Japanese multinational Mitsubishi Electric is planning to double the quantum of local component sourcing for its manufacturing facility for advanced factory automation systems (FAS) in the Talegaon Industrial area, near Pune, Maharashtra in the next five years.

“We see India as a manufacturing base for the future. That’s the reason we opened the (Pune) factory in India in 2023. India is an important engineering resource, so we should leverage it, which means we should localize more,” Takayuki Tsuzuki, executive officer, group president, FAS, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation said.

In a recent interaction with Fortune India during his first visit to India after taking charge of the global FAS division of Mitsubishi Electric early this year, Tsuzuki said he wants to see India as a manufacturing base, not just to meet local requirements, but for the company’s global factory automation business in future.

 Almost 80% of the product and components that go into Mitsubishi’s FAS plant in India today is imported. “Over the next 4-5 years we hope to supply from our local manufacturing unit almost 40-50%. Which means we have to really enhance our production activities, and that’s what we are aiming for,” S. Sriram, Director, Head, Factory Automation & Industrial Division (FAID), Mitsubishi Electric India said.

According to Sriram, Pune facility’s current capacity utilisation is about 45%. “We started production in December 2023, and we still have a big area to cover. We started producing some products in the Pune factory, some more products are in the pipeline. We expect to hit about 75-80% utilization by the year 2027,” he explained.

Sriram also points out that the company will think of exports from the Pune plant once capacity utilisation touches 80%. “Export from other locations (outside Japan) is part of our long term plan. Where to (from India) is still to be worked out, but it will not be just about serving neighbouring markets, but about managing the overall distribution system. We need to find what is the best way to deal with the whole supply chain system, So, it’s not about the neighbouring markets, but worldwide for factory automation,” he says.

The Pune plant of Mitsubishi Electric manufactures inverters and other factory automation products to serve a wide range of industries including automotive, pharmaceuticals, food and beverage, textiles and data centres. The factory automation division is the second biggest business segment after air conditioners for Mitsubishi Electric in India.