Industry needs to have some tie-ups or collaborations with the leading overseas companies and establish their base in India.
Started in 1954, SMS Concast is one of the leading suppliers for electric steelmaking and casting technology. SMS Concast supports plant operators to achieve a competitive advantage in their markets. The company is a subsidiary of SMS Meer.
SMS Concast has contributed to the development of the continuous casting process, and today delivers continuous casting technology for long products, electric arc furnaces and secondary metallurgical steel treatment stations (ladle furnaces and vacuum degassers) worldwide. Shridhar Ekbote talks about the procurement tactics and importance of ‘going global’.
India: on the way India is still an upcoming country in terms of strategic procurement for infrastructure projects. It is clear that large manufacturing set-ups, warehousing and logistics similar to China need to be developed to reduce the imports. This would make India competitive in terms of cost and timely execution of projects.
Main problemsThe costs, delivery, quality of products, warehousing and logistics are the main problems today the community is facing. In fact improvement is needed in all areas. According to Mr Ekbote, “The reduction in cost and delivery period can be improved by having manufacturing set-ups adopting latest technology which helps in generating high volumes. The training of skilled manpower is also very essential in order to get the good quality products to meet the international standards.”
Warehousing and logistics are one of the main hurdles and great efforts are needed for improvement in these areas. Large warehousing hubs and good roads with network are very essential in all parts of the country. Most of the projects related to steel and power are located in remote areas in logistics are quiet challenging.
Promising areasThere are definitely some promising areas in sourcing of equipment for construction, steel, power, railways and other infrastructure sectors. “In certain areas like high speed trains, the limitations are due to the non-availability of technology in India. Hence the industry needs to have some tie-ups or collaborations with the leading overseas companies and establish their base in India,” Mr Ekbote comments. “The manufacturing clusters planned by the government will give much needed impetus in development of such high technology areas in India.”
SMS logisticsBased on the location of projects, it is essential to align supply chain activities by carrying out the feasibility study for sourcing, warehousing, transportation and work out the optimum solution at the initial stages. This will help in efficiently managing the logistics supply chain by reducing the costs and meet the delivery targets. Additionally, the company is using SAP and customised solutions which are giving a reasonably good performance. It is using customised solutions to monitor, get visibility and control over the spends.
Developing local vendors“The most challenging part for the company has been indigenisation, developing local vendors to manufacture complex equipment in order to reduce the costs, meet international quality standards and delivery requirements,” comments Mr Ekbote.
– Shridhar Ekbote, General Manager – SCM, SMS Concast Engg (I) Pvt. Ltd.