Kirloskar Toyoda Textile Machinery Private Ltd. (KTTM) will shortly reach another important milestone of selling three million spindles. Although the company has been associated with the Indian textile industry for more than a decade and a half, much of its growth was achieved in the last five years, says Mr. T. Parabrahman, KTTM Managing Director.
The first millionth spindle was handed over to the Vardhman Group and the second millionth spindle to Loyal Textiles. Both achievements were made in the last seven years.
Despite volatility in the textile industry, KTTM has been making steady progress in the Indian market. The company has plans to expand capacity, add new products, improve on the production systems and offer new technologies to customers.
Mr. Masafumi Kunito, Deputy Managing Director of KTTM, says: ìWe are implementing Toyota Production System (TPS) and creating for the first time the concept of factory showroom. This is expected to tremendously improve our productivityî.
Currently, KTTM has an installed monthly capacity to manufacture 20,000 spindles but is already operating at a capacity of 30,000 spindles per month. It is targeting sales of 360,000 spindles in 2011-12. With minimal investments and with the implementation of TPS it will able to increase its capacity to 40,000 spindles per month, says Mr. Parabrahman.
There are different estimates of the installed spindleage in India, but the most reliable estimates indicate around 50 million spindles in all. Annually another three million spindles are added or replaced. This offers a huge opportunity for KTTM for future growth.
On the current recession, Mr. Parabrahman says: ìIt is very clear that the spinning industry has gone through an extremely bad phase for about 6 to 8 months. 
However, most of our customers are quite new. I believe the market will swing back by the middle of this year. Companies like KTTM have understood the phenomenon of these wild swings. Our partners in the supply chain also respond to these fluctuating trends. We work with over 135 component suppliers, and we take care of them during the good and bad timesî.
KTTM currently offers the popular RXI 240 series of spin frames. In the last couple of years, over 90 per cent of sales have been with auto doffer and most of the machines have been long frames of 1440 spindles. The company introduced Toyota’s Compact System (EST) in India a couple of years back, and over 120,000 Compact spindles have been delivered so far.
KTTM is also seriously contemplating introduction of Toyota roving frame FL200. The company is currently conducting market research and a decision will be taken in the current year.
Our product reliability, lower operating cost, on-time delivery without price escalation are the strength of KTTM, keeping us retain our market share. This has also helped us in booking repeat orders to the extent of almost 60 per cent of our production capacity for which we are thankful to our esteemed customersî, says Mr. Parabrahman.
Toyota’s strong philosophy of ìCustomer Firstî is followed at KTTM too. A pan-Indian sales & service network provides solution to customers within the shortest possible time. They also advise customers on predictive maintenance & overhauling of equipment to achieve optimal machine uptime. A well-stocked spares section further supports the customer by ensuring timely supply of parts with very low lead time, he adds.
Today most of the leading spinners in the Indian textile industry are customers of KTTM, through Toyota’s global network. It has also bagged a couple of projects in Vietnam and Bangladesh.
Mr. Parabrahman is confident that ìin the next 10 years we expect KTTM to be one of the major players in the Indian textile industryî.
KTTM also produces a range of auto components for export. Its auto parts division has received many awards for excellence in manufacturing. The total sales turnover in the last fiscal was about Rs. 300 crores, with 60 per cent contribution from the Textile Machinery Division.