Leading Mid-Corporates of India 2021

21 Experts' View Leading Mid-Corporates of India 2021 How would you describe the journey of your company since its inception? What are some of the key milestones of the company in recent years? Koso India started in the year 1989 as a JV company under the name of Introl India supplying actuators and spares to Kent Introl UK. In the late 90’s technology was transferred from Kent Introl UK and the company started manufacturing control valves. The company was acquired by ABB instrumentation division in the year 2001 but was divested by ABB due to lack of synergy and acquired by Nihon Koso Japan in 2005. Koso Group being one of the world’s leading valve manufacturer, understood the nuances of valve business and with the investment of capital and technology in the company, Koso India grew at a fast pace and is now one the largest severe service control and choke valve manufacturer in India. Now Koso India operates from 3 manufacturing locations in Nashik, Coimbatore and Palakkad and handles the Indian subcontinent and Middle East markets and acts as a global supplier for the other Koso companies and also houses a dedicated and talented R&D team. Koso India Private Limited Gaurav Gupta Managing Director What are some of the key products / services offered by the company? We are the leading supplier of customized valves for themost arduous applications in Oil and Gas, Power, Petrochem, Fertilizer and Steel sectors. Our extensive product range consist of Surface Choke valves, Control valves, Turbine Bypass valves, Anti Surge valves, Ball Valves, Globe valves, Butterfly valves, Triple Offset valves, pneumatic actuators and Electrohydraulic actuators. Continuously engineering products for challenging applications is our specialty. What challenges did your company face during the pandemic? What modernization techniques did your company embrace to steer through the crisis? Due to the dynamic covid situation government policies and local work restrictions kept changing which made running the factory very difficult. The local and global situation had a cascading effect, as when our city was working normally there were other states which had lockdown and similarly when the Indian market was open and the plant was functioning then the other countries were under lockdown. The logistics were very badly affected as well with huge delays and exorbitantly high costs being experienced. A number of our employees got affected with covid-19 which aggravated the problems in terms of manpower availability as the plant had to be shut down and quarantined. All this had an adverse effect on raw material & manpower availability and ultimately the timely delivery of projects. However, some of our earlier initiatives like forming production cells, emphasis on modernization of machines helped us cope through the situation as it enabled multi skilling of workforce along with minimal material movement which all led to reduced lead times. Online project reviews ensured that we do not lose our grip on the hundreds of projects under execution and we could keep the customers updated on the revised schedules and the progress. Remote ERP access & availability of design software’s through dedicated VPN ensured that departments like engineering, procurement, sales, projects and finance could function normally. Since the products we manufacture undergoes extensive testing which is often witnessed by the customer, we set up high definition live cameras and portals in the factory for customers to log in, witness & record the testing and review the documentation. This has cut down the need for physical presence of the inspectors and also makes us more flexible, as the testing on our shop floor could be witnessed by someone sitting in their living room in France!! We digitalized most functions so that anyone can work effectively and efficiently from any part of the world. Dun & Bradstreet