BackPune newsletter | Are factories the new architectural monuments?
Pune-based Forbes Marshall group starts a new trend as haute couture meets architecture
Premium(The engineering-intensive manufacturing requires a layout that is consistent with the sophisticated manufacturing, which requires the kind of space that is sought to be created in the new plant. )
A new factory coming up in the Chakan area, an industrial hotspot about 30km from Pune, is a pretty routine matter. What is new about this factory being built by the Pune-based Forbes Marshall group, a privately held group comprising six joint ventures in the steam engineering and control instrumentation processes, is that they have employed a “haute couture" architect.
Is this the way to go? Will factories become architectural monuments, part of the sights of a city that should be seen? And will using the services of an architect who mainly does institutional work, such as an educational institute, make any difference to the people who work on the shopfloor? Will it, for example, lead to productivity improvements?
Naushad Forbes, director, Forbes Marshall, explaining the rationale in hiring architectural firm Christopher Charles Benninger Architects (CCBA) said: “This is the only factory that I will develop in my lifetime from scratch. So, I want it to be something nice. That’s at the personal level. And though it will largely be a manufacturing site, we have a relatively small number of people on the shop floor, less than 300 of our total strength of 1,200 people. The bulk of our employees have office functions, engineering support, etc. So, while the shopfloor needs to be pleasant we need the right environment for an intelligent workforce: That is important."
“People work better in a pleasant workplace. Productivity will show up in quantity but also in quality and that is more important than pure efficiency in output. There is a lot of a natural light even in the boiler building, which is 50ft high, making it light and airy and the plants and greenery inside the shop will make it pleasant," Forbes said.
Unsurprisingly, the Forbes Marshall management’s view on pleasant surroundings leading to a happier workforce producing better quality, resonated with trade unionist Ajit Abhyankar, president of the Pune district Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU). Abhyankar said that after the basic need of a secure job is fulfilled, workers want better working conditions in good surroundings.
“They need to feel good about themselves and their place of work, and if these issues are addressed, attrition automatically comes down," Abhyankar said.
Forbes Marshall’s is also providing uniform amenities to all its employees. For example, the toilet specifications for the shopfloor workers and the corporate office are same, providing workers a sense of pride in the work they do and its value to top management.
“The site should determine how the company works together for the next 30 years and we believe that design and architecture has a lot to do with that. The person inside the building is our focus," Forbes said.
He accepted that there were concerns that what they were doing was over-the-top and more expensive than it needed to be. “After all, this new plant represents more fixed capital investment than all we have done in the past six decade," Forbes said.
The engineering-intensive manufacturing requires a layout that is consistent with the sophisticated manufacturing, which requires the kind of space that is sought to be created in the new plant.
There are other trends that are visible in this plant: increased automation. While there is a need to hire blue collar workers for the less skilled jobs, these tend to be contracted out, becoming employees of the labour contractor and not of the manufacturing company itself.
Companies in the Pune industrial belt have been recruiting Industrial Training Institute (ITI) graduates and using greater automation, something that began at least 15 years ago. The reasoning is simple: qualified technicians are less likely to form trade unions and agitate unlike their blue collar counterparts.
Managements claim they need to employ a labour contractor given the country’s rigid labour laws which do not give them the flexibility to hire and fire, depending on the ups and downs of industry. Permanent labour is hard to downsize, hence, they opt for contract labour.
Abhyankar was critical about employing contract labour while pointing to the reality that workers form unions despite being diploma engineers or ITI graduates.
“Education has nothing to do with unionizing: unionization is not related to the type of employment but instead to the recruitment policy," he said.
“In the Pune region, there is no joblessness in absolute terms. In fact, there is often a shortage of multi-skilled people who can, say, drive a car, fetch a cup of tea, go to the bank and deposit cheques or withdraw money, make out the difference between a cheque and a demand draft...these are multi-skilled people for who there is a great demand," Abhyankar said.
The experience of the Forbes Marshall group is a telling commentary on the issue of jobs and skills training, an experience not unique to them, other corporates having faced it in the past. Naushad Forbes said they plan to set up a training centre close to their factory, so that locals can be trained.
“We decided that it would be better if we asked the villagers of that area what kind of jobs they wanted to be trained for rather than we deciding and imposing our views on them. We thought that with an engineering industry in the Chakan-Talegaon area, that would be the preferred course. Imagine our surprise when the villagers said they wanted skills in trading on the stock exchange, in money management. They got a lot of money from the sale of their lands and now want to increase that money," Forbes said.
That is the reality of the industrializing belt and part of the reason why it is proving hard to find locals prepared to work in industrial units: they would rather manage their money.
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