The Leader In Heat Treatment

Nilesh Kuwad, Director, K. K. Industries

A St. Vincent’s pass out who wanted to be a doctor, realized in his 10th grade that academically he is doing better with subjects related to engineering, and took a wise decision to move to a field that he could connect to better. Post pursuing a degree from the renowned COEP, he started his own firm, KK Industries in the year 2000.

The name KK Industries is well known in and around Pune for its quality heat treatment work. With 19 years in business and being led by the technically qualified, Nilesh Kuwad, the team possess a great knowledge, both via the rich experience of years and the related technical knowledge. This gives them an edge above their competition. Where the other heat treatment plants have experience, the missing technical qualification slows down innovation and affects quality.

KK Industries firmly believes in their tagline Innovation, Perfection, and Satisfaction which comes from proper knowledge and qualification. The knowledge gives the right confidence to innovate fearlessly, the unending strive for perfection leads to customer satisfaction; and this is what helps them to grow.

They are soon heading forward to add another niche skill to the heat treatment plant that proudly allows them to stand ahead in the line. Started from a salt bath furnace, and now moving to pit type electric furnaces which can go up to 1200 degree Celsius, they have come a long way that now makes them the 3rd company in Pune to establish such a big set-up. They are confident that the pit-type electric furnace will enable them to enter the niche sectors like aerospace, locomotive, defence and such high precision industries.

Nilesh recounts the first obstacle that he faced was to convince his family which had only an experience of being in bank service so the concept of starting a business sounded worrisome for them 19 years back. Nilesh believes that the confidence the family had in him got him a go ahead finally. Nilesh got the plant set-up, choose the right labour, get the clients to give the first assignment, funding etc.

The biggest challenge that he faced was in the year 2015 when due to a worker’s union issue a chunk of workers workers left work in a period of few months, and it was like he almost had to start from scratch. He believes with the employee the years of investment in training and knowledge also goes with the person. So he again started hiring the best of guys, laid down training plans and in a few weeks he were up and running again.

Other than these operational roadblocks in the last few years he have had positive ‘challenges’; which he likes calling opportunities. Opportunities to expand, build a stronger skilled team, to innovate, to pick up new assignments etc.

Nilesh believes that to create wealth you need to invest wealth. Until you invest money in training, buying equipment’s, paying the salary for the hiring the right people, you won’t grow as a business. He says “It is also important that you don’t use your savings for your business. Your savings is yours and not your business’. Don’t shy away from taking funding or loans to invest in your business. Take loan, pay it off and then again take loan.”

The other prominent step that is required to grow and be ahead of your competition is to innovate. Every heat treatment plant does the same thing, follows the same steps and creates similar final products, so what makes KK Industries stand out? Innovation.

Nilesh, says customer satisfaction and only that, everything revolves around it, be it quality, achieving perfection and creating processes to automate and speed-up delivery, all has to be done keeping in mind the customer and their satisfaction. The tagline and motto is Innovation, Perfection and Satisfaction and the entire team ensures it is followed at each step.

They plan to add the Nitriding furnace to their portfolio which also gets them in a niche segment. They are experts at hardening and carburising, plan to add nitriding too this year. Not all heat treatment plants can afford this due to its capital cost and also managing the related tasks need enough technical knowledge. This allows them to target the automobile sector for which the work is going out of Pune currently as there are not enough, rather only 3 facilities that offer such niche capabilities. So with addition of this in KK Industries they can cater to all these requirements.

KK Industries is currently at number 4 among the heat treatment plants in Pune and if they follow the right steps and continue delivering quality, they certainly can rank number 1 in heat treatment plant in Pune in the next 5 years.

The success of K. K. Industries has got to do a lot with Nilesh’s wife Swati Kuwad who was instrumental in backing her husband in all ups and downs of their lives.

www.kkheattreatment.com
kkindustry17@gmail.com