Toshihide Takahashi, Managing Director, Panasonic Welding Systems India, dwells on the company’s presence and activities in the country, spanning products, service and training, apart from its contribution to ‘Make in India’.

Welding is a vital process that joins the engineering world, literally and metaphorically. What is the range of products on offer?

Welding is a most critical metal working technology for the industrial sectors that are required to assure long-term reliability, such as the construction of buildings, bridges, chemical plants, production of ships, vehicles and other transportation equipment.

We have the latest technology welding equipment and welding robots to meet the enhanced requirement of faster, precise and spatter-less production.

The art and science of welding is constantly evolving. What are the latest trends and developments?

Customers’ requirement is fast changing in the new era. They want faster production (minimum cycle time) with no defects so as to avoid re-work. Customers have started upgrading to digital machines, which assist their operators to achieve best welding output in terms of quality and productivity.

Robotic arc welding has begun growing quickly for high production applications like in automotive industry. Robotic welding at present constitutes around 20% of total industrial robot applications. But this ratio is expected to increase shortly.

Automation and robotics are today the buzzwords in industry and welding/cutting operations today are highly automated. How does the Indian market fare on the global scale in this respect?

Welding is one of the most complex manufacturing processes but unfortunately least understood. A large number of companies spend millions of dollars to automate assembly lines but they normally ignore automation of welding. But now customers are choosing to automate welding processes for improved quality, higher productivity and higher profitability.

Indian Fabrication Industry needs to understand the difference between Robotic Welding and Manual Welding to begin with. Robots can work continuously and more precisely with uniform output but a welder cannot work continuously and his output also will not remain uniform. But the skilled welder is able to compensate for ill-designed fixtures or ill-designed parts. He also will be able to overcome issues with welding equipment, wire feeding or varying gas supply.

Welding Engineers and Operators need to understand that it is very important to follow preparation procedures for robotic welding, like parts to be designed and prepared properly, welding joints to be made correctly, clamping and fixturing must be precise, etc.

India is still in the initial stage as far as automation of arc welding is concerned. As per METI, Japan report, in the year 2011, the ratio of Indian robotic arc welding to global was only 1.60%. However this ratio is increasing over time.

Several global welding giants are all present in India. What is the USP of Panasonic Welding Systems?

India is expected to be the fastest growing economy this financial year. The Make in India program of Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to increase the share of manufacturing in GDP from existing 16% to 25% by 2022 thus expected to create 100 million new jobs. We are witnessing a lot of ground level activities in this regard. We wish to contribute to India’s growth as a partner by upgrading skill level of personnel associated with the field of welding.

We do not just believe in selling products, we work with our customers as a partner to help them achieve best quality and productivity in welding, and our latest technology welding equipment and arc welding robots are a tool to achieve it.

We have facility to provide customers with total robotic solutions, as all the components like robot hardware and software, power source and systems are manufactured by us. So, we are a ‘single window’ for customers regarding assistance for any part.

What is the nature of the company’s operations in India? Any manufacturing activity or just distribution of products imported?

We have our state-of-the-art manufacturing facility at Jhajjar (near Gurgaon), where the entire range of welding machines is manufactured. Arc welding robots are imported from Japan and integrated in India. We have invested in India with a commitment to providing long term service to the Indian fabrication industry.

How strong/effective is the sales network across the country and after sales service?

We have our Sales & Service Engineers at locations spread across India. We also have a strong network of Channel Partners across India who are equipped to supply products as well as can offer best after-sale support.

What are the company’s landmark achievements? Any breakthrough product launch that made a difference?

We believe in providing best welding solutions to our customers and latest technology welding equipment and arc welding robots are important tools to help operators achieve best quality output with higher productivity.

As discussed earlier, the Indian prime minister launched the ‘Make in India’ campaign on September 25, 2014. At a top level India-Japan meeting during that month, the PM asked for Japan’s support for “education in manufacturing technologies” to take the country’s manufacturing industry to a higher technological level.

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), an arm of Japanese government, entrusted Panasonic Welding Systems (PWS) with enhancing the skill level in Indian welding industry. It was a proud moment for us. We have already organised 3 very successful Trainings in India, viz., Gurgaon, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. The 4th one is scheduled in Chennai on May 11, 2016. These JICA welding skill enhancement trainings have been jointly organised with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and participated by Indian fabrication industry and Trainers from Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE).

Apart from above mentioned India trainings, we also sent Welding Trainers to Japan. The Trainers are from MSDE and the industry. We are supporting the government initiative of ‘Make in India’ by manufacturing latest technology welding equipment in India and by providing technical training to upgrade the welding skill level in fabrication industry. We are committed to continue to do it.

We are an innovation driven company. And the latest technology in Robotics – Active Tawers (The Arc Welding Robot System) is being well received by industry. It is a latest technology, which enables drastic reduction in spatters and much reduced cycle time resulting in high productivity and suitable for various materials and conditions.

The Indian Welding Society is highlighting serious shortage of welding skills in the country. Any comments?

During the year 2014, India’s total steel production was 86.50 million tonnes, and the steel ministry is forecasting a production of 300 MTPA by 2025. Which is almost 2.50 times increase in 11 years. Accordingly skilled manpower requirement will also grow approx 2.50 times. It is a huge challenge.

We expect more and more customers to go for automation with a view of reduced dependence on manual welding and enabling a faster and spatter-free fabrication.

Panasonic Welding Systems India (PWSI) understands its responsibility to contribute to meet this challenge. We provide Technical Training to upgrade the skills of Engineers and Operators in fabrication industry. We also have latest technology equipment, which equips them to achieve best quality output with faster rate.

How is present business environment? What are the future plans?

The Indian economy expanded 7.3% Y-O-Y in Oct-Dec 2015 quarter. However manufacturing sector surged 12.6% (source: MOSPI), which shows an improvement in business sentiment. The government needs to focus on implementation of infrastructure projects and increase capital spending. The main issues negatively impacting business growth are Land acquisition, Power shortage, delay in getting environment clearance, excessive litigation, and stability in taxation policies, etc.

Our future plan is to become a Total Solutions Provider to the Indian fabrication industry. We have latest technology welding equipment, arc welding robots, welding systems and well equipped expertise and facility to provide process training. Still complete product range in welding is not available at the moment. And we are working to add more products to our manufacturing range, so that customers do not have to go anywhere for their need of welding products, welding certifications or any kind of welding process support.