Brady Corporation, headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is an international manufacturer and marketer of complete solutions that identify and protect premises, products and people. Sacheen Lathkar, Director - India Business, responds to the IPF Questionnaire on the company's products and applications. Excerpts...

What are the areas of business Brady India is engaged in? What are the synergies between these divisions?

Brady products, including high-performance labels and signs, safety devices, printing systems and software, help customers increase safety, security, productivity and performance. With R&D centres, manufacturing plants and distributors around the globe, Brady serves customers in a wide range of industries including electronics, telecommunications, manufacturing, electrical, construction, medical and aerospace.

We reach out to key business directly through our business development teams and also through distributors appointed for increasing service levels and geographic reach. Our customised solutions and services meet needs across many of the markets that we serve.

In India, as companies are becoming more conscious of safety best practices, we provide, for example, visual lock out and tag out procedures (VLOP) that are standard practices in food & beverage; chemicals, oil & gas; and automotive markets.

What are the products and areas served by the Precision Die-Cut Division?

Our die-cutting specialties include multi-level parts, scoring and perforating, tooling, and selective adhesive placement. Brady's short lead times and reliable delivery ensure not only high quality but also globally relevant solutions that meet various Die Cut needs. Products include: adhesive tapes - skin contact, woven/non-woven; gasketing - thermal interface lens protecting; pads, shields and insulators - thermal management and thermosetting products - electrodes, LCD components, specialty adhesives, and acoustic components, etc., to name a few.

What are the various types of Marking Devices and Identification products available?

Brady provides a number of Thermal Heat Transfer (THT) printers. From handheld to desktop printers, Brady can meet a wide range of marking needs, including asset marking, pipe marking, wire and cable marking, lean and 5S marking needs, floor marking, etc., with high performance labels and industrial tags.

Our identification products are categorised as bar-code labels, branding solutions, brand protection solutions, industrial labels and tags, overlays, regulatory compliant labels, packaging labels, RFID labels, technical labels, and temperature and water indication labels. Brady's core expertise and product lines encompass do-it-yourself printing systems, including high performance label materials, signs, software, lock-out/tag-out, spill control and regulatory compliance devices.

What is the significance of having three different divisions under the identification products?

Identification, as referred to here, pertains to identifying products and premises. Additionally, Brady's People Identification products provide critical information where safety also matters. Our vast product portfolio and classification makes it easy for a wide range of customers to find the products they need.

There are several competitors in this field. What is the USP of the Brady products portfolio?

Brady, started in 1914 and now celebrates its 100th year. That long history has given us in-depth knowledge of the market, material technology and the expertise to design solutions. All Brady products, whether labels, adhesives, liners, printers or consumables and accessories, meet the required highest industrial standards. Compliant to UL approval and Reach certification, Brady products are eco-friendly and environmentally safe.

Additionally, Brady offers a variety of consultative and professional services to help our customers with facility, safety and lockout programs, with written safety procedures set through its "Client-Services" wing. Our in-house product development team and R&D centres strive to give the best end-to end solutions to our customers from raw-material, technology, integration, quality, on-time delivery and global presence.

To guarantee consistent quality results, all of our labelling services are backed by aggressively implemented quality programs and the strongest testing lab.

Further, Brady's comprehensive range of printing technologies like digital, flexographic, THT, letterpress, silkscreen or other combinations are backed with rich experience in converting and prototyping to give Superior results.

Automation is today playing a significant role in every industry/service. How compatible are Brady products with an automated environment?

Brady products are extremely useful when the clients are looking for automatic identification systems. Brady is serving many of their customers in this area by providing solutions in the form of RFID systems globally. Brady is also aggressively working with many industrial segments in this area.

What are the products manufactured by the company in India and what are the imported products?

Our state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, located in Bangalore, manufactures a wide range of identification labels, safety signage and precision die-cut parts. Brady's client services team in India delivers safety compliance audits and procedure writing services for facility safety. THT printers (handheld and desktop), lock-out/tag-out, scanners, sorbents, consumables and accessories are imported from other Brady manufacturing plants.

With our software development team, we have successfully integrated the weighing scale data along with other data about the coil to generate tag printing automatically. We also have 'pick and place' printing machines like BSP61 that print and auto-apply the label. Brady has the expertise to provide complete automated solution for effective 'Work-in-Process' tracking.

How does the company look at the Make in India initiative of the government?

Many products, which are developed by Brady globally, are still imported into India from various countries. However, Brady India looks to investing in new capabilities to enhance its production potential, and to live-up to "Make in India" concept. We are also in the process of obtaining TS19649 Certification, which enables us to manufacture Brady solutions in India. This, in turn, may also help us to export India-made Brady products to other countries too.

The "Make in India" initiative will help Indian Industries have parts locally produced by Brady, and help them achieve the highest level of quality with a minimum investment of resources.

How strong/effective is the sales network and after sales service?

Brady has operations in 31 countries, 400+ distributor partners spread across more than 79 countries. Our trained channel partners are based all over India and our well experienced business development managers are present in all regions. Our highly knowledgeable technical service team and customer-oriented quality service team caters to required after-sales-service round-the clock.