Voith helps OEMs with energy-saving solutions

Expenditure that companies incur on power consumption accounts for a major share in the costs of manufacturing operations of any vehicle or auto component manufacturer. While increasing costs associated with the end-product, the high power consumption by OEMs in turn also leads to increased carbon emissions as electricity in India is widely generated through coal-fired thermal power stations and diesel-run captive powerplants in most manufacturing units.

To overcome this hurdle, Voith Industrial Services India (VIS), a division of the Germany-based Voith Group of companies, has come out with a variety of solutions. Speaking to Autocar Professional, Sudhir Gurtoo, managing director, VIS, says: “The company maintains plant-level operations of various industrial units in India. Most clients belong to the automotive sector in India.” Industrial services is one of four vertical divisions that Voith operates across the world. The industrial services division mainly focusses on maintaining the plants of OEMs in India while the other divisions like paper, hydro and turbo pertain to other activities including manufacturing machines to produce paper. Under industrial services, says Gurtoo, the company has three types of service offerings which include maintaining the production plants of OEMs, having a sub-assembly in the auto manufacturing facilities to supply various products to vehicle production lines, and project services to install equipments to increase plant efficiency. He adds that some of its automotive customers include Volkswagen India, Fiat India, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, Caterpillar, Bajaj Auto, Volvo Buses, Ashok Leyland, Behr India and Daimler.

Among other plant-level services to OEMs, the company’s offerings to save energy used includes energy audits and solutions to save power that is consumed during manufacturing operations. What's unique is that the company not only offers solutions but also invests to implement its solution in energy-saving projects for its clients.

It has two energy-saving models. In the first, the company offers solutions to save energy when it carries out other regular maintenance at an OEM plant. In the second model, Voith conducts a standalone energy auditing to provide solutions.

Under energy audits, Gurtoo says, “We study the entire plant and offer ideas to save energy. Just giving ideas is not enough. Unlike other players in the industry who offer only solutions, we can also invest to implement our solutions in the manufacturing plants if our client wants us to. Later, when the clients start saving energy, they can make payments for our solutions.” Voith Industrial Services has already done standalone energy audits at two auto MNCs in India and given them energy-saving reports. Now, says Gurtoo, either they can use the solutions on their own to save power or ask the company to implement the solutions. One of these two MNCs is in talks with Voith to implement energy-saving projects, he adds.

While maintaining the entire plant, the company also offers solutions for power saving. In this way, he says, one of its OEM clients in the western region has been saving Rs 40 lakh per annum by implementing solutions offered by Voith in power consumption.

In addition, burner systems installed in paint shops also need expertise to operate in an effective manner to cut down carbon emissions. The company's solutions are at work in the paint shops of 80 OEMs globally.