‘Infra development, ease of business to be key drivers for FDI inflow in India’

Metrology sector has been witnessing certain ups and downs in the past couple of years, particularly due to the Covid-19 pandemic. While the sector is doing all it can to revive the market, the major metrology players have also pulled up their sleeves to change the sentiments within the technology users.

Being pioneers in promoting the technology, CNCTimes.com has taken the mantle of helping the sector’s revival.

In an informal conversation with Bhalchandra Chorghade, Editor, CNCTimes.com, the Managing Director of Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence India, Mr. Anup Verma shares his thoughts about the metrology sector and the measures needed to be taken. Following are the excerpts:

Q. How is the metrology sector doing, particularly after the pandemic?

A. The Metrology market has been witnessing significant growth over the past years, mainly owing to the rising demand for connectivity, big data analytics, increasing demand for automobiles in emerging economies and electronics part manufacturing in India. Increasing adoption of cloud services to integrate inspection or measurement data and rise in demand for industry 4.0/Smart Manufacturing are also expected to considerably boost the industrial metrology market in the coming years.

Increased demand in Electronics, Machine Tool Probing (In-Line Inspection), Data Connectivity, Creating Central Dashboards, Vision with AI Application, Green Energy components manufacturing, Adaptive and Automated inspection is giving boost to non-traditional sales and forcing us to expand in untapped areas.

Make In India and Start-ups are another sign of relief as more and more Indian organizations are coming up in manufacturing domain and giving relief to traditional product sales.

Q. What are the current challenges being faced by the industry? How is it coping up with the same?

A. Unpredictable logistics cost and delivery, eruption in supply chain besides past and current lockdowns in big economies is putting a lot of strain on the industrial sector but good sign is that every time we bounce back as ‘V-Shape’ recovery and even sometime better as far as India is concerned. Being the biggest domestic consumption country, we rely heavily on domestic sales and growth, a sign of relief.

But volatile market behaviors on certain aspects like shortage of electronics components, logistics, input cost etc. is forcing us to increase the cost to survive and that’s what has to improve. Better forecasting is the solution and we are strongly working on the same to cope up with the current challenges.

Q. What are your expectations from the industry?

A. APAC region is expected to witness the highest growth in the industrial metrology market over the next decade and Indian industry must learn from global market on new and fast adaptation on new advancements in industrial metrology, inspection technologies, in-line and shop floor solutions.

We need to educate, and we as a responsible organization, are educating our customers (and prospects) about right and ROI-oriented buying of solutions required for their valuable facility.

Q. What are the current sentiments as regards advancements in the technology?

A. The rising need for precision dimensional analysis and validation of geometric accuracy in the manufacturing, automotive, electronics and aerospace & défence industries is the factor responsible for the largest share of the CMM segment and that is predicted in coming years too.

Shopfloor machines, flexibility, reduced set up time, higher accuracy, and increased productivity are the major advantages of CMMs over conventional gauging and the same will dominate Indian market for next 5 to 7 years.

As Robots, Cobot, Automation and Artificial Intelligence will perform more jobs in Industry and there is massive disruption of jobs expected, a wider array of education and skills-building programs is required in India, that’s where we need to focus.

Q. Do you think that the developments in the sector are enough to meet the demands from the market?

A. Surely Yes. There are lot of new advancements these days and Hexagon MI is also in the transition phase. From traditional inspection or measurement machines to high precision, Industry 4.0 compliant machines, automation assisted production, AI-enabled machines which will be the need of the day soon, we as a group, has an edge to deliver on all aspects and that’s what Hexagon MI is all about. It’s a unique combination of design & engineering, production, measurement solutions and forming the closed loop with Industry 4.0 solutions that is giving us an edge on end to end solution offering for various industry sectors.

Q. ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ and Make in India campaigns are the talk of the town. What are your views on the same, particularly as regards metrology sector?

A. This is the era of globalization. No country can survive in isolation and India is no different. Electric Vehicles production, défence indigenization and modernization, privatisations are the few factors making India self-reliant. To match low cost, globally accepted products is another area for India to explore upon. All these factors are heavily supporting the Metrology sector to grow and sustain traditional sales.

Many government decisions have taken place such as changing the definition of MSMEs, boosting scope for private participation in numerous sectors, increasing FDI in the defence sector as part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat package and all these factors are helping various industry sectors to grow.

With more and more technology advancements and evolvements, new solutions will be required in the Industry to match global standards and we at Hexagon MI, are ready to face any such anticipated scenario.   

Q. Do you think that Indian manufacturers are capable to match their global counterparts?

A. Yes, India is striving to improve its manufacturing competitiveness at a time when manufacturing powerhouses are shifting towards consumption-led growth. These manufacturing powerhouses or hubs are now facing the risk of overcapacity.

For India, on the other hand, its road to sustainably. Higher growth and a competitive manufacturing sector go through robust and reliable national infrastructure, especially in power and transportation.

With new policies and initiatives introduced by the Government of India, the country will soon become a manufacturing powerhouse especially for Automobile, Aerospace, Electronics and Medical Parts sectors. Infrastructure development and ease of business will be the key drivers in near future for FDI inflow and new start-ups in India.