DMG Mori Seiki eyes larger growth in Indian market

June 23, 2011 1:00 pm

DMG Mori Seiki India, the 51:49 joint venture between DMG of Germany and Mori Seiki of Japan, recently opened its largest technology centre in Asia in Bangalore. On the sidelines of inaugural event Dr. Thorsten Schmidt, Member of the Board, Gildemeister speaks to Subhajit Roy about the significance of this centre. He also hinted of setting up a full-fledged manufacturing facility in India
 
Since the beginning of 2010, you are on the job of setting up this centre and today it is inaugurated. How do you feel now?
It’s a feeling of deep satisfaction. Firstly I was personally involved in the selection of the site and location. At a time when the market was going through the recession period in the history of the machine tools industry, we still kept on track and managed to convince the executive board to agree to invest in this technology centre. Today, whoever sees the facility gets the first impression of what we wanted to achieve here, it’s been a good effort.
 
DMG was quite successful in the last couple of years however it was always apprehensive about introducing local suppliers for projects. It was relying heavily on Germany for test cards and time studies to the customers in India which will not be the case with the opening of this facility. Wtith the centre having its own infrastructure now, the company is looking forward to give its best to the customers in India.
 
The centre was scheduled to be opened in early this year. What caused the delay in opening?
A couple of modifications with regards to the set up of the offices and varying calculations led to the delays, nonetheless we are very happy as the facility turned out exactly the way it was planned, so the delay was worth it.
 
Can you share your objectives behind setting-up this technology centre?
The objective is to make the sales and service application department more independent and further utilise the strength of the available infrastructure in the country. With an endeavour to include partners for tooling, fixturing and simulation in this facility; DMG Mori Seiki wants to give the customers the opportunity to develop the right process for their machining challenges. This tech centre has been built to reduce the need of sending components to Germany or Japan for job trials, thus will save considerable amount of time and money of customers.
 
A bonded warehouse is one of the key features located in this tech centre to stock critical spare parts for our machines. This enables storage of spare parts which are available for immediate import. Depending on the import regulations of the customers, they can have tax exemptions and so on. Localisation of spare pars would reduce the service delays and down time of machines. The warehouse currently stocks spare parts worth ` 3.5 crore and it would be enhanced to ` 13 crore by the end of this year.
 
Other features include the training academy. We will impart training to our customers in application, machine operation and maintenance at this tech centre. Therefore, it’s not just the pre-sale or selling of products, but also the after sale that is integrated in this facility.
 
It is quite evident that you have called only customers for the inaugural event. Why?  
This building is built mainly for our customers – they are our prime target group. It is their demand that led to the implementation of this project. I am in India since 2004 on a regular basis and I experience a strong wish of our customers to have this opportunity in an excellent environment to test their components in combination with our products.
 
What is your total investment in this project?
We have invested around 8 million Euro for this tech centre that include the land, building and complete facility.
 
How do you analyse your present performance in India?
The current role of DMG Mori Seiki in India is expected to increase further. We have a target to achieve one hundred million Euro by 2013 as a joint business volume for both companies. We are also contemplating a good share of the Indian companies which is pushing consumption within both the groups.
 
Being a two and a half billion Euro company, we are all set to achieve the target of 100 million Euro which is close to five per cent of our global consumption.
 
Can you share your strategies to achieve the target of 100 mn Euro from the Indian market?
We want to decentralize the organization; the technology centre is an important step, but not the final. We would also like to open technology centres in other areas such as Pune, Delhi and Chennai. So we wish to further decentralize our presence and demonstration opportunities for the DMG machines.
 
Currently, we have employed 101 people and we are all set to grow further. We wish to use this infrastructure in India to fulfil the commitments from the factories and headquarters to display stronger presence in India to learn about the requirements and the circumstances under which companies are using our equipment.

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