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Automotive Design Engineering - A Scoping Mission to India, UK Department of Trade and Industry, Global Watch Mission Report
01/09/05
Caepro was established in 2004 both in India and the UK. The company is extremely focused upon providing high-quality, low-cost CAE capabilities. It is privately held by its directors, each of whom has a background in the UK independent automotive R&D sector. Caepro employs a team of eight engineers at its offices in Pune. In addition it has one permanent UK-based employee focusing upon customer communication and coordination activities.
The delegation visited Caepro at its Pune offices and the visit was hosted by Managing Director, John Roebuck.
Markets and business model
Caepro was formed specifically to address weaknesses that the company identifies in the market for offshore automotive CAE services. In particular, it views the sector as a whole as being poor at understanding customer requirements and interpreting these in effective analysis; as a result, it argues, low rates do not necessarily translate into cost or time savings for customers. To address these issues, Caepro’s business model focuses upon providing excellent communications with customers – addressing the need for local language and national/business cultural empathy.
Its primary identified market is represented by medium sized companies in the independent automotive R&D sector, for which it aims to provide a knowledgeable back-office CAE operation for general vehicle and subsystems analysis.
Technology level
The focus of Caepro is very much upon specific aspects of automotive technology that it recognises as being labour intensive and attractive for outsourcing. In powertrain CAE, the company focuses on engine cylinder block, head, crank and connecting rod and transmission casing analysis. On vehicle CAE it has capabilities in chassis, suspension and full vehicle crash modelling (front, side and rear) for FMVSS and EuroNCAP. The company produces credible models and has clear knowledge of mesh quality and analysis process issues, not least derived from the experience of its directors in the USA and Europe. It views this as a key differentiator. At a working level, some of the detailed processes set out for FEA were shared with the delegation. It was clear that Caepro places a considerable emphasis upon detailed process documentation and upon staff training. Shift working is used in order to maximise software and hardware asset utilisation and to improve the potential window of direct interaction with overseas clients.
Overall, Caepro appeared to be one of very few of the companies visited which had strengths in powertrain technology matching those in vehicle engineering.
Aspirations
Caepro intends to add additional services and extend its geographical reach within Europe and North America, but states that it will only d so in parallel with the provision of local liaison staff in each new territory.
Mission view of segmentation
Independent engineering services provider
Further information
www.caepro.com
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