In a bid to compensate for the dampened production induced by Covid-19 pandemic, BEML has come up with a “catch-up” plan to catapult its production capability to new level after its manufacturing plants have started operating near normal. The spread of the pandemic and subsequent lockdown from March last week had impacted BEML''s turnover and production due to the closure of manufacturing facilities, disruption in spares and service business, non-receipt of items on account of supply chain disruptions, restrictive movements and non- availability of required trailers among others, said Deepak Kumar Hota Chairman and Managing Director, BEML.
In addition to loss of revenue, due to distressed cash flow operations, inflows from customers have stopped or slowed down significantly
while outflows especially to MSME and other vendors are continuing resulting in serious liquidity crunch, Hota told PTI. The Bengaluru-headquartered company under the Ministry of Defence has set a revenue target of over Rs.4,000 crore for 2020-21, up from Rs 3,029 crore in the previous fiscal.
"There was a shortfall of revenue vis-a-vis our plan in the first quarter. We are making our best efforts to make up this shortfall from the second quarter onwards. We are also trying to reduce cost through various cost optimisation strategy and austerity measures so as to minimise impact on the bottomline", he said.
According to him, working from home and resorting to virtual meetings did bring in some semblance of business continuity during the lockdown period, which was also used for structured intellectual activities such as obtaining feedback and inputs on various business-related issues. "Once the lockdown was eased, we have put in place a ''catch up plan'' to make up for the production backlog. Presently, the manufacturing plants are operating near normal with suitable precautions adopted such as thermal screening and social distancing", Hota said.
"Development orders have already been placed for 292 items and efforts are on for indigenous development of balance items", Hota said. According to BEML officials, the company has achieved indigenisation levels of over 90 per cent in the mainline mining and construction products and rail coaches and EMUs, over 80 per cent in high mobility vehicles and over 65 per cent in Metro cars. (Source: PTI)
