Aiming High Maini Precision Products

Aiming HigH

Bangalore-based Maini Group has always been recognised for its vision, creativity and initiative. With a diverse business focus - from being India’s first manufacturer of environmentally friendly electric vehicles to a premium manufacturer of precision engineering components - the company is now seeking to reinforce its footing in the aerospace sector. Romana Moares reports.

The Maini Group consists of six independent companies, each covering a specific core business including high-precision engineering components, materials handling, warehousing and logistics solutions, aerospace and the Future of e-mobility . Commitment to comprehensive customer care, sustained research, design and development, and achieving global quality benchmarks and certifications are some of the attributes on which Maini’s growth has been based.

Maini Group’s flagship company is Maini Precision Products Limited (MPP), a progressive manufacturer and supplier of high-precision machined parts and assemblies supplied to a global clientele in the automotive, industrial and aerospace sectors. “MPP’s key strength lies in its ability as an integrator to leverage skills available in-house or in one of our partner suppliers within our extensive ecosystem,” said Mr Gautam Maini, the company’s Managing Director.

enhanced capability

With India on its way to becoming an international aviation and space hub, and a destination of choice for optimum-cost manufacturing solutions supported by highly talented human resources, the company is ready to seize new opportunities in this up-and-coming sector.

Mr Maini pointed out that today, Maini Precision Products Limited is proud to have acquired major sector leading customers in both the Indian and global markets. “We would like to be recognised as an aerospace-focused business,” he affirmed. “In aerospace manufacturing we are catering to OEMs as well as Tier1s and Tier-2s in the three verticals of engines, aircraft structures and aircraft systems, and see exponential growth in all three of these business lines in the years to come.”

He noted that the company has dedicated significant resources to scaling up operations in this segment. “In 2017 we moved our aerospace manufacturing activity from 25,000 sq. ft .floor area to a dedicated new factory which today has a floor area of 135,000 sq. ft., housing over 100 CNC machines, including a battery of 3-Axis, 4-Axis and 5-Axis machines ranging from half a metre up to 3 metre bed lengths. This investment has enabled us to focus on more complex, larger parts so that we can offer a wider product portfolio.”

“We see growth in the engine segment, where we already have intense engagement with most of the engine manufacturers and their Tier-1 suppliers. Our next growth vertical is aircraft structures,

for which we have already invested in large bed CNC profilers from 2 metres to 3 metres in size. We also intend to move up the value chain in this vertical by moving on to sub-assembly and assembly of aircraft structures for which we have built a new hangar of 35,000 sq. ft. with a head height of 18ft., equipped with an overhead crane.”

Similar attention has been paid to the most valuable of assets - the people. “We have been similarly investing in human resources, building up our technical capabilities and continuously improving skill levels,” said Mr Maini, adding that the company has a strong domain team whose tasks include training future leaders and skill specialists within the organisation. “Having a formal training structure helps us keep a track of our progress in terms of skill development and succession planning. We use our own in-house training set-up but also use the opportunity to train our personnel at the facilities of our customers for on-site exposure.”

Comprehensive growth

The human aspect is just as important in the external environment, and in this context, Mr Maini mentioned the Safran Group, a trusted partner in the aerospace sector. “We started working with Safran in 2005 and have continued growing with them by expanding our relationships through different Safran business units. Just recently, at Aero India 2019, we signed an MoU with Safran Helicopter Engines. On the other side of the equation, it is important to say that our business growth would not be possible without trusted suppliers - especially companies like Thyssenkrupp, VMF, Sheen, ATPL, Therelek, API and others with whom we have reached a stage of mutually beneficial relationship.”

Supported by its partners, MPP is set to further enhance its footing in global markets. Mr Maini explained that the company is in the

process of consolidating a few more projects in Europe, its biggest market, while business on the other side of the globe - in America - has recently skyrocketed. But it is not just about profits - while increasing its international business, environmental focus, sustainability and social aspects remain an integral part of Maini’s operations.

“We plan to keep having the same aggressive growth targets, while keeping a balance on maintaining the required quality and schedule requirements. Building sustainable and eco-friendly solutions have been in the Maini group’s DNA from the very beginning, with pioneering the first electric vehicles in India, to the development of electric people- and material-movement solutions. We try to evaluate the impact of every decision we make, with a special focus on the environment,” acknowledged Mr Maini.

Being Systems Driven Besides having SAP to manage all the Transactions, Maini has invested in a PLM “Aerolean” that allows Maini to concurrently develop New Products on time at an exponential rate . Maini has also recently invested in Plan Visage which is a comprehensive software to enable dynamic Scheduling of all its Machines in Order to enable achieving a 100 per cent OTIF for the Customers. Maini has also finalised its Plans for an effective Implementation of IOT across its factories over the next three Months .

“We believe in comprehensive growth, capturing not only economic development in terms of numbers, but also taking into account the growth of each of our employees, suppliers and the community as a whole. MPP believes that growth is not just about numbers, figures and charts, but is also about the thousands of faces which are an integral part of the Maini Group’s success story,” he concluded. n