OMRON’s fifth automation training centre, apart from highlighting its commitment for the Indian market, should help clients save time and money as they hunt for higher and better productivity solutions, reports Bhushan Mhapralkar.
OMRON Automation has commissioned its first automation training centre at Mumbai in India. Present in India since 1996, the establishment of the first automation centre in India (the fifth globally) indicates the importance of India as an automation market. One of the six business verticals of OMRON Corporation, and the biggest, OMRON Automation has set up the Automation Training Centre (ATC) to highlight its commitment for the Indian market, and offer more value to the clients. Part of a well thought out strategy, according to Sameer Gandhi, Managing Director, OMRON Automation (India), the ATC is expected to help clients to leverage world-class technology. Refusing to reveal the investment that went into the setting up of the ATC, Gandhi stressed on the growing need to address challenges faced by the manufacturing sector. The need for automation to ensure higher output and higher quality machines to tide over challenges that will arise from growing consumerism. What with India set to become the youngest country by 2020 with 64 per cent of its population in the working age group.
In his inaugural speech, Yutaka Miyanaga, Senior Managing Officer, Company President of Industrial Automation Company, OMRON Corporation, expressed that his company has grown to be a global leader in automation, and helps clients, who face challenges due to various factors, by playing the role of a true automation partner. “We understand the challenges our clients face. It is therefore that we have invested in automation centres. We already have four automation centres globally. The Indian automation centre is the fifth,” he added. Apart from real-life demos to offer excellent idea of what benefits could be derived, the ATC at Mumbai comprises a ‘wall’ offering SYSMAC live experience, machine and robotics area, Tsunagi lab (helps with connectivity and includes verified solutions from over 1200 companies), vision lab, simulation lab, and a training room. Structured such that it would help OMRON to be the first choice with value added technology, the ATC in Mumbai rides on the anticipation that the manufacturing sector will turn to it to save costs and time to market. “With the ATC we will make a difference by helping to design, test, develop (with our technical experience) and set up a machine on the shop floor,” averred Gandhi. “Our network and support is a big differentiator. We have a dedicated field engineering team; we have a training centre, and a team that can help you to repair and maintain,” he added.
To address client challenges and help them cut down development time as well as the time to market, the ATC at Mumbai will save time and money for clients. A facility that is already equipped with the necessary hardware as well as a dedicated team of more than 10 experts as software, hardware and application specialists, the ATC is poised to help clients from fields as diverse as Packaging, F&B, FMCG, pharmaceuticals, special purpose machines, automotive and textile. The ATC is a part of scheme at OMRON in India, which employs 180 people and has five offices. OMRON in India has also invested in two repair centres, a warehouse at Bangalore; and has 40 application engineers, which help channel partners. Drawing attention to OMRON’s emphasis on India, Takehito Maeda, Managing Director, OMRON Asia Pacific, Industrial Automation Business, remarked that India continues to be an important destination for OMRON Automation. “The training centre is a step towards highlighting our solution centric approach and excellence in execution as a complete ‘automation partner’. It shall play a very important role in strengthening our contribution towards India’s manufacturing prowess and the society,” he said further.
Contributing 40 per cent of the Industrial Automation Business to OMRON according to Gandhi, the ATC is made valuable clearly by the SYSMAC platform, which depicts a high speed and high accuracy fully integrated platform by three ‘Ones’ (One Machine Controller, One Machine Network, and One Machine Software). The other valuable area includes the machine area. A Delta robot and the SCARA robot together with bottle filling and VFFS (vertical form fill seal) machines explain the usage of SYSMAC to enhance a machine’s performance by improving speed, accuracy, flexibility, reliability, speed and efficiency in all kind of industrial applications – primarily packaging and material handling. One of the few unique players according to Gandhi, to have vision sensing and automation technology together in its portfolio, the vision lab has all it takes to allow testing of vision inspection functions by customers with all possible variations of lighting, lens and controllers. The Tsunagi lab, as mentioned above, provides the complete integration experience of OMRON-to-OMRON, and OMRON to third party components. Patron will be able to learn and handle the technologies which are in the scope of the total solution.
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