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PACPROCESS-DRINKTECH 2019 SHOWDAILY 13 DECEMBER 2019 | SUPPORTED BY PACKAGING SOUTH ASIA & INDIFOODBEV
third party, we first do a com-
plete engineering evaluation.
But even when it has passed all
the tests separately, it will not
be immediately inducted into
the manufacturing program
until it has undergone ‘on-field’
testing for a minimum of 6 to 9
months in a running machine.
If it is not giving the desired re-
sults, we take it out and put the
original component back.
Digitalization as a point in the
beverage market – still, even
now developing: are there any
differences in requirements in
the Indian market as to data
collection?
We do know that Industry 4.0
does include all of these points
as machine learning, aug-
mented reality and artificial
intelligence. It is going to be a
game-changer, but it is prob-
ably going to affect our indus-
try in India at the last. This is
what I personally feel. Many of
our big clients see a lot of value
in this for their manufactur-
ing operations but may not be
approaching players like us to
develop holistic solutions for
them, for the simple reason
that we are only catering to one
part of the plant, e.g., a packag-
ing line. They want to partner
with companies who are spe-
cifically in the IT field and who
have an umbrella understand-
ing of the whole operations
and deliverables of a plant or
network of plants – right from
resource planning to shipping
and inventory management,
and even beyond. This, how-
ever, is not to suggest that we
are not doing our own develop-
ments within our ‘packaging
line area’ to provide significant
value-adds to our customers. 
Is KHS then influenced by
an umbrella of any data
transferring cloud – with
machines as an object?
Yes, there is interface manage-
ment. The machinery will pro-
duce all the relevant data, and
that will be done within the
KHS boundary. The customer,
through an interface gateway,
will collect and use the trans-
ferred data to another IT sys-
tem – to be developed by him.
Within our boundaries, there
will be new areas, which are
coming, for example, such as
predictive maintenance. also see it that
way.
But we have already been
talking about it for some five
or ten years… We have enough
land, and we
did
purchase
some additional
property in the
recent past, so
we are gearing
up for future
expansions.
Currently, our
German board,
who are also
members of the
Board of KHS In-
dia, have been
very favorable
to support the Indian opera-
tions to help expand our mar-
ket presence as well as expand
the solutions out of Indian
plant for external markets.
I did mention briefly earlier
that in 2018, we started a com-
pletely new mold shop inside
KHS India with state-of-the-art
technology and high-end auto-
mated machines. Ahmedabad
is the second facility in the
KHS world, besides Dortmund,
to start manufacturing molds
for blow molding machines
made in Germany. Since then,
and we are just in the second
year, we have already deliv-
ered close to 900 molds. This
excellent success has boosted
our confidence to do more in-
house manufacturing projects.
The manufacturing time for a
set of molds takes, let’s say, a
week if we talk about a mid-size
machine, once the drawings
are available and the design is
approved. We shall also imple-
ment a mold design center in
Ahmedabad in the next phase,
which will help our customers
with quick turn-around times
for new market launches, as
the entire process from basic
design to shipping will then
happen under one roof.
Besides this, we see a lot of
topics in sustainable produc-
tion at our customers’ sites.
We are providing solutions that
Yes, but the technology space
is rapidly changing, and you
are now faced with a situation
that you have to develop, let us
say a predictive maintenance
system, but without too many
bells and whistles which drive
up costs. There are also other
challenges like obsolescence
of parts/technology, IP rights,
security concerns, and above
all, capability building in the
workforce through a very dif-
ferent unlearning and re-skill-
ing process. This field is evolv-
ing so very fast that sometimes
I wonder whether it is a good
idea not to have a head-start,
so as to limit the cost of a rather
bumpy learning curve! But that
is another debate.
Back to the market – are you
expecting to develop further
markets in your region?
This process started a few years
ago. KHS India would also like
to play a larger role in the glob-
al strategy footprint of KHS,
particularly for emerging mar-
kets that need advanced solu-
tions that are somewhat less
expensive than the German
ones and which are in a differ-
ent level of evolution. We have
to develop these markets in
close cooperation with our in-
ternational colleagues. We see
in the future, and already some
of our customers are saying it,
that markets will open up in a
more decentralized way. Cli-
ents will not be tied to legacy
perceptions and thus won’t
bother whether machines are
made in Germany or outside of
it. They will only be interested
in the machine performance
monitored on a real-time basis.
Our key account customers are
giving us this message, and we
Which
perspectives do
you see for your
production site?
7
Rs. 200
Volume 13 l Issue 11 l November 2019
SOUTH ASIA
Interview Alexander Baumgartner CEO Constantia
T h e M a g a z i n e f o r M o d e r n Pa c k a g i n g
First 100% rPET
recyclable juice
bottle by KHS
at K 2019
ONE OF ASIA’S
LARGEST ROTOGRAVURE
PRESS MANUFACTURERS
See
Pg. No. 19
are using less energy, water,
and utilities, and all such initia-
tives in favor of sustainability
and efficiency will continue to
get top priorities from us. An-
other topic very dear to our
heart is continuous knowledge
enhancement. Be it in the form
of a global engineering hub or
a world-class training academy,
and we will continue investing
and developing this area in the
years ahead.
Mr Ghose, thank you for
this overview.
Thank you.
2
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