Select a supplier who is flexible and transparent, says Arul Shanmugavelu, Chief Executive of L&T Kobelco Machinery Private Limited, in an exclusive interview with Rubber Machinery World. In this crisp interview, you will find him share his thoughts on the challenges and customer frustrations and some plain advice that could lead to a win-win situation between rubber machinery manufacturers and users.

1. Interview With
Arul. SArul. S
Chief Executive
L&T Kobelco Machinery Pvt Ltd. India
©2015 - Published by RubberMachineryWorld. http://rubbermachineryworld.com

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Hello Arul. First of all thank you for accepting an interview with Rubber Machinery
World and sharing your thoughts. You have been head of marketing at L&T and
now head of L&T Kobelco, which is a JV. What has changed for you? How has your
leadership style evolved over the years?
11
I am associated with the tire Industry for over
2 decades. As you mentioned, I was Head of
Marketing in L&T Rubber Processing
Machinery unit, before moving over to L&T
Kobelco as the Chief Executive. In short
almost, everything has changed for me,
except the customer segment. Since I am
associated with them for many years, I am
able to understand them very fast and most of
them know me well. This gives me and also
the customer a comfort feeling. Now that, I
have a full responsibility of the business, I
have the opportunity to fulfill the
requirement of the customer faster and
better, this I enjoy a lot, as I always want to be
close to the customers.
“I have the opportunity
to fulfill the requirement
of the customer faster
and better”

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What’s a challenge you spend a lot of time thinking about these days?
22
One of the challenges that we face is
the varying choice of components by
the buyers. Each one has their own
choice of make (or brand) when
deciding bought-out components, be
it, RTDs or PLCs, switch gear items,
etc. The varying choice of bought-out
parts puts limitation on the
Machinery manufacturers in terms
their flexibility of price and delivery.
“If the users leave
the choice of
makes of the
elements of the
machine to the
OEMs, machinery
manufacturers
will be in a
position to
provide better
returns to end
customers”
If the users leave the choice of makes of the elements of
the machine to the OEMs, machinery manufacturers
will be in a position to provide better returns to end
customers in terms of price, delivery and service. Any
way the overall guarantee of the machine is given by
the rubber machinery manufacturers and hence I feel
the choice and responsibility should be left to the
manufacturer.

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Tire making is a complex process and each
of the tire companies’ are continuously
improving their product through various
product design and process improvements.
Each time a green field project is conceived,
the project engineers are required to validate all their
assumptions of the previous project, as they are required
to show improvements over the previous execution, in
terms of better machines, better productivity, shorter
project lead time, etc. This puts lot of pressure on the
Project team.
“We have often seen that
the Project engineers are
never able to repeat their
specification of
equipment between 2
consecutive green field
projects”
What is the biggest frustration today for buyers of rubber and tire machinery?
How are L&T Kobelco/Kobelco Products and Services addressing this?
33
We have often seen that the Project engineers are never able to repeat their
specification of equipment between 2 consecutive green field projects, even if the
projects are phased by only a years’ time. Moreover due to the shorter lead-times
on the project, they are required to concurrently do machine ordering, layout
finalization, civil construction, etc. Sometimes this leads to changes during
execution of the project, which becomes tough and expensive.

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How does L&T Kobelco propose to change the rubber and tire industry in the
years to come?
44
Currently L&T Kobelco’s focus is on the BB270, BB310, BB370 & BB430
Mixers and TSR330 & TSR450 Twin Screw Extruders. This product range
covers almost the complete requirement of Tire Industry. In this
segment, where L&T Kobelco operates, the customers are generally used
to one manufacturer and have not experienced any other technology.
The resistance to change comes out of the fact that the customers need
to undergo the learning curve while using our technology to realize its
benefit. Here, we assist our customers with the support of the process
expert to stabilize the mixing process and also offer the facility of Trial
mixing at Kobelco’s lab in Japan, if required.
“Tire Machinery
Industry is
leading the
customer
expectations….”
Is the rubber machinery industry leading or lagging behind
the customer expectations when it comes to customer’s
rubber processing expectations?
55
I think the Tire Machinery Industry is leading the
customer expectations in several segments viz. Mixers,
TBMs, automation, etc. We have seen manufacturers
from these segments coming with new products which
push the quality and the productivity of the customers.

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Can “superior-technology” and “low-cost” ever go hand-in-hand in rubber and
tire machinery/equipment?
66
Certainly superior- technology and low(est) cost
cannot go together. To manufacture a quality
product, we need to have a certain
infrastructure i.e. good machines, trained
manpower, good sub-suppliers, and good
quality control. In addition for a product to
sustain in the market there needs to be
investment on R&D. All of these cost money. At
the same time, if we are able to couple
appropriate strengths of different countries, we
can come out with best value for money.
India with manufacturing expertise and
availability of skilled manpower offers a best
platform for making machine at competitive
price. When this is coupled with the technology
of Kobelco, Japan, I feel this is winning
combination.
“Certainly superior-
technology and
low(est) cost cannot
go together. ”

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Sustainability, Environment and Innovation are the key global themes today. How
is Kobelco incorporating this in your business that has a positive impact to your
customers?
77
Who can ignore this? No one. Kobelco in Japan is working
on these areas of Sustainability, Environment and
Innovations. Though I cannot share what is being done in
Japan, I can assure Kobelco takes these as very important
and works on these relentlessly.
88
“Kobelco in
Japan is
working on
these areas of
Sustainability,
Environment
and
Innovations.”
What do you envision for L&T-Kobelco in the next 10 years?
I feel that L&T Kobelco would have emerged as a
major Mixer and allied machinery manufacturer
from India catering to both Indian and export
markets. L&T Kobelco will play a major role in the
overall strategy of Kobelco as a leader in Mixer and
allied machinery in the world.

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99 What do you think is the awareness levels of customer on advances in machinery
and its availability, superior technology and its adoption here as compared to the
west and developed nations? Is there a disparity? How is L&T Kobelco working to
expand your market on newer technologies here?
Today the world is a single market. In the
Tire machinery market, the number of
customers and number of machinery
manufacturers are small. With the current
information technology, I do not think any
customer whether he is in India or Europe
is lacking any information. In some
occasions, I have seen that the customers
in India are more knowledgeable in terms
of availability of machines than some of
the customers in the developed world. This
may come out of the fact that they strive
hard to beat the competition with the
products made by them in India, compared
to the products made by the developed
countries.
“With the current
information technology, I
do not think any
customer whether he is
in India or Europe is
lacking any information.”

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1010 Great! And one last question, what would you advice on machinery selection to
buyers and users of rubber and tire equipments?
My input to the buyers regarding machinery selection would be to
evaluate the features that are required by you for your processes.
Please do not beef up the product with an intention of having all
the features whether required or not. Because every penny counts
in the project stage. Whatever money you put in, requires a return
to be paid to the owners. We have seen customers who use the
bare minimum features for their machines and keep their
investment on machine to the minimum and yet be a leading player
in the tire business.
Hence making of the functional specification is the most important.
Please leave the detailing of the machine to the machinery
manufacturers and demand the performance parameters. In some
cases the project team starts to specify the design parameters of
the machine, which is best left the Machine manufacturer.
“Select a
supplier who is
flexible and
transparent.”
Select a supplier who is flexible and transparent. In the project situations there are always
changes that would crop up. Hence you need suppliers who are ready to listen to the tiny
requirements of the customer and be ready to meet the same with open and transparent
manner.

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11. ©2015 – Interview Published by Rubber Machinery World in June 2015.