Manufacturing / Engineering

The manufacturing sector has a great unfulfilled need for software. Manufacturing aided through IT is termed as Industry 4.0 (and Industry 5.0 according to some); because the potential of IT to transform Manufacturing is enormous. In India, the government is promoting digitalization of the Manufacturing sector through various initiatives and grants.

In spite of the vast potential and the government push, the need remains largely unmet. The manufacturing sector largely comprises scattered MSME units. While large scale Manufacturing companies afford the luxury of an inhouse IT department, these MSME units do not. Many good quality software products are priced too high for them. Further, those who tried investing into readymade software products or custom development for themselves have burnt their fingers.

In large companies, the IT departments function like a small IT company and they keep dealing with challenges such as maintenance of over-complex systems, high people dependence.

Therefore, although all agree that there is a vast potential to improve in digitalization, on the ground, most of the industry finds it challenging to benefit from it. What is true about manufacturing is also true about other types of engineering industries, such as process plants, refineries. This happens because the key drivers are the same.

When the needs are unique and the need for domain expertise is non-trivial, Acism’s value proposition shines. We offer to build custom software solutions that solve their most important needs in the immediate term and can grow / change in future. The people experienced with their specific environment can look over the software as it shapes up, not only in requirements but also the visual design.

Pain Points in Manufacturing / Engineering

1. Integration across Functions

Various departments such as Purchase, Store rooms, Sales, Demand forecasting, Design, Production, Quality control, Dispatch need to operate in tandem with one another. An ERP software is used for this purpose.
Pain: It is difficult to synchronize the functions for a company's common goals manually. When you implement an existing ERP product, it does not cater to the needs 100%.
Position: Acism proposes a tailor-made ERP solution optimized to one’s needs. This could leverage pre-existing components to make the development easy. The ERP solution matches present needs 100% and can be modified for changing needs later.

2. Engineering Computations

Engineering calculations are used to design and optimize the operations of the setup. Simulation and Design software is used for this purpose.
Pain: The expertise to create such software is rare, because it requires people who understand the calculations correctly in addition to possessing good programming skills.
Position: By separating out the programming expertise from the domain expertise, Acism achieves ease and accuracy in creating such software.

3. Quality & Safety Monitoring

Safety regulations require adverse event tracking & reporting.
Pain: Manual or legacy systems cause delays → regulatory penalties.
Position: Custom software automates reporting, ensures compliance. Further, the extra visibility one gets through the visual design makes it easy for the manufacturing experts to validate the design for correct functionality and adequate error handling.

4. Smart Instrumentation and IoT

Tight monitoring and control are not manually possible. One needs sensors and controllers, configured for quick reactions to plant events to ensure optimum performance. Further, the plant data can also be used for Management Information Systems.
Pain: A deviation in plant’s optimum parameters could result in wastage, financial losses or safety hazards.
Position: In our modular approach to creating software, separate connector components are identified for the sensor and controller components. The interactions are optimized, which results in fast and optimized monitoring and control.

5. Energy Efficient / Green Operations

There is a growing awareness on the Carbon footprint of businesses, and there would be heavy penalties against industries which are not efficient.
Pain: Calculating the parameters and tracking them is not a part of most COTS packages.
Position: Since we offer a custom-developed software, this part can be easily added to it as and when the company wants it. This part being tailored for the company’s specific needs, the calculations will be accurate and efficient.