SETEX Schermuly textile computer GmbH is a leading German company offering software and hardware solutions for dyeing and finishing machines worldwide. The company is represented in India by Voltas. India is one of the major markets for SETEX, and with the growing need for automation solutions the company is quite optimistic about its future growth in the market. We spoke to Mr. Oliver Schermuly, Managing Director of SETEX, about the company’s business worldwide and sought his views on the Indian market.
How was business at SETEX during 2012? How was the growth compared to the previous year?
The business development of SETEX in 2012 was above our expectations and led to an increase in revenues relative to the previous year. This was achieved with the help of our worldwide sales and service network and effective execution of projects in textile automation.
Continuous development of our product range and release of new products were another reason for a successful year. The initial feedback of our customers to these developments has been very positive, indicating that the anticipated objectives have been realized. With our focus on high end automation for textile dyeing and finishing industry, we could furthermore expand our position in this field.
Which are the major markets for SETEX worldwide?
Right now, our major markets are Europe, Turkey, Asia and South America. But with our worldwide network of subsidiaries, agencies and partners we are represented in all areas where textiles are manufactured.
In dye house automation, who are the major OEMs worldwide for your company?
SETEX is offering its products to the main manufacturers of dyeing and finishing machines worldwide. Our top-selling OEM products are industrial PCs and PLC systems for the control of dyeing and finishing machines as well as sensor systems for continuous machinery. In co-operation with our customers, we continuously improve and extend the functionality of these products.
How is the company’s presence in the Indian market?
Market development in India is done by our own branch office in Coimbatore with several engineers and administrative staff. Furthermore we cooperate with Voltas Ltd. in Mumbai as our agency which has several offices all over India. With this approach we can cover the huge Indian market and provide an efficient sales and service structure for our customers. For SETEX, India has always been one of the most important markets worldwide and we set a strong focus on the further development of our organizational structure.
What are the products and solutions offered by SETEX in the Indian market?
India is one of the markets with the highest demand for advanced and fully automatic factory automation systems. Many of our customers operate their dye house with our manufacturing execution software OrgaTEX.MES. This software helps integrate dyeing and finishing machines as well as automatic dye kitchen systems, recipe systems or other interfaces. By connection to customers ERP systems, OrgaTEX.MES becomes part of the whole IT structure, and it is possible to communicate bidirectional in order to transfer important production and informational data.
To close the gap from Lab to Bulk, Setex provides an interface to Datacolor laboratory system which is handling the product and data synchronization, imports the lab recipe, creates the production recipe and furthermore production corrections will be performed automatically between Datacolor and OrgaTEX.MES.
Besides our OrgaTEX.MES software we offer control systems for dyeing and finishing machines to the local OEMs and are very active in modernizing the existing machinery at textile manufacturing units by replacement of the control system and extension of functionalities. Finally it means that we are offering our full product range to the Indian market.
With many similar solutions available in the market, what is the advantage offered by Setex compared to other solutions?
In our opinion there are not many similar solutions in the market since we are offering systems on a very high automation level for both dyeing and finishing. From sensors, Industrial PC and PLC systems up to our OrgaTEX.MES software with many interfaces we are able to offer a wide product range in this segment.
Moreover, we build up long-term partnerships with our customers by offering process knowhow and special functionalities according to the conditions and expectations. With these measures we not only permanently enhance our experience, but also systematically improve quality and productivity at our customers.
Do you see good growth opportunity for your products in the Indian market?
Yes, we do. India’s leading textile companies understand that the production itself is one important part. But as well the reproducibility, continuously process improvements and interfaces to different partners – combined in one system become nowadays more important. SETEX provides everything which textile production needs – from modern machine controllers up to integrated solutions and is therefore well prepared on all levels of production. India is exporting most of the textile production and companies must provide reproducible qualities for their customers and finally they need to go for MES systems.