Newland AIDC is all set to disrupt India in the automatic identification and data capture space (AIDC) segment

CXOToday has engaged in an exclusive interview with  JP Mishra, Country Manager India- Newland AIDC

• Could you tell us a brief about Newland AIDC and its offerings?

Newland AIDC was founded in 1999 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Newland Digital Technology, with over 20 years of R&D in data capturing & enterprise mobility, Newland AIDC has become one of the leading companies in automatic identification and data capture industry. Newland AIDC empowers workforce in retail store floors, warehouse & distribution centres, manufacturing facilities and other industries to transform business with full data visibility and accuracy. Newland AIDC’s existing & upcoming product portfolio comprises of Barcode scanners (corded & cordless, Industrial Scanner and Desktop Scanner), Enterprise Mobile Terminals, RFID solutions, next generation of Wearable devices, Fixed RFID, Vision Camera& Desktop Barcode printer and Portable Bluetooth printer.

• As the Automatic Identification & Data capturing (AIDC) Industry in India is still in a nascent stage, what according to you is the future outlook of the industry.

It is expected that the market for the AIDC in India will experience a notable expansion in the foreseeable future. This growth can be attributed to various factors, such as an increased automation need, and greater adoption of innovative technologies.

“AIDC Revolution” in India aims at automation in identifying objects, collecting data directly without any human involvement thus ensuring ‘ZERO ERROR’. The Indian market for AIDC Technologies has limitless potential and offers massive opportunity to manage inventory, delivery, assets, security and documents in retail, e-commerce, manufacturing, healthcare, transport & logistics, government.

• What trends according to you will cause a disruption in the AIDC segment in India

Presently, the rising need for supply chain management in numerous industries is catalysing the demand for identification and data capture technologies, such as barcodes, RFID tags, and QR codes to provide real-time tracking and tracing. This, in confluence with rapid digitization and the growing automation across industries, represents one of the key factors positively influencing the market across the globe. Apart from this, the introduction of advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), in AIDC solutions to process, manage, store, and share data without human intervention and improve performance to provide more value to customers. Moreover, the increasing adoption of AIDC systems for data security in financial institutions is creating a favourable market outlook. In line with this, the burgeoning healthcare industry and the increasing utilization of AIDC for accurate capturing of data and enhanced operational efficiency are fuelling the market growth. Furthermore, government focus on infrastructure projects is stimulating the growth of the market.

Technology advancement, innovation in AIDC & its adoption by the enterprise will also play a key factor in creating a disruption in India market.

• As Newland AIDC forayed into India in early 2019, what challenges did it face with the onset of the pandemic and how did it battle it.

During pandemic, the retail sector specially ecommerce & quick commerce along with transportation and logistics sector saw huge jump in consumer demand leading to pressure on supply chain, Newland AIDC as a new entrant in India market was able to help the customers,leading to the beginning of its growth story. There was a global Chip shortage issue along with supply chain crises, leading to material shortage & delays in delivery.

The same was not applicable for Newland AIDC as we are one of the leading manufacturers of chips & were able to fulfil the material on time which strengthened our relationship with our customer & building their trust.

Also, we opened our own service support centres across major metros in India which helped us to deliver quality service to our customer, reducing customer operations downtimes. We were able to meet strict service & delivery TAT.

• As this year marked the 50th anniversary of Barcodes, How do you see the Barcodes faring with huge popularity from QR codes & RFID

In June 1974, the barcode made its first appearance at a Marsh’s supermarket in Ohio. The first item scanned was a pack of Juicy Fruit gum. This historic moment marked the beginning of millions of barcode scans to come. The most common barcode today is still the traditional rectangular barcode that most of us see every day on products. These type of barcodes are called 1D or one-dimensional barcodes, then there are 2D or two-dimensional barcodes (QR codes) that can store more information than traditional barcodes. They can be read from any angle and contain more information in less space, These next generation barcodes can capture unprecedented amounts of trusted data for businesses, regulators, consumers.These barcodes can tell a product’s “story”, product information, etc. This new level of transparency will ultimately help people make smart decisions about what they buy and use

RFID, also known as “radio frequency identification”, is a further extension of traditional barcodes. It is essentially a tag (or label) with built-in devices that use radio frequencies to transfer data. RFID technology has several advantages over barcodes. RFID tags can be read from a distance and do not require direct line of sight to the scanner, making them more convenient to use. They are also capable of storing more information and can be modified or changed.RFID tags are useful in many ways. As the cost of labour have grown over the past decade, more and more businesses have started to use RFIDs track inventory.

Where before physical inventory count required a lot of manpower, RFID makes stock take as simple as several quick scans of the store. Larger stores have even added overhead RFID scanners to be able to track the location of products to make it easier for shelf restock and locating inventory.

As the cost of RFID tags (and tagging products) continues to go down, RFID will increasingly be used by smaller enterprises in a greater variety of ways.

• Competitors of Newland AIDC in India and how Newland plans to dominate in the track & trace segment

The key global participants present in the automatic identification and data capture market are Zebra Technologies, Honeywell, are among the leading  AIDC players & exist in market from past  two decades, Newland  AIDC, entered India market in 2019 & grown at more than 200% CAGR. Newland AIDC is able to build trust & loyalty among partners & enterprise customers in just few years, as its core strength & belief is delivering value to customer.

Any organization is always concerned about their assets that should be maintained and managed properly to enjoy the expanded life cycle. In order to manage them accurately and effectively, you must keep them tracking regularly. Asset tracking is one of the most important tasks in managing an asset, but the concern is, how to keep tracking them all at the same time flawlessly is a hurdle.

Newland AIDC has a big portfolio of mobility products which along with scanning products helps end customers in a cost effective way in comparison to competitors, with launching of new innovative technology products for India market will also help our customers to enhance their productivity.

Companies are now exploring the potential of AIDC products to track the items right from the manufacturing site to customers’ hands.

• What according to you are the key growth drivers for the AIDC segment

The growing e-commerce industry, transportation & logistics increasing use of barcodes, QR code scanning and image recognition, and rising adoption of automatic identification and data capture solutions due to their ability to minimize queuing and transaction time and provide greater convenience to users in making small-value payments are the major factors that are anticipated to boost the growth of the automatic identification and data capture market over the period.

The rising adoption of automatic identification and data capture solutions owing to their ability to minimize human error is expected to fuel the growth of the automatic identification and data capture market

• Any plans of manufacturing barcodes and other workspace automation solutions/ products in India

Newland AIDC, a global player in AIDC segment is also planning to manufacture few of its SKUs locally in India under Make in India initiative, we are already in initial stages of identifying local vendors for few key products to be manufactured in India, We aim to start the local manufacturing of few selective productsin India by the end of 2023.

• What are your growth priorities In India for 2023

The top growth priorities in India for 2023 will be Manufacturing, Retail sector including ecommerce, quick commerce & Government Infrastructure

We are also committed to bring new innovative technology products for our customers like wearables, fixed RFID, vision cameras, etc. which will help our customers increase productivity with low operational costs.

The priority is to strengthen our own post-sales support across India region which will reduce downtime of end customers.