Ravi Raghavan, Managing Director of Bengaluru-based machine tool company Bharat Fritz Werner Ltd (BFW) explains to BusinessLine how the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted the machine tool sector, the company and how it is tackling the challenge of the lull due to lockdowns. Excerpts from the interview:

How is the company coping with Covid-19 pandemic?

With no economic activity in the first few months, we had to think differently. Looking back we used that time well to refocus on our weakness and speed up the unfinished projects. Most of the employees embraced the digital way of working and used the web for training and skill development. Digitally, we learned the new way to connect and communicate with our customers although there is no better way than a face to face meeting. All the focus was to conserve cash and reduce costs. However, I would not shy away from saying these were tough times economically, particularly for mid size manufacturing companies like ours. Every crisis brings in opportunity and we sincerely believe that it will be one of those times when the industry will work with the government and civil society to come back stronger. We in India are different in the sense that we have a strong domestic requirement/demand so even if the global demand trails down in the long run, there still would be enough space to manoeuvre for us compared to other economies.

Has the company initiated any innovation to survive the pandemic?

We had adopted digitalisation as a strategy across the organisation for the last couple of years. This pandemic hastened it. Most of our machines are complex and customers visit our facilities to inspect and approve the machines. As travel became impossible during this period, we used digital ways on the shop floor to get the machines inspected virtually. This was a big innovation which was very effective, safer, cheaper and faster. Also the focus on Industry 4.0 through our 100 per cent fully owned subsidiary m2nxt helped us build innovative automation solutions.

On precautions in the context of Covid-19?

As an organisation we feel responsible towards our employees and our supplier/vendor base, and hence came out with engineering solutions for making masks for them which are World Health Organization (WHO) standards compliant. Instead of importing masks and mask-making machines we designed and manufactured our own machines. Going ahead also, we will keep capturing the opportunities coming out of the health products to strengthen our Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiatives.

What are the sectors BFW is currently servicing or catering to?

Although automobile is a big sector, our presence in aerospace, defence, medical, die and mould and railways has increased substantially. We will continue to strengthen our presence in these sectors. With the domestic electronics manufacturing picking pace, we have lined up interesting machining solutions for this industry.

With our subsidiary, m2nxt, we have forayed into Industry 4.0 with sub-domains of digitalisation of the shop floor, automation and robotics, process engineering and additive printing. These are our innovative solutions for companies which want to be future ready and want to use digitisation and automation to stay ahead of the race of productivity and quality.

What is the status of the machine tool sector especially during Covid-19 pandemic?

After a boom in the 2017-18 and 2018-19 year, the machine tool industry saw a 30-40 per cent drop in 2019-20. The pandemic made it harder and we expect that we will see a 30 per cent further drop this year. But we are all very optimistic that things will turn around from 2021-22 onwards.

On the exports front, what is the status of the machine tool sector ?

Even before Covid-19, the exports had started to decline because of the global recession setting in. The situation may remain as it is in the near future but in the medium to long term things will surely look up, as governments all across make efforts to come up with fiscal and other measures to brighten the economy.

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