A REPORT ON

INDUSTRIAL VISIT TO

THE ROOTS
INDUSTRIES
By
ANAS.K
10MBA04
INTRODUCTION

Industrial visit to Roots Group Of Companies took place on 6th

of August ,2011. Me and 51 of my classmates of 2nd MBA and
two staffs Mr Arockia Sahayaraj sir and Mrs Jayathi set out for
the journey at 9.40 am in the college bus . It took almost 45
minutes for us to reach the Roots Company premises located at
Periyanayakampalayam, Coimbatore.

We were taken around the company in two batches. My batch of

26 students was headed by Mr Senthil Kumar , from the
production department .First we were taken to the production
department where horns were made. He explained each and
every process of assembling a horn up to its packaging. That’s
when we got to know more about Roots Group Of Companies
which I have summarized below.

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ABOUT ROOTS GROUP OF COMPANIES

Roots Industries India Ltd. is a leading manufacturer of HORNS

in India and the 11th largest Horn Manufacturing Company in
the world.

Headquartered in Coimbatore - India, ROOTS has been a

dominant player in the manufacture of Horns and other products
like Castings and Industrial Cleaning Machines.

Since its establishment in 1970, ROOTS has had a vision and

commitment to produce and deliver quality products adhering to
International Standards.

With a strong innovative base and commitment to Quality, Roots

Industries India Ltd has occupied a key position in both
international and domestic market as suppliers to leading OEMs
and after market. Similar to products, Roots has leading edge
over competitors on strong quality system base. Now, RIL is the
first Indian Company and first horn manufacturing company in
the world to get ISO/TS 16949 certification based on effective
implementation of QS 9000 and VDA 6.1 system requirement

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earlier. Roots' vision is to become a world class company
manufacturing world class product, excelling in human relation.

GROUP POLICY

To provide world-class products and services with due concern

for the environment and safety of the society. This is achieved
through :-

 Quality of products and services

 Quality Management Systems
 Compliance to QMS requirements
 Quality in behaviour
 Quality in governance
 Quality in human relation

ROOTS INDUSTRIES LTD

Roots industries specializes in the manufacture of a wide

range and line-up of automobile horns . Large number of
highly skilled workers, both men and women, made it
possible for achieving the daily targets .

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 PRODUCT RANGE

Windtone type horns

Vibrating horns
Cleartone
Smarttone
Spider
Roots90
Megasonic

These horns are available in various voltage levels like 24, 36

48 etc for four wheelers and the voltage can come up to 72.
Such horns are used for defense purposes.

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 PRINCIPLE OF A HORN

There are 3 parts in a horn :-

i. Housing assembly
ii. Diaphragm assembly
iii. Trumpet assembly

The Diaphragm assembly is called the

heart of the horn. These parts are assembled together in
such a way that the contact points are highly flexible and
thus makes sound when the parts are pushed inside. Power
input is given through the terminals at the top of the
housing assembly.

These horns produce sound of 450 to 550 frequency in 1

second. Air horns are also manufactured in Roots. The
major mechanism in air horn is that the trumpet amplifies
the sound .

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VARIOUS UNITS/STEPS IN THE ASSEMBLY OF A HORN
1. SPOOL ASSEMBLY LOCKING & TUNING SCREW
ASSEMBLY

o This is the initial process in the assembly of the horn .

o In this unit, there is a STANDARD OPERATING
PROCEDURE or SOP .
o The SOP contains all the instructions for the employees to
work and how to assemble the parts.
o Another technique being used in this unit is POKA YOKE
or Mistake Proofing.
o This is to ensure that the employees do not make any
mistakes during the assembly.
o There are 2 types of POKA YOKE :-
- Preventive
- Indicative

2. TERMINAL BASE ASSEMBLY TIGHTENING

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 o All the units in the assembly process works under the
technique of ANDOAN .
o It is a light facility to indicate the lack of materials .
o Green light , Red light and Yellow light indicate the lack
of materials ,mistake in production process etc .

3. DIAPHRAM ASSEMBLY TIGHTENING AND HEIGHT

MEASURING

4. GASKET SELECTION AND PRE HORN ASSEMBLING.

5. HORN SIDE SCREEN TIGHTENING

6. HORN PRE- TUNING AND MOUNTING BRACKET

ASSEMBLY

7. HORN TUNING AND TESTING

o Random samples are selected for the testing and if it

passes through all the checks , a sticker is placed on
the top of it .
o 1500 finished horns are send in one batch and out of it
10 horns are checked under Random sampling method
.

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THE 5 S TECHNOLOGY

o This is the technology followed in all the units of Roots .

o It is a Japanese technology aimed at specialization of
activities and achieving the target.
o The 5 S are :-

- SEREI : Segregation wanted

/unwanted.
- SEITON : Oderliness
- SEISO : 6 face cleaning
- SEIKETSU : Standardisation
- SNITSNKE : Self Control
PRICING STRATEGY

The prices of the horns vary from INR 280 to 2000

depending on its type and utility .

TURNOVER

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2004 - 05 4.5 MILLION
2008- 09 5.7 MILLION

TESTING FACILITIES

Sound Quality Analysis

Environment Testing Chamber
Endurance Test
MARKET SHARE
o Roots has acquired 60 % market share in India
o The remaining 40 % is acquired by other companies .
o Roots has achieved an overwhelming market share of 67.5
% in Malaysia.
Around 9.30 am we started from our college and we
reached the industry there around 10.30. After reaching there
they divide us into two groups. Each group consists of 26
students assistant by a guide.
He first took us to the place where raw materials are kept.
Few raw materials are being bought from local market while
others from korea, Malaysia. They have customers in locally and
globally. They in general produce 70 types of horns and their
voltage range from 6 to 72 volts and output frequency is
classified as low, mid and high. They also follow the two bin

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system process for the inventory storage. Machines are classified
into five types:
• Power press
• Hydrolic press
• Auto press
• Semi auto press
There are totally 3 shifts and about 130 workers are
workers are working in the organisation. The timings are like
7am to 3.30pm, 3.30pm to 12pm and 12pm to 7am. It is
mandatory for all employees to wear ear clip and shoes. As ear
clip helps in reducing sound up to 20%. Daily interaction session
will be there to know the employees suggestions and feedback.
They normally produce 24000 horns per day and about 6 lakhs
in one month. There are around 37 machines. The customers
include:

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 They have a turnover of 11.5 crores per month and the
roots company as a whole last year turnover was 430 crores.
they have various departments and includes:

• Finance
• Production planning and control
• Manufacturing
• Process engineering
• Quality assurance engineering
• Design
• Human resource
• IT
• Accounts
They give warranty for a minimum period of 1 year. But
however they say that the customers do not read user’s manual
and so also they will have defects in the product like do not press
horns for more than 5 seconds etc
Horns are classified into two types like:
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 • Wind tone & Vibrating
• Low tone & High tone
Low tone horns are generally for four wheelers and high tones
are for two wheelers.

Quality policy

They are committed to provide world class products and

services with due concern for the environment and safety of the
society.

This will be achieved through total employee involvement

technical innovation, cost reduction and continual improvement
in
• Quality of the product and services
• Quality management system
• Compliance to QMS requirements

Quality will reflect in everything we do and think :

• Quality in behavior
• Quality in governance
• Quality in human relation

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Press shop vision for the year 2010 - 2011

• KAIZEN improvements
• MTTR to be reduced
• Improving the MTBF
• Improving machine utilization
• Inventory control
• Add facilities in tool maintenance to improve
• Zero accidents
• PPM target
• 5S implementation

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CONCLUSION

Our industrial visit came to an end with a presentation by the

head of materials department, which explained the entire
working of Roots Group of Companies. All of us were very
much impressed after knowing about the company’s activities
and its global presence. One thing which impressed all of us is
the hospitality given to us by the staffs in spite of their very busy
work schedule. We believe this company will achieve greater
heights in the future!

Thanks to DR.K.K RAMACHANDRAN, HOD, TUTOR and all

the faculties for arranging such a good industrial visit.

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