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Panasonic India
Cover Feature | PANASONIC
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Panasonic, a diversified technology company that makes a wide range of ACE (Appliances and Consumer Electronics) products and Smart Factory solutions, has recently designated India as regional hub to serve the fast emerging Asiatic, Middle Eastern and Western economies, in terms of technology knowhow, innovation and excellence. The company currently has a workforce of about 18,000 in India & South Asia., Dynamic Manufacturing India spoke to Saurabh Rawat, Head of Factory, Panasonic India about the company's journey and future plans.
Can you take us through the journey of Panasonic India? On the 12 th of December 2012, Panasonic India launched its first model 'eco ideas' Factory in Technopark in Jhajjar, Haryana. Today this facility produces category-leading ACE (Appliances and Consumer Electronics) products such washing machines, air conditioners, water purifiers, welding machines, and refrigerators. In 2017, we achieved the milestone of producing about one million units of air conditioners [per year]. We are immensely proud of the success story of the last eight years where our manufacturing and the R&D (Research and Development) teams joined hands to produced great quality products not only for India’s customers but also those of the Middle-East, Africa, and other parts of South Asia. We aim to increase the capacity at the facility so that it can produce large volumes like our facilities in Japan and Malaysia, and we see that happening soon with support from government policies and the large demand in South Asia. We not only believe in the vision of Make in India, we also actively champion industry goals such as Make for India and Export for India.
How do you think Industry 4.0 will help your industry as well as the Indian market? Manufacturing excellence is the key in today’s world because the competition globally is increasing on a day-to-day basis. In order to stay at the top of the excellence curve, we send our people to our sites globally to get them up-to-date to the latest benchmarks in factory automation, IoT, artificial intelligence, data analytics. We believe industry 4.0 is going to help us here and globally to continue to produce topquality products at even lower costs.
As a company and a brand what would you say are Panasonic India competitive differentiators? The biggest differentiator is that we are a hundredyear-old technology company. Panasonic is among the world’s earliest manufacturers of electrical and electronic products, whether it is in air conditioning, washing machines or refrigerators. And the same legacy drives our Research and Development (R&D) teams across the world, with customer satisfaction as the top objective, to be achieved through our focus on quality, sustainability and safety of our products. We have done backward-integration of all the critical processes at our facility, including the processes of plastic moulding, welding, surface mounting, assembly – the key processes are 100 percent automated. In terms of sustainability, we are the first company not only in India but globally, which started air testing of washing machines. The Panasonic Technopark facility supports a zero-carbon lifestyle and the adoption of sustainable business practices including 100% water recycling and an end-to-end water management system that includes a rainwater harvesting system, and solar energy powered electricity. To give you an example of our superior quality assurance systems, our AC manufacturing unit has a fully automated inspection line, where IoT and AI are used along with other technologies to test and capture the safety and performance data including that of gas leaks testing, voltage stability, frequency and temperature range performance – in fact you can check the performance analytics of our products going back to any date. Key Highlight: We not only believe in the vision of Make in India, we also actively champion industry goals such as Make for India and Export for India.
Cover Feature | PANASONIC
Key Highlight: Our ACs also provides a wide power range of 145v – 285v considering the voltage fluctuations at the homes of the customers. Can you tell us a little more about your R&D team and how important R&D is for Panasonic in terms of its main focus areas? R&D is the backbone of any manufacturing unit. Globally we have many big R&D centres. For example, for air-conditioners, we have R&D centres in Malaysia, China and Japan. Our R&D centres help us in areas like product customization based on the local market feedback, value engineering and innovation. Our India R&D centre has more than 50 people who work with our major centres, and together they keep on developing the products based on Indian requirement. One of the big advantages of having an excellent R&D team is the understanding that it brings into the development of products for different customer segments, which gives or products a distinct ‘Made for India’ advantage. For example, we developed a ‘Curry Mode’ feature in our washing machines, which we now offer globally, based on the experience of our customers in India. We saw that our Indian customers deal with curry stains and there was no feature available in any washing machine brand globally, that could help the customers get rid of the unique curry stains. Similarly, we introduced a ‘Collar Mode’ feature in our washing machines that deals with unique problem that us Indians have where our collars capture the soot and the dust present in the air during the summers. Similarly, in the case of refrigerators, we provide the biggest vegetable box compared to our competitors, keeping in mind that a lot of Indians are vegetarians. Likewise, we provide the most width for water bottles because there is no predictable standard of width for water bottles in terms of what the customers use. Our ACs also provides a wide power range of 145v – 285v considering the voltage fluctuations at the homes of the customers. There are lots of such examples of customization that stand testimony to the excellence of our local and global R&D teams.
Can you share with us your plans in the area of smart appliances, in terms of using the latest technologies like artificial intelligence? Globally, we have offerings that comprise IoTconnected appliances. As a matter fact, we are among the pioneers of the Smart Home solutions. We are studying the demand of these offerings in the Indian market and accordingly we will bring them here.
What are the challenges and the opportunities you see in Make in India? Make in India is a huge opportunity. We see that the localization in manufacturing is increasing. The government’s Phased Manufacturing Programme (PMP) is a welcome step for the appliance and consumer electronics (ACE) industry. On part of the manufacturing industry, we also have expectations like the presence of supplier ecosystems for certain components, which are not there in India yet. The presence of the infrastructure and a supplier base will help galvanize the Make in India program.
What are the near and mid-term plans of Panasonic India? New models of air conditioners have been launched for this season – it is a fantastic line up that has advanced features like energy efficiency, air purification. We are coming up with a washing machine with a big splash in the market. Likewise we have plans for our other consumer electronics products.
You have a well-rounded experience of not only working with ACE sector companies such as Samsung and Panasonic, but also with automotive companies. What are your key learnings that you want to share with young engineers who want to rise to leadership positions? I’ve always believed in hard work. There is no alternative of hard work. In addition, you must be open-minded to listen to contrarian views. Of course you must get as much domain knowledge and expertise as you can. These are the qualities that can help you build a successful career.
