French technology solutions provider Dassault Systèmes is harping on digital transformation in the manufacturing ecosystem across various industries.

French technology solutions provider Dassault Systèmes is harping on digital transformation in the manufacturing ecosystem across various industries. While interacting with BW Businessworld exclusively, Guillaume Gerondeau -Vice President, Transportation & Mobility Industry Asia and Vice President, Strategic Business Development - Japan, Dassault Systèmes maintained future of mobility is changing and Indians will experience it differently. .

How important is the Indian market for you?

There are two global trends. I think one of the trends is very similar to what we see in other regions. But of course, you have a lot of specificities which are very much related to India. And I would say we see that everywhere you have this duality of global trends and also a market that is local. Why (is that so) because we are moving from a world of products. How people are going to experience mobility is very different. If you are in Mumbai, where you have 27,000 people per square kilometer, (which is) very dense (and is) a vertical city, that's getting more and more dense because more and more buildings and more and more organizations (are coming up).

It's going to be very different from what you can have in some areas of China or what you can have in some areas of United States or Europe or Africa. So in that sense, you have to do two things. For us, India is a particularly important market because it is growing in terms of economic growth, population growth, big infrastructural investment. And also because it's as far as Mobility is concerned. It is a country where we feel that Mobility is at the top of the agenda of the government. I mean last year, I attended the Global Mobility Summit (August’18) organized by your prime minister (Narendra Modi) and there were all big presidents of the main (automobile) companies in the world global and I think it was very interesting for me to attend that because you could see that.

All those actors consider India extremely seriously and what your prime minister said at that time.   He said that he wants India to become the leading country as far as mobility is concerned. So he wants to take the lead and of course, we follow with a lot of attention all the discussions that take place now about electrification because definitely electrification is part of one of the big trends but we also follow the shared Mobility, Connected Mobility, etc. which in India is particularly important. We see that actors like Uber or Ola are very important and we see also in the area of e-commerce in the area of logistics that there are a lot of things that are and interestingly Ola, which is you know (is) local, is also investing in the UK. So we see the ability of Indian actors to also to become to become Global.

As you are aware, there are a lot of local disruptive forces like e-mobility impacting the automotive industry.  So what role will Dassault Systemes play in assisting these OEMs adapt themselves to these trends?

I think we are not just talking about OEMs, but also about new actors of mobility. I am also talking about people coming from other industries that are entering (auto industry). We see it everywhere in the world (wherein) high-tech companies, startups (and) even electric scooter (firms).  We literally electric two wheelers companies so we know we at CES to this year in Las Vegas. We demonstrated how the  Dassault system tool could allow very small start-up of electric scooter to make simulation on the battery (and) to optimize not only the shape of the battery, but also the air intake for cooling system in a virtual world to increase efficiency of the battery durability as well as the quality of the battery.

So that was just an example. I mean globally we work with battery makers from the molecular level. So basically it means that you can you can model the molecules in the battery to be able to optimize the battery in a virtual world. Depending on your requirement, of course to simulation and also all the mechanic system because we see that electric vehicles are very different from traditional vehicles. You have to reinvent the powertrain. For example, in terms of noise, it can be surprising because everybody thinks that electric vehicles are very silent. But in fact a new type of noise vibration can occur. So for an industry that is not used to it you want to be able to simulate it for air conditioning management (which is ) very different from a traditional car (in terms of) aerodynamics and architecture as the center of gravity is much lower because of the battery. So the entire layout of the vehicle can be completely different in terms of cooling of the battery. So all those are totally new challenges for a car maker in which the system is proposing a solution.We call the electron Mobility accelerator electromobility accelerator, which is a solution that takes end to end from the beginning of ideation to manufacturing and marketing the entire value chain the entire development of new electric vehicles and of new also mobility solutions. 

As you are offering a suite of next-generation technologies AI, Robotics, etc., how do you ensure that jobs are not getting displaced?

I think that the objective of AI or Cloud Computing is not to create jobs.  When we talk to our client, they say basically the need for work is exponential because you move from very simple object to systems of systems of object in the environment that is very local and that that we need more and more used cases.   When you start thinking about autonomous drive, safety, etc., you need to be able to simulate to achieve that. You're talking about 10 billion kilometers that that you need to do. Of course, you are not going to do 10 billion kilometers with the physical car. So you need to be able to do that within a virtual environment. And if you want to be able to do that, you are not going to do them manually or physically. So I think artificial intelligence is not going to replace jobs, but is going to help people and to make better decisions. I think that artificial intelligence is going to increase in the most sustainable way in mobility. So it's not going to replace people but going to increase Mobility. I mean the need for mobility in a country like India, if you want to develop jobs, are you need to increase mobility. 

In India, the chances of the number of jobs could even multiply. This is something we see everywhere artificial intelligence robotisation and automation have not led to destruction of jobs. They have led to creation of different types of jobs So if you can increase the efficiency of economy of Mobility, it’s going to increase is going to increase the productivity of the entire economy and eventually is going to create more jobs.

How do you perceive local disruptive trends like leapfrogging from BS-IV to BS-VI emission norms?

I think that's pretty much linked to what I was just saying what I was saying before, I mean Indian people (are) ready to embrace new things new way of using those new experiences. I think that India will definitely leapfrog (to BS-VI emission norms). I think that what your prime minister say you wants India to be at the forefront and be an example for other countries to  follow or rather than India copying other countries.  That's exactly that so I think from a business perspective. What does it mean it means that the actors or players cannot operate as they did five ten years ago? I mean the environment is moving so quickly that people need to be able to be much more agile in order to study many more scenarios in a virtual environment to be able to know which one is the more accurate and also to react much faster and to anticipate the trends. 

Lastly, do you sense opportunities in Industries which are somewhat adjacent to Automotive of quite Aviation Aerospace?

I think the borders between Industries all are getting removed I mean, obviously when you talk about the future mobility in a city like Mumbai or Delhi, you have to start with Jaipur. When we work with (the authorities at) Jaipur we have to start from the system of system of that city. So what is your city and then you have to start thinking about the industry. When you talk about the Connected Mobility (and) when you start thinking about drones, when you start thinking about what's happening underground and when you start thinking about inter-modernity between somebody who is going to take the train was going to your city (and) are at the border between high-tech cities, Construction Aerospace, Automotive industries have to interact and connect It's a system of systems. I think India is in a very strong position because in terms of Smart City, India is really at the forefront and I think having this kind of vision with clear direction that India wants to lead in this area will allow you to take advantage of this combination of technologies..