‘In simulation, the sophistication of Indian auto companies has grown significantly in the past 4 years.’

Dominic Gallello, president & CEO, MSC Software Corporation, who was in India recently, spoke to Kiran Bajad on the company’s growth in India and recovery in the global auto industry.

Globally which are the key automotive markets for MSC Software?

I think the entire auto markets including Germany, the US, France and China are growing. Governments are spending on infrastructure and this lot offers good growth.

How important is India as a growth market for you?
We do lot of business with Indian automotive companies with deep relationships and partnerships in taking their engineering methods forward. In our area of simulations specifically, the sophistication of Indian auto companies has exploded in the past 4 years and the method is established.

How important is the automotive industry for MSC Software globally and what is your growth outlook?
Automotive comprises more than 25 percent of our business. In the past 4 years, it has grown faster than our aerospace sector. After the slowdown, the industry started recovering and we are in a different mood compared to 4 years ago.
In North America today, nobody is thinking about the slowdown and it is quite buoyant – business is good for the automotive industry. So overall, it is really good for business of our two major sectors.
Secondly, the biggest catalyst for engineering and re-engineering are fuel efficiency standards, vehicle lightweighting, the distribution of the power generation around the vehicle, as they are getting more and more complex.

How is MSC software helping auto companies tackle and cut emissions?
Every car company in the world wants to reduce its number of prototypes by 50 percent in 2020; they can do this only through simulations. Our company was formed in 1963 and the first big contract was NASA doing structure simulation.
In area of vehicle lightweighting, our simulation is not only at the vehicle level but at the micro structural and material level, so simulation proves integrity of this new material. It is the same thing with crash modelling as you are putting new and advance materials; all you need is accurate material models. So we simulate and produce very accurate models.
Our estimate is that in cars today about 18 percent re-enforced plastics is used and a lot of it has not been optimised.

Can you share any specific example that has helped any of your automotive customers?
We offer more confidence so that auto companies can cut down the number of prototypes. We have customers like Bugatti with a very interesting car with a top speed of 267 miles per hour; they can prototype a number of suspension configurations before they have to cut metal. This helps save cost and also offers certainty of design process. CAD is basically about the form and the fit and we are about the function and behaviour.

Are you working with any automotive OEM in area of alternate fuels?
Certainly we have projects everything from material, simulations to acoustic to structure everything and customers are doing that.

Going forward, how you see Asia Pacific and India in particular playing a role in MSC Software’s growth?
In Asia Pacific, there are two drivers – one is China in both the foreign and domestic car companies there. They have been investing very heavily and unit volume is growing crazily. Secondly, the ASEAN region with a lot of Japanese companies in places like Thailand and Vietnam and in India it is combination of local and joint venture companies. I think the future is pretty bright.