The last couple of years has witnessed one of the worst phases of recession in the Indian textile industry. It all started in 2011 with the fluctuation in cotton prices, which severely affected the textile mills. Added to this is the power shortage in the South, more particularly in Tamil Nadu, which dealt a severe blow to the industry.
Lakshmi Machine Works (LMW) was no exception. In 2012-13, the company recorded an overall turnover of Rs. 1,86,432.75 lakhs (2011-12: Rs. 2,07,249.19 lakhs) resulting in a net profit of Rs. 17,068.97 lakhs before tax (2011-12: Rs. 22,339.40 lakhs). The Textile Machinery Division (TMD) recorded a turnover of Rs. 1,62,879.57 lakhs as against Rs. 1,75,329.51 lakhs achieved in the previous year, a drop of 7.10 per cent.
But companies like LMW have gone through such phases many times in the past. The company has used this time effectively in understanding customer requirements and challenges, went back to the drawing board and worked on each of these aspects to ensure improved efficiency, enhanced productivity and cut in operational cost. We look into some of the areas that the company has focused as part of its customer-oriented initiatives.
Enhancing productivity
With increasing real estate cost, new projects are getting more expensive. The component of land and building costs are increasing, hence the company had to come up with solutions that could make their equipments leaner and more productive within the available space.
LMW altered the design of its carding machines, making it possible for the new machines with high productivity to occupy the same space. The company increased the productivity of its lap formers, making it possible for fewer machines to give the same output. The speed frames now accommodate 200 spindles per machine as against 140 spindles earlier. Finally LMW has reconfigured its new ring frame to occupy 10 per cent lower floor space. All these initiatives have resulted in significant savings in floor space for customers.
Automation
The Indian textile industry has been plagued with the problem of non-availability of skilled manpower. This is a problem that companies will continue to face, and the only solution was to make machines intelligent and progressively less dependant on people. Realising the increasing need for automation in its equipments, LMW has introduced automated bale plucking machines (for large and small volume requirements), which increases productivity and requires fewer people to maintain.
The company has designed electronically-controlled carding machines with the highest number of working flats. It has also enhanced automation in its breaker draw frames, which has increased productivity by making it possible for one person to address more machines at any given time. It has fully automated its speed frames and ring frames with auto doffers to save manpower requirement. The result is that through increased automation, LMW has made it possible for a team of just 50 persons per shift to manage a 50,000-spindle unit.
Service and maintenance
The textile industry as we all know is capital intensive. Most of the mills run the machines 24/7 to ensure faster payback on their investment. Every hour of stoppage due to repairs and maintenance costs the company very heavily and can sometimes erode profitability.
LMW has been very focused on this aspect to ensure that the machines require least maintenance ensuring maximum uptime resulting in enhanced revenues and profitability for its customers. The company has strengthened its back-end systems and procedures to support the customers.
LMW has created a detailed SOP for quality assurance – from raw material to finished goods and for loading/unloading machines. The company has initiated a dry run for all machines and sub-assemblies before dispatch as a preventive action. It has also institutionalised the audit of every package leaving the company to ensure that all fitments, sub-assemblies, spares and necessities were provided for smooth commissioning.
The company has provided a comprehensive manual (multi-lingual) indicating how prompt remedial measures could address machine failure. It has also trained customer teams at their premises followed up with post-installation hand-holding for seven days.
LMW has instituted a pre- and post-installation survey of the customer’s shopfloor to suggest improvements in machine placement. The company has conducted periodic post-installation mill audits that appraised machine performance and provided spareparts assurance across the residual machine life.
The company has opened multi-communication channels with customers to ensure that it stayed proximate to customers. It has also opened a call-centre for the immediate recording and redressal of the customer’s technical and mechanical issues. The company has created an SMS and web-based complaint service through which complaints can be directly routed to engineers assigned to that machine for time-bound responsiveness. Engineers are stationed in regions proximate to the company’s installations to address complaint-redressal with speed. All this has resulted in improved service levels and customer confidence.
Faster deliveries
In the textile industry, particularly in spinning, it’s quite common for customers to wait for 12 to 15 months for delivery of machines. Normally the waiting period is quite long. Of course, most of them are project-based. Hence any new project will take 12 to 18 months for build up the infrastructure and commissioning. Still, the company has been working aggressively to shrink the delivery schedules.
LMW focused on shortening the mind-to-market cycle of equipment delivery. The company’s passion for maximising automation has reduced the machine assembly time. It manufactures all critical machine components in-house and has modernised mother machines (high-end CNC machines). This has increased productivity of critical parts. The company uses jigs and fixtures required for fitting sub-assemblies and assemblies in order to expedite production.
LMW has implemented the ‘Accelerated Competence for Manufacturing Excellence’ programme to help eliminate the non-value-adding assembly time. The company has institutionalised the faster dispatch of finished machines. It ensures the on-site presence of technical team before the machines arrived, making it possible for them to be commissioned without delay. All these measures have optimised delivery cycle.
Investment
As mentioned earlier, the textile industry is capital intensive, involving huge investment. With slowdown in the industry and declining margins, customers are looking for ways to optimize their investments. Keeping this in mind LMW has undertaken process and value-engineering projects to reduce machine costs. The company has re-designed components to minimise input material wastages and has increased machine automation and operating speed, which increased productivity, energy efficiency and worker-independence.
The company has provided dry runs on machines selected by customers providing machine performance data using multiple-fibre variants, making it possible for customers to calculate their investment returns from operations. The company has also ensured that its active equipment life was significantly longer than competing variants. LMW has commissioned a specialised cell for the analysis of electronic faults and component-based repair as opposed to assembly replacement.
As India prepares to emerge a major spinning hub, there will be a larger number of textile machinery manufacturers in the country. This will result in better value proposition for customers and further growth of the industry.
Recent policy changes in India have extensive implications for the growth of the Indian textile sector. Similar policy changes in China could lead to India emerging as the global spinning hub. Besides, the extension of loans under TUFS into the 12th Plan, favourable textile policies by various State Governments and expectation of lower interest rates provide a favourable basis for the textile industry.
As textile companies increase their investments in India, widening the market for textile machinery, LMW foresees an increase in competition as well. In this emerging scenario, the ability to strengthen the customer’s return on investment will be a key deciding factor.