Q & A

Instrumentation Manufacturers Look Forward to New Technologies in the Market

Posted on 02 February, 2010 | Tags:

 
Stuart Wakefield
Director, M/S Malvern Aimil Instruments Ltd.

How different is the demand of technologies in India as compared with the developed nations?
To some degree it depends upon the industry sector that you reside in, but on the whole it's not so different. Sectors such as Bio Technology are relatively new to India and as a result demand for measurement technologies in areas such as protein Characterization, are strong. Having said that, established industries such as Cement manufacture, also have a healthy demand for new technologies. This year has seen several new cement plants come on line, which are amongst the most automated and advanced in the world. I think the biggest difference is that many Indians companies still have a requirement to invest in routine measurement techniques as opposed to more newer and exotic technologies.

India is a very dynamic and fastest growing market in the world. What is the response India Malvern Aimil has received since the joint venture came through in 2008?
I am delighted to say extremely positive and above our expectations. As an example a key objectives of the joint venture was to increase the support to new and existing customers. Demand for our customer training courses has been particularly well received and demand is increasing. Many large Indian firms suffer from high staff turnover and face a constant training issue. Having regular, structured and custom training packages available provides companies with confidence and a ready-made solution for an employees training program. More than 100 people have attended and passed exams on our courses since we introduced them in late 2008.

What is the competition that you come across in marketing the products to the manufacturers, since there are indigenous products that are available at cheaper prices and at the same time many multinationals already in the arena?
Everyone wants a Rolls Royce for the price of a small family hatchback and that is no different in India but at the end of the day people know it's not possible. If a customer purchases one of our particle size analysis systems he has a number of options such as technical spec, support, product features, price etc. Few customers buy on price alone however and many appreciate that working with a company that can provide a complete package of support, product, features etc is actually more important. A good number of sales we make every year are to companies who are replacing a system purchased earlier, where too much emphasis was given to price, but has constantly failed to meet their expectations in terms of performance.

India is emerging as the manufacturing hub, which products offered by your organization will see the growth in demand?
When Malvern introduces a new technology it is because there is a demand or opportunity already there. Whilst being a technology driven company much work goes into market research resulting in products that our customers want or will want. One of India's fastest growing areas is in the field of Nano Technology and demand for our Nano particle measuring systems is particularly high. Process measurement (on line) is also starting to come back to the fore again. Several years ago there was  lot of interest in this area but people were put off by the investment given labor costs were so low in India. Today is slightly different. Labor costs are increasing but more importantly people are realizing that process measurement is not just about automating measurements and reducing staff. It's about optimizing the process to squeeze out maximum productivity. Increasing measurement frequency through automated measurement and amassing data real time significantly helps this process and can if used effectively result in significant quality or financial gain.

What are the future trends, Instrumentation industry will witness during the coming years?
Instrumentation manufacturers are always looking to put new features and or technologies into the market place. Simplified user interfaces are becoming increasingly important and I think we will see some big changes in this area with more inbuilt data interpretation for example. I also see more techniques being combined in one measurement. having the ability to put a sample in an instrument and geting both physical and chemical measurement data out is highly desireable for many people. As lab space becomes more expensive I think it's safe to say that physical instrument size will be reduced. Ten years ago an electron Microscope needed its own room, today there are several bench top models available.