2026-01-06

Rahul Jaiswal, Account Manager–India, MA micro automation, explains to Pharma Industrial India how the Germany-based company is establishing its footprint in India, emphasising the growing demand for quality-focused automation, workforce-friendly implementation strategies and, plans to progressively localise manufacturing while expanding fully automated capabilities.

Q. Kindly introduce us to the company.

MA micro automation (MA) is a Germany-based company with a 50-year legacy. While the company entered the Indian market only recently—towards the end of 2023 or early 2024—my role has been to build the business from the ground up and establish a strong market presence in India.

Starting from zero, we focused on demonstrating our capabilities, building visibility and engaging with the Indian market. This effort has translated into enquiries and gradually, into confirmed orders, marking steady progress in market development.

MA originated from Siemens, where its automation expertise was initially developed for contact lens manufacturing. The company continues to offer complete end-to-end automation lines for contact lenses. Building on this success, MA expanded into automation solutions for a wide range of medical and healthcare products.

Today, we provide fully integrated automation lines for moulded medical parts such as blood collection tubes—covering processes from moulding through assembly, testing and final packaging. Our solutions also extend to laboratory ware, including pipette tips, Petri dishes, and other lab consumables, supporting the entire production and packaging workflow.

In addition, we are actively promoting automation solutions for drug delivery devices in India. Our portfolio includes pen injectors, auto-injectors, prefilled syringes and other injectable drug delivery systems.

A key differentiator in the Indian market is our ability to offer flexible and customised automation solutions. Beyond fully automated lines, we provide tabletop automation systems for low-volume production, where operators manually load components while automation handles assembly. We also offer semi-automatic lines that combine manual and automated processes, enabling higher throughput and scalability.

Importantly, all our systems are designed with future expansion in mind. Customers can retrofit existing tabletop or semi-automatic lines into fully automated systems without the need for complete reinvestment—allowing them to scale operations efficiently with minimal additional cost.

 Q. So, you mean to say they already have the machines but they want to automate?

This approach is known as retrofitting. For example, if a customer is initially using a three-cell semi-automatic line and later wants to increase production volumes, the same line can be upgraded to a fully automated system. By adding the required assemblies within the existing setup—at the same factory—the line can be seamlessly converted into a fully automatic line without the need for a complete replacement.

Q. You mentioned automation and how your machines are integrated with automated systems. How important is automation in today’s manufacturing environment?

Automation is critically important in medical manufacturing because quality and consistency are non-negotiable. In this sector, there is limited scope for manual intervention, as human error—whether due to fatigue, oversight, or inconsistency—can directly impact patient safety.

Medical products are used throughout a person’s lifecycle. So, even minor defects can have serious consequences. For example, manufacturing contact lenses manually can allow foreign particles or contaminants to go unnoticed. When such products are used, they can cause discomfort, eye irritation, redness or more serious complications.

Our automation lines are designed to address these risks by ensuring controlled, repeatable processes with comprehensive quality checks. They enable 100 percent inspection, allowing the detection and removal of foreign particles or defects at every stage. The result is a consistently high-quality finished product that meets stringent medical standards.

This is one of the key advantages of automation—not just in our systems, but across automated manufacturing as a whole. Automation ensures reliability, traceability and minimal defect rates, ultimately delivering safer, higher-quality products with significantly reduced risk of error.

Q. When discussing quality, what are the key stages in the manufacturing process where contamination risks are most likely to arise?

The primary challenge lies in detecting foreign particles that are extremely minute—often invisible to the naked eye, and, in many cases, difficult to identify even under a microscope. This is where automation becomes essential.

Our automation lines are equipped with high-megapixel vision systems, combined with in-house software developed entirely by our team rather than relying on third-party solutions. This allows us to perform inspections at varying depths and levels of precision, tailored to specific customer requirements.

In certain processes, liquid infusion is also required, which cannot be performed with the same accuracy or consistency through manual handling. Automated systems ensure precise dosing, controlled environments and repeatable results.

Artificial intelligence (AI) further enhances these capabilities by simplifying operations for users and customers. AI-driven inspection systems can verify dimensions and tolerances with extreme accuracy—such as ±0.1 or ±0.01 microns—levels that are simply not achievable through manual inspection. This combination of advanced vision systems, proprietary software and AI ensures comprehensive quality control and significantly reduces the risk of contamination or defects.

Q. How has the Indian market responded to your automation solutions so far?

The response from the Indian market has been positive, with strong growth potential ahead. As exports from India continue to increase, manufacturers are increasingly focused on meeting international quality standards, not just catering to domestic demand. This shift is driving greater emphasis on high-quality and reliable production processes.

Automation is not new to India, but the demand for advanced automation solutions is clearly rising. Today, even domestic manufacturers are actively exploring automation to improve consistency, compliance and scalability. That said, manual labour will always remain an important part of the Indian manufacturing ecosystem due to the large workforce and cost considerations linked to Return On Investment (ROI).

As a result, many companies are adopting a phased approach. They typically start with semi-automated lines—combining manual operations with automated functions for quality-critical processes. Tasks such as inspection, precision assembly and tolerance control are increasingly automated, while less critical activities may remain manual.

Over time, as volumes increase and quality requirements tighten, manufacturers are gradually transitioning towards fully automated and AI-driven solutions. Overall, India represents a fast-growing and highly promising market for automation, making it a true growth hotspot for the industry.

Q. If a manufacturer wants to introduce automation without causing job losses, what approach or solution would you recommend?

A balanced approach is recommended—one that introduces automation without displacing the existing workforce. The most effective way to do this is by starting with tabletop or semi-automated lines. These systems allow manufacturers to retain their labour force while gradually introducing automation into the production process.

Semi-automated and table-top solutions also help upskill the workforce. Operators learn how to run and interact with machines, understand automation workflows, and become familiar with AI-enabled features. As production scales and automation increases, these same workers can transition into supervisory and line-management roles, especially when multiple automated lines are deployed within a factory.

It is neither necessary nor practical to move directly to full automation at the outset. Semi-automated lines typically require three to four operators and are well suited for moderate production volumes. As demand grows and volumes reach the scale where full automation becomes viable—often running into millions of units—manufacturers can then transition to fully automated lines.

Production speeds clearly illustrate this progression. Semi-automated systems operate at lower, two-digit outputs per minute, while fully automated lines can achieve three- or four-digit outputs per minute. By the time this transition occurs, manufacturers are better prepared—with trained personnel, stable market demand and sufficient volumes to justify the investment.

Taking a step-by-step approach benefits both business and workforce readiness. Over the past 15 years, India has made rapid strides in manufacturing capability, quality and innovation. Today, Indian manufacturers are increasingly competitive with global standards, supported by skilled talent, growing startups and strong industrial momentum. This measured adoption of automation ensures sustainable growth, workforce inclusion and long-term competitiveness on the global stage.

Q. So, you have a plant here, or are you assembling?

As a subsidiary of Hitachi, we benefit from Hitachi’s strong automation presence across major metro cities in India, with established facilities in Pune and Gurugram. When we entered the Indian market in 2023-24, these facilities—originally supporting automotive automation—also enabled us to extend our capabilities to medical product automation.

The semi-automated and table-top solutions are specifically designed to be built locally in India. While core engineering and system design are developed in Germany and transferred to India, the bench-level assembly is carried out here. Today, the base features, cell components and overall system integration are largely developed and manufactured in India. This model combines global engineering expertise with localised execution to better serve the Indian market.

Q. So, what are your business expansion plans, if any?

We have clear expansion plans in place. At present, fully automated lines are designed and manufactured in Germany and then supplied to India, while smaller-scale systems are being developed and built locally.

As demand grows and the business scales up, we plan to progressively localise the manufacturing of complete automation lines in India, including fully automated systems. A similar model has already been successfully implemented in Singapore, where we have had a manufacturing facility in operation for the past six to seven years.

India is planned to follow the same trajectory. Once the ecosystem, volumes and infrastructure are fully established, we intend to transition to end-to-end manufacturing of fully automated lines within the country.