1. Background:
Kranti Industries, a publicly listed Pune-based manufacturer of automotive and agricultural components, initiated a strategic digital transformation journey to strengthen productivity, quality, and operational visibility across its manufacturing ecosystem. With nearly 70 CNC machines spread across three production plants including HMCs, VMCs, CNC Turning Centers, and machines equipped with controllers such as Fanuc, Mazatrol, Okuma, Siemens, and DMG Kranti Industries required a unified Industrial IoT platform to centralize data, standardize processes, and improve decision-making.
In 2023, Kranti Industries adopted sfHawk and deployed it across 50 machines in two phases. Within six months, the organization recorded significant improvements in operational efficiency, quality, and supervisory productivity. This digital transformation contributed to Kranti Industries winning the prestigious ACMA Excellence in Digitization Award.
2. Problem Statement:
Before implementing sfHawk, Kranti Industries faced several key challenges typical to high-mix CNC manufacturing:
- Limited real-time visibility into machine utilization and performance across its three plants
- Heavy reliance on manual data collection, causing delays, inaccuracies, and inconsistent reporting
- Integration difficulties due to a wide variety of CNC controllers
- Unplanned downtime driven by unpredictable maintenance and tool-life variations
- Rising quality issues without a centralized tracking or analysis system
- Supervisors spending significant time collecting production information instead of driving improvements
- Lack of standardized document management, resulting in outdated or inconsistent shopfloor documentation
- Management had no single unified view of real-time plant performance
- Kranti Industries recognized the need for a modern, reliable, and scalable digital system to overcome these challenges and support continuous improvement.
3. Our Proposed Solution:
Kranti Industries selected sfHawk for its proven performance, strong integration capability, extensive module ecosystem, and local implementation support.
Phase 1
- Deployment on all machines in the plants 3
- Activation of core modules: Productivity Monitoring, Tool Life Monitoring and Tool offset correction
- CNC connectivity established with Fanuc, Mazatrol, Okuma, Siemens, and DMG controllers
- Adoption of sfHawk’s Digital Document Delivery for SOPs, quality checklists, drawings, and instructions
Phase 2
- Rollout expanded to 50 machines across other two plants
- Implementation of:
The structured two-phase approach enabled Kranti Industries to stabilize adoption quickly and realize value early. The initiative achieved a payback period of just 8 months, largely due to measurable improvements in productivity and quality.
4. Key Results:
1. 15% Increase in Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)
Real-time monitoring, automated downtime capture, and analytics enabled data-driven actions that improved machine availability, performance, and changeover efficiency across all three plants.
2. 5% Improvement in Operator Efficiency
Operators benefited from instant visibility into machine status, digital access to documents, automated tool offset corrections, and guided workflows leading to higher consistency and faster execution.
3. Significant Reduction in Quality Issues
With sfHawk’s Quality, Tool Life, and Tool Wear Offset modules, Kranti Industries was able to standardize processes, control tool-related variations, and detect abnormalities early, resulting in drastically reduced quality defects.
4. One Unified Dashboard for All Three Plants
One of the most impactful improvements was the availability of a single consolidated view of all plants for the leadership team.
This enabled:
- Real-time plant-to-plant performance comparison
- Faster and more informed decision-making
- Early detection of bottlenecks
- Greater alignment between production, maintenance, and quality teams
Management now had clear visibility and could monitor their entire manufacturing ecosystem at a glance.
5. Supervisors’ Productivity Improved: Two Hours Saved Daily
One of the most impactful outcomes was the time saved for supervisors.
Before sfHawk, supervisors spent hours daily collecting data, preparing reports, verifying downtime reasons, and chasing operators for updates.
With sfHawk’s automated data collection and real-time dashboards:
- Supervisors save approximately two hours every day
- They now focus on process improvements, root-cause analysis, and team development
- Their workload is more strategic and less administrative
6. Standardized paper-less digital documentation
sfHawk’s digital document delivery ensured that operators always accessed the latest version of:
- SOPs
- Quality checklists
- Work instructions
- Drawings
- Maintenance procedures
This eliminated inconsistencies and strengthened compliance across all three plants.
5. Operational Advantages:
The implementation of sfHawk delivered several long-term operational benefits for Kranti Industries:
- Improved machine utilization through accurate downtime analytics
- Stronger coordination between production, quality, and maintenance teams
- Real-time transparency across the entire manufacturing network
- Faster root cause identification and corrective actions
- Standardized workflows and reduced variability
- A stable and scalable digital foundation for future Industry 4.0 initiatives
6. Industry Recognition:
In 2024, Kranti Industries’ digital transformation efforts were recognized by the Automotive Components Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA) with the Excellence in Digitization Award. sfHawk played a critical role in enabling the digital backbone that powered this achievement.
7. Conclusion:
The transformation journey at Kranti Industries demonstrates the tangible impact of sfHawk on productivity, quality, and enterprise-wide visibility. By integrating 50 machines across three plants into one digital ecosystem, sfHawk enabled Kranti Industries to achieve operational excellence, rapid ROI, and national recognition in digital manufacturing.
sfHawk continues to support Kranti Industries on its path toward becoming a fully data-driven smart factory.
