Gates: “Our global R&D excellence to drive business in India”
How well is Gates India poised to achieve its targeted sales of USD 150 M by 2020?
Gates has 2500 patents and a global presence in 106 countries, built over years. It has been servicing industries such as energy, mining and construction equipment. In India, we have four manufacturing facilities and a fully established set-up, with over 1400 employees. We have been offering our solutions through OEMs and also catering to aftermarket requirements. To meet the specified solutions and service requirements of the OEMs, we work as a close co-engineering association. Having a global footprint has enabled us to develop strong R&D capabilities for product development and requisite support. The R&D credential is based on critical operational dynamics of our plant and machineries across sectors. The R&D is also largely based on operational performance of on- and off-highway construction and mining equipment. Now, there is a rapid evolving trend in India of optimization of the construction equipment based on marketing solutions by OEMs offering total lifecycle costs. We will look to incorporate our R&D capabilities for development of highly reliable, safe, easy to maintain products with longer lifespan backed by necessary support. One of our major strategies to support the customers better has been through our recent amalgamation of power transmission and fluid power businesses. All of this, we are quite positive, will enable us to leverage our business strengths and achieve our targeted sales in India.
Which business verticals does Gates India have on its radar for the targeted sales?
Construction equipments is one of the prime areas which is high on our sales strategy. Mineral processing and underground mining is also on the list to be tapped in a big way. This is based on the strong agenda of the government for development of infrastructure. We also have a sizeable customer base in India who are using our solutions so we are confident of a strong brand recall.
How do you propose to balance your strategy of creating centre of regional excellence in India? This is having said so many of Indian and foreign OEM’s has in place well entrenched global customer base, precisely in wheel and backhoe loaders, excavators, tipper trucks and mineral processing equipments?
At Gates, we manufacture standard solutions. The manufacturing is based on our tested ‘Stamped’, product development strategy. The process oriented strategy is abbreviated as S:required size of hose, T: ambient temperature, A: application, M: material conveyed, P: pressure, E: ends, D: delivery. The process oriented design and production strategy for our solutions is strongly based on field tests of the equipment, working across varied geographies and site conditionings, backed by our R&D capabilities. This extensively takes into account varied operating fluctuations or deviations as required by the equipment say, mineral processing equipment or tipper trucks. Operating pressure in cone crushers is very high where the oil passing through the hoses needs to withstand the high pressure for safe operation. Tipping requirements in rigid dump trucks could be actually higher in contrast to the standard design of the body as provided by the OEMs. Stamped takes into consideration the actual deviations that may occur during actual performance of the equipment on ground. The well-formulated design and production strategy for our solutions, backed by our R&D knowledge support in India and from our global operations,will enable us to serve the OEMs in India and alsothose with a global customer base.
In view of the critical operational dynamics involved in the construction equipment sector, what will be your new product line and sales support?
We will be looking at the replacement market in India in a major way through our premium products. We have found that the market remains grossly under-served. Given our R&D competence, we are well positioned to support the market. For example, we have a thorough understanding on the real time working condition of the equipment. For instance,with tunnel boring machines, we can technically support the end customers or the OEM supplier by making the routings of the hoses better for more efficient performance. We can also undertake condition monitoring analysis of the hoses and couplings working in varied operating conditions for their safe performance. This could be for critical hydraulic systems of equipment like underground loaders or tipper trucks working at extreme temperatures for hauling and tipping of muck or overburden with fast tipping cycles.
What about onsite support on real time basis as most of the equipment manufacturers have advanced telematics systems for performance monitoring? What is the level of co engineering you have in place for making the services comprehensive in nature?
In sync with the requirements of the OEM customers to deliver total lifecycle costs of the products, we have mapping solutions to take a real-time stock of the active fleet of equipment. This is to address replacement requirements of the equipment in case of field failure. We have a country-wide presence for replacement requirements. Yes, Thanks to advanced telematics, we are able to supplement our mapping. This will enable us to target the replacement market more effectively.
GST is a game changer for OEMs. What are your views on this?
GST implementation will facilitate us further to be responsive to our customer’s sales and service requirements for higher equipment availability. This will be through seamless transportation of our solutions across states.
NBM&CW June 2017
