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| Flowserve CEO dedicates |
| ‘A Spanking New Facility’ |
| June 12, 1999 was an important day in the history
of Durametallic Sanmar Limited (DMS). It was the day the joint venture
had successfully transformed itself into a ‘spanking new facility’
capable of being a global source for Flowserve Corporation, the American
JV partner. |
| At a quiet ceremony, Bernard G Rethore the CEO of
Flowserve lit a lamp to dedicate the new facility which incorporated
the latest cell concept in factory layout and the most sophisticated
process layout. A year earlier he had told DMS, “We are committed
to your being a global source.” But, as Chairman of the Sanmar
group N Sankar put it, at the dedication, “Being a global source
meant transforming into a completely different facility, a total reconstruction.” |
| The change was wrought in record time, “ahead
of schedule,” according to Rethore. Both Sankar and Rethore
spoke of the successful 24-year old relationship between Sanmar
and Durametallic (which was taken over by Dura International
which in turn was merged with Flowserve Corporation, USA). Rethore
said that both Sanmar and Flowserve could be justifiably proud
of this achievement which beat the deadline “by several
months”. According to him, the decision to recognise DMS
as a primary global source to meet Flowserve’s requirements
was part of Flowserve’s strategy of increasing their support
to the efforts of their associates to become best cost providers
of products and services, meeting the needs of customers anywhere
in the world. What the customer would get from Karapakkam would
be identical to what he would get at any other Flowserve location.
This would ensure seamlessness, the essence of globalisation,
between Flowserve sources worldwide. |
| Rethore was particularly appreciative of the
exemplary manner in which the Sanmar group has managed its joint
ventures and its relations with JV partners over the years.
“The relationship with Sanmar has been indicative of what
we need to do in other similar cases. The world economy demands
world class high quality,” he said, adding that at Durametallic
Sanmar Limited, Flowserve was pleased to know that it was available. |
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| Rethore then went on to trace the history
of Flowserve Corporation in the service of the chemical, pharmaceutical,
petroleum and power sectors of industry. “Our roots go
back to 1872 and Dura started as early as 1912,” he said.
“The name ‘Flowserve’ was a deliberate choice
emphasising that the company is happy to work with the customer
in a service capacity, in maintenance, diagnostics, etc.” |
| N Sankar said that the joint venture had been
a successful one for the last 24 years. When Durametallic began
operations in 1975, it brought in a new paradigm of servicing
the process industry, “changing the way the Indian process
industry bought.” “The oncept of total design for
the customer was developed here and our partners gave us full
technical support in terms of design and infrastructure. It
was at the time a path breaking effort, even if today it is
standard practice.” |
| Speaking on the occasion, M N Radhakrishnan,
Executive Director, SEC, said that DMS had spent Rs.7 crore
in the last year and a half on modernising existing facilities.
“We have created the required floor space, reorganised
the way we do process in line with what Flowserve does in a
global way. In order to do that, we have had to change our methods,
the layout of machine tools and our entire business practices.” |
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