How does Maximl’s Connected Platform for Deskless workforce work? In which countries is your solution available?
Much of the deskless workforce in manufacturing shop floors still rely heavily on paper, spreadsheets, and tribal knowledge for their training and execution on the shopfloor. This contributes to 68% of variability in outcomes such as product non-conformance, unplanned downtimes and safety hazards.
Our connected worker platform digitalises all the on-field workflows and empowers the deskless workforce with digital work instructions, on-field collaboration tools, on-the-job training, and organizing knowledge to drive improvements in productivity, safety, and quality. We enable a modern, digital collaborative experience for the deskless workforce.
Maximl is currently present at 50+ global sites with 16 enterprise customers across India, SEA, LATAM, and Europe. We have successfully expanded our footprints globally and across sectors such as chemicals, CPG, Oil & Gas, warehousing, natural gas, power and utilities, and industrial OEM. We’re further planning to go deeper in LATAM, Europe and SEA by leveraging our partner network while also working on sales and marketing strategies to have a strong presence in US and Indian markets. We plan to be present at 100+ global sites across 20+ countries by the end of the current fiscal year.
How did you identify the problem and how are you trying to solve it?
While starting Maximl, we observed a massive underutilization of technology in process and manufacturing shop floors that are run by a 500 million strong deskless workforce. We were surprised by the over-dependence of paper, spreadsheets, and the lack of digital tools used for collaboration. We spent over a year spending time on the field understanding the pain points of the workforce and realized they did most of the work but yet were the least digitally empowered section. We soon realized that digital interventions could significantly improve safety and productivity on the shopfloors.
We launched Maximl with an objective of simplifying collaboration on the shop floor for the workforce. Initially, we focused on a particular use case of enabling collaboration for O&G turnarounds, which were a big pain area for everyone. We helped them achieve real-time visibility across the teams and automated their manual workflows allowing them to focus on high-value tasks.
This helped management get visibility into last-mile operations and improved their decision-making time, while people on the shopfloor were able to leverage mobility to share pictures from field, discuss with supervisors, access any drawings or jobs related instructions at the click of a button and avoid multiple physical meetings or multiple round trips between field and office. Moreover, the last mile data helped the clients to reflect back and drive significant process improvement changes to improve their operational efficiency.
We have come a long way since then and serve several industries across multiple use cases, but the goal remains the same – connecting people among themselves and with the machines to enable them work in a more productive and safer environment.
Maximl is the only tech company in India to have digitised over 80 massive-scale industrial maintenance projects. As of now, we have long term engagements with 8 of 10 Indian refining companies. We are also working with three of the top 5 Fortune 500 companies in the country. We also signed long-term contracts with Indian Oil to digitise all of their turnaround maintenance across nine sites.
How do you think a connected platform for a deskless workforce will transform the manufacturing sector?
There are ~430 million deskless workers globally in manufacturing who commission, operate and maintain industrial assets. Deskless workforce performs around 70-80% of manufacturing tasks and the most significant source of variability. Organizations are trying to embrace digital technologies for their workforce to drive safety, quality, and productivity at the workplace. However, companies often struggle to get beyond conducting pilots and fail to realize the true potential of creating a connected workforce.
Our Connected Worker Platform enables heavy industries, especially manufacturing sectors, to gain digital control of their complex processes through machine learning. We are a one-stop solution to digitise all shop floor operations across maintenance, EHS, quality, and production. We automate on-field workflows, ensure effective training of frontline workers, knowledge sharing, measurement of compliance, and superior collaboration. As a result, we reduce variability in manufacturing outcomes.
We enable companies to shift their focus on digital operational excellence and frontline workers’ empowerment. We firmly believe moving away from a traditional paper, spreadsheet, and tribal knowledge to a paperless and connected world will unlock massive new growth opportunities in the company’s value chain.
Please brief us about the clients you are serving?
Maximl has a strong presence in the Oil & Gas, Petrochemicals, and Metals space in India and a market-leading offering in the form of Turnaround Management Solution. It is the only tech company in India to have digitized more than 80 massive scale industrial maintenance projects.
Maximl works with 8 out of 10 refining companies in India with long-term engagements with the 3 of the top 5 fortune 500 companies in the country. It has also extended its services to many sectors in the past two years including chemicals, CPG, consumer durables, warehousing, natural gas, power and utilities, and industrial EPC.
Are there any key milestones?
Maximl was a bootstrapped start-up for the first 20 months of its journey with a team size of 15 and BPCL, Tata Steel and RIL as initial customers.
We’ve raised USD 1.5 million in seed money from Nexus Venture Partners and Axilor Ventures. This was back in September 2018.
Maximl is also a recipient of a USD 200,000 grant from BPCL Start-up Fund under the Start-up India initiative.
We have expanded to new sectors of Metals, Chemicals, E-Commerce Warehousing in the last 18 months.
We cracked a USD 1 million deal with IOCL for digitalisation of maintenance practises across all its 9 refineries. Similar deals are in pipeline with the rest of the refiners in India and SEA.
What are your future plans?
Maximl will continue to step up our efforts in making our platform available across the globe. We intend to deepen our presence in LATAM, Europe, and SEA through our expanding network of global partners that includes both consulting players, re-sellers and system integrators.
We plan to launch 100+ global sites in 20+ countries by the end of the current financial year. This is a perfect opportunity for Maximl to expand globally as digitisation is driving almost every business operation. Moreover, our no-code approach has allowed us to scale to more use cases rapidly.
Maximl plans to build a direct presence in the US and Canadian market along with India in the coming financial year. Within the Indian market, we have a deep enterprise focus to acquire 15 new enterprise accounts in India across Metals, Power, Chemicals, CPG and Industrial OEM sectors. Maximl has a strong presence in the Indian Oil & Gas market, and we plan to offer new solutions that streamline the Inspection and EHS processes on top of our Maintenance solution that is live at 8 out of 10 Oil & Gas companies in India.