A CUT IN TIME

TURNING AND MILLING TOOLS HAVE COME OF AGE. THE PANDEMIC IS BRINGING OUT THE BEST IN TOOL MANUFACTURERS

- MOLLY R

MAKING THE MOST OF WHAT IS AVAILABLE will be the new way of life. For long, the manufacturing industry has always been known to demand materials and tools that would last long and one that did not need frequent changing. Vendors, on their part, would go that extra mile to spend on R&D and also train their customers to use tools the right way so that it can be stretched to its full life span.

However, the global pandemic has thrown a new kind of spanner in the works. Jay Shah, MD, Tungaloy India, says, “One thing which everyone will definitely do is maximum utilisation of available resources. There will be more focus on productivity. The industry will try to optimise cutting parameters, depending on the machine and component being machined. When we focus on productivity, we will optimise the resources and it will have a positive impact on overall profitability of the plant. Customers will also look at better managing their inventory. The days of big budgets for tooling will not be seen for some time. The accountability of establishing the tool performance, maintaining stock and servicing the customers’ needs on time, all of these would be rated more.”

The term “New Normal” or “New Reality” means that as long as the pandemic continues, we have to adopt a new behaviour, in personal life as well as business. Ramakant Reddy, MD, LMT Tools India, says, “In business, this means that our visits to the customers are and will be restricted. In the precision tool industry, putting specialists and application engineers on site are important so that they can study and prove the efficacy of the application and tool. The use of online video conferencing platforms can still keep one connected to the customer. And this will surely be used beyond the pandemic.”