We envision strong growth in
sales as well as market share: Pradeep Patil, MD, TRUMPF India
TRUMPF was founded in 1923, and has since then developed into a market and technology leader in machine tools and lasers for industrial manufacturing.
TRUMPF Group’s innovations play an important role in virtually every sector across industries globally, from software that paves the way for smart factories to solutions for high-tech processes in industrial electronics. With around 70 subsidiaries, the
TRUMPF Group is represented in almost every country in Europe, as well as in
North and South America and Asia. The group employs 13,400 people worldwide and has generated sales of €3,566 million in the fiscal year 2017-18.
TRUMPF India, headquartered in Pune, started operations in 2006 and has grown in market share and sales every year since. On January 10, TRUMPF India inaugurated a new “Experience Center” in Pune.
To know more about TRUMPF India’s offerings and strategy, Dinesh Mishra, Sr. VP – Strategy, DMI interacted with Pradeep Patil, Managing Director, TRUMPF India at the company’s Pune facility. Mr. Patil, a Mechanical Engineer by training, is an accomplished industry professional with more than 24 years of experience in Metal Cutting and Sheet Metal Machine Tool Industry, having worked in senior capacities with leading companies. Edited excerpts of the interview.
Can you share with us the timeline of your presence in India, and how you have grown over the years in the types of offerings and market spread?
TRUMPF India started its operations in the year 2006. We have consistently recorded growth since then; the last two years in particular have been really good for us, we saw a phenomenal growth rate of 30 percent year-on-year between 2016 to 2018. We expect the double-digit growth to continue going forward.
Globally, TRUMPF serves aerospace, defence, automotive, general engineering and other industries. What are the different industries that you serve in India and the types of products or services you provide to these industries?
TRUMPF India is catering to infrastructure and construction sectors among others. There is a huge expansion happening in the Railway sector. Laser applications in automotive industry is also one of the fast-growing and promising sector for us. Aerospace and Heavy Industries are emerging as a potential market and we see a good potential of laser applications in these sectors too. However, right now our focus is directed towards the infrastructure sector as this is the fastest growing segment in India currently.
Where in India do you have production, sales or distribution facilities and what are the expansion plans?
We have a World class “Experience Center” and our Head Office in Pune.
TRUMPF India “Experience Center” is a place where our customers can see the TRUMPF machines in action and we also impart training to our customers in this facility. Apart from Pune, we have a branch office and warehouse for spare parts in Bengaluru to be close to customers in South India for instant support and training.
We plan to start a similar branch office and warehouse for spare parts in Delhi region by June 2019 where we shall provide regional training and parts support to our customers in the North.
These additions to our infrastructure will surely instil confidence and trust among our customers as a long term technology partner.
Can you share some details of your TruServices range of solutions and their applications?
TruServices is the mainstay of our organisation. We have four main offerings within TruServices: Technical Services, Applications, Customer Care, and Genuine Parts. In addition, we provide consultation as part of TruServices through which we help and support our customers to increase their machines’ productivity and uptime. We provide continuous health monitoring of the machines and suggest right solutions to ensure that the machine uptime is maintained.
We are proud of our highly experienced team stationed in-house available 6 days a week for telephonic support.
The in-house support is a great concept where a Customer can call us and have his machine connected to our center in Pune or Germany for instant service and support. This is how we are able to increase the machine availability substantially. The strike rate for solving problems through inhouse-support has been more than 65% which greatly supports our customers to increase uptime without even our service engineers travelling to repair the machine.
Can you elaborate on your Industry 4.0 solutions designed for digitally connected production processes? Are you offering these solutions in India? If yes, can you share with us the customer response?
Industry 4.0 is implemented when all manufacturing processes are interlinked, machines talk to each other, thereby improving transparency and speed. We have seen that these solutions could achieve a productivity increase of 20 percent and more. We have started educating the customers on the digitalization, so they can realize the true value of industry 4.0 and they are keen in stepping into these advanced techniques.
Industry 4.0 is the future of manufacturing industry so we are investing in educating our customers and taking lead to make this concept come true.
We have a SMART factory established at TRUMPF Chicago which serves as model center to demonstrate Industry 4.0, and see the complete concept working in action.
How do you envision your growth in India going forward in terms of industry offerings and sales growth?
Looking forward, we will have both horizontal and vertical growth. By the year 2021, we envision a phenomenal growth in sales as well as market share and foresee doubling of market share and sales turnover as compared to fiscal year 17/18.
What have been your learnings as a professional and team leader, through your experiences of working with TRUMPF’s global team and the customers in India?
It has been a great journey with TRUMPF. I have received excellent support from the headquarters as well as internally with our team and customers – it has helped us follow a customer-centric approach. TRUMPF’s internal processes and policies have been our strength and have had a cascading effect on our focus towards customer satisfaction.
TRUMPF India has launched an Experience Center in Pune in January 2019. Can you tell us what all will be included in this new facility and what benefit will your customer get from visiting this new facility?
An Experience Center is where the visiting customers can experience the technology, receive training for their present and future needs and educational support for adoption of the latest technologies. It will also act as a platform for knowledge sharing done through product seminars. It will help us to understand expectations from our customers better so that we can offer them the appropriate products and solutions. We plan to have open house once every quarter at our Pune facility and invite our customers for mutual exchange of ideas and also share our technology know-how.
What are your top three predictions of trends and developments that will have the greatest impact on the manufacturing Industry over the next 5 years?
Let me give you four: Automation, Hot Forming, Digitalization, and the proliferation of Electric Vehicles. Major changes in technology, safety and emission norms would drive the growth of Electric Vehicles.
Which product and solutions will you be showcasing at IMTEX 2019?
At IMTEX 2019, our focus will be on Additive Manufacturing, and our two technologies – Laser Metal Deposition (LMD), a generative manufacturing method for metals, and Laser Metal Fusion (LMF), also referred to as metal 3D printing. Globally, we are taking big strides in Additive Manufacturing. Our core strength in lasers is helping us increase our market share. At our IMTEX booth, customers can discuss their requirements with our experts and peruse our solutions on display.
Customers are most welcome to meet us at IMTEX 2019 at: Stall No. D 103, Hall No. 6.