Don’t confine yourself and don’t set a limit to your ambition. Go beyond the existing boundaries and seek new opportunities of growth. Develop expertise and skills beyond your existing role. That way, you will get a holistic picture and a holistic experience. And this will definitely push you in a leadership role.”
August 2022: In this exclusive interview with Niranjan Mudholkar, Editorial Director, Pro MFG Media, Lakshmi Umapathy, Factory Manager, Caterpillar India, explains that there is a need to encourage and support more women in manufacturing. “If we can do that then we can truly build a balanced and empowered workforce for the nation’s manufacturing industry,” she says. This interview is conducted under the Women Aces of Manufacturing initiative presented by the Aditya Birla Group.
You have been in this industry for more than two decades. How do you look back at the journey? Is there an element of regret to what you have done or do you feel that you have been in the right industry?
Yes, I have completed my 28 years of professional journey this year. And I have never regretted choosing this industry or this career. In fact, this is what makes me happy. I look back at my journey with satisfaction and pride. This career has given me the chance to learn, to grow and to interact with diverse people. Thanks to the experiences I gained in this industry, I have been able to proficiently apply to my work what I have learned during my college days. Moreover, the happiness and the contentment to see the positive impact of the products that you have helped build is immense.
What are some of the steps that you have taken not as a woman but as a manufacturing professional to ensure that you grow and evolve while also contributing to your organization?
The first is dedication and the second is commitment. These two qualities are absolutely essential for any professional irrespective of the sector or the field. Talking specifically about manufacturing, it is equally important to deep dive into your work and to have a proper understanding of the process. If you are able to do that then you will be able to outperform. But if you are not clear about the process, then you are in for trouble. Today, technology is advancing very rapidly. So irrespective of the gender, you should keep upgrading yourself about what is happening around you. Further, you should stay abreast of what is happening in other industries as well. You should benchmark with the best and also implement the best practices from other departments and other industries.
Different people have different ways of looking at challenges. What is your approach when it comes to dealing with challenges?
I love challenges and I love to take up new assignments. It could be anything; a resource constraint or a process bottleneck. When I am faced with a challenge, it enables me to use my learnings and my experience to solve the problem. I take that as a good platform to exhibit and demonstrate my execution skills. It also allows me to work and collaborate with other team members, to network and to use my leadership skills in the larger interest of the organization. At the same time, when I am tackling a challenge, I am also growing as a person and as a professional.
Working and growing in this industry is one part of who you are. But I understand that you are equally passionate about developing new leaders. What drives this passion? Do you focus on building more women leaders or do you also mentor men?
When I started my career as a production engineer, I faced a lot of challenges. So I don’t want any new person coming in as a woman engineer to face the same thing; I have taken that as a lifetime goal. Wherever I work, whichever industry I work in, I sustain that goal and groom more people and develop more leaders. I have been experimenting and then implementing this for the last 10 years.
As a leader, it is important to motivate and engage the blue collars and the other associates to let them exhibit their own talent, to empower them and give them the confidence that they too could one day become good leaders. Going beyond the organization, I also take this mission of inspiring and mentoring students and young engineers by being a speaker or a guest. Of course, my mentoring and coaching is not exclusive to women. I do a lot of mentoring for men as well. But yes, there is a need to encourage and support more women in manufacturing. If we can do that then we can truly build a balanced and empowered workforce for the nation’s manufacturing industry. Today, I see many women engineers joining manufacturing. But a lot of them discontinue for various reasons. I want to change that by demonstrating that you can accomplish a lot in this industry even as a woman.
Do you think industry and academia can collaborate and enable more women to take up this role in the manufacturing sector?
Yes, definitely. That is the need of the hour. It is important for academia and industry to collaborate. This collaboration can play a big role in preparing, training, mentoring and onboarding of women engineers into the industry. Globally, there are examples of how certain progressive organizations are collaborating at the school level to make sure that they attract the right talent. These organizations invest in these students and make sure that when they are on-boarded from the college, it’s a smooth transition. Many organizations also arrange industrial tours and provide internships to college students to expose them to the new manufacturing work culture. Today, the manufacturing industry is changing itself to become more attractive for women engineers. If the students can experience this change for themselves and also get some hands-on experience then their onboarding will be smooth. So, I would definitely say that if academia can work along with the industry, it will immensely benefit everyone involved.
In this regard, the ‘Women Aces of Manufacturing’ programme can certainly be beneficial to the cause of bringing more women into manufacturing and of enabling them to grow in this industry. Such programs can facilitate diversity and inclusivity by taking inspirational stories to all the stakeholders.
What would be your advice to the young women engineers who are planning to enter the manufacturing industry?
First and foremost, believe in yourself. It always starts with self-belief. Believe and feel that you are the best person for the role. Stop comparing yourself with others. Instead, challenge yourself. Focus on continuously improving your skills and your knowledge. Try to become better than what you were yesterday. Stay committed, take responsibility and learn to collaborate. Anticipate failure. If Plan A fails, have Plan B and Plan C in place.
What are the key lessons from your journey that you would want to share with us?
Explore beyond your own boundaries. Do not limit yourself to a department or a function. Experiment, learn and gain a diversified experience. It could be anything; project management, new product development, finance or even supplier management.
The more you are ready to take up a challenging role, the more growth there is for you. That’s what I have experienced. Let me give my own example. I joined as a production engineer then I was in manufacturing, in logistics, in project management, in new product introduction, and so on. I kept challenging myself and I kept learning new skills. So that’s the most important lesson that I have learnt and the one that I would like to share with everyone. Don’t confine yourself and don’t set a limit to your ambition. Go out of the existing boundary and seek opportunities of growth. Develop expertise and skills beyond your existing role. That way, you will get a holistic picture and a holistic experience. And this will definitely push you in a leadership role.
