Team success across borders
An international team at GF Piping Systems has succeeded in producing large electrofusion couplers for the Indian market more efficiently and cost-effectively – thanks to know-how from India, China, and Switzerland.
GF Piping Systems has had its own production plant in Ratnagiri (India) since 2008, but even at maximum capacity, the team has had to import some products to be able to serve the Indian market. Among these are electrofusion couplers with diameters between 180 and 315 millimeters – for the transport of drinking water, for instance – from Switzerland. “When products are ordered from Switzerland, you have to add another 50% to the production price due to freight costs and import taxes,” says Plant Manager Rahul Gavali. “This clearly pushed us out of the local market as our competitors offer couplers measuring even up to 500 millimeters significantly cheaper.” To get around this competitive disadvantage, the management team at GF Piping Systems India decided to find a way to produce the special couplers onsite in Ratnagiri.
This was easier said than done, because it quickly became clear that adapting the same technology used in Switzerland was not an option. Dirk Petry, former Head of Development for the Utility area at GF Piping Systems in Schaffhausen (Switzerland), explains: “We’ve been manufacturing the large couplers using a fully automated production process at our sites in Schaffhausen and Subingen for 25 years. The production lines, which have several interlinked industrial robots, are very complex. The costs of applying the same process in India would have been way too high. We have therefore opted for a less automated but equally sustainable process for the plant in India, which delivers the same high quality offered by the products in Switzerland,” says Petry, who retired in 2021 after working for 33 years at GF.
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New process in record time
In only twelve months, a new project team developed a highly efficient manufacturing process that was an ideal fit. GF Piping Systems pursued this by pooling expertise from three locations and two continents. The project team, led by Rahul Gavali, collaborated closely with the Research & Development departments in Shanghai (China) and Schaffhausen responsible for the design and testing of the electrofusion couplers. The new process required a new concept for the molds used to produce the couplers. Two wire-plowing machines were specially developed. Furthermore, the team came up with a new tool to cut the channels for the wire in the inner coupler part – without producing any waste. “Thanks to the commitment of colleagues on different continents, coupler production is now possible in India even without automated robots,” says Petry. “Thanks to innovative ideas from the project team, we could make the process very cost-effective, low-maintenance and sustainable.” Rahul Gavali is also pleased at how effective the collaboration has been: “With joint efforts, we completed the project in a record time, from the tool concept through ordering the machines to the initial tests. We were really proud when we received the technical approval for the new process and the product approval of the German gas and water association DVGW for our couplers made in India.”
© Abhijeet GurjarRahul Gavali
Position: Site Manager
Division: GF Piping Systems
Location: Ratnagiri (India)
Joined GF in: 2009
Knowledge transfer from India to Europe
“Now, with local production in India, we are able to deliver the electrofusion couplers to customers in just 25 days, and at a competitive price,” says Ganesh Kotavadekar, Production Manager on Rahul’s team. “Our customers in India are happy with the quality of the couplers, and our production capacities are booked up for several months to come.”
Thanks to this great team achievement, GF Piping Systems in India has enhanced its edge over local competitors in the large electrofusion coupler segment. Given that gas and water supply has always been a specialty of GF Piping Systems, this achievement is helping the company to remain the market leader in this area in India. The entire division benefits from this team achievement: “Based on the expertise we have developed, we will soon be introducing a product in Switzerland that is produced using a similar manufacturing technology,” says Dirk Petry. “We have gained a lot of valuable know-how from this joint project. Now we are transferring the lessons learnt from India back to Europe – this is unique in the company’s history to date.”
Further impressions:
© Abhijeet Gurjar
© Abhijeet Gurjar
© Abhijeet Gurjar
© Abhijeet Gurjar