Customisation & Understanding
If we look back on the heavy investments made by both the government and the private sector in purchasing European cleaning products, one would agree that the selection of products and lack of customisation to suit Indian cleaning requirement have led to most of these products landing in the backyard. Indian roads, for that matter, are not of international quality or standards, nor are the road-cleaning machines manufactured abroad customised to run on such roads. Over and above, lack of awareness on the kind of product and its application has often led to wrong choice of machine.
When it comes to India-made products, there is a lot of scope for customisation to suit customer needs. “High satisfaction rates from clients using our products is a direct result of customising the product for the application in hand. Further, being the developer of the product, when we help the client troubleshoot, there is a better chance of arriving at the root cause of the problem and providing a sustainable solution,” explains Samarth.
“Again, the products can be designed and built to suit our working conditions. The level of professionalism of the operator is gradually increasing and until it reaches global standards, we may have to factor in high durability as one of the key requirements,” he adds.
“Besides, customisation, Made in India products have an added advantage as there are not many innovations internationally which get introduced in the country,” observes Debtosh. Moreover, indigenously manufactured products are much simpler and better understood. “In fact, better knowledge of products translates into a genuine ability to recommend products to clients based on the application,” emphasises Samarth.
“The lead time is relatively shorter to make a product. Having our own plantations from where we source the latex also helps in controlling the quality aspects right from the conception stages of production,” adds Philip.
Manufacturing & Durability
At the outset, there is not much of a difference in the process when it comes to making dustbins whether it is Made in China or Made in India, says Naresh. “The process is either injection molding or rotational molding. However, we make bins thicker and stronger with increased durability and strength unlike Made in China low-cost light-weight bins.
“This is in keeping with the Indian consumer behaviour, as the housekeeping team engaged in handling receptacles lack knowledge and training. There is a lot of rough handling which light-weight products will not survive. We make dustbins to suit Indian consumers,” explains Naresh.
“During our first phase of manufacturing we started with high quality products competing European market in India. We successfully convinced our clients of Indian made ‘quality’ products. In the second phase we produced medium quality products better than the cheaper products coming from China, facing pricing issues as China has mass production because of which they are easily able to provide extremely low prices,” added Anjana.
Lack of Government incentives
There are no specific incentives or encouraging policies specific to cleaning equipment as they fall in the same category as any other machinery, says Varun. Nonetheless, cleaning products, categorised in the manufacturing segment by the government, do not, in general, benefit from the incentive schemes.
“For example, the government offers relaxation to SME sector on application of Green or BSI or equivalent certificates. It is well known that such certificates or its equivalent are highly priced and all corporate/Government sector want the said certificate to execute any incentive order,” laments Nadeem.
“There are no cluster schemes from the government’s side at present in this sector – if these are made available, they can encourage investments. Skilled labour to manufacture these machines is not particularly attracted to this sector – this is a direct result of low volumes, and low level of support from the government,” adds Samarth.
“The government needs to draft a critical process strategy and plan, which will enable manufacturer to undertake and grow their business to international standards. I believe the way UNDP managed to eliminate CFC gas to protect environment by promoting new technology and granting aids to manufacturer to upgrade, the government can also plan some benefits for the manufacturers to help them grow. Furthermore, providing a platform to showcase Indian products in international market can also help Indian suppliers invest and make similar government policies. It is discouraging that the government does not even recognise our field of activities as an
industry,” complains Anjana.
