Ravi Raghavan, MD, BFW; Dr. Eng Yoshiharu Inaba, Chairman, FANUC CORPORATION; Vipin Sondhi, Chairperson of the National Board for Quality Promotion, Quality Council of India, Ms. Geetanjali Vikram Kirloskar, Chairperson & Managing Director, Kirloskar Systems Pvt. Ltd and Akihiro Teramachi at the inauguration of the brand new manufacturing plant of BFW in Hosur.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Bharat Fritz Werner (BFW), a producer of machine instruments for various business segments, has invested ₹200 crore to set up a fully digitalised manufacturing plant on a patch of 54 acre of land at Devaganapalli, Hosur, Tamil Nadu.
Arun Kothari, Chairman, BFW mentioned this mega and fully tech-driven plant was set up in anticipation of rising demand for machine instruments inside India and from world markets. With the brand new plant, BFW would treble its manufacturing yearly, he mentioned.
The new machine instruments manufacturing facility which might function two meeting halls spanning 20,000 sq. metres every would have a mixed capability to provide over 10000 pc numerical management machines that may change typical, manually managed wheels or levers with the assistance of software program and automation.
‘’‘We aim to establish a facility of global standards for scale and efficiency which is massive. There are many unique things about this facility. We bought knowledge from many other industries, including the automotive sector, so you will see machine assemblies in a conveyorised way,’‘ Mr. Kothari further said.
For the first time in the industry, BFW is also taking about shorter ‘takt’ time, to provide a machine each 45 minutes. In addition, the entire manufacturing unit is related to clients and suppliers to reinforce operational transparency.
Interestingly, for the primary time in the nation’s machine instruments historical past, BFW would deploy ladies, in its manufacturing unit in Hosur. Taiwan and Japan, at current, appear extra open to using ladies in this business.
Ravi Raghavan, MD, BFW informed The Hindu: ‘‘We will deploy a substantial number of women in our new facility. This is the first such initiative in the entire country to infuse gender diversity in the machine tools industry. We will begin with 17% of women staff; by the end of FY25, 30% of our shopfloor workers will be women. We are now hiring young women graduates and diploma holders with electrical, electronics and mechatronics backgrounds.’‘
India’s machine software business at the moment pegged at ₹20,000 crore has been rising at 12 to 13% CAGR whereas the BFW’s enterprise was rising above 20%, with exports contributing to 10%, he mentioned. BFW, a flagship firm of the Kothari Group, was established in the yr 1961 in collaboration with Fritz Werner Werkzeugmaschinen GmbH Germany and at the moment caters to various business segments together with automotive, aerospace, protection, die mildew, forging, valves and railways.
‘’Automotive is a development driver for us with the sector independently contributing to twenty% of our income,’‘ Raghavan added.
