Rockwell targets SMEs, ups India role

Rockwell Automation, the $4.4 billion industrial automation solution provider, has expanded and upgraded its engineering support centre in Bangalore along with the decision to launch small and medium range controllers for small and medium enterprises.

This is part of the company's strategy to address over half of the $6 billion global programmable logic controller market instead of the earlier quarter.

As a result, even an Indian original equipment manufacturer or machine builder with a turnover Rs 25 crore will be able to access a controller suitable for his needs.

Earlier, Rockwell catered to only those who could spend upwards of Rs 1 crore per piece of equipment. A programmable logic controller allows microprocessor-based control of manufacturing processes by entering a programme to obtain a desired output.

In India, Rockwell has a topline of Rs 275 crore and has a "clear positive bottomline".

The expansion of the Bangalore automation centre of excellence is prompted by the rapid strides that Indian manufacturing is taking and to keep raising productivity and maintaining quality in large-scale manufacture.

The Indian engineering centre, which started in 2000, tests applications and establishes proof of concept of automation solutions. It now has 15 engineers, compared to eight last year.

This upscaling will take care of the increasing complexity of what Rockwell does and also "carry a larger burden for the company in Asia", says Kenneth Deken, head of its Logix-NetLink-Kinetix business. The controllers function of Rockwell's Logix platform.

Rockwell has similar smaller engineering centres in Korea and China but the Indian one is the most efficient. The company has greater comfort in devising engineering solutions out of India as opposed to China because of a greater protection of intellectual property here.

Also, because of India's long experience in manufacturing, practical engineering skills are more developed here, whereas the level of technical education is higher in China.

As a result of the increasing sophistication of support coming out of India, Rockwell's engagement with its Indian partners like Patni and Wipro will grow and "we have increasing expectations from them", adds Deken.

Rockwell sees a great opportunity in India because of the growth in manufacturing and the improving efficiency in Indian large-scale manufacturing which has perforce to ride on growing automation. Things will get even better if India, as is expected, spends more on infrastructure.

The more airports (baggage-handling equipment) and rapid transit systems get built, the better going it will be for Rockwell. Should this happen, the engineering centre will also grow, says Deken.