For an engineer, the tougher a mission, the extra she/he enjoys it. What works even higher is that if the engineer creates one thing that will get patented. And, extra so if it’s an ‘Offensive Patent’, which in different phrases is a patent which claims exclusivity of an invention with proper of enforcement in opposition to any infringement, primarily to maintain competitors at bay within the market. Pradeep Kumar Thimmaiyan, CTO, DICV (Daimler India Business Automobiles), says that the variety of Offensive Patent purposes by the engineering group in his firm is on the riseIn 2023, an estimated 14 Offensive Patents have been filed for by the DICV engineering group. “That was the best now we have performed to date on an offensive facet,” Thimmaiyan tells ETAuto. There’s a ‘Defensive Patent’ too, which helps a person/organisation to keep away from or settle any future infringement lawsuit in opposition to it. There was a stronger deal with submitting for Offensive Patents by the engineers in Chennai after the reorganisation of Daimler AG in 2018 which noticed the German main’s business automobile and passenger automobile companies turning into impartial entities.
14 might not appear a powerful quantity, however when seemed on the difficult nature of the submitting course of, and the scale of the DICV engineering group, reaching a double digit could also be seen as a feat. Each software has to cross three filters – in DICV, Daimler Truck’s world tech centre in Bengaluru, and at last in Daimler Truck’s Asia HQ in Japan, earlier than its goes to Germany. “Via that then you definitely cross double digit with the group measurement of that is the best factor,” says Thimmaiyan with a way of delight. He leads a group of a little bit over 500 engineers in Chennai, of which round 200 are devoted for Mitusubishi Fuso, which is part of Daimler Truck.
An approximate ratio of defensive:offensive patents submitting development is 100:1, says Thimmaiyan, highlighting the particular standing an offensive patent holds. “it is simple to interrupt defensive patents however not the offensive patents,” he says.
Such alternatives may assist orgnisations in a situation when there’s intensifying competitors to draw and/or retain expertise within the automotive business. For a lot of engineers within the business, the “Northstar” is an engineering patent from Germany or Japan. ”That’s the aspiration. Individuals working right here may need patents from Japan or from Germany,” says Thimmaiyan
Any enchancment = Higher Enterprise
So, what are the areas wherein the innovations by the DICV engineers are utilized for patents? With out specifying them, Thimmaiyan says, “We’re engaged on growing higher options. That is the place the patents come, proper? No matter we do, we wish to add extra worth to our prospects.” Engineering, “anybody can do”, with all of the proficient minds and instruments out there within the business, says Thimmaiyan.
The options being developed intention at reducing the TCO (complete price of possession),improved uptime, and enhanced security. Introduction of the Driver State Monitoring System in DICV’s vans appears to have additionally helped an amazing deal. “One in all our prospects, who additionally had his personal knowledge gathering strategies, instructed me that after the DSM was launched, the unsafe situations diminished by 96%,” says Thimmaiyan.
He says that it is a reflection of engaged on the ideas of the Heinrich Security Matrix, which states that for each main accident there are 300 minor ones that don’t trigger any damage. The thought is to determine and forestall the 300 minor situations by way of engineering higher options. ”Really in some circumstances, you may save half a month or one month of the truck proprietor’s income for the yr (by avoiding a significant accident),” says Thimmaiyan.
DICV’s vans for tomorrow
Over its first decade, DICV’s BharatBenz has been advancing as a challenger model within the home business market dominated largely by Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland. Thimmaiyan and the group’s job shouldn’t be straightforward. “If I look again at the previous couple of years, of all the brand new developments that we did, after we begin each new program, we all know the client a little bit higher than the earlier one. That method we hold getting nearer and nearer and nearer to the client by way of understanding how his enterprise operates,” says Thaimmaiyan.
Defining the issue assertion may be very essential to design the expertise/engineering roadmap. For Thimmaiyan and group, there are a number of of them, all encapsulated in his assertion, “The altering panorama of Indian trucking business”. The important thing elements are regulatory, altering dynamics of the nation, “which finally impacts the business automobile business”. and third, the altering wants of shoppers by way of how the companies are run at this time in comparison with the previous. And “final however not the least”, the dual developments of transition by way of fuels, and softwarisation.
Outdoors of the business. Authorities insurance policies can have an effect on the ecosystem too. “How do you are expecting that? And the way do you employ all this after which see, the place ought to I spend my vitality? The place ought to we focus by way of growing options?” All these questions cumulatively are a bigger downside assertion for Thimmaiyan and group to deal with. And, the story could be the identical for his or her business friends too.
It’s a change part that the automotive business goes by way of, And the tip of it, it’s comfort that can prevail, by way of expertise, and if it must be one thing else then there must be exterior power, believes Thimmaiyan. “No matter we are saying, we’re in a B2B enterprise, and we’re promoting an answer which our buyer makes use of to make his income and revenue”, he says.
No matter the brand new gas and expertise options, Thimmaiyan sees a radical change coming within the business automobile business. “In comparison with the final twenty years, we’ll see a totally totally different sort of vans within the subsequent 20 years, and in addition by way of the way in which of promoting, the way in which of utilizing, every part on this transition, and there’s no crystal ball with any of us”.
