IIT Madras Faculty pioneers ‘Frugal Manufacturing’ for Sustainable Development in Smart Factories

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras Faculty Balkrishna C Rao has developed ‘Frugal Manufacturing’ for Sustainable Development in Smart Factories. Frugal manufacturing aims at producing sustainably all kinds of products which includes frugal ones as well. The inclusion of frugal manufacturing in smart factories will encourage the production of Net Finished Shape (NFS) products, which are better than the current Near Net Shape (NNS) products.

Rao is an associate professor in the Department of Engineering Design, IIT Madras, and has been an early researcher globally in the field of frugal engineering. Over the years, Rao has been working on different aspects of frugal products made with minimum resources at low cost to provide good functionality. His ongoing research includes devising design approaches and frugal manufacturing of low-cost quality products using minimal resources.

Frugal engineering is applied across the world for various products for their efficient functionality at low cost. The importance of this concept in India has empowered many industries in the country including engineering. The release claims that frugal manufacturing can help manufacturers in the country to lead the global race of next-generation manufacturing processes and machine tool systems. It also mentions that frugal manufacturing can support unusual applications such as production of hand-wash stations, face shields, testing equipment and respiratory support equipment using minimal resources.

Moreover, frugal manufacturing falls under the scope of the newly-developed ‘cradle-to-cradle’ concept of sustainability which is aimed at making the manufacturing sector competitive as well as green. It is promoted by the US-Environmental Protection Agency and the National Academy of Engineering.