Excellence is a continuous journey at ANAND due to the collective endeavour of our trained workforce and the adoption of world-class practices. A responsive and agile team continuously works to raise the performance bar. Our shop floors buzz with action with an engaging calendar dotted with learning programmes, employee competitions, sports activities, and cultural events. Additionally, the ANAND Heijunka Production system, which is built on world-class manufacturing practices, provides a robust framework for shop floor excellence.
Over 90% of our manufacturing facilities are operated by knowledge workers called ‘Operating Engineers’ (OEs)—young diploma-holder hired from campus and trained through a structured induction programme. Over the years, our OEs have matured through learning and development, and a number of them have assumed managerial responsibilities. Pioneered in the 1990s, the ANAND OE Model has been replicated across all our locations and is now an industry benchmark.
The ANAND Heijunka Production System (AHPS) is a world-class flow and manufacturing system deployed at ANAND companies to achieve continual productivity gains, while satisfying customer expectations for quality and prompt delivery. AHPS is adopted from the Visionary Leaders for Manufacturing (VLFM) initiative, a project of bilateral importance as agreed by the Prime Ministers of Japan and India with support from the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the government’s National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council.
In an era of Industry 4.0, ANAND Group companies are leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) applications to revolutionise automotive assembly and production lines. Across the Group, the integration of robotics and advanced quality assurance methods has led to enhanced productivity and overall operational efficiencies. To stay ahead of industry developments, we continue to strengthen our manufacturing capabilities by integrating digitalisation across departments. Notably, Gabriel India, our flagship, has introduced ‘Garuda’, an initiative to enhance automation that ensures level-zero human intervention. Further, our operations across several geographies also bring us new technological learnings and position us as a pioneer in innovation and optimisation.
The constant endeavour to invest in R&D, is integral to our continuous improvement. With industry-leading R&D tech centres and specialists, and patents in process as well as product innovations, we have consistently delivered products of the highest quality and standards over decades. Our R&D efforts are aligned towards developing technologies that focus on lightweighting, noise reduction and automation to improve product quality and reliability. The presence of a favourable environment for automotive R&D across the Group, allows us to remain relevant—and ahead—in the industry 4.0 ecosystem while offering future-ready solutions that anticipate and meet the evolving needs of our customers.
Having taken a lead in terms of employing women on the shop floor, ANAND for long has championed the cause of gender diversity at the workplace. It has demonstrated a strong commitment to women’s empowerment by creating an ecosystem comprising hostels and company-provided transport facilities. It also focuses on regional and cultural amalgamation on its shop floors. One unique aspect of the OE Model is that OEs are hired from across Indian states, which means our shop floors are a vibrant mosaic of different languages, backgrounds and cultures.
In order to provide a comfortable environment to our employees, we provide hostel facilities to our OEs (boys for the first year and girls till their marriage), crèche amenities for working mothers, transport services, canteens (where food is provided at subsidised rates) and medical benefits. This is to ensure that our OEs have a home away from home.
The Specialised Training for Operating Engineers (STOE) programme was launched in 2005 to enable our talented OEs to take up greater responsibilities and, eventually, move to entry-level staff positions. They are selected for the programme through a special aptitude test. Under STOE, up-to-date training is provided in the areas of maintenance, quality, tools, supply chain, safety, R&D, and cell leadership. When relevant opportunities in the Group open up, STOEs are deployed against open staff positions. STOE is in essence a launch pad to pursue a career in managerial roles.
‘We Support Continuous Education’ is a core tenet of the ANAND Way. In line with it, ANAND encourages its talent pool to learn continuously and pursue higher education. A series of in-house technical and personality development programmes are also designed by ANAND to bring out the best in its people. Through sponsorships, OEs are encouraged to take up courses, which are specially designed for ANAND by AICTE-approved higher learning institutions under the brand H.O.P.E.—Higher Education for Operating Engineers.
Quality Circles (QCs) are employee work groups that meet regularly to discuss qualitative issues, figure out root causes, recommend solutions, and take corrective actions. At ANAND our aim is to ensure 100% participation of OEs in various QCs to ensure kaizens or continuous improvements in product and process quality. Every year, our OEs represent various Group companies at national and international QC competitions and win awards.
At ANAND Group, safety comes first, and it is non-negotiable. To ensure physically safe work environments across ANAND, we have laid down a comprehensive safety policy, defined a detailed safety manual, and created a dedicated department to enforce stringent safety standards, raise awareness and disseminate critical information. All our employee gatherings start with a safety briefing. The top management also reviews the safety reports regularly to keep a laser focus on this aspect.
The ANAND House of Quality (AHQ) is a Group-wide excellence journey that emphasises ‘First Time Right, Every Time Right’ to ensure zero accidents, zero defects, zero waste, and zero broken commitments—with the goal of creating a sustainable quality culture across the entire organisation.
ANAND embarked on the AHQ journey in 2017 to be the ‘First Choice of Customer through Sustained Quality Performance’. AHQ provides a roadmap to achieve world-class levels in quality systems, services, productivity, EHS, and sustainability, not only within ANAND but also across ANAND supplier partners.
While our people practices inspire employees to give their best, we too continuously honour and recognise the best among them. This philosophy has enabled ANAND to promote the power of people and the power of partnership. There are various platforms for recognising and rewarding outstanding achievers at the individual, plant, company, and Group level, such as the ANAND Excellence Awards which has inculcated a culture of excellence across the organisation as well as motivated employees.