DRIVING SUSTAINABILITY: SWAPNIL GUPTA FROM SKF REVEALS KEY INSIGHTS

Join us as we dive into sustainability with Swapnil Gupta from SKF.
A conversation led by Hassanein Alwan on uncovering how SKF is leading the way in sustainable practices and what it means for the bearing industry and the environment. Don't miss this enlightening episode!

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Welcome to Wiki bearings where we dive into the worlds of engineering excellence from the automotive marvels to the industrial giants. Join us to explore the wonders that keeps the world in motion. My name is Hassanein Alwan and I'm your host.

Welcome to today's episode where we dive into sustainability. We have a special guest with 28 years of experience in the industry, a forefront in transforming industrial practices in the Middle East and Africa, a passionate engineer, a humble leader, a loving father, explorer of philosophies, motivational speaker, and advocate for sustainability.

Welcome Swapnil Gupta. Thank you. Thank you 

Hassanein. I'm delighted to be here. We had the, our partnership going the last probably five years now. [00:01:00] And I think I have learned a lot of things from you, the way, uh, mineral circle bearings, uh, is rolling itself out the market, helping the customers. I consider you as a sort of open eyes and ears for innovation and renovation, whatever you call it.

So. Yeah. It has been a good learning. Uh, we have, we have walked the talk, so to say on few things. Uh, of course cannot sleep on the laurels, which is, which we achieved in the past, but definitely a lot of things to learn and expand and 

implement. Yes. Thank you. Thank you for coming. So, as we said, we're going to talk about a little bit sustainability You have been working for SKF for many years.

So if we start with a soft start, tell us a little bit about your experience in SKF and what makes SKF different from the [00:02:00] competition. 

Yeah. SKF, as you know, uh, is an acronym for, uh, Svenska Kulagerfabriken, which is Swedish bearing factory. A company which was established by a textile engineer called Mr.

Sven Winkvist, and he was facing a problem of, of bending in shafts in the textile mill machinery. And that's how he came up with a bearing, which was self-aligning ball bearing way back in 1907. So SKF then started rolling out different types of bearings in different parts of the globe. And now we stand at 117 years after Mr.

Winkvist, you know, established this company for us, SKF, uh, motto, so to say, is a life with less friction. Uh, and so far as the data goes. 20 percent of all energy, which the word produces, who's into handling a friction. So [00:03:00] that's a, that's a lot of, a lot of energy. So whatever is spins, whatever rotates, whatever turns.

In our everyday life, uh, moving cars, having transportation, even, uh, skating for fun or music, everything, whatever the rotating components are there in our daily lives, we as SKF trying to reduce the friction, make the application lighter, that's what our focus is. And. And I think in our daily lives, SKF as a company, and we as employees of, of SKF, we always strive to look ahead, a step ahead, uh, into looking of what we can do.

So it's not a purely a product company. So to say, uh, SKF is more of a solutions provider with the core of bearings and then all the, uh, allied technologies around were in. We can make our lives, make lives of our customers easier, [00:04:00] less friction, less friction. So that's, that's what SKF, uh, tries to do in every day, day to day life.

Of course. I mean, like we want to have less friction in life and less friction in bearings and less friction in engineering. The least friction we can have. Sometimes 

friction is required, but most of the time it's not required. 

We can have less friction, but not, not a lot of friction. Um, so if we look at iScape as a, as a leading, industry and in the bearing and in service, uh, in the mechanical services fabrication.

And so we see that SKF is taking this lead, uh, leadership into the sustainability. And, um, there is a lots of, uh, big projects and ambitions. What can you tell us about that? 

Yeah. First of all, let me, uh, explain the different facets of our business was [00:05:00] that itself will give you what sustainability means, because if you see on the, on the, uh, on the product side, we, we are producers of bearings.

We are producers of seals. Uh, we are producers of lubrication systems and lubricants. We are into, uh, condition monitoring equipments, reliability, uh, and performance monitoring equipment, power transmission, maintenance products. So if you see that the technologies which we are working on or the product lines, which we are working on makes, uh, bearing sustainable.

So that's altogether the core of it, that when we produce something which facilitates rotation. We also look into the aspects of rotation, which could be influenced on the performance side of it, uh, be it, uh, the lubrication of it, or be keeping the contamination out of, of the bearing, uh, assemblies. So basically the monitoring part of it.

So this is, this all [00:06:00] itself adds to the sustainability of that particular application or the performance of it. But basically as engineers, uh, working on the development, design, manufacturing. of bearings on the bearing aspect itself. There is a lot of innovation which goes on in making the bearings lighter.

So 

one, one aspect of it is the performance of it, the allied technologies, which I talked about, but the other facet is how to make bearing state of the art. So it's, it's not just a piece of metal, which is worked upon by different machines. It's a piece of art. So even we have bearings, which goes for the cars, which has like, uh, you know, the classic cars, even so we have bearings for them as well.

So for us, we, we think that whatever we do, we add to the sustainability of it, uh, with the different technologies and all, but then talking exclusively about, uh, sustainability, we have, we have many focus areas of, of working [00:07:00] in terms of, uh, the manufacturing practices, which we have in our own factories.

SKF, uh, has about 110. Uh, manufacturing base in about 130 countries, uh, we employ about 40, 000 employees, uh, globally. We are a 10 billion Euro company, uh, globally. So it's not like we ourselves can add a lot of things, uh, as far as the sustainability goes in the manufacturing practices, which we, uh, Which we do the amount of energy, which we consume in producing or working upon the piece of metal to produce bearings.

So there are a lot of things which, which adds to, uh, the sustainability part of it. I can, I can really, uh, explain, uh, in the details if you can discuss some, some core areas of it, as we go along. 

If, if, if we, if we look in general, I think of course the, the, the, the idea of bearings and the mechanical and all [00:08:00] surrounding, it is based on somehow sustainability because less, less friction, less energy.

more productivity and all of that for sure. But I think, I think if we look at, just if we, if we think about a few of, of SKF's, uh, let's say project, you can, you can hear in the media and so on, like decarbonizing the production by 2030, which is a very ambitious, uh, Courageous, I would say goal to, to do.

And I think one thing we want to understand from you, what does that mean? And do you think this is something that is achievable? 

Very much. And, uh, the, the, uh, things which, which SKF have committed on the sustainability part, it's not like we have committed it for ourselves, but it is part of. Or it is aligned to the global goals.

So for example, I'll, I'll just throw [00:09:00] out some numbers to you where we say that, uh, SKF's a dead zero commitment on the greenhouse gases. Uh, the targets which we have put ourselves, uh, in our operations, in our manufacturing and what we do is validated by SBTI, uh, which is the science based target initiative, uh, is an organization and they have validated our goals, uh, aligned with the climate science and the Paris agreement.

So it's not like we have thrown up certain numbers, which, which is not achievable, or we have. We did a jargon for the industry to feel good about it. It's very much achievable. The 30 percent reduction on, on the CO2 levels, which we keeping the 2019 as a base, keeping 2019 as a base. We said we, we will reduce our, our carbon footprint by 30%.

I think 2025 by 2030, 2030, 2030. [00:10:00] 

So there are, for example, uh, if you talk about the clean tech business, probably we will touch upon it. A clean tech business for us, it's, uh, about 10 percent of our total sales. So if we are, uh, We report our, our numbers in sec. So that clean tech business in 2023 was a 10 billion sec.

So that's not a small amount of money, which we, which we, and on top of it, SKF has a located about, uh, 3 billion sec on, on this, uh, to meet the energy decarbonization targets, which we have put. So that numbers and the, and the, uh, commitment, which the escape group as such has done, uh, are very much in line with the, uh, The global validation authorities, and it is very much achievable.

It's not something up in the air, which we say, and then we do something differently. 

It's just that I think coming from 2019 as a base [00:11:00] to look at decarbonization by 2030, It's, it's 10 years almost, give or take, and it's a very ambitious and it's, it's have an impact. I mean, it's, it's, it looks, yes, it's maybe a buzzword or an interesting, but there is so much of changes that have to have to happen.

to achieve. And this is what I think the market look at it to be very courageous. Is it possible? Because I think as a metal industry in general, these are, they have a big impact on the environment and decarbonization by 2030s is, is, it looks to be a very, 

Now, when I also first learned as an employee, what SKF is into, and then, and these numbers look to be a bit of, you know, challenge or a stretch, but then we, we go into the details.

And if you look into the aspects of, of how the breakup of it, of how we will achieve that since 2019, [00:12:00] uh, we have, uh, a carbon CO2 emission reduction of 41%. And how we did that, I will explain in due course. We first of all have a product category rules defined, which means that, uh, the, and whatever the bearings we are producing, we try to calculate the environmental impact of it.

So we, we, uh, have this matrix or the category rules defined wherein We see the full life cycle, including the carbon footprints of the bearing units, which we produce. And, uh, we have something called, uh, uh, it's called, it's an app, which is called the pollution or CO2 inhibitor app. So The app has different elements of it.

Uh, probably it will take a few hours to explain to this, but, but we ourselves in our factories, we, what we are doing is that we have those matrices, the developed, uh, and each and every factory is more or [00:13:00] less following those development rules, uh, calculating the amount of CO2, which is, which is affected by the production of so much of working upon the metals and all.

There is an increase of 5 percent on the clean tech sales, as I, as I said, the clean tech solutions in 2023, now the lot of aspects of clean technology and other aspects of it, but definitely few elements of it is that we will, uh, I think 64 percent of our energy consumption in our factories. Will be from the renewable energy.

So that's the commitment. So that's the commitment, which we are doing. And we are investment in, in technologies, in companies who are into the renewable energy as a partner. So it is on the, on the manufacturing of bearings on the sourcing of, of different raw materials into the manufacturing processes, the energy consumption of it, the sourcing of the energy consumption, the supply chain, the regionalization of, of, uh, [00:14:00] factories.

So to be more close to the customers not producing a bearing in China and delivering it, uh, to Middle East or, or in America. So sure. That's, uh, that's also affecting localization 

and shipments. And so 

the regionalization, the, the sourcing part, the overall, you know, we calculate the, uh, efficacy of, of what we are doing.

Mm-Hmm. So there are different elements of it, of course, but yes, we are on path very much doable, as good as I would say. Great. 

I think, um. You mentioned a few times about clean tech. Can you tell us a little bit more? What, what does that mean and how did SKF venture into clean tech? 

Yeah. One of the foremost things, and I think, uh, the word is moving towards the, uh, electric vehicles.

So one of the clean tech solutions, which SKF has as of now is, uh, into the electric mobility solutions. And, uh, when we, when we say electric vehicles, [00:15:00] people would think that a lot of mechanical components will be reduced. So, and we have a complete basket of products for the vehicle aftermarket from engine to steering and suspension to everything.

So belts and chains and all different products. So people have a sort of misconception that probably SKF will be out of the electric vehicle market. Because we have a lot of solutions on the traditional fuel based, uh, mobility solutions. So, uh, now coming back to the electric vehicle, uh, there are certain solutions which SKF has developed.

And, uh, one of the, uh, solution is the optimized, uh, e power drain, uh, technology. Now what does it mean? The electric power drain, uh, which means there is a battery and then there's a whole set of gearboxes. The wheel is moved. We work on raising the energy efficiency of, of this power train. We calculate the energy efficiency of it and enabling the compact design of [00:16:00] it.

So overall design of the e power train. Simplifying the assembly, uh, looking into the efficiency part. Now getting deeper into it, uh, there are four or five solutions, which escape has come with, and they're very much part of the current set of vehicles, which are there in the market, including Tesla. So we are working with the market leaders, uh, in, in America, as in China, in Europe as well, and, uh, few things I can, I can tell you on the electric vehicle side is first.

There is a solution called a conductive brushing ring, uh, for the rotor shaft. So as we know that in the electric vehicle, there are a lot of, uh, problems related to electric discharge. So we call it as, uh, the, uh, parasitic current. So this, uh, ring, the brush ring, it is located on top of the bearing and then it, it, uh, releases or it.

It doesn't affect the performance of the bearing because if there's a leakage, there will be [00:17:00] pitting on the raceways. And accordingly there will be a reduction on the life of that particular application. So we have something called conductive brushing ring, uh, for the rotor shaft, uh, it mitigates the current, uh, in inside that particular powertrain.

It lowers the friction and the torque to move the vehicle. Then we have, uh, some special DGBBs where in the, the race phase of those DGBBs are made in such a way. So that we have a close oscillation of the balls. So that's one area where if we have a close oscillation of the balls, then the bearing can accommodate more radial and axial loads.

So that's one area where SKF, uh, works on the, uh, on the electric vehicles, uh, power train, especially the big, 

uh, the, the, the electrical. People in terms of RPM way, way higher than a standard ice engine. Yes. Yes. And, and the demands on these bearings are very on a different level. Yes. Very, very demanding.

On a, on a different level. 

[00:18:00] One of the, uh, very good solutions which SKF has is the application of hybrid bearings in the ePower train. Now, what is hybrid? We have a, you very well know the bearing. So we have the rings, which is made of bearing steel, but the rolling elements are made of silicon nitride. Uh, silicon nitride, if you see, uh, it has 60 percent lesser density than steel.

So automatically the weight is reduced. That's why I was saying, uh, compact design and no lighter weight. So these hybrid bearings, they increase the speed capability of, of that application. And hybrid bearings can insulate the housing. So the leakages which happen, 

Electricity leakage and so on, the damage because of the leakages.

And it works 

very well on the AC motors, on the DC motors, as well as on the generators. So all the aspects of, of the electrical vehicle is taken care of. Uh, silicon nitride, uh, as we [00:19:00] know has a low density, as I said, 60 percent low density. Very high strength, stiffness, toughness, hardness. Uh, it can withstand, uh, high vibrations and oscillations.

There is no need of preload on the hybrid bearings. There is no need of some special lubricants on, on the hybrid bearings. Once you, you use the standard. Lubricant or in some cases no lubricant at all. Uh, the, so these are some of the solutions. And the final solution which we have is the high load carrying capacity needle roller bearings for the electric vehicle.

So these are some of the solutions which we feel adds to the sustainability because the word is moving towards a definite, definite technology. and SKF should be geared up to provide solutions to that particular technology. 

For sure. I mean, like now we, we, we, if we look at electrical vehicles, I think a lots of automatically we think about an ice engine, the standard engine [00:20:00] with all this combustion and which I think it's an engine that have worked for so many years and we know it works.

And, and I don't think we are in a, I know that there is many manufacturers that are promising by 2030, there is no more production of that. And, and I think we come to look at hybrid engines and we come to look at, uh, I mean, when I say hybrid, it's like, which is electrical slash ice engine. And there is all the different technology.

And I think there is a race in that direction. And I think the, We all see that the electrical cars is increasing and we, for any company that have a focus on producing bearings related to tensioners, clutches, alternators, water pumps, and all of, you know, this is a big part of, of, of today's OEM. So, and it's automatically comes to the mind that [00:21:00] this bearing company able to transform or sustain their business where automotive business is usually a big part of the business.

I think you touch point on, on some of these, on what comes to that escape is investing in, in that. But when it comes to, to the, if we look at the automotive business of, of SKU. I mean, the industrial business a little bit different. Maybe it will not be impacted by the EV. There is other aspect and factors that will impact the industrial market in the future, but EV entering to, to the markets.

And looking at SKF producing bearings and all the related power transmission belts and all of that, and some other products, how do you look at it from both an OEM market and, and, and from an aftermarket perspective? 

Yeah. As of now, I don't see looking into the, the [00:22:00] management focus of, of, uh, spreading our wings into other areas of, of business.

Which leaves basically the core business of SKF, which is bearings and the allied products or technologies which help bearing perform better. So I would say that, uh, uh, beat, as I said, I explained about, uh, the electrical vehicles, uh, would be other aspects of it, but we will not be, uh, you know, diversifying into electronics or something, which is, which is very new for SKF.

SKF as such as a company would, would like to focus more and more on our core expertise, which is producing bearings. Innovating on the, on the design of it, making it lighter, making it, uh, less friction, it should operate probably the lubrication part of it and all the aspects of caring of, of, uh, good performance of a bearing.

But I would not say that escape as a company would move into. [00:23:00] areas, which is very different. We will still focus and find ways and solutions to help our customers on the things which we are expert at, not something which we spread our wings into an area, which is unknown for us. So I would say, uh, be it electric vehicles or any other sustainability, for example, I would say, uh, I would like to explain here also something Uh, remanufacturing of, of bearings.

So now, of course, it doesn't touch the vehicle aftermarket, but on the 

industrial side, there is a lots of, uh, but you will 

get to know about the inclination of the, of the, uh, company where, so now when we started, uh, remanufacturing, remanufacturing basically is done for. So 

let us explain what, what does it mean first?

Because for the audience just to see what remanufacturing now, this is more into industrial bearings, I guess it's more into heavy duty industrial bearings where [00:24:00] remanufacturing is happening. And I would like you to explain what, what is it? And now, if I am a manufacturer of bearing, why would I encourage that even?

Yeah. Yeah. That's a very, very good question. And a lot of people ask me as well. 

Because you know, your goal should be to sell bearings, not to re manufacture them. No, as 

I said, SKF is not, into the business of selling more metals per kg. It's more of selling solutions per person. 

So let us explain the idea about re manufacturing.

Yes. 

So re manufacturing, as I said, uh, is a concept within SKF. Uh, I don't know if other companies are doing it. They've been doing it in parts, but we started doing it some 15, 17, 18 years back when we didn't start remanufacturing to, to reduce our, our bearing sales, as you said. You know, because if you rema remanufacturing means, [00:25:00] uh, basically to work upon a used bearing and to make it usable, so it is reusable to an extent.

Now, remanufacturing of a bearing cannot be done if the bearing has failed or it has achieved. Uh, the wear inside the bearing is to a level. Where the, where, uh, irreversible, the, uh, ir where it is irreversible. Yeah, that's the word for it. So it has to be a balancing act between how much the, the bearing has wor out and, uh, what we can do, uh, to polish it, to change the cage material or the ruling element.

So different, uh, heat treatment process, which can go, Hmm. So we started with an aspect of, of, uh, very high lead time if the customer is facing very high lead time. Uh, then they would send the, the used bearing, which probably as per the parameters, the strict parameters, which the OEM has given to them, it is taken out of the, uh, operation.

So we re manufactured, re man it, [00:26:00] uh, or re made it reusable, refurbished that. And that was the whole purpose of starting this, uh, uh, activity within SKF, but over the period of time now refurbishment of bearing has become one of the talking points of sustainability. So it's just not the, the financial aspect of it that people, of course, people save money.

because they have a longer, uh, usage of the same bearing, but it's more now of the sustainability. Let me explain. When we started, uh, refurbishment or reman of bearings, uh, we had a couple of factories in Austria and in Poland, but now we have 15 reman, uh, units of workshops across the board. Now, just to give an example, we are working with one steelmaker for more than 10 years.

And we refurbish. Uh, all the bearings of the continuous casting machine. So approximately 2000 bearings are used, uh, in a CCM and [00:27:00] which is replaced continuously and, uh, we, uh, we refurbish those bearings, uh, and we. As I said, 2000 bearings per year and it saves 10 ton of steel per year. So it's a lot of, it's a lot, it's a lot of, uh, lots of steel, lot of steel and 62,000 kilowatts of energy, uh, saved and 30 tons of CO2, uh, wow production.

So this is just one CCM, which I'm talking about. So now, uh, reman or the refurbishment, uh, initially was to lower the cost and shorten the lead times. But now it is more of sustainability and the circularity goals, as we say, so in SKF, I think all the employees, uh, they are, we call it a circular people. Uh, there's a term inside SKF where we call them circular people, which means that they need to think and find ways and means.

To tell to our customers that [00:28:00] it's a remand or it beat some other aspects of, of their operations. Are we thinking in a, uh, in a circular way, uh, as, as we define the circular economy. So, uh, that's one part of it. Also, uh, As I was saying that we work with our, uh, most of our end customers and we, we have an application called avoided emission calculator.

So if they can avoid it, for example, refurbishment as, as we discussed, uh, it has to be a balance between the via and the usability. So we use the condition monitoring technology and artificial intelligence included in that app as part of the app. But in get the data and then we advise our customers stop it and send the bearings to our remand facilities and it could be refurbished to give you the more extent the usability of them.

Yeah. 

And, and, and do you, do you see that this is, this is the direction [00:29:00] forward as well? Do you see that this is, this is a growing business? 

It's a very much entrenched now. Uh, segments like wind energy, like metals, like, uh, mining and mineral processing, cement plants. They are very much into it. Uh, our workshops are overloaded.

All these 15 remand plants are basically overloaded with, uh, bearings, which are given to us for extending the bearing life cycle. 

And usually you would refurbish them or re. engineer them to, to be used in the same, same application, same application, not, and they will do stand similar 

in sometimes guarantee also that within the operating parameters, if they, if they run those bearings, we give them the life, extended life cycle, lifetime of, of that bearing also.

So it's a certified kind of. solution for our customers. 

Is there anything near to, to the region? As 

of now, the, uh, the remand capabilities, [00:30:00] the closest one is in Austria. Before it was one of the Middle East countries, but because of these sanctions and all, uh, we, we moved that facility to Austria, but there was one few years back in Middle East also.

Okay. 

Great. 

Now, um, I'll just add to ride up on, because we are talking about sustainability and different aspects of it. SKF has one more solution called recond oil. So currently you heard about it. Now, what is recond oil? Recond oil is nothing but reconditioning of oil. Now we have this patent technology called double, double separation filter, ESF technology.

So what it does basically, it, uh, is a technology where the. The nanoparticles of contamination inside the oil. So basically what we are doing is that we are taking hydraulic oils, lubricating oils, and machine oils. These are the three types of oils which we recondition. So there is a, there is a scalable, uh, unit, customized unit.[00:31:00] 

It could be 2, 3, 5, 10 filters. Mm-Hmm. And then you can use it in the circulation line. You take the, uh, from the, uh, gearbox or wherever the oil is. And then these nanoparticles, uh, the contamination as well as the water. 

Mm-Hmm. 

They coagulate with this, with this, uh, technology. Okay. And it settles down inside the oil.

And then those lumps of, of the settled particles, it is cleaned through the filters. And then the life of those oils is increased to an extent that sometimes instead of maybe a couple of changes in a year, the changes are not required for the next five years. So it's a huge, huge in thing. And then I think SKF, as I said, is investing and.

looking into these kinds of things where it's a kind of blue ocean thing. Nobody's doing it. I mean, how can you, uh, gauge the benefits of, uh, twice in a year oil change with a five year oil change and [00:32:00] all the other costs which are attached to it. You have to stop the plant. You have to, look after the disposable, disposability of the oil also.

So a lot of things which goes into it. So recond oil is also one of the technologies which we are working on. So 

it is, it is more into the industrial segment or can be wherever 

you have a machine oil, a hydraulic oil. Or a, uh, what do you call the lubricating oil? So it could be a lath machine, it could be a, a gearbox, it could be an engine, whatever.

So we just use And is 

it, is it a tested and, and a working solution that Yes. Yes. Uh, or is is it just in the Middle 

East? We have just, uh, employed, uh, uh, with the Epco. Okay. Uh. the emirates oil company and we supplied them about five units. 

Okay. 

It is under test and the plan is to roll out for every gas stations around the fuel stations around.

So they will be having their own recoined oil [00:33:00] space where the machine oil or ninja oil can be reconditioned in the light of the oil could be increased by double or triple or four times. This is also 

a very, we'll have a major impact on the sustainability as well because We are not only reusing it, but the impact of where we dispose.

I mean, the disposal of today, all of these lubrication is a major problem because Yes, we can put two or three liters of new lubricator, but what, what, what is happening on the other one? This is also hard 

and more, more or less now, the government is also having very strict rules for exposing of the, I think, yes, this is now very strict rules.

It's, it's, it's nowadays also expensive to, expensive to deal with all of these and how to recycle them. And, and I think it's, it's, it's a great, uh, initiative. I, I think it's, it's, could be. Uh, especially where, where there is major production or if you have big gear boxes where there is. Uh, the disposal or re [00:34:00] reuse of these oils, I think it's, it's a very interesting idea.

It also gives, uh, escapes shareholders more confidence in escape because the way we do the things in, in areas, which is, as I said, the blue ocean technologies that nobody else is doing. So it's an altogether a new area for, for, for exploration. And the more we do such things, the more confident our shadow.

shareholders are scared that we are on the right track. It's not doing everything and anything. What everybody is doing it, but it's about forcing, focusing our efforts to do things, which, which really, you know, together, what we are expert at. So we have, we are doing things around it, a light to it so that it brings more value at the end of the day, uh, to our customers.

But, um, Now, I'm not sure who else is doing this kind of, uh, cleaning and, and [00:35:00] refurbishing, reconditioning the oils, but I think it's, it's, it's worth, it's a project worth exploring. And, and I think as it is a versatile and maybe 

we and MCB can also foray into this aspect of food. Puss. As I understand that you are looking for avenues for doing things different, reading the positive vibes in the market.

Because see a business now with so much of data flowing around and so much of exposure in whatever you are doing, and the outside world, people are very keenly observing. Our distributors are doing or what we are doing. And when we do things, which, uh, uh, which, which is a genuine effort, I would say. Then it, it brings a kind of, uh, confidence.

So otherwise people would think that I'm just pushing my products or I'm pushing my products through my distributors, uh, in the market. But then when they see, no, uh, the businesses. [00:36:00] It's not, it's not only a one way kind of game. It's a, it's a kind of circular economy where we are operating, then they have more confidence on us.

All of our efforts, I would say, is to reduce, reuse, recycle, recover as long as possible. So if you ask me what SKF will look like in five to 10 years from now, we will be doing more or less the same things. On this aspect of 

circularity. 

So giving more enhanced solutions, I would say, uh, to our customers, creating more value for our distributors, close to our distributors, uh, close to our customers, distributors are our extended arms.

It, uh, mineral circle bearings or any of the distributor globally. We have 

around, uh, 

17, 000 distributors across the globe. So as you are an extended arm for SKF. We would like to have the feedback, first of all, from you, what you are facing with your [00:37:00] customers and very well support you with clean technologies or application engineering or just a handholding and going to your customers together to just really understand that if, and probably we have a social obligation as well, that what 

we 

are doing, we should, we should create value at the end.

Oh, definitely. Now we talked about SKF. We talked about the. some of the aspects of sustainability. And then, and then there is this big escape one to achieve net zero by 2050. Now, net zero is for, for a company in, if it was. a service into, I don't know, uh, like a different aspect of the business or, uh, it, I wouldn't say it's difficult, but with, with SKF net zero, this is like a very big ambitious.

And I think you are also including your, your [00:38:00] supply chain in, in, in this, what can you tell us about that? 

Yeah. See, we have pledged, uh, to source at least, let's say 40 percent of our steel from, uh, net zero steel plants by 2040. So then you would ask like, like the obvious question. So what we are doing is that we are helping our, uh, so there is a steel mill in Europe where the technologies and the way they produce a steel and the, and the CO2 emission, which is linked to producing per ton of steel.

All these aspects are jointly worked upon with escape engineers and the steel mill. So we are in the process of creating such a supply chain entities, which so called are also, because it's not only escapes. Obligation or responsibility to do that as we are committed to net zero targets, uh, as per the Paris Agreement or the International [00:39:00] Labor Organization Agreements or Compact 10, uh, principles.

So we are, we are aligned. So there are different companies also who are aligned. Sure, yes. These targets. So I would say that SKF is working. With, with such entities who are very much eager and aligned, because it can, it can come to a point that the businesses can stop, uh, the garments would stop those businesses, which are not, uh, aligned to the targets, which, which we ourselves as, as nations or as companies have agreed upon.

So I think either we do it or we are forced to do it, but we have to do it at the end of the day, you can see around. Even Dubai was facing so much of, of rains, uh, in the last week and, and we saw the, uh, the harsher realities of, of natural disasters. Sure. So, uh, it is a collective 

effort. There is an environmental impact.

Yes. Yes. Either we, we, we close our eyes, [00:40:00] see, uh, there is a, there's a saying that the ostrich, uh, when faces a danger, Uh, the ostrich puts his head in the sand and he feels that nothing is going wrong around, but the danger is there. I mean, the ostrich will get killed at the end of the day, she puts the head inside the sand and she, she thinks that nothing is going wrong.

So we should not be in, in that ostrich situation. I think, as I said, Uh, I, I am giving you certain initiatives of SKF, like clean tech, like, uh, sourcing the raw materials. As I said, 64 percent of our energy will be from the renewable energy sources, from wind, from tidal energy, and we are investing, for example, one of the sustainability efforts is to create some special bearing solutions for the tidal energy.

So, uh, the tides create the movement of. Yeah. So we are, we are having, we invested heavily into the wind turbines, the [00:41:00] special solutions for wind turbines, special spherical roller bearings, which are particular suffixes. So as SKF, as I said, we are very much dedicated. We are focused on our core expertise to provide solutions to either it is 20, 30 targets of, of, uh, emission reduction or 20, 50 targets of net zero.

Net zero, uh, governance within our manufacturing unit. So it could be world class manufacturing. It could be working with our customers to reduce their carbon footprint. It could be clean technologies investment, uh, which can give not only us, but our customers, certain tangible things to work upon and reduce their carbon footprint.

Regionalization, as I said, uh, could be one thing of our manufacturing basis. Uh, it could be competitive supply chain, uh, wherein we source, how we source, what we source. So, yeah, I mean, there are different elements of it. It's not like a [00:42:00] magic wand that I, I just throw the magic wand around and things get done.

There's small, small things which are contributing, uh, to the overall targets, which 

we look at the competitors, or some of the competitors they are. Now, venturing into maybe acquiring a company and another, let's say into electronics or into a different dimension that will, I mean, they, they see that this is, this is the direction or maybe some of them are actually doing partnerships with some sustainability companies or into electrification or software engineering and so on.

Now, I think every company is trying to find their way forward in, in their, in what they think this is. The right direction, but SKF, it feels that they are sticking to the core. Yes. Can, can, can we say that this is, this is the strategy? [00:43:00] As I, as I, as 

I understand, uh, today with the, with the SKF top management, it is very much evident on our annual reports also about the different initiatives, which we are doing.

I'm not saying anything is off the table, but if there are technologies which can further accelerate, uh, the core technologies or the core expertise, which we have maybe in the deployment aspect of it or in the development of it or the, or the innovation part of it. Uh, of course, the big data is the next big thing, which SKF is working upon.

We have something called cloud based, uh, data capturing, wherein, uh, if it is a steel mill or it's a oil and gas company around mid in the middle of the sea or Of the desert. So we are capturing a lot of data. So the, the big data processing through artificial intelligence. So what I would say that if there are technologies around to process that data, because the data is there, data is there in my mobile.

In your mobiles. Yeah. [00:44:00] We are, we are in the midst of data launch. So think we have here we have too much of data. Yeah. We have too, too much of, uh, data. So, but. The, uh, the whole, uh, intent for escape is to, to process this data. We have a lot of solutions now for, uh, cloud based reliability initiatives. We're in.

Uh, the data is captured, uh, artificially intelligence, uh, uh, so, uh, uh, analysis of it. And, and then we, we inform our customers, you know, Mr. customer, your bearing is going to fail after three days. So that, that, uh, solution is now, uh, with us. So I would say 4. 0. Yeah. So I would say that, uh, SKF is very much open to exploring these allied technologies, but it should.

be making our core expertise more better. So it's, it's not that, as I said in the start, it should not be, we are flying around just to, for the sake of it. No, we are, we are very focused. And, [00:45:00] uh, and I think our, our customers, uh, acknowledge that. 

Now, how, if we, if we look at this very ambitious, uh, sustainability target, SKF have led the way, and I think they, they are also showing the industry that it is possible to still do a, such an impact with, uh, in a sustainable way.

And I think as SKF believe it's, it's, it's, it is possible. And I think they're also leading the way into this. Now, how do you think this will impact your 17, 000 distributor or, or that in one way? And how, what do you expect from your Uh, 

first of all, uh, SKF is, is, uh, what's the right word for it that SKF is very much thankful, uh, to our distributor community in my 28, [00:46:00] 27, 28 years of SKF life, I have never seen, I have never seen a good distributor leaving SKF, so they are like our, our family.

take care of our distributors. The only point I would say that what's next for distributors is that they should just evolve as SKF is evolving. I think if we are focusing on the, uh, the sustainability, if we are focusing on reducing the environmental impact, if we are focusing on value proposition for our customers.

If we are, uh, looking at rotation in a different way, our distributors should also look at rotation in different way. It should, it should not be a traditional rotation just for the sake of it. We, we say that, uh, The rotation has to be facilitated. So it could be many things. I think you are also an engineer and you yourself were giving so [00:47:00] many examples of customization and things which can help your customers, you know?

So I think by just extending what we are doing is the way forward for our distributors and we make things very easy. For our distributors to learn and we are open. We are, we are, uh, deploying, uh, resources and, uh, different softwares and learnings and team building, wherein our distributors are just an extended, uh, arm of SKF.

So I would say that it could be 17, 000 plus even more. Distributors because we have so much of things to offer to our customers that they become segment specific distributors or product specific distributors or solution providers. We have so many things. For example, there are specific distributors who work only on motors.

So increasing the reliability of motors. There are distributors who only sell bearings. There are distributors who only sell power transmission products or a [00:48:00] combination of different products in the basket. But I think there is an, there is an opportunity of working, uh, with SKF, uh, in products, in solutions, in segments, in, uh, customized solutions.

If you have your eyes and ears open of what is happening in the, in the, uh, uh, environment around, we are there together with our distributors. So we handhold you, we, uh, work with you to increase the skills, uh, we are just looking at. Our distributors should have the right skills at the right time for the right set of people so that the initiatives which we want to roll out in the market are easily done.

So I don't think there is an anomaly. Or a difference between our efforts and what our distributors are doing. 

Great swap mill. It is. It was a very nice to have you. [00:49:00] It is our pleasure to see you and as always, um, it's, it's fun to exchange some of our idea. Uh, maybe this is our first, uh, podcast together, but maybe this is not our last one.

Sure. So I hope you had, uh, yes. You, you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed. Thank you very much for today and, uh, we hope we stay in touch. Thank you very much. 

It's a pleasure to be here and, uh, discuss a few things. Of course, there are a lot of things like escape care and employee engagement and which, which we'll find another day to talk about.

Thank you very much. very much. Thanks for the hospitality. Thank you. 

And that wraps another episode of Wiki bearings. Don't forget to subscribe for more insight into the fascinating realm of engineering innovation. Until next time, keep spinning towards [00:50:00] greatness