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Managing Director Vineshkumar Patel has built Orbit Bearings into a global force in precision engineering. With an unwavering focus on quality and innovation, his vision proves that success, like machinery, is all about the right components working together.
Be it a vehicle or a compressor, how well a product performs is entirely down to the sum of its parts. Across the world, trucks, tractors, engines and gearboxes are able to provide smooth and reliable service thanks to taper and cylindrical roller bearings manufactured by Orbit Bearings.
“If you work hard and focus on quality, you can climb the ladder.”
Based in Rajkot, the family-owned company is a self-described ‘knowledge-based engineering entity’ that goes beyond simply providing the goods – it offers made-to-order bearing solutions and invites customer input for design, testing and customization.
Managing Director Vineshkumar Patel is a big believer in inspiration; if his company can inspire clients to push for better, Orbit Bearings is able to deliver. In turn, he hopes that letting customers take the wheel will inspire his team to think outside the box.
“If you work hard and focus on quality, you can climb the ladder,” he tells The CEO Magazine. “That’s always my message to young people who want to grow their careers with Orbit. Those two qualities will take you places.”
For Patel, a career in bearings wasn’t always apparent, but a strong work ethic and attention to quality were there from the beginning.
“I was a very good science student, and things were shaping up for me to go to MIT and kick off my career,” he says. “Then my father passed away and the whole scenario changed.”
Forced to give up his dreams of higher education and take work in the wake of his loss, Patel began in an uncle’s edible oils business.
“I thought, ‘OK, I’ll work hard and grow my business instead of doing engineering and studying abroad,’” he remembers. “It was a blow, but it helped me get into business earlier.”
Within three years, Patel had turned around the dwindling fortunes of the oil company. By the end of the 1980s, the business was an industry leader and a major supplier to biscuit manufacturers Britannia and Parle.
“It was all moving on its own at that point, and I felt I had to move on to something else,” he says. “My brother-in-law was in bearings so I asked him how it was.”
Inspired by the potential, as well as the prospect of working in the engineering hub of Rajkot, Patel pivoted to bearings manufacturing. Orbit Bearings was born of his desire for quality and growth.
“Early on, we made good-quality products that were just right for exports. The passion for quality was what lifted the company initially,” he says.
“I decided we shouldn’t be a jack-of-all-trades but a master of one: taper roller bearing, which was a difficult product to make at a high level of quality. But we achieved that, and our customers noticed.”
“Those investments and decisions made at the right time are the reason Orbit is a leader today.”
Although multinationals were providing high-quality taper roller bearings, no local company prior to Orbit Bearings could compete. Soon, it was setting the pace.
“We kept on adding capacities, growing, adding plants,” Patel explains. “Now, we’re doing hundreds of millions of dollars annually. But that passion for engineering, quality and hard work has brought us to where we are today.”
The high quality of Orbit Bearings’ products quickly attracted the attention of original equipment manufacturers both locally and in Europe. The truck industry in particular responded to its offerings.
“European trucks could go one million kilometers maintenance free,” Patel points out. “We needed to make a product that could stand up to that.”
A tapered roller bearing is itself made up of several components: inner and outer rings, tapered rollers and a cage. To achieve such high quality across the board, Orbit Bearings has partnered with industry experts such as machine tool leader Jyoti CNC Automation and German thermochemical heat treatment firm Wienstroth Wärmebehandlungstechnik.
“Once we had an opening in Europe, we dove right in,” Patel recalls. “We’re one of the few test houses in India that can test whether a product can perform for one million kilometers, which has helped make us one of the largest suppliers of wheels and bearings for the European trailer industry. We hold almost a 70 percent market share.”
Supplying the automotive industry was a game-changer for Orbit Bearings, and success in Europe led to big wins at home.
“We then extended ourselves to create a complete module, a system solution completely assembled in a hub,” Patel says. “Once again, Europe was ready to take that product and that increased our business even more. Many of those companies now consider us a technology partner, and that’s led to us expanding our R&D.”
The Wienstroth furnace is one of the best investments the company has made in that regard, according to Patel.
“It was a game-changer to be able to offer heat treatment,” he confirms. “Those investments and decisions made at the right time are the reason Orbit is a leader today.”
Orbit Bearings’ growth has not stopped, with Patel intent on taking his company beyond the stratosphere. Ball bearings are next on the agenda, despite tough competition from China.
“We produce products that outclass other manufacturers, so whatever we set our focus on, we’ll be able to make the best product in a cost-effective way here in Rajkot,” he says.
“We outclass our competitors because we all understand that quality and hard work are what makes success possible.”
Patel is aware the company is much younger than most of the industry’s top players, which he sees as a strength.
“We’re agile, we’re smaller and we can take on special requests,” he says. “We support our customers in the best way, as quickly as possible and for a reasonable price.”
As Orbit Bearings’ team grows and its product portfolio expands, Patel reveals that support is being returned.
“In 35 years we haven’t lost a customer,” he says with pride. “We outclass our competitors because we all understand that quality and hard work are what makes success possible. That’s what I believe.”
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