About three months back, Sandvik Coromant became a Premium Partner of DMG MORI. How do you see it benefitting customers around the world?
We work with all major machine tool makers and I would love to sign a partnership with all the machine tool makers. In this case, DMG MORI came to us and said we would like to partner with us. It is more of a marketing partnership than a full blown collaboration at present. It generates benefits for our customers.
Besides supplying the right solutions at a competitive pricing, cutting tools players are required to help customers optimise their tool usage with the aim of increasing their productivity and reducing their costs. What are you doing on this front in terms of providing them training support?
We are conducting training programmes locally at all of our locations - including Pune - both in our centers as well as on site. Besides that we have more than 70 programmes online where our customers, our people and even students can educate themselves and stay updated with the latest relevant information. Plus, we also support our customers with in-phone tools and apps. But then at the end, it is also the person in the ‘Yellow Coat' standing beside the machine and supporting the customer. So it goes from the ‘Yellow Coat' - which made us great in the past - all the way down to being on the net. We support our customers in a multitude way.
Today, all progressive manufacturing companies are adopting Industry 4.0 and Digital Manufacturing solutions. What role is Sandvik Coromant playing in this context?
I believe that it is very difficult to predict how the future will be in that area. What I can guarantee is that with the new tools and with the new solutions, right from embedded sensors to data analytics, we will definitely team up both with customers and partners to shape the future. I think it will come step by step. But if a customer would like to being guided into the future then they should start talking to us.
With a big focus on innovation, Sandvik Coromant brings out 2,500 new products every year - averaging almost six products a day! Do you also look at developing products which are market specific or is it about standard offerings for all customers?
When it comes to global supply, it is same all over the world. We have twenty production facilities located around the globe in different markets. We have also engineering and design capacities in most of our market or supported by close-by markets. Then, if you talk about custom made tools, yes we do that very much so. In some cases we also have select assortments to address specific market needs. But generally, it is more customer-driven than country driven.
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