Can you give us a quick overview of Metalman Auto's business?
We manufacture sheet metal and tubular-fabricated components for the automotive industry. We act as a Tier 1 company to various OEMs (Original Equipment manufacturer) in India and abroad. Simply put, I would say we are exalted welders and our products include motorcycle frames, exhaust systems, and fuel tanks alike.
Tell us about the manufacturing capabilities and capacities of Metalman in terms of geographical footprint as well as product portfolio.
We have around 10 plants across India. Four of which are located in West India, around the Aurangabad region. We set up one plant recently in Hosur, close to Bangalore. We have one plant in the NCR region, three plants in Ludhiana and two plants in Pantnagar, Rudrapur.
Our major focus is on two-wheelers wherein we are producing motorcycle frames, the exhaust systems (anything to do with Sheet Metal, Tubular Fabricated products). We also assemble motor bikes for some of our customers.
How has the Covid-19 pandemic affected Metalman?
It affected us as much as it has affected everyone else in terms of zero sales. But it was a status quo for everyone at that point of time but what matters now is that since sales have started picking up now, we are kind of achieving the pre-Covid results.
We as an organisation, we are dependent on OEMs i.e. Bajaj, Hero, Royal Enfield and alike. So as they sell, we are able to deliver it to them. So, their sales have been pretty good and I think it is primarily because public transport hasn't started everywhere! So people are buying vehicles, prompting a positive growth in our sector. Apart from that, there is a fast-approaching festive season! This is a seasonal time where sales start picking up. From the Covid perspective, a lot of people were affected in the organisation but luckily there has been not a single death in our Metalman Auto family. From that perspective, we have been fortunate and safeguarded!
How has Metalman responded to the Covid-19 outbreak in terms of its responsibility towards its employees, other stake holders and overall society?
During this pandemic and to date, safety measures have been the biggest and the most important thing for us! In that sense, we have taken all the necessary precautions in terms of maintaining the basic norms of social distancing, we have been disinfecting on routinely. Add to that, we have also deployed an app called DROR. This app, developed by the DROR team suits our operations by incorporating features like social distancing score, the self-declaration form wherein we are able to control and keep a watch on the people entering the organisation. This app has acted as a communication channel between us and the workforce, both in a proactive and reactive way.
Proactive in a way, where people are able to send us information about people being or crossing a containment area and we are able to warn them as well. Reactive in a way, that if someone is found positive, we are able to find out the potential area and people who these affected people have come in contact with. We as an organisation can quickly take action and ask the affected ones to stay in isolation.
Aurangabad region was one of the worst affected areas being in Maharashtra and we know that Maharashtra is one of the largest contributors towards the number of cases. During the peak days, 10-15 people were affected in that region and because of our measures and this app, we were able to control the spread in no time.
Another tool, which we have, is an active CCTV monitoring tool. We have hired a team of speech and hearing impaired employees who are sitting and monitoring those CCTVs live and whenever they see any kind of rules being flouted, pertaining to the SOPs that we have set, they are immediately raising a red flag to the concerned authority of the plant. Its working as a third eye watching over you. Now we have zero cases in our plants.
Do you think technology can play an important role in helping manufacturing companies unlock and deal with the New Normal?
I think people have realised because of the pandemic that work from home has become a new normal. Technology has played a very crucial role. I can quote it from our own company that people who were earlier hesitant to adapt to technologies, were left with no option but to adapt it.
Either you adapt technology or you won't get paid; that's what Covid-19 has done. Maybe it was forcefully done but I am glad that once they got a feeler of it, they are cherishing it right now. Like for example, we wanted to implement G Suite for a long time for people who were working on offline spreadsheets and we wanted to get them online. We assume that old people's adaption towards technology is a challenge but I am surprised by how they have adapted it so well with a little training given to them.
On a broader level, technology also brings along with itself certain challenges like scaling up. But with cloud being available, scaling up has never been a challenge in terms of investing separately on servers etc. Earlier one had to have certain skillsets to manage those servers but now you can do over a phone call. You can increase server spaces, buy licenses online and what really helped is that most of these companies, instead of encasing on these opportunities, they came up with a win-win situation. Like how DROR came up with POCs free of cost for the people to understand and adapt. Even Microsoft offering three additional licenses for a period of say three months was a gesture of being supportive. Generally, it is perceived that people would take advantage of a situation, but all these companies have come together to promote them and create a customer delight experience.
Social distancing restrictions are a huge obstacle for manufacturing companies in the context of optimising their resources. How can organisations leverage on technology to deal with this aspect?
Let's understand that companies do not use technologies to ensure that things are happening or how ground rules are maintained. Technology is a tool. Take for example our use of the DROR app, which is automated with an auto alert system. We don't need someone to keep a watch on people all the time! If there are multiple manufacturing lines, we don't need to have supervisors standing on the head and warning people to maintain distance. So we have already taken care of these additional costs by implementing solutions and they are not heavy on pockets. So from that perspective solutions like these really help you in terms of maintaining this social decorum.
Also, from the perspective of technology, earlier people were not thinking of working from home. They always thought of being physically present at work in terms of really contributing towards the work they do. But the whole system has mentally evolved over the past few months. They feel they are able to give the same kind of productivity by sitting at home and able to reduce cost, but the only thing is that one needs to be connected technology wise. All you need is a better internet connection.
So technology, adaptability and scalability have played a very important role.
How easy or difficult has it been for the shopfloor staff to adapt to the New Normal? How are they responding to the adoption of digitisation in this context?
Whether it is a person on the shopfloor or a manager sitting in the office, the adaptability has been exceptionally well. Maybe it was been shoved down the throat, but still people have adapted it so well and they have accepted it as the new normal. There is nothing that they feel uncomfortable about. Not even one person has come to me complaining about the situation.
I think the Prime Minister of our country has also done a good job in terms of communicating down the line. We didn't have to do much as entrepreneurs because this was driven from the global prospective. Whatever little we can do is just the supervision and ensuring that the norms are being followed.
Has the Covid-19 pandemic expedited Indian manufacturing industry's digital transformation? In what way?
Definitely it has. Earlier we would want to have people to monitor the shopfloor workforce's health. Earlier we saw people adapting to technology owing to it being a trend or because of the coolness factor! Now, we see something called the ‘Industry.4.0', wherein people have heard about it and would like to connect with one machine and try and get data out of it. Now, you will realize the transformation when you realize that earlier you could not have multiple supervisors to monitor these things in person. IoT is suddenly picking up as people look out for tech-driven solutions. Earlier people were taking it just as a fad. Now, they can see the real value to it. They know that it is actually possible to monitor the machine's health sitting at home. Supervisors not necessarily need to be on the shopfloor to come and count the production. Only thing that is required is adequate manpower. So this has indeed given a lot of push towards automation and digitization. Even from the perspective of companies which had achieved a certain threshold, now are looking ways of adapting automation not only from the perception of reducing cost but also from the safety prospect.
Earlier it was more from what the ROI would be or how to scale it up. During this whole time, to be honest everybody was free, so a lot of time has been spent on researching about different products that are available, getting educated on all these things. People have learnt about it and now they are actually implementing it on the shopfloor. There is a lot of research done by our team and we are also working with different companies to have a single solution where all of these small ecosystems can come into one major ecosystem when it comes to ‘Industry.4.0'.
There is a growing anti-China sentiment across sectors. While there is definitely an opportunity for Indian manufacturers to produce substitutes of Chinese imports, there are many challenges as well. How can the auto components industry evolve further to compete not just with the Chinese but also other global competitors?
Acceptability is important. Generally people have this thing in mind that we cannot beat China. China has certain leverages by the Government. I personally feel that first acceptability is important. You need to believe that you can do it. People should stop thinking about conditions which are beyond one's control pertaining to the government policies. Start working on your shopfloor because those things will probably change over a period of time. One should focus on one's own manufacturing excellence as well as on the culture within the organisation and on the shopfloor. These things are in our control and we should work on that and benchmark it with China to beat them on something that is within our control. People really need to first accept, work on manufacturing excellence to ensure that you are able to deliver a quality product at a very competitive price. This can be achieved by getting the basics of manufacturing right and by eventually look at smart manufacturing. This is only possible if you are following manufacturing excellence and various methodologies like lean management and so on. Digitization and technologies should be leveraged aggressively over China.
We also need to understand that as an industry we should handhold Tier-IIs and Tier-IIIs. It is the big companies with the resources of profitability and Cloud technology that should make the technology reach their Tier-IIIs and encourage them to adopt some sort of smart technology in order to witness the results.
What is your outlook for the next two years?
Just how people have adapted technology, the same way they would accept the fact that Covid will not disappear in the next few months. People have started living in the new normal that is no longer waiting for the vaccine. The Covid pandemic will be just like another regular flu irrespective of whether a vaccine is there or not. From that perspective the market is already showing positive signals in terms of the automotive sector. We are seeing good demand and I believe that this demand will sustain at least for the next one year. If I talk about short term, whatever schedules we have received are definitely promising until Diwali and I hope it will continue till March 2021. After March 2021, I guess India will probably see the same growth in terms of achieving five percent or six percent YOY growth on GDP. We will be achieving the pre-pandemic timeline in the next three months and things will be how they were before. I wouldn't say that things will be promising with exceptional growth but at least the sustenance of pre Covid level will be there.
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