- Companies with automation recovered faster than companies without automation and SCHMALZ India helped companies adapt to automation smoothly
- India has only 6-7 robots per 10,000 thousand workforces, much lower than Germany and China, creating a big scope for scaling up
- Automation, as opposed to the idea eliminator of jobs, will create more jobs in the new roles upgrading human intervention
For a company that has enabled numerous manufacturers to scale up their level of process automation, the COVID19 crisis loomed large as a business dampener, much as it did for most other industries. But just like a true leader that SCHMALZ has always been on the vacuum technology field, the company once again led from the front in fighting the COVID19 impact on businesses and came out with innovations for businesses.
Philip Mani, Managing Director, SCHMALZ India Private Limited spoke to Machine Maker and discussed how automation and digitization have helped companies brace up for the unforeseeable. Also, setting a benchmark for the New Normal, SCHMALZ took the virtual route for customers to not have them slowed down due to the pandemic.
More Automation: Less Fear of Unexpected Situations
“In our company, for instance, at least 20-25 of our contract workers went back to their villages during the Lockdown. As they returned amidst COVID fears, they were not ready to return. For a company with 140 odd people, it is really challenging. So, you can imagine the impact on bigger companies,” he points out adding that automation is the only way to tackle such disruption. Until automation is at a higher level, there is a major challenge.
SCHMALZ supported many Indian companies with Automation solutions during lockdown which helped them steer clear of long term production stoppage and helped come back faster.
MSMEs and SMEs in India feel labour is cheap and they avoid automation. But the pandemic has shown that automation is a must-have to weather off uncertainty. He said that the companies which were using automation restored production faster than the companies not having automation.
Automation, Philips believes, in any way, is going to be the saviour as well as the driver of business growth in the future. Mr. Mani is optimistic that despite low awareness automation has a bright future in India. “If we compare India with other countries, there are hardly 6-7 robots per 10000 workers whereas in Germany or China the figure is around 600??? robots per 10000 workers. So, there is a big scope to scale up,” he said adding “In India, people have realised the importance of automation. The more they automate the less of fear during an unexpected situation.”
Automation is not only a saviour during the uncertain situation but also enhances productivity. There is a need to get a better and better level of automation in companies. This drives many to pre-empt that automation will lead to the loss of a job. However, Philip allays that fear. “Some jobs will be lost but it will create more new jobs and especially white-collar jobs for people who have been for a longer period of time in a field.
“Why does a company automate? It is to increase productivity. When you increase production, there more other jobs that are being created that you do with automation. 100 percent of automation is not possible or is not necessary. So, either at the starting or the end of the automation there will always be people.” He envisions that there will be substantial growth for the next 10-20 years.
Serving Essential Services: Braving adversities with Innovation
“Initially we had no idea what to do and how to go about it. Being a supplier to the food and pharma industry, we were part of essential services but we had no given clear directives as to what were the restrictions and guidelines to follow,” he said.
However, the company adjusted fast. They ensured commuting for employees. As people going in and out of the plant was a matter of concern for fear of infection, they decided to keep the core team who run the machines stationed in the plant to continue production. The company also arranged for laptops for employees so that the rest of the people can work smoothly from home.
The government has made its effort in delaying the spread of it but that could not be contained. “I don’t see this situation change until June next year. So, not much movement in the business is expected until the first half of the next year. After that, there may be some normality.”
He thinks that fear is already embedded in people. “There is some degree of uncertainty in people of losing a job salary cut or even not getting a salary. All this will impact the spending in the economy as everybody would try to save now because they don’t know what will happen tomorrow. A high rate of unemployment in the country is part of this.”
As for the impact on the business “During April, we could manage hardly one or two exports. Since June it started getting back to normalising. And by August we were back in track,” Philip said, giving an interesting insight into this turnaround: “The reason for this turnaround is also COVID because people were not ready to touch machines and automated handling was preferred. Companies were moving towards that. We being a leader in solutions for process automation, all our existing, as well as new customers, relied upon us and that is why we’re able to come back to healthy so fast,” Philip informed, however, adding that since it has again come to almost normal the growth has slowed down.
Empowering Global Manufacturers with Virtual Expo
“In Germany, SCHMALZ started Virtual Expo where they are displaying all the products and also new products,” Philip said. As for India, the expo witnessed spontaneous registrations and earned rave reviews. “During the pandemic, everybody was interested in virtual meetings and presentations. So, we found a very good opportunity to educate more than 1500 people all over India about vacuum technology,” he said.
“Virtual Expo was organised for Holland, US, Canada. But many people were just visiting to have an experience. Since it was a new technology platform, everybody wanted to check it, so we had a high level of participation but the output was low as compared to a physical exhibition. But I am sure in future more and more people with decision-making intention will visit the expo.”
There is a lack of orientation with the New Normal in India as well and people still believe in the physical meeting. “When everything started to open up, people were not so interested. So, when we did another program after lockdown we found hardly 150 registrations even though we put up the same amount of activity in marketing and promotion,” Mr. Mani admits.
Though there is a tendency for this new platform, people still do not think that virtual thing is still not as effective, and physical touch with a machine in an expo is still more appealing. He feels that almost 90 percent will return to the same old school and 10 percent will be in the virtual space.
He highlights the benefit of cost savings with the virtual expo. “Customer visits cost about Rs. 1000/1500 per visit on average when we think of sales. Even if 10% of 50 prospective customers are converting to online, we can save a substantial amount of travel costs alone. We have to think about the cost-saving angle as well. Companies will gradually realize this and implement this. SCHMALZ India, for its part, is planning to conduct 25% of sales visits online by the next year, informed Mr. Mani.
SCHMALZ also added Online Installation to its service vertical. “Earlier our experts used to go to the site and install but now that has changed. We have already solved issues of customers over the virtual platform by giving them a comprehensive direction on what to do and how to do it.” The customer has a cost advantage as for availing the same quality service the customer has to pay less. This is the new normal.
“We are using LinkedIn, Google ads, Instagram, twitter. We were in the Google ads but now it is in a more channeled way to ensure our presence in the market. We have introduced the Chat option on the website to help people get instant advice.”
SCHMALZ Support to COVID19 Fight
According to him, people in Germany are more sensible in following safety measures. That is also the reason, businesses in Germany or Europe, for that matter, did not shut down completely. They were operating even during the pandemic. Even in Japan which was one of the highest infected countries initially did not shut down.
SCHMALZ also stepped up its preparedness in the Indian context. They introduced a system as part of which one day at the office for different departments are followed. For the rest of the week, the employees can work from home. One day is the interdepartmental meeting. It is mandatory to be on different days to also not have too many inside the company at the same time.
“We set exemplary safety protocols as they disinfect office thrice a day, employees are checked for temperature three times a day, even if there are small symptoms they are getting the person tested to ensure that he is comfortable and the rest of the employees are also comfortable. “Even inside the office meeting if the number of people is more we do on virtual media. Only when we should be inside a meeting room then only we are inside. Besides, once every month we are disinfecting the homes of employees by our specialist.”
Beyond the protocols followed in the house, SCHMALZ has also taken the awareness and safety protocols outside. “During the pandemic, we supplied face shields to Sassoon hospital to more than 980 employees, and also to Dhanashree Hospital. We also supplied to the face shield police station in our area. The face shields are manufactured by SCHMALZ Germany and were imported by us.”
Philip James Mani is with Schmalz India Private Limited for more than 22 years, and from November 2015 leading from the front as the Managing Director. Started as a Sales Engineer, having sound knowledge in vacuum-based material handling systems, he established Schmalz in India and took a major role in setting up of their Production Unit in Pune.
Recently while celebrating 50 years of World Trade Centre (WTC) globally, WTC Pune selected Philip as Thought Leader for Pune Inc. Manufacturing Think Tank, along with 12 other business leaders.
Started in 1999 SCHMALZ India is a market leader in automation with vacuum and ergonomic handling systems. It offers an extensive range of unmatched quality Vacuum Gripping and Handling Systems to a number of industrial applications. For more details visit: www.schmalzindia.com
