Price and cost pressure: Continuums of an evolving manufacturing world

June 18, 2019 12:58 pm

TK Ramesh, MD and CEO, Micromatic Machine Tools, in his discussion, views Make in India and Made in India as two separate, but integral parts to turn India into a genuine manufacturing heavyweight. However, infrastructure issues, logistic issues and labour issues need to be worked on from a policy perspective, for big things to happen in the manufacturing sector.

Your views on Mudra loans repayment issues, posed by the MSMEs
The Mudra refinance loan scheme has played a fair role in our business as the minimum investments needed from a MSME, CNC job shop is well above ₹10 lakh, which is the limit of the simpler ‘Tarun’ scheme. There has been a lot of interest generation and few machine sales too. It has created a buzz among people considering entrepreneurship. My belief is that it is spurring entrepreneurship and will be a game changer in a year or two. Repayment issues need to be reviewed and addressed in all lending programmes and is more to do with building in competency on project evaluation and execution.

Make in India bringing pride into India’s manufacturing sector
Make in India created a platform and definitely helped bring pride into manufacturing, which was hitherto absent. It helped consolidate the manufacturing sectors with better alignment. It has temporarily slowed some manufacturing companies becoming traders of Chinese manufactured goods. From a results perspective, a lot more needs to be done, Indian manufacturing has never been globally competitive for a number of reasons, these issues are being addressed very slowly. Infrastructure issues, logistic issues and labour issues need to be worked on from a policy perspective for big things to happen in the manufacturing sector and get close to the intended vision of Make in India.

Youre views on Digital India’s role in machine tool industry
I believe IT awareness is fair in the machine tool industry, as, there is considerable use design software, modelling tools ERP etc. If it is the component industry, who use machine tools we are talking about, then more work needs to be done. I believe, Digital India has an awareness creating role in this endeavour. In my view, India is among the more digitally enabled and aware country from a user perspective.

What measures can be tekan to make India, a geniune manufacturing heaveweight.
I see Make in India and ‘Made in India’ as two separate but integral parts to turn India into a genuine manufacturing heavy weight. The former is about companies and products to serve the domestic needs at large, and, the latter is about initiating cutting edge technology and investments from the biggies of the globe to Make in India, largely for the global consumption. Both need quick focused innovative policy reform in infrastructure, logistics and human resource.

How to reduce manufacturing cost in the highly competitive market
The ‘price pressure’ and ‘cost pressure’ are two continuums which will never ever end in an evolving world. I believe, it’s the continuous job of sales and marketing to keep working on getting better prices, by finding and showcasing value to customer. Similarly, it’s the continuous job of production and supply chain to keep working on cost reduction. We have been continuously creating value, by innovatively looking across the value chain, and, partnering to give better value to our customers, like, bundling finance, services, logistics etc. From a manufacturing perspective, we have been making investment to scale up quantities, productivity and processes.

Your company’s contribution towards green manufacturing the same
We can certainly see a lot of green initiatives across the manufacturing sector. We have been concentrating on reducing our carbon foot print, by looking at all our inputs, use of energy and our environment. We are consciously reducing waste in our packing, and, initiating reuse, our buildings are being relooked at being more energy efficient, we are going solar for most of our needs.

How do you view your industry’s robust roadmap for the future?
Our road map for the future is in the direction of global integration. Being the largest machine tool group in India for the last decade with a strong domestic market share, we are seriously looking at markets beyond India. We have made a beginning in China, with over a thousand installation and learning a lot from the experience. We are internalising this into our products and services portfolio.

Repayment issues need to be reviewed and addressed in all lending programs and is more to do with building in competency on project evaluation and execution
T K Ramesh, MD and CEO, Micromatic Machine Tools