Over the past few years, there has been consistent effort to make all roles gender-neutral at JCB India.

Deepak Shetty, CEO and Managing Director, JCB India

How many women are in the factories all over the country?

JCB India has pioneered the integration of women in manufacturing in the earthmoving and construction equipment industry. Our Jaipur plant today has over 34% women on the shop floor. These young women engineers are making their careers in traditionally male-dominated areas such as welding and assembly. The machines built and tested by this young team are not only sold in the domestic market but are also exported to over 60 countries from Jaipur alone.

Our latest facility at Vadodara has gone a step further and today has almost 50% women on the shop floor. The Vadodara facility supplies components and fabrications to JCB’s factories around the world. It is critical part of the Global supply chain. This is indeed a pioneering effort.

Over the past few years, there has been a consistent effort to make all roles gender-neutral at JCB India. Our engine factory at Ballabgarh also has a healthy mix of women engineers who are working on critical operations.

Additionally, our design centre in Pune also has a strong representation of women. The design centre works on domestic as well as global projects. We are very proud to say that today any JCB machine in any part of the world would have something that has been designed in India by this team of young engineers.

Was this a conscious decision by JCB to hire women?

When we set out to build on our third site at Jaipur, which houses two world-class factories, it was a conscious decision to have a healthier gender balance. We decided to include more women on the shop floor which was critical also because a vast majority of the talent pool was not being represented and that needed to be corrected.

The factory itself had to be a modern, safe and a comfortable place for it to be positioned as a place where women could make their careers in the otherwise male-dominated area of manufacturing. We are extremely proud that we have been able to create a campus where gender diversity is today thriving.

We have gone even further with Vadodara where we are now also focussing on the health and nutrition of our women colleagues who work on the shop floor. This conscious decision to include more women in our work force is paying rich dividends to JCB.

What were the initial challenges in hiring women?

The challenges were more in the mind when we set out to recruit women in manufacturing. In many cases, the parents were hesitant to send their daughters to work in a manufacturing facility, which was expected to an extent.

Therefore, in many cases, we invited the parents to also come and visit the factory. This inspired a lot of confidence in them, and we saw a gradual acceptance.

We’ve built an inclusive environment where employees especially women are encouraged to invite their families on family days. It is extremely heartening that many of our women engineers are today role models in their villages and towns.

A significant focus on safety was essential to build confidence. Secure transport, Medical rooms, assistance in Boarding and lodging and an active Mentorship program were institutionalised to ensure that there is greater inclusion.

We have taken all care to ensure their safety from the time they leave home for the plant and back to their residences. Additionally, at JCB the focus on food, nutrition and medical facilities has also led to better overall health.

What are the challenges in retaining women? What are the factors that lead women to quit jobs and what can companies do to retain them?

We feel all employees, whether male or female, are equal. And therefore, the challenges in most cases also remain very similar. Beyond a point, all employees think about their growth and a clear career path ahead.

The youth needs to be enthused about their job roles. We must remain mindful that manufacturing today competes with all other sectors when an employee considers building his or her career. Therefore, there is an urgent need to make manufacturing smart and technologically updated so that the youth remains excited and challenged.

At JCB, we have broken the stereotype image of Manufacturing. More with the advent of digital technology, our factories are now moving towards industry 4.0, connected machines and ample opportunities in the areas of IoT, machine learning and big data.

The industry also has the responsibility to invest in technology and create a world-class manufacturing environment for employees to feel motivated and remain relevant in their skills and talent.

The requisite skill levels of engineers also had to be calibrated with the existing requirement of technology in our factories. We devised a 16-week intensive training program for engineers to go through mandatorily.

At Vadodara, we today have AR/VR technology which teaches them welding. This is not only a more productive work method, but is also more efficient. We also have a welding training Institute where candidates who will go into welding as a career option, will be required to undergo mandatory training.

We are even trying to break the stereotype in the society by training women operators to operate our Earthmoving Equipments. Recently, we trained a batch of all women JCB machine operators.

Why does it make sense for manufacturing companies to hire women?

Women represent almost half the talent pool that is available for recruitment. By not including women in the recruitment philosophy, the industry faces the risk of not considering a vast majority of talented and skilled candidates.

Manufacturing as an industry itself has also advanced in the last few years. Modern plants are today world-class and with women graduating with the best of the technical qualifications and skills, it will be loss to the industry if we miss this talent pool.

If India is to progress, then it has to be inclusive and sustainable. Over the last seven years of our operations in Jaipur and now more recently at Vadodara, we have had some very strong examples where women have broken the glass ceiling and have excelled in whatever job roles were offered to them.

Many of the initial batches of women engineers today are in Leadership positions and or managing large teams on their own. This is a very heartening development, something that we had intended to achieve when we started.

Right from metal cutting, to welding, to using sophisticated machines, and finally building JCB machines and testing them. At JCB, Women are excelling in manufacturing, something that we must be all very proud of.

Our wonderfully talented women are helping us make ‘Manufacturing Cool’

Hits: 121