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Bangalore: As
airline companies worldwide fight to conquer the skies
several third-party CAD/CAE (Computer Aided Design and
Computer Aided Engineering) companies in India are raising a
toast. Airbus and Boeing's ongoing tussle means that a lot
of their design work could spill over to low cost design
hubs like India.
"Airbus and Boeing have just come out with their plans to
launch new models. As there is no capacity, in high-cost
countries, most design and prototyping work will come to
low-cost design hubs like India via suppliers," says Aravind
Melligeri, president of Bangalore-based QuEST, a $20 million
third-party design and prototyping company.
Airbus' A380 launch was countered by Boeing with the
smaller, long-range 787 Dreamliner aircraft, promising fuel
savings of 20% compared with similar mid-sized planes.
According to Melligeri, Boeing's current investment plan for
designing the 787 is of the order of $8 billion. In the case
of Airbus, the company recently said the A380's development
would cost an extra 14.5 billion euros, taking the overall
cost to about 1.2 billion euros.
Another third-party design and prototyping company, Altair
Engineering, is also betting big on the aerospace sector.
Says Martin Nichols, Vice President, Worldwide Sales.
"Aerospace and Defence are those sectors which constitute
niche domains that yield better margins. Expertise in niche
opens out the consulting window. Yesterday's consulting is
today's commodity."
While the $9 billion worldwide outsourcing market for design
and prototyping is mostly dominated by the automotive
sector. India has a different story to narrate.
"The $500-700 million Indian engineering outsourcing market
is mostly dominated by the non-automotive (mostly aerospace)
sector. Third-party and captive units have a roughly equal
share of the market." says Melligeri. |
