Rangsons Electronics focuses on market share expansion this fiscal year

Aiming for a revenue of Rs 6000 million in the coming fiscal year, Rangsons is also focusing on products specific to the Indian market such as set-top boxes, energy meters, etc

By Kariki Negi

Friday, May 30, 2014: Located in the southern city of Mysore, Rangsons Electronics Pvt Ltd is engaged in electronic system design and manufacturing. Established in 1993, it started out by offering PCB assembly services. Set up with an investment of just Rs 2.5 million, the company is today worth Rs 4300 million.

Rangsons has grown immensely in terms of revenue, product portfolio and workforce since its inception. It has an excellent track record of catering to not only domestic customers but also to companies in North America, Europe, Japan and China.

Pavan Ranga, chief executive officer, Rangsons Electronics, feels that the company’s uniqueness is its ability to adapt and offer flexible solutions to its customers, ranging from design and engineering to complete systems integration, and work with the clients on their processes and systems. “Rangsons’ efficient and effective global logistics solutions, smaller procurement cycle times and lower material acquisition costs, along with its ability to deliver the best quality on time, make it a preferred partner for electronic system design and manufacturing requirements,” says Ranga.

The journey so far

Rangsons Electronics first began offering its PCB assembly services on a job-work basis. However, in a very short span of time, it made rapid progress and became a qualified and approved vendor for major customers in the industrial segment. In 1994, Rangsons achieved a major milestone by offering PCB assembly on a turnkey basis, having evolved to attain expertise in electronics manufacturing. By 2000, it had established itself as a leading player in the EMS industry and entered new verticals such as medical electronics by developing strong relationships with global players. In 2001, Rangsons was actively involved in forming a global EMS-alliance with EMS giants from various countries, which helped it to establish its global presence.

Rangsons expanded its services portfolio by introducing design validation, new product integration (NPI) and product integration with the aim of offering total electronics manufacturing solutions to its customers. “In 2004, a plant was established to offer box build services to our major customers and, within a year, Rangsons was recognised as a provider of integrated electronics manufacturing solutions by adding cable harness and design/re-engineering services,” says Pavan Ranga.

Over the years, Rangsons has invested in developing capabilities and competencies to address customer requirements for the industrial, medical, aerospace and defence, automotive and telecom segments.

Challenges faced

However, the company did not sail through all these years. Rangsons had to cross several hurdles during its initial years. What hampered the firm the most was the absence of effective supply chain management for electronic components, since there was no real local manufacturing of these components. “The concept of EMS did not exist in India in the 90s. We had to define the industry and its offerings. Since there were no global benchmarks in India, we had to forge global partnerships to create these benchmarks. Also, there were challenges in raising private equity finance for the company, since investors tended to compare the returns from the hardware manufacturing segment with software services, and they invariably preferred the latter,” says Pavan Ranga.

Another challenge faced was that about 90 per cent of the raw material used by the company was imported. “Even today, 80 per cent of the raw material is imported. The major challenge that is yet to be overcome is logistics and supply chain management of electronic parts. But today, there are a lot of good things happening on this front. Schemes like M-SIPS are encouraging components manufacturers to come into India and set up shop,” says Ranga.

Rangsons Electronics experienced a big jolt during the global economic slowdown as most if its customers were from the US and Europe. “There were several failures so spreading our risks after the financial crisis of 2008 was a big challenge. The global downturn impacted us heavily. We had not anticipated how severely we would get hit. One of the learnings was to focus on markets beyond US and Europe in other parts of the world, and especially the domestic market. We have also set up systemic solutions to avoid such failures in future,” narrates Ranga.

Strengths, achievements and weaknesses

Design and development, PCB assembly, cable harness, advance testing, repair and maintenance centres, RF and microwave labs, as well as systems integration are some of Rangsons’ strengths. Talking about them, Pavan Ranga says, “We have set the benchmark for quality in electronics manufacturing. Our real strength is in engineering-driven lean manufacturing systems. We follow several manufacturing best practices such as Kanban, just-in-time, Kaizen and lean tools. Under no circumstances do we want to compromise on the quality of the product that we offer.”

Rangsons Electronics started its operations with 20 people. Today, it engages over 700 people, who the company considers as its assets. “Our workforce has been an integral part of our success. We have a dynamic team of professionals that relentlessly focuses on quality and delivery,” says Pavan Ranga.

Rangsons has to its credit many government recognitions and customer awards that stand as proof of its consistent quality, on-time delivery and effective costing. A recipient of the industrial award from the government of Karnataka, followed by the IPC award and Quality Circle Forum of India (QCFI) awards, Rangsons has also been recognised by several reputed multinationals and OEMs. It has won the ‘Best Supplier for South Asia’ award from GE, the ‘Best Supplier Award’ from L&T, the ‘Sustainability Award’ from ABB, the ‘Best Supplier Award for Excellence in Quality, Cost and Delivery’ from Bosch, the ‘Supplier Award for Best Performance in Quality’ from CPS Color, and is the recipient of the ‘STPI IT Export Award’ for the third consecutive year.

Besides, Rangsons is also certified for ISO 9001: 2008, ISO 13485: 2012, NADCAP, ISO 14001: 2004 and OHSAS 18001: 2007. To add to the list of firsts, Rangsons is the first company in India to have got AS9100C: 2009 certification especially for the aerospace industry. Besides, Rangsons has also achieved IRIS certification recently, which now enables the company to offer its services to Railways segment.

Talking about some of its weaknesses that need to be addressed, Ranga says, “I think we need to further strengthen our mechanical engineering and fabrication capabilities. We are planning to make significant investments in this area over the next couple of years. We have recently acquired a machine shop in Bengaluru to strengthen this area.”

Sustainability strategies

Rangsons Electronics operates on several principles such as the relentless pursuit of quality, building a world class supply chain ecosystem and continuous technology upgradation. The company works on the strategy of being involved with customers at an early stage and on following world class quality systems. Rangsons firmly adheres to the highest ethical standards in all its dealings. It is committed to ensuring the highest level of customer satisfaction by offering flexibility and addressing the needs of the customer by being systems-driven and process centric.

Rangsons focuses on creating goods and services using processes and systems that are non-polluting, and conserve energy and natural resources, apart from being economically viable, safe and healthy for its workers and the community.

“Rangsons is one of the early adopters of lead-free manufacturing and has dedicated lines to cater to this requirement. It has also deployed equipment with optimal energy utilisation and is, of course, transitioning to LED lighting,” says Pavan Ranga.

Infrastructure

Rangsons has three state-of-the-art production facilities in Mysore, spread across 4645 sq m (50,000 sq ft). One of these plants has six SMT lines, one of which is dedicated for NPI, and three PTH (plated through hole) lines. The other two facilities are each spread across an area of 3716 sq m (40,000 sq ft). One of these is equipped with two SMT lines, along with two PTH lines, while the other comes with a cable harness facility.

“All SMT lines are designed for flexible manufacturing, which helps us to offer flexibility in volumes and product mix to our customers. Besides, Rangsons has established a dedicated prototype facility with a lead-free SMT line that offers design validation services to our customers. Through the concept of total electronics manufacturing solutions (TEMS), we offer one-stop-shop solutions that range from prototype design and product integration to product lifecycle management,” says Pavan Ranga.

Rangsons also has a 930 sq m (10,000 sq ft) production space in Bengaluru for design and MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) purposes.

Growth plans

In the coming fiscal year, the company aims to earn a revenue of Rs 6000 million. Besides, Rangsons plans to increase its domestic and global footprint in the coming two years. “Our key drivers for growth—defence and aerospace—will continue to give us robust growth along with the export market in the medical and industrial domains. Now, we are focusing on products specific to the local Indian market such as set-top boxes, energy meters, etc. These areas have good potential for growth,” says Pavan Ranga.

Traditionally, Rangsons has been an engineering and manufacturing company.

It is trying to strengthen this position by foraying into design and development. “We want to offer advanced engineering and test facilities like EMI/EMC to our customers, so that we are known for collaborative product and lifecycle management. This will help us in attaining significantly higher levels of engagement with our global customers and will give us a strong position for further growth,” says Ranga.

Electronics Bazaar, South Asia’s No.1 Electronics B2B magazine