Prioritisaion of Automation Essential

Rockwell Automation recently organised a webinar addressing the challenges faced by the Indian chemicals industry. The participants were Dilip Sawhney, MD, Rockwell Automation India, Amrish Goel, President Strategy and CIO, Deepak Fertilisers and Bimal Puri, VP & CIO, SRF Technical Textiles

- Pradeep Chakraborty

The chemical industry is facing challenges in lockdown situation. Automation can ease many of these challenges.

Challenges of Chemical Industry

Opening the conversation in the webinar, Dilip Sawhney said it is great that we can still connect with each other in this year of insurmountable challenges. The chemicals industry is an essential industry, and is globally well-entrenched and recognized. It was also one of the earliest industries to resume after the lockdown. Covid19 has presented a number of challenges to the industry at large, and also to the chemicals sector. There have been several challenges from the supply side, labour, or operating under the new normal. You have to ensure the minimum SOPs. What are the implications of the Covid19 on the chemicals industry?

Bimal Puri at SRF stressed that Covid-19 is there for everybody. The major challenge is: how do we bring people back into the plant. The second, if they are in the plant, and something goes wrong with some key people, how are you able to ensure continuity, even from the remote. Remote connectivity is another important role. You have to ensure how you are maintaining social distancing inside the plant. You also need to also have certified devices inside the plant. If there is a key person infected in the plant, or he or she is in some containment area, how are you going to ensure that the support is available in the plant continuously. You also need to have the required bandwidth and infrastructure.