Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

Vouching for the manufacturing sector

Coimbatore: Late G.D. Naidu was one of those who gave Coimbatore the credit for one of those turning any challenge into an opportunity and working for its success.

G.D. Rajkumar (38), grandson of this innovative industrialist inherits many of his working styles and ideals from his grandfather.

He speaks about skill development in manufacturing and innovation to M. Soundariya Preetha.

"Coimbatore should become a leader in manufacturing as it has been the foundation for the growth of this city. It has been an enterprising city and it should remain so," he says.

"Take the case of G.D. Naidu - he was inspired by German examples to be innovative. Germans are very practical. Most of their innovations are down to earth - what people want. They listen to customers. In our machine tool division (at Gedee Weiler) - ideas come from customers. Customer feedback triggers innovation. You must listen to their problems and create a product to solve them," he observes.

Germans also give a lot of importance to vocational training.

"It should start with education," says Mr. Rajkumar.

All buyers focus on cost, quality and delivery. Costs need to be kept down, quality demand increases, and delivery schedules become tight.

While cost of capital remains a criterion, cost per piece becomes more critical. This can happen only if output matches investment costs. Improvement in output relates directly to human resource - the skill efficiency of workers, etc.

Any one with practical and theoretical knowledge can be innovative.

"We do not have enough vocational course centres. We cannot be practical without it. We need those with skills at the shop floor level," he adds.

Mr. Rajkumar says one can let an employee do a monotonous job or give him flexibility in order to be innovative.

A study conducted by the German Machinery and Plant Manufacturers' Association about eight years ago found that the drawing room determines 70 per cent of the cost of an end product.

Because, designing for a machine's manufacturing, performance, assembly, longevity, and servicing gets planned there.

Thus, if an engineer had completed his vocational training and then attended college, he would be able to visualise the requirements in a better way and bring in all these designing aspects.

The Confederation of Indian Industry and the Central Government came out with a study recently, which found that about 80 per cent of the engineering graduates need additional training after their college education. Further, of the total workforce only two per cent are certified for their skills.

The ideal way of education should be to finish Class XII, go for skill training and then attend college.

"Once you work on a machine rather than just studying about it in a classroom, you will not forget its basics," he says.

Having started his career as an apprentice, he now spends five hours on the shop floor, or with customers, and just three hours at office, more so in the designing room.

Though not skilled in handling computers, he can design special machines according to the needs of the customers. This skill came from vocational training that he had in Germany, he explains.

If Coimbatore can produce more such skilled human resource, it can retain its potential to grow further as a manufacturing centre. "We will make sure it happens," he says with confidence.

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