ZoherHardware :: Power Tools In Mumbai

Nowadays, if I meet younger people who run machine shops, they're working there because it was their father's machine shop. You don't see a lot of young guys starting machine shops. But it's a respectable trade and there's still a lot of money to be made. Take the guy who used to be in the building next to mine. He made airplane parts and his business got so big he outgrew the space. This was a guy with a little machine shop with a bunch of machinists. He made $14 million the year he left. I'll tell you how he did it. There are tons of phony airplane parts coming from Asia and other sources that are stamped "Approved." Trouble is, they're not approved by anyone that matters. So the big airlines would come there and say, "We need 600 titanium bolts." Then they would have to have somebody stand there while the guy made the bolts out of titanium. So the work never got out of the airlines' hands. When the bolts were done, they were stamped, graded and delivered. You have to understand that some critical aircraft bolts are 4 grand apiece, because the only way you can ensure that the bolts are being made right-there's such a black market for counterfeiting aircraft parts-is to pay a trustworthy man to watch each and every part being machined. That's why they're so expensive. So bolt by bolt, this guy's a millionaire. What a difference from years past. In the old days technology was expensive and labor was cheap. Look at my 8.0-liter Bentley. You've got about 75 acorn nuts holding the water jacket on. When this car was built you could pay a guy 10 cents an hour to sit there all day and tighten acorn nuts. Now it's just the opposite: Labor's expensive and technology is incredibly cheap. It's odd, but I'm not simply talking about physical labor today. I'm talking about people with real skills. I watched "Dateline NBC" a while back and they had some guy on who was a math genius. You could throw him a column of figures and he could add them up quicker than you could on a computer. There are guys like that with machinery, guys who can just look at an engine and know all there is to know about it.

Take the late Harry Miller, a real American...

A Brief on the Indian Machine Tool Industry

An industry, which has undergone a radical shift in its paradigm thinking, the Indian machine tool industry is now recognised as a provider of low-cost high quality lean manufacturing solutions. The industry resiliently supports all its users to enhance productivity as well as improve competitiveness, for the betterment of the final customer.

Being an integral sector, growth of the machine tool industry has an immense bearing on the entire economy, especially India's manufacturing industry. And is even more crucial for development of the country's strategic segments such as Defence, railways, space, and atomic energy.

World over too, industrialised-advanced countries have created market niches on the back of a well-developed and supportive machine tool sector.

In India as well, indigenous machine tools have the highest impact on capital output ratios. Machine tool consumption of Rs. 1,000 crore truly supports the advancement of the country's engineering sector, output of which is estimated to be worth over Rs. 1,50,000 crore.

Manufacturing Range:

The Indian machine tool industry manufactures almost the complete range of metal-cutting and metal-forming machine tools. Customised in nature, the products from the Indian basket comprise conventional machine tools as well as computer numerically controlled (CNC) machines. There are other variants offered by Indian manufacturers too, including special purpose machines, robotics, handling systems, and TPM-friendly machines.

Efforts within the industry are now on to better the features of CNC machines, and provide further value additions at lower and lower costs, to meet specific requirements of users. Based on the perception of the current trends, and emerging demands, CNC segment could be the driver of growth for the machine tool industry in India.

Export Performance:

In view of an imminent slowdown in the Indian economy, most Indian machine tool manufacturers focused on potential overseas markets for business opportunities. Sustenance on Indian market alone did not look feasible enough.

Further, there has off late been a perceptible change in the image of the Made in India brand in overseas markets particularly true for Indian-built machine tools. Enhanced features, competitive pricing, and marketing focus has increased demand for Indian-made machine tools in overseas markets, particularly in Europe, United States, and East Asian regions. And this is what Indian machine tool manufacturers are hoping to leverage so as to post an optimistic export turnover in the next few years.

Indian-made machine tools are currently exported to over 50 countries; major ones being United States, Italy, Brazil, Germany, and the Middle East. Lathes and automats, presses, electro-discharge machines, and machining centres formed the bulk of export orders for Indian manufacturers. These machines from the Indian basket are generally favoured in overseas markets primarily due to their cost-competitiveness, as compared to those available elsewhere.

The vision of the Indian machine tool industry is now to step out and establish a relative presence in other potential markets. World-over, market leaders have been those who have looked to increase their market presence beyond their national frontiers.

Industry Structure:

Machine tool industry in India comprises about 450 manufacturers with 150 units in the organised sector. Ten major companies of this industry contribute almost 70 per cent of production in India. And over three-quarters of total machine tool production in the country comes out of ISO certified companies. Many machine tool manufacturers have also obtained CE Marking certification, in keeping with requirements of the European markets. The industry has an installed capacity of over Rs. 10,000 million and employs a workforce totalling 65,000 skilled and unskilled personnel.

Machine tool industry in India is scattered all over the country. The hub of manufacturing activities, however, is concentrated in places like Mumbai and Pune in Maharashtra; Batala, Jalandhar and Ludhiana in Punjab; Ahmedabad, Baroda, Jamnagar, Rajkot and Surendranagar in Gujarat; Coimbatore and Chennai (Madras) in Tamil Nadu; some parts in East India; and Bangalore in Karnataka.

Bangalore is considered as the hub for the Indian machine tool industry. The city, for instance, houses HMT Machine Tools Limited, a company that manufactures nearly 32 per cent of the total machine tool industry's output.

User Industries Serviced:

The industry's prospects mainly depend on growth of engineering industries. The user sectors of machine tools are the automotive, automobile and ancillaries, Railways, Defence, agriculture, steel, fertilisers, electrical, electronics, telecommunication, textile machinery, ball & roller bearings, industrial valves, power-driven pumps, multi-product engineering companies, earth moving machinery, compressors and consumer durable like washing machines, refrigerators, television sets, watches, dish-washers, vacuum cleaners, air conditioners, etc.

Introduction