We, at Tata Hitachi, have leveraged our strengths towards the immediate and long-term requirements of the customer.

– Rahul Shorey

National Head, Construction, Tata Hitachi Construction Machinery Company

How do you rate your company’s journey so far and what do you think are the major factors contributing to your success saga in the construction equipment industry?

Set up in 1961 as the Construction Equipment Division of TATA Engineering and Locomotive Company (TELCO), Tata Hitachi is today one of India’s oldest construction machinery companies and largest excavator company. We started our operations with rope shovels and dragline excavators and were one of the first to transition to hydraulic excavators through our partnership with Hitachi Construction Machinery (HCM), Japan.

We created flagship products in the segment by absorbing technology, localising, and then improving on it to suit Indian requirements. Given that fuel and cost of ownership and operations are key factors for customers, we introduced technology to enhance returns on investment. We accorded special focus to safety, durability, and versatility of applications through a range of attachments. Apart from superior hydraulics, Tata Hitachi hydraulic excavators are today known for their easy maintainability, longer change intervals for consumables and high resale value that lead to phenomenally high returns on investment for the customer.

We have been able to further enhance productivity by predictive and preventive maintenance through use of advanced telematics solutions. We have also kept abreast of advanced engine technologies and are currently investing in alternate fuels.

The key to our market standing in the excavator segment today is our capability to match our access to technology to local requirements. This is what has ensured our leadership position for the past several decades.

Tell us about the technological trends in your range of products?

Our emphasis has always been to keep the customer foremost in our mind. We have therefore, laid special emphasis on customer-friendly solutions that are easy to adapt to and help in enhancing usability and serviceability. With this focus, we have worked towards hydraulic efficiency enhancement and engine power optimisation. This goes a long way in ensuring that our machines are some of the most fuel efficient across specific classes. In addition, use of better materials like coated steel and alloys, as well as better manufacturing technologies have led to overall improvements in the engine in terms of performance, reliability, and durability.

Apart from this, in line with the direction of the government to go green, we are migrating our engines to ensure emissions compliance as per CEV-IV norms. This will further enhance the fuel efficiency of our machines.

Hydraulic excavators are increasingly being used for applications that expand its capabilities beyond just use of buckets for digging and loading. There are a wide range of attachments that can be put in place of the bucket on the arm and are interchangeable based on work requirements. The introduction of Tata Hitachi’s range of hydraulic and mechanical quick couplers enables quick and seamless changeovers with minimal helper assistance. This has provided our customers with great flexibility with respect to owning a single base machine and changing work tools as per specific requirements. Some of the arm end attachments that are being offered by Tata Hitachi are the rock breaker, shear, various grabs, magnets and many more on our range of excavators and backhoe loaders.

Finally, our inbuilt telematics suites ConSite and Insite, help plan for maintenance and breakdowns. Sometimes the cost of unannounced and unanticipated breakdown some critical activity can have very severe consequences. Knowing the possibility of such a happening upfront can help save on money and distress. Telematics data is Integrated with the project team’s internal ERP allowing for seamless flow of information between the machine and the system.This has made it easier to plan optimum outputs, schedule maintenance, keep a tab on operation costs, monitor health and productivity of equipment, as well as to make more accurate time projections, which were earlier more heuristic in nature.

What differentiates your company from other competitive players in the construction equipment space?

Flowing from our customer-centric philosophy mentioned above, we at Tata Hitachi have leveraged our strengths towards the immediate and long-term requirements of the customer. Our products, people, and processes are geared towards this.

We have already spoken about our product strengths above. This is complemented by our diverse product portfolio that caters to a wide range of applications, from infrastructure to mining, with equipment across classes and capacities and a comprehensive assortment of attachments. This robust portfolio is spread across premium and value segments, andincludes compact, infrastructure and mining excavators, a range of backhoe loaders under the Shinrai brand, wheel loaders and dump trucks.

Also at play is our expansive network – two state-of-the-art manufacturing plants at Dharwad and Kharagpur, as well as over 250 customer-facing touchpoints – one of the largest such footprints in the industry. We continue to invest in aftersales support through our dealers – in terms of diagnostic vehicles, mobile workshops and increasing numbers of outlets, so that we are within reach of the customer in the shortest time possible.

We have also set up a full-fledged reman centre at our Kharagpur Plant supplies refurbished hydraulic equipment and aggregates at a fraction of the cost of new equipment or parts. We also offer a comprehensive range of support solutions that include Full Maintenance Contracts, Annual Maintenance Contracts and Extended Warranty, which help strengthen our relationship throughout the customer life cycle experience.

What products are being showcased / launched at Excon and what will be your focus of display?

Excon is the biggest CE industry event in India, and after the COVID pandemic-induced gap, we are excited to showcase our products and services to our customers. During the event, we will be showcasing our full range of Compact, Infra, and Mining Equipment. Our display will also include be our recently launched CEV-IV compliant Shinrai Backhoe Loader, TL340H PRIME Series Wheel Loader, the first and only hydrostatic wheel loader in India.

We will be introducing new additions to our product portfolio, namely ZW225 our all new 5-Tonne Wheel Loader, our new cutting-edge indigenously developed mini excavator. We will also showcase our Prime series EX70, all-new EX200 and ZAXIS Series range of hydraulic excavators. Our support solutions on display will include a range of attachments and genuine spare parts, and our array of service offerings.

We will also exhibit our technological strengths through our cutting-edge telematics solutions, ConSite and InSite. This will also include eDost, our newly developed digital platform designed for real-time connect with our customers and other stakeholders for all their needs, from products, services, attachments, and even industry-related information.

The umbrella theme for this year’s Excon will be our trademarked tagline, ‘Chalo Desh Banaye.’ We will also be commemorating 60 years of Atmanirbharta to mark the milestone of 60 years of our operations.

What motivates you to participate at this Expo? What are your expectations from Excon, especially after a period of lull due to Covid 19 pandemic?

To put this in context, during the pandemic we were successfully able to leverage digital channels for deploying a large part of activities, both internal and external. These activities ranged from sales and production related activities to promotion and marketing related activities. We must however, bear in mind that the construction equipment industry has traditionally been very much physical in nature, from manufacturing to marketing to sales to service. With Excon now taking place again, we at Tata Hitachi are eager as an industry leader to be able to launch new products and showcase our solutions physically to customers after this two-year gap.

Excon gives us the ability to give customers, policy makers and other attendees a first-hand touch and feel of our machines, which is important in an industry like construction equipment. The forum also provides us an opportunity to demonstrate our technologically advanced and future ready solutions, including our green range of equipment that come with the promise of being more environmentally friendly.

What is your insight on your company’s road map for next three years?

We should look at this within the framework of the government’s thrust on infrastructure development as announced in the current year’s budget, with significant outlay increases across several sectors. These projects across roads, highways, ports, railways, irrigation and urban and rural infrastructure will be the demand drivers for our growth going forward.

Roads and water supply have the highest intensity of use of CE among the major identified demand drivers. The increases in the above-mentioned outlays are enabling drivers for a healthy growth in the CE industry this year.

Further the proportion of greenfield multilane highways increasing and the PM Gatishakti Master plan for Expressway being formulated, the increased intensity of CE deployment in these projects will further add to the demand. An announcement of start of the Ken-Betwa river linking project has also been made. And Prime Minister’s Development Initiative for North East Region will fund infrastructure to the tune of Rs. 1,500 cr.

All this should enable a double-digit growth in equipment used in these applications like excavators, road construction equipment, and crushers, among others. Strategic initiatives are also taken by the top management to invest in new product development. Resources have been enhanced in the areas of engineering design, development, and testing. This has led to a faster rate of development and introduction of new products than compared to previous years.

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