“Improving fuel efficiency and equipment uptime are important aspects in designing our products and customizing them as per customer requirements. Compared to European and Chinese markets, Indian market requires different technological solutions, and we are organized to provide these solutions.”
One of the goals in the PMP development plan for the next years, is to further improve the customer value by working on a deeper integration of the PMP divisions technologies and on products capabilities and features through the digitalization. First example is DigiMix, the revolutionary digital solutions for the concrete mixer drive system management presented at Excon. The integration of a control board on the existing hydraulic pump allows the remote control of parameters like pump working hours, hydraulic circuit temperature, drum speed, etc. PMP has also developed an App for remote monitoring the behavior and working parameters of the pump.
“Our goal is to improve and upgrade the after-sales services by remotely monitoring the machine to not only solve potential problems, but also predict them in advance.” says Ferazzutti.
With smart products like DigiMix it is possible to tune PMP solutions on each machine features. The result is a better performance in terms of efficiency and duration. “A smart product can give you much more in the long run than a cost-effective one. We believe that further integration of technologies and digitalization will grant us a competitive advantage to be even more successful on markets. After all these are the best answers to customer demands. We believe that this is the future.”
Another key factor to be successful on the markets is aftersales service, and in India it is even more important than in other countries. PMP is working on two sides. “From one side we work on training our customer and their after-sales team, sometime also the end-users. Training program covers all aspect of product maintenance, like duration of oil change of gear box, the quality of oil to be used, how to handle parts for a longer life, and tips for trouble shooting. “On the other side “It is very important to provide immediate support and on-field assistance. Our service team is always ready to provide highest level of customer support.”
The latest geopolitical events demonstrate the importance of building organizations that are independent from such external factors and that guarantee the ability to support and supply the customers ‘locally’, in various regions. In this way, such organizations are also able to manage price fluctuations and even bigger difficulties in getting supplies from specific areas. “We ensured that the customers were not impacted too much and took the price burden on us. We gave customers optimal solutions by sitting at a table and discuss the better solutions for them in terms of needs, quality, technology, and price. Currently, we see a downward trend in the rise of prices in China, compared to the upward trend in India”.
India is a key market for PMP where the group plan to make new investments to further consolidate and increase its market share. “There are a lot of growth opportunities, and we see PMP reaching a turnover of 750 crore in the next 3-4 years. In 2022 we are going to introduce a completely automatic assembly line in our Pune facility to widen the range of localized products. We are also going to set up new test benches for crawler and excavator applications and increase and improve the network of local suppliers. We are also planning to expand our plant from the current 5.000 sq .m. covered area to 13,000 sq. m. and to double our production capacity. This has a relevant impact also on workforce, now 80 colleagues, that in the next years will be doubled, with a particular focus on the strengthening of the application, after sales and quality department.” To manage the future development plan, a new General Manager has been appointed. In order to make our project more effective, we decided to turn to a local figure, making PMP India an entity led by local management with the support of the Italian team.
PMP group development plan is global. Beside India, the group is planning to have huge investments in Malaysia to increase the manufacturing capabilities of hydraulic components. Malaysia is a strategic location for suppling Southeast Asia markets. In next 5 years, PMP Italy is going to double the covered surface to increase the production capacity, with a particular focus on electric motors and electronic components. To mitigate the rising energetic costs, PMP invested in 1 MW of solar power plant with the plan to double it next year. This is part of the sustainability plan of the group that in the next years will be extended to all PMP plants globally.
“We believe that, globally, the only way forward is by investing in and creating new technologies” concludes Ferazzutti.
