Octamec Engineering Limited founded in 1983 by a dynamic Aeronautical Engineer from Mangalore Mr. Navin Hegde who introduced 1st time ever in India, a marvelous engineering solution which provided a free span column free lightweight engineering structure technology called SPACEFRAMES. This solution was instantly offered to the largest and the only airline in the country, AIR INDIA. And they bought it for their most prestigious purchase for TWIN -BOEINGS 747´s Hangar. It was game changing in Large Span Structures in Indian Engineering not only for the Aviation Infrastructure, but for sports, oil & gas sector, refineries, military and the private sector industrialists.
Milestones achieved and Growth was only Automatic:
From a single owner company, Octamec was now transitioning to a creative & innovative engineering powerhouse to provide solutions to the Indian Government -Navratna´s – Oil ratna´s IOCL , HPCL & BPC, the Aviation & Defence Aviation´s ratna´s -Air India, Airport Authority, and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and the Sports Authority for Military & Civilian and not leave our good old never tiring Railways. Engineering capabilities were growing everyday and pre-qualifications were only getting stronger to reach out of the country. gas sector, refineries, military and the private sector industrialists.
And Octamec creates an internal infrastructure of engineers from IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) , production with robotics one of the 1st again in the industry, a die-hard project team and Octamec takes off to ´Azerbaijan -The wealthiest of the wealthy city, 3 hours away from Dubai to design & construct Bus Stops which is not lesser than any airport, and is done by Octamec ,with a personal touch from the owner non-other Navin Hegde, with the latest of welding technology by ABB using Robotic Arms and many more ingenious construction techniques .The result was a ´Happy Happy Sheikh´.gas sector, refineries, military and the private sector industrialists.
Lets Corporatize Octamec & GROWTH X & overheads @exponential x too: With the successes succeeding, and projects growing stronger, Octamec now a closely held public limited company with a pre-qualification to take up any almost any size of project independently or with joint ventures was being corporatised rapidly to take on international & national projects which were highly prestigious in nature, by a way of strong consolidation with new customers and foreign joint ventures. Octamec was corporatised with a key management team comprising of stalwarts and leaders with heavy experience from industry best representing the clients, appointed on board as directors with a strategic organisation chart.
Business Verticals were added rapidly viz., Spaceframe being the seed business in the year 2000, Octamec now had, Spaceframe, PEB (Pre-Engineered Buildings ), Steel Components, Structural Steel, Low Cost Housing, Civil & Textile Structures being added with the latest European technology and 600 people working directly for the company and 1500 people indirectly into variety of on-going project. It was an infrastructure company, looking like going skywards. The state of art manufacturing plant with the best BOT cranes, computerised cutting technology, robots, more than 500 people working daily and spread over a beautiful land of 4 acres in between scenic Navi Mumbai and Lonavala was a clients ´Peace of Mind for Project ´evidence and visits were planned by entering into a spirit of success at all times. And in their kitty were many airports a few of them being, Chandigarh , Bubaneshwar, the largest Domes of ITPO at Delhi, the largest spaceframe for Reliance Industries Limited, 750 Low cost housing in Kerala to designing a prestigious Wankhede Stadium and many more such prestigious projects were bagged .
Octamec pulls towards center of gravity : Big boys, fall harder was now becoming the case of truth with Octamec , which had spread its tentacles in every city of India Metro´s and 2-tier cities each having its offices and its supporting staff . Taking up projects without a capitalization plan , or resources that would meet immediate need, or support of banks happening on timely manner. A cocktail for disaster was set and disaster to happen was all forecasted by the author but could control only little for a out of control management ,with no two departments talking to each other. ´There were no ´RAMPS´ only ´WALLS´ and ´SILOS´ operated nothing but was supported by inflated egos and headless management.
The project sites hungry to be fed with materials, engineers salaries delays, office staff looking for immediate opportunities for survival for their families a picture never envisioned by anyone, but the heart & brain of the corporation were in ICU -The finance & Engineering, Finance because there was no management empathy towards the creator of an organisation built by own hands and for engineering department there was no food for thought literally. -The Big Boy Had fallen!! Projects terminated, BG´s encashed, L/C´s devolved with teams departed, and stalwarts resigned from their directorships.
Now What !!!! – Who´s left ! -What do we have …. with us. Can we Solve this ??? YES it can be solved because Octamec still had its original brain and the credit of the work done for the past 30 years. That´s the time took up the challenge to ´RESET´ AND ´RESTART´ Octamec Engineering build it again from a start, a 1 man show with only a lean team who work like family, with ´TRUST & COLLABORATION´ .
The solution provided by a anonymous well wisher for Octamec, is designed for success by employing the fresh management solutions , by having a lean organisation, applying the right pricing methods, taking up projects which can yield a clean 10 per cent profit and taking the courage to SAY NO to projects that are not under the domain of technical, & financial capability . Customer Focused decisions have yielded rich rewards, of revival of project and Discipline in Finances directed towards projects has created a path of revival for Art Deco-Engineering Marvel OCTAMEC.
www.octamec.com
Octamec uses now work from site and virtual office concept as a part of lean management and has talks in pipeline for large scale International Joint Ventures for National Projects.
Note : The article is focused on many engineering companies which fail miserably due to FINANCE not speaking to ENGINEERING, and the above can be a precious LEARNER for many such companies.
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