‘Make in India’ will open up opportunities: Airbus

India has become a key emerging market for aerospace industry and the business volume today is around $400 million, said Klaus Richter, Chief Procurement Officer, Airbus Group.

Speaking at the Airbus Group Endowed Chair for Sourcing and Supply Management at Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB) meet on ‘Aerospace Value Chain,’ Richter said ‘Make in India’ campaign is expected to open up great opportunities for the aerospace Industry and highlighted the need to explore India’s resources and develop local capabilities.

The Chair was founded in 2007 and has since then been a long-term engagement at IIMB. It has become a stable base for organising conferences and seminars.

The meet explored key challenges for the aerospace value chain in India and provided strategic insights into growth, business drivers, constraints and timelines that affects the aerospace value chain in the country.

The panellists also outlined the challenges faced at various levels of the supply chain while securing long-term contracts from Airbus and other aerospace OEMs.

Sudhakar Gande, Vice-Chairman, Axix Cades, said, “The right time for fielding a supply chain for aerospace is now.” He added that India is an important market which should cash in on the cost competitiveness, technology transfer and implement best practices to build the business.

He added that the automotive industry’s model should be replicated so that the components can be exported to all parts of the world in the near future.

“The industry has always been global and today we are seeing a paradigm shift from vertical integration to horizontal specialisation,” said Gopi H, Managing Director, ThyssenKrupp Aerospace India. He explained how the market is migrating to Mexico because of motivating market economy.

He emphasised on “what to locate, where to locate and how to do it?” while talking about the manufacturing production of components for the aerospace industry.

Highlighting the challenges, Arvind Mehra, Executive Director and CEO, Mahindra Aerospace, said, “India has miles to go, and so we have to be open to accept technology from outside to provide a world-class facility. High investment rate, long gestation period, slow approval processes, long time learning curves and quality of expectations are some of the challenges faced today.”

He offered a consolidated solution by stating that aerospace companies can start small and rope in local vendors in a transparent system of interaction.

“When we compare India with China, we are way behind in terms of manufacturing,” said M N Shrinath, General Manager HAL, Aircraft Division, Bangalore, expressing the importance of grass root level skilled training to deliver identical components.

“We take globally sourced raw materials and machine it outside, mostly in UK, where the cost of capital is much lower and we place our assemblers in India”, said

Udayant Malhoutra, CEO and Managing Director, Dynamatic Technologies, said India has the best of both west and east, which ensures a ‘zero defect and zero risk’ performance.

“Aerospace industry can be the next powerhouse of employment and export for India,” said Chris Rao, Vice-President and Site Leader, Goodrich India, while focusing on the development of a local vendor base in India.

He listed the key features like a dedicated aerospace policy, openings of FDI, special incentives for aerospace industry and setting up of mentoring systems to create an eco-system in the country.

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