Cover Story

ACHIEVERS

Modernizing Medical Plastics Injection Moulding in India

 

Mr Shirish V Divgi Managing Director, Milacron India, A Leader Par Excellence - Modernizing Medical Plastics Injection Moulding in India

Mr Shirish V Divgi, the Managing Director of “Milacron India” is one of the very few executives in the “Plastics Processing Machinery” industry having received such a high level of professional achievements in India in a span of about 3 decades. Joining the company as a junior executive, Mr Divgi became Managing Director in charge of Indian as well as Asian operations. Under his leadership, the Company has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 15 %.

In a free-wheeling interview to “Medical Plastics Data Service”, he gives details about the company’s journey from concept to the current position as the leader in the field of manufacturing Plastics Injection Moulding Machines, Low Pressure Injection Moulding (LPIM) Machines and Extrusion systems serving a variety of Industries including Medical Plastics / Medical Devices sector.

The Company, with a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, has currently manufacturing capacity of 3000 units per year and is expecting to grow to the output of 5000 machines a year which includes large scale exports to many countries including Europe and USA.

For the Medical Plastics / Devices sector, the company has recently launched the All- Electric eQ series machines especially for clean room applications. The machines have grease free tie bars, almost no hydraulic oil, high reliability and dimensional accuracy – one of its kind made in India.

Sharing the secret of success of the company, Mr Divgi says, “Great teamwork is the whole story of our success. We have developed a very strong team – in technical terms as well as systems- and customer-orientation – which has really given us growth over the years.”

In the Interview, Mr Divgi explains how the company has kept pace with changing times with respect to market trends and technologies and also their effective management of safety and well being of the employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.
 

MPDS : Give us a brief history about your journey with Milacron

SD : As employee number one, I held a variety of leadership roles at Milacron India. In the first, Head of Design and Development, I oversaw the technology transfer between our American parent company and the new Indian manufacturing facility. Other key positions, including Head of Manufacturing, followed, as well as a stint in sales to appreciate a different perspective. That of the customer and the end applications. In 2010, I became Managing Director for India, a role which was expanded to cover all of the Asian operations in 2017. Great teamwork is the whole story of our success. We have developed a very strong team – in technical terms as well as systems- and customer-orientation – which has really given us growth over the years.

Today, with 15 offices in India and a market share approaching 30 per cent, Milacron India is the leader in its field. Our portfolio of products includes Injection Molding machines, Low Pressure Injection Molding (LPIM) machines and Extrusion Systems, which serve a variety of industries, from automotive to electrical and electronics, packaging, construction and beyond.

We have a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility here, including in-house part manufacturing. It’s one of a kind in the country, both dust-controlled and Industry 4.0 compliant.