Peter Gucher, chairman, B&R India and member of management, B&R Austria, provided a global perspective on automation trends and its impact on industries along with “ground-breaking innovations” by B&R, which help customers become “ready for the future”.

Focus on IOT
Jhankar Dutta, managing director, B&R India, deliberated on what Industrial Internet-of-Things (IoT) means to the Indian ecosystem and more importantly how it influences the way businesses are run.

Dutta said, “With government’s Make in India initiatives, Indian machine builders and factories are becoming aware about the requirement and benefits of technology and are willing to invest in same. B&R is an innovative company, and we are ready with innovative products and solutions to be part of our customers Industrial IoT story.”

Dheeraj Taneja, director, PET Plast India, stressed on how machine manufacturers can up the efficiency, quality and productivity of the machines that they build with the help of technology.

Taneja said, “Collaborating with B&R has given us access to latest technology and made our machines competitive on the global market. Our partnership has already led to great success, and we look forward to achieving even more in the future.”

The conference saw a series of interesting discussions on various topics including integration of long-stator linear motors in packaging lines, efficiency in machine development, edge architecture enabling IT / OT convergence and importance of uniform, open and secure shopfloor communications.

Investments and expansions
Speaking about ABB’s acquisition of B&R, which was completed in July 2017, Gucher said, “ABB and B&R are united in their innovation and customer focus. These will be central factors as we evolve together going forward. Ensuring its ability to handle the steadily increasing demand for B&R's advanced automation solutions, ABB is investing in a new R&D centre at B&R headquarters in Eggelsberg as well as expanded production capacity a few kilometres away in Gilgenberg.”

Gucher also mentioned that ABB is investing Euro 100 million in global innovation and training campus in Egglesberg. Calling it a “factory of future”, Gucher said, Egglesberg campus will be new high-tech innovation and technology centre and will be fully operational in 2020.   

Dutta, managing director, B&R India also presented ambitious plans for the company to double business in the next three years. Dutta said, “Since last 20 years, many manufacturers have placed their trust in B&R’s world-class products and technologies. In order to strengthen our market position we are expanding our office space to 16,000 sq ft in Pune at the same time investing in manpower across India to match our growth plans.”

He also stressed on B&R’s customer-centric approach and focus on customer support. He said, “We have always been close to our customers and trust in long-term partnerships. To maintain this close cooperation with customers B&R India has launched World-Class Customer Support with a dedicated number. It will also help us in our endeavour to be close to customers and enabling them to reach us at all times.”

The event was attended by over 100 delegates including customers and journalists.