FIEM Industries Ltd. (FIEM), a formidable name in the automotive lighting industry, has been manufacturing innovative automotive lightings since last 40 years. The company has been growing exponentially on the back of the unique lighting solutions that it supplies to almost all the segments of the automobile industry, particularly two-wheelers, three-wheelers, four-wheelers and commercial vehicles.
After strengthening its position in the automotive industry, FIEM has also diversified into LED luminaries for indoor and outdoor applications. “Committed to innovation, we have been growing 18 per cent CAGR in the last couple of years. We keep on adding new products as per the new vehicles that come into the market, like the LED base head lamps, LED base tail lamps, LED base blinker lamps, etc. We have also developed day running lighting (DRL) products. We have recently signed an MoU with Asian Industry Co. Ltd. of Japan for manufacturing Canister for the two-wheeler Industry, which is an emission control system product and has great market potential in India with the enforcement of stricter emission norms for two-wheelers,” revealed Mr. S. Narayanan, Head Commercial and International Operation, FIEM Industries Ltd., in an exclusive interaction with MOTORINDIA.
Elaborating on the customers they work, Mr. Narayanan stated: “We work with many of the OEMs in India, besides exporting to OEMs abroad. To name some of our OEMs in two-wheelers like Honda Motorcycles, TVS Motors, Yamaha, Suzuki Motorcycle, Mahindra 2-wheelers, Piaggio, Harley Davidson and in 4-wheelers with OEMs like Mahindra Reva, Force Motor, Daimler, GM, Honda, Kubota, Hyundai, etc. We are also the first Indian company outside the US selected for supplying to Harley Davidson. Besides, we are supplying to Honda for its Global Model motorcycles. In commercial vehicles we are supplying to Tata Motors, Tata Marcopolo, Ashok Leyland, Eicher, etc. For Tata Marcopolo, we are supplying head lamp, tail lamp, winker lamp, front fog lamp, side marker lamp, top marker lamp, cabin lamp and reversing lamp.”
Making in India
FIEM is continuously pursuing its aim to become a dominant player in the industry for the products it turns out. It has also taken up growth-oriented capacity expansion proactively and manufactures everything in-house, thereby giving a thrust on the ‘Make in India’ concept initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“We have 9 state-of-the-art manufacturing plants in India – 4 located in the South, 4 in the North and one located in the West. All the manufacturing facilities are certified to ISO/TS 16949, ISO 14001m OHSAS 18001 and COP Certification from RDW / Netherland for manufacturing E Marked products. The products manufactured by FIEM conform to EC, DOT, CCC, ADR, AIS, etc. FIEM is equipped with a world-class R&D Center, which is recognized by the Ministry of Science & Technology (DSIR). We also have R&D facilities in Italy and Japan, and the team of designers and engineers from our R&D work in tandem to design ideas and for new developments,” revealed Mr. Narayanan.
The latest infrastructure and advanced technology enables FIEM to make products as per customer requirements at affordable pricing. “We take the shortest development time compared to our competitors. It ranges from 3 to 6 months depending upon the complexity of tooling work. We work closely with our customers well in advance, may be a year ahead, in order to complete all developmental work and delivery of parts much before the launch of vehicles,” explained Mr. Narayanan.
Exports currently contribute to around five per cent of FIEM’s business. “We are exporting to Austria, Japan, Germany, Italy, the UK, Indonesia and Thailand and ensure that the products meet the appropriate standards / regulations specific to the region, like European, American, Japanese, and Chinese, when we supply to these countries,” he said.
After strengthening the position in the manufacture of automotive components, FIEM added two more new segments under its diversification programme. “One is for manufacture of LED luminaires, LED lighting for indoor and outdoor applications, and the other one is for manufacture of Integrated Passenger Information System with LED Panel & Software for Railways, buses, taxis, metro, etc.” he added.
At the recently concluded LED Expo in Mumbai, FIEM displayed some of its latest LED products and explained that its LED emergency bulb would work up to 4 hours during power failure. Another interesting product was the Intelligent Smart Bulb, which can be connected with controller pod and power source. This bulb works through bluetooth and shall be used with the ios (Apple) / Android App to pair the bulb with the controller. It has more than one million colour combinations and will change colour according to music and dance, etc.