24 - 06 - 2026

Jamco Backs Bengaluru as Global Design Hub with $150M Engineering Push

Bengaluru is fast emerging as a global aerospace design hub, with Japan’s Jamco Corporation committing US$150 million over the next five to six years to establish a high-end engineering centre in India. In an interview with BD Narayankar, CEO Kate Schaefer and Sanjeev Sen, Chief Operating Officer Aerospace & Defense regarding the expansion of by engineering talent.

The centre will give Indian engineers full ownership of products, covering design, development, certification and delivery. Jamco expects teams in Bengaluru to lead critical cabin systems, including galleys and lavatories for Boeing 787 aircraft, positioning India as a centre of aerospace innovation and product ownership.

Excerpts:

Q: You mentioned a US$150 million investment. How exactly will this investment be deployed across engineering, sourcing and capability-building in India?

A: The investment is really focused on the engineers and the infrastructure that will grow up over the next five to six years. It does not account for what we will be transferring into the supply chain in India.

We have put no number on that at the moment. That’s actually a really big focus for us as well. We’ve spoken a lot about engineering today, but one of the things we are also doing is expanding very rapidly.

Our existing supply chain in Japan is too small to cope with the expansion. Another part of this office will be hiring manufacturing engineers who are able to go out and start developing suppliers and building capability.

So that US$150 million does not include any of the supply-chain investment. It is specifically about building engineering capability, infrastructure and talent in India.

Q: Does that mean you will also build a supply chain in Bengaluru and India alongside the engineering centre?

A: Yes. In one of my previous roles, I actually restructured supply chains for a major US aerospace company, so I have a lot of experience bringing large work packages into India. People often assume companies come to India because it is cheaper. I talk about this all the time — when I look at supply chains, I am interested in the landed cost, not just the cost of the component. For us, the cost of late deliveries, lack of capacity, or not being able to scale is much greater than saving 20 per cent on a component.

What I like about India is that when you find the right talent and the right manufacturing partner and make a commitment, they invest and grow with you. If you need them to grow 200 per cent, they will put in the infrastructure and support that growth. That’s been my experience. When you make a commitment, Indian suppliers are very much all-in and willing to support you. That’s exactly what we’re looking for.

Q: What is the expected return-on-investment timeline for this India expansion?

A: We’re doing this for growth. We’re doing this to serve a global market that is already demanding more products and services. If you look at the life cycle of an aircraft platform, you can be talking about more than 50 years. There is the development phase, entry into service, and then decades of operational life. The investment we make today supports products and capabilities that will be serving airlines for decades.”

People often try to calculate return on investment by comparing labour costs — moving engineers from one country to another and calculating savings. That’s absolutely not what we’re doing. We’re growing in Japan as well. We’re growing everywhere. This is really a long-term confidence-building investment.

Our products that are flying today will still be flying 25 years from now and somebody will need to support them. As we build capability here and move into advanced design work, those skills are not easily replaced. This isn’t low-end engineering. Once we make the commitment, we intend to stick with it. The centre is about complete product ownership and developing the next generation of wide-body aircraft cabin products.

Q: What is the global strength of Jamco today, and how many employees do you currently have in India?

A: Globally, we’re about 5,000 people, give or take. In India, we’re currently around 150 engineers. These are high-technology engineers; this is not a volume-capacity organisation. We’re focused on advanced engineering capability.

They come from different disciplines including mechanical engineering, structures, stress analysis and certification. Certification expertise is something that develops with experience, and that’s another area where we want to build capability in India to strengthen the overall aerospace ecosystem.

Q: What new revenue streams or global business opportunities could be enabled through the India engineering office?

A: We don’t really look at it in terms of new revenue streams coming from India. Our market is a global market. Being located in India does not enable us to gain market share in any direct way. We are here because the talent is here. That’s really the way to think about it.

I live in California today, and one of the things we’re trying to build, with strong support from our leadership, is a truly global engineering organisation that is not centred in one location. It’s not Japan-centric. It’s not US-centric. It’s based on where the talent is.

If you look at products from companies like Apple, people care that they’re designed in California, not where they’re manufactured. We want our products to be designed and developed by the best talent available globally. Earlier, engineering was concentrated in Japan. Today we’re building a model where engineering responsibility is distributed globally based on talent. India is a key part of that strategy.

Q: How will Indian suppliers be integrated into Jamco Interiors’ global aerospace sourcing network?

A: It’s really quite straightforward. We know who the strong suppliers are in India. We’ll have manufacturing engineers based here. We’ve already released work packages to suppliers. They’ll quote, we’ll evaluate them, and we’ll move forward from there.

Our manufacturing engineers in India will work directly with suppliers on-site. There’s a lot of technical transfer involved when moving aerospace work from one supplier to another. Sometimes that includes translating technical drawings from Japanese and supporting the transfer of manufacturing know-how.

We currently have about 14 critical commodity strategies. Across those areas we’re engaging with around 90 suppliers in India. We have already identified a smaller group that we believe can become long-term strategic partners.

The relationships we’re building are intended to last for decades. This is not a six-month contract followed by another cost-reduction exercise. Aerospace works very differently. If a supplier performs well, we prefer to keep that supplier for ten years or more because qualification and certification take time and money.

Q: Is India truly moving up the value chain in aerospace engineering, or is it simply becoming a larger back-office for global companies?

A: It’s much more than a back office. What we’re building here is ownership engineering. When we interview engineers from major aerospace companies, one of the things that excites them is not salary. It’s when we tell them they will get design authority, stress signatory authority and, eventually, certification authority. That’s something they don’t often get access to. They become fascinated because it’s unheard of in many organisations.

We’re not bringing low-value work packages to India. We’re not designing a product in one country and then sending support work to India. The model is completely different. If India owns the 787 galley programme, then India owns the engineering, the innovation, the customer interaction and the supplier engagement for that product. Japan might own another product. The United States might own another. It’s about complete product responsibility.

We call it a centre of excellence. It’s not about separating out low-end engineering work. It’s about assigning complete platforms and products to the teams best equipped to own them. That is why we believe India is moving up the value chain and becoming a true centre for aerospace innovation, engineering leadership and product ownership.