Harting is a 100% family owned and managed company since its foundation by Wilhelm and Marie Harting in 1945. A tiny workshop was the birth of the family Harting's entrepreneurial spirit in the town of Minden in post-war Germany. Innovative strength, commitment and entrepreneurial foresight have made the company a global player with about 3,000 employees worldwide. Harting is a familiar name with most of the equipment manufacturers in the field of machinery, energy, transportation and telecommunications sectors. One of Harting visions is "to become a global company." We want to provide one-stop services delivering best customer benefits. Mr Pushpendra Singh, CEO, Harting India Private Limited, talks about the company and its activities in India. Excerpts:

From a small family-owned German firm, to a company with global presence in very focused product groups. What makes it so successful? Harting is putting local sales contacts in place to cultivate our customer proximity. Our customer-oriented approach makes us successful and benefits not only our members of staff, partner companies and stakeholders but also the public at large at international level. The company s focused towards providing the connectivity solutions for the harsh and demanding industrial applications where quality and reliability play a very significant role.

The Electric connectors are used for power and control applications with currents/voltage from 4 A - 650 A, 24 V - 5 kV and up to 216 contacts. The electronic PCB range comprises of DIN 41612 and Hard Metric connectors. The other electronic range covers D-Sub, FRC, Micro TCA, hybrid connectors. The network components like Ethernet switches, cable assemblies, etc., are in the Harting range. The backplane assemblies for telecom, medical, nuclear energy etc. can be designed and manufactured as per customer requirements. Harting offers complete solutions connectors, cable assemblies and network components.

Recently, Harting named winner as 'Factory of the Year/GEO 2010'. Harting was named as the winner of the "excellent large series production" category. The competition was founded in 1992 by the corporate consultant A.T. Kearney and the magazine "Produktion". It recognises the achievements of production companies that meet high benchmark standards in terms of efficiency, agility, quality, innovation, value creation and customer satisfaction in an exemplary way and demonstrate outstanding three-year development.

Harting is now present in India directly for 6 years. How eventful has been the journey so far?

Harting has been associated with some of the leading projects of DMRC, MRVC in railways and in renewable energy sector. These and many successes in automotive, telecom and machinery sectors have made journey exciting and eventful. Infrastructure investment in railway, energy and telecom sectors will continue in India. More machinery manufacturers will set up base in India. The industries will continue with more automation. Contract manufacturers are setting up base in India. All these will provide long term opportunities in India. Our focus will continue to develop these markets.

What changes have you witnessed during these years in the manufacturing sector in India?

India has seen tremendous growth in the manufacturing sector. It has been growing at about 7-10% per annum and today is the second largest sector with about 30% share of the GDP. We see lot of new international companies have come into India, which has made Indian manufacturers more competitive. The companies are looking at continuous upgradation and automation of the facilities.

Connectors, especially for harsh environment, network products and enclosures are among the Harting products portfolio. But is there any breakthrough product launch that made a difference?

The Harting Technology Group specialises in the fields of electrical, electronic and optical connection, transmission and networking, as well as in manufacturing, mechatronics. In the field of industrial connectors, the Harting Technology Group is fast acquiring a leading position in numerous markets. The Han? product family (Han = Harting Norm) sets what is basically a worldwide standard for electrical connectors in sectors ranging from factory automation and machine manufacturing to transportation and wind energy, and many more industrial connectivity applications with signal, power, fibre optics, pneumatic solutions. The Harting portfolio also includes industrial communication solutions such as Ethernet and bus components as well as industrial PC interfaces. In electronics industry we have a wide range of products like TCA, Metric, Coaxial, DIN, D-sub, FRC and many more.

Harting has recently launched Han-Yellock? and Han-Eco to cater to all industry segments, Han-Yellock is flexible, offers utmost safety and reliability, unburdens highly complex technical components such as switch cabinets and simple to assemble. In telecom sector we have launched har-flex. The Fast Track Switching is an innovative new switching technology intended to make Ethernet usable for automation technology applications.

Training and logistics is accorded great importance in Harting operations. Please elaborate on this aspect.

Harting products require in-depth understanding of the products. Hence training our sales force is of vital importance. Also company every year launches new products for which training is again important. In the area of logistics, we have full fledged warehouse in Chennai and tied up with a third party service provider globally who takes care on time delivery to customers.

How is the company doing in India vis-?-vis the competition?In every product segment there are always many competitors who are low quality and sell at low price. However, Harting's focus is on applications, which need high quality reliable products. Also Harting has been serving specific market sub-segment and offering customised solutions to customers. Customers need high-end components and strong technical support.

How does the cost of ownership over the life cycle compare with competition?

Harting products have proved themselves reliable in harsh conditions over several years. The high quality coupled with closing working Wind Energy customers and understanding the applications is the USP of Harting.

How strong/effective is sales network and after sales service in India?

Harting sales force is very strong technically and has team of product and market application specialists. Almost all the customer queries are answered and hence customers tend to depend on Harting for advice. This builds long term relationship. Harting connectors do not need repairs. Very rarely there is need of after sales service. Only service requirement is of training and application knowledge.

India is obviously an important market. Does Harting have any plans for a local manufacturing facility in India?

Currently, we don't have a manufacturing set up in India, but shortly we are planning to have local manufacturing in Chennai.

(Contact: Harting (India) Private Limited, Chennai. Tel: 044-43560415/6, Fax: 91-44-43560417. Email: in@harting.com)