The computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) market in India is poised for growth with foreign manufacturing players eying the country for its cheap skilled labor. The Indian market has evolved over the years with respect to the manufacturing companies who are faced with increasing demand for better products, higher number of product variants, bringing new products faster to market at a competitive price

While computer-aided design (CAD) refers to the use of computer technology for the design of objects, computer-aided manu­fac­turing (CAM) refers to the use of computer-based software tools that help engineers and machinists manufac­ture or prototype product components. CAM is the programming tool that enables the physical models to be manufactured using CAD programs.

Benefiting from CAD/CAM

Speaking about the CAD/CAM market Vivek Marwaha, Director-Marketing, Siemens PLM Software, India, “The challenge facing today's manufacturers is to be able to turn more ideas into successful products quickly and while doing so take greatest advantage of the resources that they have available to them through greater productivity and more efficient processes, all while optimizing the cost and quality of their products. CAD/CAM software tools are helping Indian manufacturing companies to establish an environment to deal with these issues and the complexity that they bring.”

Marwaha explained that these tools can help companies execute the activities that are required to build the right product and build the product right. “Building the right product means meeting customer requirements in terms of time, function, performance, price etc. Building the product right means executing design and production processes that meet the requirements of cost, quality, reliability, sustainability etc. In order for manufacturers to be able to simultaneously build the right product and build the product right they must establish an environment that support continuous innovation across all disciplines and phases of the product's lifecycle. CAD CAM software tools are integral and basic elements of this environment,” said Marwaha.

Sharing his thoughts on the market, Jayant Keswani, Head-Marketing, Autodesk India &SAARC said, “The CAD/CAM segment has witnessed a surge owing to the increased importance of design as a competitive advantage for business, especially in the manufac­turing, architect, engi­neering and construc­tion industries. The initial push came from the design-related work being outsourced to India by companies in the West. The last few years have definitely seen increased activity in the Indian CAD/CAM space with design product vendors realizing the importance of India as a cost-effective destina­tion for outsourcing work.”

Giving figures on the market, Keswani said that globally, the market size for CAD-authoring tools is a bigger pie of approxi­mately $20 billion, while collaborative product data management or process-oriented tools have a market size of close to $8-10 billion.

As local demand for design-related work steadily increases there is growing potential for the growth of the CAD/ CAM business. Increasing competition is helping businesses realize that design can be leveraged as a competitive differentiator and help businesses grow faster. No longer are the competitive variables limited to price and functionality, delivery time and design have become essential factors for success.

Rolta India is another player in the niche area of CAD/CAE/CAM. The company offers computer graphics, mapping and engineering software. Its Chairman and MD-KK Singh has been a pioneer in the space. Speaking about how the company has continued to hold on to its position in the market, Singh said, “We hold brain-storming sessions to keep a tab on the changing technologies and changing scenarios. We sense the pulse of market needs and reorient and update ourselves with the latest technologies.”

Hurdles on the way

While the fact that many foreign manufacturing companies are eying India for the cheap skilled labor, it is also the hurdle in its track to achieving success. CAD/CAM's potential is not being realized due to the lack of skilled labor. “While the importance of CAD/CAM is well established in Indian industry, the biggest limitation is the shortage of skilled manpower. Our customers are willing to invest more in design but are constrained at times for talent. Autodesk is working closely with educational institutions and partners to address this challenge,” said Keswani.

Get customers to institute change in their processes and execution of processes in a disciplined manner to be able to fully harness the capabilities of such tools is also a challenge. While engaging with small to medium businesses another difficulty comes in the form of overcoming their mindsets that 3D CAD system are expensive, difficult to use and manage, and loss of their legacy 2D data. “To specifically address the concerns of such companies, we introduced a fully functional yet affordable 3D CAD system, which is extremely easy to use and manage, and also provides an easy way of using their existing 2D CAD data. Called Solid Edge, This 3D CAD software is part of a portfolio of products called 'Velocity' series, where in we offer a mid-sized company an integrated, yet modular set of tools for CAD/CAM/CAE (computer-aided engineering) and PDM. We have had phenomenal success with this product line, as it takes special care of meeting the characteristic requirements of small companies-that of being affordable, easy to deploy, easy to manage and scalable,” said Marwaha

Enhancing adoption

For a vendor to enhance the adoption of their solutions it is important that they offer value-addition to their clients. Apart from offering the products and solutions, it is important that vendors and their implementation partners offer training and support infrastructure to their customers so that they can harness the potential of these solutions.

Another aspect that can be looked into is lowering of the entry barrier for SMEs. “We have introduced a portfolio of products specially packaged and pre-configured to specifically address the characteristic requirements of mid-sized organizations. Called the VELOCITY series, it includes pre-configured, tightly integrated, yet modular CAD/CAM/CAE and Product Data Management (PDM) solutions, specially packaged and priced for the mid market,” stated Marwahal.

Addressing the issue of lack of skilled manpower Keswani shared that Autodesk is facilitating the availability of skilled resources through the setting-up of Centers of Excellence at National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad and Bengaluru campus; IIT Kanpur; IIT Chennai; JJ College of Architecture; School of Planning and Management in Mumbai. “We want to ensure that the next generation of product designers and industrial designers in India are fully equipped to work with the latest tools,” he added.

The manufacturing and AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) verticals are leading the way in adoption of CAD/CAM. Automotive industry and its supply chain, heavy engineering, industrial machinery, aerospace and defense are the leading adopters in this space.

Likewise, CAD software market is witnessing an increase in demand due to the increased adoption by SMEs. The increase in adoption has been facilitated by increased awareness of the benefits of design software and correspondingly also lower prices of computer hardware. In recent times, there has been an increased focus on return on investment (RoI) by companies and it has become an integral part of pre-sales activity in technology.

Channel role

Today leading CAD CAM software providers are looking at additional capacity in the sales and support capability through more number of sales and support personnel serving the Indian market, to help address the growing demand for such software solutions and services. Channels can therefore seek a share in this growing market.

Giving his advice to channel partners, Marwaha mentioned, “Sales of CAD CAM software tools provides a good platform to upgrade and scale up one's ability to sell and support enterprise applications like PLM (product lifecycle management). The natural progression of a customer's deployment from a CAD system to a PDM/PLM system, can be matched by a CAD reseller's capability to offer similar systems.”