Tech Edge

Highly Specialised Technical Centres Help Vendors Display Product Capabilities So Prospective Customers Can Test Out Their Prototypes Or Undertake Quick Machining Before Making Any Significant Investment Decisions.

- Bindu Gopal Rao

TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE HAS LONG BEEN recognised as an important driver of economic growth. Technical centres are no less than a centre of innovation, where the customer can witness new possibilities in rapidly progressing high-speed machining technology and design engineering. They are the new-age version of networking, strategically initiated to display component machining capability, optimised applications support and comprehensive training in close proximity to the customer. We find out more about how these facilities work.

ADVANTAGE TECHNOLOGY

Today, specialised technical centres play an important role in the machine tool industry as more and more process-oriented projects are being handled, which means that most customers ask for manufacturing solutions rather than just a machine tool.

“They want the machine tool supplier to provide a complete solution with commitment to quality and quantity, hence these technical centres are the places where the value addition on the machine tool takes place. Of course, we are also planning to have one in the near future,” says Rajesh Ghashi, MD, Chiron India Machine Tools.

VVS Mani, director, operations, Unibic Foods, adds, “For FMCG products like ours, we do not have such centres ready, as of now. However, some of our business partners (machinery suppliers) are working towards having lines for certain products, which could be used for understanding the capabilities and also to test market some products in select regions etc., thereby cutting down the expenses of having to put up our own lines with huge investments, risk of idle capacities, and huge inventories of raw materials for full-fledged line capacities.”