Manufacturing has changed its focus and approaches from pure cost to quality, productivity, energy efficiency and delivery performance in the last two decades. Against this background, the Indian arm of German Engineering Federation (VDMA) also presented the first VDMA Manufacturing Excellence Awards.
The Indian arm of German Engineering Federation (VDMA) had recently organised its seventh Mechanical Engineering Summit in Pune, which was attended by more than 250 people. The Federation also presented the first VDMA Manufacturing Excellence Awards.
India is the second largest sales market in Asia for the German engineering industry. In his welcome address, Rajesh Nath, Managing Director, VDMA India, spoke about the completion of four years of the current government led by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During these 4 years, India had experienced unprecedented and impactful reforms and the need for consolidation in the next few years before the economy sets itself up for the next phase of development. The country’s economic growth soared to an over two year high in the April to June 2018 quarter, powered by solid expansion in the manufacturing, the farm sector and gathering the strength in consumer spending, bolstering the government’s reform record.
The biggest tax reform in independent India, the Goods & Services Tax (GST) was finally rolled out on July 1, 2017 after going through 17 years of brainstorming and a lot of political deliberation. It also paved the way for proactive and multi-pronged approach of the government to simplify Indian tax structure and also do away with the legacy tax issues. VDMA India also opened up two new offices one in Mumbai and the other in Bangalore which covers the Southern Region. VDMA India also organised an ECTS (European Ceramic Technology Suppliers). The Textile Machinery division within VDMA organised a visit of 32 German companies from the sector and a two day seminar was organised in Mumbai. A new initiative of bringing the members of the North Region in Delhi was well received by the members. The Business Climate Survey among the German companies conducted by VDMA had a positive outcome as 62 per cent of the participants said the climate is good, whereas 35 per cent considered it normal and only 3 per cent termed it slower than last year.
Impact of BS VI on auto industry
The Chief Guest, Rashmi Urdhwareshe, Director, Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) congratulated VDMA for acting as a bridge between the German and Indian industry and also made a presentation on “Implementation of BS VI: Way forward for the automobile industry”. ARAI is an autonomous research association of the automotive industry with Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Government of India. It has been playing a crucial role in assuring safe, less polluting and more efficient vehicles. ARAI provides technical expertise in R&D, testing, certification, homologation and framing of vehicle regulations. Recently two more testing centres have opened up in Pune.
Dr JurgenMorhard Consul General, Federal Republic of Germany, Mumbai, gave a special address on “Indo-German trade in western part of India”.
India-Germany trade going strong
Carl Martin Welcker, Managing Director, VDMA Frankfurt was extremely delighted to see the large response of VDMA members for the summit. At present, VDMA has around 3,250 members. Welcker is more optimistic about trade with India as exports have grown to Euro 1.6 billion. The capital goods exports have also increased and it will continue to grow in the coming years. The challenge way forward is how to cope up with China which is investing hugely on quality and quantity.
The VDMA summit special issue was released and for the first time a robot was used to hand over the publication to the dignitaries. The dignitaries also released the knowledge paper on “Primary user industry for machinery manufacturers”. It was followed by a presentation by the Knowledge Partner, BDB India Pvt Ltd.
The technical session I was commenced by Aditya Lakhanpal, Director Corporate Treasury Solutions Global Markets, HSBC, India, who spoke on the importance of meeting the fiscal targets and monetary policy remains focussed on meeting inflation targets. The next speaker was Prashant Deshpande, Partner Indirect Tax, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP who gave an overview on impact of GST Taxation and Anti Profiteering. Thereafter, Nilesh Jajodia, CFO, Wirtgen India Pvt Ltd, shared his views on his organisation’s experience of GST in the last one year.
Adoption of Industry 4.0
The post-lunch technical session began, with the release of the report “Best HR practices in the engineering industry” prepared by HR strategy partner Deepmala Datta of Maier+Vidorno.
The theme of technical session II was primarily on “Early adoption of Industry 4.0 and its challenges in manufacturing”. It began with the presentation on “Industry 4.0: Adoption, opportunities & challenges” by Lokesh Payik, Chief of Digital Enterprise and connected Industry Bosch. This was followed with a presentation by Sanjeev Kumar, Head – MTS, Marcom of Rittal India Pvt Ltd, who gave an overview about their automation systems which is a comprehensive equipment for a professional workshop operation covering machine tools to fully automated machine technology.
Then there was a presentation of Umesh Pal Managing Director, EPLAN Software & Services Pvt Ltd, explaining the challenges in adoption of Industry 4.0. He said that the success lies in reduction of complexity and total integration and inter communication of all technical systems is the key success factor. Neeraj Athalye, Vice President – Innovation & Digital Business, SAP Indian subcontinent, gave the last presentation of technical session 2. The presentation focussed on the need to have more Mega cities, new customer segments, improved supply chain infrastructure, better regulatory environment, higher global integration and innovative & affordable technologies.
The final session of the Summit was devoted on the panel discussion on “From red tape to red carpet: Ease of doing business”. This panel discussion was moderated by Rajesh Nath, Managing Director, VDMA India. The participants in the discussion were Carl Martin Welcker, VDMA President Germany; Georg Sparschuh, President, SCHOTT Glass India Pvt Ltd; Dharmesh Arora, CEO, Schaeffler India; Girish Ketkar, Whole Time Director & CFO, Thyssenkrupp Industries India Pvt Ltd; and Bipin Jirge, Managing Director, IFM Electronic India Pvt Ltd.
Manufacturing awards
Manufacturing has changed its focus and approaches from pure cost to quality, productivity, energy efficiency and delivery performance in the last two decades. Since energy consumption having paramount importance for manufacturing companies, continuous improvement in energy management is now integrated into strategies of companies for a sustainable growth. On the other hand, ecosystem of better work condition and safety standards ensures higher productivity and profitability for the organisations.
Against this backdrop, VDMA India associated with SKP Business Consulting as partner conferred the first VDMA Manufacturing Excellence Awards under the categories namely “Energy Efficient and Conservation Award” and “Work Condition and Work Safety Award”. There were maximum 2 companies against each category. In the “Energy Efficient and Conservation Award” category, the winner was Milacron India Limited and runner up was Siemens Ltd. In the “Work Condition and Work Safety Award”, Siemens was judged as the winner, while the runner up trophy went to Bosch Ltd (Nashik plant).
The trophies were handed over to the winning teams by Carl Martin Welcker, VDMA President.
Leave a Reply