DesignTech Systems Ltd., a leading name in CAD/CAM/CAE, PLM and Additive Manufacturing technologies, has today announced a strategic partnership with Solidscape^®, Inc., for the distribution of high precision 3D Printers for manufacturing of wax patterns in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Bhutan. DesignTech will develop the infrastructure to support the expansion and adoption of 3D printing custom manufacturing solutions.

Solidscape 3D printers are known for their ability to produce ultra-fine feature details and are considered a premier technology for applications like custom jewelry manufacturing, high precision casting, and advanced biomedical research.

According to the 2016 Wohlers Report, the worldwide 3D printing industry is expected to grow from $8.8 billion in revenue in 2017 to $26.5 billion by 2021.  India is emerging as a preferred global destination for product design, engineering and manufacturing, which makes it a strategically important country for 3D printing. The Government of India is focussing on building robust infrastructure to boost manufacturing and the manufacturing industry in India is also investing in upgrading their R&D facilities to match the global standards of excellence

“DesignTech Systems Ltd.’s strong business reputation and broad footprint throughout India is ideal to support Solidscape’s growth plan,” stated Mr. Fabio Esposito, President, Solidscape Inc. “Having a world-class partner that can deliver top quality high precision 3D printing solutions for custom manufacturing, sales and service throughout India was our strategic goal. DesignTech Systems is the perfect partner to respond to customer demands for on time, on quality and cost value delivered.”

Mr. Vikas Khanvelkar, Managing Director, DesignTech Systems Ltd. said, “3D Printing has revolutionized the way products are built. Having realised the competitive advantage and value that this technology can bring, manufacturing companies in India have shown enthusiastic adoption of 3D Printing technology, making it an integral part of their product design validation, visualisation and manufacturing processes. We have, ever since our inception in 1998, worked on helping engineering industry in India migrate and make a transition from using the conventional methodology, to adopting digitised, validated and process-oriented approach of building and developing products. DesignTech Systems in that sense can be considered a pioneer in promoting the CAD/CAM/CAE technology amongst the engineering industry and SMEs in India. Solidscape is a world leader in high precision 3D Printers for custom manufacturing. Their 3D Printing accuracy and precision is unmatched. And we are thrilled to forge an alliance with them.”

Solidscape high precision 3D printers produce the most accurate, detailed models with the industry’s highest quality surface finish. The models are printed with uniquely developed build materials that are specifically formulated for 100% metal castability. This is used primarily for investment casting (lost wax) but is also superior in the creation of molds and tooling for manufacturing. The system also creates a dissolvable support structure automatically thus allowing for the most intricate, unimaginable 3D printed models to be created.

Solidscape 3D printers eliminate the need for cleaning and post processing as it dramatically reduces the manufacturing workflow while maintaining quality, detailed wax patterns that are ready for casting. Superior casting properties include fast meltout, no ash or residue, and no thermal expansion.

Solidscape 3D Printers find applications in industries such as Jewelry, Automotive, Industrial Automation, Wearable Fashion, Toys Industry and Education.

DesignTech Systems Ltd. (DesignTech) today announced that it will implement Siemens PLM Software’s Teamcenter® portfolio, the world’s most widely used digital lifecycle management software, for Azafran Organics, India’s leading and pioneer brand providing organic beauty and personal care solutions. The entire product range offered by Azafran Organics is manufactured in ECOCERT and USDA certified facilities making it certified organic in nature. All products are made from organic ingredients grown in their own farms or procured from certified organic suppliers.

Azafran will use Teamcenter to streamline new product launch programs including managing product data related to R&D.  Speaking about the same, Azafran’s Director Aditi Vyas asserts, “We are glad to implement this leading PLM technology with DesignTech. This will help us to streamline our business processes in a rapid time frame.”  She further expressed firm hope that their goal of bringing organic products to the market will now be accelerated with the industry’s leading technology.

About DesignTech Systems
DesignTech Systems Ltd. is a leading CAD / CAM / CAE / PLM Solutions, Additive Manufacturing technologies, and Engineering Services provider from India. With more than 18 years of experience they have been working with companies from cross vertical domains in India and overseas to support clients in their most complex and challenging engineering initiatives while helping them derive best returns on their investments.

DesignTech Systems is the only Platinum Partner for Siemens PLM Software in India, and have also forged strategic tie-ups with global leaders such as Altair Engineering for their HyperWorks suite of solutions, Stratasys 3D Printing Technology, ESI Casting and Welding Simulation software, MathWorks for MATLAB and SIMULINK, SLM Metal 3D Printing technology, and Solidscape high precision 3D Printing solutions.

Moreover, DesignTech Systems is also the recipient of some of the prestigious awards such as Maharashtra Government IT award in 2010, has been adjudged among the top 50 emerging companies in India by NASCCOM in 2010 and many more. CRISIL has accorded DesignTech the rank -MSE 2 which stands for “High credit worthiness in relation to other MSEs”. Education and training wing of DesignTech Systems, “DesignTech CAD Academy” is an authorised training partner of Siemens and Altair for their PLM and CAE suites of solutions respectively, imparting training to the working professionals and students alike on the latest version of licensed software under the mentoring and supervision of certified trainers.

A Technology event organized by DesignTech Systems showcased all the latest technologies in product design, development and Manufacturing to the Engineering Industry in Kolkata. 

DesignTech Systems Ltd., a leading name in CAD/CAM/CAE, PLM and Additive Manufacturing technologies provider organized a one day technology seminar “Vision: Product Excellence through technology Impetus” at Hotel The Lalit – Great Eastern in Kolkata. The aim of this event was to showcase the latest and most advanced technologies in product design, analysis, validation and manufacturing to help companies build better products faster, cheaper and better than before. Using these technologies the companies can not only achieve their product design and manufacturing objectives, but through PLM solutions, they can also set-up well streamlined and optimized work processes to attain maximum efficiency.

DesignTech Systems ltd., being the strategic Business Partners with the world leaders and some of the biggest names in the product design and manufacturing industry, presented CAD/CAM, PLM and Digital Manufacturing solutions from Siemens PLM Software; Comprehensive CAE suite of solutions from Altair Engineering; 3D Printing technologies from Stratasys; MATLAB Technical Computing software from MathWorks; and Metal 3D Printing Solutions from SLM.

Eminent Industry Speakers from L&T Constructions and MSME Tool Room Kolkata, shared their experiences and benefits they derived from using Altair CAE solutions and Siemens PLM software respectively.

Mr. Mukul Mandal, Mr. Bhaskar Sengupta, and Mr. Debiprasad Ghosh, from L&T Constructions highlighted how Altair CAE suite of solutions helped them in their Design and Analysis of Blast Furnace Steel Shell project. Whereas, Mr. Srijit Chatterjee, Mr. Rama Rao and Mr. Debdutta Guha from MSME Tool Room Kolkata, spoke about how they are supporting Industry and students alike through providing services and training using Siemens NX CAD Software.

At this event, DesignTech demonstrated technologies at every stage of product lifecycle starting from Concept development, 3D Modeling and Validation, Product Design analysis and simulation, Rapid prototyping, Alternative Production technologies, Digital manufacturing for Plant Simulation, to PLM for managing and optimizing the entire product design and development data and processes.

Mr. Vikas Khanvelkar, Managing Director, DesignTech Systems Ltd. expressed his happiness at the turn out of engineering fraternity for this event stating, “ I am extremely overwhelmed to see such a fantastic response to this event. It makes me happy to see the enthusiasm among the engineering industry to learn about, understand the advantages, and consider adopting new and advanced technologies to add more value to their engineering initiatives.

He further highlighted the necessity for the industries today to keep reinventing themselves through consistent innovation to stay competitive and ahead in the market space. With government sanctioning higher FDI, making policies to facilitate ease of doing business, India is set to become a global engineering destination. With more captive or hybrid R&D centers opening in India, the companies here will have to adopt new and advanced technologies to shorten their development cycle time, make more robust products at competitive prices, and optimize the overall processes and cost of development. To be able to do this they will have to harness the benefits and capabilities of these technologies. With that they will be able to stay resilient and competitive in rapidly changing market space.”

The software can only serve as good as the person operating it. Only through proper training and domain specific applications insight, can the engineer use the software to its fullest potential to derive maximum benefits. Training offerings and modules of DesignTech CAD Academy, the Authorized Training Partner of Siemens PLM software and Altair Engineering, an education wing of DesignTech Systems Ltd. were also presented at the do.

Mr. Sanjay Daga, President – Operations at DesignTech Systems Ltd., exclaimed, “There has been paradigm shift in the industry. Today, the faster and agile companies will beat the slower companies. The size and scale of the company will not matter. The companies who proactively work on reinventing themselves, come out with creative and innovative offerings to the consumers at competitive prices, will beat the companies who stay complacent and take success for granted. If we look at the market space today, the competition is intense and there are newer brands coming to market and establishing their stronghold more frequent than ever before. The only way a company can thrive is if they make use of these advanced technologies to configure agile processes, build appealing and better functioning products with great aesthetics at competitive prices, before the competition. If the product is late in the market by 6 months, they would have lost more than half of their profit share. Hence the companies in India have to adapt and adopt the latest technologies to retain their competitive position in the Market.”

This congregation saw people from cross vertical domains attending the event in large numbers. Physical display of functional, multi-material and colorful 3D Printed parts added value to the seminars on 3D Printing technology as people could for themselves touch and feel the 3D Printed models. Customer case study presentations helped the audience understand the clear benefits and applications of these technologies. Plethora of questions and queries asked after every technology demonstration was a clear indicator to the eagerness among the audience to learn more about these solutions, its applications and how it can help them add value in their area of work. Overall, this event on latest technologies in product engineering and development was well received by the Engineering fraternity and industry in Kolkata.

“Leverage Technology for Product Excellence”

A Technology event organized by DesignTech Systems showcased all the latest technologies in product design, development and Manufacturing to the Engineering Industry in Pune

DesignTech Systems Ltd., a leading CAD/CAM/CAE, PLM and Additive Manufacturing solutions and technologies provider in India, organized a one day Technology seminar in Pune to showcase to the engineering and product development industry the latest technologies in Product design, development and manufacturing. Being Strategic Business Partners with world leaders such as Siemens PLM for their product design and PLM software solutions, Altair Engineering for their CAE suite of solutions, Stratasys for their Additive Manufacturing Machines, and SLM for their Metal 3D Printers, DesignTech showcased technologies at every stage of product lifecycle starting from Concept development, 3D Modeling and Validation, Product Design analysis and simulation, Rapid prototyping, Alternative Production technologies, through to PLM for managing and optimizing the entire product design and development data and processes.

Organized at Le Meridien in Pune, this full day event saw a congregation of some of the big names in the engineering industry along with an encouraging participation from the SMEs which make for the backbone of Engineering and manufacturing industry in Pune.

On this occasion, Vikas Khanvelkar, Managing Director, DesignTech Systems Ltd. expressed his views stating, “I am extremely overwhelmed to see such a fantastic response to this event. It makes me happy to see the enthusiasm among the engineering industry to learn about, understand the advantages, and consider adopting new and advanced technologies to add more value to their engineering initiatives. With Government of India strongly emphasizing on and heavily promoting ‘Make in India’ in the foreign countries, Brand India had never had such a huge thrust. This is going to significantly boost manufacturing and product development initiatives in India. Pune has always been at the center of engineering industry in India. Being an engineering hub, industry here should be among the first to adopt new technologies that will enhance their quality of productivity, augment efficiency of processes and improve the overall performance of product making them more competitive and bringing them at par with the global standards of engineering and manufacturing excellence.

With more Hybrid R&D centers being set-up, and more and more indigenous companies investing heavily in R&D, India has the potential to outweigh competition from foreign markets and Pune will definitely gain prominence as being a strategic and preferred destination for engineering industry. Through events like today, we attempt to make industry aware of the latest trends and technologies in the product design, development and manufacturing arena. These technologies together can make for a robust R&D set-up and will help companies achieve their desired goals of product quality, time and cost efficiency, optimization of resources and funds, and of overall productivity of their department.”

DesignTech systems Ltd. through their education and training wing, DesignTech CAD Academy is an Authorized Training Partner of Siemens PLM and Altair Engineering for their CAD and CAE suites of solutions. Besides that, DesignTech Systems is also a renowned name in engineering services as they cater to companies from cross vertical domains assisting them in their most complex and challenging engineering initiatives. The client base of DesignTech’s Product development and engineering services spans across North America, Europe and Asia.

Sanjay Daga, President – Operations, at DesignTech Systems exclaimed, ‘‘Through this event we got a chance to showcase our entire product, services and training portfolio and offerings to the industry. With the huge impetus of policies and schemes being promoted by the Government of India, the Indian engineering and manufacturing industry is anticipated to grow leaps and bounds. The only way, the Indian industry can compete with their foreign counter parts, is if they adapt as per the changing times and adopt the technologies that will help them build better products, faster and cheaper than others. This is where we will surpass the competition. For this it is critical for the industry to understand the application of these technologies and the benefits that they will bring to their engineering initiatives.

DesignTech has been a pioneer in popularizing and promoting the use of latest technologies in the field of product design and development amongst the engineering Industry in India right from late 90s during when the industry and particularly the SMEs were most apprehensive about investing in such perceived expensive technologies. But today there is a greater awareness about these technologies and competition has necessitated the companies to invest in such tools that will add value to their design and manufacturing processes. Besides promoting cutting-edge technologies, we have always been a customer oriented company, determined to provide seamless customer service, training and support thereby making every dealing with the customer a delightful experience for them. The customer case studies being presented at this forum are a testimony to our service to them. We are thrilled and extremely grateful to all the customers who very readily and willingly agreed to present their technology usage and DesignTech support experience on this big platform”

Mr. Hemant Jere, Head Design & Development, Supreme Industries Ltd, a recognized name in Plastic product manufacturing, and a customer of Stratasys 3D printer shared their experience of how Stratasys 3D Printer helped them develop better products.

Mr. Prakash Khot, Manager Product Design and Mr. Suraj Kolte, Engineer Product Design, from Kalyani Maxion Wheels, a leading player in Wheels manufacturing and a supplier to many big OEMs and CAR companies presented a Case Study on Altair CAE suites of solutions and how it enabled them to analyze and evaluate their product designs thus helping them develop more robust products.

While, Mr. Sajith Chenat, Director ,Matrix Tools and Solutions, an ardent user of Siemens NX solutions, spoke at length about the benefits of NX as an Advanced CAD and 3D Modeling software which helped them develop even the most complex geometries and shapes effectively.

These case study presentations added more insight into the use, applications and benefits of these technologies and the value they add to the company’s engineering and product development initiatives. They also illustrated the customer support being extended by DesignTech which helped them implement and use these technologies to the very best thus enabling them derive highest return on their investments

More than 200 guests from engineering industry being present for the seminar made this event significant and note worthy of recognition.

In this blog, I am going to attempt to apply technology adoption curve as explained in the book Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore, to today’s products and technology market scenario. The views I express in this blog are my personal opinions, and are not a line on the rock. By that I mean, that people may have different opinions and hence my inferences and analysis are not universal but subjective, might not be the ultimate truth, but surely worth giving a thought.

Since the beginning of my career I have always contributed to promoting, popularizing and helping the industry in India to adopt the latest technologies.Then may it be CNC Machines and CNC retrofit systems in the early 80s; DC variable speed drives, servo motors and PLCs in the mid-80s; to CAD/CAM/CAE and simulation tools and technologies in the early 90s. I believe, a company must adapt and adopt technologies corresponding to the changes occurring or being anticipated in the market to stay resilient and relevant in the changing market conditions.

During this period, I have always referred to and considered this book, ‘Crossing the Chasm’ by Geoffrey Moore as my Bible. The technology adoption lifecycle that he has so eloquently studied and explained in this book holds relevance even today. For those of you, who haven’t read the book, I will give a very short anda brief description about the technology curve before I express my views on how it is applicable in today’s market scenario.

Geoffrey Moore explains 5 key categories of customersin the Technology Adoption life cycle:

1. Innovators: they are proactive users of new technologies, willing to experiment, and don’t mind taking risks. They like to see for themselves, how the new technology can add value to their area of work. Classic examples of companies in this category are – research oriented companies or scientists working on some break through innovation or studies. These people or companies want to use technology for further invention or discovery.

2. Early Adopters: they are technology enthusiasts. They are passionate about technology and love getting a ‘hands on’ experience of working on new technology. They are excited about new knowledge and new technology, and are not averse to taking risks or making investments in that direction. These people or companies are pragmatic. They know that if they understand and make best use of technology earlier than the competition, then they can reap higher, greater and better benefits out of it and be a leader or a trend setter in their area of work. E.g. of this are Banks who first provided internet banking facility to the customers before the competition; Dell first to offer online purchase option bypassing the physical stores which was a convention back then, and is even today to a certain extent.
3. Early Majority: majority of the companies and people fall into this category. Companies in this category will adopt a technology once it is proven, is complete, pricing is comparable to other competitive and similar products or technology, and is offered by a Market leader. These companies are more calculative, will go for the technology once it meets their benchmark and other support and service requirements. They will not be the trend setters, but usually the earlier trend followers. They will see which way the wind is blowing, and will accordingly align their sail earlier, quicker and faster than the rest. These companies are quick in bringing change in their system, are adoptive, flexible and they know they are not the innovators and if they are to derive benefits out of the technology, they need to sense and anticipate the changing trend and act fast accordingly. E.g. majority of the Mobile hand set companies, who were among the first to introduce touch screen and smart phones after Apple.

4. Late Majority: these companies or people are more conservative in their approach. They change and adopt technology only when they are compelled by the market conditions to bring about the necessary change in their processes and systems. They will react late, they are usually slow and inflexible and way too process oriented or may be highly bureaucratic to be agile and swift enough. They will be the ones getting the balance of the share in the market that is left behind by the companies in the earlier three categories. E.g. New entrants in the mobile handset industry having nothing new to offer, yet manage to make decent sale maybe because of costs advantage alone.

5. Laggards: these companies are the most hesitant and apprehensive to change. They love the convention and are reluctant to introducing anything new in their processes or system. They keep following their north star, not realizing that the earth’s tilted axis and rotation and revolution around the sun, causes the directions to change and they might infact be heading a wrong way in the name of consistency and convention. These companies usually perish. They might be the leaders in the initial hay days of their business, but with time, they lose way and are forgotten. E.g Blackberry with time has become a laggard, not being able to cope up with change.

The diagram above shows thin cracks between all these phases, and a major crack or a crevice after Early adopters and before Early majority cycle phase. It is because; some of the products or technologies do not get through these phases and make it to the next stage. The most difficult phase for a product or company to be successful is Crossing the Chasm on to the third stage i.e. to EarlyMajority from the Early Adopters. This is toughest. Once the companies cross this chasm, they have attainedgreat success. That is where the title of the book “Crossing the Chasm” comes from. There are very few companies who drop off in the cracks or fall behind after having Crossed the Chasm. They might lose speed or grip over market if they fail to continue the consistent pace of innovation. If the company gets complacent or underestimates competition, or fails to anticipate or envision the change in the technology or the market space, they might fall behind. One classic example of this is Blackberry. They were the torch bearers, the leaders in the enterprise mobile handset market space, but they soon started losing to Competition from Apple which has been a highly innovative company known for producing breakthrough innovations that change the rule and field of play.

There are so many products which became popular with the Innovators and the Early Adopters, but cannot make it to the Early Majority stage. Some of the best examples of these are – Pagers, Blu Ray technology, Disc Man, MP3 players etc. The reasons for them not able to Cross the Chasm could be plenty. The reason pagers could not pick up, was lack in time. Just when they were getting popular, a mobile handset was invented and pager became obsolete. The augmented frequency of new product innovations, is giving the products less time to cross the chasm and become successful. Similar thing happened with the disc man, just when they were becoming popular; Apple came out with iPod which became the new sensation and the object of desire for everyone.

In todays’ fast changing world One of the common practices companies adopt to make their product popular and get through to Early Majority stage by crossing the Chasm is, offer the product at highly discounted or subsidized price, or maybe even free. Once it becomes popular, they start levying some sort of charges. There are so many contemporary prevalent examples of this such as Whats App, Facebook and Skype– they were offered free to the users. So now they have Crossed the Chasm from Early Adopters to the Early Majority stage, and in the case of Facebook, they may have gone up to even the Late Majority stage. Skype has however started charging for their VOIP services. It will be interesting to see, how they combat the competition from Whats app calling service which is free.

Today you can witness and experience a huge etail boom in India. With sites like Snapdeal, amazon.in, Flipkart providing products at extensively subsidized prices, consumers are having a big advantage in shopping online. They get their desired products at lesser price, plus are delivered to them at their door steps. It’s a big boon for the consumers. The etail giants are incurring substantial losses in this process but have made a way for themselves to Cross the Chasm to reach Early Majority. They are in the transition phase in India at this moment, making their way to the Early Majority. Whether they will be able to sustain this business model and start making profit for themselves, only time will tell. But at this point in time, they are investing huge in creating attractive and appealing Marketing campaigns through advertisements, special offers, ‘big day sales’ and what not, to Cross the chasm.

Another approach that companies adopt to Cross the Chasm is they introduce the product in the niche market segment initially. Once it becomes successful there, they roll it out to the larger geography or industry. Once they are proven in the niche segment, they can make this their reference site and spread the scheme to the entire canvas. Because Early Majority category companies or people look for a proven technology or product with comparable or competitive price from an established company, this makes for an ideal strategy to Cross the Chasm. E.g. introducing a Car in a selectcountry before its global or overseas launch, launching a flavor of chips in a select market before making it available across their entire market, giving free trial of the detergent to the households in the select geographybefore the mass launch, trial version of the software is available for free download valid for upto a month after which the license expires and the user has to buy it.

Believe it or not, but even piracy inadvertently has played a role in helping companies Cross the Chasm. Technology enthusiasts, who either were apprehensive about buying the software, or was out of budget for them, or was readily available off the internet, whatever may be the reason, downloaded the pirated version. It helped them try out the software, experiment with it, contributing to making it popular.

A different product or technology can be at a different stage in the technology adoption life cycle in different countries at the same time. For e.g. 3D Printing as a technology has Crossed the Chasm in the developed countries and has penetrated well in the industry, medical and educational institutes alike. However in India, it is still at the Early Adopters stage paving its way steadily towards Early Majority. The technology however looks promising is proven and I feel confident that it will Cross the Chasm, rather to be precise, I believe it is in the process of Crossing the Chasm.

One technology, which was highly anticipated, looks extremely promising, beneficial and convenient but yet is struggling to Cross the Chasm is Saas model or Software as service model through Cloud Computing. The benefits of cloud computing are proven. There are no two ways, doubts or dilemmas as to the use and advantages of this service, however why then is it still struggling to Cross the Chasm? Why has it not really picked up as it was expected to when it was first introduced? It was anticipated to change the whole paradigm and approach of using technology as a service. One of the primary contributing reasons, to it not getting the thumping response as it was expected, in my opinion is, pricing. The solutions offered as a service through cloud computing turn out to be much more expensive than an outright purchase of the product. ‘Pay-as-you-use’ offering does not seem to turn out to be a reasonably priced option and such high pricing cannot be justified. For e.g. Office 365, a cloud based service from Technology giant Microsoft never really picked up becausetheir per user costs are massive in comparison to their purchase option.

Today is the age of technology convergence. Even in our day to day lives, our phones are linked to our laptop, phones are linked to TV and act as remote, laptops and phones are linked to our tablet, and companies today offer not just a gadget, but an entire ecosystem with it. For. E.g. iOS devices are all synced to each other and so are Android devices. The user has to make a choice, which eco system he wants to be a part of, a decision which is based on numerous factors such as brand image, pricing, features and offerings, and many other. But even while the time the technology or products have in hand to Cross the Chasm may be less, the life cycle time may be shorter, but the technology lifecycle is very much relevant and holds significance as the gospel truth in today’s highly tech savvy and rapidly changing market space. Fundamentals will remain same but the tools and approaches and the time required to cross the chasm will keep changing with time as seen from some of the cases explained above.

I hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts through this long blog. Feel free to share your points of views on this. Different perspectives enrich and add value to the context.

About Author:
Mr. Vikas Khanvelkar, Managing Director, DesignTech Systems Ltd has rich experience of over 30 years in this industry. He has acquired his Bachelor of Engineering in (Electronics & Telecomm) from College of Engineering Pune (COEP). He has also pursued his Masters in Business Administration and specialized in Marketing. Prior to starting his own business DesignTech Systems Ltd in 1998, Mr. Khanvelkar was associated with HCL Infosystems for 9 years, where he was heading CAD/CAM Division as a Country Manager for 5 years. He has always worked on introducing latest technologies in the Indian Market right from the concept stage, be it CNC Technology; Variable speed DC, AC and Servo Drives; or CAD/CAM Technology. After promoting DesignTech in 1998, he has pioneered use of CAD/CAM/CAE software solutions in SMEs across all industrial segments all over India. He extensively worked and supported to convert conventional 2D based designers to move to 3D modeling based design solutions and also popularized use of FEA solution amongst many of them.

DesignTech and Integrity Tool and Mold Inc. plan to expand their operations in INDIA to offer best in class mold manufacturing and design services

DesignTech Systems Ltd. a leading CAD/CAM/CAE, Additive Manufacturing Technologies and Engineering Services provider in India inks a Joint Venture with Integrity Tool and Mold Inc. Integrity Tool and Mold is the largest Automotive Mold, tool and Die manufacturing Companies in North America. Integrity is headquartered in Canada with large operations presence even in United States of America & Mexico.

In this Joint Venture DesignTech will hold 45% stake, where as 55% will be owned by Integrity Tool and Mold INC.

On this occasion, Scott Allen, General Manager, Integrity Tool and Mold Inc., stated, “We are very happy to sign up a Joint Venture with DesignTech Systems. DesignTech has been our extended arm in Mold design and engineering for last few years and with increasing demand from our customer to offer global support, the JV will be an important step towards expanding our reach beyond American subcontinent. The JV has started operations with a small team, trained in Integrity Canada to meet ITM global mold design standards and we anticipate a multifold growth in the team size in the coming years. This engagement will help us expedite our product development process with more hands working on our projects and will also reduce our cost of operations and development. Geographically distributed work force will help us address our customers’ requirements faster and we will be able to hit the Market early. Engineers at our JV are well experienced and committed to work, which will ensure we meet our product delivery and quality timelines and standards. With this we will be able to spread our operations further to start catering to a larger Market with a confidence of a bigger engine powering this growth at the backend.”

Integrity is into development of specialized and high end Molds, tools and dies making them a leader in their segment in the North American Market.

Atul Marwaha, Sr. Vice President – International Business at DesignTech Systems Ltd. expressed his happiness exclaiming, “We are very proud to be associated with such an eminent company of their stature. We had been doing business with Integrity since late 2011 and we started with catering to their requirements on case to case basis. Soon we had setup a team of specialists exclusively working for ITM and the model was extremely successful. This prompted both DesignTech and ITM to take this association to the next level. We are extremely happy to get into a Joint Venture with them and establish this new identity of Integrity DesignTech Tool and Mold Inc. Under this JV, we will not only be working for ITM global engineering requirements, but we also plan to use this as a launch pad for expanding mold design and manufacturing services in Asia. Integrity is renowned to provide highest quality, scale, and value to it’s customers and has capacity to develop highly specialized tooling that can range from 200 to 3000 ton presses. With plants and facilities in various locations in Canada, USA and Mexico, together they have a reputation of being the best in their field. Thus this JV is a big milestone for us and we hope this association will keep growing in the near future.”

Stratasys, a world leader in Additive Manufacturing 3D Printing technology in association with DesignTech Systems, one of the largest distributors for Stratasys in India organized a seminar on “Rapid prototyping for rapid product design” for the companies in product design and engineering at Hotel Double tree by Hilton on 26th November 2014.

The event covered the applications and significance of 3D printing in building more robust products faster and better thereby helping companies to stay competitive.

Mr. Ido Eylon, General Manager – South Asia and Pacific, Stratasys commented, “3D Printing offers great advantages to companies that are involved in product design and development, engineering and manufacturing. Creating physical prototypes of products helps companies evaluate and validate the product designs physically, testing them for fit, form and ergonomics. Product design errors can be detected early on in the product development cycle and be addressed right away, significantly reducing the costs and time of design reiterations. Design and development cycle time is compressed, and companies can drastically reduce the time-to-market for their new and innovative products.” Mr. Eylon further added, “Moreover, 3D printing is also widely used in Direct Digital Manufacturing, where companies can produce parts and products for end-use applications, e.g. jigs, fixtures, mold inserts and spare parts. This is ideal for production of unique tailor-made tools or parts, and low volume small batch productions.”

A Stratasys 3D printer was showcased at the event, offering the visitors a chance to see a 3D Printer live in action. A wide array of sample parts printed by various Stratasys 3D printers was displayed, offering the visitors an opportunity to see and touch, and to get a feel for how precise and close to the real life product the prototypes are, and how robust the 3D printed end-use parts are.

Mr. Sanjay Daga, President, DesignTech Systems Ltd expressed his thoughts saying, “Indian product engineering industry due to ever rising competition, higher bargaining power of consumers, and shrinking shelf lives of products, is under constant pressure to innovate, and build better products faster and at minimum costs. The only way companies can expedite their product design and development process without compromising on the quality of product and while ensuring maximum cost effectiveness is, if they adopt new and cutting edge technologies like 3D printing which will help them visualize, share, evaluate their designs with a prototype in hand. This will augment their design creativity, enhance communication as you can now discuss our ideas with a model in hand, evaluate the model by developing functional prototypes and address design errors early in the design cycle that will save huge amounts of time and costs that otherwise the companies would have had to indulge in rectifying the design.

Mr. Daga further added that, Stratasys with their wide range of 3D printers, materials and patented technologies – FDM and PolyJet, can very well address companies’ various design validation needs. DDM can even help companies manufacture and develop products for end-use applications, in a timely and cost-effective manner.

The event was very well received by 120+ audience and product engineering and manufacturing industry of Pune was showcased a new technology that can act as a catalyst and provide thrust and impetus to robust product development in minimum time and costs.

Nissan Techno, Japan is launching a major initiative to bring Indian suppliers at par with their global standards and practices of Engineering excellence. Nissan Techno (wholly owned subsidiary of Nissan Motors Ltd. Japan) inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with DesignTech Systems Ltd., accrediting DesignTech Systems as their certified Nissan Supplier Implementation partner. Under this MoU, DesignTech will be responsible for Educating, Training and Supplying Nissan specific design packages to their Indian suppliers.

On the occasion of signing of the MoU, Mr. Ian Turner, Manager, Nissan Techno, Japan stated, “We were looking for a partner who had the technical expertise, long standing experience of implementing high-end software solutions in the Automotive segment with good market reach and penetration. And we found DesignTech to be a perfect fit in all these aspects. We look forward to working with DesignTech as our long term strategic partner.”

Mr. Vikas Khanvelkar, M.D, DesignTech Systems Ltd. exclaimed, “We are very excited to become a strategic partner of Nissan Techno. We are committed to help Nissan suppliers in India adopt the Nissan global practices, match up with their global standards of Engineering and thus increase their contribution to and significance in Nissan Design & Development program. We look forward to grow this association in other countries also. “

Further to this MoU, two dedicated Nissan Supplier events were conducted on 31t October in Chennai and on 3rd November in Delhi to bring the Nissan Suppliers in India upto speed with Nissan Global Engineering Design and Development platform. Nissan Techno, Siemens Industry Software and DesignTech Systems ltd., the only platinum partner of Siemens in India showcased their full range of technological solutions and services strength at these events to all the Nissan Suppliers.

On the auspicious occasion of Diwali, DesignTech CAD Academy announced the biggest competition of the year “3D Diwali” – Design- Develop- Decorate. Overwhelming response was received from the students across all the centers.

DesignTech CAD Academy, an authorized training partner of Siemens Industry software for their CAD and PLM solutions, and Altair Engineering for their CAE HperWorks suite of Solutions, celebrated Diwali with a unique contest in their institute.

The contest began on 6th October and ended on 10th October 2014. In this competition students had to develop designs and 3D Models of Diwali related artifacts using some of the most advanced CAD software solutions in the training institute. Students were given one hour every day for four days after their classes to develop these designs. In four hours students had to develop creative designs that would best reflect their representation of Diwali and what it means to them.

The award presentation and felicitation ceremony was done at the hands of Mr. Sachin Chougule, Founding Director, DesignTech Systems Ltd. On this happy occasion, Mr Sachin Chougule exclaimed, “Students showed excellent creativity and designing skills in coming up with wonderful 3D models using various CAD Software. This contest not only gave them a platform to display and present their creativity, but also to prove their designing potential and proficiency in making the best use of CAD software to even create intricate and fine designs and detailing. I was thrilled to see how well these students could work with advanced software like NX CAD, which is also one of the most popular CAD software and widely adopted by the engineering companies in India. I am sure all these students have a bright future ahead in store for them, and great opportunities will be beckoning them outside the door of CAD Academy once they successfully conclude their courses.”

These designs were judged by DesignTech Systems Ltd.’s very senior and experienced Technical Expert Mr. Raju Batulla. The student who won the judge’s heart with creativity and excellent designing skills by developing a 3D Model of décor of Goddess Lakshmi’s Poojan in NX CAD software from Siemens is Rahul Kanse. The second award went to Mahesh Shingare for having designed a beautiful decorative lantern. Vishal Khairnar won the third prize for designing an oil lamp, while Gaurav Tambe and Suresh Jadhav were presented special appreciation awards for designing wonderful lanterns

Mr. D.A. Darekar, Centre Head at DesignTech CAD Academy, added, ‘We were overwhelmed and amazed to see such enthusiastic response to this contest. All the students across all centers in Pune Kothrud, Autocluster Chinchwad, Hyderabad, and Nashik were very excited to be a part and to put on their best performance in this competition. The competition was really close. As a contest this was our first initiative, and looking at the response we are now geared up to conduct such contests more often which will give students a chance to demonstrate their creativity, talent and expertise in using the CAD Technology and also increase the confidence of the companies in them for getting better placements.”

The 3D design of Décor of Goddess Lakshmi’s Poojan developed by the first winner Rahul Kanse was 3D Printed using Stratasys 3D printer and was gifted it to him along with other attractive awards from DesignTech CAD Academy. The other winners were also presented various exciting prizes from DesignTech CAD Academy.

A fitness freak who likes reading management journals and autobiographies, Vikash Khanvelkar, Founder & Managing Director, DesignTech Systems Pvt Ltd narrates his entrepreneurial journey with Nishant Kashyap. Excerpts…

It was during 1994-95 when the CAD/CAM technology had started taking baby steps into the Indian industry. Conglomerates like TATA, Mahindra and Bajaj among others became the first few to invest in the technology.

“During those days, I was part of HCL Infosystems and was consulting these business giants regarding CAD/CAM technology. I was based in Pune, one of the biggest industrial hubs of Western India, where some of the automotive companies had their manufacturing units,” says Vikash Khanvelkar, Founder & Managing Director, DesignTech Systems Pvt Ltd.

A qualified engineer (Electronics & Telecomm) from College of Engineering Pune, Khanvelkar went on to pursue his Masters in Business Administration and specialized in Marketing.

He was known for his strong domain knowledge and curiosity for the new technologies while he worked as a consultant. “Coming from a manufacturing background, I was able to understand and promote CAD/CAM technology to these engineering companies. As I had the domain understanding my performance during that time exceeded the expectation of my seniors. I was appointed as Country Manager of HCL,” he adds.

Khanvelkar worked on introducing latest technologies in the Indian market right from the beginning, be it CNC Technology; Variable speed DC, AC and Servo Drives; or CAD/CAM. Even before the CAD/CAM technology was introduced in the Indian market, he had managed to gain sound experience in the machine tool industry in terms of the use of conventional as well automated technologies like CNC.

It was during 1997-98 that windows operating system created a strong hold and application vendors started using it significantly. Earlier the technology that was available for Rs 30-35 lakh went down to Rs 4-5 lakh in windows with equally good result. This was the time when Khanvelkar made up his mind to become an entrepreneur. He could see the potential of CAD/CAM in the manufacturing industry. Further, the domain knowledge and expertise gained provided a much needed boost.

“Starting my own venture had always been my dream and I knew if given a chance this technology will be well adopted in India as well. Together with my partner Sachin Chougule, (presently holding the position of Director) started DesignTech in 1998,” avers Khanvelkar.

DesignTech was formed with an initial investment of Rs 2 lakh. Talking about the initial days Khanvelkar says, “I met Sachin Chougule during our HCL days. I told him about my business plan and he agreed. Initially he looked after the technical part and I managed sales & marketing. He was very sound in technical aspects and because of him I never had any technical related issue.”
But it was not easy, DesignTech too faced obstacles during its initial days. Since CAD/CAM was in a very nascent stage, the biggest challenge was to convince people about the technology. “I gave my best to spread awareness about the technology. I also gave lectures in colleges and told students about a good career option i.e CAD/CAM.”
Apart from this, raising money and getting the right people on board was a huge challenge. He adds, “I knew about the lack of awareness about CAD/CAM in the industry and that small players are far away from it. So we chose a different path for our business, instead of just selling, we first started training our customers and showed them the positive result.”

This strategy worked well and even attracted small players. Today almost all the companies have 3D modelling in their design system.

Slowly and steadily the company started making an impact on the industry. “DesignTech’s first customer was Micron Packaging, who were happy with our services and since then we never looked back,” he says.
It was also the time when Indian automotive industry was fast developing and they needed a reliable product with fast delivery. This demand pushed small component vendor/ manufacturer to invest in better technology to cater to their customers.

Khanvelkar says, “Once the industry was mature we introduced customers to other software’s such as plant simulation tool from Siemens, Mathwork for mathematical simulation and Stratsys for rapid prototyping. We put all these technologies in our basket to help organisations design their product better and faster.”

Achievements

• The company also boosts the complete range of CAD/CAM/PLM/CAE/RPT solutions from some of the global giants like Altair,  Stratasys, Mathworks, Siemens Industry Software among others.
• DesignTech was ranked amongst NASCCOM top 50 emerging companies in India in 2010.
• Siemens Industry Software and DesignTech Systems Ltd. signed an MoU with the Government of Gujarat in September 2013 to set-up 5 Siemens Centers of Excellence in various cities in Gujarat. DesignTech Systems is the execution partner for running these centers successfully.
• With more than 2000 satisfied customers and 350+ workforce, DesignTech is looking to expand.

During 2003-04, DesignTech started providing engineering services. Khanvelkar says, “We realised that various companies were having trouble while designing complex parts, so we started providing them engineering solutions as well.”

The first breakthrough in engineering service came from Mahindra when they were developing Scorpio, the iconic SUV. Talking about the engineering services, he says, “We were part of Scorpio’s development team. We worked on complex component development, vehicle integration, etc. We were successfull in doing all the design and simulation work, so we started building this as a conscious activity. Today we have more than 200 people working only on product design services.”
It is perfectly put by Mary Kay Ash –“People are definitely a company’s greatest asset. It doesn’t make any difference whether the product is cars or cosmetics. A company is only as good as the people it keeps.”

When all these technologies were put to significant use, it gave rise to a severe need for trained manpower. Various companies faced a challenge to get the right talent.
“Sensing the manpower shortage in the industry, we started training programme for the experienced and freshers. We had the experience, knowledge and right manpower, so we started the CAD Academy,” says Khanvelkar.

The company hired the best known faculty for the training institute. Programmes were planned in a way so that the students not just learned about the design, but also got industry exposure.

DesignTech has come a long way since its inception, providing solutions to various industries such as aerospace & defence, automotive, heavy engineering, consumer goods, industrial machinery and power & energy to name a few. Talking about his journey Khanvelkar says, “We have come this long because of our customers, we have extremely good customer loyalty. The credit also goes to our passionate team members.”

DesignTech operates in three fields today — product distribution, design services and training institute. “We are the largest when it comes to product distribution, now we aim to be the largest in terms of domestic design services and training,” he adds.

Sharing his experience with the new-age entrepreneurs Khanvelkar says, “Entrepreneurs must have a very good clarity of mind on what they want to achieve. If you are honest and put sincere effort you will eventually succeed.