ABB to set up solutions centre in Bangalore

ABB will set up a dedicated engineering and operations centre in Bangalore by early 2005. The company on Wednesday said that the centre will develop and execute system and engineering solutions to support automation activities across the group.

The centre will initially target a phased build up to around 500 man years of engineering and systems support to other ABB operations over the next few years.

It will focus on activities like project based engineering services, material costs migration to high productivity countries, supply chain management systems and other development projects.

A statement said that a multinational team from ABB's automation business will facilitate the exchange of technology. Already, the company has appointed Tom Sjoekvist, head, automation products business area (worldwide) as a director of ABB India.

Dinesh Paliwal, head of automation technologies division worldwide and chairman ABB India said, " This decision reflects our commitment towards developing a global value chain, where key business activities and expertise are shared across geographic boundaries."

ABB said, the new facility will be managed by the group's Indian subsidiary and will serve as a resource base for ABB units worldwide. Incidentally ABB already runs a corporate R&D centre in the city.

Established in 2002, the corporate R&D facility with about 100 domain experts is the first such centre outside Europe and the US. It focuses on industrial IT, which integrates plant automation, asset optimisation and collaborative business processes in real time for business decision support.

Incidentally ABB encouraged by the performance of the R&D centre is expanding it as well. While numbers this year were projected to double from 50 domain experts, the company said the facility is entering the rapid growth phase. Within two years of operations, it has sucessfully delivery 40 key projects.