VEE J PEE (VJP), headquartered in Coimbatore, is one of the industry leaders in designing, developing, and producing precision-engineered aluminum alloy casting. Over the years, the company has successfully built itself as a flexible and versatile organization capable of handling high volumes and low volume business which very few foundries in the globe can manage.
“VJP started as a micro industry in 1984 by late Manivel, supplying castings to local compressor and equipment manufacturers. Under Hemalatha Manivel, the company added machining capability and supplied more critical components to other industries like transformers, textile, and valves across Tamil Nadu. From 2005, we started exporting aluminum castings to Europe to the automotive industry and railway. Since then, we have been expanding our reach globally and expanded our capacity with latest technologies in machining and casting. So, we grew from a foundry to a complete machined component manufacturing company. We started with a workforce of 10 people and today have a workforce of over 400 people in three units. In 2018, we qualified for supply of critical components to the Defence segment.
During this time, we invested significantly in manpower, machines, and processes to enhance the capabilities of the manufacturing to international levels. The new plant with state of art facilities was built in 2018 with the focus on manufacturing highly critical components for Defence and Aerospace industry.
We have marque customers in the Defence sector who trust VJP for their critical component requirements by awarding us programs where we are a single source from India competing with global casting suppliers. Going forward, we aim to work closely with our existing customers to increase our offerings and develop more highly demanding customers globally in Defence and Aerospace,” explains Sudharsan Manivel, Managing Director, VJP.
Design Develop and Produce Precision Aluminum Casting
With trained and qualified personnel with considerable expertise in pattern tool and development & product development, VJP offers the industry's finest pattern tool and development services. Moreover, VJP is one of the very few companies to manufacture Gravity Die Casting (GDC) and Sand Casting with a complete secondary operation like Heat Treatment, Non-Destructive Testing (NDT), and high-tech machining all under one roof. VJP manufactures components up to two meters in length and with a maximum weight capacity of up to 100 kgs per component.
Additionally, working for different industries, from automobiles to aerospace, has given insight into the world's most critical quality standards for manufacturing and testing requirements such as ASTM, DIN, MIL, ISO, AMS. The company believes in investing in best-in-class machines like digital radiography machines from Zeiss. The machine shop is equipped with full-fledged machining capabilities to provide accuracy with turning centres, vertical machining centres, and horizontal machining centres.
VJP has the capability to design and manufacture the tools, patterns and fixtures required for our production, inhouse, with a sophisticated tool room. “Our material testing lab and metrology lab has top-notch capabilities.
VJP has spent over Rs.40 crore in plant and equipment over the last 24 months, to add to the already existing impressive equipment – with over 60 percent of the equipment from Italy, Germany, Korea and others,” explains Sudharsan.
Brand Philosophy
VJP’s brand philosophy is simple – 'Customer Delight'. Customer delight is a simple and all encompassing concept to meet the stated and unstated needs of the customer. In their belief, customer delight is on-time delivery, consistent quality - every lot delivered - no rejections at the customer end, and work with customers in developing new products. VJP believes that customer delight is not a destination but is a journey - there is a scope to improve and keep doing better continuously. This comes from aligning the entire company to the core belief of customer delight and investing in sophisticated state-of-the-art facilities, manufacturing, and quality-related to ensure that VJP can meet its customers' most critical tolerance requirements.
VJP believes in establishing long-term relationships with the customers by understanding their needs, creating a framework, and building systems suiting their requirements. Some of the customers have been with VJP for more than 15 years, and the company prefers to partner with its customers in their growth and help them achieve their objectives.
“Our philosophy is to manufacture highest critical castings. We are a single source supplier for many of our customers. We work with the customer to achieve design for manufacturing. A dedicated R&D team helps in improving process and technology in the shopfloor. They look at us as their extended arm. We want to be a go-to brand for critical aluminum castings,” explains Eyal Erez.
Eyal Erez, CEO
Growth and Future Aspects
YOY growth in revenue in the past five years, has been modest at 15 percent. The impact of the expansion and the empowerment of the team will be seen from this year itself. The company has an order book that should permit them to double their sales this year (21/22), and they have the plant capacity to achieve it. The only issue is the possible impact of the pandemic in keeping operations going smoothly and continuously. VJP strongly emphasizes a safe workplace from all aspects, including the pandemic.
VJP, believes in establishing long-term relationships with the customers by understanding their needs, creating a framework, and building systems suiting their requirements
Hence with such exceptional services, VJP would like to see themselves contributing to the growth of the Defence and aerospace industry in India by understanding the technological advancements globally. In the next 3-5 years, the company would like to become a preferred manufacturing partner for major Defence OEMs, looking at India as a significant market and as a source for their requirements of components and sub-assemblies for their global need. Not only this, but the company is also in the space of indigenization and is a contributor to the offset provisions of the GOI. VJP fits perfectly into the 'Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan' Mission of Government of India.
Leadership Mantra - Build a world-class team and empower them
There is a systematic program for skill upgradation of operators, including cross-training and multi-skilling middle management executives work together in cross-functional teams to understand and then plan on meeting stated and unstated needs of discerning global customers. Alongside, employee welfare has always been of crucial importance at VJP. They make efforts to make their employees feel fulfilled, satisfied, and productive, and this is also a reason their workforce having employees who have been with the company for more than ten years.
For instance, one such recent initiative undertaken was the strategy to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak. During the pandemic, all the employees and their families were provided with immunity-boosting supplements regularly. The company also took special care of all the needs of the migrant workforce and ensured their safety and good health. The Company was among the first few to vaccinate 100 percent of its employees and their families.
