Man with 6 patents & 19 more applied, has identified 3 key innovation cycles in his world of metal working. He is driving ‘Make in India’ with his innovative solutions and helping Entrepreneurs make an "Atma-Nirbhar Bharat"
Innovation was at the heart of our revival in the 1990s, innovation in the form of SPMs.
So, I can describe my journey in the form of three Innovation cycles.
First innovation cycle started in the year 2000. I call that Product Innovation cycle where we innovated in the form of products like from a standard single spindle CNC machine, we went on to double spindle and then four Spindle. Similarly 2 spindle one slide to 2 spindle 2 Independent slides… things like that. That was product Innovation.
When we made the 4 spindle machine and exhibited at IMTEX in 2009 in Bangalore, we got a FIE FOUNDATION award and we got a lot of adulation. I used to be so stunned by this thing that a lot of Italian & German Exhibitors would come from their stalls and They would come and take videos of this machine with 4 spindles - two spindles at one level two spindles at upper level and it was really Innovative. For its footprint it was probably the most productive CNC turning Center in the world because it had the footprint of a single spindle machine.
but it was a failure. Why? Because it was too small for two people to operate and too tiresome for single operator. Operators felt that this was too much work. I told my customers who bought this machine that you pay three times the salary of a normal operator. Still you are saving space and getting higher productivity but it was not the psychology to give more salary to an operator. They would give 10- 20% additional amount at the most. Then why would he operate 4 spindles?
So the failure of this 4 spindle machine launched the second innovation cycle which we call Automation Innovation that used robots in a very Innovative manner - on the roof of the machine - at the back of the machine, to run more spindles and also to do other things so that the return on investment would be fast.
In 2010 India had a relative abundance of laborers relative to 2020 and much lesser number of machines. The need for operators was less, availability was more. So, at that point of time when you suggested to somebody to go in for automation, they raised a lot of eyebrows - “dadhi se mooch lambi” - a common saying in North India. The set up for robots will be more expensive than the machine itself.
To justify that automation. We had to make sure that the robot is not just taking care of one or two spindles. It's taking care of 4 spindles. It's also doing deburring, cleaning of the job. It's doing inspection on a gauging station. This phase of my journey which lasted from 2009 until 2014, I call Automation Innovation.
Then people started asking what is the use of automation if the machine is not smart. If you still need a person to keep checking the offsets, doing the measurement brings the corrections or checking whether the tool is blunt and things like that. Then what is the use of the automation, it is very limited.
So, we started this third innovation cycle in 2014-15 which I called the Intelligence Innovation or Smart Innovation cycle. This is continuing until now (2020) because in between we discovered industry 4.0. Since I used to travel a lot to Germany, I discovered this whole thing about industry 4.0 in 2014-15. We got interested that we should be in the forefront of this because I realized immediately that this is the biggest game of all. Like we say, the internet is one of the great things in the past, I would say that at this point of time the biggest thing that is happening to manufacturing is industry 4.0. We wanted to be at the forefront. We dived into it and we have filed 16 patents in the last three years and I'm very proud of that and this year during this lockdown period we filed 5 patents. We were under lockdown but we had unlocked our brains.
This is a very interesting question and I would say a very relevant question. See, actually what happens is that people have a binary view. Either they think like Steve Jobs: that customers don't know what they want & He (Steve Jobs) has to invent something that customers will like. Or they will listen to customers & give them exactly what they specifically ask for. Actually, real life is a mixture of both the things.
Let me tell you our story -
In the case of the 2 spindle machines my customer did not know but he guided me towards it because he was a fan manufacturer in Ludhiana by the name of Luxmi fans. We gave him a single spindle machine with tail stock. He said when you give the second machine remove the tailstock because we will not use it in the entire life of the machine. You may reduce the amount of tail stock and take the old one also. I said maybe someday you would want to make shafts. He said no he, would not. One day I was standing on his shop floor. We had just started making CNC machines and I was interested in watching how my machines worked.
I observed that the sequence of operation after the machining ended i.e., since the light became amber from Green, he would wait for one or two seconds for the coolant to stop flowing then he would open the door, he would declamp the job. He would shake it to remove Aluminum chips, he would put it on a special stand (because it was a delicate job), then take a new job, clean the jaws, load the job, check that it is not having run out and shut the door. I realized that the time taken to machine the job is equal to the time used in the above activities. In any case tailstock was not required. So, I thought if I Give a second spindle on the other side of the bed, they can use it for machining when the loading unloading is happening on the main spindle and so on. We call this the pendulum principle that the slide goes to one side for Machining and you load/unload the other side.
So that idea came, we made that machine and offered it to the fan manufacturer and they went crazy. So, in this case The Innovation was driven by the customer’s unsaid demands. He didn't say it but he meant it. He actually needed it.
Yes, Absolutely sir. Observation is the starting point. It is the Fountainhead of innovation.
Automation Innovation was also due to observation. Some people had already stated that automation will be required in India because labour is not cheap. The productivity of labour is low. Do not see absolute cost of labour, but see how much they produce. This is something I observed in Germany. In 2007, we had a tie up with the German company SPINNER. There I saw that one assembler of Spindles show output 10 times more than in my factory. He was 10 times more productive because of his system of working.
So, in case of automation again, this was partly customer’s stated demand and partly my observation. In case of the Intelligence Innovation also, people told me what is the use of Automation if a person has to go to the cell and keep checking the jobs and then giving the offsets in the CNC Control.
So, to summarize it's a mixture for both - customer asks for some things, AND some things are unsaid. Those unsaid things are observed and then you come up with ideas and INNOVATE.
Absolutely. I would like to add one thing that in case of people like Steve Jobs, they have their own vision. They dream of something that people will need. This is also a fact. In industry 4.0 what we are developing right now, some of the things people don't even know. I mean people don't know such a thing can exist. So that part is also there so it's a mixture of all these things.
The first challenge is how do you transmit your vision to do something to your entire team. You cannot work alone. You have an idea and that idea has to be converted into a product. Let's say first a prototype and then finally a product which operates in the market and then you observe its glitches and remove them. So, the first challenge is to infuse your team with the same kind of missionary zeal and enthusiasm.
The second challenge is to excite the customers because you have to tell them that look, we don't have a perfect product yet. We have something which will be of great use to you. Please invest. So, these are the 2 big challenges which we have to face when we are launching such technologies.
Yeah. There are many of them, but one particular person I would count as the first person or the biggest support. He is the MD of Shivam Autotech headquartered in Delhi NCR - Mr Neeraj Munjal. I first met him in 2008 and he used to buy only ‘Mazak’ (Japan) machines. My double spindle machine was the first Indian machine that he had bought. He really supported me because he had ideas about what improvements he wanted and I had ideas about solutions. And he would OK all good ideas.
One day we were in his office & he mentioned he had some jobs where on our Double spindles it would be more productive to have two independent slides. So that evening I returned to my flat in Gurgaon and I rang up my designer. I said by 11 o'clock in the morning I have to go with the design of this new machine called TWINTURN. We reached there at 11.00 AM with the design and he confirmed the order on the sketch itself and asked me to go ahead with the machine. This kind of a customer is heaven-sent, they let our imagination soar. Even in the case of case of affordable automation, he said make it, prove it and consider it sold. Mr. Neeraj Munjal is the person who gave us this kind of encouragement.
See I think the first thing is to be disciplined. I have to have my breakfast at eight o'clock plus minus five minutes between 7:55 and 8:05 AM. I have to leave for factory at a particular time so that I my desk by 8:45 AM. So, the first thing is to put in long hours and with pre-set routines. Second thing is that your productivity depends on a certain method of working, perhaps you've read about the 4 quadrants, and the third quadrant is things which are important but not urgent. This is where ‘Magic’ happens. There's a very good book called Essentialism. It explains about a very effective way of organizing your day. Take a piece of paper, A4 size and fold in half. Put half the paper vertically and divide in 3 parts. In the top 1/3rd you write ONE task, which is your goal of the day. In the second you write two tasks which are the next in importance. In the third you write three more less important.
Only these six tasks are the tasks which really matter. Of course, there would be emergencies, phone calls etc. That's different. But these six tasks you have to write out every day. You have to keep looking at them throughout the day and complete them. I think this has been of biggest help to me in ensuring personal productivity.
One more thing, whenever you're doing an important task, put the mobile phone on flight mode. Some people put it on silent and that's bad because people get offended that he is not picking my phone. But if it’s in ‘flight mode’ then most people think yeah Ok, he must be actually travelling or something. When you switch back to the normal mode, all your messages & missed calls show up and then you can return calls & reply to messages.
Absolutely, you know, there is a big movement in some Western countries against calling somebody without informing them in advance. I read somewhere that it's actually rude. Suppose, somebody just knocked on your door and came in. I mean that's not done but somebody can just give you a call, and actually it is the same thing. You are busy with something, like I am in a Video call with you, and in between some phone rings without any rhyme or reason. So, controlling your phone is very important.
Further, I don't watch TV. I took out the TV from my room in 2008 and it's been 12 years. If you want to understand some news or important event, there are some very good YouTube channels where you have excellent people explain things with clarity. TV is an absolute waste of time. So, another productivity tool is to throw out the TV.
Basically, we need to grow very fast. For various reasons internal reasons and external reasons. I will talk about the external first. There is over dependence on China. China has become the factory of the world. Now this Corona crisis has revealed that putting all your eggs in one basket is not a good strategy, and that too in a totalitarian basket like China. There is upside and downside to everything.
Upside was there were no issues related to labor unrest because of Chinese Govt high handedness. The downside is that the same hand falls on your head also if you don't live up to their expectations and follow their dictates. India has a very good image internationally. I travel a lot abroad. We opened a company to export our machines to US. We opened a small Tech Center in Atlanta. Last year I went six times. The feeling I get; the respect we Indians get from the Americans and even Europeans is very encouraging. Indian companies need to give up their Inferiority complex that they cannot compete with China on cost, or that their quality is not of European or American standard. If we open up our mental blocks, then Indian companies can export much more.
If you look at exports of manufactured products from India, they are a tiny fraction of China. I think they're not even 1/15th of China. If we were to make it four times, we would still be one-third or one-fourth of China, but imagine four times the current exports, and how greatly it will improve the economy. Similarly, if we talk about our internal situation our per capita GDP per capita income was approximately the same as China 30 years ago. Today they have five times more. So, see how much potential we have to increase our own prosperity - hundreds of millions have to rise out of poverty. Hundreds of millions have to rise from lower middle class to upper middle class. They will need cars. They will need appliances. We will need roads. We will need to build cities. You know, people talk about smart cities, I think we need to build a hundred new cities and these cities should be some distance away from the existing cities and self-sufficient.
There is so much we can do and we have to do, we can't live in this situation forever. We have to rise out of our poverty. So, to answer your question for not just next 2-3 years but for the next 25-30 years we can really see a boom from internal factors and external factors, but we have to have the right policies and we ourselves have to have the right mindset.
See primarily it is people. Governments rarely can do much, the prosperity of the US is not because of the US government, it is because the US entrepreneurs. Today, all that you see in the information technology area primarily if you see these giants like Google, Amazon, Apple, even Microsoft, the government has nothing to do with them. They have risen on the basis of their own ambitions and vision and passion. And ability to create new needs and to satisfy them.
If you take the case of many other very flourishing companies around the world in any automotive sphere or aerospace, it mostly a private enterprise which does things, government has to create the infrastructure, it should create a law and order, it should create a regulation and effective justice system so that contracts are adhere to and wrong doers are punished and things like that. So, governments should focus mostly on those areas and allow industry to prosper. Government's role is more of being a facilitator, being a good referee. The players in the game are not government players. The players are private players, the government is a good referee, the government builds the stadium and allows them to play.
Many thoughts because this is one of the very central questions to this whole idea of making India a prosperous country. It is my dream that within my lifetime I see India as a prosperous country, and I am trying in my own way to pursue it.
When there are some examples of people doing something and getting the returns for that i.e., reaping the benefits, it is very inspiring for other people. Like in Ludhiana in cycle industry - HERO, AVON, took the initial steps and they became successful then lots of people followed them and Ludhiana became cycle hub for the world. Similarly, for Woolen garments & textiles. Now what I believe is that in this current situation good far-sighted private sector companies and organizations such as CII & ACMA should ensure that we have very good success stories in various sectors like in automobile components, for example and in other areas also. This will draw a lot of people who will become their vendors and a lot of people will be inspired by the success of such companies.
Three fundamental qualities I'd like to say, as far as people are concerned, that are needed -
First is self-confidence - I used to carry castings on scooter from foundry in old city to our factory in Focal point area because we had a strike. When we had nothing, we had dreams. We felt that we were not less than anyone. So, the first thing is self-confidence. We shouldn't feel that why are we poor or why are we in this bad state or why is it that Chinese companies are having higher productivity?
Second thing is willingness to learn. I find this very distressing that we have this unwillingness to learn from others in India or abroad.
Third thing is to be action-oriented. Don't just keep debating things over and over and over. Amartya Sen wrote a very influential book - “The Argumentative Indian”. People said it was a very nice book and I hated the title itself. It exemplifies a very negative trait of Indians that we talk too much. We talk, talk, talk, we don't do.
Another interesting thing I would like to add here: we had a tie up with a Korean company called Doosan. It makes very good Machine Tools. Between 2012 and 2015 they wanted an Indian vendor who builds their compact machine for them for sale in India so they could be competitive. The person who facilitated this entire agreement - his name was Tom Shin. He is one of the most admirable people I have seen in my life. He was about 52 years old. To understand India, that person traveled across villages, towns, museums because he wanted to have a feel of what the Indians are like. Even though he was not making anything for the retail consumer, he was making for the B2B market i.e., business community but still that was the thought process. He said “when I was young Korea was very poor. Our situation was like what I see in your villages. I still remember his face when he said that in those animated words in excitement:
“. right before my eyes by the time I had passed college South Korea became rich. When I got my first job, they used to send me to China, and it was very poor. And then right before my eyes it became rich. If you have the right thought process and you do all these three things - self-confidence, really learning from others, and action, in 15years maximum you will become a rich country. “
Imagine hearing this from Korean that you need 15 years and you will be rich. So, we can do it and we should do it.
You rightly said that the machine tool industry is the foundational building block for any industrial country. That's very true. First of all, I am happy to tell you that today the Indian Machine Tool industry is truly world class. This was my observation and I heard it from a lot of distinguished foreigners during the IMTEX-2019 exhibition in Bangalore. We were in this beautiful big Hall No 5 where all the big companies were there. So, my company MARSHALL was also there and we also had ACE, JYOTI, BFW and so on.
People told us sincerely that if you go to the stalls of Indian machine builders and you go to a foreign machine builder there is not much difference in terms of look, workmanship, and even the technology being offered whether it's automation, whether it is Multi-axis and things like that. So Indian Machine Tool industry has really come of age. It is world-class. It lacks in some areas, to be fair, compared to let's say that Japanese in terms of reliability and all that. But it can cover that definitely. My message to my peers in the industry would be - let us observe, listen to the customer, anticipate his needs and give him solutions which makes them a world-class so that company ‘ABC Engineering works has the confidence to take on any Global competitor and win a contract with customer in USA.
Absolutely. Absolutely.
I come from a family of refugees who came for Pakistan after partition and happened to settle in Ludhiana. My grandfather had a passion for mechanical things, although he started his career as a bank officer. He started making hosiery machines in Ludhiana and my father joined him while studying. We had this culture of working from a young age and my father started manufacturing machine tools in 1961 under the same name Marshall (earlier called Marshall Industries) and gradually he added more and more to his range of machines - capstan lathe etc. When I completed my school Xth board at the age of 15, he told me - “look there is a 4 month gap before start of college. Don't think that you're going to enjoy and laze around. You will start coming to the factory.”
So, at age of 15 I started going to his Factory and then I joined Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh in 1982. We had a 5-day week and on most Friday afternoon’s I would take a bus to Ludhiana and help in the factory over the weekend.
My father was my Hero, my Guide, my Guru. He gave me some very valuable life lessons, which I am very happy to state that I have passed on to my son who has joined me 6 years ago. He is a very passionate young engineer. Those are Timeless lessons and that would be my advice to any young person.
The first is that your work should be your passion in life. Choose the work which is your first passion in life so that you get up in the morning with that energy and josh - it's not work - It’s your life.
Second thing is you need to have a very rigorous work schedule. You have to really be fit and to work very, very hard. My father used to work eleven to twelve hours if needed. Sometimes some new machine had to be developed. I remember in 1987 (I just joined one year earlier) We went to an exhibition which happened in Pragati Maidan- New Delhi. In IITF there used to be a NSIC pavilion. We used to display our machine there as people did not come to Punjab in those days due to terrorism. We built an All-Geared lathe with special features to display and my father did not leave the factory for 72 hours to dispatch it on time. He did not leave the factory. He would sleep on his table.
Third thing is to be very sensitive, caring and affectionate towards the people who work for you. Treat them like your family and that is what hopefully I have taught my son.
Passion, capacity for Hard work and Compassion for people who work with you.
Books and Western classical music. I love instrumental Western classical music that really helps me unwind. It helps me think clearly, reading, watching some good podcasts by people like Sam Harris or Jordan Peterson, very motivational speakers. Feel good after listening to them. And I have passion for landscape photography. So, whenever I get the chance, I use my Camera and I forget everything else.
See I would have loved to travel more but the work schedule is like that so it is once a year or twice a year or some short break because Himachal is close by so one is able to escape so maybe max three times a year. But anyway, you can indulge in this even while you are in the city. Every city has outskirts, there you can find some places from where you can capture beautiful sunsets or sunrises or the colors of fields. Or the winter mist. At the railway station with the train coming through mist. If you want to create those, relaxing moments you can shoot anywhere. You can go to old parts of city and the by lanes.
Mr. Mittal I would like to share with you that finding pleasure in anything is in our head. If you have that mindset you will find it anywhere. So, this mindset is very important.
I walk regularly and while walking I listen to very good world-renowned motivational speakers, not religious. I'm not a religious person, by the way, and I listen to people like I mentioned Sam Harris. Thomas Sowell or Jordan Peterson or such very good people. Douglas Murray is one of them. He has written a fantastic book sometime back. These people speak so clearly giving such insights that listening to them while you're walking you don't realize that you walked for 35 minutes, and that sets the tone for the day.
