An exclusive interface with Mr. Bipin Jirge “Ifm Electronic India Private Limited” Managing Director-India

A&I: Take us through the journey of “Ifm Electronic India Private Limited” In India & Company’s Current Operations. 

We have formally started the Indian subsidiary in 1995 and it has been a continued very successful journey with the help of our team as well as customers in India. We are now present with own offices at major industrial centres in India, having support and sales colleagues close to customers. Customer is our centre for everything we do.

A&I: What are the Market Opportunities for Your process sensors, sensors for motion control and safety technology In India?  
We have a range of sensors as well as solutions for position, process sensors as well as network and control solutions, including safety related solutions. As the automation levels are increasing across industries (main drivers are quality, consistency of processes and safety) sensors find more and more applications. Also concepts like industry 4.0 are being implemented in India across the industries sectors and across the size of the manufacturing companies. The sensors and automation potentials will only grow as the manufacturing automation grows in India.

A&I: Please brief us about “Ifm” Global Network & Infrastructure.
We are a multinational in the field of automation, present in more than 50 countries across the globe, having approximately 1.5 Bill Euro sales and having approximately 7000+ employees across the globe. We are one of the most innovative solution provider on the factory floor. We also invest a lot in devising solutions our customers look for increasing their OEE on the plant floor.

A&I: Being One on The Leader in Process sensors, sensors for motion control and safety technology, how according to You Market has evolved over the Years?
Market has been continuously evolving in many industry verticals as every industry wants to be more efficient and more cost effective in a long run. This demands high reliability from automation devices and system. Companies routinely demand 100% up time from our products and we strive to offer excellent quality with very high reliability. Markets have very well realized the concept of life cycle costs of a solution and not only invoice cost when you buy a solution. They expect that we offer them beyond what they actually need so that they achieve some thing more than they plan to achieve by using our solution.

A&I: Which Key Industries do you Cater to? Please Share Some of Application Area?
We cater to automotive, machine tool, steel, cement, food, packaging machines as well as construction machines. The application areas are very widely spread across the industry say for example to monitor the safe distance between 2 gantry cranes in a steel plant up to an application where the sensor makes sure that the chocolate being packed in a packaging machine gets packed properly!

A&I: What is Your Future Vision & Growth Plans for “Ifm Electronic India Private Limited” In India?

We will introduce more and more solutions along with wider and bigger support team to help customers for achieving their goals by using our products/solutions. We are also step by step offering complete system solutions for various industries, including IOT software platform called Moneo. This means we offer not only hardware but also software solutions from one source.

A&I: Please brief us about the quality Policy for the business.
We offer 5 year warranty on most of our products. This shows our confidence in our quality and reliability.

A&I: Any special message for our Readers:
India is at a stage where growth will be now much faster, driven by faster changes across the world, companies are looking for decentralized manufacturing, multiple supply chain, connected machines, real time monitoring etc… This will only work with more automation and people who will help customers to implement the automation. We are one of the most reliable partners in this journey.