Investing in Quality as the Growth Driver
Published on : Monday 30-11--0001
Sensor Intelligence is at the heart of the SICK success story over 40 years. Does this define the entire product portfolio?
Sick has just completed 70 years. 10% of our revenue is invested in R&D. This is for entire 45,000 products we have.
More than products it is automation solutions that are sought by industry today. How does the company address these?
We have experienced this from our customers and hence we have now a separate team for designing systems solutions as per customer needs. In fact such solutions are already supplied to many customers in India.
As a relatively recent entrant to the Indian market, how has the company fared in terms of reaching the goals?
We are growing at 25% CAGR for many years now. Be it process, factory or logistics automation sectors. Our goal is to maintain this leadership position by providing solutions to customer needs.
Is there any major industry where SICK is not present with solutions?
Mining, Building Automation & Defence sector are our focus for next few years now. We expect there will be good opportunities in coming years.
How different is this market compared to the experience elsewhere?
Some of these industries are beyond the standard Industrial Environment where we normally operate. However our experience from other countries like Australia will be available to address this market.
In India SMEs are often seen as cost shy when it comes to high quality. What is the experience on this count?
In our experience, SMEs are also willing to invest for the quality, as their growth driver is also the quality and reliability.
What is the nature of the company’s activities in India – any manufacturing or value addition happens locally?
India offers huge opportunities for value addition. We are planning to use this for our process automation sector. We are considering new investments in engineering back office for other markets from India.
How strong/effective is the after sales service?
Biggest differentiator today is our service capability for application support to after sales. Every office is backed up by application engineer in India.
What are the company's achievements? Especially in terms of breakthrough product launches?
Growing sales obviously comes from breakthrough products or solutions. This has been from almost all sectors.
What are the future plans, especially with the government emphasis on Make in India?
As I said before, Make in India will be one of our growth strategies.
(SICK is one of the world’s leading producers of sensors and sensor solutions for industrial applications. The company, which was founded in 1946 by Dr Erwin Sick and has its headquarters in Waldkirch im Breisgau near Freiburg in Germany, is among the technology market leaders. With more than 50 subsidiaries and equity investments as well as many agencies, SICK have a presence all over the world.)