Welded to Growth

A complete welding solutions provider, Ador Welding Ltd is set to create new benchmarks in technology, services and support, finds Shriyal Sethumadhavan during a visit to the plant.Infrastructure development has long been the nation’s mantra. And, with welding being at the core of all manufacturing activities, which in turn forms 15-25 per cent of the country’s growth, precise, reliable, cost-effective and ‘high-tech’ welding is at the core of nation building.Fully comprehending this, Ador Welding Ltd recently launched an extended portfolio of automation solutions at its Welding Application and Technical Centre at Chinchwad, Pune. Having been involved in training for the past 50 years, the company also relaunched the Ador Welding Academy and in its 60th year, aims to train at least 600 young welders who do not have access to education. “We have always taken such initiatives,” says Aruna Advani, Executive Chairman, Ador Welding Ltd. “But today, we are placing it on a platform where it can be largely recognised.”Technical needThe need is national skill development, says Chairman of Ador Welding Academy, Raman Kumar. “The National Skill Development Corporation has been instituted by the government with the avid objective of pushing the ambition of manufacturing, which contributes about 15-25 per cent to the GDP growth. With almost 50 per cent of India’s population below 30 years of age, the aim should be to employ this population. The biggest opportunities are going to be in manufacturing, and with welding being the leader here, our management and board decided to be a part of this national campaign,” he says with pride. This, in turn, has motivated the company’s technical service platform initiatives.Moreover, with its capabilities and cost advantages, India is becoming the desired location for international fabricators to outsource. At the same time, Indian fabricators need to assure quality delivery. “This is the gap we are trying to fill,” highlights Kumar. While the aim has been to improve the manufacturing efficiency, Ador endeavours to adopt practices commonly followed in the developed world. With 52 years of experience, and with Oerlikon adding to its capabilities, this technical service platform is set to validate advanced welding processes for customers.Get learningHaving trained almost 50,000 welders, engineers and inspectors, the company realised that simply upgrading skills was not the solution. “The need was to create a centre for training that would help understand the nuances of welding.” informs Kumar. Catering to this, the recently introduced academy focuses on four verticals: service training, inducing welding as a career option, consultancy and postgraduate programme modules. As Kumar highlights, “This partly coincides with the National Skill Development Corporation’s estimate to take upon themselves 150 million out of the 500 million trained manufacturing operators that the Government has identified as a requirement for the trillion dollar worth of infrastructure investment possible. About 200,000-250,000 welders are expected to be trained over the next eight to 10 years, and we are partnering with them to take a part of that load.” The company has also tied up with a couple of NGOs. Deep Lalavani, Director, Ador Welding Ltd, says, “The NGOs are briefed to mobilise unemployed youth, and we train them for job opportunities.”Cutting costsThe quality of power also determines the quality of welding, especially in electric arc welding. Ador develops some efficient and low cost power supplies. This helps to bring an improvement of about 30 per cent in power consumption over the conventional supplies in welding. Amongst the largest users of the switch mode power suppliers technique, its team of technical engineers lend able support. “We are very conscious about our contribution to India’s economy,” Advani says, “and have also established a group company, Ador Green Energy.” However, as Kumar affirms, it is a challenge to supply quality power as supply is highly unreliable. But, power supplying inverters are intrinsically known for efficient or lower power consumption. Secondly, the company also manufactures welding consumables designed to minimise errors while welding. These together contribute to the mission of lower cost.Safety firstThrough the academy, safety practices are a seamless part of the training module. The training area is structured and designed in a way that the welder cannot weld without being equipped for safety. However, emphasising on the company’s various training initiatives, Satish Bhat, Managing Director, Ador Welding Ltd, says, “When we go for automation, especially for welding, the level of exposure should be minimal. Also, in terms of fume and toxic gases, we need to ensure safety. Hence, we are introducing fume extraction systems. Also, to ensure no electrical hazards, the machines have low voltage. Following the global trend, we ensure the safety of the operator and environment in several other ways.”Growth mattersAs the company aims to grow y-o-y by 22 per cent, Kumar comments, “There is negativity in terms of the growth rate, but not the growth. Although this is a matter of concern, we tend to overlook the slowdown as it does not interfere with our assessment of the market.” As he states, the company sees an increase in the growth rate 2014 onwards and is certain that it will ride on these double digit CAGRs over the next few years. On these growth estimates, he further adds, “The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) figures, in the case of welding, must be considered vis-à-vis steel consumption, which itself is growing at double digits. And, it’s not just what we produce locally; the government has also adopted a policy of challenging local producers with a lot of imports, especially in the automobile sector.” With the welding industry essentially grouped into two sectors – organised and unorganised – Ador Welding has a 20-22 per cent share in the former.Way ahead…With the need to save cost, automation is now becoming a reality. Lalavani concludes, “We are associated with many foreign companies that are fully committed to this business. In terms of imparting skills, they devote a lot of time in training our engineers.” And, he is certain that automation can be sold as business in the near future.To share your views on this report, write in at feedback@ASAPPmedia.com