A seasonal factory has to build its summer in the cooler months, because the hottest weeks are when shortcuts in safety and quality look most affordable.
I am chief operating officer of Thenvayu Appliances Limited, a Coimbatore-headquartered maker of ceiling, pedestal and exhaust fans, room air coolers and storage water heaters. The company has been listed on the NSE and BSE since 2008, and the founding family holds 54 per cent. Revenue for the year ended March 2026 was ₹1,940 crore. I lead our three plants, at Coimbatore, Perundurai and Sanand, together with supply chain, quality, manufacturing engineering and safety. That is about 2,900 permanent colleagues and, at the summer peak, around 2,300 contract workers. I report to the managing director and present operations and safety to the board each quarter.
Nearly 60 per cent of our annual cooler volume and a third of our fan volume leaves the plants between February and May. For years we met that peak by adding a third shift and hundreds of short-term contract workers within a few weeks. The output arrived, and so did the injuries, the rework and the warranty claims. My view, formed first on a press-shop floor and later in supplier quality, is that the peak should be planned as an engineering and workforce problem rather than absorbed as overtime. I would rather argue about working capital in October than explain a hand injury in March.
Each decision described on this site cost something visible before it paid back. We built cooler stock from October and carried ₹96 crore of extra inventory at its highest point. We stopped every mechanical power press for eleven days after a contract worker was injured. We made brushless fan motors ourselves but bought their controller boards, and paid for that choice with a difficult first season of field returns. I describe what each one gave up as carefully as what it achieved, because a board needs both halves to judge an operating recommendation.
A two-shift summer for coolers
Building 2.6 lakh coolers between October and January kept the 2024 peak on two shifts. Peak contract headcount was 1,650 against 2,350 a year earlier, and first-pass yield on cooler lines held at 95.6 per cent.
Twenty-six presses guarded to one standard
After the 2022 injury, every mechanical press at Coimbatore and Perundurai received light curtains or two-hand controls with logged bypass keys. The ₹5.2 crore retrofit and eleven lost press days came before any recovery in output.
Brushless motors from 4 to 31 per cent of fans
Winding the motors in-house and buying the controllers avoided a ₹64 crore electronics line. Controller field returns of 2.8 per cent in the first months fell to 0.9 per cent after joint failure analysis with our partner.
Current focus
I am testing a postponement model for coolers: motors, pumps and bodies built and stored in the cooler months, with final assembly and colour held back until channel stock tells us which models are actually moving.
Conversations I welcome
I am open to one independent directorship on a listed or large unlisted manufacturing company outside consumer electricals, with about thirty days a year available, subject to my own board's consent and a full independence and conflict review. I am not seeking an executive move.
