ELGi opens new HQ in Europe

The new headquarters will house over 20 people and feature training rooms and offices designed to build collaboration and foster innovation, in line with the ELGi values that form the backbone of its culture worldwide.

ELGi Equipments, one of the world’s leading air-compressor manufacturers, with two million installations across 100 countries, announced the opening of its new European headquarters in Belgium. Situated at Brussels, and spread over 400+ sq m, the workplace will house over 20 people and feature training rooms and offices designed to build collaboration and foster innovation, in line with the ELGi values that form the backbone of our culture worldwide.

Speaking at the inauguration, Dr Jairam Varadaraj, CEO, ELGi Equipments, said “We’re proud of what we’ve built at ELGi. Over the years, our definition of Always Better has ensured we are focused on always being the customer’s choice. With this goal in view, we’ve concentrated on developing world class products with the best Life Cycle Cost (LCC). We’ve guaranteed the best in industry uptime. We’ve reaffirmed our commitment to reliability by providing customers with robust warranty and we’ve driven cost leadership through technology and innovation. All of this has resulted in us witnessing significant success in the USA, the world’s second largest air compressor market, in a short span of five years. Europe is the third largest market worldwide and presents us with a huge opportunity. We’re excited. And while we celebrate our successes, we will toast to the future.”

Chris Ringlstetter, President, ELGi Europe, said “We are proud to be part of a company that truly understands and believes in the importance of investing in its future. Over the years ELGi has been establishing itself across Europe, with a strong focus on diesel powered screw compressors (portables) and an expanding product portfolio of electric powered screw compressors (stationary). We will continue to evolve and grow our Pan-European presence substantially, while expanding our existing channel footprint. While we are confident we have a strong leadership team in the region, we are now focusing on building our sales and service teams. Europe is a mature market, but we have quickly come to realise that the industry we serve and the distributors we choose to partner with are excited about our investment and growth plans.”

The growing focus on energy efficiency, in line with the Paris agreement and the European Commission’s climate strategy, has mandated energy efficiency improvements of at least 32.5 per cent by 2030, causing companies to employ energy efficient compressor ranges to achieve high performance while remaining competitive in their respective sectors. Additionally, customer increased air quality standards have enforced the use of ‘Class Zero’ compressed air in the food and beverage, pharmaceutical and other sensitive industries.

David De Pril, Head of Product Management and Marketing, ELGi Europe, commented “ELGi has developed technology specifically to address an existing need with air compressors that offer customers maximum energy efficiency, sustainable advantages, significantly lower maintenance and ease of use, as well as reliable, high air purity for sensitive industry applications.”

ELGi wins the coveted 2019 Deming Prize

Elgi Equipments has won the coveted 2019 Deming Prize for the sustained application and leverage of TQM (Total Quality Management) across the organisation. The Deming Prize is one of the highest awards on TQM (Total Quality Management) in the world and since its establishment in 1951, has been awarded to 251 organizations worldwide. ELGi is the first globally established, industrial air compressor manufacturer, outside of Japan, to win the prestigious award in over 60 years and will formally receive the prize on the 6th of November 2019 in Tokyo, Japan.

Speaking on the win Dr Varadaraj said “ELGi has an ambitious aspiration. To achieve this, we recognised that the company needed to adopt a management philosophy that builds vertical excellence in each operating function and customer-centric horizontal excellence across the business, operations and support functions. At ELGi, we endeavour to accomplish ordinary tasks in an extraordinary manner and turn extraordinary ambitions into ordinary tasks; TQM has significantly enabled the same.

Our focus on technology, innovation and continuous improvement are the bastions of our Conquer K2 journey and help us deliver sustainable and efficient compressed air solutions, in line with our brand promise of being Always Better for our customers, across the world.”

R Jayakanthan, Director – People, Systems and Strategy, Elgi Equipments, added “Our focus on institutionalising TQM across the organisation has resulted in the development of so many unique practices that arm us with a competitive advantage while we continually work towards accomplishing our global growth goals. I would also take this opportunity to commend our employees for their continual support and focus on building excellence in TQM, across the organisation.”

The Deming Prize was established in 1951 by the Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) to honor W. Edwards Deming, who contributed greatly to Japan’s proliferation of statistical quality control after World War II. The selection procedure of the winner is a very rigorous and intense affair for both for the company and the examination body, spread over a period of about 15 months. The Deming Prize Committee views the examination process as an opportunity for ‘mutual-development’ rather than an ‘examination’.

ELGi’s AB ‘Always Better’ Oil Free Series wins 2019 CII Design Excellence Award

Also, Elgi Equipments recently won the 2019 CII Design Awards. The ELGi AB ‘Always Better’ series, a disruption in Oil free compressed air technology, won the CII Design Excellence Award in the Industrial Design, capital goods category. The CII Design Excellence Awards, endorsed by the India Design Council, acknowledge and celebrate design and innovation in India, while aiming to create new paradigms of design and promoting a unique amalgamation of traditional and contemporary design.

Commenting on the win, Dr Varadaraj said “At ELGi, design thinking is at the core of effective strategy development and organisational change. We believe that innovation has evolved from being engineering focused to design focused and from product centricity to customer centricity. The ELGi AB ‘Always Better’ series is a disruption in Oil free compressed air technology, offering customers a no-compromise, oil free solution at approximately 8to 10 per cent reduced lifecycle costs when compared with prevailing oil free technology. With significantly lower maintenance and ease of use, customers will also be assured of reliable, high air purity for sensitive industry applications. From a design perspective, the AB series is customer centric and reflects our focus on product aesthetics, design and innovation.”

With a clean, rectangular form, the AB Series oil free screw air compressor is largely defined by its functional parts. A filleted corner on the front face distinguishes the user interface from the rest of the air compressor. The canopy is designed to be symmetrical with azure blue panels replicating the colour of water, signifying the underlying oil free technology. This year, over forty six products were shortlisted and exhibited at the CII Design Summit held in Goa. The products were judged across criteria ranging from innovation, user friendliness, aesthetics, coherence and sustainability, by a jury comprising of several eminent personalities from the design fraternity in India.