Patrick Castera, Director of Marketing, InnovMetric Software
Tell us more about PolyWorks Conference India.
We organize this event every year to inform our customers about the latest developments in 3D metrology and about our company.
We also conduct case study sessions at these events where user of PolyWorks can talk about their experience with potential users. This way, customers get to know about the benefits from a user’s perspective.
This event is all about sharing all the latest information related to 3D metrology and our flagship product PolyWorks.
You launched PolyWorks 2016 at the event. Please tell us how is it different from the previous version?
It’s a historic release for us. We had a vision and the slogan of PolyWorks stands by it – “The universal 3D metrology software platform”. Up to 2016 our product was truly universal for portable metrology but we wanted it to be 100% universal, now the new PolyWorks 2016 has made it possible. It has been able to integrate CNC-CMMs with portable metrology. Now, PolyWorks is truly universal in terms of portable metrology and CNC-CMMs both. All 3D metrology measuring equipment now works with PolyWorks. What makes it even more special is that portable metrology and CNC-CMMs are operated exactly in the same manner.
Tell us something about InnovMetric…
InnovMetric is the leading provider of universal 3D metrology software solutions. We are headquartered in Canada and have subsidiaries and joint ventures around the world. We have over 250+ employees around the world. We have about 150 employees in Canada and about 75 of them are developers, 25 of them are application specialists and just 50 for sales, marketing and administration. This is a proof of how focused we are towards technology.
How has your journey in India been?
We believe in the philosophy that in order to serve our customer best, we have to be local. Ten years ago the company started establishing subsidiaries with an aim to be able to provide technical support locally to our customers who were purchasing from Canada. By establishing subsidiaries our primary goal was to provide technical support to our existing customers locally. We provided technical support in local language according to the local time, thus developing the market.
Also, we were well aware of India’s growth in terms of the manufacturing sector so we wanted to be here and provide our technical capability. Around 85% of our customers come from automotive and aerospace industry, we address primarily OEMs and tier I suppliers.
Why it is not called InnovMetric India?
If you see, people know PolyWorks more than InnovMetric Software; the product has carved a place for itself in the market. So we decided to name the Indian subsidiary PolyWorks India.
Which is your most popular product? Is it inspection software or reverse engineering software?
Our most popular software is inspection software, PolyWorks|Inspector™. This software can be used for any type of mechanical part manufacturing. PolyWorks|Modeler™, our Reverse Engineering software is our second most popular product. In the Indian market we initially witnessed a huge demand for Reverse Engineering but later it shifted to inspection.
What are the key benefits of 3D metrology technology?
The most obvious benefit is that you can see results right away and get a better understanding of your manufacturing process. It allows you to see errors and problems much faster and take better decisions about how to correct the issues. So it’s not only helping to identify the problem areas but also helping to find ways to solve them.
Besides aerospace and automotive what are the other industries that you serve?
We serve customers from consumer goods, energy and power generation. Most of our customers are from aerospace and automotive but we are quite active in the above mentioned sectors as well.
How is the response from India about 3D metrology?
I think a lot of Indian companies are looking for solution that can help them speed up their manufacturing process and reduce the cost of the product. In India labour is also not very expensive, so the main issue here is quality. The goal for Indian companies is to extract the data from 3D metrology technology, which is something they cannot have right now with manpower. Although the technology might seem a little expensive in the beginning, it will be useful in the long run in terms of reducing the cost and enhancing the quality.
Do you provide any training to engineering students?
We do provide training to college students and our customers. We also invite them and inform them about the latest developments in the technology. Also, once the customer buys our product we provide training to them on their shop floor.
What are your future plans for India?
We will encourage adoption of the technology and our PolyWorks products. In India the 3D metrology or high end inspection market is still untapped; people are not as exposed to this technology as much as they are exposed to CNC milling, CNC grinding and other machining technologies. We want to spread awareness about the 3D metrology products and its importance.
