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MANAGEMENT INTERVIEW

Download the PDF file from www.efficientmanufacturing.in

We do not sell lubricants but efficiency

John Carey, Sr Vice President - Aviation, Industrial, Marine & Energy Lubricants, Castrol Ltd, taking cognisance of the Indian manufacturing industry, gives an insight into the companys business plans in India and also talks about providing solutions to tackle new age challenges, in this candid interview with Indira Rao. Excerpts

Tell us something about

Castrol business in India.
Castrol Industrial is one of our four B2B lubricants businesses which also include marine, energy and aviation. The company is present in India as a part of Castrol India Ltd, which has a long standing history in the country for more than 100 years. The Castrol industrial business in India is doing extremely well.

We have a solid position to work from and there are good opportunities for us here. We recognise the market potential and continue to invest in this strategically important market. Castrol also has strategic partnerships with major OEMs and extensively with global machine tool manufacturers. Since, we operate in a wide range of global markets; the Indian business has access

to products that we develop globally. When I look at India from my perspective, there are two things that strike me the most. One, that India is a growth engine of my whole business. If I look at my 5 -10 years growth strategy, India forms a very big part of my strategic plans. Secondly, it is also important from peoples perspective. We rely very heavily on the talent that we have in India.

Please tell us what you mean

by simultaneous engineering and how is it useful?

Simultaneous engineering is working together with the customer, right from the project stage be it greenfield, brownfield or process changes, we work with our customers to deliver high degree of process assurance. We deliver this through our engineering capability combined with
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extensive knowledge gained from working with manufacturers, machine tool builders, tooling suppliers. This is more important in the present scenario since OEMs are looking to manufacture closer to the primary markets which has led to rapid expansion in countries like India, China, Brazil, Eastern Europe. One of the key challenges facing the OEMs is of not knowing how to replicate global processes effectively and transfer best practices. This is where a global partner like us can add significant value by closely working with our customers right from the project stage. the world that are ahead of the others. In India, the momentum of companies to drive this trend is pretty significant. Indian manufacturing companies that export their products to the European countries are conscious of EU legislation and are steadfastly trying to imbibe the environment responsible culture into their company philosophy too. for each piece of equipment on board can be agreed (lubricant recommendation schedule) and then orders can be placed well in advance with the lubricant supplier. Not all lubricants will be required at the same time so there needs to be close co-operation between the ship owner, the ships agent, the shipyard and the lubricant supplier in order to the future, we envisage a need to go beyond even the thermal stability afforded by BPTO 2197, by researching improved synthetic ester basestocks offering greater inherent thermal stability and customised antioxidant systems to better protect these basestocks under the extreme temperature regimes found within newer, hotter turbine engine designs.

Is it possible for lubricants

to go green too? Does Castrol have solutions/products that are environment-friendly?
We have to be careful while talking about environmentally friendly lubricants because what we have is an absolute approach to sustainability and superior biodegradation. We develop our products around that. A good portion of our new technology and investment is on finding out how to develop more sustainability around lubricants and creating a zero waste environment. So, what we actually do is go after a concept called total cost of operations. Thus, we work with the customer not to sell lubricants but efficiency. A high portion of our products have got a superior biodegradation. We pick up advancements from around the world in terms of sustainability and try and develop our products around them and bring it to countries like India. With respect to the green manufacturing trend in India, its not lagging behind. Every country has a different approach to sustainability. There are pockets of geographies around
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When I look at India from my perspective, there are two things that strike me the most. One, that India is a growth engine of my whole business. Two, we rely very heavily on the talent that we have in India. John Carey

What are the steps that

Castrol undertakes to meet the needs of customers in India?
For India in particular, the market changes continuously and we have to stay ahead of developments. We continuously scan our global businesses and the market to ensure our products and offers are fit for India. One example is the launch of Castrol Alusol RAL BF earlier this year (responding to some of our customers who were looking for a higher per formance aluminium machining fluid). This product was first launched in India and then globally.

With the rapid emergence

of new shipyards combined with demands of modern shipbuilding, supplying and delivering lubricants on time has become a challenge. What advice would you dish out for one to combat these challenges?

to enable a smooth and timely supply process.

What are your strategies to

meet the advancing aviation lubricant technology that has continued to evolve over the years?

A modern ship can often require over 25 different lubricants for a wide variety of machinery on board. Many of the specialist lubricants, for example, synthetic oils for compressors, will be manufactured outside the supply country and therefore the logistics chain can be long and complicated. The quantity of main engine oils will be larger than normal deliveries, and even though the main engine oils will generally be manufactured in the supply country, special delivery arrangements are often required at the shipyard. The ship owner should be encouraged to make a decision on the lubricant supplier for each ship early so that the appropriate oil

There has been an unrelenting trend since the 1960s towards greater turbine thrust and improved efficiency which has in turn, resulted in significantly higher temperatures within the engine core as observed by a corresponding increase in exhaust gas temperatures from around 900 to over 1100 degree C. This increase has placed significant demands upon the heat management systems within the turbine as well as the lubrication system itself, necessitating a move towards greater use of aviation lubricants offering high thermal stability (HTS). BPTO 2197 has succeeded over the last 15 years in building a reputation as the leading HTSclass lubricant in service today with nearly 250 million hours of successful operation. Looking

Whats
in India?

next for Castrol

To ensure that we keep listening to our customers, building strong relationships, developing our product portfolio and anticipating what manufacturers want next. We will also continue to build on our high performance lubricants business because these products have great performance in demanding applications and help our customers face the challenge of maintaining equipment uptime. We also want to continue the development of some strategic partnerships.

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