BIESSE'S commitment to excellence is evident in its Bengaluru production units, which serve as a global hub for the manufacturing of high-quality machines that are exported to over 70 countries across the world. Biesse India has been instrumental in supporting the 'Make in India' initiative, continually expanding its product offerings to serve its customers with the most suitable solutions to simplify their manufacturing process.
These facilities boast an impressive annual production capacity of 2000 machines, covering an area of 26000+ square metres and employing over 700 skilled professionals. The company celebrated the milestone of its first 5000 machines in November 2017 and remarkably achieved the next 5000 machines within just four years. This growth trajectory is largely due to Biesse's adoption of a lean manufacturing system, optimising resource use, and minimising waste. Biesse's product portfolio is diverse, including sizing machines, CNC 3, 4, and 5 axis machines, Edgebanding machines, CNC drilling machines, Sanding machines, and more. Biesse India has established a state-of-theart tech centre, which has a showroom space of 1000+ square metres in Nelamangala, Bengaluru, with more than 15 technologies on display.
During a recently held exhibition in Bangalore, Mr. Sayeed Ahmed, CEO, Biesse India spoke with The Ply Reporter on new development and India’s Furniture sector opportunity.
Q. Which machine have you showcased here?
Today in BIESSE, we are showcasing our capabilities of different materials that BIESSE is not only for woodworking, but also for glass, stones and for composite materials and in BIESSE we are showcasing new branding and new vision of the firm that is there which the company as a one stop-solution for various materials and offering solutions to the furniture manufacturers who would like to venture into different materials other than the wood segment.
Secondly, we have exhibited a 5x machine which we have designed and produced in India and we are exporting worldwide. It is global bestseller for the complete solutions for panel processing, we are exhibiting here and most importantly we are also showcasing future technologies that BIESSE is venturing into it particularly the hydrogen energy which is towards the sustainability and our initiative is also to maintain sustainability and this is for expanding instead of using electric energy for heating, we are using hydrogen as source of heating and presenting BIESSE as a company into its new avatar.
Q. Could you please tell us the difference between laser and hydrogen technology?
BIESSE as a company did not adopt laser technology for expanding in the past, but we have used air force systems, hot air technology for expansion and today what we are going into hydrogen technology for better finished quality is a step higher as compared to laser technology. There are other technologies which are currently being used by the other competitors.
One simple thing is that it is there when you are talking about using hydrogen and laser technology in simple terms any minor discoloration you don’t come across in the hydrogen, this was something that is the every minor discoloration used to be felt in the laser technology and that is thing we can totally avoid it. We can get very close to perfection.
Q. Is there any difference in finished quality product?
Yes! There is a lot of difference in the finished products which are much better as compared to laser technology or the air technology that we use.
Q. Which direction is the furniture industry moving right now?
Firstly, it is on the fast growth track then secondly, customer’s expectation of higher quality products have gone up now, even the government is also looking for better quality furniture and bringing in standards. This will make manufacturers move up to the ladder. It will help the industry as a whole and as more and more companies are moving towards mechanization.
There are firms which are graduating from normal workshops to highly automatic solutions for material handling to reduce manpower and these days the industry is looking for digitization and customers are asking for IT based solutions. Customers are asking for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and how the machine can talk to the ERP system. How the production can be planned that could be integrated with machines. So, higher-end customers are asking for this and this is on the productive and output side. There are definitely a lot of opportunities for India to export. So, customers are looking for high quality machines that can give them the quality so that they can meet the demand in markets like US, Australia and Europe.
Locally in tier two three cities, the taste of customers are for better furniture, kitchen at home so, we see there is a demand for good designs, kitchen cabinets and wardrobes. So this is driving the industry towards and I would say for better technology and higher output and very soon we will reduce our dependence on imported furniture of premium and higher quality.
Q. What are the plans of BIESSE in the new era?
BIESSE is also looking at India for strategic growth as you know we have a very large manufacturing plant. It has invested in India to develop technological skills. So we have competencies here to design highly advanced products for the Indian market which can be also sold globally. We are finishing 10,000 machines exported for almost 75 countries globally. That is a great sign for a country.
India can export technological products worldwide and locally. We see in the furniture industry itself where the markets are matured like Europe and the US.
We have been exporting marble and granite with a low value addition. We have no not been doing value addition at all. So, with new technology available to Indian manufacturers and businessmen, have an opportunity to go for high value-added products not only for India, but also for the world? So BIESSE will be a one stop-solution for woodworking, glass, stones and composite materials. Composite materials are also coming in the furniture industry. So, we will be providing solutions. BIESSE is not just only known for selling machines, but we will be as a company to give complete solutions to our customers.
Q. Do you have any plans to open display centers in other states?
We have a display center in Bengaluru and that display center is going to become a large display center for Asia, Middle East. So, it will be a biggest display center in India of its kind which BIESSE is investing in for entire Asia and Middle East that means we are going to have high technology in wood working with robots and automatic material handling also for machines for glass, stones and composite materials, we will have it here in Bengaluru.
BIESSE has already invested in training institute in Bengaluru, Delhi and a couple of places like Ghaziabad and Faridabad. We are looking at western part of the country. These kinds of training centers will be spending more money to help upskilling and that will also be a place where our customers can visit and see the technologies.
Q. Which is the next potential state of furniture industry growth?
Karnataka has the biggest furniture and second biggest is Maharashtra on western side. We see there is a good growth happening in North India, and North has traditionally been a place where a lot of solid wood working is there, but making probably is dead now. We see now there are in tier two, tier three cities in UP, Rajasthan and Gujarat are coming up and these will be the places that are going to be bigger.
Q. Is there a special training program for entrepreneurs?
If you talk about specific programs for promoting and making them to invest in the furniture industry, we don’t have, but we definitely have a program which is designed where entrepreneurs can know and how to manage an industry what kind of solutions they should take it and what kind of machines they have to put and these kind of problems which are already having it. We want to pursue more on this so that awareness of people can be increased on how to use the technology.
We have a dedicated team which can offer solutions for Return on Investment (ROI) and depending upon their business requirement. We have ready-made plans to showcase about the investment and what they should do and only that we also design factory layout how we have to do it.
Secondly, we have invited furniture manufacturers to showcase to them what they can do. There are a bunch of traders and small manufacturers we are going to do and we have also associated with Pidilite and other things. We will look more and more into this. We have made a beginning on this, but I see that what we are doing is very less,but we have to do more on this front.