Setting up weaving and yarn dyeing plants
Rajapalayam Mills is undoubtedly one of the most respected names in the Indian and global textile industry. Established in 1938, Rajapalayam continues to be acknowledged as one of the most efficient spinning mills in the industry. It has always set the industry standard for quality and price in cotton yarn manufacturing with significant production increase mainly through constant modernization. A technologically advanced unit right from its inception, the mill’s state-of-the-art equipment ensures optimum spinning efficiency and profitability.
Rajapalayam Mills, part of the $1 billion Ramco Group, specializes in manufacturing yarn of finer counts ranging from Ne 30 to Ne 345 (single/double yarn) in ring spinning and Ne 4 to Ne 24 in open end spinning, besides other value-added products like slub, core spun yarn, melange, gassed mercerised yarn, etc., and enjoys an established market position with its long-standing relationship with its customers. The company has its focus on value addition, procuring superior quality of cotton, reducing the production of commodity counts and replacing the same with customized yarn counts.
Rajapalayam Mills has always been able to attract more overseas customers with growing exports on account of supply of superior and consistent quality yarn. The investments made in value-added machineries in the past few years have enabled the company to easily customize its products. As a part of its continuous thrust on modernization and expansion, the company has invested significantly in latest technology of auto cone winding machines, quality control equipment, ring frames, etc.
Under the leadership of P.R. Ramasubrahmaneya Rajha, its late Chairman, the Ramco Group has expanded into a $1 billion industrial conglomerate with interests spanning cotton and synthetic yarn, cement, building products, software solutions, wind-energy, and so on. Today, with its steadfast focus on R&D and innovation, Mr. P.R. Venketrama Raja has been steering the group to make it one of the most reputed business houses and achieve global recognition for its quality products and services.
Ramco Group’s Textile Division comprises Rajapalayam Mills Ltd., Sudarsanam Spinning Mills, Sri Vishnu Shankar Mill Ltd., Sri Ramco Spinners, Sandhya Spinning Mill Ltd., Rajapalaiyam Textiles, Rajapalayam Textiles Ltd., Rajapalaiyam Spintext and Sri Harini Textiles Ltd.
The group has already gone for forward integration in Sudarsanam Spinning Mills by setting up a weaving unit in the name of Sudarsanam Fabrics. Now the group is investing in Rajapalayam Mills, for setting up a weaving plant for producing high quality yarn dyed greige fabric.
The current total turnover of the Ramco Group Textiles Division is Rs. 1,300 crores. Almost 30% of the sales turnover comes from exports and 25% from the corporate customers in the domestic market. The group hopes to achieve a CAGR of 7-8% per annum in sales and hopes to double the turnover in the next five years.
Currently Ramco’s Textile Business, which includes Rajapalayam Mills and other group companies, has spinning capacity of around 3.75 lakh spindles. Instead of further expanding capacity, the group is focusing more on modernizing, replacing old machinery and improving the overall efficiency of the plants.
Rajapalayam Mills has good TFO capacity of around 43,000 spindles with facility to supply yarn in plastic cheeses (ready for dyeing) both in single and ply yarn. The company can also supply Eli twist yarn, Slub yarn, Core spun yarn, Melange yarn and Mercerized yarn.
Rajapalayam Mills is now revamping one of the production lines for exclusive production of Lenzing Modal/Tencel yarn and starting one more line for producing high quality RAMCO MELANGE yarn. The company is also setting up a separate mercerizing plant with an imported fully automated machine from Jaeggli. It believes that there will always be good demand for quality products from European countries, apart from domestic demand.
Rajapalayam 2.0
It is Rajapalayam 2.0 with renewed commitment to quality under the leadership of Mr. Venketrama Raja. With the adoption of 5S, TPM and TQM techniques and with the continuous upgradation of technology and machines, Rajapalayam Mills is once again setting the standards in textile mills, making it organized, professional and state-of-the-art.
Rajapalayam Mills’ efforts to expand the customer base across the globe for supply of value-added superfine counts have started yielding results. The company is now concentrating on modernizing the machineries to further improve quality and cost effective production.
Fabric project
Rajapalayam Mills is selling premium yarn qualities to leading woven fabric manufacturers in India and abroad. Most of the customers are outsourcing their fabric requirements beyond their in-house capacity. Rajapalayam Mills intends to become a preferred supply source of quality yarn dyed greige fabric to such customers. Accordingly, the company proposes to set up a ‘Yarn Dyed Weaving Unit’ which will have the start-up capacity to produce 10 million meters of Greige Yarn dyed fabrics per annum. Further, the new project will also cater to the fibre dyeing needs of finer range of RAMCO MELANGE products. The new project is expected to commence commercial production during the 1st quarter of financial year 2019-20.
Rajapalayam Mills continues to be a 100% cotton yarn producer. Already very strong in producing quality yarn using 100% cotton, the company offers count ranges from Ne.30 to Ne.345 which is being produced only by a very few companies in the world. Rajapalayam is confident that there will be continued strong demand for the cotton yarn. However, it is exploring the market for other products also, including silk yarn, linen yarns, etc.
5S and TPM
Since 1985, Rajapalayam Mills has been associated with Mitsubishi Corporation and hence is familiar with the Japanese concept of management. The company has implemented and practiced the 5S system. Recently it has been certified for ABK-AOTS DOSOKAI for effective follow-up of the 5S system in the group mills.
More recently, the company has adopted its TPM concept. Its implementation is underway, and the company is quite confident of its successful and will apply for the Award in 2019. It will also take to TQM implementation shortly.
All these systems have helped improve the employee morale. It brings a good positive change not only in the environment at the shopfloor but also among the workforce to enhance their ability and to work as a team. This is quite evident right from the time a person enters the mill compound to the entire textile workforce and to the senior managers. There is indeed a very high level of motivation and involvement by everyone.
Further, to improve the worker skills, the mill is continuously making considerable investment on Training and Development. It has set up a Training Centre where model machines have been installed to regularly train the new as well as old workers.
Rajapalayam Mills is 80 years young! The company is going through a significant transformation in terms of products, processes, production and quality standards. The weaving and yarn dyeing project will further broaden the basket of product offerings to its global and domestic customers.
The company’s implementation of 5S, TPM and TQM techniques are already yielding the desired results on the shopfloor as reflected in the motivation levels of its employees and in the product quality.
What is fascinating is the vision provided by the top management upholding the values that the organization is known for. It is no wonder that Rajapalayam Mills continues to remain one of the most respected names in the Indian and global textile industry.