Zetwerk offers high-quality production, globally competitive costs and unparalleled lead times in the manufacturing of capital goods, consumer goods and precision parts. In this interaction we have Abhay Adya, Business Head, Renewables, Zetwerk, explaining in detail the precise nature of operations of Zetwerk, focusing mainly on renewable energy. Abhay Adya asserts that solid design, procurement and execution capabilities, backed by a robust project management tool, has been a differentiator in Zetwerk’s solution offering.
We broadly understand that Zetwerk provides services related to supply chain management, coupled with manufacturing support. Please explain in brief.
Over the last five years, Zetwerk has built a strong technology-driven supply chain to deliver high quality manufacturing of various industrial and consumer products at highly competitive costs and lead times.
Zetwerk’s in-house Manufacturing Operating System software enables digital selection of supply, pricing recommendations, digital repository of engineering designs, real-time tracking of manufacturing across various stages, visual updates of products getting made, seamless communication across stakeholders and quality assurance of the final product getting shipped.
Zetwerk’s software led approach unifies various stakeholders in the manufacturing universe to collaborate to deliver the products we see around us and we love. These include product designers, manufacturing partners, logistics providers, third-party quality inspectors, financing partners, raw material suppliers and many more.
Zetwerk unifies the highly fragmented manufacturing ecosystem to work as one single entity to deliver the highest quality manufacturing with the fastest possible lead times and the lowest possible costs, day in day out.
Zetwerk’s business is divided into two broad categories —Industrials manufacturing, and Consumer products manufacturing
Under Industrials manufacturing, Zetwerk offers various manufacturing services such as steel fabrication, CNC machining, injection molding, aluminum die casting, 3D printing, installation, testing, commissioning etc to a diverse set of industrial OEMs and EPC customers through its global manufacturing network.
These customers belong to multiple sets of global industries which include but are not limited to traditional ones such as oil & gas, infrastructure, railways, defense, aerospace, thermal power, auto components etc to frontier ones such as space exploration, medical devices, electric vehicles, renewable energy, etc
The nature of products manufactured by the Zetwerk network is ubiquitous but often invisible. These include:
- Medium to low complexity products: Products include industrial pipes, technological structures, metal staircases, streetlight poles, electricity pylons, all of which are custom made and not available to buy off the shelf by any industrial customer. They have to be made as per tightly-defined specifications (for instance, ‘I need a pipe of 10 inch diameter made from PVC with no painting’ or ‘I need a steel door made from MS steel of 5”x4” painted red’)
- High complexity products: Products include aircraft components, auto components, robotics systems, medical devices, etc. Again, none of this is available off the shelf for purchase. In this case, the tolerances tend to be highly tight (e.g. in microns or even tighter) and quality and timely delivery is of extreme importance as these products are often components of a larger industrial product (e.g. a compressor which is part of an aircraft engine).
Launched in 2018, Industrials constitute 70 per cent of Zetwerk’s revenue.
Within Consumer products manufacturing, Zetwerk today operates in two broad consumer supply chains — consumer electronics and apparel.
For consumer electronics, Zetwerk offers various manufacturing services such as local assembly, semi knock-down (SKD) and completely knock-down (CKD) manufacturing, as well as vertical integrations. Our customers include some of the leading consumer electronics brands of India across various product categories such as kitchen appliances, televisions, audio-visual, etc.
Through its network, Zetwerk is actively helping various consumer electronics brands set up local manufacturing facilities in India, thereby supporting the Government of India’s vision to make in India, for the world.
For apparel, Zetwerk provides end-to-end manufacturing solutions to brands and retailers. From design to delivery, the company is helping its clients expand their creative and product engineering bandwidth while helping them knock down costs, across fabric classes.
Consumer constitutes 30 per cent of Zetwerk’s revenue, and was launched in Sep 2020.
With respect to solar power projects, what are the specific products/components that you manufacture? At this juncture, please also discuss how Zetwerk is supporting the “Make in India” philosophy.
Renewable energy has been one of the key businesses for Zetwerk. Renewable energy itself contributes about 10 per cent to Zetwerk’s overall business. This is because Zetwerk has been a partner of choice for all leading industry players and stakeholders – domestically and globally with diverse projects we have worked across. One such project we did recently was a 280 MW Solar power plant for a significant customer in Bangladesh, the largest in the country. We are currently executing close to 1 GW of Solar projects in India. We are building solid design, procurement and execution capabilities backed by a robust project management tool which has been a differentiator in our Solution offering.
Please explain and illustrate how Zetwerk helps optimize, or even reduce, the project cost of solar projects.
Zetwerk, as we learn, recently completed Bangladesh’s largest solar project. Please discuss how Zetwerk positively impacted project execution and timely completion.
Yes, Zetwerk was proud to be associated with the Beximco project executed in Bangladesh. Just to give a backdrop about the project,
On average, it takes 138 hours and 55 signatures to move one truck from India to Bangladesh. With 2008 trucks to be moved across the border in the span of 330 days, shipping material from 50 locations across India, Zetwerk’s Renewables team rose to the challenge and effectively moved one truck every four hours.
Given the tight timeline and variables at play, our in-house project management software helped optimize the time required for identifying the proper manufacturer for the design specified. Parallel manufacturing and supervision by expert quality control Engineers deployed at each factory ensured on-time production. Our dedicated logistics and production monitoring teams handled material delivery from 10 Indian states and China, including the delivery of 20,000 tonnes of steel, 6.5 lakh meter cable, 16 inverter duty transformers with HT/LT panel and switchgear, and other major materials manufactured in parallel, in a span of six months. To meet the project delivery timelines, we used all modes of transportation viz roadways, waterways (barge) and airfreight.
Tell us more on the acquisition of Unimacts, and the rationale behind the same.
To expand our offerings and strengthen our presence in the renewable space, we recently acquired US-based, Unimacts, which will help us to grow and diversify, providing immediate access to marquee solar and wind-power customers. Similarly, Zetwerk will also benefit from Unimacts’ notable industry expertise in renewable energy manufacturing and an endless supply of highly specified mechanical products, logistics support, and design for manufacturing, inventory management, and near-customer warehousing.
We understand that many small and medium enterprises are involved in the solar power value chain. Tell us how Zetwerk supports the SME class of suppliers and service providers.
We become their extended marketing arm and market their products nationally and globally. With Zetwerk coming in, SMEs can buy their raw materials cheaper; Zetwerk brings that volume advantage. This helps SMEs concentrate on their core strength of manufacturing. Where needed, we deploy our qualified professionals at their factory to ensure the best quality of the products.
Other than solar power, do you cater to any other segment within the renewable energy space?
Although we are currently operating in solar space only under the renewable category, we will plan to foray into other spaces as in when there is a need.
Given that India is aggressively pursuing renewable energy, how do you see the years ahead for Zetwerk?
We offer solutions to all of the major developers and C&I customers in India, and we have orders from marquee clients and a long pipeline of inquiries. With our bespoke manufacturing capability, supply chain know-how, and execution strength, I think we are well-positioned to dominate this market. With the government’s ambitious 2030 renewable energy goal, with India aiming to add 500 GW of renewable energy to its grid, in the coming years, we anticipate a significant pull from PSUs and private businesses.
