DIWALI 2014 ISSUE 20

LAWKIM’S FIRST IN-HOUSE ‘INTERNATIONAL’ WORKSHOP!

A Photo Essay

On 18th September 2014 - World Bamboo Day! - Lawkim proudly kicked off its Bamboo Workshop with Craig Calfee, a master bicycle builder from San Francisco in the USA. Craig, a youthful-looking 52, has built a fine reputation building bicycles out of unusual materials like bamboo and carbon fibre. In fact, in 1991 with the support of twice world champion Greg LeMond (also 3-time winner of the Tour de France!), he built the first all-carbon fibre framed bicycles to compete in the Tour de France.

In 2012, I had had the unusual pleasure of helping to welcome 2 young Dutch cyclists to Ushuaia at the tip of South America who had pedalled Craig Calfee-built bamboo bicycles from Deadhorse, Alaska, all the way down - a distance of nearly 30000 kms! The bicycles, and their riders, then travelled with us by ship before they featured in the first truly global TEDx event to take place in the last remaining wilderness on earth - Antarctica!

Craig was now with our teams at Lawkim’s invitation to conduct a 10-day workshop to help our teams build bamboo bikes with superior Fit, Feel and Finish!

The Workshop was an eye-opener for our teams, many of whom probably thought making a bamboo cycle was relatively easy and straight-forward! Craig quickly dispossessed them of such notions, impressing the teams with his attention to detail (such as inspecting the assembly tables for true flatness before any assembly on them) and then showing his thorough preparedness in all details of how he was going to conduct the workshop.

From selecting the right variety of bamboo, to selecting bamboo sections of the correct thickness to take care of load transmission on the cycle frame, to cutting and precise drilling, soaking of jute yarn in carefully selected epoxy resin and then ensuring uniform spread of the jute yarn while taping on to the joint and then finishing off these joints by grinder, file and polish paper in a highly precise manner. Only then could the joints receive a final polish and finish. Being a true ‘hands-on’ Workshop, the teams had to actually do all operations - some of which were quite tiring and frustrating! But when the teams saw how the finally finished frame looked - all the pain and frustrations fell away in admiration of their handiwork! Craig then personally drove the finally assembled road bike made from that frame - and all the participants felt a huge thrill of pride at having been a part of the whole process. Appreciating how product aesthetics are so important in winning customer approval - and how the various stages of product engineering enable those finishes to be achieved - was the Team take-away!

The teams emerged from the workshop with a whole new appreciation of what it takes to build a quality bamboo bike. Craig also drilled into us the importance of a good, sound business plan to enable the successful transition from a good product into one that wins customer approval and delight. It was truly a workshop with a difference - and Craig Calfee was the catalyst in helping our engineers and workmen alike to appreciate what a truly professional approach can bring to a product like a bamboo bike!

Though Craig Calfee has returned to his country, he remains closely in touch with us, questioning us to ensure we follow through with the tasks he had laid out for us as we go ahead. He plans to be in Qatar in March 2015, and may rejoin us then to see how we finish what he began for us! When I was in the US recently I walked into a cycle shop in Los Angeles and asked the owner what he knew about bamboo bikes - he immediately told me that he knew of a man in San Francisco called Craig Calfee who was the best in this field. He also said he knew a man who had built a bamboo bike himself - and that it had been a very difficult exercise! Looks like we have been on the right track in our choice of Mentor!

Vijay Crishna

LAWKIM WINS QC AWARDAT STATE QC CIRCLE COMPETITION 2014

Lawkim QC Team “Revolution” with Mr. Mohan Ghatge(L to R : Basavraj Kore, Chandrakant Lohar, Navnath Chavan, Subhash Shirtode,

Vilas Bhargude, Prakash Salunkhe & Prashant Khurape)

Lawkim Motors Group’s Quality Circle Team – “Revolution” - won 2nd Prize at the Maharashtra State Level QC Circle Competition held at Kolhapur on 9th Oct 2014. Team Revolution presented our quality improvement project – “Hermetic Rotor Die-casting Rejection Reduction”.

Sales  Value  of  produc/on  at  Rs.   146   crores   has  been   higher   by   5%  against  plan   -­‐  with  Net  opera/ng  surplus  at  Rs.3  crores  200%  higher  than  plan.  Exports  have  also  been  higher  than  plan  and  average  net  working  capital  turns  at  18  higher  than  the  planned  15.

We  have  reduced   low-­‐value  business  segment  sales,  and  focussed  more  on  higher  profitability   to   increase  contribu/on  margin  on  single-­‐phase  FHP  Motors  by  close  analysis  of  our  manufacturing  costs,  ra/ng-­‐wise.  Where  margins  were  nega/ve  we  increased  prices  to  make  them  posi/ve,  and  where  margins  were  low  we  increased  prices   by   comparing   compe/tor   pricelists.   We   also   undertook   a   cost   reduc/on  programme  by  rechecking  all  BOM  prices  such  as    for  shaSs,  bearings,  packing  costs  etc.  A  similar  exercise  is  being  carried  out  for  LT  three  phase  motors.

Our Business Results for July /August /September

FAMILY FUN!Lawkim   warmly   welcomed   45   workmen  and   their   families   to   Shindewadi   on   9th  Sept  2014.  They   visited   the  Naoroji   Godrej  Centre   for  Plant  Research   and   its  ac/vi/es,  took  a  round  of   the  shopfloor  and  our  new  innova/ons     followed   by   a   short   talk   by  Adv.  Smt.  Aparna  Ram/rthkar,  a  very  ac/ve  social   worker   in   Sholapur.   She   runs   an  Ashram   for   orphans,   looks   aSer   discarded  infants,  provides  a  shelter  and  care  for  old,  helpless   couples   abandoned   by   their  children   as   well   as   counselling   married  couples  with  problems.  She  emphasized  the  building   of   good   rela/ons   between  husbands   and   wives,   children   and   parents  for   a   stress-­‐free   and   happy   life.     The  employees   and   their   families   were  extremely   impressed   by   her   talk   and   have  requested   the   company   to   consider  arranging  more  of  such  lectures.  

Smt.  Aparna  Ramthirthkar

From  the  Editor’s  Desk.....

Dear  Friends,

At  Lawkim  I  am  proud   to   say  that  we  make  all  efforts  to  not  only  be  a  part  of  the  community  around  us,  but  also  to  draw  in  that  community  to  appreciate  how  our  ac/vi/es  benefit  them.  So  our  Naoroji   Godrej   Centre   for   Plant   Research  conducted   a   ‘Puja-­‐Patri’  Workshop   in   Pune   city   to  raise  awareness   amongst  the  general  public  about  how   common   use   of   certain   plant   offerings   as  ‘patri’   during   fes/vals   need   to   be   re-­‐examined  carefully   since   many   of   these   plants   are   actually  endangered   species.     I   am   happy   to   say   that   the  workshop,  which  was  conducted  in  Pune  at  the  end   of   August  was  greatly  appreciated  by   the  ci/zens  of  Pune.

Lawkim   also,   along  with   Prof   Deshpande  and  his   students   of  Bhara/ya  Vidyapeeth,  College  of   Fine   Arts   Pune,   imparted   training   on   the  use   of   clay   idols   during  Ganesh   Chaturthi   as  against   the   more   common   use   of   plaster   of  paris   for   idol-­‐making  -­‐  which    has  an   adverse  effect  on  the  environment    by  pollu/ng  water  during  immersion  and  raising  the  acidity  of  the  water   bodies   they   are   immersed   in,  destroying  aqua/c  life.    100  students  from  10  schools  of  Shirwal  and  Khandala  talukas  were  part  of   this  workshop  and   the  children  had  a  wonderful   /me   being   taught   the   techniques  imparted  to  them.    Again,  the  teachings  were  highly   appreciated   by   the   children   of   the  various  schools  and  their  teachers.

Finally, let me take this opportunity of wishing all of you

and your families a Shubh Deepawali!        Warmly,

Vijay Crishna

Kachora Chavar

Our  Taluka  School  kids  with  the  clay  idols  they  were  taught  to  make!