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To ensure efficiency in the manufacturing sector, Indian tool room industry needs to work towards the desired competitive levels, mainly focusing on boosting capacity, capability and efficiency. According to the statistics, Indian tooling demand is expected to reach ` 23,620 crore by the end of 2015, expecting a growth of 16% over the next five years. Thus, highlighting issues such as efficient infrastructure for sector development and proper academia for students continue to be quintessential. With this in the background, a panel discussion was conducted by Shekhar Jitkar, Publisher and Chief Editor, EM on “Die & Mould industry – meeting the challenges for a sustainable growth,” during the recently held DIEMOULD India 2014 exhibition at Mumbai.

The panelists for the discussion were industry stalwarts M Mohanavel, Head — Application Technology, DMG / Mori Asia; Vineet Seth, Managing Director — India & Middle East,

Changing tool-room dynamicsWith rapid changes in global tool rooms, the Indian tool-room industry has to take into consideration the increasing global competition, changing customer expectations, manpower development and rapid model changes, which calls for a fast turnaround in the manufacture of dies & moulds. This feature addresses these issues from a management viewpoint and tries to bring in a dialogue between the various players of the Indian tool room industry.

Delcam Plc; P N Krishnaswamy, Technical Director, Bohler – Uddeholm India; Yogesh Hingane, Senior Product Manager – Die & Mould Segment, Seco Tools; Yogesh Morade, Deputy GM, CAD/CAM/CAE – Die Shop, Mahindra & Mahindra, Nashik; Vidyadhar Limaye, Director – India, Faurecia Interior Systems India Pvt Ltd and A Dayanand Reddy, Managing Director, Vasantha Tool Crafts Pvt Ltd.

Challenges in the Indian tool-room industry

Compared to other Indian industries, the tool room sector in India is not growing at par with the industry’s demand. As such, the widening gap between demand and supply has made the import content higher. Sharing his views on this front, Krishnaswamy believes that the Indian tool room industry is facing a major crisis. “Mobilising of working capital with low

Megha Roy Features Writer megha.roy@publish-industry.net

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interest, retaining skilled workforce, shortage of trained skilled workforce in the market, capacity constrain and outdated machines are some challenges facing the industry.”

To address these challenges, Jitkar asked the panel to suggest solutions that can be implemented by the industry. In reply, Mohanavel focused on training new recruits. “Proper training should be initiated at the institute’s level. Engineering courses in technical institutes and universities must be designed for students to gain both theoretical knowledge and practical skills. Also, spending a higher amount for mould making can make the scenario better, as what is done in the European countries and China.” On similar lines, Reddy averred, “In India, there is lack of proper vendor base and cluster programme. Tooling needs special machines and since it’s not always possible to invest in such machines, a proper channel of vendors who can supply smaller machines can become a boon to the industry. Besides, quality of tool rooms is also essential.”

Moving on the quality issues that the Indian industry is facing, Jitkar asked the panelists to brief on the quality deliverables amid competition from leading countries. Limaye illustrated, “Many tools in India run with several issues. An OEM keeps changing their demands on the part level. As such, the CAD gets updated and there is always an engineering change happening. So, when this particular tool is shipped outside India, it becomes difficult to deliver a solution for fixing the changes in the product. Hence, the global network demands for the second stage tool makers which become difficult for countries like India to export unlike China.”

The discussion also observed that throughput time is another challenge for the Indian tool room industry. Comparing the level of quality between India and other countries, Morade noted that reliability of the Indian tool is one of the major focus areas in this domain. “One of our challenges is to prioritise on the throughput time. We should aim on cutting the throughput time by improvising on capability, capacity and focus on ‘First Time Right.’ One of the areas which we can focus is the reliability of the tool.”

“Many Indian tool rooms are proprietary firms in which the owners are managing the technical, commercial as well as marketing functions. The young generation is not willing to join tool room industries due to less salary, demanding culture, higher work hours, bad work atmosphere, coolant smell, etc. Very few tool rooms are capable of undertaking a full project,” opined Hingane while elaborating on the challenges front.

India v/s China – a comprehensive study

Besides a proper academia, one of the major differences between the Indian and Chinese industry is an elaborative yet suitable set-up. “In China, die & mould companies collaborate and set up a ‘mould town’, where around 100 companies are situated in a single area and each province has at least three such mold towns. As a result, mould makers are able to sub-contract their jobs and procure all related components and materials from other companies close-by, which significantly reduces logistics cost. However, this set-up is not widely seen in India. Not only are the local mould makers at disadvantage due to unavailability of vendors at close proximity & sharing of information, discussing common problems through frequent meetings is also impossible,” said Mohanavel.

Another drawback of the Indian tool room industry is the poor maintenance factor. Highlighting the same, Mohanavel said, “Everybody looks for an aesthetic look. Countries such as China are equipped with all forms of cleanliness which is quintessential for attracting the new generation.” Besides, capital investment and government support are the other major issues. Throwing light on this, Krishnaswamy added,

“Government should start organisations like NABARD for tool rooms. This will lead to conducive environment, which will in turn help to attract young talent. In addition, investment in latest technology of machines, software, systems and training is also pivotal. Tool rooms should have a proper knowledge of global practices and end user process, tool steel properties & tool manufacturing practices.” Adding his views, Limaye noted,

“India is not as competitive as the Chinese tool-room industry, mainly because of imported steel, longer lead time for tool making, weak program/project management and absence of right first time attitude.”

Lack of proper manpower is a major setback for the Indian toolroom industry. The key difference between Chinese and Indian tool room is that they try to deliver more tools in a small

“One of our major challenges is to prioritise on the throughput time. We should aim on cutting the throughput time by improvising on capability, capacity and focus” Yogesh Morade, Deputy GM, CAD/CAM/CAE – Die Shop, Mahindra & Mahindra, Nashik

“Tooling needs special machines. So, a proper channel of vendors who can supply smaller machines can become a boon to the industry”A Dayanand Reddy, Managing Director, Vasantha Tool Crafts Pvt Ltd

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time frame with the help of latest generation cutting tools and machining methods. “Analysing the present manufacturing methods or CAM programs used in tool room, one can easily notice that these are the similar methods used since 10 to 20 years in India. It’s just that some engineers have established it and the current engineers are following it,” said Hingane. Speaking on solutions, he added, “At present, many tool rooms think that they should use only low cost tooling as the operator for running machines, which are not capable of handling better tools. In spite of industrial, manufacturing or process engineer for mass production, we neglect such engineers in the tool room”. Besides, the Indian industry also lacks a proper infrastructure. “If we redevelop our infrastructure, maintain a constant supply of highly skilled engineers and make use of high-tech machines rather than conservative ones, we can compete with the Chinese suppliers in our country. Even in our country, mould requirement is more than sufficient for our local businessmen,” added Mohanavel.

Partnership, localisation strategies and innovations

To achieve the desired competitive level, Indian tool room industries need to work hand-in-hand with the suppliers.

“Working in clusters and consideration of import duty waiver for machines and parts is essential. Unfortunately, today, the entire young generation wants to make career in IT/software/ BPO/retail/telecom industry rather than going into the tool room sector,” averred Limaye. In this regard, adopting new technology and working towards innovations will help India achieve the competitive level. Moreover, proper capability and strategies can also provide solutions to improve the output of the tool room industry. “A pole of competence provides huge support to the suppliers. In India, many suppliers are becoming capable at the zero level and eventually after a month they increase their capability, thus reducing the cycle time of making tools,” he added.

Just like any other industry, an efficient software support is essential for the tool room industry too. “These days, with the help of robots and advanced material handling systems, lights out machining is being practiced in the die and mould sector effectively. The reason for this is the availability of robust software solutions that control important aspects of the automation through reliable systems,” said Seth. Krishnaswamy stressed that auto and white good companies should identify their SME tool rooms and support them with complementing

good systems, manufacturing practices, training of employees, extending soft loan for working capital and new technology.

“Exposing them to global technologies and supporting their cash flow situation by timely payment also encourages cluster concept for ramping volume.”

In addition, there are a host of new technologies evolving over the years. Besides conventional technologies like die sinking & wire EDMs, the new generation manufacturing extensively uses hard machining and complex profiling on multi-axis machining centres to completely finish the die and mould with little need for manual finishing and correction. Supporting these machining methods are new developments in design analysis, inspection techniques and complex programming systems. “Installing the latest CNC machines helps to reduce machining time, facilitates better accuracies and faster delivery. A 5-axis machine is also useful. The most important requirement of the tool room is being right at the very first time. Besides, better planning and ERP can also lead to a better machine utilisation,” said Krishnaswamy.

However, in spite of new technologies being on the run for long, very less has been implemented by the industries. “The tool room fear of running machines at high parameter, using costly tools, fear of tool breakage is forcing them from using these techniques. We had shown reduction in cycle time by as good as 50% but the cutting tool cost was going plus by 20%. We should understand that if we make capacity available to take more orders, we can be successful. Some new technologies undertaken by our company are anti-vibration milling adapter, shrinkfit adapter, high feed machining, high speed machining, trochoidal and high performance milling,” asserted Hingane.

SWOT analysis

Though the Indian tool room industry is lagging behind established markets like China, a high level of potential has

“The young generation is not willing to join tool room industries due to less salary, demanding culture, higher work hours, bad work atmosphere, coolant smell, etc” Yogesh Hingane, Senior Product Manager - Die & Mould Segment, Seco Tools

“India is not that competitive as the Chinese tool room industry, mainly because of imported steel, longer lead time for tool making, weak program/project management and absence of right first time attitude” Vidyadhar Limaye, Director India, Faurecia Interior Systems India Pvt Ltd

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been observed in this sector. When Jitkar asked the panelists to analyse the Indian tool room industry based on strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats, Seth noted that established leaders (large and medium sized tool rooms), a good number of specialist educational institutes like GT&TC, NTTF, IGTR, CIPET, CTTC and diverse product offerings are the strengths in this sector. Adding his views, Limaya noted that ample space availability in industrial zones, growing businesses in automotive, white goods & telecommunication industry are some of the key strengths in the country. According to Hingane, domestic market and import substitution are the strengths of the industry, and delivery time & lack of competence (first time or less time for proveout) are the weaknesses.

On the opportunities front, it was observed that newer markets, availability of local technology providers – global players and increasing labour cost & burden rate of Chinese tool rooms are driving demand from the OEMs for tools made in India. Highlighting on threats to the Indian tool room industry, Seth pointed out that stagnation, policy paralysis, earning to investment ratio and attrition are the focus areas. Speaking on similar lines, Hingane believed that 2/3rd tools are still imported.

To come up with an integrated solution for tool making, understanding of manufacturing requirements is essential. This can range from desktop CAD/CAM/CAI systems that cater to a large number of machine tools, to custom-built work cells for specific requirements. Sharing technology developments on this front, Seth elaborated, “Our company offers PowerSHAPE for tool makers, which automates complex tasks such as cavity and core separation along with split surface creation, helping one to get parts to machine tools in the shortest possible time. Delcam Electrode, which automates the creation of electrodes by using a simple wizard through the entire design process; PowerMILL, which enables software for the manufacture of complex shapes, providing advanced machining strategies to minimise machining time and maximise finish quality; PowerINSPECT OMV, which provides for the on-machine verification of large mould and die blocks that may have errors in machining due to a variety of manual errors, as well as errors due to tool slippage, wear or deflections and ArtCAM, a software that allows for an image file to be converted to a 3D relief in a matter of seconds, which is particularly useful to moulds and dies that have complex engraving such as logos, textures, patterns, etc.”

For a better tomorrow

To make the Indian tool room globally competitive, it is necessary to focus on bringing in better efficiencies, addressing lack of technology and low investments and better liasioning & partnerships with the OEMs and to seek their support in reinforcing commitments to grow domestic production. Keeping in mind that production requires an ability to react to frequent product changes, shorter production runs, lower inventory levels and higher productivity, Krishnaswamy suggested that integrated performance through MAGMA, FLOW 3D, CRM, 3D Design, machine simulation software and cash flow follow up through software should be implemented. While a strong buyer-seller partnership can bring the required output; focusing on quality improvement rather than comparing the price difference between Indian and China is ideal for a competitive efficiency.

“For an efficient infrastructure, skilled manpower including organisation of more industry and university co-operation, student exchange or apprentice programme tied up with universities and training of the engineers is an important factor. Besides, adoption of new technology – manufacturing technology, cutting tools and CAM systems also has a crucial role to play,” concluded Hingane. ☐

“If we redevelop infrastructure, maintain a constant supply of highly skilled engineers and make use of high-tech machines rather than conservative ones, we can compete with the Chinese suppliers”M Mohanavel, Head — Application Technology, DMG / Mori Asia;

“Exposing tool rooms to global technologies and supporting their cash flow situation by timely payment encourages cluster concept for ramping volume”P N Krishnaswamy, Technical Director, Bohler – Uddeholm India

“With the help of robots and advanced material handling systems, lights out machining is being practiced in the Die & Mould sector quite effectively”Vineet Seth, Managing Director — India & Middle East, DelcamPlc

> MORE@CLICK EM01153 | www.EfficientManufacturing.in

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