What Makes Digital Investments in Industry Actually Pay Off
Every industrial company is under pressure to “go digital.” But not every investment creates value—and in manufacturing, complexity can spread faster than clarity.
According to Amit Khanna, Vice President of Business Excellence at Tata Steel Thailand, the real challenge isn’t adopting digital tools; it’s making sure they lead to meaningful outcomes.
The Boardroom Test for Digital Reliability
Amit Khanna believes digital reliability should move beyond the plant floor. “The next step,” he said, “is to take these discussions to the board meeting.”
That means shifting from project language—sensors, alerts, dashboards—to business language: how these tools impact uptime, yield, and cost per ton.
When leadership can see that a monitoring system prevents lost production or extends equipment life, it stops being an experiment and becomes an asset. That visibility is what secures long-term investment.
From Data Collection to Process Integration
The next phase for Tata Steel’s digital journey is integrating equipment health with process parameters. In practice, that means connecting vibration or temperature data with production metrics like throughput or energy consumption.
The goal isn’t just to know whether a motor is healthy—it’s to understand how that condition affects output quality or line efficiency. When those two layers merge, digital reliability stops being reactive and starts becoming predictive and prescriptive.
Khanna also emphasized the importance of understanding residual life—how much useful time remains before a component fails—and using that to plan maintenance intelligently. That’s the kind of insight that saves real money in capital-intensive industries.
The Role of Digital Partners
Tata Steel’s collaboration with Infinite Uptime, a provider of industrial reliability analytics, has been key to turning data into action. Khanna’s expectations from such partnerships are clear:
- Integration — link machine health with process data.
- Prediction — provide accurate residual life assessments.
- Optimization — identify the bottlenecks that limit output.
It’s a pragmatic view of vendor relationships: partners are valuable not for the volume of data they deliver, but for how directly they help solve bottlenecks.
From Proof of Concept to Proof of Value
Digital reliability, as Amit Khanna describes it, isn’t a one-time rollout. It’s a journey from proof of concept to proof of value. The first success story earns belief; the second earns budget; and the third embeds the system into the culture.
The lesson for industrial leaders is clear: success isn’t about having the most connected plant—it’s about having the most connected thinking between people, machines, and processes.
This article was written based on an interview with Amit Khanna, VP Business Excellence – Tata Steel Thailand, recorded live at CXO Circle, Bangkok Edition 2025.
This trip was sponsored by Infinite Uptime.
