MEPCA is delighted to celebrate Biplab Sah as the first Manufacturing Champion of 2026. Biplab is a digital transformation specialist at the forefront of the global Smart Factory revolution. Here, he discusses bridging the gap between IT and OT, and advancing digital projects beyond POC.
After completing his Master’s degree in Computer Applications, Biplab began private tutoring at schools and colleges before he joined Hitachi to work on Smart Cities. Due to how novel it was at that time, people began reaching out and inviting him to talk on the subject. This led him to speaking at events and writing articles and white papers.
Following Hitachi, Biplab worked on Smart Homes at Honeywell and branched out into consulting work. This furnished him with an understanding of how digitalisation works across different industries, equipping him to helm digital transformation in Smart Factories and supply chains. “I enable manufacturers through technology,” he summarised.
The challenge of bridging information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) is something Biplab is familiar with: “Even going back to my Hitachi days, wherein they were claiming then that they have 110 years of experience doing IT and OT because they were big in robotics.”
In his experience, part of the problem is that IT teams and OT have distinct ways of working and it is difficult to reconcile the two. For IT people, he suggested, it was important that they “understand a domain, the context, the history” in order to address OT. While for those in OT, “there is a skill set of gradation or upskilling needed” to prepare them for changes in the OT world, which won’t remain static.
Another challenge here is retaining OT knowledge and experience in a company. Biplab believes that knowledge transfer is critical, but to date documenting this knowledge has been poor. As a solution, he advocates a technical shadowing process between old and new staff.
He admitted that this was a difficult idea to sell to plant operators focused on reducing FTEs (Full-Time Equivalents), but he insists that it proves more economical in the long run; that there are “certain short-term incentives and there are long-term intensives,” and that investing in people pays off in long-term progress.
According to the World Economic Forum, over 70% of digital transformation projects fail after reaching pilot or POC stage. What makes it so difficult to take that extra step?
“A POC succeeds,” he offered, “because you work on some sample data or historical data and then you do a lot of work on making that right. But then when it comes down to real life, it comes with way more complexities, way more interconnections, way more dependencies.”
Using the Indian graduate level entrance exams as an analogy, Biplab added, “Getting to a score of 670 or 680 is quite achievable, but getting beyond 700 is tough. As you go along, it gets tougher and tougher and tougher. That is like doing a POC and productionising it […] you reach 670, 680, but getting to 700 is something you need to spend, maybe, 10 times the time.”
As a closing remark, he offered advice to manufacturers: “We have been through industrial transformation. There is no way that we can move from industry two to industry five. We have to take steps of the journey and go from industry two to three to four and then five,” he explained, asserting that it’s not about machinery or software, but rather people and process tools.
Moreover, he warned, there is an inclination to begin with a new tool or solution, but the emphasis, he insisted, should be on the challenge; “The starting point should be, okay, this is the problem I’m struggling with. What are the approaches? Then what is the recommended approach? And then what’s the tool to solve it?”
