The tide is now turning in favour of home-grown companies. The Atmanirbhar Bharat campaign is bringing them in the spotlight. Much before Vocal for Local was advocated, Indian companies found themselves competing strongly against MNCs who enjoyed talking about their international prowess and quality of components as most of it was imported. The campaigns changed many things.
For a long time, home-grown manufacturing companies continued to toil quietly and were agile enough to throw their hat in the ring when it came to proving their competence globally. They were unstoppable. For one, the Sonalika Group. The company that has been selling more than one lakh tractors per annum is now reaching the point of touching two lakh, and continues its march to grow exports exponentially.
The success of a brand cannot come without innovation. Raman Mittal, executive director, Sonalika Group, says, “With a vision of ‘leading agri evolution’ across the globe, every new product designed at Sonalika is aimed at making a farmer’s life easier and increasing farm mechanisation. Our team remains closely knitted with farmers to delve deeper into their challenges, based on which our R&D team diligently works on the feedback to address their pain points.”
What is unique about Sonalika is that being a farmer-centric brand, its heavy duty range includes over 1000 tractor variants in the 20-120 HP range and 70+ customised variants to deliver farm prosperity and increase yield in a cost-effective way. Mittal says with a matter of pride that they have the best manufacturing plant at Hoshiarpur, Punjab, which is powered by robotics and automation.
Marching ahead
While the pandemic saw desolation everywhere with manufacturing units compelled to pare down production, Sonalika created a new record of excellence by clocking its highest ever cumulative domestic sales of 1,06,432 tractors in just 11 months, registering growth of 35.5% as compared to same period last year. Mittal says, “It was our strategic decision to periodically launch customised tractors with advanced technologies that led to this growth. Indian farmers are eager to adopt smart farming techniques and our extraordinary performance truly represents their trust in Sonalika in addressing their varied agricultural requirements.”
In the post-covid world, new age technologies are gradually taking centre stage across the tractor industry which is a healthy sign. The domestic market is fast graduating towards higher HP tractors and while most fully understand dynamic market requirements, Sonalika expects to continue with its trend to introduce revolutionary tractors in India that will speed up farm mechanisation growth in the country. Mittal says, “Our 400-plus member strong R&D team at Hoshiarpur and Delhi-NCR strives to develop products that are customised as per crop, soil and state specific requirements of the farmers at affordable costs. Such an innovative approach has powered us to become a trusted tractor brand for over 11 lakh customers across 130 countries globally and significantly increase farmer confidence as well as income levels.”
Incidentally, few know that Sonalika was the first tractor manufacturing company in the country to introduce electronically controlled common rail engines (CRDi) in farm equipment that also complies with emission standards prevailing in Europe and America. CRDi technology enables them to easily find the fault and fix it even from remote locations.
Its quest for innovations is seen in the radical new products it has consistently launched. In Mittal’s words, “Over the last one year, we rolled out four premium diesel powered tractor series – Tiger, Sikander DLX, Chhatrapati and Mahabali. The Sikander DLX range is an upgraded version of our Sikander series and is powered by 10 Deluxe features to increase farm productivity in a cost-effective way. We also introduced the Tiger series that has been designed in Europe and is equipped with advanced technologies.”
Looking at the regional requirements, the company also launched the Mahabali, which is the India’s first Puddling special tractor that addresses the farmer’s requirements in paddy cultivation across southern states. Alongside, it introduced Chhatrapati series with bigger heavy duty mileage engine for Maharashtra’s hard soil. Collectively, these new tractors are expected to contribute 20-25% in overall sales volume.
These premium tractors were joined by Tiger Electric tractor, which is India’s first field ready electric tractor. It is also India’s most affordable 4W EV now ready to join famers for their field operations. Engineered with hi-tech German motor, advanced battery and proven Sonalika transmission, Tiger Electric will create new benchmarks in tractor industry as it offers 100% torque at 100% times.
Make them shine
Technology in manufacturing plays a highly critical role for Sonalika. Mittal says, “We follow a digital manufacturing system at the plant wherein the skill matrix of workmen is attached to the biometric attendance system. This SPS (Sonalika Production System) automatically deputes workers on various line stages based on their skills at the beginning of the shifts. It is further linked with various quality gates where the captured defects are directly displayed with the concerned person responsible. These quality gates detect defects and also confirm adherence to specifications as mandated by the R&D department.”
Moreover, the manufacturing plant at Hoshiarpur is a fully vertically integrated facility. It is powered by robotics and automation that allows the company to achieve a takt time of two minutes while maintaining high quality standards.
The quality gates at the facility generate an ‘e-travel card’ which carries the history card of the tractor in digital form. This ‘e-travel card’ can also be referred by the field team as it keeps them updated with the production process. These digital gates are further connected with monitors on assembly line. Defects captured during any of the inspection stages or PDI are promptly displayed on these screens along with the personal responsible for instant feedback. This system is also designed to generate data for defect analysis and corrective actions.
Tractor assembly starts with digitally assigning and engraving a chassis number which also carry the model code of that variant along with a bar code sticker generation which is further referred at all the stages of assembly that includes engine, transmission, sheet metal parts, fuel tank, rear as well as front tyre assembly, radiator, steering, hydraulics, seat, headlights, wiring harnesses among others.
All the ‘in-process’ and final product test rigs, conveyors and measuring equipment generate data which can be viewed on real time basis, analysed and backed-up for future reference. Scanners are available on all the line stages which scan the model code and display the part codes and other details about parts to be fitted on that particular line stage in that particular variant of tractor model. Backflushing (confirmation of production and consumption of related parts) is digitally done online from different stages of all the production units of the company.
Paint shop at the plant has robots to paint the chassis. It also auto detects the path of its travel by scanning the model code of the chassis to handle all the variants of models. These robots support in prompt loading of parts on machines in a loop to adhere to the process of machining and reducing the cycle time and manpower.
In addition to this, fasteners of all critical joints are torqued through multi spindle DC tools generating the data on a common server for analysis and record. Some of its tractors are equipped with ‘skysmart system’ powered by Sonalika Tiger application for real time location tracking.
Making them work
Sonalika stands strong as the top export brand and registered its highest ever export sales of 20,001 units in April’20 – Feb’21 period. It has over 1.25 lakh customers in markets outside India.
With 100% presence across all European countries, the Solis tractor is among top 5 brands in France, Germany, UK, Portugal, Slovenia & Spain. It has opened a spare parts centre in Germany to cater to nearby countries.
Also, they have tractor assembly plants at Brazil, Iran, Argentina, Algeria and Cameroon.
Raw materials that find application in Sonalika Tractors are always sourced from vendors that are associated for years. Its procurement, stocking of parts and semi-finished products as well as stocking of finished products at plant, depots or dealers are managed with an indigenously developed smart system “SARAL”. The system enables procurement of parts or production of tractors only as per demand, thereby controlling inventory.
It is important for the supplier to be financially stable and fully equipped to manufacture parts as per ITL’s requirements. Their teams should carry a proactive attitude towards continual improvement through Value Analysis/Value Engineering as this leads to self-sufficiency in quality problem resolutions, if any.
Sonalika always believes in delivering best quality products at optimised costs so we choose our suppliers in India as well as globally meticulously. In the domestic market, the supplier must have their set up nearby to our plant as it facilities just in time inventory management. They should possess Supplier Quality Rating with other OEMs and ready to adopt changes to meet product quality reliability. The supplier must also have spare capacity to develop our products through dedicated manufacturing lines and be fully ready with contingency plan to address demand fluctuation.
Sonalika has been able to gain invaluable consumer insights and address them with its widest product portfolio. It has been the only tractor manufacturing company to be the contributing partner to Niti-Aayog for its inspiring project to double farmer’s income in the country.
Currently, the company is concentrating on the next step of progress, which is building up domestic and exports, and ready to take on the market when the advanced emission norms kick in later this year.