Analyses, reporting, innovation and tireless pursuit of improvements are the keywords behind Garware Technical Fibres’s rapid growth.
The administrative management of the fast-growing company is located at the entrance to the factory in Pune. The university city, with its seven million inhabitants, is the historic capital of the state of Maharashtra, and is a three-hour drive east of Mumbai.
“That’s where it started. This was an industrial area. Pune was 15 kilometres away. The most important companies were Tata and Bajaj. They made trucks and two-wheels here,” Pravin Gogia told SalmonBusiness.
By two-wheels he means motorcycles, and there are very many of them in the city that have grown a lot in the last four decades.
Joint venture
Gogia is Vice President for International Business at Garware Technical Fibres.
Originally, the company was called Garware Wall Ropes.
“Wall Industries produced ropes, and the company was owned 50/50 together with Garware. In the 90s, the Garware family bought Wall and changed their name and logo.
“Our expertise is technical fibres. The area has risen in price, and there is a desire to move the industry out of the city. We can’t expand anymore here, there is no vacant land for industrial expansion in Pune,” Gogia continued.
Re-branding from Garware Wall Ropes to Garware Technical Fibres happened a year and a half ago.
“In Pune, we make ropes for fishing, fish farming and other applications. In addition, several agricultural products are produced, including nets used as greenhouses in India or other subtropical areas. With such grids, temperature, humidity and the surrounding environment are controlled for better yields,” he explained.
Kaizen
Quality, cost, production volume, production volume per employee, manpower, manpower per hour (productivity). Everywhere in the production halls, there are tablets that measure and report. Skilled and efficient employees are highlighted and made to care.
The key is a constant pursuit of improvement. Quality and innovation are at the forefront. This has been the main shareholder and chairman of the board Vayu Garware knocked into the organisation since he took over as third-generation factory owner.
Garware Technical Fibres is driven by “Lean Production” and “Kaizen Principle”, Toyota’s teachings, in constant pursuit of quality improvements.
There is always a better way to do the job.
The uncompromising quality focus, reporting and analysis have paid off. Garware Technical Fibres has more than 40-fold its stock values on the Bombay Stock Exchange over the last seven years. The company is debt-free and has a market capitalisation of USD 500 million.
