Q. Please brief us about your company’s Indian and global reach.
Mastercam is synonymous with CAM. It has been the system of choice for, nearly, the last three decades among many Indian manufacturing companies and it continues to lead the roost today with over 261000 installations across the globe, and growing. After being present in India for over two and a half decades, CNC Software made the decision to increase investments in India and the result of which is the new Mastercam India office, that we established exactly one year back. We continue to retain and work together, with our long standing resellers with a new vigour to enhance our customer’s experience with our constantly evolving products.
We have over 2500 customers in India and a significant presence in the educational arena. My team and I will work with our partners and customers to double these numbers in the next three years.
Globally, Mastercam is a well-known brand with customers across a spectrum of industries, including Medical, Automotive, Aerospace, Toolmaking and Oil/Gas, amongst others, using it for day-to-day simple part programming through to programming complex multi-axis and multi-tasking operations. A single window interface offering CAD for manufacturing and CNC programming for Lathe, WireEDM, Milling, complex Multi-axis milling & Mill-Turns, Mastercam is established as a versatile software that helps fresh CAM Programmers as well as CAM veterans in addressing all kinds of subtractive machining methods.
CNC Software, the parent company that develops Mastercam is now driven by a young and energetic new President – Meghan Summers-West, who recently took over from her father – Mark Summers, who founded CNC Software 34 years back with his two brothers – Brian and Jack.
Q. Please also highlight latest initiatives in your industry domain.
As I wrote many years back in one of my interviews, the CAD/CAM industry was facing an inevitable consolidation – which started happening post the 2008 slow-down, and continues even today – resulting in many well-known brands merging with others. Obviously, this means that there will be a further consolidation in products and services.
A major focus of the CAD/CAM industry, currently, is bridging the gap between subtractive and additive manufacturing. Another area of growing interest is the use of Industrial Robots for applications like milling, tape-laying and laser cutting. Companies like Mastercam have already created an ecosystem around the product to help independent players to build innovative products on the programming interface offered by Mastercam. Global companies like Robotmaster and Verisurf who offer Robotic CAM Programming and CAD (MBD) based inspection software, respectively, have built their products entirely on the Mastercam platform.
We are also working with partners in the areas of Industry 4.0 to enable Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) in their planning and manufacturing processes.
One of the biggest initiatives that we offer, is our Mastercam University (www.mastercamu.com) programme. It is the only online training of its kind in our domain, and what better than to learn the software than from the experts themselves! A free version of Mastercam Demo / Home Learning Edition is also included with every course. MU offers a structured CAM learning system, right from the basics which include STEM integration modules, student guide and testing. Access to complete process lectures, sample and practice files, certified content, testing, and a path to Mastercam Certification are a few salient features of this initiative. A Free Mastercam Demo/Home Learning Edition, helps students learn more by giving them the study tools they need to work outside of class time and helps prepare students for the Professional Level of Mastercam Certification by earning the Associates Level of Mastercam Certification.
These courses are developed by the parent company, offering the most current and powerful online training courses for Mastercam.
Q. What is the market opportunity for your company products in India?
Mastercam is already an established product in the country. With many companies expanding into newer manufacturing fields catering to specialist Aerospace and Medical domains, as an example, offer us plenty of opportunity to extend our products and services to these new requirements. Mastercam is an affordable and powerful CAM software for entry level requirements as well and our support network ensure that the transition from conventional to CNC systems is quick and easy.
Also, unlike contemporary licensing options that “lock” customers into a specific CAD/CAM system, we understand that customer needs vary, and therefore, we offer our customers, flexibility of choosing the best suited solution for their application as well as the opportunity to choose flexible and perpetual (Permanent) licensing.
One of the most important aspects of any CAM company is the knowledge and support base. We are one of the very few companies (and team of people) who believe in this thought, and therefore our efforts are dedicated to enhancing customer experiences in the manufacturing area. We understand that CAM software is a critical part of the manufacturing process and it requires people who eat, sleep and breathe CAM; therefore our products & company tag line – Mastercam, the world’s leading CAD/CAM Company. That’s what we do. That’s all we do. – personifies this in each of our colleagues’ interaction with our customers & partners in the industry.
Q. What are the future prospects for your industry?
As a nation, we are focusing all efforts to increase the contribution of manufacturing to our GDP. A recent study by ASSOCHAM-EY, has stated that in order to sustain our GDP at 9-10%, manufacturing contribution must grow steadily at the rate of 14-15% per annum for the next 3 decades. The study also goes on to say that this growth can come from new industries coming up, as well as by setting up ancillaries facilities.
Regardless of the approach, it is imperative that manufacturing growth will be prime, in the next couple of decades. The CAD/CAM industry is a function of the net number of CNC machines installed or due to be installed. In light of the renewed demand for newer (and more multi-tasking) CNC machinery being consumed, CAD/CAM software will naturally be an important product that companies will need to invest in. Further, since we belong to a technical or solution selling process, there is plenty of room to add value to customer needs, what with our network of colleagues and partners involved in cross-domain applications and processes!
Q. Are there are any plans for expansions and new investment in terms of product development or technology adoption to cater the demand of the industry.
As far as India goes, we are just one year old. Obviously, this means that there is so much more room for expansion and growth. Our broader plans are to increase our presence throughout the country – in line with our customer and support centric philosophy. Ideally, we would like to see, before the end of the coming year, Mastercam Technical Centres/Offices in all major industrial cities in the country to better support and hand-hold our Reseller/Partner channel and our growing customer list. We are also planning for a localisation and development centre to cater to specialist requirements of individual organisations as well as for industry verticals.
The Mastercam India office is also responsible for the Middle East and South Asian countries, the next step will be to systematically increase our presence in these countries as well.
On the global level, Mastercam is currently making investments in the areas of productivity and innovative technologies. Our recent major development was the Dynamic Motion Technology, which helps cut machining times by upto 70% in comparison to conventional machining strategies. We also announced the Mastercam-Sandvik Prime Turning® strategy within our Lathe module this year in May; a programming strategy that will support Sandvik Coromant CoroTurn® Prime inserts and their new turning concept, the PrimeTurning™ method. This ground-breaking concept allows you to turn in all directions resulting in high productivity gains while increasing tool life.
We are also making significant investments in our Mill-Turn and Simulation modules to help customers make the most complex of parts with ease and accuracy.
Q. What is the top line product range and Is there any plans to launch new products.
Mastercam offers CAD/CAM software tools for all types of programming, from the most basic to the extremely complex. 2-axis machining, multi-axis milling and turning, wire EDM, router applications, free-form artistic modelling and cutting, 3D design, drafting, surface and solid modelling – whatever your machining needs, there is a Mastercam product for your budget and application.
Mastercam Mill is the next generation of our popular program, delivering the most comprehensive milling package with powerful new toolpaths and techniques. From general purpose methods such as optimized pocketing to highly specialized toolpaths like 5-axis turbine cutting, Mastercam ensures that every job is simplified.
Mastercam Lathe delivers comprehensive turning software with powerful toolpaths and techniques. From general purpose methods such as easy ID / OD cutting to highly specialized toolpaths like variable depth roughing for ceramic inserts, Mastercam offers an easy solution.
Mastercam Wire delivers comprehensive wire EDM software with powerful wirepaths and techniques. From basic 2-axis contouring to complex 4-axis motion, Mastercam delivers Automatic lead-in and lead-out strategies, Streamlined multiple-part cutting, No-core cutting, full wirepath control, and much more.
Mastercam Mill-Turn (MT) makes machining on today’s turning center and machining centres simpler and easier than ever. It streamlines the programming process of complex machines with intelligent job setups that are keyed to the exact machine on the shop floor. Mastercam MT offers powerful graphical synchronization, state-of-the-art interface (Mastercam Code Expert) and accurate machine simulation.
These are our top-line products and we currently offer the 2018 versions to new as well as maintenance paying customers. We plan to enhance these products further, through feedback from our customers, partners, colleagues and our large & renowned user community.
Q. What is the vision for your products.
Our vision is to be the World’s best and No.1 CAD/CAM supplier and partner to our customers. Our mission, in the meantime, is to continue to lead the CAM space with our growing installations across the world.
