CEM INSTRUMENTS : The blend of innovation & perfection
Q. CEM INSTRUMENTS has gained credible market share in measurement technology industry. How did the company manage this significant growth?
We could manage this growth basically because of our inherent strengths. We design products as per customer requirements. Our dedicated R&D Centers are engaged in new product development for specific applications as required by the customer. We are able to provide complete end-to-end solutions to test and measurement requirements. Over 50 Engineers are working on new products to provide customers tomorrow’s product today. We have a dedicated workforce of 1000 plus in our manufacturing facility. All these are our strengths which help us serve large OEMs to their entire satisfaction.
Q. Could you brief us on CEM’s global network & activities?
We have our Head Office in China with global operations. Our sales offices are in USA, Germany and Russia. The marketing office in INDIA has been newly established.
We look forward to work with distributors and dealers to provide complete sales support to the customer. We are working with all e-portals for B2C business.
Q. What are your initiatives in testing & measurement technology space? Which are your focus areas?
We provide: Thermal Imagers both with low and extremely high resolutions, Fixed Thermal Imagers for continuous monitoring, Smartphone connectivity for test and measuring instruments, Cloud service to store measured data for on-the-go engineers who do not want to get back to office to get test results (This makes communication and inference of data for trouble-shooting very simple and easy), Data Loggers for recording all possible data of various sources like wind speed, vibration, temperature, humidity, air pressure, light, sound, voltage and current. We also offer Radiation Detectors for assessing presence of radioactive materials and to prevent radioactive contamination.
Q. What are the market opportunities for CEM in India? How do you plan to position these products?
We offer High Quality Products at Reasonable pricing, These Products complying with European and American Standards are offered at a throw away pricing. All products are calibrated to national and international standards. We give 48 hours replacement warranty. With the growth in Indian economy and with the increase of industries and infrastructure, we see more possibilities to position our products at a place that is acceptable to customers in India.
Q. What is your marketing strategy for Indian market?
We would be conducting direct sales to high end customers, appoint Dealers and Distributors for Retail and Industrial sales, shall have e-commerce website to promote our products, Participate in various exhibitions, and also deploy Sales Engineers for promotion and highlighting how our products are one up compared to competitive products.
Q. Could you please elucidate the contribution of R&D in the success of CEM products?
The R&D Centers have helped us design thermal imagers to break the US$ 200.00 mark for the international market. It has helped us develop products that can seamlessly transfer measured data on the internet. It has provided us with products to take images of the measurement place for evidence hunting. Connecting the instruments to smartphones, does not need the senior engineers to move around in the factory while the critical measurements are being made.
Q. What is your quality policy?
The products being sold in India adhere to international standards. These products are the same as the ones being exported to USA or European markets. All products are calibrated to international standards. Our products carry international safety standards. Calibration certificate is provided with all the products with the facility to re-generate these certificates after their expiry. The 48 hour replacement speaks volumes of the faith we have in the products we make.
Q. Could you tell us more about your top-line product range?
Our top line product range comprises:
- Thermal Imagers from 31 x 32 resolution up to 384 x 288 pixel resolution. We are developing thermal imagers, which can communicate with smart phones. We are also developing thermal imagers with built-in Multimeters.
- Clamp meters integrated with 50,000 count Multimeters.
- Flexible clamp to measure currents up to 3000A
- Video Borescopes to take videos and images of hard to reach areas where we cannot see with our naked eye.
Video Borescopes for online, non-destructive, preventive maintenance. - Radiation detector to show presence of radioactive material. Measures doses of alpha, beta, gamma and x-rays.
- Multimeters with built-in Digital Storage Oscilloscope that can communicate by blue tooth to the PC or with smartphones.
- Multimeters with smartphone interface.
- Data Loggers to record various data that can either be downloaded to the computer or can be connected to smartphone via Bluetooth adaptor to download the measured data.
Q. What do you think are the strengths of Indian measurement technology industry? How has it positioned itself against global markets?
The Indian TMI industry is entering the era of Predictive and Preventive maintenance. The Thermal Imagers and Video Borescopes are such instruments that could save a lot of money without stopping the production so that there are no operational losses. With the phenomenal growth of smartphone usage, the Indian TMI industry is growing towards integration of Instruments with these devices to provide seamless data transmission and storage on cloud based systems.
Q. Please highlight the Global perspective of TMI and its differentiating factor.
While the Predictive and Preventive maintenance has come in vogue in the Indian industries, while the global giants work a lot on it. The global industries have properly developed PPM programs that are engineered efforts, which optimize the relationship between equipment ownership and operating profits by balancing cost of maintenance with cost of equipment failure, and associated production losses.
Equipment ownership cost is a function of three factors
- Purchase price
- Equipment life and
- Maintenance cost …where
Material and labor cost required to repair the item + Cost of preventive maintenance to avoid repairs +Cost of lost production while the unit is out of service for repairs
Maintenance Cost = PPM includes actions which extend the life of equipment and avoid unnecessary failures by substituting selective programmed effort for “fix it when it fails” maintenance.
Predictive maintenance is the complement of preventive maintenance. Through the utilization of various non-destructive testing and measuring techniques, predictive maintenance determines equipment status before a breakdown occurs. With predictive devices currently available, it is incumbent upon maintenance organizations to include the process of predictive maintenance in their maintenance programs.
PPM program consists of:
- Proper organization
- Proper operation of equipment
- Proper lubricants, in the right quantities, in the right location, at the proper time
- Predicting wear and deterioration by regularly checking, measuring and adjusting
A. Regular inspection to identify small repairs before they become major repairs
B. Predictive techniques to replace components just before they fail i.e (i) Vibration monitoring and analysis (ii) Infrared inspection ( iii) Sound detection (iv) Lubrication and oil sampling., etc. The Indian Industry is slowly but surely moving away from the “Fix it when it fails” mentality and is catching up with the global industries for the Predictive and Preventive Maintenance.
Q. What are the key technology trends that are driving measurement technology industry?
Some of the trends that drive MTI are:
- Integration of various instruments, measuring various relevant data in one unit.
- Seamless transfer of measured data from the instrument on to the PC, smartphone, cloud service to move the data via Internet.
- Capturing pictures of measured data with the relevant background. This helps to capture evidence for maintenance of various industrial machines when it malfunctions.
Q. According to you what is the forecast for the measurement technology industry?
Following are the developments we can forecast:
- Instruments that can measure MORE with the same equipment.
- Moving away from single usage instrument to multi-tasking instruments.
- Data Measurement and Storage, for measured data at various locations, at one single place. This helps in analyzing the measured data in one single go, thus allowing time for trouble-shooting and maintenance.
- Sensors and Data Loggers to measure data in hard to reach areas that could increase productivity and reduce maintenance cost.
Q. What are the factors affecting your business?
Having a dedicated R&D center with over 50 experts, helps us in not just understanding and addressing the needs of the current market but also to developing capabilities to stay on the cutting edge of the TMI industry and coming up with future ready products using our ingenuity, vast experience and wherewithal. One of the main factors that helped us in reaching where we are is our continued effort in understanding our customer’s current needs and developing products to address their needs before they arise.
