IIT-M spearheads ‘Frugal Manufacturing’ as a novel initiative for Sustainable Development

CHENNAI: Dr Balkrishna C Rao of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M), is pioneering the concept of ‘Frugal Manufacturing,’ which would assure sustainable development in smart factories. The concept of frugal manufacturing can be a critical component of India’s growth because it ensures that good functionality is produced at a low cost.

Frugality will help to reduce product waste because things will be made only with the bare minimum resources. Dr Balkrishna C Rao, Associate Professor, Department of Engineering Design, IIT-M is one of the world’s first frugal engineering researchers. “Manufacturers aim to cut prices to stay viable,” Dr Rao said.

With the world facing the irreversible interconnected problems of climate change, biodiversity loss, and population expansion, there has been increasing awareness of the necessity for frugal consumption. As a result, there has been a movement in manufacturing mentality from bigger-is-better to frugal-is-better in recent years, and zero waste goods and processes have been attracting increasing attention. According to a statement made by IIT M, “As part of frugal engineering, frugal manufacturing aspires for zero waste, while creating high-quality parts with fewer low-cost processes. A single low-cost manufacturing process that produces exact measurements and outstanding surface features of a part or product in a single pass with zero waste would be the best-case scenario for FM.”