50 Manufacturing Companies – JK Tyres & Industries
Over the last couple of years, manufacturing excellence has been defined in various ways. “We have been studying the market closely and it has given us several creative ideas to improve shop floor experiences starting from interchangeable parts to assembly lines to Toyota Production Systems, Lean Management, and statistical process control. And now the digitisation process of manufacturing systems has further enhanced our expertise,” says Makkar.
In the last 5-10 years, the company has observed that prevalent creativeness comes by involving one’s workforce directly focused on small improvements and improvisations on a regular basis. This is because it needs to keep its people motivated by giving them the ownership of the processes for best possible results.
Makkar says there are only two fundamental future trends, which are mostly being talked about i.e. sustainability and digitisation or Industry 4.0. These two particular initiatives adopted in manufacturing-oriented industries will drive the manufacturing process to the next level in next couple of years. “There are challenges in both sustainability and digitisation but that’s what we are all here for: to address and rectify these hurdles and without loss of efficiency. We believe in identifying challenges, devising solutions and moving forward,” he says.
It’s a given that consumer demands are constantly changing. They are not only looking for durability while buying tyres but also focusing on rolling resistance, which means lower fuel consumption, resulting in reduced greenhouse gas emissions, finally culminating into a more sustainable product.
At the shop floor level, it has been focusing on energy efficiency and it has been a big carter for them from last five years. JK Tyres started driving energy excellence and has derived much mileage from this initiative. “Our next step is safety first. We are continuously pushing safety aspects so that we can protect human elements as well as the environment. A harmonised effort towards achieving all these ends ensures that JK Tyres remains at the helm of productivity, quality, safety, while also ensuring a greener tomorrow,” adds Makkar.