Niraj Wanikar, M.D., CNCTimes P. Ltd. talks about Plant Manager – a revolutionary Production, Planning and Control software.

By Niraj M Wanikar, Chief Editor, CNCTimes.com, 2018-07-10 13:27:00

What was the idea behind developing Plant Manager? How did it all start?

The work on Plant Manager started in the year 2014. The in-house subject matter experts at CNCTimes.com put their heads together along with the development team, to conceptualize and develop the software. The beta testing of the software was done at the customer location, which was very successful. Plant Manager was launched in April 2016, in Pune, India and has already received rave reviews for its ingenuity, ease of use and affordability. Today, more than 50 customers are successfully using the software at their factory locations.

 Plant Manager Android app was launched in October 2016. The app is an anytime, anywhere “eye” for the shop floor, where one can get production reports on any android device. Companies can also use an internet activated device, which when attached with a VGA cable to TV screens, can broadcast the real-time production status on big screen TV’s, across the shop floor.

Currently, what is the market size of Plant Manager in India? Who are your existing customers?

As we are a PAN India company, we cover the entire Indian market. For reaching every corner, we have appointed more than 18 channel partners across India. We are improving every day, taking customer feedback into account, which is vital for any organization. Currently, we are catering to the clients like Parle Elizabeth Tools - Vasai & Ahmedabad, Godrej & Boyce Aerospace Division - Mumbai, HMB International - Bahadurgadh NCR, TruCut Precision Toolings - Chennai, Leonine Engineers -  Mumbai, Piano Precisions - Mumbai, Shanti Iron & Steels - Belgaum, Obara India - Pune, Valveworks India - Pune, TAAL Ltd Aerospace - Hosur, Smanjas Udyog Pvt Ltd - Jamnagar, Krome Dispense - Jalandhar, Windstons Springs - Mumbai, Ayushi Engineering Company – Rajkot, Longlife Hardmetals – Pune, Ayushi Engineering Company – Rajkot, Innovative Mould Works – Rajkot, Quality Gears – Vapi, Duhee Alloy – Rajkot, AVM Engineering – Manesar, Shiv Om Brass Industries – Jamnagar, Patel Brass Turnomatics – Rajkot, etc. We are growing at a rapid pace and currently, we are into dialogues with some big players and hoping to add them to our list soon.

There are a lot of software providers in the market, what makes Plant Manager unique?

Production is at the heart of any manufacturing company, and it drives most other functions, including planning and control. Production, planning, and control involve scheduling of work, assigning the work to machines and people, and designing how the actual work will flow through the entire system. In today's’ business environment, small and medium enterprises in the manufacturing industry are faced with challenges, especially in the pre-production phase, which includes inadequate capacity planning and uncontrolled delays during the engineering phase. Also, most SME’s do not have the resources to capture, control and tweak their production cycles for maximum utilization of resources.

The most commonly used methods of maintaining planning and production data by SME’s comprises of capturing the data manually or entering it in a software. The software though quite advanced, are not specifically designed for PPC. Some of them like ERP/SAP, are not only expensive, they are focused on other business areas rather than planning and micro-scheduling.

Keeping these things in mind, CNCTimes.com designed and developed Plant Manager Software. Plant Manager was developed keeping in mind the “Theory of Constraints” and is a powerful tool that has rich features. It provides the small and medium enterprises with the necessary tools to capture essential shop floor data and help them make informed decisions based on the reports.

How is the response from the market? Is there any constraint? If yes, how can it be elucidated?

The response from the market is astounding, our R&D and development team are working very hard to make this software futureproof. We are able to heal the pain areas in terms of planning & scheduling which is the most important part in any shop-floor. Talking about the constraint we don’t find any. Having said that we keep on improving Plant manager according to customer feedback. Right now, we have got a large number of requests to add IoT, Bill of Materials, Total Quality Management, Supply Chain Management, and we are working very hard to satisfy our customers. Some of the features are ready and we are testing them and will be releasing soon.               

As Industry 4.0 and IoT is the future, how is Plant Manager adopting these technologies?

As said earlier, the future of the manufacturing industry is IoT and every company in the future will be working on that system in one way or another. We are also adding IoT features in our upcoming update as everyone has to adopt the innovative changes and latest trends to keep ahead in the market.

What are your strategies and future plans for the Indian market?

CNCTimes.com plans to triple the number of Plant Manager customers in the coming financial year. The company is focused on adding new features to Plant Manager, which will make it easy to integrate it with SAP so that it can be used by a multitude of companies that are already using SAP. Today, Industrie 4.0 and IOT are a reality, however, SME’s are still struggling with digitization. The company’s vision is to change the way planning, production and control are done in most companies. CNCTimes.com wants to empower SME’s with a tool that will help them in taking a bold step towards digitization, and in channelizing their resources effectively.