About Jagdish Kularia, Director, Narsi Interior Infrastructure:
As the director of Narsi Interior Infrastructure, Jagdish Kularia oversees all operations from managing projects, manufacturing to internal processes, new business expansions and designing.
A great deal of his work is to strategise on how operations can be streamlined, finalising on the raw materials required to create certain products and planning for the increased productivity across levels. Organising and planning with every department of the company on optimising resources as well as allocation of finances and raw materials is part of the core function.
What are some of the strategies implemented by the company in the past year to ensure safety and efficiency?
Workplaces have taken a major hit ever since the pandemic struck. Companies are now choosing to work from home in order to follow precautions and not risk the lives of their employees. Since in our nature of work we cannot operate remotely, we have put in place stringent safety measures. The entire workplace is sanitised daily including the restrooms and all the common areas that are used by our employees. There were specialised products that can be placed on doorknobs, keyboards, and other surfaces with maximised touch and the area would stay sanitised for say five-six months. We used and experimented with them and in the meanwhile, also conducted an in-house vaccination drive for all our employees. We are proud to say that till date we haven’t had a single covid case within our factory at Turbhe.
How has covid impacted the workplae design industry?
Workspace designs and operations have obviously changed drastically but the traditional way of working will certainly come back. Many MNCs like Google/Amazon/ADP/ Netflix, etc have announced that they will work remotely for the next couple of years but as the vaccines are out and a good amount of the population have already vaccinated themselves we should be back on track very soon. There are businesses who are looking for expansion, there are huge office spaces and campuses being constructed and designed. Even though remote working sounds cool and saves costs, people have realised its challenges on team work and productivity levels. So it won’t be this low-touch economy for long.
Also, the new era of workspaces will probably have new innovations such as pods for individuals, automatic sensor doors (touchless), individual workstations and of course, there will be sanitising and hygiene care taken by all moving forward.
How has technology transformed Narsi Group’s project delivery process?
Accelerated pace of transformation has led to rise in production capabilities and designing massively. Tech upgrades give us a lot of advantages like faster processing, more quantum of work being processed per day, less manpower needed, resulting in accurate, error-free work. These are some of the common facts about automation but things like data-keeping and analysing optimise our output and that’s something that we’ve adapted to. For instance, IoT-friendly machines calculate and tell us how much time they have been idle for. This data is being channelized in a way that we make the most of all machines we have and extra manpower is being deployed to complete certain tasks. We have an internal ERP system developed for end-to-end processes where an employee can log in and receive a request for a certain requirement, it could be at procurement level at a site or at manufacturing for production update or requirement of materials etc. This ERP system helps make the processes streamlined.
Since the low-touch economy has taught us a lot of things, the ways of purchasing a certain commodity has also changed. People are cautious, and would try avoiding direct contact. We have adapted to various technological upgrades using VR and AR (Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality) by developing certain applications and softwares which will help the customers and our clients experience our offerings in a new-age form.
How is Narsi Group working towards balancing sustainability with safety in the post-pandemic era?
Technological upgrades too help you work in sustainable ways, in sync with nature. For example, the Automated Temperature Controlled Paint Booth at the factory helps us to reuse the paint that is sprayed on the belt we wear. It collects the unused paint sprayed in a bucket and then it’s used again. That way there is no wastage.
The same equipment has a systematic funnel system which helps the gases coming out to get filtered and are then exhaled out in the open air such that it is not harmful for the environment.
In a factory where there are large quantities of wood processed, it is assumed to be dusty and have sawdust all over, on the floor and in the air. It can be quite harmful for the people inside and the ones working in the factory premises but we have a dust collecting system which collects all the saw dust from the machines. This sawdust is converted into briquettes which are then disposed ethically or sold to the buyers who wish to purchase for various purposes.
The pandemic has paused certain things for sure but that does not stop us from being sustainable but in fact that should in turn teach us to be sustainable for a brighter future.
How is the workplace sector adapting to these changes?
According to me, more design innovations would come up for people to come to the office and be comfortable. For example, individual pods can make the concept of cubicles interesting. Organisations will need to take the necessary hygiene and sanitising precautions in order to increase sustainability.
Traditional doors, elevators etc will be replaced by wireless/ touch-free products. We can no longer have clustered working spaces. They will have to be more spaced out in order to maintain a safe distance. But also, the pandemic is temporary. Elements won’t disappear but they might stop temporarily.