Bajaj Auto
The second day in Pune started off with a company visit to Bajaj Auto. Bajaj Auto is an Indian two-wheeler and three-wheeler manufacturer, which was founded in the 1930s and employs in the Chakan plant near Pune around 5’000 people. In its facilities, located all over India, Bajaj Auto manufactures motorcycles, scooters and rickshaws.
The delegation of Focus India was warmly welcomed by Sarfaraz Khan, Asst. Manager (Admin), who introduced the facilities and the different production processes to the group. Mr. Khan showed a short video, which highlighted the main processes conducted at the Chakan plant. The delegation was able to see that not only engines were manufactured directly by the Indian company, but also a whole motorcycle was assembled by in-line production workers. At full capacity 4’500 motorbikes can be produced in a day, whereof one bike is assembled within 26 seconds. When joining the company, the highly skilled workers are trained during three days in an in-house trainingcenter and then acquire futher skills with on-the-job experiences. The delegation was impressed by the advanced technologies Bajaj Auto used and how lean the whole assembly process proceeded. In order to keep the motivation level high, the company ensures job rotation every 15 days. Another aspect that is of major importance to the company is the environment. Therefore, «Sustainability, creating more, wasting less.» is a core value followed by all employees. For example, Bajaj Auto creates awareness among its employees to safe water, food and electricity. Furthermore, attention is paid to develop technologies, which reduce the company’s carbon footprint. After the tour through the production site, the delegation was invited to have lunch at Bajaj Auto’s canteen, where authentic Indian food was served. In the afternoon, the Focus India group continued its journey to the Swiss company Franke.
(Article by Daniela Flühler and Anna Rieder)
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Franke Faber India Private Ltd.
In the afternoon, the delegation visited Franke, silver sponsor of Focus India 2015, and was warmly welcomed by Alok Misra, Head of the plant, and his team. Mr. Misra introduced the company by presenting Franke’s facts and figures: Franke is one of the world’s biggest producers of residential kitchen and bathroom solutions as well as industrial foodservices, coffee preparation, beverage delivery and semi-/public washrooms.
Next to its head office in Aarburg, Switzerland, Franke owns 81 branches all over the world, two of them in India, namely in Pune (the one we visited) and one in Aurangabad. The plant in Pune was established in 1995 and contains 300 employees. The Pune branch is specialized in the production of hoods and hobs.
The innovativeness of Franke was shown by one of Mr. Misra colleagues from the R&D department: He showed us the newest, highly innovative hoods, such as the silent hoods, the first hood which works in complete silence, as well as hoods which can be navigated and controlled entirely by touch screen or by the smartphones. He also emphasised that cultural backgrounds influence the preferences in the kitchen systems: while Indians like brass burner hobs, Europeans prefer induction cooker. Consequently, one of Franke’s biggest challenges is to recognize these cultural preferences and develop and produce accordingly.
Recently, Franke established a new set of corporate values, which should lead the company to their target growth of CHF 2.5 millions to CHF 4 millions per year. After this highly informative introduction in Franke’s core business, the delegation was split into three groups, led by Kedar Aphale, Amit Kulkarni, and Anuj Sharma. Afterwards, the small groups had the opportunity to visit Franke’s plant. In total, the branch in Pune has nine assembly lines, where annually 450’000 hoods and 130’000 hobs are produced. Seeing the innovativeness and the modern techniques of Franke’s products impressed the whole delegation very much.
(Article by Laura Käch & Sarah Pfister / Photo: Katrin Steiner)