Heralding A New Beginning

Social distancing restrictions on the shopfloor call for a relook at manufacturing strategy, with better use of equipment backed by data, says T K Ramesh, Managing Director & CEO, Micromatic Machine Tools Pvt. Ltd.

- Niranjan Mudholkar

How has the Covid-19 outbreak impacted the Ace Micromatic Group in terms of business and operations?

As you know we are in the capital equipment (capacity) business. During this pandemic, it is not about creating capacity but about using existing capacity optimally. Our approach has been to help our customers utilise their existing capacity to its maximum efficiency.

This means offering support, service, modifications and more to help them make the best of their situation with our machines and services. We have done this through dedicating senior engineers for each area, offering breakdown support, spares support and other services.

From an operations point of view, we have been pushed to urgently adapt to the digital way of working through work from home. With more than 60 percent of our employees working on-site, having to deal with the disruption is a challenge. So we adopted virtual and remote methods of solving customer issues, improving and develop digital support tools.

We have used the lockdown effectively to put into effect a system of digital communication with members of our company, group and clientele through regular online meetings, webinars and social media. Now with ‘Unlock India’ slowly allowing businesses to operate physically, we run with lower on site staff and a cyclic system among the team. Besides this, strict sanitization of employees, temperature checks, social distancing is all in place to adjust our working to the new normal.

The MSME segment has been the worst hit due to this pandemic. What is Ace Micromatic Group doing to help its customers in this segment?