AI Business Cases that Operations Will Approve: with Pushpal Jagdale from Novelis

Pushpal Jagdale, IT BRM of Manufacturing operations at Novelis, connected hundreds of machines across Honeywell's global facilities, then moved to Novelis, where robot dogs now walk aluminum plants conducting safety inspections in high-temperature environments. His asset cataloguing methodology before any digital initiative reveals why most manufacturing operations transformations fail.

At Honeywell, Pushpal tells Jennifer and Andrew, his team mapped every legacy machine's network compatibility before attempting connectivity. This prevented expensive pilot failures across Mexico, Romania, and Italy facilities. They proved ROI on one SMT line first, then scaled the playbook globally.

Moving from discrete electronics to molten aluminum processing, Pushpal discovered that safety-critical AI creates the strongest executive buy-in. Novelis operators previously risked gas leak exposure and extreme heat for routine readings. Now, the robot dogs equipped with temperature and gas sensors have eliminated human hazard exposure while maintaining operational continuity.