Consumer electronics major Panasonic India on Thursday said it would provide factory solutions to the domestic manufacturers by sharing its technology and manufacturing ecosystem with them. The company has opened its Jhajjar (Haryana) facility for its strategic partners under the initiative beginning with refrigerators and air conditioner segment. Besides, the company would also share its IoT (Internet of Things) Miraie platform with the partner brands and they will have rights to use Engineered by Panasonic' tag on their products.

This is in alignment with the government's Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiative and Make in India agenda, Panasonic India President & CEO Manish Sharma told PTI. Panasonic, which has already selected two strategic partner brands under this initiative, expects to add 10 per cent extra revenue in a year in its consumer business from this manufacturing model, he added.

This manufacturing model will be applied by Panasonic India to the assembly lines at the Jhajjar plant, not only to manufacture for other brands, but also bring efficiencies by reducing costs, optimising resources, enhance quality & durability, enabling capacity utilisation, and generating new job opportunities. "This will reduce dependency on imports, drive up local consumption and exports," said Sharma.

However, he mentioned that only base platform will be used to manufacture for other partner brands, and Panasonic India will maintain exclusivity for its own products by keeping the proprietary technology. We started the strategy of collaborating with the domestic Indian companies 6-7 years before We have supported the domestic EMS companies with technology and improvement in manufacturing capabilities, he said.

Panasonic had earlier helped companies including Dixon, which has now become the country's leading contract manufacturer and CP Plus for security cameras. Now we are taking the next leap in that direction, he said, adding The idea is to align us with the country's vision to create a self-reliant India.

The country has three essential priorities, which is - to scale up manufacturing, to enable back integration and cost efficiency. The challenge for the Indian company is access to technology and therefore we have decided to help them and create a shared economy into the manufacturing space. Under this Panasonic would identify partners, who share our platform technology, Sharma said.

He also mentioned that the core technology or proprietary technology would be exclusive for Panasonic products. "This essentially means that the basic designs of home appliances and also the manufacturing technology would be shared for a better consumer durable products, he said.

Sharma also added it is not a contract manufacturing. Panasonic would only provide technology support. Besides hardware, Panasonic would also share its IoT platform Miraie, to help its partners offer smart solutions.

Miraie would be open to its strategic partners, where we will help them onboard their product with our connectivity solution, said Sharma. When asked whether such products in the market would cannibalise Panasonic's own product line, Sharma said the positioning of the Panasonic brand is not going to be compromised. The company would share technology of entry-level products only.

Although, the company did not share the name of partners, but said that the products bearing the tag line of Engineered by Panasonic' would hit the market soon. For the first year in the consumer revenue, we are a looking to have 10 per cent extra revenue to come out from this initiative, he said.