Inside the Mind of CEO – Sree Trio Poly Tech

Polyurethane is a technical product and mixing and casting involves a lot of nuances. We manufacture a lot of specialised Cast PU products that go into mining, automotive and even aerospace. Product quality is not an ‘option’ for us. In fact, many of our products are brought only because of their high performance. Take for instance a critical product that we developed about a year ago for a high wear and tear mining application. It’s a replacement for rubber component that was used previously by the client.

The product developed by us has delivered a life of over 1 year, as opposed to 3 month replacement cycle for the rubber component. That’s our value.

Another driver is my firm belief in mechanised production. Especially in case of Polyurethane products, its difficult to control the process parameters accurately. Achieving Repeat-ability is extremely critical. We have to understand that, today, the cost of repair and replacement is at times more than the cost of the product itself. Imagine stopping a 100 TPH quarry plant to replace a prematurely failed PU part or sub-optimal performance because of the part. Economics of failure is simply not acceptable.

So, from the very first day of operation, I have had Twin’s Machine. Initially, that’s about 3 years ago, when I invested in the Twin’s Cast PU Machine our production required processing of just 1 Ton of TDI material. My fellow business colleagues always said it was not a wise decision. But with Twin’s Machine we were quickly able to scale production to 4.5 Tons. And today, we have already placed the order for our second Machine to Twin Engineers.

Unfortunately, many in the PU market tend to manufacture and market their products as a commodity. Naturally, they end up competing on the price and not the quality. When one competes on price, the capital and operational expenditure becomes a hurdle. Focus shifts from quality to costs.

But manufacturers tend to look only at the capital and operating costs. Take Opex for example – With manual hand casting the monthly electricity bill would be Rs. 6,000 or less. When using a Machine you would typically have to spend Rs. 30000 to 35000 in power bills every month. But what’s not understood well is the indirect costs of material wastage. It’s huge, when the material is hand casted. The PU material is also difficult to discard, if wasted.

Above all, when a product fails on the field because of a manufacturing fault, the loss of reputation is simply irreparable. You may lose the Customer.

I would like to share here that I had finalised the Machine in my first meeting itself. The vision and commitment of Mr. Pradeep Bhalwankar to develop a world-class mixing and dispensing machines in India has been a strong connect with me. This Machine is built from scratch in India. Twin’s R&D team has an in-depth understanding of the process and has always helped us to configure the machine to our process very quickly. Indigenous machinery has better timely service and we don’t lose time for any breakdown.

The Machine offers excellent process control. The Operators were trained by Twin’s team in a week’s time. The service support and availability of spares has never been an issue. In fact, the Service Engineer is always available for technical and training related support.

We all know there are two major aspects to maintenance – preventive and breakdown. We are very particular about the first and therefore are able to control our costs. Cleaning and replacement of parts is performed routinely. As a result, we have hardly had a breakdown situation in the last 3 years. We did have our share of challenges when the process was being stabilised, Some initial problems pertaining to cleaning and mixing parts were quickly solved by Twin’s service team.

So, in my view, if you maintain the machine on a daily basis, the risks are negligible. In our case, guidance and support from Twin’s team has been of great help in keeping these costs low.

The future is about greater and more flexible automation.

The industry is shifting to environment friendly PU materials such as MDI. The trend for high strength NDI material which can be processed with ease and relatively faster will also be seen in more applications. The Cast PU Machines from Twin that we use can process a variety of PU materials that we use today. Twin’s team has also assured that these machines can be configured to accommodate the changes in our process as well as materials in the future.

Commitment is the key to success.

From the day we decided to automate the Cast PU process, we have not manufactured a single component with hand casting. Initially, it was difficult. But now no one in my team on the shop-floor can imagine the mixing and dispensing of materials done manually. Our commitment is to the quality of the products and we are convinced that it can be achieved only through the machine.

The fact that PU is replacing rubber because of superior performance must always be kept in mind. As a PU manufacturer it is our responsibility to deliver high-performance of products at the best costs and not otherwise. And I am happy that we have found a trusted partner in Twin Engineers to achieve our commitment.