L Krishnan, President, IMTMA, on what it takes to put together one of India’s biggest trade fairs | By Indira Rao | They say it’s not easy being a great leader even in good times. While one might think this is a farfetched thought and if the key to successful strategy is only execution then it’s quite simple. But who says “simple” is easy? Perfect execution requires a team of leaders who like a flock of geese, take turns at the head of the flock.
Followership is the first form of leadership and the best leaders continue to practice followership throughout their career, no matter how high they climb. This is best seen in associations where people from diverse backgrounds with different sets of expertise come in and contribute significantly to its growth. L Krishnan, president, Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers Association (IMTMA), is an exemplary example of such kind of leadership. Having played a leading role in the development of the machine tool industry, which is the backbone of industrial growth of India, IMTMA today, represents the entire manufacturing industry. It also organises IMTEX, South East Asia’s premier trade fair for the manufacturing industry. And contrary to popular belief, being the president of an organisation is not a cushy job. In fact, it is one of the toughest as the expectations from people are enormous.
Agreeing Krishnan asserted, “We align our activities constantly to meet the expectations of our members in terms of policy interventions, cluster development, training and capacity building, exports push, etc. These are some of our focus areas around which our activities are initiated. Being a member driven organisation we initiate new programmes as and when the industry sees a gap.” Krishnan, prior to becoming the president of the association served as the VP. Talking of his journey briefly, he said, “I served as VP from 2011-2013 and then took over as the president of the association.
Even though I am currently heading the association nothing here is done on a solo basis. We are all a part of a team and all of our activities revolve around strengthening the existing and initiating new ones.” One of such new initiatives included coming up with a ‘Business Excellence Programme’ for its members through the cluster route. This was aligned to meet ‘Vision 2020’. “Our aim is to make the Indian machine tool industry one of the top five destinations in the world. We understand that this is not possible without individual member companies moving up the ladder in terms of their organisation performance,” averred Krishnan.
He further added, “Through a structured step-by-step approach business excellence acts as a great tool to enable organisations to go several levels higher. We have provided a framework to give a common platform to the industry and help it track and identify specific interventions from time to time. Smaller units too will be helped through cluster development to improve their manufacturing efficiency.”
The pilot programme will run for two to three years to bring sustainable improvements in the units and gauge the effectiveness of the business excellence initiative of IMTMA. It is envisaged that eight to 15 like-minded companies will comprise of a cluster and this method will help them avail the maximum benefit.
“Such programmes will catapult the Indian machine tool industry to becoming a leading player in business processes,” opined Krishanan. Under his leadership, IMTMA also recently opened a new technology centre in Pune to upgrade the knowledge and skills of engineers. “The centre is fully equipped with latest machines that include turning centre, vertical machining centre, mechanical press, hydraulic press and allied equipment such as hydraulic training, ball screw demo, oil skimmer, part probing kits and cutting tools to impart training in all aspects of production technology,” stated Krishnan.
This technology centre, which will be operational from April 2015 onwards will cater to the training needs of various industry segments viz. automotive and auto components, die and mould, consumer durables, defence and railway units, aerospace, general engineering and so on.
IMTMA has always laid tremendous importance on training. In fact, it had established a technology centre at BIEC in Bengaluru in 2009 to focus on metal cutting machine tools. With retaining talent becoming a huge challenge in the manufacturing industry such institutes play the role of a saviour and help reduce attrition rates.
Krishnan elaborated, “When the demand for trained people exceeds supply, the attrition rates go up. Our training initiatives are aimed at increasing supply of trained manpower to indirectly reduce the attrition rates. There is a great need for skilled talent in the machine tool industry and IMTMA through its trainings create a pool of industry ready professionals who can be absorbed directly.”
Currently, there is an attrition rate of about 5-7% in the manufacturing industry which is comparatively lower than the other industries. At IMTMA engineers get hands-on training, an opportunity to interact with industry experts and implement the knowledge and learning’s in their respective spheres. (See box) IMTMA also provides the perfect platform through IMTEX to showcase and show off the Indian indigenous technology to the entire world. IMTEX 2015 – 17th Indian metal-cutting machine tool exhibition will take place from 22-28 January, 2015 at Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC).
The IMTEX series is the largest exhibition of metal-cutting machine tools and manufacturing solutions in South and South-East Asia and will showcase the exhaustive range of innovations and technological refinements in the complete product segment of metal-cutting machine tools.
Concurrent with IMTEX 2015, is also Tooltech 2015 – 17th international exhibition of cutting tools, tooling systems, machine tool accessories, metrology & CAD/ CAM at the same venue. Tooltech 2015 will feature newest trends in cutting tools and tooling systems from all across the globe.
“IMTEX is the most powerful and effective way of reaching out to a large customer base. In a span of a week, we enable companies to reach out to tens and thousands of customers. Even a mature company receives a new lead during IMTEX,” declared Krishnan.
The event is so big that many Indian and international companies wait for IMTEX to launch their new products. Seconding, Krishnan added, “In some cases companies also develop products for their internal consumption which might require product cycles including R&D, market feasibility, product viability and so on before adding the new entrant into the product basket.
“In my opinion companies are the best judges to showcase and share their knowhow and I am sure we will see these and many more similar examples of indigenous technology entering the market once the product development lifecycle is complete.”
IMTEX has over the years been seeing participation from institutional buyers such as railways, defence, ordnance, aerospace, auto and auto components, etc. “At IMTEX 2015 we would be seeing industry delegations from large private companies and various sectors such as tractors, consumer electronics, heavy engineering, steel and other engineering industries,” said Krishnan.
The event will also feature “Academia Pavilion i2” where academic and research professionals from various institutions including IIT’s present their particular research findings to the industry. “It is an opportunity to interact with renowned Indian experts and foreign professionals and also network with leading players from the industry.”
Sixteen institutions from all over India showcased an exhaustive range of innovations and technological refinements in the complete segment of metal-cutting machine tools at IMTEX 2013. “The Academia Pavilion at IMTEX 2014 showcased best projects and research work from 24 institutions including one from the United Kingdom. This time around about 25 institutions are expected,” averred Krishnan.
Another highlight of the show is that it witnesses international participation every year. “So far IMTEX 2015 has confirmed participation from 24 countries and international associations of machine tool manufacturers with group participation from eight countries. The group participants include China, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Taiwan and the US.”
With more than 900 exhibitors from India and abroad showcasing their latest technologies there is no doubt that this year’s IMTEX, like the other editions will witness almost a lakh of footfalls. Organising a show on such a mammoth scale is nothing short of a herculean task.
On asking the president how he goes about keeping his cool in these circumstances, he says, “Indeed, organising an event of immense proportions like IMTEX is no doubt a daunting task. However, I am ably supported by a secretariat and by professionally experienced professionals from the industry at IMTMA.
“With the integrated management system being in place, IMTMA follows processes and has integrated different ISO norms for multiple operations. We are fortunate to have active participation and guidance from our past presidents along with the industry and media who also play a major role in the success of every IMTEX.
“Further, for internal assessment, the secretariat has a well-established and balanced scorecard method in place wherein the strategic objective of the organisation as well as the core verticals are reviewed and monitored on a monthly basis.”
The machine tools industry showed positive growth during 2014. According to Krishnan, the data from April to September, 2014 revealed that there was an overall increase in production, imports and consumption. Machine tool production stood at Rs 2,075 crores, imports at Rs 2,482 crores and consumption at Rs 4,421 crores. Recent data collated by IMTMA shows that the first half of FY15 has been positive for the Indian machine tool industry and that the industry is growing. This trend is expected to continue during 2015.
While the positive sentiment prevails, the situation of being dependent on imports still plagues the machine tools industry. On questioning Krishnan how this can be combated, he avowed, “IMTMA recognises that development and growth of domestic industry is necessary to meet the emerging needs. Today, SMEs are finding it difficult to get land. Just like how countries like Taiwan/South Korea have used clusters to develop machine tool industries we too are strongly propagating the idea of setting up a machine tool industry park that will enable cluster development.”
IMTMA is also working with the central and state government to take this idea forward. “We hope to see definite and positive movements in this regard in the coming months. To reduce the technology gap and enhance skill development our technology centre trains students on use, productivity and upkeep of machines and machine tool design. Thus, putting their learning’s to use they will produce indigenous machines and this in turn will help in reducing dependence on imports,” he said.
The machine tool industry like any other has typical problems related to infrastructure, technology, people, skilled manpower and dependence on imports for critical components. “As an association IMTMA facilitates the industry to establish joint ventures with foreign countries and voices industry concerns to the government.”
IMTMA’s endeavour is to always focus towards challenges posed to the industry on the whole and improve productivity and business excellence across the value chain. “Events like machine tool summit and productivity summit and in fact all the flagship programmes of IMTMA including IMTEX provide a platform not for the selected few but for the whole industry perse. The association represents the industry and plays the role of a catalyst towards the betterment of the industry,” concluded Krishnan.