Wipro PARI riding the industrial automation wave

Manufacturing automation company, Wipro PARI is witnessing a growth in its business for automation of assembly line for electric vehicles in India and overseas. The company has executed more than 20 automation projects across the globe.Ranjit Date, MD, Wipro PARI, said they were growing in leaps and bounds both in terms of geography and business volume.

EV makers have to have a different manufacturing processes for electric vehicles and none of the existing lines can be used and the battery packaging process is by default automated, says Date. Around 30-40% of the investment of the EV project is in the powertrain segment.

One of their largest project in this space was worth `200 crore.Precision Automation & Robotics India (PARI), headquartered in Pune, was founded in 1990 by Mangesh Kale and Ranjit Date with multiple facilities and a team of 1,300, largely high-end automation designers and engineers.

PARI was acquired by Wipro Infrastructure Engineering, a business of Wipro Enterprises in 2021 for an undisclosed sum, making PARI a wholly owned company of Wipro Infrastructure Engineering. The company was renamed as Wipro PARI.

PARI was then a `500 crore revenue company.Wipro PARI is today among the top manufacturing automation companies in the country and is also leading globally in automotive applications such a powertrain for electric vehicles and conventional vehicles.

Wipro PARI’s clientele comprises global auto majors like Daimler, Renault–Nissan, Ford, Stellantis (Fiat, Peugot) and VinFast amongst others. Among the Indian OEM customers are Maruti, Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, Hero and TVS.

Close to 75% of the company’s revenues comes from export markets. The company has a 25-30% share of the automation market within the country.

Date said Wipro PARI was expanding in the US, where it has had a manufacturing base since 2013 and it was doubling team strength there. They are also adding a manufacturing facility in Europe in Germany to service customers in Germany, Italy and France.

The company had also made inroads in the South East Asian markets with projects in Vietnam and Thailand. Pratik Kumar, CEO, Wipro Infrastructure Engineering, says the next wave of manufacturing is going to ride on automation, IoT, robotics,  AI, Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0 and the ecosystem was still evolving with goal posts shifting.

It is like being on a treadmill that never stops, says Kumar.According to Date, the share of automation in the Indian industry is at present in low single digit and there was a lot of headroom for growth here.

Big volumes in the EV space was being seen in the two and three wheeler space in India while in the 4-wheelers, it was comparatively smaller. As volumes grow, Date expects a growth in demand for automated lines, especially for battery packs, motors, control drive units and cabling.

Wipro PARI is aspiring to be in the world’s top 10 discrete automation solutions companies and ride this wave of industrial automation as the manufacturing industry digitizes, automates and becomes smart.