“For an extrusion company, on-time decisions facilitated by Industry 4.0 would run the manufacturing processes very smoothly increasing the efficiency”, Pramuk Dediwela, Managing Director of Alumex PLC.

Mr. Pramuk Dediwela started his career in January 1989 and has over 32 years of experience in the fields of Marketing and Sales, Material and Logistics, Finance, Manufacturing and Administration as well as Human Resources management under Alumex Group. He joined Alumex PLC and its subsidiaries in December 2010 as an Executive Director. Later on, in November 2017, he became the Chief Operating Officer and then became the Managing Director in July 2018.

Mr. Dediwela is a Marketer cum Financial Economist and holds a Master in Financial Economics (University of Colombo), Master of Business Administration (University of Southern Queensland), Post-Graduate Diploma in Business and Financial Administration (CA Sri Lanka/Cranfield - UK), Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing (Chartered Institute of Marketing - UK). Mr. Dediwela is a member of the Advisory Committee on Light Engineering sector under EDB, Ministry of Industry & Supply Chain Management and holds Membership of Sri Lanka Economics Association. He is a Council Member of the Foundry Development & Services Institute of Sri Lanka.

 

AlCircle: How do you anticipate Industry 4.0 to reshape the global aluminum industry in 2021 in the backdrop of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic?

Pramuk Dediwela: We understand that the world is realizing the wavy nature of the Covid-19 outbreak while it has impacted the local and global activities in almost all the segments. Meanwhile, the Aluminum Extrusion industries are not an exception in the global scenario and need to seek major changes and transitions in manufacturing and other related processes with innovative technologies to sustain their activities amidst the pandemic. The global Aluminum industry which is currently utilized by computer control can be anticipated to integrate with industry 4.0 which enables the integration and automation of the manufacturing processes and supply chain management and empowers systems, processes, and standards to be real-time effective with a reduced and optimum workforce. Industry 4.0 introduces autonomous process control and realizes the hidden hindrance at the correct time to avoid future potential failures in manufacturing processes. These all measures would reduce the human interactions in Aluminum Industry giving less chance to spread such an epidemiological disease in the end.

AlCircle: Being a leading provider of best-in-class aluminum extrusion profiles, how do you plan to execute automation and digitalization in your production process in 2021 and beyond?

Pramuk Dediwela: The digitalization of the physical world in the Aluminum industry over the newer technologies does not happen over a night. Alumex has planned to take an approach in which the drive to Industry 4.0 and beyond will be achieved progressively as part of a strategic approach and planning. Launching an Extrusion Management System (EMS) in 2021 will be the first significant initiative in this drive integrating all the stand-alone systems within the premises. We hope this will facilitate easy access to the process and production data to take decisions evidently. As the second phase of this initiative, PLC integration and subsequent autonomous control will be addressed reducing the manual data entry points and delayed decisions occurring due to lack of data.

AlCircle: Do you think the implementation of Industry 4.0 can increase the productivity and efficiency of Aluminum profiles output?

Pramuk Dediwela: Of course, yes, the well-planned strategic approach over the correct combination of underlying technologies and execution can progressively deliver the required efficiency in Aluminum output. For an extrusion company, on-time decisions facilitated by Industry 4.0 would run the manufacturing processes very smoothly increasing the efficiency. Not only the efficiency, but this autonomous control also simply reduces the manufacturing rejections and future potential failures in machinery with early determinations promoting the productivity in Aluminum output as well.

AlCircle: As you are committed to revolutionizing the Aluminum manufacturing process, do you think Industry 4.0 will help you achieve the goal in a quicker time?

Pramuk Dediwela: The question cannot be directly answered because it needs deep insight. If EMS is particularly concerned as the first initiative, the cultural adaptation and machine compatibilities in system integration would take some time to be in satisfactory level whilst the progressive results will always be seen. In the second phase of EMS, determination of the proper sensor combination and neural learning of the network will take months to years for pattern recognition and realization. Pilar technologies in Industry 4.0 always conclude that technological success is not a destination and reflect the results in real-time as much as utilized. Simply our goal is to achieve the results progressively.

AlCircle: Please share your views on the utilization of Industry 4.0 in the production and installation of industrial aluminium.

Pramuk Dediwela: The Alumex has its unique signature in terms of standards, processes, equipment, staff, context, etc. Therefore, the path and strategy to Industry 4.0 will be different for Alumex from another Aluminum industry. In the utilization of industry 4.0, all the sub-processes cannot be taken simultaneously. One production extrusion press is to be concentrated with strategy first and the expertise will closely monitor the inclines and declines after integration. Thereafter fine-tuning will take the Alumex to the desired productivity. In the beginning, key quantitative parameters in our industry such as processing temperatures, speeds and pressures will be traced by the autonomous system and qualitative controls will be subsequently planned to understand the surface qualities of Aluminum output by utilizing texture analysis in image processing and machining learning. This type of analysis will one day identify the surface defects in real-time in Aluminum processing that cannot be inspected by the naked eyes of quality controllers. But we hope this does not happen over a night and more focus on R&D works will be needed.

AlCircle: How do you think the Aluminium industry in Sri Lanka is responding to Industry 4.0 this year?

Pramuk Dediwela: In case of increasing demand for Aluminum extrusions in Sri Lanka, the current industry wants to respond to the newer technology to enhance the productivity and maximum utilization of existing resources in demand fulfilment. Different profiles are being added to the product catalogue day by day than ever happened. Accordingly, the number of extrusions dies in the availability list raises proportionally. The manual handling of such an availability list composed of thousands of dies is not an easy and correct approach. If the initiatives address this type of problem with Industry 4.0 within 2021, the handling of a large number of extrusion dies will be very convenient in the context of die performance, capacities, testing and correction records, etc. This is just one of the major problems experienced by Aluminum industry in Sri Lanka where industry 4.0 could potentially come up with dedicated solutions. Recently, Aluminum industry in Sri Lanka is responding to seek immediate solutions for this kind of problem with low-hanging technologies.

AlCircle: Do you think the adoption of Industry 4.0 is imperative in the global aluminium industry to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic?

Pramuk Dediwela: Aluminum industries’ adoption of Industry 4.0 amidst the Covid-19 pandemic is leading in terms of quality, efficiency, effectiveness, and throughput. It becomes inevitable that the rest who wants to succeed will take it up. This approach will be helpful to mitigate the impact of the pandemic. What if the pandemic would be controlled within the next few years? Then this implementation would handle the future threat of potential risks coming from this kind of situation with minimum involvement of human interactions.