After sales service from most of the OEMs have to improve a lot.

Samar Ghosh Dastidar
Technical Director,
Simplex Infrastructures.

We do have construction equipment and plant and machinery of value around
Rs. 1300 crore; and have earmarked around a budget of
Rs. 400 crore for the period 2018- 2020.

The Construction Equipment market, unlike a decade ago, is spoilt for choices. The domestic players have upgraded their capacity, enhanced technological capability by in house R&D or through tie up with international players. Most known multinational players have already set up shop in India, and many are expected to follow suit.
And there comes the critical role played by the Procurement Heads, and Plant & Machinery Heads, who though spoilt for choices, leave no stones unturned to choose the right machine / brand, without losing sight on performance, efficiency, and economics. EQUIPMENT TIMES in its new series of interactions with Procurement Heads, and Plant & Machinery Heads brings you a glimpse on what make them choose the right machine/brand.
Samar Ghosh Dastidar, Technical Director, Simplex Infrastructures shares his views with EQUIPMENT TIMES.

What are the key factors that you look into while procuring new equipment?
There are several factors to consider while opting for equipment /fleet for a project. The key factors are quality of product, delivery on time, price, after sales service, availability of spares at economical rate on time etc.

Does brand matter? Or are you country specific in selection? Could you also tell us reason if you are brand/country specific?
Yes, the reputation of Brand does matter if it is the first time we are procuring the said equipment; otherwise our previous actual experience of use of the said equipment of that Brand is a very important guiding factor. We are not very specific about procuring equipment from a particular country but we generally procure our imported equipment from Germany, Italy, China, Holland etc.

Do you think there is shift toward ‘renting’ than owning equipment and fleet?
We generally prefer to own our equipment for long term use. However, occasionally we do rent equipment specially those equipment which may not be of continuous use for our future projects or may be required for a very particular work for a short duration; or some time some very ordinary equipment which are economical and less problematic to hire than own.

Being an end-user how do you assess the impact of changing buying patterns impacted by concepts such as Total Life Cycle (TOC) and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) on the selection process?
Yes we do study and consider this Total Life Cycle and Total Cost of Ownership before owning any equipment based on its long duration use in type of projects we generally execute, future prospects and more comfortable with. For example say for investing on concreting equipment like Batching Plant, Concrete Pump, Placer Booms etc. we will not hesitate because its expected continuous use in coming projects. But of course we will select a particular brand, size, model etc based on our experience and knowledge about the performance and proper utilisation of that equipment.

How matured are the buyer and end-user segments in terms of opting advanced and feature-rich equipment & machinery, say for example an intelligent paver or a compactor for a road work? What are the challenges here?
I think India is moving quite fast towards high quality construction in a very methodical way in very fast pace comparable to that of any developed country. Now a days the industry is very matured both for end users and also manufacturers. Of course, there is still scope of improvement and no denying of that but it is in right path. Quite a lot of high quality equipment are being used now even for smaller projects in smaller towns.

Regarding intelligent paver or compactors as mentioned by you, I can strongly say that most modern pavers and compactors as available internationally are being used now for the national highway project construction in India. The quality of road construction is very high now in India. However, one minus point in introduction of more and best quality modern equipment in projects is that the clients are very price conscious and work always awarded to the lowest tenderer.

Could you tell us the shift in back up support from OEMs, and which are the areas they need to improve? What are the trends in this area?
After sales service from most of the OEMs have to improve a lot. Some are quite good in promptness as well as in economy but some are very poor.

What is the financing scenario look like? Since financiers choose specific brands to finance, does it impact your purchase decision?
I think financiers well, try to find out the suitability and brand value of the equipment they are financing but the reputation of the borrower is more important, I guess. We never face any problem in this respect.

What are the major challenges you face in procurement of equipment & machinery?
Getting the right equipment and machinery delivered and commissioned at site on time, as was promised while taking the order.

What is the existing size of your fleet in terms of value? Is there any budget earmarked for the period 2018-2020?
We do have construction equipment and plant and machinery of value around Rs. 1300 crore. Budget earmarked
for the period 2018- 2020 is around
Rs. 400 crore.

What are your preferred brands of equipment in various categories?
Generally, we do not procure any particular equipment from only one manufacture (of course there are some exceptions) but prefer getting from two manufacturers and not many (to keep the inventory under control). For concreting equipment we generally take from Schwing Stetter, Putzmeister, Macons etc; for earthmoving equipment, we have plenty of choice such as Caterpillar, JCB, Tata Hitachi, Kobelco, Komatsu etc.

For smaller cranes we normally depend on Escorts, Action Construction Equipment, whereas for bigger capacity cranes we go for Fuwa, Sany and XCMG. For road equipment we have Wirtgen, Bomag, Volvo, Hamm, Aman Apollo, Almix, DMI, Speco, Puzzolana etc whereas for piling equipment we have Mait, IMT, Soilmec, Cassagrande, ICE, PTC, BSP etc.

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