The Automotive and Aerospace market will show good growth in the coming years: Olivier Sappin, CEO of CATIA, Dassault Systemes

Olivier Sappin, CEO of CATIA, Dassault Systemes in an exclusive conversation with Zee Business has highlighted that Indian Market is one of the biggest markets for the company. The Automotive and Aerospace market will show good growth in the coming years.

See Zee Business Live TV Streaming Below:

1) The pandemic created huge challenges for all sectors, what was the impact on your company? 

The COVID-19 pandemic caused business to close their doors to protect customers and employees from contagion, which had a serious effect on economies, businesses worldwide. However, the transition to working from home could happen seamlessly because of technology. Our '3DEXPERIENCE Platform' provided cloud services for clients of all size to support new innovative working methods. 

We are exploring potential in three sector of business- manufacturing, infrastructure and Life Sciences with acquisition of clinical trial majors- Medidata.

2) The govt wants to make India Aatmanirbhar or Self Reliant. How do you see aligning your company's vision with the same? 

To align with the self-reliant initiative by Government of India, Dassault Systèmes has setup 3DEXPERIENCE Lab in Pune. Four startups are working with us there- Lucid Implants, PadCare Labs, Brainsight.ai and Inali. 

With the help of states of Karnataka & Andhra Pradesh, we have established center of excellence in Aerospace, Automotive and Marine providing students with industry ready skills to be absorbed by the potential customers in those industries. 

 Ashok Leyland, VE Commercial Vehicles, Mahindra and large suppliers like Uno Minda, Sandhar, Suprajit are already using the 3DEXPERIENCE platform for new product development, cross company and plant collaboration and in manufacturing and product lifecycle management. 

There are several other customers from large R&D labs to Government and private players in the Aerospace & Defense industry who are on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform from large enterprises to SMEs and start-ups. 

3) What sort of opportunity do you see for the Aerospace Defence Sector in India? 

The Aerospace & Defense sector in India is at an inflection point, given the large scale modernization and indigenization programs being undertaken by the Government. Companies in this sector have to cater to stakeholder expectations of lower costs, higher standards and increase capabilities along with growing program complexity.

We are working in domains of Military Aerospace, Civil Aerospace, Defense and Space programs with PSUs and private sector to address indigenous development of military aircrafts, components, indigenous development of regional transport vehicles in India, space and UAVs, MSMEs and start-ups across the country. We are also working closely with various State Governments to set up Centers of Excellence that can provide necessary training to the current and future generation of engineers, in the Aerospace and Defense industry.

4) How model based systems engineering will play a key role in managing the development of new products & technologies for the Indian Aerospace & Transport and Mobility sectors? 

The Systems Engineering solution from Dassault Systèmes delivers a unique, open and extensible development platform – a platform that fully integrates the cross-discipline modelling, simulation, verification and business process support needed for developing complex ‘cyber-physical’ products. It enables organizations to quickly and easily evaluate requests for changes or develop new products or system variants, while utilizing a unified performance based systems engineering approach that reduces the overall cost of system and product development.

5) How can the sector see a tremendous growth?

The two key industries for Dassault Systemes as well as for the Indian economy are automotive and aerospace. There are three key emerging trends in these spaces, firstly the emergence of EVs. While India has a EV policy by 2030, the ecosystem needs to provide an impetus to large corporates. Electric aviation is also likely to pick up especially on chartered electric airplanes. Drones and UAVs will also find more usage in surveillance, ecommerce and healthcare sectors.

Secondly, rapid digitalization and sustainable manufacturing processes of the supplier ecosystem in automotive and aerospace industry will make India a world leader in global supply chain. 

Thirdly, upskilling the existing mechanical, automotive and aerospace engineers to be industry ready.

Therefore electric vehicles, drones and UAVs, a digitalized supply chain and a skilled workforce of the future will help in the economic growth of the nation. 

6) How do you see India as a market for such an Industry?

The automotive and aerospace market will be expect good growth in the coming years. The pandemic has affected the sectors but these sectors will rebound in the next 2-3 years with demand for new mobility solutions- drones, UAVs, bicycles, electric scooters, cars, buses, trucks, metros, high-speed rails and ferry systems. The intent of the Government and citizens will be towards reducing carbon footprint and environmental pollution that is a big challenge in India. While for aerospace and defence there is opportunity in indigenous manufacturing and reducing the load on defence exports.