Another key change happening at Kalyani is the cultural shift. From being a very conservative establishment, it is now changing into a modern and transparent organisation that's open to new ideas. "We have broken down walls both literally and symbolically to make our company more open; so that there is free flow of information."
People engagement is another factor that Viraj is focussing on as part of the transformation process. Kalyani Forge is now empowering its frontline employees to enable them to take decisions. "Communications is the key. People need to understand why you are doing things. We are encouraging our people to challenge status quo and come up with fresh ideas." Part of this initiative is the flattening of the organisational structure. From the earlier fifteen rigid titles, the company now has only five well-defined functional roles. "Moreover, we are communicating to our employees that we need to become customer centric. In the coming years, our engagement and level of service with customers is only going to increase. In fact, we have restructured our organisation in such a way that every employee is connected to the customer. We also put a great emphasis on integrity internally as well as while working with all our stakeholders," Viraj adds.
Viraj is well aware that he operating in a low margin business where he cannot pass on the rising input cost to his customers. "The component manufacturing industry faces a lot pressure, especially in the current economic climate. There is intense pressure on price and input costs are also rising. These challenges are given." So he is leveraging his organisation's technical (and versatile) capabilities to keep the costs down. The company's technical capabilities include hot, warm and cold forgings as well as precision machining. With 3 TS 16949 certified facilities in Pune, India, Kalyani Forge is ideally located near raw material sources as well as the seaport of Mumbai. It has also developed superior quality forgings through continuous improvement in quality control systems, technology upgradation and creating a congenial work atmosphere for betterment and growth of employees. "While we are making the most of our organisations' experience and deep technical expertise gathered over three decades, we are also enhancing it further. Kalyani Forge today provides design-to-launch capabilities which are critical for its customer's success. We are in fact developing a dedicated R&D cell. We have been able to develop highly critical and complex geometries of components for our clients. If a customer, existing or new, comes with a challenging proposition, we are ready to take it. We have developed parts which customers could not get from anywhere else."
Kalyani Forge's customer base primarily includes global leaders in the automotive sector but it does cater to many clients in the non automotive segments. "We are gradually lowering dependence on auto sector and diversifying exposure to other lucrative sectors such as construction, engineering, energy, agriculture and mining etc. We are seeing a growing order book as well as enquiries from these areas. At the same time, as we foster innovation, we have had a number of new product introductions this year for new and existing clients. We are also increasing our value addition of product and service to our customers."
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