In an exclusive interview with Thiruamuthan, Assistant Editor at Industry Outlook, Amit Gossain, Managing Director of KONE Elevator, shares his expert insights on how Indian elevator OEMs leverage IoT, AI, and robotics to enhance precision, uptime, and predictive maintenance. He emphasizes that smart factories balance automation with workforce reskilling, while eco-smart elevators reduce energy consumption, minimize errors, and advance India’s green building and net-zero urban mobility goals.
Amit Gossain, a seasoned industrial leader with over three decades of global and Indian experience, excels in manufacturing, sales, strategy, and operations. He brings expertise in workforce leadership, automation, IoT, AI, business growth, and organizational performance.
With Indian OEMs increasingly investing in Industry 4.0 infrastructure, how are technologies like IoT and digital twins enhancing precision and production uptime in elevator manufacturing?
IoT in a system can do many things. However, in the elevator sector, it is used not just for manufacturing, but increasingly for digital and remote monitoring of elevators in the field. Using cloud technology, OEMs can see where their elevators are and, if there is going to be a problem, enable predictive maintenance. The elevator – essentially the machine – communicates to another machine that it is going to have a problem, and the technician resolves it before the issue actually occurs.
In manufacturing, we as elevator OEMs use some IoT sensors. However, in many cases, we rely more heavily on AI than on pure IoT. IoT provides very precise feedback on what is actually happening from one robot to another. If there is going to be an issue, the system flags it so that the chance of human error is greatly reduced. This means the system is already maintaining and predicting what is going to happen, and this is true for most manufacturing companies using such technologies.
When IoT and robotics are deployed in a running process and something goes off-spec, IoT helps detect that deviation, stops the process, and then the team can correct and restart it.
However, KONE’s primary use of IoT is for predictive maintenance on a very large scale. With thousands of elevators in the market, the company uses IoT to predict failures and repair issues even before a breakdown happens.
Leader's Thoughts: How Smart Elevators Are Transforming Vertical Mobility
As major elevator manufacturers transition toward fully automated assembly lines, how is robotics redefining quality control and reducing human error in component integration?
When you look at robotics versus manpower, robotics primarily takes over repetitive processes in the system and makes them much faster and far more precise. In repetitive tasks, humans can make errors, whereas a machine will never make the same error. This means the components that come out at the end of the line are very precise, well-calibrated, and automatically tested.
Robotics handles the repetitive tasks and also performs testing at the end of the cycle, wherein the whole process is executed by machines. This reduces the need for laborious manual work and significantly minimizes the scope for mistakes, because the predefined settings ensure highly precise manufacturing.
In addition to traditional robots, there are also co-bots (collaborative robots), which combine robotics with some manual intervention in specific areas where human involvement is still required.
True progress in urban mobility comes when intelligent systems and human expertise align to reduce errors, cut energy use, and enhance operational reliability
With the government emphasizing ‘Make in India’ for vertical mobility systems, how are localized smart factories balancing automation with workforce reskilling to drive competitiveness?
In smart elevator factories, it has become critical for the shop-floor workforce to understand robotics, IoT and the AI systems now embedded in production. Earlier, manufacturing teams performed many tasks manually, with large amounts of traditional manpower. Today, as robotics takes over these operations, workers need to become experts in setting up and supervising these systems so that parameters are 100 percent accurate.
Once the initial settings are configured, the workforce also has to continuously monitor the line, supported by IoT and other digital tools, which adjust parameters as the manufacturing process evolves. For example, when a plant runs one cycle for a particular product variant and then shifts to another, workers must be able to change specifications and reconfigure the robotics accordingly. In an automated line, the quality of the output is directly linked to the quality of human input in programming and supervision.
This is where reskilling and upskilling become central to competitiveness. Factories now require far more training in digitalization, automation and robotics to build a future-ready skilled workforce. The government is also pushing this agenda, with a clear focus on advanced manufacturing capabilities.
Leading OEMs are responding by investing in dedicated training centers that focus not only on installers in the field, but also on factory operators. For instance, KONE has set up multiple training centers, including one within its factory and others in cities such as Pune, Gurugram and Kolkata. These centers continuously upgrade both the technical and soft skills of employees, ensuring that localized smart factories can balance higher automation with a more capable, digitally fluent workforce.
As India’s urban developers accelerate green building certifications under IGBC and GRIHA, how are eco-smart elevators contributing to measurable carbon footprint reductions?
Eco-smart elevators are becoming an important lever for IGBC and GRIHA projects by directly reducing operational energy use. Lighter and advanced hoisting systems help cut the moving mass of the elevator, lowering power consumption per trip. Regenerative drives further recover energy when the elevator moves in gravity-assisted directions and feed it back to the building grid, reducing net electricity use. On the digital side, smart destination control systems group passengers going to similar floors, cutting unnecessary trips, reducing stop–start cycles and easing crowding. Together, these technologies make elevators a measurable contributor to lowering the overall carbon footprint of green buildings.
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As cities push for net-zero infrastructure, how are AI-powered elevators being positioned as critical enablers within India’s broader carbon-neutral urban mobility vision?
AI is now embedded in many aspects of elevator design, control and maintenance, but we are still some way from seeing fully AI-driven systems in operation. However, a very high percentage of IoT-based features are already in place, such as predictive maintenance. There is also integration with destination control systems, where AI can recognize a passenger’s face or biometrics and allocate them to different elevators – for example, 10 people in one, 22 in another, and 10 in another – to ensure the most optimum use of elevator capacity.
With such systems, the usual up-and-down movement of elevators can be reduced by almost 50 percent. Earlier, an elevator might have had to move five times to carry individual passengers; now, the system can group passengers and make a single optimized trip. This is the key advantage of these new AI-driven technologies, while IoT is primarily implemented for remote monitoring and predictive maintenance.
Taken together, these capabilities reduce carbon emissions and make operations more sustainable. By lowering energy consumption and improving efficiency, AI- and IoT-enabled elevators contribute directly to the net-zero urban mobility vision.
KONE’s key actions at a glance
How is KONE leveraging automation and connected data systems at its Chennai facility to drive innovation and ensure zero-defect production?
Our Chennai factory is fully platinum-rated (IGBC), runs on 100% recycled water, and nearly 100% solar power. Advanced robotics and IoT automate production and quality checks. We also focus on sustainability in offices, using natural light to reduce energy consumption.
To what extent do KONE’s regenerative drives and intelligent control systems deliver carbon reductions in large projects?
About 70% of elevator braking energy is recovered and reused via regenerative drives. Intelligent control systems minimize unnecessary travel, optimizing efficiency. Innovations like machine-room-less and ultra-low elevators reduce space, weight, and power consumption, making projects more sustainable.
Key Advice for Emerging Leaders from Amit:
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