Andreas Zieger, Director – EMAG India Pvt Ltd, talks about the machine tool industry and the relevance of Industry 4.0 on the eve of IMTEX 2017.

What are the products you are bringing at IMTEX 2017?

EMAG is the inventor of the inverted vertical pick up turning machine, which helped to create compact, fast and accurate machining concepts. With its multi technology manufacturing systems for precision metal components EMAG added various technologies in its machine portfolio to help the customers select the best production technology. Here we can offer proven solutions besides turning, grinding, milling or hobbing and also more sophisticated technologies like laser welding, induction hardening, heat shrink joining and electrochemical machining for ultra-hard materials like titanium in the aviation industry.

Focus at this year’s IMTEX is on higher flexibility in mass production. Over the last two years we have developed a modular machine concept, which allows our customer to react fast on chances in market with our modular EMAG machine. To achieve it, our modular system works like the known Lego blocks system, which combines standard blocks to create different solutions. With different size of turning machines and a standard linking equipment – which we call track motion, it is possible to create various production lines and later if necessary it can be rearranged. And because of our known long lasting machine quality the customer can utilise his assets over many years for different task. Our technology knowhow we try to integrate in our modular concept and have solution for standard module with combined turning and grinding operations, hobbing machines, chamfering modules or even machine for induction hardening ready. We show one such modular machine to get a touch and feel impression of our quality and illustrate the concept. We have also various technology experts in Bangalore to discuss ready solutions in various technology fields.

The global machine tool industry is now adopting the concepts of Industry 4.0. Is the Indian industry ready for this?

Industry 4.0 is a little hyped and on the other side the understanding is quite different. But as an international company with production hub all over the world we use different aspects considered under that topic ourselves, like big data, Crowd Working, Cyber Physical Systems and Human Machine Interface (HMI). By these steps we try to fasten the machine design, optimise the availability of material and reduce the break down time of our assets. We understand that by the combined utilisation of machines and IT possibilities one is able to maximise the output of his investment. But we face also some concerns from market in direction of data safety or complexity of concepts and according to the theory of constrains (TOC) there is a general limit in system optimisation. We try to develop our solution around that concern and keep the value addition in mind.

Data generation is here the simple task, how to use it is the challenge. Remote control of machines, plug and play to connect various machines, predictive maintenance and simplified HMI are topics we implemented already. Now we develop apps to utilise the data generated by our machines to give our customers on various communication platforms additional support. On the other side we see that the whole area Industry 4.0 is a very dynamic process, which a machine builder needs to face to stay ahead.

Is India ready?

For sure with its strong IT industry and its good international reputation in that field and the progress in machine tool building it can go ahead and on the other side I see very modern production plants in India and Indian international active companies that use the benefits of new developments.

What is the demand status at the moment? India is also a large importer of machine tools.

If we consider the industrial production the figures don´t show big growth rates in general and on the other side I see that the increased demand can be compensated by higher productivity of the machines, but that creates demand for technology. Here EMAG has something to offer and we get more requests for turnkey solutions from companies looking for new product opportunities or upgrading their offering from simple raw part manufacturing to finished part suppliers or subassembly partners.

Has the government initiative of Make in India resulted in any increase in demand?

This change of demand is maybe also fueled by the Make in India initiative. But more important is the effort of the government around it, like the planned simplification of the tax system, the efforts to clean up the black money swamp or the startup initiative to name some. This brings back the trust of the Indian people and business men and it is recognised internationally. And you can see that the competitive index India has increased from rank 55 to 39 and the FDI is coming back as a result.

What are the problems machine tool manufacturers have to face?

In my daily work I realise that the Indian customer is very price conscious and that service and quality has little appreciation. That works as long as the end customer is happy to get anything, but slowly Indian customers experience the difference, have also more options and thus demand for more quality and that is good for the country to have better roads, better houses up to more long lasting consumer products. Considering limited resources worldwide a sustainable growth is much better than flooding the country with cheap throw away products from abroad. Another problem I realized it the change in value system, to become rich fast or become a manager are tendencies which change the focus of the individuals and I hope with the new type of leadership shown by the top leaders, hard work and satisfaction out of improvement of the whole country will come back. Educated, skilled, experienced machine operators are most important all over the world to handle the new technologies and the Industry 4.0 challenges. That requires praxis oriented education systems, recognition of skill labor in the society and by that a proudness and commitment of the staff to develop the manufacturing sector of the country.

What are the expectations from the government?

I see good tendencies so far; uniting the people behind a developing vision, simplifying the bureaucracy – here the GST reform is a big step and I hope different interests and too many exceptions will not diluted the target, or simply the IT support for all statutory issues. All that helps to minimize the administration and focus on the core business and at the end allows a faster development of the country. If all people, politicians and industrialists fall in line behind that big vision the progress will be visible fast.