Do you think things have started to get better with automotive industry getting back on track?
Green shoots of growth are being observed, though the pace of growth is not up to the expectation. Also, as we are beginning to see automotive sales, especially the passenger car segment increasing, the capacity utilisation is also improving. Sooner or later the new investment plans will also kick in.

What are the challenges and how are you dealing with them?
The major challenges are in keeping up with the demands of the market. There is always a cost pressure when the demand is down as many players would be fighting for the smaller pie. Managing cost to the price pressures especially at lower volumes is a tough act. Working with the customer holistically across the value chain to provide value is a key challenge in tough times.

Do you think the machine tools industry's approach is now changing due to the dynamic nature of the market?
There is more uncertainty and chaos in the market as predicted. Manufacturing and machine tool industries have to learn to be responsive to this new dynamic era. The throughput time has to be cut down in order to be able to deliver to the changing needs of the user industry.

Rather than stocking and selling manufacturers have to move to the mode of build to the requirement in shorter time in order to be responsive to the changing needs of the market. We at ACE Designers have implemented systems to produce our standard machine within five days and this has helped us to trim our finished goods inventory. A serious effort to show case Life time & life cycle costs and working to reduce it is beginning to happen.

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