Xchanging’s automation services give it a clear edge

April 29, 2015 5:22 pm

 A key reason for our winning performance especially in the Indian manufacturing industry is our constant endeavour on customizing our services, to address the automotive industry’s requirements.Rakesh Pandey, Manufacturing Global Business Unit Head, Xchanging
Rakesh Pandey, Global BU head, speaks of the services that Xchanging offers  for a variety of sectors. He also speaks of innovative technologies, about the ‘Make in India’ movement and other global and domestic factors that are shaping the industry.
Give us a Profile of Xchanging and the various product offerings that Xchanging has? Xchanging provides business processing, technology and procurement services across industry verticals in a number of geographies. In India, Xchanging’s sales focus is primarily into Engineering and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) services targeted at the manufacturing, retail and pharmaceutical sectors; and our Learning platforms focused on the education sector.
Through our Engineering and PLM services, we help design systems/sub-systems, end-to-end product life cycle support for discrete manufacturing companies, especially for the automobile sector, in India and globally as well. In India, we have worked with two of the top five commercial vehicle manufacturing companies. In the virtual analysis space, we have started work on an analysis tool, for a UK-based university.
A key reason for our winning performance especially in the Indian manufacturing industry is our constant endeavour on customizing our services, to address the automotive industry’s requirements. We manage the entire product lifecycle for clients and also provide simpler solutions. If an Indian company wants to supply automotive parts to the top three American automotive giants,they need to follow TS16949 processes. We have made an entire layer of these industry-specific processes like APQP, PPAP, DFMEA, PFEMA, and PCP on top of the PLM platform; and this helps us implement solutions faster.
We are also collaborating with some of the leading process manufacturing companies in India in the pharmaceutical and CPG space to digitize and thus streamline their entire new product development and specification management process. In addition, we have done global specifications management, artworks and labelling and even sourcing management for both discrete and process manufacturing companies in India.
What about Crash Testing?At Xchanging, we have a team of experts who support companies in crash testing. Since the ABS safety system has become mandatory for commercial vehicles, we are helping an auto company change their entire interface. We have engineers who help generate data virtually through a crash test. We draw the parameters for a testing process and the parameters that will matter after the testing is over.
What do you think of the Make in India initiative by the Narendra Modi government?Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given us a vision and inspired us that nation building is a collective effort. A large number of technology companies globally have Indians driving the engineering processes. So why can’t we have it all here in India? If we need to compete at the highest levels, we need to apply the most sophisticated cutting edge technologies. We need to bring those technologies to India, without breaching the IP rights.
Technology is changing rapidly and the next generation must have the ability to learn, unlearn and relearn. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel here. We need to learn from these ideas, take what works and remove the unnecessary ones. These concepts may be anything from stem cell technology in the US or in the field of education. We need the knowledge, and the required skill sets and ideas should be welcome from all.
Do you think India will become a global super power like China?India will definitely become a superpower. However, having said that China is still ahead of India in a lot of aspects. But what works for India is our free economy and democracy. Once we start opening-up, learning things and implementing them, we can achieve what we’ve set out to do.
Do you think American companies will be trend setters in technology or even Indian technology companies can set trends?Presently, American companies are at the forefront of setting technological trends. But over the past one year, more and more of Indian companies are being acquired by American companies. We have the brains, what we do not have currently is a conducive environment to flourish. Once we have that, there will be no holding back. Bengaluru is at the forefront with a large number of start-ups and big and small technology companies.
The Indian e-commerce companies are challenging the global giants. The government too now is providing a conducive environment for business.