In the Spotlight – Isaac George V, Sr. Vice President, Global Sales, Hydraulics Business; G Sundararaman, Sr. Vice President & Head, Automation Solutions; Jugal Prasad, Vice President, Global Engineering and Quality Head, Wipro Infrastructure Engineering
EXCON 2022 Special
Wipro Infrastructure Engineering (WIE) put on a splendid show at EXCON 2022 with their new technology hydraulic cylinders, 3D printing machines and TipperMatics that are world-class quality and performance. And these products are those which constantly undergo improvements as per market demands.
Isaac shares: “No more does a hydraulic cylinder exist that is made for India alone. These are now global products. They can be fixed on a machine anywhere in the world, including India. The products that you see here are improved versions that cater to the market requirements. When there is a change in the product, the cylinder undergoes the change. Or if an application of a moving equipment is being used in a new environment, we improve the product according to the feedback from the field. And we continue to deliver on our commitment of reliability and quality.”
Giving details about the 3D printing machine, he says: “The 3D machine displayed here has been made in India for India with the technology developed by us at an efficient cost. The machine being shown here has a printing bed that measures 1 ft x 1 ft and can be used to prototype anything with ease.”
Isaac also talks about TipperMatics: “It brings predictability in maintenance and in tipper utilization for the fleet owner while for the OEM it builds reliability. It brings safety to the user. And this can be customized as per the customer need in a cost-effective manner.”
Advantage WIE
Jugal talks about the technological improvements at WIE: “Life of a hydraulic cylinder in the field is a crucial parameter. A hydraulic cylinder’s life and efficiency is directly proportional to how clean it is. We maintain a high degree of cleanliness. Another advantage with us is that all our processes are automated – be it welding, plating, or any other – and are tamper-proof. And that is exactly how we maintain quality and safety of our products.”
WIE boasts of 2 validation labs – one each in India and Sweden. And extensive tests have been conducted on all the new products being shown at the exhibition.
Jugal continues: “Some of the tests that we validate for are close to 3 million cycles in the field. We also do accelerated-life tests in our lab to save on time. This is also how we are able to guarantee our robust designs which are able to sustain harsh conditions and further, we monitor the life them in the field also.”
Sundararaman talks about automated solution from Wipro Pari: “We have displayed here MIG welding which is an automated solution that gives a perfect consistency to welding joints. A few typical welds are showcased here that are required in the construction equipment. In broad terms, we provide end-to-end automation solutions to factories – be it for a new OEM factory or an existing one which is being expanded.”
EV Focus
WIE is also a front-runner in electric vehicle technology.
Sundararaman shares the details: “We supply the robotic battery pack assembly line for most of the new age electric cars being produced today. We also do the digitization connecting the physical machines to a digital layer to gather data and analyze it for remote monitoring and control of the machines. We have a large pool of engineering team with cutting-edge talent based in India working to provide these technology solutions to the global customers.”
WIE Philosophy
WIE follows Wipro Manufacturing System – a concept with three key objectives. These are – creating reliable products and services; establishing safe, predictable and sustainable processes, and bringing in more agility in new product development process.
Sundararaman shares: “Core to all this is our people engagement. We strive for continuous improvements using Kaizen. We consistently work to reduce the throughput time using lean concepts. As a pioneer of Six Sigma in India, we keep driving process transformation. We have been practicing Total Productive Maintenance where we identify abnormalities in our machines and continuously correct them. We also follow the Theory of Constraints to ensure that our inventories are at the optimal level.”
EXCON Highlight
WIE is deeply connected with their customers at the engineering and sourcing levels. EXCON is a great opportunity for them to understand WIE’s products across the platforms.
Isaac adds details: “A hydraulic customer of ours, for example, can see the entire ecosystem and not just a product that he thinks is relevant for him. He may get intrigued as to how 3D printing can help him. EXCON gives us the point of convergence with them.”
Sundararaman recommends: “The CE industry should follow the principles of automation in their factory set ups and use flexible manufacturing concepts.”
Truly, EXCON offers a great reflection of the number of years WIE has been catering to the market with their world-class products made in India.