How to Engage Manufacturing Executives for Private Wireless Discussion?

Speaker: Ashish Jain, Co-Founder, Private Wireless PRO

Ashish Jain: Hi, my name is Ashish Chen. I'm the CEO of Kairos Pearls and co-founder of Private Wireless Pro. So the question we have here is how should you approach manufacturing executives for private wireless discussions? Well, first of all, manufacturing is one of the fastest growing sectors, adopting wireless connectivity and more so private cellular connectivity for their digital operations. So if you're having a discussion with manufacturing executives, you have to keep in mind a few things. The factory floor connectivity had been a nightmare with a lot more metal on the factory floor, a lot of moving devices, and a lot of indifference from all sorts of things. So having a connectivity on a factory floor had been a challenge. And honestly speaking, Wi Fi hasn't solved that problem. Private cellular hasn't solved that problem. So, so fixed ethernet, Ethernet connectivity had been there. Primary mode of connectivity. However, that fixed mode of connectivity is no longer a choice considering the way they are evolving their manufacturing operations with flexible manufacturing. So as they change their factory layouts to adapt to different manufacturing needs, having fixed cabling of those machines does not work anymore, and rewiring those Ethernet cables is a big cost and a very time consuming activity. So that is why the reliance on wireless connectivity has become a lot more over the period of time. There are, like I said, a lot more moving devices whether you call them AGVs or AMRs or even people carrying tablets for their digitalization applications are now transforming from paper-based digital operations operations. To, um, you know, application based digital operations, so. Having people carrying those tablets or phones or devices on the factory floor, making sure everything is connected all the time is a fundamental need. You don't have to go look further for very advanced use cases like AGVs and AMRs. Even connecting people with their devices is a very A genuine use case for which they need connectivity. They need a lot more devices through which they're extracting intelligence. Uh, from those IoT data points, um, a lot of their tools are getting connected, their machinery is getting connected. All that data is getting transferred to some sort of an application to analyse, to prevent any downtime. Downtime is one of their biggest pain points. If you talk to any operational head, downtime is their primary concern because the cost of downtime for manufacturing. can lead up to a million dollars per hour in the automobile industry, and it can go further up and depending on the sector you are in, it could be lower or higher. Regardless, it's a big cost that they always have to worry about. So one, their reliance on, you know, wireless connectivity has increased more so they want that data to stay secure and in their control. They want Um, to make sure this wireless connectivity is not just reliable, but it's more deterministic. The deterministic aspect of connectivity is extremely, extremely important for manufacturing operations. So understanding those types of environments in terms of what is happening on the factory floor, what is important to them in terms of downtime, what kind of infant investments they are making. In terms of devices and what connectivity choices they currently have and how they have played with other forms of connectivity choices is important to understand. So, one, understand their environment. Second, very important aspect is who you're talking to. Uh, generally speaking, the factory floor managers are responsible to understand what their needs are, but they're not necessarily always responsible for making the decisions on these new tech technologies. So bring in the right mix of people, there are new new groups getting formed in manufacturing. Uh, industry, uh, digital innovation group, whether it's under falls under CTO whether it falls within an R&D group, no matter where you have to find those resources, you have to find those people who are responsible to evaluate new technologies and Guide the individual planned operations to adopt them. Plant operations are still very important from an influence perspective. So, uh, once again, remember, try to solve their problem, understand their environment before you go and make sure you're talking to the right uh team members within, within that organisation. Thank you.