Technical training is key to attain enhanced productivity

March 3, 2021 6:02 pm

P L Muthusekkar, Managing Director, NORD Drivesystems India Pvt. Ltd., in an interview with OEM Update, explains how the present global trends have transformed their perception towards expanding their businesses and learning amid pandemic.

Nord is one of the technology partners for well known brands around the globe as well as in India. How do you apply the present scenario of absorbing the technology in workspace?

We are already in industry 4.0. Our products are already ready for industry 4.0, with having artificial intelligence, predictive maintenance is possible. So that’s what our products are ready for and these products are already available in India. Also, interestingly, Cochin Airport was the first one in India to have the airport baggage handling with intelligent drives, and today, various industries, including the construction segment have been profoundly using AI and robotics into their processes, where they are looking at positive trend.

What kind of manufacturing practices is absorbing technology faster?

At Nord, we have a couple of productions centres which are 100 percent automated. To be more specific, the entire shops are automated which can used even during the weekends and on holidays, during the night shift. So, this is the level of automation and automated technologies have been used in our facility. We are now expanding in Poland, US, Italy and China, and many of our manufacturing locations are currently with handled with automation. We must also note that automation will improve the productivity while minimising the repetitive jobs will be lost in automation but my view is slightly different. I think that per capita income will increase, especially when we learn new automation skills towards developments. So, we must up skill rather minimising on people. This would further increase the per capita income will increase and will create more employment opportunities.

How can we bring this into reality?

Obviously, when the skill sets are different, and when we are going to compete global manufacturing with technologies like industry 4.0, automation, machine learning all the latest available technologies that have been trending across the global markets. But, India is yet to see the entire package; it’s yet to enjoy the experiences of them. It’s just a matter of time. Once the Indian market and Indian manufacturing, is entirely aware about the skill level, operational efficiency, product, and technology knowledge, you can see obvious results with increased productivity, enhanced efficiency, along with an increase in the per capita.

You have been serving the essential sectors during the pandemic. What kind of your actions and thoughts could you able to successfully manage that?

We had very short time, because we started our operations on April 7^th towards supplying essential services to pharma and F&B industries, including industries like dairy’s, biscuit manufacturing or bakeries, flour Mills were who sought replacements for getting motors and gearboxes, or repairs. But amidst all these challenges, we were able to pull all over resources. Of course, no business school in the world trains you to handle a pandemic or how to regain your business and your position if it goes off completely. So this, we had pulled our resources, and we prepared a 24 page SOP and of course my HR team and my directors were very much involved in preparing this SOP, which was even published by FICCI magazine. So that’s the level of depth we went. I would like to add that we learned a lot in the process, and booked orders, even several crores of single order, sitting at the in front of the laptop, which we never believed in our lifetime. The entire work, across various profiles was done sitting home with a laptop.

The pandemic has definitely changed our perception towards a lot of things, which never existed before for us. We also realised that we are unable to reach certain areas, because I always believed that experiences are created and achieved on ground, and the recent scenarios has changed our entire thought process. We then made new rules, new ground, and virtual ground for business. We were in touch with all of our employees and channel partners on a regular basis; we ensured that the communication goes from the top most to even to all of our security. , I think keeping your employees intact and highly motivated. Of course, the families also should have confidence in sending their employees to their work stations. We had some planning sessions for families. So we went to that level that their families also should understand what type of company they are working with. We had hired external agencies to manage this COVID situation. So, that’s what we did during this period.

What kind of reforms is required to change industry’s attitude to attain success?

Basically running a company or a business in India, there are close to around 6000 odd compliance available. Most of the compliances keep changing, because of the frequency, you don’t even realise that it has changed again. So, you need to hire or assign someone to take care of it, or you need to keep a system from an external agency that can analyse it on a continual basis and keep you informed you about the compliances. I am talking about the general usual cases, because the compliances can vary by size of the organisation, type of the organisation, number of resources it has and number of people it has. But the numbers are very high in terms of the compliance or the fillings; I think close to about 338 filings, you have to do it in a year. If you don’t file you are penalised and or you might face some other complications. So, I think this has to be simplified. So, once you simplify this things will improve.

Second area is something that I always mention during discussions, is if you take care of the existing industry, your investments are taken cared by. For example, we are in a German company who has invested in India; so, if you take care of the investments in India, if you take care of the company which is already set up in India, you can see the obvious results in the investments will keep pouring. So, it’s not a mandate for you to look for new companies, you need to take care of the existing companies, once you take care of them then the new investments will flow or expansions will take place.

I think that per capita income will increase, especially when we learn new automation skills towards developments.