| I believe the need to make available good quality
spares for the process industry in India was felt by N Sankar and
S R Seshadri, from their experience in the Chemplast plant. With the
help of Seshadri, Sankar identified one such frequently needed part
— mechanical seals needed in process pumps. Out of this need
was born the first joint venture of the group Durametallic India,
now called Flowserve Sanmar. |
| What has made SEC such a successful venture? |
| The group identifies the right product — one
that requires superior technology — and selects the world leaders
in the field and enters into partnership with them. We do not transfer
a product design. We believe in bringing technology to India. Because
of the JV partners’ interest in doing business with us, the
technology transfer is a perpetual process. |
| We are a professionally managed group, and there
is absolute independence in terms of taking business decisions. The
group is very transparent and follows high ethical standards. |
| How would you rate the group vis-à-vis other Indian
companies? |
| Our customers are spread all over the country. Whenever
I visit them I always feel honoured by the way they treat us once
they know we are from Sanmar. The same thing applies to our suppliers.
I feel this is the best rating any group can get. |
| What are SEC’s strengths? |
| Respect for talent in people, professional management,
high ethical standards and transparency in business. |
| A word about the type of workforce employed at SEC? |
| The people we hire are highly skilled in their jobs.
We look for the best and we compensate them well. |
| How congenial is the work atmosphere here? |
| We provide a very comfortable work environment.
Decision making is fast. Responsibilities and authorities are clearly
defined. There are no biases. All are treated equally well. |
| How is SEC affected by conditions prevailing in the
engineering scenario? |
| The products we manufacture are not mass produced
for large scale consumption. They are custom designed to meet specific
applications in each industry. These directly get into the chemical
processing industry. If there is no new activity, we can still survive
on small in-house expansion programmes for customers or focus on replacement
of spares got from customers. Generally, we are not directly affected
by the buying patterns of customers. Besides, we have the support
of our JV partners. We can always sell our products to them. |
| What is the extent and nature of SEC’s resources
– men, material and machinery? |
| We have 13 different businesses under SEC. They
are located at Karapakkam and Perungudi in Chennai and at Viralimalai
near Trichy. We have over 1300 employees. We have branch sales offices
in all metros including Mumbai, Delhi, Calcutta and Baroda besides
Chennai. We also have offices at places like Poona, Hyderabad, Surat,
Jamnagar and Visakhapatnam. |
| We have 529 workmen and 815 executives. Our marketing
force includes 316 people. |
| We recruit professionally qualified people in their
respective fields of operation like engineers for sales, engineering
and manufacturing, chartered accountants to handle finance & accounts
etc. |
| We have a very well equipped machine shop with computer
aided, numerically controlled machines which are almost identical
to the machines that our JV partners possess in the U.S. Hence, our
products are identical in quality to the products available in the
U.S. |
| We don’t compromise on the quality of machines
we buy. We buy the best from anywhere in the world. |
| There must have been problems encountered along the
way. How did you tackle them? |
| I do not think we have ever had any major problems.
Most of the problems we faced were solved at the beginning stage.
This may also be due to the fact that people are not penalized if
something goes wrong. We look at it as a systemic problem rather than
as human error. In other words, people are not afraid to accept that
something went wrong. We see to it that we learn from our mistakes
and do not repeat them. |
| How often do you upgrade your machinery? What methods
of training are adopted to keep abreast of the ever changing technological
know-how? |
| Almost all our companies are joint ventures with
near equal partnerships. The technology transfer is perpetual and
there is a buyback of products manufactured in India. We have equipped
ourselves with the same kind of machinery that our partners have.
When the technology changes, we upgrade ours by sending people for
training. Whenever newer machines are required for new technology,
we upgrade our machines too. There is a continuous upgradation of
knowledge and equipment used; only then can we survive in a competitive
market. |
| What quality systems does the group have in place? |
| We strongly believe that “quality is built
in the product”. Hence it is the manufacturing process that
controls the quality. Manufacturing is performed by men as well as
machines. Using the right machine in the right sequence and training
people to perform the job ensures quality. Individually it is taken
care of by our Document Procedures in our ISO-9000 Quality system. |
| A word on plant and personal safety measures? |
| We conduct plant safety programmes for all our workmen
as required by the relevant statutory bodies. We exhibit posters at
key areas where safe procedures are required. |
| Do you believe that “intellectual capital”
is the reason for SEC’s success? |
| Yes! The structure of the organization and HR policies
continue to nurture this. |
| Can you sum up SEC’s place in the engineering
industry? |
| We have the best of technology and the best of talents.
Through SEC, we have brought the best technology to this country and
through people we meet the requirements of customers. We owe the success
of SEC to our Chairman N Sankar who foresees the future. Our HR policies
speak volumes for his visionary zeal. We were the first in this country
a decade ago to introduce a fair compensation package. Compensating
the executives based on the ‘value’ of the individual
has been in vogue for several years in the group. Because of his vision,
we have a unique place in the engineering industry. |
| What measures has the group adopted towards environment
protection? |
| Many of the products we manufacture, are for environmental
protection. So we, as a group, promote the feeling that we have to
be conscious of our surroundings. Besides, we ensure that all our
plants have enough greenery around. We preserve nature. |
| How does it feel to be part of this group? |
| It is a great feeling of happiness to be part of
the group, where the structure of the organization and culture provide
growth opportunities for the individual. |
| What are the challenges before SEC today? |
| With liberalisation, we have global competition
in India; we also have access to the global market. Our customers
are spread over the entire world and they now look for intangibles
by way of service. The greatest challenge will be to anticipate what
kind of service a customer expects and quickly meet his expectations. |
| What are SEC’s future plans? |
| Besides individual product-line additions based
on specific requirements of customers, we will definitely be expanding
in allied fields for the same customers we are serving. It should
be relating to process instrumentation or mechanical equipment for
process industries. |
