As you step into the shop floor, you are greeted by 100-metre long production lines which make products in thousands. You suddenly sense that something is different and then it hits on you like a ton of bricks: the machines are manned by nimble women working at six-sigma like accuracy! These produce high-end, world class shoes for export.
Young and slim Selvi hails from a village near Mamandur in Tamil Nadu. She dropped out of school early and is not familiar with industry and its rigours. Yet, I found her working on a sewing machine stitching intricate patterns on sample material. She has been at this for just 15 days and is already an expert in sewing patterns of various geometrical shapes. Her training period stipulated for two months, but she will attain the skill in less than four weeks.
So where does Selvi work?
The quiet, women-full Feng Tay Plant
It’s Feng Tay, a Taiwanese firm, located at the Cheyyar Special Economic Zone. In 2008, the company set up its facility for 100 per cent exports. Today, Feng Tay employs 23,500 of which 18,000 are women, and most of them are from nearby villages. Company buses pick up and drop the employees for a nominal fare. There are factory canteens where employees have a free meal. I noticed crèches for 980 infants and small kids. With a large number of tiny tots around, adequate provision has been made for nursing these by their mothers working in the production lines. Trained caretakers are engaged to manage the crèches for the kids. Each unit has a clinic and a dozen doctors are available round-the-clock. The cost to the company per employee is Rs 15,000 pm and the minimum starting salary is Rs 9500 pm.
Free food, near-free transportation and crèche facilities, no wonder, the woman’s entire salary is saved! Such pay for rural women, hailing within a 15 km radius, who have little opportunities for such direct employment, appears as boon. The wage is comparable with entry-level salaries of employees in the engineering sector.
The factory is spread over 275 acres with long, well-lit production lines. Arul Sambandam, Vice President, points to the training systems being so efficient that they dispensed with the earlier stipulation of a minimum 8th standard
education! “Our core strength is our training system. We provide intense training on needed skills for two months. 99.5 per cent of the employees are drawn from the Tiruvannamalai district where we are located. We find, though they are not highly educated, they have a high capacity to grasp skills. They are too smart! After two months of training, we have a buddy system in which a trained employee acts as a buddy for three months. This system ensures inducting a trainee into the production line for efficient functioning within a brief time.”
“For male employees who function in supervisory and more skilled areas, we prescribe ITI, diploma or degrees as the qualification. Industrial relations have been quite cordial and peaceful, thanks to our transparent management culture/system/welfare measures and employee relations. Our group- Feng Tay, believes that a long-lasting company is rooted in a sustainable community. This has been the Group’s mission from Day One, to care for the community and also give back to society,” said Sambandam.
Less than 1 per cent attrition!
The attrition rate is stated to be within one per cent! Sambandam, who is also heading a similar facility in Bargur, set up with even more advanced production lines, mentions that employment at Bargur is also slated to expand from the present 3700 to 25,000 in quick time.
Sambandam spoke of the operations: “the company imports the needed machinery, artificial leather, foam and other accessories that account for 85 per cent of material needs. Packing – cartons, lace, thread and some of the chemicals are procured locally. There are efforts to bring vendors established in Taiwan and China to set up their factories in Tamil Nadu. We expect these to invest and set up shop here. We target to increase local content to 30 per cent.”
Feng Tay plans to set up four SEZs providing direct employment to 100,000 employees, entirely for global exports of world’s best branded shoes very soon.
