Bajaj Auto, Hero Honda & TVS Motors are GI's biggest 2 Wheeler customers. Together they contribute about 45% of GI sales revenues. Asian PPG enjoys extremely good relations with all these customers. Because of its cost competitiveness and good quality products, Asian PPG is perceived as a valuable supplier by all these players.
ACE generates about 25% GI sales revenues. Major customers include New Holland India, John Deere India, Man-Force , Force Motors, Ashok Leyland & Swaraj Mazda. Asian PPG enjoys sizeable business from all these accounts. Asian PPG has been the single source supplier to New Holland for more than a decade.
APA is perhaps the most diverse market segment of GI. It has more than 60 active customers spread all over the country. The biggest challenge in the APA market is low cost & serviceability. The market is highly price sensitive, which paves easy entry to unorganized players. Some of these ancillaries also have Electrocoat lines in-house for coating underbody components and wheels. Asian PPG services more than 20 Electrocoat Ancillary lines across the country.
GI Business is highly driven by the demand and supply principle. Suppliers who can build extreme flexibility in meeting customers’ changing demands will rule the game. Unlike automotive accounts, customers can swap suppliers overnight. In such an event, each site team owns the responsibility of maintaining strict vigil on customers’ changing preferences and product consumption.
Any new customer or product development goes through the product management cycle. The site team captures the exact needs of the customers, articulates them in a written format which is shared with the development team and HO. The development team reviews the customer's requirement and provides necessary output like shade panels, liquids samples etc. Once the shade gets approved, the development is scaled up to plant, which further standardizes the formulation of the pilot batch. Once the batch gets approved, product is further scaled up to bulk batch schedule. Both paint development and paint manufacturing is a very complex process. All our products are customized to meet each customer’s expectations. Consequently, every step is very carefully measured and captured in the form of processes which becomes guiding principle for the rest to follow. Any deviations are accurately captured and defaults are reported. Root cause analysis and corrective and preventive action form the core aspect of report closures.
GI site teams offer technological and commercial support to the customers. Each site team plays a key role in problem solving and technical support. Line personnel are responsible for monitoring and establishing paint consumption on line. They are also responsible for reducing rejections, managing inventory levels, payment collection and C form collection.
All new developments get routed through formats of DIPPSS (Design inputs product process specification sheet). Customer specs get captured through QSR (Quality Systems review) & CIM (Customer interaction Matrix).
The design inputs (DIPPSS) are captured and uploaded in the IT system called Optiva. The development group works on these inputs and releases their proposed formulation in Optiva. The formulation is sent to the plant and SC for a feasibility review. Once the formula gets frozen, it is sent to the plant, where they upload the data into SAP for bulk production. Any change in design review gets captured through DCR (Design Change Request).