The Mumbai-based Mansons Group is a leading manufacturer and exporter of suspension components for trucks and trailers to the US, European and African markets. Founded in 1962, the group has primarily been a trading organisation. It was in 2000 that Mansons got more seriously into manufacturing of suspension components. In the last eight years, it has expanded its manufacturing and engineering operations with nearly 50 per cent of the components exported being manufactured on its own. The target is to increase the export volume to 80 per cent by 2010.Driving all these initiatives from the front is 36-year-old Gautam Khanduja, Managing Director of the Mansons Group, and the third generation scion of the founding family. A visit to one of the manufacturing facilities of the Mansons Group at Panvel on the outskirts of Mumbai would prove that strong winds of change are really sweeping across the company. As one of the shop floor engineers said, “everyday is an exciting day at Mansons.”
From the top management down to the shop floor worker, almost all of Mansons’ employees have some sense of the many changes happening around them. Each and every department in the company is trying to set benchmarks by improving work efficiency.
What is most striking is the importance attached to the minutest work detail. The company has established standards and systems comparable to some of the best manufacturing facilities in India. In fact, the group has invested quite heavily on its own engineering and product development capabilities and documented the complete design and development of over 10,000 part numbers. This is a rare achievement.
The group flagship company, Mansons International, is its trading arm. Mansons International exports 40 per cent of the its total business to the US, 55 per cent to Europe and the balance to African countries. The company sells close to 14,000 part numbers through key distributors in the respective countries and has achieved the distinction of exporting the largest product range in the aftermarket for suspension components for the European and American trucks and trailers.
Mr. Gautam says that it was in 2000 that the change came about. “From being a trader we started looking at manufacturing very seriously. The first strategic decision was to get into manufacture of rubber suspension components through our group company Mansons Automotive Rubber Pvt. Ltd. Today we have managed to establish the rubber component business, and in the second phase we are setting up a complete machine shop, one in Ludhiana and the other in Panvel which will be ready by 2009. We have also resorted to lean manufacturing and a management style that is mostly driven by the need to grow. We are working towards TS 16949 certification too”.
Mansons Rubber, which manufactures rubber suspension components, is a Rs. 10-crore business. Most of what it manufacturers is being exported through Mansons International. Identifying the growing business opportunity, the company has recently started focusing on the domestic market, particularly the OEM segment. It is now in the process of developing components for truck major AMW and is in talks with other major truck manufacturers for strategic tie-ups for their rubber to metal bush demand.
Mansons is also setting up an advanced machining facility for metal components. It is installing four CNC machines at the new facility of Mansons Intertrade, a company specializing in finely machined components and tools and dies. This will further widen the scope to manufacture both rubber and metal suspension components for trucks and trailers.
Mansons Automotive Rubber also has a captive state-of-the-art compounding unit for rubber. Currently it is mostly for captive consumption, but the company has additional capacity which could be used for other clients as well. Further, a new facility is coming up near Pune for stamping of heavy duty suspension related components.
With the ongoing the expansion in manufacturing and engineering, Mansons hopes that by 2010 almost 80 per cent of the products exported or sold by the company will be manufactured within the group.
Mansons Suspensions Private Ltd., another group company, supplies suspension kits for trailer manufacturers. It is a major supplier to PL Haulwell Trailers, the trailer division of Ashok Leyland. Mansons Suspension also supplies suspensions and their components to International Auto of the RSB Group, Stokato and several other trailer builders across India. The company has so far produced and sold over 2,100 suspensions to various manufacturers. It has recently signed a distribution agreement for the ASEAN region with Watson & Chalin of the US for air suspensions and related components. Presently these units from Watson and Chalin have been fitted on PL Haulwell trailers.
Mr. Gautam also disclosed that the group is in discussion with a trailer builder and an axle manufacturer for setting up a manufacturing facility in India. The discussion is almost in its final stage and a JV agreement may be finalised soon.
From being a trader, Mansons has become a manufacturer, and the mission, Mr. Gautam says, is to become a complete solutions provider of air & mechanical suspensions, axles and components for truck and trailer manufacturers worldwide.
