‘Make in India’ set to revolutionise the face of Indian industry

January 13, 2016 12:39 pm

As per the current statistics, by 2020, India will be the fourth highest steel manufacturer in the world.
Dr. Arvind Patel, Managing Director, Sahajanand Laser Technology Ltd
 
 India has been gradually advancing in steel sector since last couple of years as steel is amongst highly utilised metal and the increase of its demand will bring huge benefit for metal forming industry.  Current scenarioAmidst the favourable conditions started making way for metal forming tool industry, Indian government gave the progress much needed momentum by ‘Make in India’ initiative. What the campaign has been essentially doing is distributing the progress in more balancing way. Prior to the aforementioned program, the metal shaping sector was facing the inharmonious growth and the gap amongst the high performing sections and low performing sections were tremendously high, so in larger picture it used to hamper the growth of entire sector.
The focus of ‘Make in India’ campaign is going to be the proliferation of small to medium size industries and that involves substantial amount of segments and sub segments of the metal forming industry. It reflects that, the drive is all set to revolutionise the face of all the Indian industry as, the government has determined to  transform the ecosystem across the industry right from small extending to big enterprises.
“As per the current statistics, by 2020, India will be the fourth highest steel manufacturer in the world. Automobile sector is also advancing considerably with 7.1 per cent contribution in GDP. Along with that, construction industry is earning second highest flow of FDI and improvising the infrastructure in the country, as both the industries are closely connected,” observes Dr. Arvind Patel, Managing Director, Sahajanand Laser Technology Ltd. 
Is it at par with global standard?The metal forming sector has been evolving since more than 100 years and the industrial revolution in many continents is a fair evidence of that gradual development. While the industrial revolution was taking place, the phenomena had vastly concentrated in some selective regions across the globe. Consequently some regions had to pass through immense technological struggle in order to match the pace. After many decades of striving efforts many other regions have proved their metal by technological advancement.
Patel remarks, “The collaborative efforts of Asian countries especially India, China and Japan, the global standards are achieved excellently.”
Opportunities and challengesWhen it comes to investing into business, the most feasible element is capacity. When it is enhanced, it tend to be advantageous for long while. That simple implication has brought down by Indian government with the inauguration of ‘Make in India’ campaign. The ‘Make in India’ is aiming to drive the splendid development to the base industries which supply the goods and material utilised in big sectors to manufacturing process. That is the case for metal forming industry as it delivers the raw goods to the enormous domains.
By the end of 2017 infrastructure sector is about to get an investment up to $ 1 trillion in which 45 per cent of investment will be channelised into construction sector. Government is intensively planning huge projects to enhance the infrastructure in tier 2 cities and this development just cannot be undertaken without involvement of metal forming industries.  Along with that heavy machinery as well as equipment manufacturing industries has initiated the reformation with collaborative efforts of private sectors and governments. 
According to Patel, the current emphasise of the numerous industries is shifting towards capacity enhancements, as government is incentivising capacity building. He says, “The government has announced to support the direct exports to the neighbour countries. So this gist of ‘Make in India’ indicates opportunities in abundance.”
Though the industry is growing, Patel points out, there is clear instability in the demands and there are only a few growth drivers and majority of the sub-segments are under performer. He says, “The fall back in making capabilities enhancement has been hindering the productivity and largely, the performance. “
The acceptance of cutting edge tools which potentially push the productivity to the next level is significantly low. Patel explains this with an example, “The laser technology is one such machine that possess the features to enhance the metal forming process substantially, in terms of quantity as well as with up to the mark quality. Though the laser machine promises definite improvement, the problem with the technology is lack of knowledge and manufacturers’ perception regarding Indian technology.”
The awareness about the laser technology is yet to find its way to all those concerned entities. Thus, the production cost of the laser machines is very high at the moment consequently the pricing also goes higher and that is a crucial point to make many of prospect turn down the buying decision.  To tackle those issues, all the laser technology requires is appropriate awareness amongst target audience. Thereafter systematic education regarding its usability and its advantage must be employed.
Sahajanand’s offeringSahajanand offers the systems which go beyond the domains and utilised in cutting, marking and engraving welding and micromachining. Patel says, “We have formed segment of our laser machines for the diverse requirements. For efficient cutting we have introduced Future X laser machine whereas for high productivity our Vector is the best alternative which is designed to perform tasks considerably fast. To cater the clients with budget constrains we have also launched some economical alternative such as Infinity and Prime.”
When it comes to laser welding Sahajanand provides precision welding laser system and for high mobility it offers Fibo 6X machines. Except the main line of laser systems, Sahajanand develops special purpose machines as per the requirement of the clients.
IMTEX 2016Talking about Sahajanand’s participation in forthcoming IMTEX and the products they will be launching, Patel says, “We tend to unveil new laser machines each year we participate in IMTEX exhibition and the momentum is going to remain intact this very year as well. We have emphasised on segment oriented enhancement and try to deliver integration with cutting edge system and latest features at each level. To be specific, material handling and storage solutions are being added keeping sheet metal industry in account.”
To enhance the productivity and reducing human efforts are some elements Sahajanand focused more for latest laser systems.  Its aim is to extend its offering to get into various categories which can be suitable to larger clientele base. On the other hand, high calibre machines are made even flexible to operate in any sort of set up. At IMTEX 2016, Sahajanand plans to introduce AxiFiber laser system, the machine boosts large format laser marking facility.
“What we have endeavoured for this year is, to extend something which was long due desired from the laser machine user around the globe. We have set those aspects as our millstone, and marched into that direction. Thus, we are looking forward to meet the expectation of laser machine users,” says Patel.