An industry with numerous manufacturers, especially in countries like India and China! Companies with just a few machines are churning out thousands of heaters within these small facilities. In contrast, there are companies with massive infrastructure with numerous furnaces, testing facilities and established QMS. But why such a contrast when elements can be made in small rooms with only a few machines? Is making heating elements so easy and a small facility good enough? Ultimately, it’s just filling, rolling and bending that is mainly required.

If that is true, why is heating element one of the prominent spare items of the industry? Why do brands of water heaters specifically market heating elements' quality as one of the major branding points? Why are there only a handful of known international companies specializing in industrial heating elements and why are not consumer goods /appliance manufacturers or other users backwards integrating to manufacture heating elements themselves? The answer is simple - it’s easy to manufacture heating elements, but not so much to manufacture quality heating elements.

Humidity in the atmosphere and the quality of water at the application end can cause havoc in the life of heaters, but can the heating elements be versatile enough to bear the impact of such conditions? The answer is ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ both! Well, for ‘Yes’, a company needs strong QMS and R&D, but the race is still on to reach perfection and this is where ‘No’ comes in as the industry is still some distance away from the ever-demanding perfection.

The ‘Yes’ starts with the design, the quality of raw material, the control within the manufacturing unit to protect the element from moisture, strong sealing, stringent testing standards and more over strong QMS and efforts of the R&D department. The Quality and R&D culture forms the backbone of a company pursuing perfection while fighting the battle with the hostile environment in which the heaters end up working in.

Theeta is a brand synonym with the word heating element in the Indian appliance industry. It has had its set of challenges in the past years and had to rediscover itself with the new zeal to achieve the state of perfection mentioned above. Investment in R&D, quality-based machines, deep study of the internal processes, adopting the culture of 5s, QMS, and investment in the talent pool have been its main focus in the last 2-3 years. Indian companies such as Godrej and Bajaj have also been more than willing to offer their helping hand to Theeta in its endeavour. Being part of the Godrej supplier cluster program and the Bajaj project to improve heating element quality are a couple of such customer initiatives.

With a strong platform, Theeta’s future looks bright with strong growth expected in the next few years. ‘Make in India’, the world looking at India as an alternative to China, and the strong growth of the Indian appliance industry are all set to benefit Theeta in its quest to grow at a fast pace in the coming years.