Industrial Automation Magazine India

Premier Tech Launch New Robotic Palletizer at PackEx India 2022

Published on : Friday 07-10-2022

Sanjay Kalra, National Sales Manager, Premier Tech, in conversation with Milton D’Silva, Associate Editor, Industrial Automation, during PackEx, Mumbai.

Please tell us about the businesses of Premier Tech worldwide, in particular in the Asian region.
Premier Tech came into existence in the year 1923, and is headquartered in Quebec, Canada. We call ourselves a truly ‘Glocal’ company – while being a global company, we also try to achieve local expertise. We have 47manufacturing units globally and a direct presence in 28 countries. Our entire business falls within 4 verticals: PT Growers & Consumers – our agricultural group; PT Systems & Automation – this is where all machineries are built; PT Water & Environment – water and solid waste solutions; and PT Digital – innovative industrial solutions for smart manufacturing. Speaking about the Asian region, we are very strong here in Systems & Automation and Water & Environment verticals. The other two groups are not yet launched in Asia. Worldwide, the Premier Tech organisation has 5,200 team members and a global turnover of over CAD $1B.  
 
Can you tell something about the PT Digital vertical and its offerings?
Yes, but as mentioned earlier, this group is not yet launched in Asia. But to give you an idea, PT Digital offers innovative industrial solutions for smart manufacturing and 3D visualisation that empower companies to create value and gain competitive advantages. Rizeline is no ordinary manufacturing execution system (MES); it is an MES that allows you to bring your digital vision to life with an effective solution that could reduce production cycle time and also increase your production line efficiency. Liveline™ Configurator facilitates conversation between all stakeholders by enabling them to configure, visualise and share the same 3D experience of a production line. Thanks to Liveline™’s intuitive interface, our sales people can easily configure a production line without training, nor assistance from your technical team.
 
Premier Tech considers R&D very critical to its business. What kind of investments go into R&D? What are the recent innovations?
Look, R&D is always very important for the kind of solutions we provide. At Premier Tech we have a 260 strong dedicated IR&D team – I added for Innovation – and we have around 125 patents to show for it. Our global expense on IR&D is comparable to the total turnover of some companies! One of our recent innovations is a controller named SpeedAC iQ, a dedicated controller developed by Premier Tech for bagging machines. Most bagging machine manufacturers outsource the controller, but we manufacture our own controller with unmatched features. The SpeedAC iQ uses the latest generation and most powerful state-of-the-art microprocessor-controlled technology to provide extremely precise bag weights for various bulk materials.
 
Another best example I can talk about is the BFL Series – an Automatic Open-Mouth Bagger for flours. It is a unique machine on the market for the bagging of flour, and any type of flour from soft to hard flour and for various types of packaging material bags as well. This machine is a combination of innovation that we put together and the advantage for the customer has been the ease to combine two elements which are usually quite difficult to assemble in the packaging industry. We were able to find the right balance of technology to give to customers, the High Speed and High Accuracy and I am proud to say that we have more than 20 units working throughout the world.
 
What is the capacity range of the bagging machines offered by Premier Tech?
We manufacture bagging machines in a very niche segment of 5 kg and above, nothing below 5 kg capacity. On the higher side, we offer bagging machines up to 1-, 2- and 3-ton capacities, with options of bagging, palletizing and then wrapping – ready for dispatch to the warehouse or market. Everything is done in-house for the bagging machines, nothing is outsourced.
 
You have strategic partnerships with a few global companies. What are these?
We have global partnerships with some of the key OEMs that include Fanuc for robotics, Union Special for stitching machines, and as mentioned earlier, with the Bühler Group. The global partnership with Bühler will serve customers worldwide by building on Premier Tech’s recognised know-how in the field of automated packaging technologies while making full use of Bühler’s strong international sales and service network.
 
These are among the big names you mentioned, companies that are high on the automation curve. How automated is the equipment from Premier Tech?

Premier Tech is known worldwide for providing fully automatic solutions. Automation with speed and accuracy is our goal. Now if we talk of the American or the European market, the companies there are fully inclined towards fully automated solutions for a number of reasons, the scarcity of manpower, being one of them. When it comes to the Asian market, here the situation is different. Fully automated solutions require high capex and countries like China and India are traditionally in a labour surplus. But even in these markets, large corporations are opting for fully automated solutions, whereas companies in the small and mid segments are less inclined towards fully automated solutions. However, our solutions are scalable and as and when required, we can provide them with full automation.
 
What kind of support does Premier Tech provide customers in the IIoT era, especially from a maintenance perspective?
Premier Tech is the only company in the bagging machines industry to have developed a full 24/7 customer service with dedicated service support available all the time for online consulting and troubleshooting. Apart from this, we also have a network of dedicated sales & service teams, a pan India presence at strategic locations from where service is provided to any location mostly within 24 hours, which is very important in this industry. We are globally known in the industry for our service, and client satisfaction is extremely important to us.
 
India is a price sensitive market. How do you convince customers about your USP?
We are Premier Tech; we have our quality, and quality comes at a price. We explain to prospective customers the advantages of our machines and how they run successfully for 15 to 20 years while retaining the accuracy. Once the customer fully understands the quality we provide, he is usually ready for the premium price. However, there are a few segments like the sugar industry, which are seasonal, and the management prefers cheaper machines. Even so, we have also observed that those who preferred the cheaper options earlier are now coming back to us, as they could not get satisfactory service in the absence of a proper network of service centres.
 
What is the market share Premier Tech commands in India vis-à-vis the potential?
We have divided the Indian market into segments like Agriculture, Nutrition, Industrial, and Organic. Take fertilisers, which are under Industrial. We can proudly say that in fertilisers,the ones that are mostly in India are packed in our bagging machines. This is our speciality – fertilisers being highly corrosive and hygroscopic, very few companies have the expertise in this area and in general, companies keep away from this segment. Similarly in the grain market – wheat, rice, etc – we have a very strong presence, especially in northern India, with the majority of the branded grain packed with our machines. Similar is the case in the flour market, where our partnership with the Bühler Group gives us a major presence. Our presence in the organic chemicals industry – including detergents – is also very strong and expanding. Coming to the total market potential, we have a lot of opportunities going forward.
 
Does Premier Tech have manufacturing activities in India or is it just value addition? What about exports?
We have a full-fledged manufacturing facility in India at Faridabad that employs 120 team members, where we make semi-automatic bagging machines, as well as fully automatic bagging machines for free-flowing materials like sugar and rice. The robotic arm for these machines is sourced internationally, but everything else like the conveyors, peripherals, and software, etc., are manufactured or developed here in India and also integrated into the complete unit. We also have a full-fledged testing facility for conducting all the tests on our machines.
 
As for exports, yes, we do export certain machines as Premier Tech globally has an understanding between different manufacturing locations. So a few types of machines are manufactured exclusively in India and exported globally wherever there is demand for them. In Asia, the company has manufacturing facilities in Thailand as well.