.
Manas Agrawal, Co-founder & CEO, told BusinessLine , “We see there is growing aspiration in mid-size companies because those are the companies that could spend on analytics and also get benefits from that.” India has a very good play in democratising Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI is becoming available to most companies above a certain size to benefit from the AI revolution, he added. Affine, which says it works with several Fortune 500 companies, did not disclose the investment made in setting up the lab.
Compared to last year, more than 50 per cent of the companies are spending or intend to spend double of last year on Business Intelligence, according to Agarwal. “There has also been a lot of traction on the cloud and Industry 4.0 overall, from a pure dollar perspective, there has to be at the bare minimum a 50% increase and it could actually go higher,” he said.
Stating that many customers are setting up their own centres of excellence and analytics teams, Affine also advises companies to think through their roadmap. “The demand for chief analytics officer, chief digital officers positions has gone through the roof. This is a good indication that Indian industry captains are setting up and taking notes that miniscule digital investment is not enough for competition at a global level,” Agarwal added.
(Additional reporting by Haripriya Sureban)
Published on
February 06, 2022
