India Industrial Automation Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

India Industrial Automation Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The Indian industrial automation market was valued at USD 10.72 billion in 2021, and it is expected to reach USD 23.09 billion by 2027, at a CAGR of 14.26% over the forecast period.

Key Highlights

• India’s industrial automation sector has been revolutionized by combining digital and physical aspects of manufacturing to deliver optimum performance. Further, the focus on achieving zero waste production and a shorter time to reach the market has augmented the market’s growth.
• The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and the Industrial 4.0 are at the center of the new technological approaches for developing, producing, and managing the entire logistics chain, otherwise known as smart factory automation. They are dominating the trends in the industrial sector, with machinery and devices being connected via the internet.
• In India, the government is trying to create a conducive ecosystem for manufacturing and exporting electronics goods like TVs, closed-circuit TVs, and air conditioners with the help of the members of the Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council. The manufacturing sector contributes 17% of the GDP, with the vision statement aiming to increase the share to 25% by this year-end.
• Moreover, the adoption of e-commerce in India has brought a massive volume of business to the warehouse industry and several challenges. Delays in transportation and lack of skilled workforce, among others, drove the stakeholders to look beyond conventional approaches to adopting robotics-enabled automation systems. The warehousing industry is witnessing a quick makeover from mere brick-and-mortar shelters or godowns to highly sophisticated stockrooms. This factor makes the warehousing players regularly evaluate and adopt technology so that their organizations are thoroughly future-proofed and have an edge over the competition.
• Further, the implementation of artificial intelligence, 5G, and 3D printing/additive manufacturing is also expected to provide more significant opportunities for market growth over the forecast period. In January 2022, Simple Energy, an India-based electric vehicle maker, partnered with the global technology leader Siemens to drive digital transformation in the electric vehicle (EV) space.
• The COVID-19 pandemic expedited and re-emphasized the need for automation worldwide. The adoption of bots for process discovery, intelligent data capture, and cloud-native bots across sectors is growing. In recent times, automation software companies reported sharp increases in their utilization rates from ~60% to 95–98%. Even in the pre-COVID-19 period, India was well placed to capitalize on the fast-growing robotic process automation (RPA) industry. There are more than 42,000 hyper-intelligent automation (HIA) developers in the country, concentrated in Bengaluru (35%) and New Delhi (18%).

Key Market TrendsAutomated Material Handling Solutions are Set to Drive the Market in the Country

• Automated material handling solutions refer to the automated transport of materials or commodities within a manufacturing unit. This defines the manufacturing timeline and expenses for the manufacturing industry. Automated material handling solutions can be implemented through hardware and software. The hardware comprises conveyor/sortation systems, mobile robots, automated storage and retrieval systems, and others. The software solutions include warehouse management systems or warehouse control systems, contributing to active management of inventory and warehouse maintenance.
• GST application forced the companies to consolidate their warehouses for tax benefits and business efficiency. This encouraged industries to deploy mobile automated vehicles (AGVs). AGVs are also used in outbound and inbound handling for replenishment and picking. For instance, AGVs transport inventory components from source to storage locations or from long-term storage locations to forward-picking locations to replenish stocks. Moving inventory from long-term storage to forward picking locations ensures that adequate inventory is accessible to pickers, making the order picking process more efficient.
• The Indian manufacturing industry is constantly inviting newer robotics applications in its processes. For instance, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) offer secure, error-free delivery, short time to market, reduced costs, and end-to-end trackability. Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) differ from AGVs by their degree of autonomy. Robotics for distribution centers (DCs), such as AMRs and collaborative picking arms, are proliferating.
• Automatic identification and data capture is an automated process used to identify and collect data for storage, classification, and analysis. There is no human involvement in the AIDC process, and it is generally integrated to systematically identify and track a multitude of items, inventory, tools, assets, and even workers. AIDC has been utilized for years in the form of barcode labels and barcode reader technologies in the warehouse sector of India. Some of the system's technologies are barcodes, RFID, biometrics, optical character recognition, magnetic strips, smartcards, and speech recognition.
• Various industries in the Indian market are installing different conveyor systems to ease the processes and reduce manual operations. For instance, in November 2021, the Minister of Energy Department of Maharashtra, Nitin Raut, launched a 6-kilometer-long pipe conveyor system to transport coal from the Bhatalicoal mine to Chandrapur Super Thermal Power Station (CSTPS). It is an INR 200 crore project with a coal-carrying capacity of 6,000 metric tons per day.
• The growing trend toward automation encouraged various market players to develop new and advanced automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS). For instance, in November 2021, Honeywell International Inc. launched a new AS/RS system that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to allow warehouse and distribution center operators to keep up with the e-commerce growth. According to the company, the new system can help manage over 20,000 SKUs and increase throughput by 40%.
• Warehouse management systems (WMS) vendors are working with end users to democratize automation further. The market is seeing even more creative financing opportunities increase for companies looking to infuse new technology into their warehouses. WMS vendors that sell automated equipment systems are now working more closely with their end users to help make it more affordable for a wider swath of customers.

The Automotive Industry has the Fastest Growth in the Market

• The automotive industry is one of the prominent sectors to hold a significant worldwide automated manufacturing facility. It is worth noting that the production facilities of various automakers are automated to maintain accuracy and efficiency. Moreover, the growing trend of replacing conventional vehicles with EVs is expected to augment the automotive industry's demand further.
• Furthermore, companies use automated automotive assembly lines to manufacture components such as motors, gearboxes, fuel systems, and pumps. Robotics and vision are best suited for creating ergonomic and efficient product lines that protect the human workforce from hazardous conditions while completing assembly quickly. Hence, the safety factor is also driving the automation in India's automotive industry.
• An industry report by ASDC (Automotive Skill Development Council) 'Human Resource and Skills Requirements in the Automotive Sector (2026)' estimated that by 2026, 45.08 million people would be employed in the automotive sector of India. The current automotive workforce must be re-skilled and upgraded to meet future demand while being ready for the future. As legacy roles fade, new skills are required to be in automotive design, robotics, IoT, AI, mechatronics, 3D printing, machine learning, virtual collaboration, analytics, and computational thinking. This also increased the need for automation in the automotive sector in India.
• Several players are introducing new product lines and, to cater to that, are upgrading their production facilities. For instance, the Indian mobility solution provider Ola planned to utilize ABB's automation solutions in its factory's major manufacturing process lines, including its welding and painting lines. At the same time, the ABB robots would be deployed extensively for the motor and battery assembly lines. These include ABB's IRB 5500 paint and IRB 2600 Integrated Dressing robots in the company's painting and welding lines and IRB 6700 robots for assembly and material handling in the motor and battery assembly areas.

Competitive Landscape

The Indian industrial automation market is competitive due to multiple players, such as BHEL, ABB Limited, Grey Orange Pte Ltd, Kardex India Storage Solutions Pvt. Ltd, Mitsubishi Electric, and more. Players adopt strategies such as product innovations, partnerships, mergers, and acquisitions to increase their market shares and recyclability, further driving the market.

• April 2022 - Mitsubishi Electric launched a new campaign to highlight how the company is addressing India’s social challenges in the industry, infrastructure, life, and mobility. According to the firm, the first phase of the campaign will consist of two digital films of 120 seconds each created on the themes of infrastructure and industry, which will be launched and promoted in stages via digital media.
• April 2022 - Marico established a world-class production facility in Gujarat to increase the production capacity of cosmetic goods like hair oils, gels, and moisturizers. It had to ensure that the top node’s inventory was at its highest productivity. It collaborated with AddverbAdd to understand the manufacturing requirements and conducted substantial data mining with production and inventory data. The advanced material handling automation solutions consisting of ASRS, Mother-Child Shuttle system, Interflyingpacking, and others from Add helped. The company executed the integration of all these with the existing SAP and EWM.

Additional Benefits:

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
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