- Koncentric Forge is one of a kind NANO Plant for Open Forging
- Continuous Innovation & Delivering Repeated Success for Sustainable Growth
- Individual transportation either will be eco friendly or will give way to the increased railway & public transport
- Being Digital – The New Normal for Reaching Market
The proverbial line attains the acme of a specimen in its rendition as the journey of a man and his unmistakable propensity to make his journey distinct from others made along the way. If the journey is lackluster forging industry with supposedly a been-there-done-that tag which was due to its revolutionary steering, the man is Sunil Gavali, who is the Founder of Koncentric Forge Private Limited.
Talking with Machine Maker, Sunil Gavali took us through an extraordinary journey, “Continuous Innovation” a belief he nurtured throughout his career and developing a great reputation is nothing but delivering repeated success!
Instilling Knack for Innovation
Sunil graduated with a diploma in mechanical engineering from SNJP Engineering Institutes, Kolhapur in 1995. He started his journey as a Maintenance Engineer with Kalyani Steel, Mundwa, and then moved to ISGEC Haryana. He recalls his four-year journey after that with MUSCO (Mahindra Ugine Steels), Khopoli as a milestone that instilled in him a knack for innovation.
Sunil's entrepreneurship goal was inspired by the legendary figures J C Mahindra, co-founder of Mahindra & Mahindra and Harish Mahindra, founder of MUSCO whose lives and works paved the path for India’s growth in many sectors. His tryst with the forging industry was further supported by his stint at Bharat Forge, Pune, one of the largest forging companies in India.
Empowering Forging Industry in India
His experience complemented his enthusiasm and Sunil established KRSNA Engineering Solutions, a Consulting cum Solution Company for forging and steel plants in 2013. The company undertook projects such as the selection of equipment, erection, repairing, reconditioning, indigenizing, modernization of the forging, and steel plant equipment.
KRSNA Engineering did a very good job of the erection and commissioning in India, from 2003 to 2012 we erected 16 forging plants in India. Sunil traveled to over 30 countries for sourcing equipment for his clients
“At that time, the people who were doing erection were usually fitters or welders to whom the company had to give laid out plans and they did not get a person who had worked for steel plants, forging plants, or hydraulic press manufacturing company. So, for them, ours was a very nice combination wherein they could get one-stop solution for anything they wanted”, he added.
Spending a decade providing consulting and services to forging, Sunil decided to venture into manufacturing open die forging, a complex and very limited number of facilities in the country and established Koncentric Forging Private Limited in 2012.
The wide array of products from Koncentric includes sugar mill shaft, plat bending shaft, pump rotating shaft, railway axle shaft, gear wheel shaft, paper mill trunion shaft, steel mill conveyor rolls in the rounds. The company also manufactures square and wheel shapes
“We manufacture components which are 4-5 tonne, 4.5 meters long, 450 diameters long.” Sunil cites, “There are 20 forging plants in India and 17 in South Korea which are like us. So, out of 37 forging plants executing 20 installations, I have erected 7 of them.” That indeed speaks volume for his achievements.
“We supply shafts to ThyssenKrupp and Atlas Copco, L&T and Defence, etc. We are supplying to a company in turbine manufacturing for the energy sector in Hyderabad. The customer was importing steel SS 310 from Italy. We supplied them the first lot and now we are having two more lot of orders. There are some critical grades as well.”, adds Mr. Gavali.
Prioritized with his innovative manufacturing activities, Sunil limited his consulting services now to Kalyani Forge and Bharat Forge. Wittily he remarked, “Consulting is easier than manufacturing. In consulting you understand the requirement of the clients, advise a solution or source the equipment, install it and finish the project. Whereas in manufacturing, you have to step into many shoes and handle other things such as finance, sales, company laws and regulatory compliances and many more with technicalities.”
Nano Plant: The Tiniest Open Forging Facility
Koncetric broke many benchmarks about investment and size in the Indian forging sector. “Every forging plant erected required a minimum 100 crore investment whereas our exposure is 10 crore till date with an initial investment of 3 crores.”
He shares an insight here, “What the industry is going for is brand, but what the customer is asking is proper chemical, accurate ultrasonic testing, and size. The customer is not worried about the brand. So, what happens, companies pour in money and their engineers travel to other countries to inspect the machines for their plants while there are options within the country.”
Koncentric Forging may also be the tiniest open die forging in the entire world. Any forging plant has been established in at least 2 acres of area whereas ours is in 30000 sq ft and, that too with a lot of space remaining for further expansion in the next five years more. Sunil calls it a nano plant
What makes this remarkable ‘nano’ forging unit also unique is its focus on value addition in forging. “We are the technocrats and so we focus on producing critical steels for critical applications as imports substitute which other large ones are not ready to manufacture due to lack of volume and profits there; they are interested in the bottom line”, Sunil said.
Truly Indian Manufacturing
“Out of 20 companies mine is the only one which is indigenous in true sense. If I am preaching that you should use an Indian machine, first I should use an Indian machine myself and this should perform. You should use an Indian machine to make an Indian machine or products and that machine should perform with global competitiveness. This should be the true spirit of ‘Make in India’ and manufacturing excellence” he said.
Koncentric has raised the bar of ‘Make in India’ and ‘Manufacturing Excellence’ on foreign soil as well. One of the breakthroughs in the company’s profile was the approval from GHH-BONATRANS Corporation of Czech Republic which caters to 165 countries across the world with an annual turnover of 20,000.
“We manufactured railway axles. Out of the 14 vendors, we are the only vendor which has passed 18 tests. They have approved our manufacturing and manufactured axles after checking it for 18 million cycles in the Czech Republic and I was there”, he said. “So, the irony is while we are importing 600 crores of railway axles in India every year these people appreciate what we are manufacturing here in India”, he said.
Koncentric is also supplying to Belgium based BMT Drive Solutions which has its railway axle gearbox manufacturing subsidiary in Alandi, Maharashtra
Overall, he believes, there is a lot of scopes because every country in Europe is connected by train and this is what will be happening in India. The fast-developing Metro projects are a prime example. Individual transportation either will be eco friendly or will give way to the increased railway and public transport.
“Like Bhosari has been manufacturing automotive components, in the next 20 years we will see a lot of aviation products and railway products being manufactured in India,” he remarked. “We are the first company that has been approved by the global majors. Three-four years back we already developed this and now we know in and out of that and we should be ready.”
Indian companies should trust Indian MSMEs and their capabilities otherwise MSMEs will remain vulnerable to banking institutions and cannot unleash their full potential
COVID19: Digital The New Normal
Now putting his thought on COVID19 impact and its aftermath, Sunil thinks the guidelines and permission to industry need to be rationalized. “How can MSMEs follow these guidelines like arrangements for transports or stay-in facilities at the factory with regular sanitization when there is no cash flow. So, it is better to keep it closed till lockdown is over”, he said.
He feels that keeping manufacturing units open even at the risk of employees is no more than an intention to earn brownie points on the part of some manufacturers. “Why have manufacturers resumed operations at a time when demand from consuming industries in India as well as from Europe and the US is nil. In this crisis is it at all needed to run the factory putting people’s life at stake? And what will be the top line running the plant at 50% of capacity with constrained resources and limited workforce”, adds Mr. Gavali.
“This is the right time for Indian companies to gear up for the future. Many global manufacturers will be looking to develop new supply chain with growing mistrust against China. Meeting customers physically is going to be a luxury, and one should ensure they are digitally available by the time global industry runs into normalcy post COVID19”, he signs off leaving a thought-provoking angle.
For more details, visit www.koncentricforge.com
