Recently OMRON Inaugurates Its Fifth Automation Center in India with state-of-the-art Facility for customers to help them make the best of their investment in industrial automation. Mr. Sameer Gandhi, MD, OMRON Automation, India spoke to EM more on the center highlights and OMRON Key strengths in Industrial Automation sector.
1. First Congratulations on the Inauguration of Fifth Omron Automation Center in India, can you share your comments on this initiative?
Thank you very much! Automation Center in India is an initiative taken by OMRON Corporation. Its the 5th such centre in the world after Japan, China, Europe and the US. Automation Center is based on the philosophy of “you create the concept , we will help you to make it work”. The Automation Center will enable our customers test their new ideas, experience and understand how they can bring more improvements to their current manufacturing set up and can become more competitive in their respective fields by utilising the latest technology in industrial automation from Omron.
2. What are the main highlights of this center?
‘Seeing is believing’ is the mantra for the Omron Automation Center in India. It provides a hands-on exposure to our customers so that they can simulate their concept, modify it as per their requirements and experience the results. This process saves time, cost and manpower involved at customer end resulting in lesser down time and more profitable results.
Highlights of the Center:
- The Automation center has the key portfolio of industrial automation range of OMRON on display as well as the technical and application support capabilities through state-of-the-art actual demonstrations on machines and laboratories.
- The field of expertise includes SYSMAC Platform, Vision Inspection Solution, Robotics Solution and Machine Safety Solutions.
- The SYSMAC platform, placed on a dedicated wall known as SYSMAC Wall, depicts a high speed & high accuracy fully integrated platform by three “Ones” – One Machine Controller, One Machine Network, One Machine Software.MD, OMRON Automation, India
– The Machines Area consists of a Delta Robot, a SCARA Robot, a Bottling Machine & a Vertical Form Filling Machine together to explain some of the benefits like, flexibility, accuracy, reliability, speed and efficiency that Omron Automation Technology can bring to the various industrial applications – primarily packaging and material handling.
– OMRON being one of the few unique players in the industry having vision sensing and automation technology integrated in its portfolio, the Center also has a vision lab to allow testing of vision inspection functions by customers with several possible variations of lighting, lens & controllers.
– Another notable area in the Center is the “Tsunagi Lab” which provides the complete integration experience of OMRON to OMRON and OMRON to third party components so that the patrons are able to learn and handle the technologies which are in the scope of the total solution.
3. What is the key criterion of opening and major roles of this new Center, will it be different from existing Centers?
As told earlier the main objective of opening this Center is to be the first choice of customers as an automation partner by providing value added solutions with next generation technologies. We try and replicate the same concept in every country/region however since these centres should be customised to cater to the different customer demands and expectations for each country/region, hence the value generation by all the ATCs may not be similar.
4. How it will benefit your customers, and how it will enhance your relationship with your customers?
Automation Center is established in order to provide development support to our customers. It can be described as a place where our customers can visit and realize their concepts of machine integration. This not only provides support to our customers but also helps in establishing Omron as an Automation Partner to them.
5. What do you feel about the Industrial Automation growth in India?
With the Indian consumer becoming increasingly quality conscious, we feel there is a big scope for growth in India for the Industrial Automation segment. India is an extremely important market for us and hence is a part of our “Asia Hotspot” strategy. The reasons for the same are;
- The first one is the rapid growth in automation. We believe that the manufacturing sector in India is on its way to witness a boost in investments in automation, with a growing focus on quality, efficiency and productivity combined with a shortage of skilled workforce. This is creating a requirement of additional production processes in the manufacturing world such as vision inspection (to improve quality).
- The huge population base of 1.22 billion people is another factor leading to a significant growth of the consumption in the country further causing an increase in mass production of foods, necessities, and expansion of related industries such as Automotive, Food & Beverage, Pharmaceutical, and Textile to name just a few.
- I would like to specifically describe the potential of the automotive manufacturing industry. India stands at no. 6 in the annual production of automobiles. It is around 3.38 million cars as on 2013 and is hopeful of witnessing significant acceleration in the coming years.
- The investment in the social infrastructure of the country is also going up and shall continue to do so in the long run.
All these factors have a cumulative effect in increasing the requirement of automation in the manufacturing sector. Hence to leverage the same OMRON has launched its ATC in India.
