Accusharp Cutting Tools Pvt. Ltd. is a Leading cutting tool manufacturer in India, we design, manufacture & supply all types of Special Carbide Round Tools for Automobiles, Aerospace, Defense, Mining, Medical, Engineering, Textile, Energy Sector, Machine, Tools Industries, etc. to bring this high-end technology to the country. “Accusharp has for long been one of the important drivers in the cutting tooling industry in India. We are widely recognized as an Indian company with a global business culture, which makes us the first choice for special cutting tools for a number of local companies and MNCs. By investing in HiPIMS technology and bringing InoxaCon Coating and Ferrocon Coating, we are looking to further consolidate our market position. Our customers expect us to provide them with world-class solutions. This is another step in that direction”, says Ilyas Shaikh, Managing Director of Accusharp Cutting Tools Pvt. Ltd.
Accusharp well balance the Customer Requirement and to satisfy the Requirement by Continuous improving in the Product Quality & In time Delivery Says Ayaz Shaikh the Marketing Director of Accusharp Cutting Tools Pvt. Ltd.
Q1. The Cutting tool industry has seen substantial growth in recent years, and Accusharp has been a critical player in the industry. What is your take on this trend?
The business has definitely been picking up. The call to ‘Make in India’ has spurred businesses to make as well as procure from India. Companies now prefer Indian-made cutting tools over imported ones to save costs. Earlier, there was an industry-wide misconception that Indian cutting tools were of inferior quality. That outlook has begun to change now. Companies across different verticals can see that Indian cutting tool manufacturers like Accusharp are investing heavily in enhancing and developing their product line. Our quality has always been on par with global products, and it was about time the industry started taking note of that. This uptick has also been triggered by industrial and business trends that are undergoing a change.
Q2. Accusharp has leaded the industry for so long and continues to. What do you attribute this to?
Several factors come into play here – well-trained workforce, foolproof business strategies, able leadership, etc. But our ability to innovate and stay on top is pivotal to our success. Take, for example, the automobile industry. Some of our largest clients come from the automobile industry. Accusharp’s top brass predicts a gradual shift from transmission vehicles to e-vehicles in this decade. And it is not just the transmission; our cutting tools are used for almost all components used in automobile manufacture. The shift from BS-IV to BS-VI has seen an abrupt change and manufacturers are still getting used to it. They will need another five years to get the ROI on BS-VI, after which we will see manufacturers, as well as customers, lean heavily towards e-vehicles. Accordingly, cutting tools will also have to adapt – from cutting steel and cast iron to aluminum and other surfaces as suitable for e-vehicles. At Accusharp, we navigated the move from BS-IV to BS-VI effortlessly and will be at the forefront of innovation and delivery when the shift to e-vehicles comes.
Q3. Tell us about the wide product range offered by Accusharp.
We offer made-to-order, customized cutting tools for various industries such as automobile, mining, aerospace, defense, medical, agriculture, and so on. Of course, a major percentage of our business comes from the automobile sector. This is why, I said earlier, when the industry moves from e-vehicles to transmission vehicles, the cutting tools will be adopted accordingly by Accusharp. We will pioneer that movement.
Q4. How do your facility and workforce enhance your manufacturing capabilities?
Presently, we are using about 75% of our manufacturing capacity. So there is always the flexibility of scalability. Our customers, hence, are not straitjacketed by MOQ or EOQ. As far as the workforce goes, every year we recruit fresh diploma engineers and graduates, who are provided with in-house training. They then continue working with us. Ever since our first employee, we have never recruited pre-trained staff. Our machines and our work is to be done in a particular way and we expect people to join with a clean slate so we can orient them as per our requirement.
Q5. Accusharp’s products are known to have some of the best quality standards in the industry, tell us about your QA practices and how you maintain product performance?
We are an ISO-certified company for over five years now. ISO certification is only given after a company meets certain parameters of manufacturing and quality assurance. We take every step to ensure our tools are up to global standards. We always keep an eye out for global industry trends and what other companies are doing. There is a ton of internal research and improvisation involved. We perform reverse engineering to spot gaps and better them. Recently, we started coating our tools with HiPIMS technology. It is to ensure integrated support to enhance the quality and increase the life of the tools manufactured by us. We have adopted this machine so as to give the best quality products at par with multinational players.
While working as per drawings and dimensions, our employees are already following the set global standards that include online inspection as per set parameters. After the second stage, the tools undergo a final quality check on high-end machines, and at the third stage, we prepare the report thereof. The tool is checked on several parameters. There is an online check, which is done after the machine is made, before a final inspection on high-end machines.
Q6. How do you ensure that Accusharp is always enhancing its processes?
We have implemented the SAP system. All quality records are recorded. All the process is automated by SAP. We have observed many changes since we implemented SAP. Within a year of adapting SAP, we observed drastic changes in previously manually done accounting and production work. For instance, earlier, rejection was not monitored, the raw material was not monitored. Now, how much raw material is required for the machine, how much is the rejection is all now recorded. In accounting, whatever billing was done would often lie unattended for months and even after the bill was sent, there was no proper follow up on it for nearly six months. As a result, every year nearly thirty to forty lakh rupees would turn into bad debts. Since the implementation of SAP, all these things are automated.
Q7. Accusharp was one of the few companies that thrived during the pandemic. How did you enable collaboration amongst internal teams? What were the key lessons from this crisis?
During the first lockdown, from 22nd March to 19th May, manufacturing was completely shut down as everything was closed. During these times, we ensured that we helped the community with necessary supplies. Once lockdown was partially lifted, we began our manufacturing activities according to the municipal corporation’s guidelines. There were challenges of traveling and we had to call the employees in the timings fixed by the government to get the work done. 30% of our manpower was out of Pune and we worked with the remaining workforce. We arranged vehicles to help groups of two or three travel to the manufacturing facility. But according to me, the most important lesson of the lockdown experience was that one should be prepared for anything. Not just physically and mentally, but financially. Any organization should be able to sustain itself for three to four months whatever the situation. Fortunately, we were in that position. We sustained well for a good six months. We supported our employees and did not let them be unsatisfied.
Q8. Please throw some light on some of Accusharp’s latest initiatives and focus products for 2022?
In 2022, we aim to improve the quality of our manufactured products, try new geometry, raw material testing, HiPIMS coating testing, how to increase tool life. We will execute in-house machining to ensure that we will not only deliver the manufactured product but we will first test it at our end.
