Texcoms Textile Solutions: Uplifting performance

Since 2012, Texcoms Textile Solutions (TTS), a subsidiary of Texcoms Worldwide, has been helping clients develop capabilities that result in improved revenues and reduced costs. R Janarthanan, COO of TTS, speaks on the secret behind the success of TTS, and its plans for ITMA.

Take us through the secret behind the success of Texcoms Textile Solutions.

Texcoms Textile Solutions was started in the year 2012. Texcoms Textile Solutions (TTS), a subsidiary of Texcoms Worldwide, helps clients develop capabilities that result in improved revenues and reduced costs. Since 2012, the company has grown by leaps and bounds, and is now exporting its solutions to various countries, including Vietnam, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Burundi, Ethiopia, Azerbaijan, South Africa, Uzbekistan, to name a few.

We have now added another new feather to our cap. We have started working with top Indian companies including Trident, Garg Acrylic among others. In the last seven years, since the time we launched, we have expanded our operations in the domestic as well as global markets.

Most of the management staff working with us are technocrats. The average experience of our management staff will be at least around 30 years, Most of the Senior partners have been with us since inception and many more partners are working for us on a case-to-case basis.

Tell us more about your parent company – Texcoms Worldwide.

Texcoms Worldwide was started 15 years ago. The company’s basic strength is acquiring textile assets and relocating them. As it is known, when the Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA) came to an end and with opening of textile markets and creating a level playing field, Asian companies started dominating the textile scene in the world resulting in closure of textile factories in many parts of world. Machines in many countries became obsolete as they could not face the challenges posed by Asian countries.

At Texcoms Worldwide, we have been relocating hundreds of plants from Europe, America and Africa to Asia. Till date, we have relocated closer to 4 million spindles, and a balanced weaving and finishing machines. This is our big achievement to date.

We have our team working in many countries in operations and repair stations in India, Bangladesh and Thailand. We are starting a new one in Vietnam, and we plan to start one in Africa.

We also have another division involved in yarns and fabric trading – Yarncoms. It is a trading company, which sources specialty yarns and fabrics from the subcontinent and exports to all countries across the globe.

How do you work on the client’s products?

We have created TIMES – Textile Industry Manufacturing Excellence Standards. We are creating excellence standards in each segment – spinning, weaving and knitting, finishing and polyester manufacturing chain which will become the benchmark in the industry pretty soon. We keep updating the standards as we excel the standards set.

We approach the customers with our TIMES catalogue and check whether they are in the red zone or in the green (profitability) zone. If they are in the red zone, then for sure they will need some help, we will then propose an initial gap analysis study and followed by an implementation phase, which will fill in the gaps and bring the unit back to improved productivity and quality resulting in increased revenues and reduced costs.

Our services include turnkey project management – right from ground zero, we build the whole factory and work towards sustainability. We are currently engaged in four to five projects in Africa, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Ethiopia under this model.

The second type of service we offer is management contract. In this model, we take over the company and run it professionally. We currently operate projects in India and Indonesia.

The third type of project we undertake is capacity building and benchmarking. Most of the projects we undertake in many countries falls in this category and we have many references and customers on this model.

The fourth main service we undertake is relocating a factory from one location to another in the same country or in a different country/continent. We have undertaken many projects in this model and currently are in discussion with some customers for this services. We also offer strategic advice and Investor services to our customer on various textile projects.

A very special project currently underway in Ethiopia to capacitate the Textile Ministry and the textile development institute of the country to develop knowledge and skill and guide the textile industry of the country to the next level. At the end of the programme, the local engineers and technologists will be able to assist the textile industry for any problems they will face in the near future.

On what basis do people accept the proposal? There may be some more timeline during this process?

As said earlier once our customer understands that he might need a technical audit to improve his overall performance based on the TIMES chart , they take a call to go ahead with the initial gap analysis to see where there are gaps in the operations. We then apply our methodology of “Discover – Diagnose – Design – Deliver” to analyse, design and implement a programme, which will bring sustainable overall improvements in the complete operations of the company. The main difference between TTS and many other consultants is that we go the full length in ensuring the gaps are filled and the implementation program which might last up to six to eight months to complete and the operations become sustainable from the well-established knowledge transfer accrued during the programme.

The benefits that they have gained is for the lifetime of the company. They are paying a very small amount of money to TTS compared to the gains.

Which are the companies that have achieved success with your support?

Th success stories are listed in our brochures and they are many in many countries and continents. There has never been a situation wherein we have under-performed on the commitments given. We have started our Indian operations in the last one year and have completed/under progress many projects, which are setting new standards in the industry with productivity quality, YR and UKG benefits.

What is your plan for ITMA?

At ITMA, as consultants, we plan to meet customers from new countries. There are many consultants in the world, but only a few have the capability to undertake Gap analysis and also fill in the gaps with an implementation programme. We will be showcasing this advantage at ITMA. We are targeting countries, whom we have not tapped yet. These countries include South America, Europe, CIS countries among others. We hope to meet more people at ITMA and showcase our projects and methodologies to the world.

The problem of skilled manpower is also the problem in the textile industry. How are you tackling this issue?

The challenge to recruit skilled textile technologists who are always there, but our main job as a consultant is to recruit the right people for the right job. At TTS, we have the advantage of attracting them by paying higher salaries than the industry standards. By doing this, they stay with us for a longer time.

We have witnessed a grand migration of sort of good engineers shifting from textiles to IT. Hence to find a good textile technologist with right attitude and 25 years of experience is quite a task now. This is a challenge we face and we do overcome it through diligent recruitment method.

Experts we recruit are taken through a good process of orientation. We keep on upgrading the skills of our partners and give them proper on-the-job training. All our success stories in the past years are due mainly to our well trained partners who understand our methodology and philosophy of work and perform to the highest standards.

Each project is never without a project director. Project directors are seasoned veterans and have been there with our company since the beginning. We have a team of experts who are under complete guidance of these leaders . This is the work culture we follow at TTS.

What is the mission/vision of your company?

Mission: We assist building agile textile companies that can spot opportunities early on, solve problems, leading to sustainable and profitable growth.

Value proposition: Assisting textile companies to increase revenue and reduce costs. Thank you and hope to see you all in ITMA in our Stall UL B107.