RossellTechsys, an Edifice of Excellence, and Preferred Choice of Global OEMs
Rishab Gupta – is part of the promotor group and Executive Vice President of Rossell India Limited. He is the young and dynamic champion of the Aerospace & Defense Division of Rossell India Ltd, that was christened as “Rossell Techsys” in its inception year, 2011. Rishab specializes in marketing management and is an alumnus of the Suffolk University, MA, USA. He is one of the two strategists in forging relationships with global OEMs, including joint ventures such as CAE – Rossell India Ltd. He is passionate about aerospace, an avid aviation fan, and soon training to be a pilot. He has traveled extensively and is intimate with diverse global cultures.
Prabhat Kumar Bhagvandas (PKB), is the Chief Executive Officer of RossellTechsys, the other part of the strategic think tank and heads the division, Rossell Techsys. In a career spanning more than 35 years, PKB has held several leadership positions handling a diverse portfolio of responsibilities, cutting across multiple domains such as aerospace &defense, automotive, consumer electronics, industrial automation &controls and data networking. He is a start-up specialist and has started up various offshore development centers (ODCs) and VC funded technology companies. Prior to joining Rossell Techsys, he has had significant stints at Vizag Steel, CMC Limited, Portal Player, LVL7, and Broadcom. He has a scholastic background in Electronics and Communication and a Master’s Degree in Business Management.
Global Aerospace Business Challenge
In today’s global Aerospace & Defence business arena the fundamental challenge being faced by global OEMs is of competition and thereby economic in nature. The company that can innovate on and manage economics of production and maintenance, with absolutely no compromise on quality and timeliness shall be the winner. Further, products in this domain have a long life cycle from their very first engineering prototype to end of life (EOL). A typical life cycle could span anywhere between 40 to even 60 years. These products undergo upgrades, revisions, overhauls during this cycle and are necessarily to be kept in pristine operational state.
The economic challenge is faced internationally as well as on the domestic front. On one side, for the IndianDefence Forces, the challenge is to maintain and sustain a product over its lifecycle and to keep equipment up to date with technological advances, minimal capital investment, and on the other hand, many of the global OEMs have big ticket business deals in India and these business deals entail significant offset obligations. Further, Global OEMs in the industry work through committed long Periods of Performance (PoP) with locked in prices through the PoP. In this business scenario, it is a challenge to reduce or even maintain prices in far out years, especially with rising price / cost indices.
Other challenges faced by global OEMs is that of protection of critical intellectual property, especially in a world of rapidly growing piracy, cyber-crime and the need to stem and control the proliferation of counterfeit parts in the industry.
Formation & Fostering the vision:
Rossell Techsys was set up with the vision to be the partner of choice for global OEMs and enable them to address domestic and global aerospace challenge of the critical triad of economics, quality and time. Rossell Techsys was established precisely to address this challenge and support global OEMs to address the economic challenge without compromising on quality and time, support on protection of intellectual property, curbing piracy, and proactive involvement in combating counterfeit parts.
The business was established in 2011 to cater to the global aerospace requirements with key competencies in the sphere of embedded systems, automated test equipment, after market services and wire harnesses& electrical panels.Special emphasis was laid on building state-of-the-art infrastructure, processes, certifications, protection of intellectual property, elimination of counterfeit parts and curbing piracy.
The strategists decided to adopt a two pronged certification process for the business. At the organization level, the business operations are certified for AS 9100, ISO9001, ISO14001, BS18001, ISO27001 and is also ISO 31000 compliant. Rossell Techsys is a CEMILAC (Centre for Military Airworthiness Certification) approved organization. Certifications on the anvil are ISO 37001 and ISO 28001.The ultimategoal is to have its own campus fully certified to CT-PAT (Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism) requirements. At theindividual level, all staff members were certified to their expected competencies. Today, all Rossell Techsys staff members are certified to either IPC-620 or IPC-610 or J-STD-001. Further, select engineers working on rapid prototyping of human machine interfaces (HMI) are certified to LabVIEW either as CLADs or CLDs.
Rossell Techsys is a member of ERAI, the premier agency at the forefront of monitoring and combating growth in counterfeit parts. Rossell Techsys is also a member of RTCA, the governing body for the DO standards that govern much of the Aerospace and Defence world.
The leaders further ensured paramount importance on operational hygiene. Some of the key operational hygiene factors are: aspacious and healthy work environment, a culture of openness and trust, a strict anti-piracy policy, a 5 day work week, focus on diversity factor, health and wellbeing of its employees and productivity of its staff.
Rossell Techsys has a robust IT infrastructure to support its ISO27001 commitments and its vision of automation across its operations. One of the mainstays of Rossell Techsys uniqueness is its focus and drive in learning and development and skilling initiatives. It has set up an exclusive state-of-the-art training infrastructure to provide for a higher level of employability of the locally available work force in the competencies of wire harnesses and electrical panel manufacture.
The steps taken by the business leaders have ensured exponential business growth and niche customer acquisitions. Its niche portfolio of customers includes the likes of The Boeing Company, Lockheed Martin, The Indian Air Force, HAL, BEL, etc.
The company supplies built to print (BTP) manufactured products for a majority of US military platforms such as the Super Hornet F/A-18, Eagle F/A-15, Apache AH64, Poseidon P8, Chinook H47, and KC-46 Tanker. It also has several MOUs signed with OEMs such as Elbit, Thales, IAI, GE, Aviation, Triumph Aerospace etc.
Rossell Techsys currently operates out of its facilities in Whitefield, Bengaluru, where it has 87,000 square feet of state of the art infrastructure and has close to 280 staff members with an attrition rate of fewer than 2%.
Awards & Recognition
Rossell Techsys has been recognized by several industry bodies. Some of the awards won by RossellTechsys are:
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- Best SME in A&D 2015 – International Aerospace Magazine
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- Best SME in customer satisfaction & growth- Karnataka Small and Medium BusinessOwners Association (KSMBOA)
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- Supplier Appreciation Award in 2015 by The Boeing Company.
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- SME of the Year – ASSOCHAM 2015
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- Boeing Performance Excellence Awards in 2015 and 2016
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- Emerging Company Award -2016 for Industry Development by Indian Achievers Forum –Delhi.
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- Global Company Award -2016 for Industry Development by Indian Achievers Forum.
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- Certificate of Excellence from ASSOCHAM- 2015-16 – Being part of ASSOCHAM TOP 50 SMEs Index.
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- SIATI Indigenization Award -2016 for Excellence in Indigenization.
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- Emerging Company Award – 2017 by the international Aerospace Magazine ( SAP Media)
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- Amongst 13000+ active global suppliers, Rossell Techsys has been four times in a row nominee for the “Boeing Supplier of the Year Award” – 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017, with being the winner of this award in 2015.
Road Ahead
Rossell Techsys future roadmap includes formation of Centers of Excellence (CoEs) for each of its competency areas. This roadmap includes spawning off these CoEs as independent entities too, based on scale. The company is targeting revenues in the range of INR1500 crores by year 2022. The company also envisages inorganic growth and hopes to establish multiple facilities around the world. The company is well and truly on the path to being the Indian company of choice by global OEMs.
Future Plan
The company envisages controlled and time bound inorganic growth to fuel its expansion plans. Alongside, it also aims to have its representations, to start with, and leading to establishing of its own offices with bases in key cities in USA, Europe, and Israel.
The company aims to establish its final phase of campus built out by the year 2022 in the Devanahalli Aerospace Park, Bangalore, at which time it is expected that the company would have a total of approximately 500,000 square feet of space and employee strength of around 1000.