Challenges for Industrial Equipment Manufacturers
Aiding many industries like manufacturing, mining, engineering, power, gas, automobile etc., by supplying highly specialised products and services, Industrial Equipment (IE) segment is very much responsible for providing a boost to the industrial sector in the country. This presents good opportunities for growth to the IE manufacturers in the country. At present, IE manufacturers in the country deal with various types of equipment such as hydraulic excavators, wheel loaders, backhoe loaders, bull dozers, dump trucks, tippers, graders, pavers, asphalt drum/wet mix plants, breakers, vibratory compactors, cranes, forklifts, dozers, off-highway dumpers, drills, scrapers, motor graders, rope shovels etc.
While there are various opportunities for growth, the challenges for IE manufacturers are no less as the market is very competitive. Thus, manufacturers need to be constantly on their toes and ready to deal with various challenges.
Challenges for IE manufacturers
Let’s take a look at some of the challenges faced by IE manufacturers:
1. Industries are increasingly demanding world-class technologies for better fuel efficiency, higher productivity and profitability. Thus, IE manufacturers have to live up to the expectations.
2. Increased flexibility is another challenge for IE manufacturers. An increasingly volatile and unpredictable Indian economy requires Industrial Equipment manufacturers to build more flexible and efficient operating machines.
3. Increasing competition from international players is also forcing the manufacturers to spend more on R&D activities, market reach and on finding new ways to improve productivity for their customers. This is also posing as a challenge for the domestic IE manufacturers.
4. Since, the secondary market for used IE is not fully developed in India, the resale of used equipment is also a challenge for the IE manufacturers in the country.
5. Other challenge includes interstate movement of equipment, limits over emission or pollution and maintenance of high safety standards.
6. The IE manufacturing sector includes high operational as well as maintenance costs. Given that, poor networking with financial institutions and delay in loan executions is inhibiting the manufacturers from moving towards modernisation and expansion of equipment facilities.
7. To achieve high performance in a competitive business environment, IE companies need to take a comprehensive approach to providing services as well as producing quality products. Many IE manufacturers are yet to do this.
8. IE manufacturers also need to find new ways to maintain and acquire the leading edge. Many IE manufacturers are yet to work upon their visibility, branding and marketing strategies.
9. Last but not the least, surging demand for IE is placing greater pressure on the manufacturing companies to keep their cost-per-unit steady. Thus, in future, maintaining or improving profitability will be a key to address this challenge. Assembling operational excellence teams focused solely on eliminating or minimising manufacturing process constraints, increasing production efficiency and generating the largest bottom-line returns based on specific profitability and value targets will help stabilise costs for IE manufacturers.
Future growth opportunities for IE manufacturers
Given the challenges, the opportunities for IE manufacturers are no less. IE are heavily used in power, engineering, automobile and mining sector. Further, with the governments Make in India campaign aiming at providing a boost to the manufacturing sector in the country, the demand for IE will increase manifold.
With this unprecedented growth of various industrial sectors in the country, IE manufacturers in India have all the reasons to celebrate. They will have to adopt newer intelligent features and increased sophistication to gain a large market share. It is believed that in future, increased flexibility, usability and reduced cost of industrial equipment will write down the bright future of IE manufacturers.
Thus, opportunities are plenty; only the IE manufacturers have to counter few challenges to attain success and wider reach. Foreseeing large industrial activities underway, the IE industry is set to see a boom in coming days.
