Enhancing Industrial Productivity with Clustering

Rajaram Pai, Chief Business Officer - Industrial at Mahindra Lifespace Developers Limited, in interaction with Industry Outlook, shared his insights on Integrated Cities and Industrial Clusters; wherein he talked about the critical aspects relating to reliable data gathering, top-down planning and more.

The Industrial Cluster approach is increasingly becoming a key strategy for enhancing the productivity and capacity building of manufacturers. Clustering and aggregation is one of the focus areas in the National Manufacturing Plan (NMP). How do you see this trend shaping up in India?

The concept of industrial clusters is not new to India, and throughout time, the nation has witnessed the formation of several industrial clusters, ranging from food parks to establishments for automobiles and automotive components; plastic toys; furniture; etc.

From an operational point of view, clustering brings significant benefits to the organization; such asmaking the business operation easier and more seamless. With numerous players working in close proximity, critical elements like – supply chain, manpower resources, etc., can be easily sorted and acquired.

Moreover, with a cluster of companies having similarities in operations, developers can provide enriched services and facilities in terms of —water supply, electricity, sewage treatment plants, etc. Collaboration has also evolved as a major trait of industrial clustering, helping the companies to coordinate, learn best manufacturing practices and deploy technologies like AI. Constant communication amidst the players in the clusters also ensures massive skill development that ultimately leads to overall growth.

A cluster has many manufacturing and service units and it is important to have information on the units within the cluster. What kind of mechanism is required for gathering reliable data to improve the operations of the cluster?

Data is now the key to ensuring continual maintenance, improvement and upgradation of the industrial clusters. Starting with the basic use cases, the data collected from the water and air quality check sensors, help the management understand the persistent scenario and thereby take action to maintain the optimum quality of the water and air in the concerned area. Data also plays a significant role in ensuring the security of the industrial cluster. With the individual IP of each company, the movement in and out of the cluster can be easily traced.

In the integrated cities and industrial clusters developed by Mahindra Lifespaces, we have further integrated a robust CRM network among the occupants to ensure a constant flow of information and communication regarding maintenance and upgradation of the assets. In our network, every occupant is constantly in touch with us and can convey the issues and challenges faced while operating in the ecosystem.

This process has gradually become an information-gathering exercise for us; thereby helping to constantly improve our services and deliveries to the park occupants.

Mahindra World City consists of co-located zones including Special Economic Zone, domestic tariff area and residential & social infrastructure. One big problem with clustering strategies is the top-down planning necessary to make them work. What solution do you propose for this?

Developing the planning exercise for an integrated city/industrial cluster is a complex and challenging task. When dealing with an integrated city spread over 1500 to 3000 acres, the challenge starts right from land aggregation, wherein manifesting the required land aggregation takes several years to complete. Before starting the project, it is also important to perform a demand assessment, to gain a deep understanding of the nature of the industry, future demand patterns, and business footprint.

At ORIGINS by Mahindra in Ahmedabad, we collaborated with Surbana Jurong, a global leader in master plan development based out of Singapore, to develop the master plan for our park. The blueprint of the master plan helps us demarcate various aspects of the park, which includes — industrial sites, residential sites, social infra sites, service road capabilities, etc. Apart from the basic utilities, it is also crucial to take care of specific requirements of a cluster like — sewage treatment plants, underground reservoirs, drainage systems, and more. The finest level of detail is put together on the blueprint, which comes down to the execution of the projects.

As a matter of fact, top-down is an extremely important exercise of Mahindra Lifespaces when we are working on a large-scaleproject. That being said, along with detailed planning, it is also imperative to ensure excellent execution, constant monitoring and continuous improvement to keep a park in optimum condition.

Almost 70% of the global economy has committed to net zero. To meet these commitments, industrial clusters will have a key role to play. How are the Indian Industrial clusters progressing towards attaining sustainability?

The mindset of the management team is important in ensuring sustainability norms. At Mahindra Lifespaces, we are strongly committed to sustainable development and operation. Whether it be transforming the parks into green parks or educating each of the park residents in terms of sustainable practices, our team does it all. Having said that, incorporating sustainable practices requires a long-term view. Hence, it is imperative to educate and update the park occupants about all the best practices.

From a project developer’s perspective, developing every bit of the infrastructure in terms of sustainable norms is crucial. For example – Mahindra Lifespaces has now incorporated things like — Zero Waste to Landfill, green-certified buildings, solar-powered electricity, rainwater harvesting, etc, in their integrated cities and industrial clusters. In a nutshell, education and investment that the developer brings into such townships become extremely important to drive sustainability and to ensure that sustainable development stays for an indefinite period of time.

How do you see the future of industrial clustering? How is it going to evolve further?

With a push from the government, industrial clusters do have a bright future in India. The developers are now looking to build a more specialized set of clusters like — plastic parks, electronics parks, petroleum product parks, etc.

As clustering brings about economies of scale, it helps the occupants maintain an efficient supply chain, while attaining enriched resource pooling. With every cluster serving a specific sector, its size may vary accordingly. For example, while the clusters of logistics and transportation sectors may be around 150-acre development, the cluster of furniture or toy sectors will be considerably larger because each of them will have dedicated facilities like — skill development centres, integrated R&D, etc. All in all, industrial clusters are going to play a significant role in enhancing industrial productivity.