Standing on a Firm Foundation
For the past 15 years, Meiban Engineering has been unstoppable, achieving consistent growth and garnering accolades from its customers. Having built a solid ground, the company has a clear vision of its future and the juncture where it aims to head to.
Reading solution provider in the field of automation and turnkey projects for manufacturing automobile and sheet metal components, Meiban Engineering Pvt Ltd’s journey to success has been a quintessential one, packed with a multitude of lessons for the company and for others too to draw inspiration from. “It has been a wonderful journey for Meiban to come up to the present level,” shares AV Srinivasan, CEO, Meiban Engineering Technologies Pvt Ltd. “Our customers and, of course, our associate, Murata Machinery Ltd have been supporting us extremely well,” he adds.
The company started out as a very small operation, getting all its technical support only from Japan in the first five years. It eventually became independent in supporting its customers in the areas of installation, commissioning and machine maintenance. In the last five years, Meiban has developed its skill sets to do the local turnkey. “While we have a long way to go, I think our foundation has been laid strong and we are ready for the future,” he notes.
The company currently operates out of a 11,000 sq ft facility in Bangalore and its major Indian customers include many multinational and local companies in various applications like elevator, escalator, electrical panel, lighting, switchgear, air conditioner etc., across many applications.
Offering Full Customer Experience
Srinivasan’s association with Murata Machinery Ltd, Japan’s leading manufacturer of CNC machines with high-end technology dates back to 1990 when he joined the company in Japan, and was there until 2004. “While Muratec has been in India since 1980, we wanted to increase the footprint for Muratec machines in the Indian sub-continent,” he shares. This led to Meiban Engineering in India.
After its inception, the company slowly progressed into having Meiban-Muratec Tech Centre where it has both Sheet Metal as well as Metal Cutting machines. “We have kept the machines for full customer experience. Starting from demonstration of the machines, we walk the customers through various functions and features available in the machine, and also the offline software available,” he explains.
The Tech Centre is also used for test cutting of customers’ components, and feasibility study of customers’ application. “The Centre has both Punching and Bending for the Sheet Metal machines. At any point of time, we can punch the sheet and bend it, and show it to the customer. We also have real-time demonstration facility for PNM (Process Net Monitor), which directly helps the customers in the Industry 4.0 / IoT areas, where the customers monitor the performance of the machine and improve wherever possible,” he adds.
Continual R&D and Innovation
While Meiban has an engineering team to support its customers locally in India, the complete R&D activities happen only in Japan. “We take the feedback from the market, discuss with our customers on their requirements and pass it on to Murata Machinery for further action,” informs Srinivasan.
As far as Indian local operation is concerned, Meiban has been building up a highly skilled and competent engineering team over a period of 10 years, and most of these engineers have been trained in Japan. The company also conducts training programs in India by inviting experienced engineers from Murata. The engineers are also sent on a long-term training to Murata where they undergo extensive training in application areas along with their Japanese counterparts. “We expect these measures to help us provide best possible solutions to our customers in India,” he notes.
Meiban has also started developing some vendors in India who can help the company in the localization of certain items.
Staying on Top
When asked about the competition with the other domestic players in terms of product efficiency and cost-effectiveness, Srinivasan replies, “We mostly sell machines with complete solution on turnkey basis. Muratec is not just a Turning Machine maker, but we are a Total Automation Solution Provider. When we say complete solution, the proposal or solution includes machine plus peripherals and options to achieve full automation for unmanned operations on 24 x 7 basis, standardized and customized units to JUST-FIT the customer’s productivity needs.”
He adds that although many local companies now supply automation solutions, Meiban has an edge over others, with the company been in this field for a long time. “However, to become more cost-effective in the days to come, we have started localizing some of the peripherals in India. We have also started offering machines with local turnkey solutions,” he shares.
Latest Offerings
At IMTEX and Tooltech 2020, Meiban will be launching its 30 tonne Servo Punching machine with FS loader. “This loader is a highly advanced loader which can accept up to 100 schedules for the customers to plan. It also comes with the shortest cycle time, and permits the customer to keep punching while changing the pallets. This automation solution is supported with All Electric Servo Press Brake BB-4013,” shares Srinivasan.
With all its latest innovation that is to garner raves from the industry once again, the company takes pride in its earlier accomplishments too that helped Meiban fetch the Best Supplier Award from Rittal India in the year 2007 when it was able to provide the company with the most optimal solution for its punching issue in a very short span. “We supplied four machines and worked with the customer to implement its own automation solution. Our machines are still running to the satisfaction of our customers,” he adds.
On the plans to broaden Meiban’s horizon in India and beyond, Srinivasan reveals, “Murata Machinery always works with the 3-year and 5-year plans, and we follow its plans in India. We already support Murata in the areas of installation and commissioning in the Middle East and Northern Africa. We are very much open to support it in the Asia Pacific region also.
Meiban-Muratec Tech Centre offers full customer experience. Starting from demonstration of the machines, customers are walked through their various functions and features, and offline software.
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