As Deven Shah, Director, Indian Chemical Industries, points out to Arun Rao, total quality control should not be restricted to just the production process but must include the entire value chain
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For Ahmedabad-based Indian Chemical Industries (ICI), quality control does not start and end with the quality control department. It goes much beyond. Total quality at ICI starts from employing the right people on their team and then ingraining the values, vision and mission of the company in their sub-consciousness. “Ingraining vision, values and mission of our company in employees removes most of the challenges in maintaining strict quality control. Next is picking the right vendors who adhere to the same values, and then finally maintaining tight control over the production process,” says Deven Shah, Director, ICI.
“In fact, it goes still further because quality is not just about manufacturing high-quality products but also supplying products with the same consistency,” he adds. ICI was started by J R Shah in 1959 as a distribution agency for West India to supply pigment and dyes of a British company called Imperial Chemical Industries. Most of India’s textile mills during those days were housed in the western region. However, in the early sixties, foreign exchange was scarce and so importing products posed huge problems, which led to the company signing a technical collaboration with the Imperial Chemical Company to set up a production plant in Ahmedabad and manufacture the same products indigenously.
ICI was among just 3-4 companies manufacturing such products in those days. Later on, ICI also signed a technical agreement with Switzerland-based Ciba Geigy for producing pigments which were sold back to the Swiss company. Moreover, ICI also upgraded its technology at that time to keep ahead of the production curve. In the early nineties, the textile-related business of Ciba Geigy was sold to Huntsman, which led to ICI withdrawing from the collaboration. This prompted the company to set up its own marketing network in India and other countries. Today, its business is spread over 64 countries across the globe. Along with four zonal offices in India, ICI has offices in Europe, the US, the Middle East and Africa.
“This helps us to be close to our customers and resolve their day-to-day challenges. In the earlier days, it was very difficult competing with multinational companies as Indian textile mills had a mindset that an Indian manufacturer of pigments would not be able to supply products of an international calibre. Therefore, it took a long time to convince the textile mills to buy our products,” Shah informs. ICI not only manufactures pigments and pigment-based products for the textile industry but also supplies its products to several other industries such as paint, rubber, plastic, wood, leather, etc.
The company supplies as less as 500 gm quantity in powder form and as less as 50 ml in liquid form. Pigments are majorly used when printing fabrics and are environmentally friendly since it is a dry process. They are also used for dyeing fabrics, mainly for pastel shades. ICI supplies pigments in around 20 basic colours. However, the company has also developed and supplied around 200 colours and shades on demand from their customers. It is also able to offer colours as per the Pantone shade card and although repeatedly producing the same customised shades or colours of pigments is a challenge, it has been highly successful in mastering this art given its vast experience.
Focus on Innovation
Eight years ago, ICI introduced pigments for dyeing garments like T-shirts and denim jeans. These pigments offer neon and an uneven dyed effect to the garment – a trend that is popular among teenagers. Now, even global brands are getting their garments dyed through this process. ICI has two manufacturing units employing 310 employees and a production capacity of 16,800 metric tons per annum, of which around 35% goes to the textile industry. The company also has a very strong research and development setup with 18 employees engaged in applications and 25 employees working on product development.
The research and development wing at ICI offers solutions for developing various colours beyond the basic colours, while also providing solutions for removing pain areas in printing fabrics. The facility is even equipped with a smaller version of a printing machine to undertake research trials. According to Shah, this particular team has identified that the root cause of several problems among textile fabric printers emerge from the use of textile thickeners. Therefore, the team is now trying to find solutions and options to print without using thickeners. ICI also develops innovative products for customers who may end up buying just 50 kg a month, since the same product can be sold later to other customers.
Providing Total Solutions
“Whenever we are able to resolve pain points for a customer, the relationship moves to an all together different level, eventually leading to a long-term relationship with the customer. That is because the customer values the efforts put in by ICI in resolving their challenges. It builds trust and loyalty,” Shah states. As for making their products environmentally friendly, Shah states that this is a natural process considering that strict environmental laws and permissible limits are applied in all the countries, particularly Europe. “Thus, all our products are compliant with the permissible limits of these countries. That is what makes us a preferred exporter with 64 countries on our list,” Shah says.