Being a market leader for safety innovations in the Indian market, we always prioritize our product innovations and R&D on customer-centric approach: Schmersal India

Q1 Schmersal India offers the ‘largest range’ of safety switching appliances and systems in its domain. How do you prioritize product-innovation and R&D investment in the Indian context, given the diversity of industries you serve?
Schmersal India brings 80 years of German innovation experience from Schmersal Gmbh to India. Starting from its operation in India since 2007, Schmersal India leads Safety industry market by giving a wide range of products and services in different segments through various applications.

Being market leader for safety innovations in the Indian market, we always prioritise our product innovations and R&D on customer-centric approach. To serve a plethora of Indian customers and unique applications, we have a local R&D team that is capable of developing products in accordance with global standards.

Q2 What advantages have you seen in localizing manufacturing in India, and what challenges remain in meeting both global quality standards and cost-competitiveness?
Localizing manufacturing in India has brought several strategic advantages for Schmersal, along with certain challenges that we continue to address through continuous improvement and investment in capabilities. Local manufacturing offers key advantages like better customer understanding, Faster delivery, supply chain agility, Access to skilled workforce, cost efficiency and support for “Make in India” policy. Also, there are certain hurdles like developing quality supplier, Technology transfer and maintaining global quality standards by balancing costing.

While maintaining global quality standards and cost efficiency presents challenges, our commitment to continuous improvement, employee training, and supplier development ensures that we meet both local and global expectations effectively.

Q3 Safety technology is increasingly merging with digital, IoT and Industry 4.0 paradigms. How is Schmersal India responding to this shift — both in product roadmap and service delivery to customers in India?
As industry is moving toward digitalization, Safety technology is also evolving rapidly by Integration of smart sensors, IoT devices and Industry 4.0 for creating smart and safer environments in Industry. Industry 4.0 benefits mainly by providing real-time data analysis, Predictive maintenance and Automatic report management.

Safety with digital intelligence is often called Safety 4.0. Being an industry leader, Schmersal India already started many developments in the field like development of smart sensor, Safety field bus module for communications and software solutions.By seeing long term future and upcoming demand, Schmersal already started a new engineering company SGCC (Schmersal Global competency center) in 2021in India.

SGCC mainly focuses on developing exclusive IoT software solutions, digitalization of processes, Embedded firmware and product development, etc. for providing best services in digital industry. Safety technology is an integral part in digitalization to achieve modern day Industry 4.0 ecosystem.

Q4 Machine safety regulation and awareness in India are evolving. In your view, what are the key gaps currently in Indian manufacturing – in terms of safety culture, regulatory compliance, skill availability — that Schmersal is aiming to address?
India’s manufacturing industry is going through lean transformation of upgradation in terms of machine safety and compliance with govt policies, global outreach and increasing corporate demands. There are some key gaps like reactive mindset, informal reporting of safety incidents, weak enforcement, limited safety training and shortage of safety professionals.

Schmersal India is educating customers to overcome these gaps and make industry safe by promoting safety culture through consulting services, Gap assessment and engineering programs for plants, Smart safety solution and data management.

Q5 The company’s web-shop and online 24/7 ordering platform are mentioned for India. From a business model perspective, how do you see digital sales channels, after-market services and value-added consulting influencing your growth in India over the next five years?
In today’s digital world, web-shop provides direct tools to connect with customer, it provides value added customer centric growth. From business perspective, these tools provide extra benefits by developing enhance market reach, database management, customer retention, direct strategic partnerships, up-scaling opportunities and brand recognition in the world’s fastest growing economy, thus quicker time to the market.

Q6 India’s push towards ‘Atmanirbhar’ manufacturing, and global supply chain re-shoring, present opportunities, but also expose Indian manufacturing to higher expectations on safety, quality, and export readiness. How does Schmersal India see its role in enabling Indian machine builders and OEMs to
meet global benchmarks?
Of course, as opportunities and global exposure keep increasing, Indian machine builders need to aggressively upscale their capabilities in every segment like product quality, design, machine safety performance level, service support, global certificates (like CE, UL, NR12 etc.) and production capabilities. At Schmersal India with our expert team of safety consultants, we support OEMs in achieving global safety compliance like CE (Mostly required For EUROPEAN countries) & NR12 (for Brazil).

We also support OEM in developing critical documents like DRA (Design Risk Assessment), RA (Risk Assessment), Validation and SISTEMA for the machine. By having a wide expertise in Safety solutions and consulting services, we are collaborating with OEMs to develop world-class safety solutions as an integrated part of their machine.

Q7 Sustainability is an increasingly important driver in industrial equipment and safety systems. What initiatives is Schmersal India planning to align its product and service portfolio with sustainability goals & circular economy thinking?
At Schmersal India, sustainability is a core part of our operational and strategic approach. We are continuously working to align our manufacturing practices, products, and services with global sustainability standards and circular economy principles. Some of our key initiatives includes, Renewable energy usage, Eco friendly packaging & Material reuse, Resource optimization, Waste management, Recycling, Sustainable product design, Employee – community engagement and supplier collaboration.

Schmersal India ensures to contribute positively to both the environment and society while supporting our customers’ sustainability goals.

Q8 You are responsible not only for commercial growth but also for nurturing talent, defining culture and driving operational excellence. How do you attract and develop the next generation of engineers and professionals in safety technology, and what are your key leadership priorities for the next 2-3 years?
At Schmersal India, to attract and develop future safety technology talent, we focus  on purpose-driven branding, campus drives, and flexible work environments. We provide continuous learning & development, mentorships to nurture skills. Over the next 2–3 years, we prioritize building a strong talent pipeline, driving digital transformation. We believe in creating an inclusive and encouraging culture, fostering creativity and innovation.