On September 28, 2019 The Ministry of Railways and Department of Science & Technology in partnership with Indian Institute of Technology(IIT) Kanpur launched a pilot project for implementation of ,‘Industry 4.0’ which is a subset of the 4th industrial revolution, at Modern Coach Factory (MCF) at Raebareli, Uttar Pradesh (UP). This newly launched project would be undertaken under the aegis of “Technology Mission for Indian Railways” (TMIR).
Key points
i. The project would be implemented by a consortium of Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Human Resource Development(MHRD) and Ministry of Science & Technology based on an investment sharing model in taking up railway projects for research purpose and implement it in Indian Railways for its advancement. This move in the manufacturing sector is expected to contribute at least 25% to GDP(Gross Domestic Product).
ii. ICPS: The research projects are expected to function smoothly with the recent launch of DST’s new R&D(Research & Development) programme named “Interdisciplinary Cyber Physical Systems” (ICPS). Around Rs 4000crore is expected to be sent in this area in the coming years.
iii. Industry 4.0: It is the name given to current trends in automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies for productivity increment. Industry 4.0 makes use of Internet of Things(IoT), Artificial Intelligence(AI), Big Data & Analytics, Machine Learning and Cloud Computing. As Industry 4.0 is a complex system, the architecture will have to be gradually expanded in phased manner only inorder to achieve Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE).
Members present: Railway Board (Member Rolling Stock), Shri Rajesh Agrawal, Secretary in Department of Science & Technology(DST) Shri Ashutosh Sharma, Professor N.S.Vyas of IIT Kanpur, Director General in Research Design and Standards Organisation(DG-RDSO) Shri Virendra Kumar, General Manager(GM) of MCF Shri V.M. Srivatsava,other senior Officials of the Railway Board and the HRD Ministry.
About MCF, Raebareli:
Founded: 2012.
Headquarters: Raebareli, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh.
This MCF has the capacity to manufacture 1000 passenger coaches annually.
It has increased its production 710 Linke Hofmann Busch(LHB) coaches in 2017-2018 to 1425 LHB coaches in 2018-2019.