Mohali Plant Product Line

Product Characteristics:

White Goods demand continuous design and facia change because of tough competition and market demand. If we cannot bring new SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) every six months, then company is in trouble. We are bound to lose some market share. There is huge scope for innovation and R&D. R&D investment is considerable in this industry. Product life cycle is short; ranging from 6 months to 24 months. Some SKUs can be exception which will last for 36 to 48 months whose demand is constant over the period.

Since, product life cycle is short it is advisable to carry out only assembly operations at plant. Exception can be those operations which are common for all product families.

Eg: foaming operation is common for all refrigerators. Moulding of cabinet and grills is common for all refrigerators and air conditioners. Here one has to change injection moulding die and quick changeover is very much possible.

All such operations will be carried out in-house and major components will be outsourced.

Our company is pioneer in refrigerator compressor manufacturing and we hold that competency with us. We are benchmark for many of our competitors. We are the first one to manufacture HCFC free compressors for refrigerators. Hence we own refrigerator compressor manufacturing and do it in house. We are not expert in manufacturing of air conditioner compressors. Hence, we outsource air conditioner compressors.

Capacity, Facility and Plant Layout:

We are operating with two manufacturing units in India. We do not have any Greenfield project overseas. Two Facilities are located at Shirwal and Mohali. Shirwal facility manufactures all product families. Mohali facility manufactures Refrigerator compressors, Direct Cool Refrigerators and Split Air Conditioners.

Shirwal Plant Product Lines

Mohali Plant Product Line

Both Mohali and Shirwal plants have product layout for mass production in batches of each SKU on each line. Transfer line machining is available at both plants. This means that not a single line of refrigerators or air conditioners is dedicated any of the SKU. Any SKU of that product family can be manufactured on the line.

Demand of both products is seasonal. Refrigerators and AC demand is at peak from March to June. Then demand goes down considerably till month of August. From month of September demand, goes up drastically and remains still till the end of November. Below is the graph showing fluctuation in demand of Frost Free refrigerators.

Graph 1

Production strategy is chase strategy. As we will chase