HIL Limited embraces IIOT – introduces first connected shop floor at its Chennai plant

CK Birla group-owned building material solutions company, HIL Ltd. recently introduced “Connected Shop Floor” in its Chennai plant that has capacity of 1.98 lakh CuM to manufacturer block and block jointing mortar. HIL’s first step towards IIOT, the new Connected Digital Shop Floor will connect all machines to single network enhancing the plant’s efficiency. The company is betting big on digitalization and industry 4.0 to bring traceability, reduce defects and improve asset efficiencies at its plants.

As part of HIL’s digitalization journey, the company is also introducing disruptive technologies like Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Predictive Analytics to bring in more efficiency.

Commenting on the development, Mr. Dhirup Roy Choudhary, CEO & MD of HIL Limited, said, “The current industrial sector including the construction sector is undergoing a fundamental structural change akin to the industrial revolution. HIL’s strategy is to leverage digitalisation and Industry 4.0 journey to augment our state of art factories’ ability to deliver quality products and to manufacture products of varying customer requirements in a timely manner. We believe a connected factory at our Chennai plant is a string start and will significantly improve the production process by enabling end-to-end product visibility. Further, predictive analytics will aid decision making and promote responsiveness.”

Real time machine parameters are being captured through digital logbooks, Sensors, Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems and plant level dashboards have been created to monitor and review critical parameters. The platform generates instant alerts and same can be leveraged by the operations team for expeditious corrective actions.

“Technological Innovations are an integral part of our process to sustain quality and the Connected Shop floor at our Chennai part equips HIL with real time data to take corrective actions to increase plant efficiency. As a company, our next focus is to predict failures in Quality and Maintenance.” said Murali Raj GR, CIO HIL Limited.

The current phase of the launch, helps digitize data, trigger alerts and monitors and provide descriptive insights. The next step is to generate predictive insights by leveraging data from the current phase and eventually generate prescriptive insights, which would focus on finding the best course of action in a given scenario.

Connected shop floor at HIL Ltd. was installed through Deloitte and Altizon’s Datanois Mint platform.