Strong Developments at PT JJ-Lapp Cable SMI

In December 2010, the Group’s Cable Technology Regional Business Unit and Indonesian cable manufacturer PT Sinarmonas agreed to establish a new entity, PT JJ-Lapp Cable SMI (JJLSMI). The Mackerel reported in detail about this exciting venture, a milestone for the eight-year old joint venture, JJ-Lapp Cable.

More than one year down the line, The Mackerel is happy to report about strong developments for the new business in an exclusive interview with Mike Winzerling (MW), president director; Robert Teo (RT), general manager Technical & Production, and Erick Lionardi (EL), general manager Domestic Sales.

Mike, could you tell us about the most signification developments since the establishment of JJLSMI? Which pitfalls have been overcome and which milestones have been achieved?

MW: First, we went operational after only three months of preparations, which covered all legal, internal processes and human resources aspects of setting up a new company as well as the development and implementation of SAP. We were able to manage this thanks to the great support from the Group’s Central Services Unit and IT and Business Services Indonesia.

 After a couple of months, we faced some difficulties in handling the increased workload and called in a regional support team to help us back on track. The team consisted of members from across the entire Group and it was wonderful to see how much support we got. Even though, at Jebsen & Jessen (SEA), we operate various different and independent business units, one can count on each other when help is needed.  

As of today we are well equipped to handle the daily business volume and could increase sales revenue with new and existing customers. We also gave our factory a fresh look, built a new production office and have started to work on innovative process improvements.

Robert, what targets have you set for the coming year?

RT: Our primary focus is to get the company re-certified to ISO/TS 16949 QMS, which is critical to our continued supply of cable products to automotive customers, such as Honda or Yamaha, which are assembling motorbikes in Indonesia.

Second, we will embark on improvement projects to ensure consistent quality, lower cost and higher output. These include sourcing new vendors for raw materials, modifying, upgrading and purchasing of new production and testing equipment as well as changing some internal work processes.

Third, we are working with Lapp on the approval process for samples it is hoped that we may soon start supplying products from the Lapp catalogues.

Last but not least, we will be rolling out initiatives to renovate and improve the factory facilities. These initiatives will include 5S projects, further facility upgrades and the kick-start of our EHS activities.

Erick, you have been able to increase sales significantly since last year, will you be looking into serving new industries and markets in 2012? Where do you foresee strong growth potential?

EL: We have prepared several strategies to further increase sales in 2012:

 First, we want to expand our geographical focus to Surabaya and Medan to increase market share and enable cross selling. Our team will also lead revenue for the East and West Indonesian market and we will strengthen our customer service team.

Second, we will tap into the high potential markets for Fire Resistant, Instrumentation and Control cables, all of which we produce in our own facility. Other industries we are looking at are Building Management Systems and Oil & Gas.

 We will also continue to promote Lapp’s imported cables, our core business. The Lapp brand is strong, respected and well-known in the Indonesian market.

I'm excited to start year 2012 in JJLSMI with these new challenges. I believe the key to success is keeping focus with core business and be positive whenever facing obstacles. 

Mike, can you briefly elaborate on what’s in line for 2012?

MW: As mentioned by Erick and Robert before, we have to increase our market share in Indonesia significantly and improve on our processes in both sales and production. It will be of high importance to us to get our company re-certified according to ISO 9001 and ISO 16949 TS as well as to become a Lapp Group certified manufacturer. This will give us the basis to produce Lapp branded cables (such as ÖLFLEX) in our plant, which we target to achieve for the last quarter of 2012.

Last but not least, we want JJLSMI to fulfil Jebsen & Jessen’s (SEA) stringent EHS standards and will therefore start corresponding efforts in the second half of 2012.

We are looking forward to the future and are confident that by working as one strong team, we will be able to achieve something remarkable for JJLSMI, the JJ-Lapp Cable Regional Business Unit and our Group.