ROOTS INDUSTRIES INDIA LIMITED (RIL)
MANUFACTURING QUALITY PRODUCTS SINCE 5 DECADES
Roots Industries India Limited (RIL) is an exceptionally experienced, leading manufacturer of electric horns (70 dia to 150 dia) and electronic horns having multi-functional capabilities like Back up Alarm and USB chargers. RIL promotes its products to diverse segments including Automobile, Aerospace and Medical, Metrology, Comfort products, BLDC motors, Corporate Training & Electric Vehicles. RIL is the flagship of the famous Roots Group. Along with electric horns, the Company has invested resources in various products like Halogen lamps, Friction products, Battery, Lubricants and much more. The Company has fully functional manufacturing units present in Coimbatore and Russia and offices in many strategic locations across the world.
RIL has been at the forefront of manufacturing space, for the last – 5 decades having state-of-the-art technology, unmatched quality and management practices tailored to the industry. RIL shares its pride for being in some of the world’s premium automobile brands such as Toyota, Renaut-Nissan, VW group, Harley-Davidson, BMW, Ducati, Daimler, Caterpillar, Hyster-Yale group, Navistar etc., One of its subsidiaries, Roots Auto Products Pvt. Ltd. has been a significant supplier of air horns with sizeable market share. The brand has 250+ product variants recognized by countries like North America, Europe, Middle East, Africa and the SAARC region.
BRED FROM A MOTIVATION
The foundation of Roots, was laid down in 1970, at Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu by Mr. K. Ramasamy (Founder & Chairman). From a young age, he had a unique attraction towards automotive horns. In those days, the quality & durability of automotive horns was quite stale and despite the limited number of cars being made in India, automotive horns were imported from offshore nations like Germany, UK, Japan and USA. This emerging deficit brought up the idea to produce quality horns in India.
However, the task was significantly arduous and it took – 12 years, for Mr Ramasamy to finally create a qualified product, which was commercially launched, in 1982. The product became a major landmark when Roots offered Tata Motors with an import substitute at reasonable prices which replaced their practice of importing automotive horns, for export trucks. Since then, Roots added value in every way, from technology to quality to customer service and customer relation.
The leadership panel of Roots encompasses seasoned leaders of the industry whose meticulous approaches ensures a constant augmentation in the Company. Mr. K. Saravanasundaram (Deputy Managing Director) supervises a major part of the Company’s operations.
He started in Roots as an Engineer Trainee and has grown into an exemplary leader having remarkable achievements. His calibre, capacity, foresight and teambuilding approach has played an integral role in Roots’ Growth. Dr. Kavidasan (Director – HR functions) is recognized for his precision and involvement in handling various responsibilities. He carries a multidimensional personality that covers Human resource and personal management, training and mentoring.
He is also a speaker, poet, author and founding president of HRD circle Coimbatore. Dr. Kavidasan is also the secretary of Satchidananda Jothi Nikethan International School. His meritorious approaches are honoured with “Tamil Chemmal” & “Sollin Selvar” awards, by Tamil Nadu State Government. Mr. K .Guhan (Director – Quality) is the man behind the quality standards of Roots.
He is a certified Lead Auditor and a qualified Six Sigma black belt. He also oversees the Metrology division of Roots. His experience in Quality Assurance and QMS is a major contribution to the quality augmentation and diversification across strategic locations of south India.
ROLE OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
R&D plays an indispensable role in producing and fulfilling the purpose of a product in the market. On that note, Roots invests on in-depth R&D to produce well-engineered products and make continual improvements parallelly. Roots’ R & D is acknowledged, by the Ministry of Science and Technology – Department of Scientific and Industrial Research covering the objectives of design, development, up-gradation, innovation and value engineering. Furthermore, 2 Generations of experience in product development help in understanding customer preferences and to create merchandise, that transcends expectation. The company spends 2% of its annual sales on R&D and plans to take it up to 4% soon. It has a highly automated plant in Coimbatore, having an independent department of 25 Engineers engaged in new product development.
QUALITY – A PRIMAL PILLAR
Commitment to world-class products and services, exceeding customer expectations with due concern for the environment and society has helped Roots create niche expertise in the market. Factors such as employee involvement, technical innovation, cost reduction, constant innovation in merchandise and compliance to QMS requirement, further attributes to quality. Their quality is reflected in their behaviour, Governance and Human relation. In short, from head to toe Roots is reinforced with quality.
“Quality is our foundation and we didn’t compromise on that. As a result, it took us 12 years to develop a product of international quality.
We had competition from international players like Lucas from England and Hella from Germany but we could compete with them purely because of our exceptional quality standards,” says Mr. Ramasamy.
Roots’ quality has been recognized by International standards namely IATF16949:2016, ESD S20.20:2014, ISO14001:2015, ISO45001:2018, EN9100:2018, ISO13485:2016. These quality certificates further attribute their stringent nature towards standards. Roots are equipped with cutting-edge machinery and revolutionary methodologies that can devise simple solutions even for a complex problem.
WORK CULTURE, MORE LIKE A FAMILY
As mentioned earlier, Roots is all about quality – not just in operations but in its work culture as well. Roots, has a very congenial work culture and maintains a participative approach at all levels. Employees are constantly nurtured with respect to skill sets and are encouraged with motivational schemes like Service award, Kaizens, and has an in-house library as well.
Every individual’s talents and qualities and contributions are recognized and honoured with suitable awards. Employees’ enthusiasm is further fostered, with indoor and outdoor games with an emphasis on team building, Yoga, and eye camps for villages and other social participation as well. Volunteering these initiatives inculcate a habit of repayment to society.
On top of that, employees’ children are awarded for their academic excellence, running a summer camp, Thirukural Mandram, yoga camp etc., making them proud and motivating them to contribute further and maintain their enthusiasm.
GROWING BEYOND THE PANDEMIC
|To address the challenges proffered by Covid-19, Roots worked meticulously with a revamped framework. They worked in a batch like formations i.e. work from home and employees working on a rotation basis to ensure an autonomous operation and wellbeing of all our employees as well. This re-innovative framework ensured their factories function at maximum capacity and customer’s requirements were fulfilled. None of their employees retrenched, which further corroborated integrity between the company and its employees.
The invocation of COVID-19 has made a severe impact on employment all over the globe. Since employees were their main assets, Roots took the health and safety concerns of its family very seriously. A COVID-19 Task Force Team was formed at each of our facility/ locations, which ensured employees adhere to sanitization, wearing of masks and social distancing. Banners and Posters were displayed at all vantage locations of our factories to bring awareness of COVID- 19. Temperature scanning of all employees was carried out both during entry and exit and recorded. Pulse Oximeter reading was carried daily for every employee.
ACHIEVEMENTS & PROSPECTS
In its – 5 decades of business, Roots has shown great strength and persistence. For the championing quality, Roots has received ‘Zero PPM award’ from Toyota, ‘Supplier of the Year’ award from Paccar, Platinum level certification from Caterpillar and much more. Their quality was honoured with ‘Q1 Flag’ by FORD while Roots was providing to their North American Plants. Diversification and innovation are the two major goals of Roots in the coming years. However, having an already diversified business the Company is focusing more on innovative opportunities. Roots, is further working on several Govt. projects on Cleaning, Defence, Electric Vehicles, Health care, etc.
A TOKEN OF ENLIGHTENMENT
“Think like the customer and Act like the Owner”, Simplicity is the key to efficiency”, Mr. K. Ramasamy
