Rockwell CEO: India Central to Asia Growth Strategy

Mumbai, Jul 15 (PTI) India is at the centrepiece of Rockwell Automation's growth strategy in Asia, according to the company's Chairman and CEO Blake Moret.

Rockwell Automation, the global leader in industrial automation and digital transformation, has about 5,000 employees in India and has doubled the staff strength in the country since the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic, the visiting CEO of the USD 8 billion company said.

"I think India is really at the centrepiece of our plans in Asia. We have been in India for over 40 years. We cover sales and marketing, product development, application engineering, manufacturing and software development, and expect that growth to continue," Moret told PTI here.

Asked how Rockwell is supporting the Indian government's Make in India initiative, Moret said a vast majority of the company's customers in the country are "India-headquartered companies and so supported the intention of the government to grow manufacturing as a percentage of the total economy."

"We think we can contribute significantly to that effort," he added.

On his views on which sectors in Indian industry offer the best opportunities for Rockwell, Moret said, "I think the pharmaceutical industry and in general, life sciences industry, given the amount of innovation in those applications and intensity of technology."

"Automotive (sector), of course, remains a very important part of the industry and also food and beverage and consumer products. All of these are attractive areas for Rockwell to support," he said.

Asked what role industrial automation will play in India's manufacturing sector over the next five years, Moret said, "Ultimately, artificial intelligence will help simplify the human interaction with technology, whether it is to design systems, commission them, to operate them, or to maintain them."

"The simplification across the variety of technologies used will really sort out the winners and losers, over the coming years," he said.

On Rockwell's India plans, Moret said the company aims to "continue to engage deeply with customers who know us, and also to expand the reach so that we are more well-known. It is not just Rockwell, but our ecosystem as well."


"So it is our distributor partners, engineering partners, systems integrators, machine builders. We are expanding our influence with customers, certainly at the government level and also with universities and other learning centres. Because technology is evolving quickly, being able to enable manufacturers to take advantage of that technology is important," Moret said.

On Rockwell's plans for improving the productivity of Indian manufacturers while being cost-effective, Moret said efficiency has always been at the centre of the company's value proposition.

"But flexibility with some new technology can also help the Indian manufacturers increase revenue as well by being able to provide more variety in the products that they're selling to be able to reduce lead times, and get to the market faster," he said.

To a query on the barriers faced by Indian small and medium manufacturing enterprises in adopting automation, Moret referred to the familiarity and comfort with the technology and the ease of adoption.

"AI can help simplify the adoption of the technology. I think that holds true for MSME firms as well," he said.

The initial cost of the proof of concept project is often daunting, and so to be able to find ways to ease into the use of the technology and get confidence with that first project is important, he said.

Providing support directly and through Rockwell's partners, like distributors, is an important part of extending the company's reach to micro, small and medium size enterprises, Moret said.

To a query on the regulatory front, Moret said simplifying technology will help simplify regulations, accelerate the adoption of technology and help reduce friction for Indian manufacturers.

Dilip Sawhney, Managing Director, Rockwell Automation India, said the company is supporting the manufacturing sector to build capability so that they can adopt technology and become much more competitive.

"We have seen that over the last one decade or even more, India's exports of engineering goods and capital equipment has been going up steadily," Sawhney said.