As one of the first of its kind in the region, Kimoha management introduces its in-house Print Excellence Awards Program competition to keep the employees motivated to develop their technology skills.
Packaging MEA Editor Ben Daniel reports from Kimoha Entrepreneurs in Jebel Ali, Dubai.
Ben: It’s a wonderful experience to see the Kimoha shop floor, divided into five teams:
1. Yellow (Y)
2. Magenta (M)
3. Cyan (C)
4. Black (K)
5. Spot (S)
The groups, which comprised shop floor technical experts, displayed some of their best innovations, from pre-media and pre-press design printing to finishing, converting and embellishment. Each team displayed brilliant innovations. It was a privilege to meet some of the important Jury members, from some of the top brand owners, and to gain an understanding of their innovations. I wish Kimoha the very best for this wonderful initiative. I hope it will go on year after year.
Interview with Kimoha top management: Kiran Asher, Chairman, Vinesh Bhimani, Managing Director, and Ramakrishna Karanth, CEO
Ben Daniel (BD): Let me start with Kiran. Please take us through this journey of Kimoha.
Kiran Asher: We started in 1988, and the idea was to just do something with paper as a raw material. Starting with telex rolls and fax rolls, we realized the industry is much bigger than those two things. We started adding more and more products like baggage tags and then boarding passes and went to ordinary labels and industrial labels. As we went along, our product was accepted, our way of working was accepted, and our ethics and morals were also accepted by vendors and clients. We added more products and today we focus on day-to-day innovation and sustainability.
We have been running for many years and so, as we are the older generation, we are trying to pass it on to the younger generation. What we have decided as management is we must give maximum opportunity and freedom to the younger generation to come back with new ideas, new innovations, and new ways of working. What I tell my management team is to give them a chance and see how it goes, and if it fails, we are there to pick it up and go back into a different system. This is the mood of innovation, sustainability, and the mood of changing ourselves and the management style.
BD: Vinesh, what are the challenges you face and how do you turn those challenges into opportunities?
Vinesh Bhimani: One thing about Kimoha is that it is different as our innovation starts on our shop floor. We have an innovative room that we call an Aviskar room and we give our members an opportunity to get together, make their hands dirty, and create ideas. Today’s Print Excellence presented by our colleagues is an achievement from the Aviskar room. They have shown their capability, and the brand owners have appreciated it. This event was successful, as we are passing it on to the young generation. This is one of the very classic examples that our involvement was zero. We have just come as one of the Jury members today, and I am very proud that we have done so successfully.
New labels and new ideas have always been a challenge. You know, debating at the upper level is not easy for those who make their hands dirty. So, in Avishkar, the uniqueness of the room is that every chair is an innovator. As soon as he sits down, he is an innovator. They come up with value-added innovations and many achievements that are some of the toughest and easiest solutions we are not able to think of, but thinking in that room, with the people who make their hands dirty, they brought it and we got a lot of achievements.
BD: How can you meet the client’s demands in terms of your printing and converting?
Ramakrishna Karanth (RK): The gravure side today is running at a speed similar even to flexo. When I started off in packaging, flexo was always looked down on. The flexo where I am working today provides results that are absolutely world-class. Technology has advanced so much. We started digital printing in 2012, and today I can proudly say we are owners of five digital printing machines. But with all these technologies we are putting up, we need to understand what the customers’ needs are. Shorter runs are the reality. People need shorter and shorter runs, hence digital printing definitely is the answer. The second thing is, the customer today is talking about sustainability, not only the brand owner but the end consumer. To make it a reality, all converters and printers have a responsibility. Hence in today’s event also we had a sustainability corner. And third, the customer wants a very quick turnaround today.
Time to market is significantly reduced. Brand owners are hard-pressed to ensure products are turned out and put to market in a very quick time. They don’t have time to waste and they don’t want their own secrets let out. Hence everything is closely guarded until a new product is launched. There should be minimal people at every stage of operation, and digital comes to the rescue. One more very critical thing is to close the distance between the brand owners and the shop floor. If we don’t do it, it is like a Chinese whisper – by the time it reaches the shop floor, you can have a distorted picture and the product may not be really up to the satisfaction of the customer.
BD: What exactly happens when it comes to the Print Excellence Award?
RK: The customers come to us and tell us, look, I have got this design, I have got matte and gloss varnish, I’ve got foiling here, lamination here – give me this design. At times we suggest to the customer you can improve this. Many customers do accept, and few of them do not, but here today we told our people, look, we have plenty of capabilities in the shop floor; use all the possible capabilities and freewheel your energies and energize your grey cells and come out with some interesting ideas; make it and put it on the table as a competitive entry – and that is what the people did.
A lot of embellishments, a lot of coatings on the surface, tactile effect on the surface, flexo and digital combination and various mosaic printing; micro texts, hidden texts, security-related options – all of them, they put these options to the customers to see it. The biggest plus point was the people’s motivation. People are motivated; across the spectrum the involvement was there, and I can proudly say people go home today much happier.
A wow factor to the customers with this one is the brand owners we have invited who are kind enough to join us as a jury today have understood what our capabilities are, and with this we have bridged between our shop floor and customer. Shop floor people get more motivated because they get a chance to interact with the brand owners. It’s all shop floor-driven – they envisaged these ideas and they put them into practice.
BD: What is your message to Packaging MEA readers, and also potential customers?
How does Kimoha set itself apart from its competition?
RK: Our company comes with a lot of family values and we keep demonstrating this. We have commitment from the people working with us. We are absolutely reliable. Don’t give up your values, your ethics, your principles, come what may – no compromise.
My father-in-law used to say “Whatever is good is good, even if no one is doing it, and whatever is wrong is wrong, even when you are doing it.