Solely Focussed On How To Make FOSG’s Vision 2025 Achievable
FOSG’s 9th conclave in the holy city of Amritsar this year witnessed unprecedented success with the largest gathering of processors till date and an all-time-high infusion of new members joining the association.
The conclave began with the attendees paying homage to Late Mr R S Subramanian of Saint-Gobain Glass India Ltd, who was a strong supporter of FOSG and its achievements since the founding days. Mr Gurmeet Singh, Chairman of FOSG, then presented the conclave’s theme – Vision 2025 to be the improvement of ROI for its members by focusing the Federation’s activities with respect to the same. Throughout the course of the conclave, presentations and panel discussions were directed towards deriving inputs on how to make FOSG’s Vision 2025 achievable at the ground level. During the past few years, FOSG had been advocating for strengthening the implementation of RERA and the NBC’s recent inclusion of glass as a part of their code with various government representatives. A presentation outlining the association’s activities on the subject and the future plans for the same was given by Mr Sharanjit Singh from GSC Glass Ltd. The panel consisting of Mr Sadiq Kapadia from Modern Safety Glass, Mr Ali Asgar from Sapphire Glass, Mr Parmeshswaran from Madras Tuff Glass India, Mr Hunaid Kachwala from Zenith Safety Glass, Mr Rakesh Awasthi from Ozone Overseas and Mr Chandan Kumar from Kuraray then discussed the likely impact the strengthening of RERA and NBC’s implementation would have on the market. It was concluded that educating and creating awareness among local governance bodies and consumers for its effective implementation was crucial as it was bound to increase the consumption of processed glass. It was also suggested by Mr Sadiq Kapadia for running an awareness campaign through digital marketing for spreading awareness for the end users focusing on risks of not using safety glass in various applications and he was applauded for taking this responsibility to take it further. With the increase in consumption / demand for processed glass, comes the difficulties attached to credit sales and the timely recovery of dues. The next presentation focused on various means by which credit sales can be recovered successfully. The delayed payments recovery to MSMEs via MSME-Samadhaan portal, the trades receivable e-discounting system (TReDS) in addition to FOSG’s role in helping with the recovery of money were presented by Ms Varsha Konidala from Balaji Building Technologies Ltd. Both the audience and the panellists consisting of Ms Himansee Jain from Fuso Glass, Mr Palaniappan from Masss Glass India, Mr Mahesh Agarwal from Agarwal Toughened Glass, Mr Praveen B from Gaap Tuff Glass and Mr Hussain Rampurwala from Sapphire Glass participated actively in vocalizing their issues and viewpoints regarding credit sales and its necessity for conducting business. Although the viewpoints put forth were extremely polarised, they were accepted with professional decorum by all those present. Deeming credit sales to be difficult to eradicate at this stage, the panellists then debated on how FOSG can further succeed with these recoveries by strengthening regional communication amongst members whilst dealing with habitual defaulters. Yet another shortcoming of India’s adolescent glass processing industry is the lack of knowledge on costing. FOSG has strived to educate its members regarding the calculation of manufacturing costs, post manufacturing costs and to how identify, review, reduce and recover them. Ms Sheetal Khanna from Gold Plus explained the costing worksheet FOSG has developed to facilitate each individual processor in knowing their own production cost. Following this, Ms Khanna gave a detailed presentation on the terms and conditions of business to print on quotations and invoices, their importance and implications. The panel consisting of Mr Suresh Shah from Ridhi Sidhi Glasses, Mr Parmeshswaran from Madras Tuff Glass India, Mr Chaitanya Madan from Manchu Toughened Glass, Mr Farhat Kamil from Kaenat Glass, Mr Sahil Singal from Mirage Toughened Glass and Mr Robin Mukesh from Birkan Engineering Works discussed the instances during which such explicit terms and conditions have favoured them and also concluded a few variations of the same being used by several of them. Several members requested FOSG to make a standard draft of the terms and conditions to be circulated amongst its members who would then select points to be published in their documents subsequently. One of the main focus of FOSG’s Vision 2025 in improving the ROI for its members is by the means of optimizing costs. Aptly FOSG had released its android and iOS app in addition to their website’s ‘lounge’ platform to provide a means for inventory sharing and pool purchases that would facilitate lowering expenses. Although the use of these platforms have not been encouraging over the past years, the infusion of a younger tech-friendly members into the association has revived concentration on the same. Ms Himansee Jain from Fuso Glass India Pvt. Ltd. moderated the panel discussion with panellists consisting of Mr Farhat Kamil from Kaenat Glass industries, Ms Manpreet Kang from J.K. International, Mr Lokesh Pathak from Art N Glass, Mr Bhawesh Patel from Swastik Glass and Mr Sham Ramakrishna from Uma Industries on how these platforms can be made more convenient for its members, highlighting any technical support needed, the benefits that current users have gained from them and the modalities of information exchange on such platforms. Many members who were unaware of such tools available amongst the audience, proactively downloaded the application on their phones and sought for a separate training session to be able to use these platforms efficiently. FOSG then committed to revive its efforts in brining awareness and increasing the activities on the same shortly. The Indian glass processing industry has seen an exponential surge in new processors majorly in the form of single tempering line plants (STP) all across the country. Mr Ajay Dhamija from Prolific Glass and Ms Sheetal Khanna from Gold Plus led the moderation of the panellists consisting of Mr Parmeshswaran from Madras Tuff Glass India, Mr Ajay Patel from Krishna Tuff, Mr Praveen B from Gaap Tuff Glass, Mr Suryanarayan from Royal Tough Glass, Mr C.K. Koul from Flair Industries, Mr Manhar Sethi from B.L. Tuff Glass and Mr Naresh Kumar from Hegla to discuss their concerns, aspirations and expectations from FOSG in order to increase their participation and involvement with the association. The discussion concluded that a need for increased frequency of localized meetings was required to improve the understanding and collaboration amongst regional processors. In line with this conclusion, Mr Syed Zakir Ahmed from ZAK, FOSG’s strategic partner, brought with him an enthusiastic atmosphere to encourage one and all present there on the optimistic future in store for this industry. Mr Ahmed offered to sponsor four regional conclaves around the year in addition to the existing annual conclave being conducted. The offer was very welcome and highly appreciated by one and all present. Several processors from their respective localities volunteered to coordinate for making these regional conclaves a fruitful venture. Next day, a highly sought presentation from Mr Yogesh from Aleph was given to throw light on the ongoing discussions regarding BIS on processed glass. FOSG had partnered with Aleph to help its members with the BIS certification process in 2018. Mr Yogesh gave an explicit presentation on the amended BIS 2553-part 1, the code for toughened and laminated safety glass, the procedure for getting the ISI mark, methods of registration, the basic equipment required, their sources, the scheme of testing described in the code, documents required to be maintained, clarity regarding the marking fee, accounting and modes of payment for the same. Several doubts amongst the audience were clarified and a few carried forward to be further discussed with the BIS committee. The programme then proceeded towards a keynote address on the future of the glass industry in general and the processing industry in particular by Mr Divyendu Pundhir, Vice President and CEO of Gujarat Guardian Limited, the conclave’s host sponsor, followed by their company’s presentation on new products and possibilities with the next generation of coated glass. Mr Naresh Kumar from Hegla, the conclave’s Gold sponsors, highlighted the importance of quality machines for quality processing with his presentation. Next, the company presentations by Ozone, one of the conclave’s Silver sponsor, on new opportunities with new hardware solutions was followed by a presentation by Dow Inc., Silver sponsors, on quality silicon for making a good insulated glass unit. The conclave was concluded by reiterating the future of FOSG on where and how the members want to see it in 2025, the challenges and opportunities in achieving Vision 2025 would entail and the steps needed to move in the chosen direction. Conclusions drawn from the panel discussions were highlighted and suggestions for the next conclave were taken from the audience. Outline of FOSG’s Vision 2025 • Increasing the usage of processed glass via the association’s active engagement with the GOI for the successful implementation of RERA, the National Building Code and the inclusion of processed glass under the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). • Bringing awareness within the industry regarding calculating one’s costing appropriately, professionalizing the terms and conditions mentioned in external documents and educating members on the means and importance of timely sales recovery. • Improving the usage of the FOSG app and website to enable better inventory sharing and pool purchases amongst members to optimize costs. • Increasing knowledge sharing between processors to help save internal wastages consequently resulting in monetary savings. The last leg of the conclave on day three was solely focused on knowledge sharing via workshops by the sponsors. Technical experts from Kuraray (Silver Sponsor), Mr J I Kim and Mr Rahul Mahajan conducted a workshop on general problems faced in glass processing and the solutions for the same. Last but not the least, Gujarat Guardian Limited’s Mr Praveen Trehan, plant manager, and Mr Vivek Buch, TAC manager, held a workshop on operational excellence principles, the tools to create sustainable improvements in productions and quality in order to improve profitability and customer satisfaction.
