E-mobility is gaining traction in India due to its eco-friendly feature, tax rebates and low cost of maintenance. Growing electric vehicles industry is expected to increase demand more complex, higher value-added tools. This will pose immense growth for the tooling industry to re-tool and enhance the conventional tooling methods, says Pankaj Abhyankar, Senior Vice President and Business Head, Godrej Tooling - a division of Godrej & Boyce Mfg Co Ltd that manufactures high-quality tooling for a wide range of industries. In this interview with Rakesh Rao, Pankaj Abhyankar elaborates on new opportunities for tooling industry and ways to enhance productivity & reduce product development time.

How do you see the growth of Godrej Tooling in the last couple of years keeping in mind the evolving opportunities & challenges presented in the market?
Currently, the market size of the tooling industry (die casting dies and sheet metal press tools) in India is close to Rs 3,000 crores having 80% of its demands being met domestically and 20% from imports. As per recent reports, this value is expected to rise to Rs 4,000 crore by the year 2026. However, auto manufacturing companies in India still rely on imports to meet their demands for tools & auto parts. To deal with this, the tooling industry in India requires support from the government (programs like Atmanirbhar Bharat having schemes like Production Linked Incentives, outlays for semi-conductor manufacturing and domestic battery production) and other incentives like low-interest financing, establishment of R&D centres, and the creation of tooling clusters/ SEZs.

Some other challenges faced by the industry is finding skilled workforce, keeping pace with the evolving technology, having access to finance, and an inverted duty structure. However, we have noticed a change in the perception of OEMs of Indian tool rooms in the last few years, as they are willing to collaborate with Indian tool manufacturers more than before.

As a leading player in the tooling sector, what are the priorities for Godrej Tooling at present?
We are currently focused on increasing our investment by 10% on R&D towards tools and dies with a special focus on the electric vehicle industry due to the increasing demand for modification & replacement of automobile components in electrical vehicles. Private and public sectors are both adapting to EVs now making it essential for suppliers to adapt to the ecosystem of EVs.

Auto industry has been a major user of tooling solutions. How is the demand from the auto industry at present? What kind of opportunities will electric vehicles (EV) present to the company?
The automotive industry is a key consumer of tools and it consumes over 55% of the machine tool production in the country. The pandemic, however, had immensely impacted the sales of the automobile industry causing a decline in auto orders thereby affecting the demand for conventional auto parts. The auto industry is now recovering and although cash flow is still a concern, the buying behaviour of consumers is gradually normalizing thereby restoring faith in the demand and production of tools.

A surge in cost of acquisition due to frequent prices hikes, increase in petrol prices, rising pollution, tax rebates, and low cost of maintenance are driving the transition to e-mobility in India. Auto parts in EVs will have lesser moving parts thereby reducing the requirement of manufacturing for specific tools proportionately. However, this would call for single piece constructs and hence the demand for more complex, higher value-added tools will increase. Production of micro-components, plastic, sheet metal, cast components will rise as these will replace the moving parts in EVs. This will pose immense growth for the tooling industry to re-tool and enhance the conventional tooling methods.

Besides the auto industry, which sectors are driving the demand?
Apart from the auto industry, the electrical and electronics segments have been projected to drive the most demand for the tooling sector with 21% and 14% respectively in the coming five years. Some other emerging industries that are expected to create demand for tools in India include plastic, consumer durables, medical, white goods, and defence.

How is Godrej Tooling leveraging on new technologies like AI, MI, 3D Printing (additive manufacturing), etc to increase efficiency?
Additive manufacturing and 3D Printing have increased cost-efficiency and reduced product development time for us while ensuring increased product customisation and minimal wastage. We have recently expanded our capabilities into 3D printing and additive manufacturing to develop high precision dies for components with complex geometry to meet higher functional standards in EVs. With the help of newer technologies like 3D Printing, AI, MI, and Additive manufacturing, we are hoping to cover all bases in simulation, production, and design assembly of components for electric mobility.

Could you please share with us some of the company’s recent launches? Any new offerings in the pipeline?
As an integral part of our digitalization programme, we have identified and implemented several initiatives to automate and digitalize processes to gain advantages in productivity and reduce human intervention and hence possible errors. An example of this is the smart die that we developed indigenously to eliminate a constant customer pain on actionable MIS on die performance and part quality.

Smart Connected die, as we call it, is a combination of all the above. It’s a Die Casting Die that produces high pressure aluminium castings and is connected to the internet, has a set of operating parameters, which when adhered to can help it meet its goals in terms of uptime, production, life, and cost of maintenance. And last but not the least this die alerts you when someone exploits or abuses it. It is possible to monitor the operating conditions through a set of sensors and compute them through an algorithm to signal when undesired conditions persist in usage-very much like the alerts when a smoke detector gets activated. Streaming this data bundle to a remote cloud and sending signals/alerts to select individuals would make this an IOT enabled smart connected die.

Sustainability & Industry 4.0 are the two buzzwords in the industry. How is your company adopting these 2 trends?
Environment, Society, and Economy are considered to be the three pillars of sustainable manufacturing and are often referred to as ‘Triple Bottom Line’ (TBL). We are currently utilizing Industry 4.0 technologies including IoT, 3D Printing, System Integration, Cloud Computing, Machine Learning, AI, Simulation Systems, and more to address the challenges related to TBL of sustainable manufacturing.

So, Industry 4.0, which was initially a traditional concept of looking at digitizing operations for minimal human inputs, is now being utilized to its full potential by us to reap the benefits for sustainable manufacturing like dealing with resource depletion, waste reduction, energy efficiency, virtualization, and environmental protection. Adopting Industry 4.0 technologies is not just a beneficial and cost-effective concept, but a mandatory practice that will assist manufacturers to achieve sustainable manufacturing and save costs while also protecting the environment.

What are the emerging trends in the tooling segment?
Several key die and mould components require multiple settings during machining which is why toolmakers are now investing in 5-axis CNC machines. Artificial Intelligence in machine tools is going to lead the future for accurate metal cutting as minimal carbon and sulphur emissions become the need of the hour. Another trend is noticed in the implementation of CAD/CAM for SMEs as the segment expects lower machine tool costs.

Laser tools are promising, advanced machine tools carrying huge potential. The fibre laser technology is extensively being developed and used in metal forming and cutting ensuring maximum accuracy and productivity. Also, the use of technology and IT has evolved businesses and machines to use data in real-time and developed the concept of Industry 4.0 which relies on technological advancements to shape our future.

How do you look back at the performance of your company in 2021? What are your expectations/targets for 2022?
The industry has faced several headwinds which got amplified by the pandemic leading to large scale supply chain disruptions and lowering of consumer demand across all categories. Being an industry leader with deep established customer connects and supported by an enhanced ecosystem of supply chain partners, we have been able to buck the trend and strategize correctly to anticipate industry requirements well in advance. We have played a key role in our customer value chain to ensure that we meet demands well in time so that vehicle production and launch events are on schedule and as committed. We continue in our efforts to remain a key stakeholder in the automobile industry growth and expect a minimum 30% YOY increase in our revenues.