People are expecting a recession, so if there is an economic crisis, the best thing is to invest in the right technology. Because when you will come out of the crisis, you will be in a better position to get your business up and running as soon as possible which will give you an advantage over your competitors
XdotO Concepts Pte Ltd. — headquartered in Singapore, having its development center in Sri Lanka — has become a trailblazer in data-driven technology over the years. The company’s ethos is to provide result-centric, industry 4.0 solutions to promote data-driven organisational cultures in the textile and other manufacturing sectors. To move from traditional factories to smart factories XdotO brings radical transformation by connecting machinery, human and processes to help decision makers with real time accurate insights.
XdotOConcepts partnered with Magnus Corporation Ltd. to provide one-stop solutions to the Bangladesh industry.
Recently, Textile Today had an insightful discussion with Dulantha Balasooriya, Director of Business Operations, XdotO Concepts Pte. Ltd.; Imesha Fernando, Sr. Business Development Manager for Bangladesh market; Imtiaz Ahmed, Chairman, Magnus Corporation Ltd. & MD of Broadway Group.
Textile Today: Please share about XdotO Concepts Pte Ltd. and its current business position for our readers.
Dulantha Balasooriya: XdotO concepts Pte. Ltd. is a Singapore-based company, now we are here in Bangladesh to share our experience on the industry 4.0 integrated smart factory journey.
So, we have tailor-made industry 4.0 for the textile industry and we have brought a set of solutions called Textile 4.0. Therefore, this is not merely a concept that we are bringing in, we are here to share the experience that we have gathered by implementing in different factories in many countries.
Textile Today: Can you share in which countries you have implemented the solution?
Dulantha Balasooriya: Right now, we have clients in Sri Lanka, India, Maldives, Singapore, Australia and China. Soon we will be in countries like Mexico as well. Most of our clients signed a contract with us globally. You know they have global factories that may be headquarters in one country and 4/5 factories in other countries.
Textile Today: Please brief us on how your solution will work for the textile industry.
Dulantha Balasooriya: The solution we are offering can solve factories day to day problems of identifying the bottlenecks, reducing down times, getting real-time visibility of the production floors etc.
Our capability is there to give them real-time visibility without any manual or human intervention and minimize errors. So, you do not need to call someone and ask about the status of the operations, we will give visibility to your tablet or mobile phone, wherever you are.
To do that we have two approaches where we will directly integrate to the machines or will place sensors and devices in the machines. Our purpose built data collection platfrom then will collect the data on machines’ energy consumption, downtime period, idle time, efficiency and everything that you require to make better decision making. Also, we have an intelligent manufacturing execution system that has built-in industrial IoT capability which can eliminate almost all of your paper work from the factory floor
Textile Today: Is this applicable to the entire factory processes?
Dulantha Balasooriya: Yes, we have solutions for spinning, knitting, weaving fabric manufacturing with dying, finishing,inspection and all other departments.
Textile Today: Most of the factories of Bangladesh are running traditionally. How can the industry 4.0 solution be beneficial for the industry?
Dulantha Balasooriya: Absolutely, most of the factories are traditionally driven, they are doing the business on the experience they have gathered which is right. However, nowadays, the modern trend changed with the pandemic, then the recession coming. So, you need to be on top of everything and you need data at your fingertips.
That’s why you need to move towards smart factory concept. I think Bangladesh’s textile industry is in good shape and they can move towards smart factory easily with futuristic leaders emerging. The only thing you need is to start small and go in incremental steps without trying to boil the ocean at once. It is a journey that you have to go and the Smart Factory transformation will not happen overnight. However we will be there throughout your journey sharing our experience and guidance.
And this is the right time because people are expecting a recession, so if there is an economic crisis, the best thing is to invest in the right technology. Because when you will come out of the crisis, you will be in a better position to get your business up and running as soon as possible which will give you an advantage over your competitors.
Textile Today: How much investment is required to adopt XdotOsolutions? And how much is the RoI period?
Dulantha Balasooriya: Investment depends on the type of machinery and processes you have because the textile industry is a heavy CAPEX based industry. You need to invest a lot of money to replace machinery, thus you don’t usually change machinery for a long time. Usually, textile machinery last for at least 10 to 20 years. Hence it is very important that you utlise your machinery to the fullest potential in right conditions and that is where we help you out with our solutions.
The investment for Textile 4.0 would be just a fraction of a cost compared to buying a new machine in your factory floor and the core software is offered as a service on the Cloud on a subscription model.
If the factory has the latest machinery, then only the software is needed to get the data. But, old machinery may need IoT-based devices to get the specific data.
However, we assure you that we can generate RoI within 6 months maximum and thatis our promise to the Bangladesh market.
Textile Today: Can you explain to our readers how the software works?
Dulantha Balasooriya: Most of the machinery in the textile industry is old machinery with no data interfaces. We have skilled engineers to do industrial IoT connection to the machine, so we place proper IoT sensors which is suitable for the factory environment. And we collect data in real-time.
Basically, this is a plug-and-play device, so you can remove the device and plug in another machine and the software is offered on the cloud with anytime anywhere access. This is a commodity hardware and this can be installed on any machine. Only the software needs to be re-configuered as per the machine type or the process.
Imitiaz Ahmed: The industrial engineers are running the whole production line. They are collecting data with pen-paper to calculate capacity, efficiency, etc. and make a report. But here, we will install hardware or software on the machine those have the sensor and other things. They will get the data directly from the software and can determine if is it a bottleneck or other mechanical problems.
Whatever happens, it incurs a loss. The loss also comes from many reasons. Maybe designing the production line has a problem, sometimes it is for the low maintenance of the machine that the machine got stuck for 15 minutes. So, with this solution, you can easily understand what actually you are losing the production.
Textile Today: How you will ensure the after-sale services? In the era of high competitiveness, how can your solution assist textile millers to get significant mileage?
Dulantha Balasooriya: Magnus is our local partner which is giving the after-sale services. They will provide services as well as training, and documentation and will be with you on the ground. They have the required skills and expertise to bring the technology and implement it in your factory floor. So, we want the local people to do the installation and implementation, rather than bringing people from outside.
We want to create better working enviorements to all using the right technology at right time. Thus the consultative approach we take and the willingness to continuously evolve with the experience we gather from diverse customers will give a significant mileage for textile millers in their Smart Factory journey. Also the local expertise and reputation that Magnus carries will be very much advantageous to any textile mill in Bangladesh.
Imtiaz Ahmed: We will not only give the technology but we will be there for support anytime. The software is 24/7 supported because it is cloud-based but we will be on the ground to give support.
Magnus will be holding enough inventory here, so if any device is damaged within the warranty period, Magnus will immediately replace or repair the device so that the machine will not become idle. Additionally, we will train your factory staff to do the first-level replacement andthen Magnus will come and replace them. Remember we wil be there throughout your Smart factory transformation journey which will happen over a period of time. We look forward to continuing this parternship with XdotO in the future building required skills in house to become Smart Factory experts for textile and other manufacturing sectors across Bangladesh.
