By Aravind Govindan, Frost & Sullivan
Global industries have witnessed a string of transformations over the past decade. The cause and effects of globalization is the pivotal reason for the growth and fall of markets. Globalization has led to the concept of offshoring/outsourcing business models. In the early 90s, offshoring of manufacturing plants to cost-effective countries resurrected the performances of multinational companies in developed countries.Availability of cheap labor force was the primary reason for companies to shift their shop floors to countries such as India and China, which resulted in decreased cost and, thus, accelerated growth and profit margins.
However, there has been a paradigm shift in the way multinationals currently view outsourcing locations. Besides being a cost-effective manufacturing center, they also appear to be a lucrative market due to the growing middle class communities. As FDI flows into markets such as Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC), an increasing number of manufacturing plants and R&D centershave been established to target current and futuristic opportunities.
As economies grow, domestic companies develop their potential and resources to increase their global presence. Over the years, BRIC economies have produced some of the finest engineering and manufacturing companies that have made their way to the global industry rankings. When companies start competing at global level, the manufacturing processes and products must meet global industry standards for quality and safety. As a result, Indian manufacturing companies are increasingly integrating high-precision inspection and dimensional gauging equipment such as coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) as a part of their manufacturing setup.
