The summit discussed some of the key issues such as Industry 4.0, disruptive technologies, organisational hurdles, impact of GST, etc
German Engineering Federation (VDMA), which completed 125 years, recently organised its mechanical engineering summit in Bangalore that was attended by more than 220 people. The summit, headed by Rajesh Nath, Managing Director, VDMA India, had key industry speakers discussing topics such as Industry 4.0, disruptive technologies, manufacturing and production changes, organisational hurdles, and the impact of GST. India is the second-largest sales market in Asia for the German engineering industry.
The inaugural session
The Chief Guest R V Deshpande, Minister, Large and Medium Scale Industries, Karnataka congratulated VDMA on completing 125 years. The State of Karnataka is a keen supporter of Make in India and is encouraging more companies to set up their manufacturing bases in Karnataka. The minister also thanked all the VDMA member companies, who have already established themselves in Karnataka and also extended a welcome to all those members who would plan to invest in Karnataka in the future. The Minister requested for more German companies to start operations in Karnataka keeping in mind that India will have the largest population in the world by 2025.Margit Hellwig-Boette, Consul General, Federal Republic of Germany, Bangalore congratulated Rajesh Nath, who is to be accorded the German Cross of Merit - the highest German civilian honour for the promotion of Indo-German trade. She considered VDMA as an excellent platform of providing network for German companies and helping them to establish their businesses in India. She mentioned that in the field of mechanical engineering, VDMA plays a very important role in establishing network between their members.
The Minister launched the VDMA India app and released the VDMA special publication commemorating 125 years.
Summit also witnessed technical sessions on topics such as 'Business impact of GST on manufacturing industry’, ‘Digitalisation: India advantage’, and “Additive manufacturing (AM): The game changer for the manufacturing industry”.
Rajesh Nath moderated a panel discussion on ‘Coping with growth and overcoming challenges in manufacturing’. The participants in the discussion were Marc Jarrault, Managing Director, Lapp India; Georg Graf, CEO, Freudenberg Regional Corporate Centre; Nitin Vyas, Managing Director, Beumer India, Sunil K Gupta, CEO & Managing Director, KION India and Rajesh Mishra, Managing Director, Vulkan Technologies. The discussions commenced by Rajesh Nath, asking each of the panel members to explain the growth in their organisation during their tenure and the ways and means used to overcome internal and external challenges faced by their organisations during this period.
The various hurdles/challenges that the panel leaders overcame during their career stint in their organisations were: skills training, gender diversity, meeting global standards of manufacturing & quality processes while locally manufacturing in India, integration challenges of acquired company due to poor skills & quality of the supply chain partners of the acquired company, Challenges on customer side in adoption of technology, Indian taxation and legal system, Indian infrastructure impeding logistics and movement, labour issues, poor vocational training system, price sensitiveness of the Indian customer/market, bridging aspirations of the older generation people with the millennial, passing knowledge from the older to newer generation, attrition of skilled labour and adopting/suiting German products to Indian needs. The panel leaders displayed innovative methods and processes adopted by their organisation in overcoming the specific challenges in their respective organisations.
The summit concluded with an evening presentation by Jai Khurana, Sr. Vice President and Head of Business Development, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited, providing an overview of the Adani Group.