Pune-based DesignTech Systems has signed a JV with a Canadian mould manufacturer that will ultimately service OEMs, especially in the automotive sector, across the world

DesignTech Systems Ltd, a Pune-based CAD/CAM/CAE, additive manufacturing technologies and engineering services provider has inked a joint venture with Integrity Tool and Mold Inc. (ITM), one of the largest automotive mould, tool and die manufacturing companies in North America with its headquarters in Canada. The JV has started operations with a small team, trained with ITM to meet the company's global mould design standards. This is also being seen as a launch pad for expanding mould design and manufacturing services in Asia.

"DesignTech Systems has been our extended arm in mould design and engineering for the last few years and with increasing demand from our customers to offer global support, the JV will be an important step towards expanding our reach beyond the American sub-continent. We anticipate a multifold growth in the team size in the coming years. This engagement will help us expedite our product development process with more hands working on our projects and will also reduce our cost of operations and development. A geographically distributed work force will help us address our customers' requirements faster and we will be able to hit the market early," said Scott Allen, General Manager, Integrity Tool and Mold Inc., at a media briefing.

With more than 16 years' experience, DesignTech has been working with companies from cross vertical domains from India and overseas to support them in their most complex and challenging engineering initiatives while helping them derive best returns on their investments. "We are a strategic business partner in India for Stratasys, Siemens Industry Software, Altair Engineering, and MathWorks. We had been doing business with Integrity since late 2011 and we started with catering to their requirements on a case-to-case basis. Soon we had set up a team of specialists exclusively working for ITM and the model was extremely successful. This prompted both DesignTech and ITM to take this association to the next level," said Atul Marwaha, Senior Vice President-International Business, DesignTech Systems.

DesignTech Systems is headed by Vikas Khanvelkar who started it in 1998 after having headed the CAD/CAM division of HCL Infosystems for nine years. The company is a recipient of prestigious awards like the Maharashtra Government IT Award in 2010 and was adjudged among the top 50 emerging companies of India by NASCCOM in 2010. It also operates training centres and the DesignTech CAD Academy is an authorised training partner of Altair for their CAE and Siemens PLM for their CAD and PLM suite of solutions.

Excerpts from an interview with Scott Allen:

Could you provide an overview of your company?

ITM's 400+ highly skilled team members operate out of three locations with seven facilities throughout North America - totalling 2,22,000 sq.ft. Our global headquarters is in Windsor, Canada and is home to our engineering, mould assembly and try-out teams. Our try-out capabilities range from 500-tonne to 3,000-tonne presses, including a 1650T Engel 4-shot rotary injection press. Our advanced manufacturing team, including hi-speed 5-axes CNC milling, hi-speed 3-axes milling, gun drilling, electrode manufacturing and EDM, operates from our second plant. We also have a quick response team that handles engineering changes, repairs and preventive maintenance requirements.

What is the expertise that you offer?

Some of the areas in which we have a competitive edge include standard injection, multi-shot rotary, stack, aluminium production tools, robot (hot) transfer, shuttle, compression tools, prototype tooling, magnesium injection and vibration weld fixtures. We are well-experienced in many aspects of plastic injection tooling such as fascias, interior and exterior trim, underhood/engineered black plastic, die cast, magnesium die cast, etc. Our experience ranges from large tonnage automotive exterior components to medium tonnage interior and under hood assemblies as well as non-automotive packaging and complex assembly components. In fact, innovation is the key factor in our operations and in the period January 2013 to January 2014 we have produced more than 400 new tool builds.

Is most of your work for the automotive sector?

Yes, we are primarily geared to supply our products and services to the automobile OEMs and our clients include Chrysler, Honda, Sukaru, Valeo, General Motors, Nissan, Mercedes Benz, Faurecia, and so on. We have been pioneers in supplying the best moulds to all such OEMs in tune with the changing vehicle designs and models and in fact spent close to USD 10 million last year on new equipment.

How has been the growth curve for ITM?

We did business worth USD 81 million in 2013 and crossed USD 100 million in 2014. And now with our collaboration with DesignTech Systems in India and our plant in Mexico, we hope to do much better.

How do you envision your partnership with DesignTech to work out?

We have been working with the team for more than four years now and are very comfortable with their productivity and for the fact that they are able to supply designs that conform to world-class standards and are easily accepted by our clients. ITM will have a 55 per cent share in this venture and while initially the designing will be exclusively for us to serve our automotive clients better, we see this as building up into a stronger base for our Asia operations. In partnership with DesignTech we would like to offer our maintenance services to our Asian clients from India so that the turnaround time and cost is reduced. Eventually, we may even plan on setting up a manufacturing unit in India to make moulds specific not just for automotive clients but to tap into other sectors like power, defence, aerospace, consumer products, etc. And of course there is the fact that India is on its way to becoming a huge automotive hub and therefore the presence of those MNCs in India with whom we are already associated with makes it logical that we should also have a presence.

Have you done a study of the mould manufacturing market in India?

Our preliminary observations have revealed that the mould manufacturing industry in India is highly unorganised. There is also a lot of competition from China. Therefore, we may actually gain a first-mover advantage if we set up a plant here that will offer clients the best of international designs and products, especially given our expertise in tooling. However, let me add that our route to getting into mould manufacturing in India would be through an acquisition instead of setting up a greenfield plant.