Of meeting unexpected expectations !

By Niraj M Wanikar, Chief Editor, CNCTimes.com, 2015-05-29 14:29:00

Enthusiastic and always ready to apply the latest technical advancements is how one can describe Mr. Ashok Mistry, the Chairman and Managing Director of Ambica Pharma Machines Pvt Ltd. Situated in the industrial hub of Vatva in Ahmedabad, the company is India’s leading manufacturer for pharmaceutical machinery. Packaging machines such as injectable powder filling machine, injectable liquid filling machines, vial/bottle capping machines and various types of labelling machines come out of the company’s unit. 

The company commenced its operations in 1967 when Mr Kalidas Mistry manufactured labelling machine for a major pharmaceutical giant. This was the time when the pharma company was importing all the packaging machineries and was a very expensive affair. They were looking for some person who can manufacture these machines in India and zeroed-in on Mr Mistry. The journey for Ambica since then has been very fruitful and the company has been able to carve a niche for itself in the pharma machine manufacturing industry. 

“Since the day my father started operations, the company has been witnessing a phenomenal rise not only in terms of productivity, but also in terms of reaching out to various international markets. As on today, we have installed over 1,000 machines in India as well as other countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Greece besides some countries in the Mid-East and South America. Our vision is to manufacture top class machines by laying maximum stress on maintaining the quality,” said Mr Ashok Mistry.

Explaining the manufacturing process of these machineries, Mr Mistry stated everything is done automatically. “Even inspection of each and every component of the machine is done through specialised machines. Earlier, we used conventional lathe machines to carry out the process, but today that has been replaced by CNC machines. When I purchased the first CNC machine in the year 2004, many people thought that I am putting my money in wrong technology and that I am wasting the same. However, being technology savvy, I was confident about my decision,” Mr Mistry said.


“Actually, I purchased the CNC machine just as a hobby. It was one of my cousins who introduced me to this technology and I decided to acquire it in my day-to-day manufacturing process. Even some of the workers in my unit thought that they will be rendered jobless once I introduce automation in our industrial unit. But I proved them wrong and all the 50 employees of my company are a happier lot today. We are able to carry out entire turning and milling operations on CNC machines and with ease. I can say that our transition from conventional to modern machining was very smooth,” Mr Mistry quipped.

Explaining the criteria to select CNC machine, Mr Mistry said he had many options to choose from while purchasing the machine. “I checked all the available brands, including Haas. After going through all the quotations, I decided to purchase Haas VF5 vertical machining centre (VMC) as it satisfied all my requirements and was cost effective too as compared to other brands. Since I was aware about Haas machines, I didn’t find the need to do any benchmarking before going in for the VMC. I have got the best machine thanks to the people from Haas who time and again endorsed my decision to go with Haas,” Mr Mistry said. 

“Currently, we have four CNC machines, all of Haas. These include 2 VMCs, one turnmill centre and one turning centre. I am very happy to say that the challenges that we faced prior to shifting to CNC technology, were met once we started using Haas machines. We are now able to carry out tough and complex jobs through the 4-axis machine which we have using CAM software,” Mr Mistry said and also praised Haas for rendering excellent after-sales service.

“I must say that for me it is 10/10 for Haas when it comes to providing service to its clients. Working with Haas is like working with some Indian company. They work like an indigenous company and their prime concern is that the machining should not stop at any cost. Once I had a minor maintenance issue and the people from Haas solved it within few hours without affecting my productivity. They have a commitment to their customers which has to be lauded,” Mr Mistry said and added that even downtime is very less when one carries out machining on Haas machines.

“We have to maintain certain quality parameters since we are recognised for that. No one is able to achieve the precision and quality which we have been achieving and this is proved by us time and again by resorting to latest automation. Due to this, we have also earned ISO9000 certificate,” Mr Mistry said and hoped to grow 5-10 times in the next 10 years. “I am sure that we will achieve this landmark by expanding our manufacturing facility as well as purchasing machines whenever required,” Mr Mistry concluded. 

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