Q. Being the key player in the industry, Please brief us company’s journey from inception & share some of the milestones achieved?
Indian Tool Manufacturers (ITM) – A Division of Birla Precision Technologies Limited, pioneered in the year 1937, is involved in the manufacture and supply of High Speed Steel Cutting Tools in India. Intensive Research and Development work has been an integral part of ITM’s total operation on a continuous basis.
ITM Products popularly known as “Dagger Brand” made from the finest High Speed Steel and conforming to stringent international standards are now exported to European and American Markets apart from being sold throughout India through an extensive Channel Partner Network, comprising of numerous branches and the industry’s single largest distribution network currently.
Our second division, manufacturing CNC Tool Holders, the erstwhile Birla Kennametal Ltd was established in 1986, as a joint venture company between BPT and Kennametal Inc, USA In July 2007. BPT acquired the stake of Kennametal in the JV consequent upon which Birla Kennametal was renamed as “Birla Precision Technologies” (BPT). BPT continues to be an exporter worldwide –USA, Germany and APAC, in recent times to the Far East including China supplying rotating tool holders in AT3 class. Besides, BPT also sells in domestic market in a large way to all major domestic customers.
Our third division, Birla Accucast makes machined castings and supplies to all major Automotive customers of India and Worldwide like Cummins and Honeywell.
Q. Please brief us about company’s infrastructure & what are the technology alliances that has been made in order to out-front the competition?
We have 4 plants located Maharashtra – 1 in Nashik & 3 plants in Aurangabad. We have 9 branch offices across India & a distribution network of 350+ dealers across India.
We had JV with Kennametal, a US$ 4 Billion Conglomerate, Forst of Germany and Perucchini spa of Italy, all in this Company. We are investing heavily in R&D and hired International R&D team. We will be adding new products in coming years to provide value added solutions to our customer.
Q. What are the products manufactured by your company?
An extensive range of High Seed Steel Cutting Tools in various grades (M2, M35, M42, & T42) and a catalogue product range of various types of Drills, an assortment of Milling Cutters, Reamers, Taps and Tool Bits are manufactured in cutting tool division. We manufacture rotating tool holders, collets, pull stud and work holding mandrels in our tool holder division. We manufacture Shell-Molded Bearing Housings, Turbine Housings, Manifolds, Rocker Levers, Shifter Forks, etc. in Casting Division.
Q. What is your marketing strategy for India?
Our primary focus is to place the customer first and we are in the business of value selling rather than product selling. We aim to make our customer more competitive with his customer. We are also connecting with customers through – Exhibition, direct mailers, technical seminar, e-mail marketing, Linked-in, Facebook.
Q. Product innovation through R&D is vital to be a leader in the competition, as per your opinion, how does R&D plays the role of catalyst in the success process?
R&D helps in pushing the limits of the products & creating better solutions to customer demands of high productivity & quality. As the emission norms are getting stringent we are seeing that customers are asking for more close tolerances with higher feed rates to meet the demand. R&D is playing a major role in meeting these demands & grow the business. We aim to spend around 2% of our Revenue each year on R&D.
Q. Quality standards are benchmarked by the product performance; please brief us how do you maintain the quality norms since from solution development to implementation?
We are quarterly conducting the product benchmarking exercises of our product not even with the best in the market but with all peers. We have developed a robust internal process for new product development which requires the Product to be passed through different screens which start from customer needs to commercial aspects.
Q. According you what are the factors affecting to your business?
We are not seeing the growth in the overall consumption in the market. The major reforms are yet to take place which is most important factor right now to see the growth like GST, reverse hockey stick effect of Demonetisation etc.
Q. What are the key technological trends that are driving the industry?
We are already at the verge of industry 4.0. Industry 4.0 is the current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies. Over the Internet of Things, cyber-physical systems communicate and cooperate with each other and with humans in real time, & via the Internet of Services, both internal and cross-organizational services are offered and used by participants of the value chain. In our automotive division, we are geared up with all our customers for Euro 6 norms which come into India in 2020, requiring a 10 year jump to be done in 5 years for India.
Q. How do you perceive the future of the industry?
Technology will drive the industry in future & it will hold the key in the long run. The industry competition will definitely grow, however will help to benefit the customer & supplier in a greater context
Q. What is your vision for your company for near future?
In short run we will be concentrating on connecting to the customer & increasing our product offering in term of value chain & quality of the products. In long run we want to be recognized as world leader in engineering solutions to our customer.
