MAGMA Engineering Asia-Pacific Pte Ltd

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Jan Eilers, General Manager (Asia Pacific)

Could you tell us more about your trade, what kind of products, services or solutions does MAGMA offer as well as the types of customer you serve?

Our parent company (MAGMA Giessereitechnologie GmbH) was founded in 1988 in Aachen, Germany, and is an innovative engineering service provider company and market leader in the metal casting process simulation world. With a strong presence in Europe and building on the reputation of providing precise analysis and optimization for production processes, MAGMA Engineering Asia-Pacific, the regional headquarter with our products MAGMASOFT® and SIGMASOFT® continues to expand its business in Asia-Pacific. We cater our services to a wide range of manu­fac­tur­ing industries, from automotive, energy, machining, building and mining to medical products. The key advantage of using process simulation vs. the conventional trial and error methods are making this world a little greener through energy savings, reducing wastage and shortening time to market. Our operation in Asia started with the foundation of MAGMA Engineering Asia-Pacific in Sin­ga­pore in 1996. The prime objective in the early years was to build up a strong team with technical expertise in casting and injection molding process optimization, followed by identifying qualified local partners that can represent MAGMA and our products in the diverse Asian markets.

Why was it important for you as a company to have a footprint in Sin­ga­pore?

Sin­ga­pore, being one of the well-connected Asia hubs, was the ideal choice to act as the communication hub, transferring casting/injection molding process knowledge and offering various services to our customers to implement MAGMASOFT® and SIGMASOFT® successfully in Asia. As we work in a very niche market, it becomes increasingly difficult to get local talents with practical experience as the manu­fac­tur­ing industry in Sin­ga­pore is shrinking. But we do our best in bringing in new people and educate local talents through the knowledge that our employees attain through their work with and consultancy of regional customers. Nevertheless, Sin­ga­pore will still remain the place to be in terms of infrastructure, corporate and legal safeness.

Where else does your company operate in the ASEAN territory?

With the increased demands and success of MAGMA in Asia, and to offer local services in strategic locations, MAGMA has since opened a joint venture in Korea and a wholly owned subsidiary in China. In addition to our own presence, we have distributors in Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand and Philippines.

How do you see the future for your businesses (i.e opportunities, challenges?)

Today, MAGMA Asia consists of a team of more than 60 employees and will continue to grow at the forefront of the ever evolving metal casting and injection molding market in Asia backed up by a strong development team and expertise from Germany. Overall, we are dealing with a very diverse market. There are technically advanced companies producing highly complex parts, as well as small family owned businesses and as the market develops, environmental regulations are imposed and demand for quality increases, the opportunities are immense and ever growing. The need for knowledge and digitalization has seen a big increase with the Industry 4.0 movement and as we offer digitalization for more than 30 years, this is a very good time for us. With our offering of our product implementation as well as localized training courses (MAGMAacademy), customer support (MAGMAsupport), project engineering services (MAGMAproject), I can see a very bright future for our company. The adaptation to new tech­no­lo­gies is a challenge in itself, but we strive to help our customers overcome this though the best and most comprehensive services and process optimization knowledge as a solution provider.

What do you think are the advantages of being in German Centre?

It’s always difficult to describe an atmosphere because it consists out of so many factors. The German Centre brings exactly the right mix of those factors that make people come to work here with a positive attitude. Events such as the fire drills with the networking BBQ touch, the quarterly B2B events and the general professional services & friendliness of the German Centre employees are just some examples. Being in the same building as the Singaporean-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce also has its advantages. One thing that stands out is the number of events focused at various business topics, markets and territories, where I had the privilege to gain and also share knowledge as a speaker.

How has the COVID situation affected your company and is there anything that you did in the cause to fight this virus?

All in all I must say that we are quite lucky not to be affected as much as some other industries although it will indeed have an impact over our planned growth process. We have seen a steep increase in project engineering inquiries, as our customers are outsourcing their engineering works. Also the attendance rate of our webinars is spectacular and I’m glad that we can still educate the market virtually, even though it will never replace a personal customer visit and a firm handshake. With the help of some partners in the medical industry and material suppliers, we also managed to contribute in the development of a two component part for a respiratory device and also multifunctional reusable face masks made from advanced liquid silicone rubber material.

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