By the Members, of the Members & for the Members
ITS 2022: Charting the growth trajectory for the Indian tooling industry
The 6th edition of the International Tooling Summit (ITS) was recently held at Hotel The Leela Ambience, Gurugram, on September 21-22, 2022. Organised every year by the Tool and Gauge Manufacturers Association (TAGMA), it is India’s largest die and mould conference. With more than 400 visitors, the 6th ITS edition witnessed around 40 speakers discussing various topics that impact the Indian tooling industry.
As various sectors continue to emerge in India, FDIs increase and manufacturing PMIs reflect good numbers, the Indian tooling industry is treading on the path to growth. With this thought in mind, TAGMA decided on keeping the theme of this edition of ITS as: ‘Indian Tooling Industry: Poised for Growth’. The event highlighted opportunities, localisation,technology trends, emerging sectors, PLI schemes, challenges and policy framework, among other topics.
An auspicious start
The programme started with the National Anthem, followed by lighting of the traditional lamp and inauguration by the dignitaries including Chief Guest Mr. Sunil Kakkar, Sr. Executive Officer - Supply Chain, Maruti Suzuki India Limited; Guest of Honour Mr. Hari Om Rai, Chairman & Managing Director, Lava International Limited; Guest of Honour Mr. Prashant Jain, Managing Director, GE Power India Ltd.; Mr. T. S. Gopalakrishnan, Director - Marketing, Multiple Special Steel Pvt. Ltd.; Mr. Vishal Agarwal, President, Yudo Hot Runner India Pvt. Ltd.; Mr. D. M. Sheregar, President, TAGMA India, and Mr. D Shanmugasundaram, Vice President, TAGMA India, in the presence of the attendees, speakers, panellists and sponsors.
This was followed by a welcome speech by Mr. Sheregar. Welcoming the dignitaries, attendees, speakers and sponsors, he said, “As the President of TAGMA and the representative of the Indian toolmakers, I welcome all of you to the 6th International Tooling Summit. I welcome everyone present here – our guests on the dais, speakers, sponsors, and my friends from the tooling industry. Since the start of this decade, leaders around the world are saying that this decade belongs to India. There is a sense of positivity among global businesses and people are looking at India with lots of hope and optimism. This definitely is a good sign. We are seeing FDIs increasing, and Indian large conglomerates are expanding, this will be a good opportunity for Indian toolmakers. We have a huge business opportunity in front of us.”
Spot the opportunities
Sharing his views, Mr. Kakkar said, “I am delighted to present here at this forum in front of leaders from the tooling fraternity. As an OEM, I am happy to share that we have worked closely with Tier-1 suppliers and tooling companies and the result is that 90% of our tooling requirements are met domestically. Earlier, most automotive OEMs were dependent on countries like Korea, Taiwan and China for tools, but I must congratulate you all for the remarkable work you have done, as now, almost all types of tools are available in India. I would encourage my friends from the tooling fraternity here to be prepared for the changes happening in the automotive industry. The transition in the automotive is happening really fast and you need to be prepared to tackle it.”
Mr. Rai then went on to highlight the opportunities in the mobile and other electronics goods manufacturing sector. He said: “IT and electronics together generate a revenue of about $4 trillion globally and it gets multiplied at least 4 times to create a global GDP of about $17 trillion and the valuation of the companies in electronics and tech is about $23 trillion. It’s a critical industry for any country. In India, we are about 5-5.5% of global mobile consumption, which is very low considering our population is about 18% of the world’s population. So, I see a huge opportunity in the mobile and other electronics goods manufacturing. With PLI schemes and the government’s decision to allow JVs in mobile manufacturing, we will see a huge opportunity in mobile and other electronics goods manufacturing. We have to work closely and see how we can reduce the cost of each and every activity of manufacturing to not just target the Indian market but to export globally.”
Are we utilising our resources?
Mr. Jain emphasised on optimum utilisation of local resources and importance of research and innovation. In his keynote address, he said, “300 billion to 500 billion, the journey of manufacturing is not going to happen without the great support of the tooling industry. If I look at the environment today in India, the factors that are working in our favour are: 1) robust demand domestically, 2) right policy framework and the will (PLI schemes and Make in India) and 3) young population. Today, we have been developing in this country largely on import substitution and localisation and I would like to challenge this group here to look beyond. We can target the world with our local capabilities. If we have to go far, we need to recognise two things – the local resources (local talent & R&D) and innovations. The local resources backed with research and innovations can do wonders.”
Mr. Gopalakrishnan stated, “At this stage, in front of leaders from the industry where we have professionals from OEMs, who are at the top of the pyramid, to Tier-I suppliers to toolmakers and finally, people like us, the raw material suppliers and technology providers to the tooling industry, we all have to come together and see that our immediate customer is satisfied with our products or services. It’s when we all have a satisfied customer, the whole ecosystem will grow and as a country we will become a strong tooling hub.” “As an executive council member of TAGMA, I would also like to urge members present here to encourage and add more members in the TAGMA family. It’s our association and we must make it strong so that our voice is heard in parliaments as well,” added Mr. Gopalakrishnan.
Mr. Agarwal then addressed the audience. He said, “When we started Yudo in India 22 years ago, the Indian tooling Industry was in its initial growth phase, and tooling was majorly done for white goods, household and other sectors, including automotive, but none of them were significant enough. Since then, definitely, we have come a long way. Today, the technical capabilities of our tool rooms are at par with any global tooling standards, be it any segment like automotive, packaging, white goods electrical or household. However, there are many areas we all must work on together, like the delivery time of tools in India, which has to improve, and tool rooms alone cannot do that. There is a lot which has to be done from the vendor’s side first, where steel suppliers, mould base, standard parts and hot runners come into the picture. We all have to work on our processes and speak to our counterparts to invest more in India.”
Vote of thanks Mr. Shanmugasundaram delivered the vote of thanks with warm greetings to the dignitaries present at the event. “Today, standing here, as someone who closely works with the tooling fraternity, I am very excited about the future. I see huge opportunities coming our way from various industries – automotive OEMs are showing great numbers, EVs are catching up, especially in the 2-wheeler and 3-wheeler segments, and industries like defence, aerospace, medical, mobile, white goods, packaging, agriculture, and construction equipment are all growing. Companies from these sectors are setting up their manufacturing base here, which is a great sign for toolmakers. It is time for us to explore these industries as well and develop skills accordingly,” he said. In his speech, he also announced various new initiatives that TAGMA has planned, such as tooling academy for skill development and delegation to Canada, among others.
ITS in sessions
Day 1
The first panel discussion on the ‘Indian tooling industry: What stops us from becoming the tool factory of the world?’ was moderated by Mr. Ankit Sahu, Director, Objectify Technologies Pvt. Ltd., while the panellists were Mr. M. M. Singh, Director & CEO, International Automobile Centre of Excellence (iACE) and Executive Advisor, Maruti Suzuki India; Mr. Vivek Nanivadekar, Executive Director, Fibro India Precision Products Pvt. Ltd.; Mr. Ashim Sharma, Senior Partner & Group Head Business Performance Improvement Consulting (Auto, Engg. & Logistics), Nomura Research Institute, and Mr. D. Ravi, Managing Director, CM Precision Product & MD, Clastek Engineering Pvt. Ltd. In this panel discussion, the panellists highlighted the current state of the Indian tooling industry, the policy framework, the benchmarking with global tooling hubs, skill development, growth drivers and challenges that Indian toolmakers face
The first technical session 'The Journey of Multiple' was presented by Mr. Gopalakrishnan. This was followed by a technical session on the ‘Role of hot runners in addressing the EV segment, speciality materials and applications’ by Mr. Agarwal. The next technical session on ‘Overview of Indian Tooling Industry’ was presented by Mr. Aashutosh Sinha, Sr. Manager - Business Performance Improvement, Nomura Research Institute (NRI) Consulting & Solutions. The technical session ‘Machining Czars Of Die & Mould Industry – Diaedge & Moldino’ was conducted by Mr. Anoop Pandey, Dy. General Manager, MMC Hardmetal India Pvt. Ltd. (a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Materials). Dr. P. M. Pandey, Department of Mechanical Engineering, IITDelhi & Director of BIET-Jhansi also conducted a technical session on ‘Leveraging Metal 3-D Printing for rapid tool realization’. A technical session on ‘Designing and building tools for the electrical industry’ was conducted by Mr. Dominic Savio, General Manager - Central Process Engineering, Legrand. A technical session on ‘Complications in manufacturing press tools: How to overcome manufacturing challenges?’ was conducted by Mr. K. Vijayakumar, Unit Head – Tool Room, Brakes India Pvt. Ltd.
The last session of Day 1 was an interesting panel discussion on ‘Indian tooling industry: Expand your horizon’. The agenda of this session was to highlight opportunities, challenges, and expectations from various industries for toolmakers. The session was moderated by Mr. Arvind Chawla, Consultant - Innovative Solutions, Injection Moulds, Automation and Project Management, and the panel consists of Mr. Anand Wankhede, Head Tool Manufacturing - Engineered Tooling Solutions, Schneider Electric India Pvt. Ltd.; Mr. Dayanand Reddy, Founder & Managing Director, Vasantha Tools Crafts Pvt. Ltd; Mr. Raju Desai, Chairman, Jyoti Plastic Works Pvt. Ltd. and Mr. S. K. Jha, Head – Mould Shop, Alpla Group. The panel was represented by professionals from industries like packaging, plastics, electrical and tool room. They all highlighted their expectations from the tooling fraternity and also provided their suggestions for improvements.
Felicitations!
The evening program started with the felicitation of industry stalwarts Mr. Krishnamoorthy, Chairman, Fine Components and Tools Pvt. Ltd.; Mr. A. K. Kaul, Horizon Industrial Products Pvt. Ltd., and Mr. S. C. Kalyanpur, Founder and Managing Director of Sridevi Tool Engineers Pvt. Ltd.; for their immense contributions to the Indian tooling industry. The felicitation ceremony was followed by a cultural programme and networking dinner.
The power-packed day one sessions came to an end with a thank you note from Executive Council Member, Mr. Amit Kumar Parashar, COO, Subros Ltd.
Proceedings of Day 2
Day 2 began with a welcome speech from TAGMA Executive Council member, Paresh Panchal, CEO, CAM Tools India.
The first session of the day was presented by Mr. Giuseppe Di Mario, Tool Steel Sales Manager, Lucchini RS, on ‘Extra-large forgings for aluminium structurals’. It was followed by a technical session on ‘Yudo’s endowment in advancement of Indian tooling in packaging & medical segment’ by Mr. Agarwal. There was also a technical session on ‘How the recent global economical changes affected the die and mould industry and how we will adapt to them?’ by Raghav Prasad, Head - Die Mould Department, Makino India Pvt. Ltd. A technical session on ‘Advanced heat treatment for high performance tooling’ by Mr. C. Vijayakumar, Senior Manager – Technical and Value added Services, voestalpine High Performance Metals India Pvt. Ltd. was also held. There were technical sessions on ‘Successful qualifications of Additive Manufacturing for the aerospace sector’ by Dr. Dheepa Srinivasan, Chief Engineer, Pratt and Whitney (R&D CenterBangalore) and on ‘Plastic mould tooling for the packaging industry’ by Mr. S. K. Jha, Head – Mould Shop, Alpla Group.
A technical session on ‘Aspects of Diecasting’ by Mr. Ranjan Swaroop, Director, M/s AgKASA Industries and the last session of the event was presented by Mr. Amar Vemanaboyina from Siemens Digital Industry Software on ‘Streamlining IIoT adoption for your Industry 4.0 journey’. In his presentation, he highlighted the step-by-step process to adopt IoT solutions on SME shop floors.
The first panel discussion of the day was on ‘Localisation trends: Challenges, opportunities & policy framework’.
The panel was moderated by Mr. Niranjan Mudholkar, Editorial Director, Pro MFG Media and included Mr. Kalyanpur; Mr. Ravindra Gugale, Sr. GM - Purchase - Interiors & Plastic Division, TATA AutoComp Systems Ltd.; Mr. C. S. Agarwal, Asst. Vice President - Component Development & Tooling, Lumax Industries Limited and Mr. Vikas Gupta, Founder, CEO & CFO, eAshwa Automotive Pvt. Ltd. as panellists. The speakers highlighted not only the need for localisation, but also the challenges they are facing while sourcing certain tools in India as well as their expectations from Indian toolmakers.
The second panel discussion titled ‘Die & mould innovations for tomorrow’, the panel highlighted technology trends such as additive manufacturing, industry4.0, design & manufacturing software and the latest machining strategies for the tooling industry.
The panel was moderated by Dr. Vishwas Puttige, Business Head, Amace Solutions Pvt. Ltd. and included Mr. Panchal; Mr. Parashar and Mr. Shatyabrata Das, Sr GM - Tooling, IAC Group as speakers..
In conclusion
In conclusion
With many insightful sessions, networking with industry leaders & user industry professionals, the event concluded on a high note. In his closing remark, Mr. Shanmugasundaram thanked all the sponsors, speakers and attendees, TAGMA management and secretariat for ensuring that ITS 2022 was a grand success. He also appealed to toolmakers to actively participate in TAGMA activities and help the association grow. All the attendees were filled with gratitude and optimism. As highlighted by the panel discussions, the future looks certainly bright for Indian toolmakers.
Some of the common outcomes of the two-day summit were:
- Indian tooling industry is poised for growth
- Toolmakers need to look beyond automotive and explore emerging sectors
- Skill development is key
- We need to fast-track technology adoption
- Cluster development is a must
- We must focus on exports as well.
The two-day event helped the attendees gain a thorough understanding of the latest technology trends, customer expectations, opportunities and the challenges in front of the Indian tooling industry and growth drivers.
Testimonials
“Since its inception, the International Tooling Summit has come a long way to become one of the best and biggest conferences for the tooling industry in the world. The Indian tooling industry is indeed poised for growth and the 2022 edition truly showcased the same through various insightful presentations and panel discussions. Some of the trending topics such as localisation, diversifications, technology adoption, and skill developments were very well focussed upon. I congratulate the organising team for the great success of ITS 2022” - D. K. Sharma, Immediate Past President, TAGMA India
I would like to congratulate the International Tooling Summit team for organising such a wonderful event. The topics covered during the technical presentations and panel discussions were insightful. Also, bringing in speakers from diverse backgrounds was a good initiative, as it helped us understand the expectations of various industries. I am eagerly awaiting the next ITS edition. It is a must-attend event for anyone dealing with the tooling industry.” - Vivek Nigam, Plant Manager, EMKA India Panel Accessories Pvt.Ltd
ITS 2022 was a wonderful event. It clearly highlighted the present state of the Indian tooling industry, the capabilities of Indian toolmakers and the growth prospects. It will also help the plastics industry and those who deal with press tools.The speaker line-ups and topics were beyond my expectations.The event clearly showcased the enthusiasm among the Indian toolmakers. On behalf of the All India Plastics Manufacturers Association (AIPMA), I congratulate the TAGMA management for the great show and their exemplary work towards the betterment of the Indian tooling industry.” - Jayesh Rambhia, Chairman Plastic Park & Projects & Past President, AIPMA
