Increased use of CAD-CAM among SMEs

Balaka Baruah Aggarwal

NEW DELHI: Over the past couple of years, the CAD/CAM vendors have increasingly been

nurturing a new segment of small and medium customers in the country. These are component

manufacturers for OEMs who in turn supply to big MNCs or to Indian vendors. As more and

more MNCs take to manufacturing within the country the number of such component

manufacturers have increased.

With market compulsions like strict quality norms, accuracy and time to market issues,

component manufacturers have no option but turn to CAD/CAM tools to meet order deadlines

and quality norms. Naturally, for CAD/CAM players like Parametric Technology Center and

EDS, this is a significant market because it brings them volumes.

PTC India MD, Kishore Rao said, "Around 40-50 per cent of PTC sales come from the

automotive sector. Of which around 30 per cent is sales to OEMs and 60-70 per cent of the

sale is to the component manufacturers."

Although no formal study has been done to assess the size of this SME market, Rao

believes it is a growing market particularly as India emerges strong as an outsourced

destination for engineering products. This is particularly true in component manufacturing

in the automotive sector. Sona Steering is doing a lot of outsourced manufacturing in the

automotive sector.

Other sectors like consumer appliances constitute about 35 per cent of the company's

sales. Here also component manufacturers form a chunk of the company's business. The

business imperative to use tools among this segment is even more because the consumer

appliances market is extremely competitive.

In a highly competitive environment, it is essential that users share experiences among

themselves and imbibe the best practices as it suits them. To that extent, PTC organizes

its annual user conference to provide a platform for its users to exchange views. The

event, which has been held over the past three years, has increasingly become popular

among users. The event this time is being held in Delhi from 18-20 April, 2002 attracting

about 1000 participants. The highlight of the event is the award ceremony called the

ProAward for the best deployment of the CAD/CAM tools.