ROLLON : The linear motion leader
Mr. Rüdiger Knevels, Managing Director, Rollon GmbH
Q. Please brief us about company’s global reach & latest initiatives in industrial automation space? Which are your focus areas?
Rollon is a worldwide operating company, producing various number of linear motion products. Companies headquarter is located in Italy / Milano and our global sales activities are organized by our German branch, located in Düsseldorf. Based on our wide product range Rollon is the global leader for linear motion products in many different industrial sectors. Rollon is ranked first in markets like railway, warehouse logistics and aerospace industry. Our latest initiative has been the acquisition of a manufacturer linear actuators and system solutions for the industries of automation, machine tools, sheet metal and packaging industry.
Rollon is an application driven company, very flexible to customize products according to the application needs. 35% of our sales is realized by customized solutions. Area wise we are focused today, in addition to our strong activities in Europe and US, on India, China, Russia and Brazil.
Q. What are the market opportunities for Rollon products in India? How do you plan to position these products?
Starting from our strong industrial markets like railway, we see huge opportunities for automation projects, packaging industries and the general machinery industry. The significant product features of Rollon lead to a clear added value for our customers. Easy assemblies, long lifetime and low maintenance costs are just some key words of our technology. We are prepared now to spread our sales activities all over the country and analyze the needs of the Indian customers.
Q. What is your marketing strategy for India?
Last year we have started with our direct sales activities due to opening our sales branch in Bangalore. Just recently we have accelerated our logistic operations and the localization of assembly processes. You will find us on different industrial fairs and we will be present in industrial magazines in order to strengthen the brand awareness of Rollon in India. To follow the market needs of Indian customers will lead us to provide a very good local service. Rollon India is part of the Rollon group but will be very different to our other branches because we always believe in being a local company, following the local markets and individual needs.
Q. What is the role of R&D activity in your company?
R&D plays an important role in our company. As I have mentioned already before we realize already 35% of our sales with customized products. Beside these activities we always make an effort to improve our products, to develop new products according to the application needs and to provide complete system solution wherever our customers are interested in.
Q. Brief us about the quality policy for your business?
We are the linear motion supplier for the railway and aerospace industry. That makes already clear that quality issues have a very high importance for our company. High quality standards are a major part of companies’ policy.
Q. Could you brief us on Indian & Global perspective of your industry?
The linear motion market is growing worldwide. Automation of industrial processes, robotic movements and the global industrialization are the main drivers. The future challenge of our industry is that we have to develop products which really fit to customers needs.
Q. According you what are the factors affecting to your business?
The global industrialization is a very important factor but the stage of the development of that process is very different from country to country. Everywhere we find new applications and new challenges to develop and to produce new solutions.
Q. What are the key technological trends that are driving industrial automation industry?
That depends a lot on the applications. The trend of automation leads clearly towards linear motion products and then you find a various number of different trends. Easy assembly, long maintenance free operations, long life time, high speed in order to increase production output are just some major points.
Q. What is your vision for your company?
We would like to become a global specialist, provider of system solutions and trendsetter for customization in the linear world. That is our challenge every day that is what effects our strategies. We would like to be the linear think tank worldwide. Very closed to the customers developing the new product trends.
Q. What are the issues you need to address that are related to your industry?
The linear motion market is driven from the idea of global standardization. We know that we have to follow that trend basically in order to keep the production costs on a competitive level but…..
We follow our spirit to fit our products to customers’ needs wherever it is reasonable, we strongly believe in application engineering and to develop SOLUTIONS not only products.
