I recently joined my family business, and honestly, we’re not doing very well right now. I’m having a hard time understanding how distribution actually works.

We’re into tractor and agricultural machinery parts, and I’m confused about whether I should be targeting distributors or individual shop owners. If distributors are the better option, how do I actually find them?

Then there’s the question of payment terms. Do distributors usually pay 100% after delivery, or is credit/30–60 day payment more common?

And another thing I don’t understand: if I hire a salesperson and their expenses end up being higher than the sales they generate, how do companies manage to have so many salespeople?

I'm trying to explore a small manufacturing business in India and would really value opinions from people who have actually manufactured or sold physical products.

My constraints are:

Starting capital: ₹10,000 - ₹1 lakh

Initially working alone

Small room / small workshop, no large factory

Prefer B2B over consumer products

Prefer products with repeat demand

Product should be possible to manufacture/assemble with relatively simple machinery

I want something that can start very small and eventually scale into a proper manufacturing business

I'm not looking for generic suggestions like "start a clothing brand / candles / soap" unless there is a genuinely strong reason.

I'm particularly interested in boring, specialised products that established businesses regularly need but that may have -

supply/availability problems

long lead times

high import dependence

expensive minimum order quantities

poor local/customised options

or a fragmented supplier market.

If you had the same constraints, what ONE product would you seriously consider manufacturing?

And more importantly, why?

If you've actually done something similar, I'd love to know:

What product?

How much did you initially invest?

What machinery did you need?

Who buys it?

What's the approximate gross margin?

How did you get your first customers?

Is the demand repeatable?

What did you underestimate when starting?

Would you choose the same product/business again today?

I'm not looking for motivational advice. I'd genuinely prefer someone to tell me "don't do this, here's why" if an idea sounds attractive but is actually a terrible business.

India-specific suggestions would be especially useful.

Thank You!

A factory in Kolhapur making machined components has 2 robot cells running... one cell has 1 robot operating 1 machine and other has 1 robot operating 3 machines. Some one gave them a math of offsetting as many operators as possible in lowest possible cost. This is the way most factories are doing ROI math today.

Looking only at this, the ₹25L solution looks like a no-brainer

Simple payback factories use

Lets factor in the production reliability.

Suppose each CNC generates roughly ₹800/hour of contribution when producing and is scheduled for 6,000 hours/year.

If Option A runs at 98% uptime Production loss = 6,000 × 2% × ₹800 = ₹0.96L/year Net benefit = ₹9L − ₹0.96L = ₹8.04L/year

Actual payback: ~30 months

If Option B runs at only 85% uptime (poor integration, 1 machine breakdown disturbs entire cell, etc) Production loss = 6,000 × 15% × ₹800 × 3 machines = ₹21.6L/year Net benefit = ₹27L − ₹21.6L = ₹5.4L/year

Actual payback: ~56 month

Math for Option A looks better now.

Also, if you are new to robots then the downtime losses compound in OpEx even after the payback period because you many need to spend time and money in developing and training your team to maintain these "new" systems.

Another sidekick in this math is that factories tend to focus more on robot utilization. In Ideal world, every asset must work for 24 hours and Zero idle state conditions but looking at robots and machines in same way is more harmful than not.

Factories will not make money by merely keeping robots busy, as is true for operators. You make money by keeping production running.

A robot at 55% utilisation supporting CNCs at 98% uptime can be a much better investment than a robot at 80% utilisation causing CNC uptime to fall to 85%.

This does not mean, multiple machines operated by 1 robot is wrong. If engineered well it is extremely efficient. To do that you may need to study your production planning, machine conditions and changeovers deeply.

Sadly, there is no way to demonstrate this without actually going through the entire process. Simulations may help a bit, but factory owners need to make a judgment in selecting processes, equipment and engineering vendors.

Hello,

Originally I am from Gujarat and will be moving back soon. I have some money that I can invest into starting a business.

I am ideally looking for business ideas and also getting in touch with someone to discuss the opportunity. I have a mech design, 3d printing, sheet metal, Cnc manufacturing background work wise but not from India. I will be the first person starting out something of my own in my family.

My investments are not enough to setup a full factory neither do I know anyone with whom I can do business with or sell to, but I want to get my steps in.

Feel free to share your thoughts and get connected.

Hi everyone,

I'm from Ahmedabad and I'm helping my father expand our family business in the plastic recycling supply chain.

We have been trading industrial plastic scrap for years, mainly HM/HDPE, LDPE and PP Raffia/woven materials.

I'm specifically looking to connect directly with manufacturing companies in India that generate clean plastic packaging waste as part of their normal operations.

For example:

• Textile & yarn manufacturers
• Chemical & dye manufacturers
• Pharma companies
• Food processing companies
• Packaging companies
• Warehouses/logistics operations
• Companies using large quantities of HDPE/PP bags, liners or plastic film

We purchase materials such as HM/HDPE bags, LDPE film, PP woven/Raffia bags, liners, jumbo bags, stretch/shrink film and similar recyclable packaging waste, then sort and supply it into the recycling chain.

I'm not looking for household waste or mixed municipal plastic.

I'd genuinely like to understand how Indian manufacturers currently handle this kind of waste.

If you work in one of these industries, I'd love to hear:

1. What type of plastic packaging waste does your company generate?
2. Do you sell it directly to recyclers/scrap buyers or through a contractor?
3. What problems do you face with your current disposal process?

And if you know someone in manufacturing who deals with this, an introduction would be greatly appreciated.

I'm trying to build long-term relationships with manufacturers rather than simply buy one-off lots.

Thanks!

I visited 15 factories last month. Bangalore, Pune, Ahilyanagar, Ch Sambhaji Nagar and Noida. Almost everybody has either installed atleast one robot and are planning to add more.

- Only 1 out of 15 was genuinely happy with their existing robot installation.
- 12 out of 15 said it took more than 4 months+ to produce parts after the project kicked off.
- All 15 still depend on their integrator to do basic robot teaching/adjustment.
- 7 out 15 are struggling with frequent changeovers and idle robot (demand fluctuation)
- 5 out of 15 are still unable to run robot in night shift (not confident)
- 14 out 15 were unhappy with non responsiveness of the robot integrator after installation.

India wants to automate but but the industry needs to move from selling robots + integration to owning uptime + production outcomes.

I m having a manufacturing unit in Pune, Maharashtra, India. We manufacture precision machined components such as Flanges, Hubs, Shaft, Bush, Coupling....... etc.We have CNC,VMC machines

And also conventional lathes, Hydraulic press, Zinc phosphate set up for coating the components. We have vendor codes of MNC companies and also production orders. We supply to Automotive , Automation, Defense, Oil and Gas,and many more sectors. We also make Dies, Plastic injection moulds, Blow Moulds.... Etc

We are having machining experience more then 35 years and also growing year on year

We need investment for expansion such as Machinary, Raw material, Tooling....

We give good returns. Hope for a positive response

Man vs Machine

For last 2 decades, we tried very hard to reduce the dependence on skilled workers by reducing the "skill" required to do a job in order to stay cost competitive. We did this with basic and low cost automation, only enough to make process less fatiguing. Impressive, right?

In simple english, we build basic conveyors and special purpose machines so that we could hire a less qualified (learned/trained) person to do the same job and comes with lower compensation or can now run 2-3 machines/tasks with a marginal increase in wages.

So, a lot automotive OEMS and component makers once had assembly workers who were ITI trained starting at lower wages BUT would graduate to draw ₹70k++/month over working of 20+ years. They would then take up supervisory roles and then retire as admin officers. They took pride in working in a factory and trained the new comers. But the "low cost automation" meant most of the factory jobs were being filled with non skilled and often third party contractual roles drawing payout of 15-20k/month. Easily replaceable. Could work multiple shifts. As a result a lot ITI/vocation trained workers entering the workforce were left jobless or were forced to accept similar wages as that of non skilled.

As this was happening, we had a revolution of engineering colleges in our country. Our colleges could produce more engineers every year, who could take up the white collar jobs in manufacturing companies. A lot of supervisory jobs in the factories are now filled by graduate engineers. We added layers of supervisors to inspect, monitor, manage, report, follow-up etc to ensure that non skilled worker produces good parts and on time. Our volumes increased. We seemed to be having a good run, a lot of manufacturing activity in India, upcoming EV ecosystem and a real shot at China+ 1 with a pipeline of engineers and massive low cost labour at our dispense.

Margin Call:

Ok, not as dramatic as the movie, but we are now seeing the diminishing returns of the low cost automation and engineering colleges revolution. When this was happening margins were re-calibrated basis this reduced cost structures. Technology around us grew faster than we anticipated. We became too busy leveraging this low cost arbitrage for producing more almost neglecting the R&D efforts, building IP and making indigenous supply chain. Factories now have more supervisors to manage but not enough workers producing parts.

Net effect:

1. We now have acute shortage of entry level technicians, let alone the good ones.
2. It is now painstakingly difficult for factories to retain the workers, deal with uncertainty and constant training of new staff.
3. Even if factories want to, they cannot afford paying higher wages due to margin pressures.
4. Lower wages pool of workforce is highly competitive now- Delivery, Consumer services, cabs etc
5. Too many engineers who need jobs but cannot and does not want do skilled psychical work
6. Available skilled workforce also cannot keep with the skill and craftsmanship requirements.
7. Low cost arbitrage is a lost race now.

What next?

Good thing(somewhat) is that this situation exists across the value chain. That gives me hope of seeing massive tailwind in both creation and adoption of technology in India's manufacturing. I remember discussing with a Sr exec at Bajaj, how they nudged all their suppliers to automate welding lines to improve quality and lead times. It came with huge capex burden of welding robots but what we have today is world-class supply of mass produced welded products.

As I see it, we will never be able to justify ROI math of the new technology, given how low our cost benchmark is. We need to take a longer term view. If we wait for it to become cheaper we may not reap the benefits and end up in the same soup. The new generation entering the workforce will want to work in factories which are tech adopters. We need efforts from both sides i.e tech providers and factories to take efforts to come closer and bridge this gap.

Factory owners/plant heads must dig deeper to finding cost leakages. You will find some surprisingly high ROI opportunities. Startups could work closely with factories to democratize the tech and making it simple to adopt.

If you have made it till here, Thank you for reading! Happy to hear/read your thoughts. I will end this with few trends that I see could see helping us build more productive factories in India:

1. An IOT based live OEE/Machine health tracking system does not cost a fortune now but gives massive advantage in predicting breakdowns and avoiding down time.
2. We are seeing new engineers building hardware products in India thereby making tech accessible. They also endup attracting talent back to factories.
3. Welding robots have become quite inexpensive, setting them up is a much lower effort than last you you evaluated.
4. Setting up Vision Inspection system for QA cases is now done in few days not months.
5. A lot of startups are working on India specific/ industry specific use cases- Maintenance tech, robots for High Mix production etc
6. Many of them, support robotics-as-a-service where you you save huge CAPEX and get instant value.

We are based out of West Godavari, Andhra Pradesh. We have been thinking of manufacturing a product for a while now which is fact moving in the B2B space and has a decent margin. We are prepared to invest up to 2 Cr in our own Capital and finance the existing project cost with Govt schemes. My partner is an SC Category guy so we will get subsidies as well. Kindly suggest some products we can research on and start manufacturing.

So, a bit about myself, I work in procurement consulting on the buyer side, so I'm pretty familiar with how RFPs get written and sent out. Now I am trying to understand better how it looks from the seller side, specifically for smaller or mid-tier suppliers who get a decent volume of these.

When an RFP comes in, what are the first things you check before deciding whether to respond or pass? Curious about the real decision-making, not the textbook version.

Things I'd assume matter:

• whether the product/category is actually something you make or supply
• certification requirements (ISO, IATF, etc.) you may or may not hold
• quantities, like whether too small to bother, or too large to fulfill
• response deadline vs. how complex the response needs to be
• whether you know the buyer or it's completely cold

But what else? Do you have an informal scoring system or is it mostly gut feel? And how do you handle it when 5 or say 10 of these land in the same week do you have any system for triaging, or does stuff just fall through the cracks?

Asking because I'm trying to understand where the real friction is. Any honest takes appreciated. Also if you could specify is there are certain elements/requirements that are specific to RPFs from different countries, that would also be very helpful

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some advice from people in the manufacturing space.

We run a plastic injection molding business in India (Delhi) for over 30 years. Now we're trying to understand how businesses like ours can find new customers in today's market.

We work on:
• Custom plastic injection molded components
• Product development and mold support
• Small to large production runs
• Consistent quality and on-time deliveries

If you're building a product, launching a hardware startup, or looking for a dependable manufacturing partner in India, we'd be happy to have a conversation and see if we can help.

Also, if anyone here is looking for a contract manufacturing partner for plastic injection molded parts, we'd be happy to have a conversation and see if we're a good fit. We work with businesses that need custom plastic components, from prototyping to production.