Major operations of the ready-made garment industry fall under these three categories:

1. Pre-production
2. Production
3. Post-production

Pre-production: This phase involves arranging materials, line planning, sample development and approval, sourcing, and production scheduling.

Production: During production, fabrics are spread, cut, bundled, and sewn.

Post-production: Post-production includes inspection, pressing, folding, and packing, making the garment ready to sell.

The labour dependent nature of cutting and sewing makes the readymade garment expensive. Fabric costs and cut-and-sew costs are two of the largest expenses in garment manufacturing. While raw materials contribute up to 50 to 60% of the total product cost, sewing contributes approximately 35% of the total cost.

Efforts have been made to lower labour costs through supply chain management by locating production facilities in developing countries like India, Bangladesh, etc. However, this strategy is becoming complex and difficult to sustain, forcing the industry to find alternative solutions. Thus, automating ready-made garment manufacturing processes are becoming the need of the hour!

Automation not only improves productivity, but also the quality of the finished product by minimising human intervention and preventing errors. Some of the automated techniques adopted by the industry includes:

1. Mechanised fabric handling
2. Computerised cutting
3. Automatic sewing
4. Use of robots

You would find literally everything you need or did not know you needed at a supermarket. Choices of brands, products, sizes, weights, you name it! And while you find yourself spoilt for choice, there is one thing common with all these offerings and that is the packaging. Each of these products is ready and safe for use because of compressed air.

Compressed Air in Packaging Industry

As online shopping continues to rise, the packaging sector sees an expansion in its industry. Compressed air assumes a pivotal role in the manufacturing and packaging operations across various global sectors. Its applications span from cleansing, aligning, shaping, to sealing a wide array of packaging items.

Compressed Air in Food Industry

Last year, the global food packaging market crossed over US$ 302 billion in market value. Compressed air plays a vital role in safely transporting food items and other products around the factory or to their desired location, without any contamination or deterioration in quality. Compressed air is used to shape and seal cartons and boxes, manufacturing products like PET bottles and thoroughly clean all containers before they can be filled with liquids.

Oil-free compressors are indispensable in the food and beverage industry, ensuring product safety and quality by delivering contaminant-free compressed air. They are utilized for tasks like pneumatic conveying, bottling, and packaging, where maintaining a pristine and hygienic production environment is paramount.

Use of Compressed Air in Pharmaceutical Industry

In the pharma industry, oil-free compresses are used to manufacture products including pills and tablets. These tablets or pills are then safely placed in bottles, after the moisture has been removed, and then sealed airtight- maintaining the highest level of clean and sterile compressed air.

Please know more about the significance of oil free air in pharmaceutical industry.

The Past

Established in 1960 in Coimbatore, India, ELGi started off as an air compressor and a garage equipment manufacturing company. Over the years, with strategic collaborations and a relentless focus on research and development, ELGi has made remarkable progress from an importer of technology to a self-reliant manufacturer of compressed air systems.

Throwing some more light on ELGi’s growth story, Dr. Varadaraj stated: “We started like everyone else. Indian companies went to Europe or America and got licenses from top companies. When you get the license, you invariably get post-generational technology. No one will give you the latest one. They will give you the ‘know-how’, meaning they will give you a set of drawings and say this is how you assemble the machine. However they will never tell you ‘why’. As a result, you become a constant slave to imported technology. When we started out in 1994, India was just opening up. We knew that if we go the licensing way, we will reach nowhere. We therefore had to build our own technology. We chose the harder path. From 1994 onwards we have been investing in R&D and latest technology. We learnt the ‘know-why’. We have also learnt the shifts that are taking place. Additionally, we have also learnt the direction of the shift. If you understand the shift and only respond to it, you are a follower. It is only when you learn to preempt the direction of the shift that you become a leader. You can say that we are now at the cusp of being able to lead with the next generation of air compressors.”

The Present

ELGi’s ‘know-why’ attitude has led to the development of some of the most technologically evolved air compressors of our time. Global leadership seems like the logical next step. But before that, ELGi must jump through many proverbial hoops. Debunking myths and preconceived notions about ELGi remains one of the most formidable challenges for the company.

“We have enough evidence to prove that we are at par or better than the best, but that doesn’t mean we are close to what we intend to achieve. Remember the odds that were stacked up against us. For one, ELGi was a relatively unknown brand in international markets. Then there’s always this stigma of a “Made in India” label, which I feel is more of a perception than anything else. It is a perception though, which is gradually changing. So, with all these limitations, in order to be competitive in these markets, being marginally better is not good enough. So that’s really what we are driving at. Customers in these markets can be unforgiving. And if it is an Indian brand, then the forgiveness quotient is even less,” observed Dr. Varadaraj.

Specifically in the Indian market, there is a general view prevailing that the company’s thrust on the textile industry has not been aggressive enough. Competitors have been relatively more direct and assertive about their capabilities.

In talks with Managing Director, Dr. Jairam Varadaraj, The Textile Magazine unearths the determinants of ELGi’s powerful claim in the compressed air business –– “we provide the lowest lifecycle cost in the world.”

In Part One, we followed ELGi’s evolutionary journey in manufacturing and design which makes a compelling case for sales of their air compressors. But ELGi’s approach to after-sales service is what makes them valuable partners for customers in the long-term.

Commenting on ELGi’s relationship with the Indian textile sector, Dr. Jairam Varadaraj said: “As a group we know textiles better than our competitors. This is because we have our own spinning mill in the group. We have been in the business of textiles for 40-odd years now. We know the pain points and challenges. Plus, we are based out of Coimbatore, a premier textile hub. Wherever you go across the country, people in the textile industry know ELGi.”

The company has a strong sales and service network spanning the length and breadth of the country. ELGi has an extensive team of more than 500 sales and service personnel with a maximum response time of eight hours. Elaborating on this, Dr. Varadaraj pointed out: “For us it is not just about responding when a customer calls. It is about restoring air. Today 96-97% of our customers get their air back in less than six hours. That’s a record nobody can beat. In fact, even our competitors acknowledge this strength of ours. We deliver uptime.

Generally we are there in about an hour. That’s the physical infrastructure. We also have a strong system in place where every defect, however small it may be, is registered at the factory by evening. We are also coming out with a SIM card based device which is incorporated in our compressors. It is in the testing phase. While others have also been offering similar services, we are doing it with a difference. The device talks to the compressor and gives a comprehensive performance report through an algorithm. The software then starts predicting. See, any mechanical device will degrade with wear. Failure takes place when you don’t notice this wear. With this monitoring, you will be able to get there before the failure. Predictive maintenance is what we offer. We have supplied about 55 machines with the device. By the end of this year, we will make it standard on all our machines. Many of our competitors offer it usually for large machines and invariably tied up with a service contract. We don’t want to follow that path. We firmly believe that the device is meant for us. More than our customers, we want to know how our machines are performing, for it will help us keep improving and stay ahead of the curve.”