The worldwide adoption of industrial automation is steadily increasing because of the introduction of Industry 4.0, IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things), 5G technology, smart devices, and the increasing requirement for high-volume mass production across various industries.
The utilization of industrial automation helps businesses to standardize manufacturing procedures, cut production costs, increase productivity, and make better use of resources. Industrial automation, also known as smart production, reduces human involvement, resulting in dependable, error-free results when compared to human labour.
To usher in this new era of smart manufacturing, some of the world’s best automation businesses are supplying software, hardware, and solutions. One prominent name in the niche is BuildTrack, winner of India Design Mark 2021 for GOOD DESIGN. The firm is a renowned leader in smart automation and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions for homes, enterprises, hotels, hospitals, senior living, and warehouses.
Balbir Khera is the Founder and CEO of this firm. He has been awarded the “Indian Leadership Award for Best Practice in Business” by the Indian Achievers Forum.
In an exclusive interview with Insights Success India, Balbir Khera sheds light on BuildTrack’s journey, highlighting the current industrial scenario and his opinions on the future of the company.
Please tell our audience about BuildTrack in detail.
BuildTrack is a leader in smart automation for homes, enterprises, hotels, hospitals, senior living, energy efficiency, and Building Management Systems (BMS). Our solutions have won the prestigious India Design Mark award and the highest levels of safety certifications from IEC.
We deliver valuable elements of safety, security, comfort, convenience, energy efficiency, and operating efficiency to our customers for enhancing their daily living. Our products are designed, developed and Made in India and offer the broadest set of offerings that are competitively positioned in line with other global brands.
What was your inspiration behind venturing into the field of automation services?
Our original inspiration to venture into automation products was to enable greater energy efficiency in offices and residences. As we developed products, we realized that we could expand it to enable other important elements such as safety, security, comfort, and convenience that would help improve the quality of life for people.
What are the USPs that make you stand out as an innovative automation service and solutions provider?
We offer the only Smart Touch Switches in India that have won the prestigious India Design Mark, which is a part of our Automation solutions. Our IoT solution platform serves multiple segments: homes, hotels, energy efficiency, BMS, and more.
Our solutions are available in wired and Wi-Fi formats that can be used in new spaces or to retrofit existing spaces. Our solutions serve a diverse customer base with home automation serving individual homes and villas and our BMS serving the tallest building in India.
What are the immersive benefits of the services/solutions that you provide to your clients?
We provide solutions to our clients with safety, security, comfort, convenience, and energy efficiency. BuildTrack touch switches offer the perfect combination of art and technology. They add to the ambience of every location they serve with their distinct appearance and high-quality materials.
Our home automation solution addresses aesthetics, comfort, safety and security, energy efficiency and convenience to enhance the living experience for residents in Apartments and Villas.
BuildTrack Solutions help to make enterprises safe, smart, and sustainable across their globally distributed office branches, classrooms, conference facilities, retail stores, ATMs, warehouses, and manufacturing. Our hotel automation solutions enrich the hotel guest’s in-room experience and improve the operational and energy efficiency of the hotel.
What are the initial challenges after venturing into the field of automation and what are the challenges now?
The initial challenges related to the development of the hardware and software technologies in the rapidly evolving field of IoT. The available base of experienced engineers and scientists in this field was limited in India and therefore it was a constant challenge to innovate these products.
The challenges now relate more to ensuring that supply chain and product quality is steady and managing the ongoing disruptions being felt due to product shortages, transport restrictions, unavailability of many products and components locally within India, changing rules for imports and much more. All this while trying to maintain the timelines and quality of our products and solutions that are committed to our customers.
Being an experienced leader, share with us your opinion on how automation technology is being deployed currently, and what advancements can we expect in the future?
The smart home space in India is growing at a rapid rate, and this can be attributed to affordability and better availability of such products. Typical offerings of a smart home space consist of control devices and sensing devices. Control devices usually provide access to lighting, AC, fans, locks, water heaters, and plug points remotely. Sensing devices are usually intended to sense smoke, gas leaks, door or window intrusion, or motion. Smart appliances that are just emerging also allow control of the operation of certain types of appliances remotely.
The emerging area of Voice Assistants is an added user interface in addition to smart apps. Cloud servers that connect to the automation often play a vital role, because they serve as the silent sentinels in the cloud that operate to perform a pre-determined task such as operating devices on pre-defined schedules or to reach when certain events take place (e.g., to sound an alarm or to turn on the lights if the door intrusion sensor is triggered).
On the Smart App front, users are looking to go beyond the list of devices and seeking more interesting 360degree panoramic room views in which the device controls or monitors are placed, as they are more intuitive and more appealing to use.
Future evolutions will revolve around the integration of AI and Machine Learning to enhance the automation to be more aligned with the daily needs of the users and in some cases even anticipate the needs based on past behaviours.
What would be your advice to the aspirants who are willing to venture into the field of automation services?
We would encourage them to enter the field of automation as the opportunities to improve many of our daily activities and processes are immense. There are considerable opportunities for automation both via software and hardware development. They should also be cautioned that developing hardware is much more challenging than software as there are many aspects of the infrastructure in India that make the design, procurement, and delivery of a physical product much more challenging than say software. That said, for those interested, it is still a rewarding experience and journey to engage.
A Visionary Leader
Balbir Khera is the founder and CEO of Surmount Energy. Formerly a chief engineer with the Indian Navy, he has always been a key innovator and entrepreneur. He has developed other start-ups that are engaged in serving the construction and real estate industry in the US by providing relevant service offerings.
The introduction of BuildTrack was an innovator’s foray into the world of hardware products and evolution from services, from the inspiration to become the leading company in IoT and smart automation for homes and beyond. To also show the world that great hardware products can also be designed, developed, and made in India.
