STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT OF AKSH OPTIFIBRE LIMITETD

SUBMITTED TO: MRS.GAZAL SINGH SUBMITTED BY: AVAS KR.VARSHNEY M B A 3 SEM. SEC. B ROLL NO. 21

HISTORY
AKSH OPTIFIBRE LIMITED (AKSH) Was incorporated in the year 1986 as Private Limited Company. It was converted into a Public Limited Company on 13th March, 1994. The company diversified into the manufacture of Optic Fibre Cables in September 1994, by setting up a plant amidst pastoral environment at Bhiwadi, Rajasthan that is at a distance of about 70 Km from New Delhi. The project was setup with a state of art computerized machinery supplied by the Rosendahl (Austria), an affiliate of Alcatel under their guarantee for producing cables of highest quality with annual capacity of 6500 CKM. In order to protect itself from raw material shortages, Aksh, in 1995, set up a 150,000 fibre kilometre (fkm) facility for manufacture of optical fibres from quartz 'Preforms'. Nokia of Finland supplied the equipment. This was the first stage of backward integration for Aksh. With this set-up Aksh was among the first companies in India to set up its own fibre optic-manufacturing units.In 1999- 2000 it changed focus to exclusively manufacturing optic fi-

bre and optic fibre cables and hived off the copper division and acquired CMI Ltd.'s Optic Fibre division, a move that enhanced its capacities from 33,222 ckm in '98-99 to 50,358 ckm.

Aksh has two plants at Bhiwadi and one at Jaitpura, Rajasthan manufacturing FRP rods, with capacity of I.2 lac. Aksh has also recently commissioned a fibre tower and has increased capacity of FRP manufacturing, from 1.2 lac to 3 lac km per annum, at Ringus. Both the plants at Bhiwadi are ISO-9002 certified by Underwriters Laboratories for manufacture of premises cable . Currently Aksh has an in-house capacity to manufacture 150,000 fkm. This has been increased by 6,50,000 fkm by commissioning of the 1st tower under the old project.

In the Financial Year (FY) 2001, Aksh manufactured 92,379 fkm out of its installed capacity of 150,000 fkm. It bought 107,480 fkm from outside sources, through its long-term contracts for sourcing of fibre from Korea and Japan since 1999.

Aksh raised Rs. 358.10 million through a public issue in August 2000, to finance the expansion of optic fibre capacity from 150,000 fkm to 1.45 million fkm per annum; optic fibre cables from 50,358 ckm to 81,000 ckm; and for creating capacity to manufacture preforms for 1.08 million fkm per annum.

Recently Aksh has taken a step further for backward integration

by merger with Telecords (I) Pvt. Ltd. for the manufacture of Fibre Reinforced Plastic (FRP) rods.

AKSH produces variety of cables such as SingleMode & MultiMode Cables, Duct Cables, Armoured & Aerial Cables, Indoor & Outdoor Cables. The Company has also the facilities or producing ribbon Fibre Optic Cables. Aksh has recently developed a new cost-effective concept called "Fibre-to-Home", through which they expect to revolutionise the IT and telecom industry completely. It's a concept that would bring wireless Voice, Audio, Video and Internet direct to home.

AKSH OPTICAL FIBRE Aksh Optifibre Limited, an ISO 9002 company certified by Underwriters Laboratories Inc. ,USA ventured into Optical Fibre manufacturing in 1997 with subsequent expansions and developments in production of high quality and reliability Optical Fibres for applications in Telecom infrastructure. The facility is supported by state of the art technology and infrastructure for manufacturing of Optical Fibres for various applications. The stringent quality system ensures that the Optical Fibre meets the high quality standards. Our core asset is a young and dynamic team striving for continuous improvement and develop-

ment of disruptive technologies.

VARIOUS MILESTONES IN OUR JOURNEY ARE

1986 : Incorporated as a Private Limited Company.. 1994 : Converted into a Public Limited Company. 1994 : Diversified into the manufacture of Optic Fibre Cables (OFC) by setting up a plant at Bhiwadi (Plant-I). Annual capacity - 6500 Cable Kilometers (CKM). 1995 : Integrated backwards into manufacture of Optical Fibre with Annual capacity of 150,000 Fibre Kilometres (FKM). 1998 : ISO 9002 accreditation by United Laboratories (UL), USA. 1999 : Turnover OFC manufacturing capacity to 33,000 CKM 1999 : Took over the Optical Fibre Cable plant of CMI Ltd., Plant-II, Capacity increased to 50,000 CKM. 2000 : Came with an IPO and got listed on BSE, NSE and JSE. 2000 : Merged Telecords (India) Private Limited manufacture of FRP rods with Plant at JaitPura (Plant-IV). 2001 : Enhanced the production capacity of Fibre to 1.45 million FKM, by commissioning a dual Fibre Drawing Tower 2001 : Started a plant for Fibre Reinforced Plastic (FRP) rods at Ringus (Plant-III) with capacity of 0.3 million KM. 2002 : Increased capacity at Ringus plant to 0.8 million KMs 2003 : Added capability to manufacture Ribbon cable and special access cable FTTH

AKSH VISION AKSH will become a globally significant player in optical fiber cable business.

It will be India's pride and will create significant value for all stake holders with capabilities to innovate and provide new solutions based on challenging, trail blazing & disruptive technologies. It will be a great place to work and associate with and will facilitate / create leadership opportunities for its people & suppliers.

Strategy of AKSH
1. Preform Preparation The Preforms imported from world class manufacturers are jointed with handles & subsequently fire polished for best performance in fibre draw tower.
Glass working Lathe

2. Fibre Drawing Operation

The Preforms after above operation are drawn into optical fibre on state of the art fibre draw towers. The towers are fully automated with fastest available speeds to increase productivity and controls for best quality.
Fibre Draw Tower

3. Proof Testing Operation The fibre after being drawn and checked for essential parameters is subjected to Proof testing on state of the art machines where every portion of fibre is subjected to 1 % Strain, to eliminate the critical flaws in the glass.
Fibre Proof Testing M/C

4. Fibre Quality Assurance The fibre after proof test is further characterized for Optical , Geometrical & Mechanical properties on state of the art test equipments. The Aksh fibre quality lab has complete test facility for critical fibre Reliability & Environmental tests apart from routine tests, to meet the Global Standards. There is stringent quality control system right from raw materials entry to dispatch of fibre. We Offer : Single Mode Fibre Multimode Fibre (50 / 62.5)

Fibre QC Lab View

HUMAN RESOURCE STRATEGY

We are proud of all our members and believe in leadership through people. The competence and enthusiasm of our people will drive us to building a world-class organization. It shall be our endeavour to build our human capital and leverage it to competitive advantage. All human resource initiatives shall be geared towards internalizing our value system - VELOCITY.

HUMAN RESOURCE VISION To become a world-class organisation in all people development and management practices. CHANGE INITIATIVES The company is undergoing several changes in organisational structure and processes to align its people and systems to its vision and to meet the challenges of the new millennium in the march towards the establishment of a world-class organization. Such has been the spirit and the drive behind these initiatives that people centeredness has become the lifeline of the organization. JOURNEY FROM A FUNCTION BASED TO PROCESS BASED ORGANISATION FLAT ORGANISATION STRUCTURE Concomitant with the Process based Design has been the shift from a Hierarchical structure to Flat structure in which we have merely four levels between the MD and the lowest level in the company. Today the company has merely four levels: MD, CEO, COO, Process Leader, and Process Associate & Process Member. The restructuring has galvanized flexibility, facilitating empowerment of members, enhancing decision making ability and in the ultimate analysis improving the efficiency of the organisation. It is needless to say how handy the exercise has been in braking the hierarchical mindset in terms of power, status etc. The measure has given a fresh impetus to performance, value creation & unleashed creativity. Far from qualifying hierarchical status or superiority, the different levels signify the competence bands within the organisation.

In its drive towards achieving a leadership position in industry, the organisation has reoriented its structure making it astutely businesslike and nimble footed enhancing communication , decision making ability and role clarity. A Business Process Reengineering exercise has been instrumental in transforming the organisational structure to a Process Based Structure from a Function Based Structure. The change has been a driving force in creating ownership of processes and sub processes and has been a blow to bureaucratic & compartmentalised ways of working. As per the new Process Design the , following Processes have been defined. Cable Manufacturing Fibre Manufacturing Logistics Long Term Customer Supplier Relations 5. Human Resources 6. Corporate Secretarial & Legal 7. Accounts & Finance 8. Projects 9. FRP & FTH
1. 2. 3. 4.

Quality Policy AKSH TEAM ... Is committed to provide cost effective product & services with planned quality, reflected by customers confidence achieved through innovation and "Kaizen" (ongoing improvement). "We shall strive for quality beyond standards". Quality Objectives To implement and ensure compliance to ISO 9002 : 1994 Quality Assurance Management System.

To provide satisfactory customer service through continuous monitoring. To provide optimum training to all personnel responsible for quality related activities. To reduce rejection level at all stages of manufacturing.

TEAM ORIENTATION