“In the first 20 years, we have had a good start and we have built a strong foundation to become what we are today – a brand to reckon with in the tooling industry. Now it’s actually about switching to the next level. We are now looking at an accelerated growth of the company in the Indian market.”
October 2023 : Global cutting tools major Walter AG’s Indian arm – Walter Tools India recently celebrated its 20th Anniversary. On the occasion, Sai Kumar and Roopal Mishra of Pro MFG Media caught up with Dmitry Andreev, Vice President Global Sales, Walter AG and Brajesh Kumar, Managing Director – Walter Tools India, to understand the Company’s progress so far and the way ahead.
How’s been the business for Walter Tools from the global perspective and what role is the India market playing in the overall picture?
Dmitry Andreev: Well, we are satisfied with the overall development if we refer to this year. The company has been growing since a couple of years with a combination of organic growth and also by acquiring and integrating companies into the Walter Group. Of course, if you look a little bit longer back, we were also hit by the COVID crisis as everybody else. However, we have bounced back to the pre-COVID levels and are also happy with the overall developments. In the context of the India market, if I look at the first six months of this year, the growth has been better than the average. And I think it says it all. We are very happy with the progress.
While Walter Tools already has more than 45,000 standard tools for turning, milling, holemaking and threading, it always keeps adding advanced solutions to its portfolio. Tell us something about Walter Tools’ latest offering that you are really proud of?
Brajesh Kumar: As you rightly mentioned, we have more than 45,000 products in our product basket and we keep adding new innovative products.
Innovative tools are the basis for outstanding machining results. Walter’s Engineering Kompetenz and strength in machining such complex material is well-known and appreciated by the industry. Walter launches new product innovations every six months to match the market requirement. Walter has been instrumental in development of many new machining processes and strategies for railway, energy, aerospace, and automotive industries enabling our customers achieve higher productivity and lower manufacturing cost, which is a must for them in order to be completive in the global market.
If I talk about the latest technology or the latest offering what we have today - and we are proud of it - then it is the ‘Tiger·tec Gold’ technology and that is very much acknowledged and accepted by the industry and by our partners.
Dmitry Andreev: Maybe I can add one point here based on what I have said before. On the one side is development of the technology which are really proud of like the ‘Tiger·tec Gold’, where we have the best results for the inserts. On the other side, if I look at the latest addition to our portfolio, it will be in the area of acquiring companies. We are observing how important aluminium as a material is in the industry today. You see all this change happening in the automotive and the e-mobility sector where more and more lightweight materials are needed and so the importance of aluminium is growing. So, we have reacted to that and we have acquired the Portugal-based PCD tools manufacturer Frezite, which will strengthen Walter’s competence in lightweight machining. The complementary capabilities and competence of Frezite reinforces Walter’s position in the electric and hybrid vehicle market. So, this is also adding to the Walter portfolio.
India is emerging as a global economic powerhouse and the manufacturing industry is playing a big role in this growth story. How do you see the cutting tools industry in general and Walter Tools in particular leveraging this progressive scenario?
Brajesh Kumar: Definitely, as you mentioned, a lot of good developments are happening in the country. Today, on every front, the whole world is looking towards India. A lot of investments are happening and a lot of big projects have been announced in India. Even the Government of India has been very liberal and is offering many benefits to the industries who are bringing and building their footprint here in India.
We as a tooling company definitely play a very vital role when it comes to the metal cutting industries. In fact, we look at the overall scenario also as an opportunity to grow our business and look to add value to the economy either directly or indirectly.
Dmitry Andreev: As a company, we are guided by the motto of ‘Engineering Kompetenz’ and that’s the role we will continue to play in the current scenario as well. Yes, we are very glad to see the development of the manufacturing sector in India. And we believe that our role is the same as it is in every other country in this case. So, we are the guys who are able to bring more productivity and better cost levels, especially in the growing productions.
In continuation of the above question, do you see the possibility of Walter Tools having a full-fledged production facility in India, particularly when all of your key competitors are already manufacturing in India?
Dmitry Andreev: That’s a good question! Basically, we are constantly working on changing and enlarging the production footprint of Walter. Traditionally, it is true that it’s a German company and the majority of our production facilities are either European or Germany based. However, in the last couple of years, Walter’s strategy has changed. We are actively following the strategy of manufacturing closer to where we sell. This means that this is constantly on the management agenda of either to see what are the right countries where we might diversify our production footprint. This can be done both by building something and it can be also done by acquiring a local existing facility or local player, either due to the reasons of specific know-how or due to the production capacity or due to the access in the marketplace. Both these agendas, looking at where the footprint makes sense and also where the acquisitions make sense is actually what makes us busy. Is the India market a part of this strategy? Yes! We are monitoring it very precisely. We are very keenly watching what is happening in India, especially taking into account the recent progressive development of the economy. But as you understand, it is a very sensitive area. So, I cannot give you any concrete names or plans. But I can confirm that we are very seriously considering having a stronger footprint in the India market.
Automotive, of course, has been a big customer segment for Walter Tools in India. Which are the other industry sectors that will contribute to Walter’s business in India?
Brajesh Kumar: While the automotive segment contributes to a major share of Walter’s business, Walter has established its dominance in other resilient segments like aerospace, energy, railways. Walter has experienced a very good growth in Energy, Aerospace and Railways sector due to their focus on developing new tools, providing optimized solutions. The unprecedented pace of technological change gives opportunities to businesses for creating growth through rapid conversion with newer technologies.
As our brand promise states “Engineering Kompetenz”, we have a strong product line and customized solutions for very specific machining needs of these emerging sectors. Walter India has a clear market strategy for these industries, with a team of dedicated sector specialists in applications explicit to these industries.
We keep track of the constantly changing requirements in the aerospace and energy industry. And we are familiar with the challenges associated with machining new materials. New technologies in Aerospace and Energy production require the development of new materials and machining processes. Traditional approaches to milling, drilling, threading and turning are called into question by new technologies. The requirement to offer cost effective solutions, save resources and the environment is our driving force for developing innovative technologies.
We offer complete solutions and maximum productivity in the area of machining. With us, the customer receives complete high-tech machining processes from a single source, from technical support through to tool management.
Within automotive, the E-mobility is experiencing enormous and quick momentum in India. How is it impacting the cutting tools industry? How do you see the cutting tools industry adapting to the evolving industry scenario?
Brajesh Kumar: As you rightly mentioned, there is a lot of focus on e-mobility globally. In fact, in India, it is a little more. The government of India has been encouraging the e-mobility sector by offering benefits to buyers and even the manufacturers. As our Vice President just mentioned, Walter is in sync with industry trends and is, therefore, very busy. This is the reason why certain acquisitions have recently happened. If we talk about aluminium machining, I think the Frezite acquisition is an important step in that direction. As they have great experience and competence in PCD tools. That aspect of machining was earlier missing but we have brought it now with this acquisition.
We still have a lot of focus on the ICE based vehicles whether it is heavy commercial vehicles, passenger cars or even two wheelers unless the infrastructure comes to a certain level. Nevertheless, we are very much geared up for the change and we are very much available for anything as and when our customers demand it.
The Indian manufacturing industry has been making rapid strides in the adoption of digitalization. How is Walter Tools facilitating and enabling this adoption from the machining point of view?
Dmitry Andreev: So, that’s a great question because everybody likes to talk about digitalization! And it has also become possible to a certain extent with Industry 4.0. I think we also need to understand what we mean when we talk about digitalization or bringing digital solutions in the machining domain. There are some things where I will say we are already quite advanced. They are not necessarily new, but they became better and gained importance over a period of time. A concrete example is our online system, which we call Walter GPS. It is a very smart product configurator, where you don’t look for the tool like in the conventional catalogue. In this system, you describe the application problem – you are not looking for a drill; you are looking for a certain hole in the certain material with a certain diameter with a certain depth with a certain coolant. Then, you let the digital system recommend the best solutions based on what is more important for you. It will take into consideration all the key factors. How big is your bench? How much role does the cycle time play? How much is the role played by the quality of the surface? And so on. So, it’s a very smart system. Is it a new system? Not really! We started developing it about more than 30 years ago. But, of course, now with all the new digital things that are possible, the system is very much enhanced. So, this is a very concrete digital solution we offer today to our customers.
At the same time, of course, we are also looking into more complex things. I mean, the newest thing that we are now busy with is we go to our customers and I must say quite often we see the potential of improving their internal efficiency in terms of making sure that the right tool is at the right machine at the right time and with the right data. I will say this is an area where a lot can be done throughout the whole manufacturing industry; everybody can improve. This is where we started to develop certain expertise and started to offer our customers what we call a digital consultancy. This is really out of the scope of the traditional tooling manufacturers. So, it is less about the physical tool and it is more about how you optimize the process. Many will put it in the box of tool management. However, a classical tool management partner takes care of that, asking the customer to outsource the process to them. In fact, we do that as well. However, digital consultancy is the other approach. Many customers still want to have it under control themselves but they need help about how to set up the process and how to digitalize the process. This is where we believe we can play a key role.
This is more like intelligent machining exactly, but again, we are not an IT company. So, we are not planning to start to develop our own software; there are enough people who develop great software. I think the challenge is to understand the customer’s specific challenge, pick up the right pieces of software - there are enough relevant solutions in the market - and then connect them with each other to help the customer to ramp it up and enjoy the show. So, this is what we try to offer as a new service.
Tell us how you are leveraging the Walter Tools Technology Centre here in Hinjewadi in enabling customers to cope with technology-oriented market challenges.
Brajesh Kumar: The objective of the Technology Centre has not been to generate money; the objective was always to support our customers and honour the commitment that is given to the customers. Basically, we use this Technology Centre for training, testing, developing the process and the concept as well as the prototype. We have many case studies of that but since we are bound with the nondisclosure agreement, we cannot talk about it in the open. But I can certainly talk about it broadly in terms of how our customers are getting benefited and how our partners are getting benefited from this Technology Centre.
Definitely we offer the tool, but with the help of this Technology Centre, we develop the new process. So, we offer the tool, we offer the process, we offer the programme, we offer the fixturing and we offer the development of the components in a package. Instead of using their machines for their R&D, they can use the machines in our Technology Centre for their R&D. We take this entire package to them where they can just put on the machine, plug and play. So, they save a lot of time and they get ready-made solutions.
Having successfully completed 20 years in the Indian market, how do you look at the next 20 years?
Dmitry Andreev: I am looking at the bright future of Walter in India. In the first 20 years, we have had a good start and we have built a strong foundation to become what we are today – a brand to reckon with in the tooling industry. Now it’s actually about switching to the next level. We are now looking at an accelerated growth of the company in the Indian market.
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