Germany-based Leadec provides technical services to automotive and manufacturing companies to make their production better and more efficient. Sudhir Gurtoo, Managing Director, Leadec India Pvt Ltd, has been instrumental in setting up the company in India in 2009. In conversation with IPF, he explains advantages offered by Maharashtra to manufacturing industry and how companies can improve efficiency.

Kindly share with us services offered by Leadec India to industries in India?

Leadec Industrial Services (formerly known as Voith Industrial Services) is into comprehensive maintenance outsourcing of the manufacturing (automotive, engineering & process) plants in India. Leadec offers one stop outsourcing solution for all technical processes of a manufacturing plant.

Leadec Industrial Services offers various services such as install (project and automation solutions, condition based monitoring and energy conservation, equipment relocation and installation, jigs & fixtures), maintain (production shops, utilities O&M), support (value added sub-assemblies, wheel & tyre assembly, returnable packaging solution), and digitise/optimise (Industrial IoT solutions).

You are based out of Pune (one of the most industrialised regions in the country). What are the advantages of having headquartered in Pune?

Biggest advantage is easy access to automotive and manufacturing industry and, hence, access to skills. Pune is also an academic hub; there is good availability of technical institutes, which supports with availability of skilled manpower.

What are the benefits of having manufacturing units in Maharashtra?

One of the key benefits is we are located centrally from North and South India (East is still not large market). Besides, we get quick access to skilled labour, ports (Nava Sheva) and large market in same state. Availability of basic infrastructure to support growth and environment /state policies conducive to growth is an additional advantage.

How do you support automotive industry in India?

Leadec (earlier Voith Industrial Services) has been associated with automotive industries worldwide since 1962. Even in India, we have been operational since 2010 with a customer base of 46 customers comprising largely of automotive customers. Our sole agenda with our customers is to free up their time by taking over their designated non-core activities and support them with betterment of OEE (overall equipment effectiveness) and, therefore, a competitive edge.

Leadec provide services to ease their headaches like machine breakdowns, maintain high plant uptime, support with crating design and move their parts/sub-assembly, design and install small brownfield projects for plants like HVAC system, fixtures, booths etc. We provide production support services like assembly of their sub-assemblies.

Are you seeing an increase in usage of automation and robotics in automotive industry in India? What is the reason?

Yes, we definitely see increase in usage of robotics because of lower automation cost. Also, the labour these days are becoming more demanding and less dependable. In this case, robotics will play crucial role.

Industries (including those located in Maharashtra) are increasingly moving towards Industry 4.0. Do you render services that help companies to become Industry 4.0 compliant? If yes, how is the response to these services in India?

There is good lot of buzz in the industry about Industry 4.0. Companies are doing their own studies in understanding and implementing the processes that would take them closure to Industry 4.0. However, it is still in low-growth mode. We do expect a move in coming 5 years.

What are your growth plans for the company?

We are growing at CAGR of approximately 25-30% and expect the same in coming years. We also plan to add new services to our portfolio and leverage our global set-ups.