How L&T is engineering an AI-driven conglomerate

This is conscionable 1 illustration of however India's largest engineering and infrastructure conglomerate has been utilizing integer technologies specified arsenic vigor frequence recognition (RFID) tags, geofencing, net of things (IoT) devices, drones, robotic process automation, and adjacent augmented world (AR) and virtual world (VR) tools to support a hawk oculus connected its assets crossed the country.

These tools are each aimed astatine reducing discarded and pilferage portion expanding productivity and maturation of L&T’s low-margin businesses.

"Digitalization is surely impacting our business, qualitatively and quantitatively, tangibly, and intangibly," said S.N. Subrahmanyan, who became the group's president and managing manager connected 1 October 2023 aft A.M. Naik stepped down from his non-executive president role.

Digitalization “is empowering teams to foretell better, amended productivity, trim costs and wastage, marque much informed decisions, heighten efficiencies, and present faster to customers," Subrahmanyan said successful an interrogation with Mint.

People, materials and machines

L&T's integer travel broadly revolves astir materials, machines, and people.

For one, L&T’s bid centre, which provides a one-stop dashboard for Subrahmanyan erstwhile doing reviews of the group’s leaders, is connected to astir 14,000 devices (of a full of 30,000) connected an IoT platform. This dashboard besides enables squad leaders to observe substance pilferage astatine immoderate of the company's 600 sites wrong 10 seconds, since each the substance that is dispensed gets tracked and captured with the assistance of progressive RFID tags. 

L&T tin besides digitally measurement the nonstop quantity of factual that gets produced astatine its plants with the assistance of sensors, giving its concern heads a implicit footprint of the factual produced, transported and poured.

Also read: From hiring engineers to India's champion technology, L&T brag S N Subrahmanyan speaks his bosom out

The conglomerate besides has much than 300 afloat automated integer weighbridge systems and machine imaginativeness cameras to measurement the nett value of the ₹1.2-billion worthy of materials that it purchases annually, which includes factual oregon cement, steel, diesel, aluminum and copper. 

The radical has besides onboarded 2.5 cardinal contractual workers into its alleged Worker Induction and Skill Assessment (WISA) system, which helps managers way the determination of each worker, gauge their daily  productivity, and adjacent suggest grooming to upgrade their skills.

Millions successful savings

By leveraging the strengths of its radical companies including LTI Mindtree, "who are our strategy integrators", and L&T Technology Services (LTTS), "which focuses connected merchandise engineering", the savings from the usage of these integer technologies is huge, said Mahesh Chikodi, the group's main integer officer. 

"Just 1% savings successful substance contiguous amounts to astir $9 million; 1% redeeming successful factual saves america astir astir $12 million; and 1% savings amounts to astir $19 cardinal successful alloy that is the costliest."

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Also, fixed that L&T tracks each the hardware and assets specified arsenic cranes, earth-moving equipment, cameras, and roadworthy rollers it has "deployed adjacent successful the remotest parts of India", "we get to cognize if immoderate pilferage has happened wrong seconds. We past get a snapshot and nonstop it to the hiring bureau (contractors) and penalise them", said Chikodi. 

According to him, L&T recovers astir ₹4 crore from hiring agencies successful presumption of penalties each quarter. "Other than getting wealth back, it besides dissuades much pilferage," adds Chikodi.

Embracing AI, GenAI

L&T aspires to go an artificial intelligence-driven institution to further its integer journey. 

"The eventual destination of our travel of integer translation is to importantly heighten the ratio of our expansive operations, wide implementing a suite of integer solutions, conceived, and developed in-house, based connected artificial intelligence, instrumentality learning, IoT, unreality computing, predictive analysis, large data, geospatial technologies, and more," said Subrahmanyan. 

He cited risk-prediction arsenic a lawsuit successful point, "where AI is already making a immense quality successful our quality to assess, pre-empt and combat risk".

L&T has "moved from a signifier of descriptive analytics to predictive analytics, and present to prescriptive analytics", added Chikodi. 

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The radical has already been utilizing instrumentality learning successful areas of proviso chain, finance, quality resources, lawsuit narration management, and task management. It can, for instance, foretell the nonaccomplishment of a instrumentality portion "at slightest 3 to 4 weeks successful beforehand due to the fact that of the information that we collect", and alert the concern heads acrophobic and instrumentality vendors to instrumentality preventive action.

L&T has besides begun exploring the usage of generative AI tools. For instance, squad leaders person begun utilizing Microsoft's AI-powered instrumentality called Copilot for meetings and presentations. 

"Whenever immoderate gathering takes spot successful L&T, we usage Copilot to constitute the minutes (instead of idiosyncratic doing it manually) earlier the gathering ends. Hence, the participants cognize who has to instrumentality what actions. We volition besides beryllium utilizing Copilot successful Power BI (business intelligence) reports. Historically, what radical utilized to spot is conscionable descriptive dashboards, but utilizing Copilot you tin inquire queries (in earthy language) and it volition springiness you reports," explained Chikodi.

A ace app for L&T

L&T has an interior sanction for its AI journey—Larsen and Toubro Cognitive Services (LNTCS). According to Chikodi, L&T's AI travel volition beryllium completed successful 3 phases.

The archetypal was to fine-tune ample connection models (LLMs) for contracts and ineligible documents, which is "now live". The adjacent measurement is to usage AI and ML for proviso chain, finance, HR, CRM, and task management, for which L&T is utilizing a level from LTIMindtree called Canvas AI. 

For instance, the HR section uses AI and ML to measurement the show levels of each employees, carve a vocation way for them, and research what grooming they would need.

"The past spot is the astir complex, wherever we volition usage diffusion models for plan automation. This volition hap successful the adjacent fewer months," said Chikodi. 

When asked to physique a bridge, for instance, L&T engineers would look astatine existing Autodesk drawings to place the astir analyzable task and the learning from those projects, which would instrumentality months. 

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Diffusion models, connected the different hand, are helping L&T person PDF documents into drawings. And each specified data—be it from endeavor assets readying (ERP), accusation technology, operations technology, logistics data, metadata, oregon from third-party applications—converge into a azygous information warehouse, and tin beryllium accessed done a "super app". 

"Any slicing and dicing of information volition hap done our LNTCS platform," said Chikodi. This implies that L&T's concern leaders tin inquire immoderate question in, say, English, specified as: "Give maine the profitability of a circumstantial task from its inception day till now" to get a effect connected the dashboard.

To guarantee that its integer momentum is sustainable, L&T has besides acceptable up a "Digital Council" comprising a small much than 50 leaders from crossed radical companies, who conscionable each 4th and sermon their priorities for the adjacent six months to a year.

Leveraging humungous amounts of bully data

All of L&T's AI and GenAI initiatives leverage the spot of bully data. According to Chikodi, L&T has gathered astir 900 TB (terabytes) of structured and unstructured information from its machines (sensors and cameras included) that presently reside connected a nationalist cloud, Microsoft Azure. (A azygous TB tin clasp 250 movies oregon 500 hours of HD video.)

L&T plans to determination this information to its ain 2 information centers—one successful Kanchipuram adjacent Chennai and the different successful Panvel, Mumbai. 

L&T is besides gathering integer twins, oregon simulations of carnal assets, by scanning the geographies wherever it has projects with the assistance of helicopters and drones. All the geo-data is hosted online to assistance plan engineers and clients to simply log in, presumption the geography successful the signifier of outer imagery oregon a 3D model, and reuse the information arsenic required for the group’s projects. 

"The aforesaid information from a geography that was scanned for a circumstantial autarkic company, beryllium it a h2o oregon powerfulness transmission organisation unit, tin beryllium reused for different purpose," explained Chikodi.

These integer initiatives person allowed L&T to not conscionable amended process power but besides its quality to follow emerging technologies, said Subrahmanyan. "The L&T that you spot is successful world wired precise otherwise with new-age technologies embedded crossed functions for efficiency, excellence, and growth."