A successful woman of manufacturing, Shweta Parmar of Shree Shakti shines as brightly with her futuristic ideas to bring change in the organization as much as with her endeavors to bring change in the mindset of people about women’s participation in manufacturing.
From childhood interest in machines to handling big operations of the organization, Shweta found her bonding with manufacturing growing stronger with time, thanks to her proximity with her family-owned business. Mumbai based Shree Shakti is into the manufacturing of hardware components such as exclusive knobs, handles, furniture fittings and customized designs under the brand name “Steel Line”.
Shweta says “As a woman in the manufacturing industry, I faced some expressions of doubts on people’s face many times, about the women’s participation in the manufacturing”. However, staying true to her plan to prosper and thrive in this domain, Shweta Parmar, Operations Head at Shree Shakti, has over a decade set an example in her organization with strong determination and met success.
Igniting ‘Womanufacturing’
Shweta graduated with BCom, specializing in Accounts and Finance, from Thakur College of Science & Commerce. She completed her MBA in Finance from ICFAI Business School (IBS) – Mumbai in 2014, and she started her journey as an Accounts Manager at Shree Shakti.
She now heads the manufacturing & operational roles; inspiring women to come up with their own identity in the manufacturing sector, which is often considered to be an endeavor traditionally associated with masculine power. A ‘womanufacturer’ and an inspiration for the workforce of women in her company are now executing operational roles in the raw materials segment with greater focus and dedication than ever before.
Managing Work-Life Commitments
Continuing her Operational roles till 2015, she took a gap to look after her newborn. She again took up her responsibility in her organization soon after fulfilling the timely involvement needed in child care.
“For women, either in the manufacturing or in any other industrial sectors, family and professions need to be harmonized. At the same time, to deliver out-of-the-box creativity; women should go beyond the traditional four walls of Me and My Family” is Shweta’s take on women’s role in manufacturing & industrial domains.
Shweta has played a decisive role in the exponential growth of the company with her sheer determination to make people understand that women, rather than identified as ‘someone’s wife,’ have their own identity, skill & capability to work, grow and develop in any manufacturing organization.
Stride towards Future of Manufacturing
“When I joined the company, the major challenge was a lack of technical knowledge. Also, I realized the company was doing production and manufacturing well enough but was facing the competition when executing large projects”, Shweta shares on her initial journey in the manufacturing industries.
“We brought industrial level automation to the shop floor, which solved the problem of production for bigger projects and helped us to service the entire market. Also, retraining and up-skilling the workforce has helped us make the best use of our proficient workforce”, she mentioned on overcoming the challenges.
Shweta with support from her brother has successfully automated the company with three CNC machines and one Turning Center. Additionally, with a full-fledged commercial office, she has been planning to scale the company’s reach with a larger scale of Automation.
Endeavour to Bring Women to the Fore
In her effort to make people realize that manufacturing is also a good career choice for women, she encourages the male workers of the organization to bring along their wives with themselves. “I strongly encourage all men in the workforce to present their works as interesting and skilled pieces of work, to their daughters, sisters, and wives so that they also take interest in manufacturing and be more willing to work with machines,” she said on her out-of-the-box effort to guide women in manufacturing.
Shweta believes that apart from coping with the family considerations, which restrict women’s inclusion in manufacturing, health and hygiene are a major challenge for the women at the shop floors, owing to handling of heavy machinery, metals and chemicals. As for herself, she convinced her in-laws about accepting her role in manufacturing. And managing the organization as well as managing child’s care, Shweta is quite successfully managing her work-life balance as well.
“For women to be the best possible example of manufacturing leaders, they need to explore themselves at the fullest, identify their capacity by educating themselves right from the foundations. As further support to them, pay parity and flexible works hours can bring a lot of value addition to their lives, so that they lead core manufacturing & operations with passion, dedication and enthusiasm” she added on empowering women.
Shweta accredits her large portion of success to her uncle Prafulbhai, her brother and her mother. Shweta lost her father when she was not even born. However, her mother played every role and never allowed her to feel his loss and her brother Sachin Kawa, Proprietor at Shree Shakti always supported her.
“Even when people raised the questions like how you can manage machines without technical expertise, my brother was always there to supplement for technical part and I handled the managerial role,” shared Shweta.
“I firmly believe accomplishing women’s role in the manufacturing is all about changing the patriarchal outlook with which, women are currently perceived in our society. If men are manufacturing something, our society should be ready to impart that same skill and opportunity to women so that we make the future of manufacturing much more sustainable,” opined Shweta optimistically.
