Need to create a procurement eco-system: Sahajanand

March 29, 2016 1:03 pm

  Sahajanand Laser Technology Ltd (SLTL), one of the pioneers in laser technology in India, have introduced a few innovative solutions which are expected to transform the Indian manufacturing sector. Maulik Patel, Business Development – International, Sahajanand Laser Technology Ltd. speaks about the need for promoting procurement eco-system along with ‘Make in India’.
Could you outline the roadblocks to ‘Make in India’? Today, the biggest challenge for Indian manufacturers is cost consciousness within the customer segment in India who are obsessed of poor quality products being dumped from other countries. We feel that the ‘Make in India’ initiative will help to get rid of this.
At SLTL, we believe in trust and ‘Make in India’ symbolises trust in terms of the country’s manufacturing excellence. There are many Indian companies that are doing some fundamental R&D and trying to manufacture products within India rather than importing products from somewhere else and then trading it. 
Don’t you think that creation of ‘procurement eco-system’ is as important as ‘manufacturing system’ to get desired result from ‘Make in India’?Surely! In the current process, though the investment would be happening in India, the material procurement would be happening from other countries. So only the employment part is being resolved up to certain extent. However, for the manufacturing part, the material procurement from domestic suppliers should be encouraged.
At SLTL, we develop almost completely indigenised products using 100 per cent ‘Made in India’ machines used in the manufacturing process. At IMTEX 2016, we introduced four products which are 100 per cent indigenised.
Do you believe that ‘Made in India’ machines are at par with international standards?Absolutely! Lack of quality by the domestic of manufacturers is a perception driven thing. There might be some challenges faced by Indian manufacturers. Being an Indian company the challenge we face is nobody is ready to pay us whereas people are ready to pay premium 3-4 times higher to a foreign supplier. Though we cannot deny quality of certain foreign-made products, but as an Indian manufacturer, if the customer is ready to enhance the value or the innovation or the kind of efforts the Indian manufacturer is putting then it will bring a lot of trust and create confidence.
Will GST make some way for ‘Make in India’?GST will help for sure but it will take some time to understand how GST is going to function. Prima facie GST looks lucrative right now and once it gets implemented, we will get to know the real outcome.
Did you launch any new solution at IMTEX 2016? Laser is widely getting popular into sheet metal fabrication. We have different verticals of lasers: Diamond processing lasers, industrial lasers, and medical lasers. In the industrial lasers segment we have solutions for laser systems like marking, cutting, welding, hardening, and cladding.
IMTEX has always been a platform for us as being into laser technology. At IMTEX 2916, we have added a few more products for enhancing the capacity or probably boosting the productivity by using laser cutting machine. We have introduced our automatic smart store system wherein it has a pallet for material storage. It can store into 15 levels with the capacity of each level taking 2-3 tonnes capacity using an efficient inventory management system.
We have launched smart lift – an automatic material loading and unloading system. We have also introduced an automatic orientation laser marking system which is a unique product in India.
All these products are expected to change the dynamics of using laser technology in India.
Maulik Patel, Business Development- International, Sahajanand Laser Technology Ltd