SIDBI appoints Cluster Pulse for Jamnagar brass industry development

Cluster Pulse, an Ahmedabad-based economic development agency, has been appointed by Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) to work with the brass parts industry in Jamnagar.

The prime objective of the collaboration is to work towards addressing the financial and non-financial issues of Jamnagar's brass parts cluster.

"The project shall cover aspects like energy conservation in foundry and extrusion units, lean manufacturing, quality control (QC) and quality management system (QMS), six sigma, inventory control like just-in-time, customised ERP and HR measures to be adopted in Jamnagar brass parts cluster," said Jagat Shah, founder and mentor of Cluster Pulse.

It will work to reduce gaps like skill development, infrastructure, knowledge, credit and policy advocacy in brass parts industry in Jamnagar.

The association will also work on imparting training in areas of export and international marketing access, ancillary supplier arrangement with national and global large industries, availability of custom-built machines and technology and access to state-of-the-art energy conservation measures.

There are 4,000 brass-making units in Jamnagar, over 80 per cent of them in the small-scale category.

The industry employs over 200,000 people, directly and indirectly. Its annual revenue was about Rs 2,500 crore four years ago, but fell to Rs 1,900 crore in 2013-14. Industry officials reckon that in the current financial year, it may not reach even this mark. Over the last two years, the industry is facing slowdown. As most of the units are SMEs, they need to be educated about new technology to compete in global market.