Focus on automation, energy efficiency & customer service
Lakshmi Machine Works Ltd. (LMW) has always been at the forefront of technological innovations, consistently raising benchmark with its world-class textile machinery products. In an exclusive interview to The Textile Magazine, Mr. C. Ramanadane, DGM, Marketing and Sales, of the company gave detailed insights into LMW’s recent performance, its participation in ITMA 2015, major installations, and the immediate future of the textile industry, among others.
Edited excerpts from the interview:
A robust product line and commitment to technological innovations, along with excellent after-sales support services, have been the key factors consistently propelling the growth of LMW. Highlighting the recent performance of the company, Mr. Ramanadane said: “In 2015-16, our textile machinery division achieved a turnover of Rs. 2,190 crores against Rs. 2,036 crores in 2014-15, registering a growth of 7.6%.”
Listing down the key achievements of LMW during the period, Mr. Ramanadane added: “Spinning is a highly capital intensive business. Funding of projects by financial institutions is the key issue and sustenance at this level is our achievement. Both the domestic and global sales have grown. Overall growth in business for LMW has seen an increase of about 8% compared with 2014-15. The global shipment in 2015 was 9 million spindles, down by 10% compared with 2014 at 9.8 million spindles. However, Indian shipment has grown from 2.2 million spindles to 2.3 million spindles in 2015.”
Giving technical details of some of the major projects executed by the company recently, Mr. Ramanadane said: “We have executed a number of projects in 2015-16. Some of them include MM Yarns, Raja Spintex, Ramkrushna Spinning Mills, Vasantha Industries, Patchala Spintex, etc.” The highlights, however, have been the Trident project at Budhni with 1.9 lakh spindles and the Welspun project at Anjar with 1.7 lakh spindles. “These projects are the biggest executions under a single roof in the world and LMW is proud to be the major machinery supplier for both these projects,” he added.
ITMA participation
LMW’s participation in ITMA Milan 2015 was a resounding success. The company showcased the following products in each of its subsystems at the fair.
- Card Sliver System – High Production Card LC636 with 1.5 mtr working width and higher active carding area.
- Combing System – New Auto-leveler Drawframe LDAZ suitable for cotton, blends, and synthetic process with a maximum mechanical delivery speed of 1100 MPM with online quality monitoring.
- Ring Spinning System – Change Gearless Compact Ringframe LRJ9/SX Series, with the option of producing compact, Siro, slub, multi-twist yarns with the new drafting drive arrangements.
Mr. Ramanadane noted that the company’s display of highly innovative products evoked huge interest among international visitors and generated good enquiries. This has been converted into business during 2015-16 and also for 2016-17 deliveries.
Fully geared for ITME 2016
LMW is all geared to showcase its technological prowess at the forthcoming India ITME 2016 show. Throwing light on the company’s participation in the premier show, Mr. Ramanadane observed: “Innovation is a continuous process and we plan for new state-of-the-art technological introductions in each of our sub-systems in 2016-17. LMW always encourages value addition at the customer end, by way of enhanced profitability. India ITME 2016 will be a launch pad for a host of new innovations from our R&D stable.”
LMW is one of the well-known Indian brands globally. The company’s growth rate in key global markets is quite encouraging in recent years. According to Mr. Ramanadane, the healthy growth rate was mainly because of the project orders executed in Bangladesh, Turkey, Indonesia, Vietnam, etc. The company’s export revenue has increased by 17 per cent compared to the previous year.
The textile industry has been facing a severe shortage of manpower in recent times. Asked as to how LMW will overcome this problem with increased levels of automation in its machines, Mr. Ramanadane replied: “Manpower availability and cost is the most important issue faced by textile mills across the globe. Automation in machinery and processes is the only solution to overcome the said issue. LMW has been introducing automation in each of its machineries, like automatic bale plucker, automatic can changer, auto doffer in speed frame and ring frame, etc. The ring frame auto doffer has been sought for all segments on account of huge labor scarcity.”
Dwelling further on the issue, Mr. Ramanadane said: “To further reduce the dependency on manpower and increase the machinery efficiency, productivity and the output quality, LMW has introduced automation systems like Ultra Blend to avoid manual mixing in the blowroom stage for processing blends, Lap Transportation System to transport the comber laps from lap former to combers, and Roving Transportation System to transport roving bobbins from the speed frame to ring frame.”
Adding value
High energy cost is one of the major issues that dent the margins of customers. Asked about the energy efficiency of the company’s machines, he stated energy conservation has become a key issue in the textile industry thanks to rising energy costs and severe energy shortage. Any saving in energy cost results in a direct increase in profitability. To address this issue, LMW machines are equipped with the most modern and eco-friendly electrical and electronic drives that consume minimum power, which results in power savings for customers.
After-sales service support has emerged as a major differentiating factor in today’s competitive world. Talking about LMW’s focus on this key area, Mr. Ramanadane said: “With our wide service network, customers are assured of the quickest service as and when required. Our technicians are always just a call away. All our overseas offices are equipped with competent technical engineers who offer immediate support.”
Continuing further, he said: “Regarding spares and critical components support, LMW always ensures that the customer machines are kept under continuous production. Support is provided for 100% upkeep of the machines. The eSpares portal also allows customers to order and track the required components and parts easily.”
Optimistic outlook
Referring to the industry future, he opined that textiles being a basic necessity, its growth and demand are a certainty at the global level. The initiatives taken by the Government for modernization and development of weaving, processing and garmenting will bring in value addition in the textile sector.
He also noted that the amended Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS), product schemes, integrated textile clusters, and parks will boost the industry’s growth rate in the coming years.