36 | AutoPartsAsia | AUGUST 2017New Capabilities Are
Complementary:
Anil M Kamat
Q: You have the capabilities
from design to development and
manufacture. Is there still a missing
link in the value chain?
A: We already have ancillary
companies making the key
components that are useful for us.
Regarding missing links there are
two. One is related to seating systems
where we want to focus on high-end
reclining coach seats, and the other
is to build the capability of testing and
validation in our engineering space.Q: But testing and validation are
under the purview of the vehicle
manufacturer. As coach builders do
you require these capabilities?
A: There are two aspects to it. We
are into bus and coach building;
when you mount the body on the
chassis, it becomes a homogeneous
product. Validation and testing
capability would only increase our
understanding of what our OEM
clients want; that value we could add
in the bus or coach design to meet
the requirements of our customers,specific to their chassis attributes.
Secondly, with ‘Columbus’ we have
recently received an OEM status for
a niche product; we plan to focus
only on this as it befits our financial
limitations to fully support the
product in the market. To introduce
‘Columbus’ in the market, both for
domestic and export, we will need
to have the know-how and skills for
validation and testing.
Q: Sometimes, possessing the
entire value chain is not sought
after as the focus could get diluted.
In which case, would you just do
away with certain things while you
add on some new capabilities?A: No, not at all. I wouldn’t do away
with anything. For us, there has
been a clear strategic intent to get
into these allied verticals. We could
have manufactured FRP parts or
seats in our bus building facilities
itself. We are not doing that because
they are specialised fields in their
own right with a totally different set
of competencies, technical know-
how and processes required that
are completely unique and with no
connection to bus-building. They are
created as separate entities within
the group with the requisite skill-sets,
technologies, operations, tie-ups and
partnerships; they are highly focusedand become our own vendors. The
vision is to create such companies
that can feed their own market
requirements and grow on their own.
Q: Tells us about your plan to get
into reclining seats production?
A: Seating is a standalone system
for bus and coach. In the next three
years the plan is to find a foreign
collaborator for reclining seats
manufacturing as we need the
technology to compete with the big
names in the industry today, for those
markets. We are already in talks with
a few companies.COVER STORY
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