Reliance Industries (RIL), India’s largest and most profitable private sector company, has kicked off its digital transformation journey and started reaping benefits.
The aim of RIL’s digital manufacturing platform is to provide real-time business insights to end-users, RIL said in its annual report for 2017-18. Manoj Chouthai is chief information officer (CIO) of Reliance Industries.
RIL aims to co-host all the solutions within the digital manufacturing platform along with innovative digital technologies to drive business objectives and outcomes.
RIL has more than 1,800 applications across businesses, including implementations such as Meridium APM for asset performance management; GE SmartSignal for predictive maintenance; Honeywell Intuition Executive for process and performance monitoring; SAP HCM for hiring, onboarding and training; and visualisation software.
RIL is exploring partnership with GE, Honeywell, Siemens, Emerson, Schneider Electric, among others to build foundation blocks for its Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) strategy and the digital manufacturing platform.
Reliance is building fit-to-purpose industrial applications on the IIoT and analytics platforms by leveraging RIL’s process and operational experience in the hydrocarbon business and Jio’s 4G data and communication platform.
RIL has deployed cyber security solutions to detect, mitigate and prevent cyber threats. It is working to fortify its frameworks and architecture to bring continuous improvements to its monitoring, detection, and mitigation capabilities.
RIL has created a virtual workforce, propelled by Robotics Process Automation (RPA) technology, deployed across functions such as HR, Finance, Procurement and others for various repetitive and monotonous tasks performed by individuals resulting in improved operational efficiencies.
RIL is using chat bots to increase vendor engagement and accurately addresses vendor queries on status of orders, payments, etc.
RIL has implemented a Supply Chain Management (SCM) transformation program Augmented Customer Experience (ACE) to enhance customer experience based on voice of customers and enable value added services is currently under way.
This initiative will enable integrated business planning through advanced analytics, better supply planning and execution, and thus to higher customer service levels.
RIL implemented fleet risk management dashboard through machine learning leveraging IoT technology to minimise the risk for the captive and external fleets. RIL deployed sensors into the fleet to collect data points for analysis and risk management. This is expected to give insights into various parameters of logistics fleet management.
RIL, in its latest annual report for 2017-18, said Reliance recognises opportunities in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, big data analytics, IIoT, blockchain, 3D printing, virtual reality, among others.
RIL is piloting Virtual Reality (VR) through a virtual walkthrough plant environment for interactive training, testing, and process simulation of all critical plant personnel so as to increase safety and reliability.
The Indian company said 3D printing will be a component of the RIL’s digital manufacturing architecture. RIL has procured printers for its employees to experiment and learn about this new technology platform while developing potential use cases in manufacturing.
