- 5Ms of Money, Manpower, Methods, Materials, and Machinery – Key elements in a Sustainable Business
- Collaborate using the modern tools of Cyber-Physical Networks – Industry 4.0
- The impact of the high density of population and the health risks has been exposed like never before.
Industrial Engineering – Management has for years talked about the 5Ms of Money, Manpower, Methods, Materials, and Machinery as the key elements in a Sustainable Business or Economy. The present COVID chaos (I don’t call it a crisis) has accelerated my understanding the same.
I remember vividly that Site Selection for any new setup or starting any new enterprise has been based on the evaluation of the 5 factors. Over the past decade, with the advent of Industry 3.0 (Automation), and the spread of the Internet of Things – the connectivity and communication network being strengthened, leading to the era of Industry 4.0.
One of the major narratives during COVID 19 has been the issue of “Migration” – Manpower issues and the difficulty in controlling the spread in DENSELY populated areas of Metros or Large Cities
This thought has been at the back of my mind for about 3 years since the time I engaged with GAP, creating sustainable and meaningful interventions, brought about the combination of 2 Ms – Manpower & Money which were related to Poverty, and the rest of the 3Ms were the means.
I am trying to document my thoughts on a simple understanding of how Industry 4.0 revolution can play a very important role in helping overcome some of the challenges of 5Ms which made us MOVE PEOPLE to LARGE CITIES and ABANDONED VILLAGES and RURAL areas – leaving them underdeveloped.
Could it be that the hunt for short term gains of competitiveness has disturbed the fabric of Social Impact and balance? I am presenting my understanding from the perspective of Apparel Industry:-
Criteria | A Decade Earlier | COVID 19 | Post COVID – 19 Possible Relook |
Money | The access to finance was not very easy to work with as the margins are very thin, and the work is done with semi-organized people. | The situation has been the same. In fact, the pressure of margins has increased. The stress on financial capital to work in social distancing norms – more space in highly expensive setups is giving nightmares to the industry | Relocation of manufacturing to the rural belt will lower the financial stress on infrastructure cost, and also the operating costs, as the manpower may be able to reduce their cost of living, and the untapped talent & workforce still in the rural set up may get added, increasing the rotation of money. The reduced burden on metros may help reduce pollution and cost of managing cities. The balance of increase in logistics cost and the reduction in financial cost could be a long term advantage |
Manpower | Manpower started migrating from villages to cities. The industry kept expanding in cities and kept employing labour from villages in hordes, and they lived in poor condition themselves to fill the aspirations of their family back home in villages. The living conditions kept deteriorating as the density of people kept increasing. | The situation has become worse. The impact of the high density of population and the health risks has been exposed like never before. The impact is giving jitters for the industry to restart. Cramped living, cramped workplaces! | The setup of manufacturing enterprises close to the migrant skilled labour origins can mitigate the risks of production loss due to migration, encourage rural entrepreneurship, reduce the living cost and therefore processing cost, improved health conditions |
Methods | There has not been much technological advancement, and the work is still dependent more on the skills of the people. The processing of materials and its technique is yet to get standardized or systematic. | The use of digital technology to communicate, interact has seen a big positive change, and this is a break which is helping forward-looking organisations to build systems and prepare to work in a distributed manufacturing setup instead of a densely localized set up. | Industry 4.0, realtime data acquisition and processing, use of the Digital transformation platforms of BlockChain, Internet of Things, Workflows, Virtual & Augmented Reality training can enable distributed manufacturing into a cyber-physical reality |
Materials | Materials come from different parts of the country and the situation would be similar. | There is a disruption in the supply chain as the material producers are also dependent on migrant manpower and we will see the impact on material supplies. | Could encourage a shift of some of the material production nearer and provide an alternative to present supply chain dependencies |
Machinery | The dependence on cheaper imports particularly from China have been flooding the market and local machinery industry has not grown | A new possible market for Made in India opens up as there is a realization that dependence on imports should be reduced. The opportunity has been created | Opens up a new business opportunity for manufacturing. |
The entire apparel industry may need a good understanding from the perspective of Value Chain mapping and the costs involved. Final Product Cost = material cost + Labour cost + finance cost + logistics cost.
With the changing times, the mapping of these costs and a comparative may probably help us relook and find how we could REVERSE the MIGRATION and provide opportunities all across our country, and collaborate using the modern tools of Cyber-Physical Networks – Industry 4.0!