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20 May 2025India, the world's second-largest building ceramic market, produced 2.837 billion ㎡ of tiles in 2023. KEDA Ceramic Machinery has been deeply rooted in the Indian market for over 20 years. Its polishing & squaring machines are widely recognized for being efficient, reliable, and high-quality, holding over 90% market share in India's ceramic final-processing segment.
However, with the global economy still undergoing cyclical adjustments, India's building ceramic industry has also felt the negative impact. Many local customers, especially small and medium-sized business owners, have become increasingly cautious about investing in new machinery. To better address customer concerns, KEDA India introduced a refurbishment solution for ceramic machinery, which quickly gained strong traction in the local market.
Based on insights into market challenges, KEDA India took the lead in launching the polishing machine refurbishment program. This localized service offered Indian customers a cost-effective alternative. Leveraging KEDA Ceramic Machinery's strong technical foundation, the company successfully replicated its refurbishment model in India. Positive word-of-mouth among local clients helped quickly build brand recognition. Today, refurbishment has become a key pillar of KEDA India's localized service strategy.
Building on its experience and market expansion, KEDA India launched a local refurbishment program for squaring & chamfering machines earlier this year, following the success of its polishing machine services. The move responds to growing demand from Indian customers for squaring & chamfering machine repair and refurbishment.
KEDA India recently sent a team of technicians to China, led by Nikunj Makasana (Nik), Head of Production. The team received in-depth training at KEDA's headquarters, with the goal of replicating core technologies locally and enabling independent, localized service delivery in India.
As the refurbishment of squaring & chamfering machines is significantly more complex than that of polishing machines, Nik carefully recorded the entire training process, documenting key steps and technical challenges. Over the course of 10 days, the Indian technicians gained a full understanding of the core procedures and critical details.
▲On-site training
Nik noted that the team will move quickly to roll out the squaring & chamfering machine refurbishment service in India, further enhancing KEDA's localized service capabilities.
To extend KEDA Ceramic Machinery's lean philosophy and practices to its Indian operations, Nik and his Indian colleagues took part in a lean management project for the first time during their training trip to China. In addition to learning about squaring & chamfering machine refurbishment, they also gained firsthand experience in KEDA's ongoing lean initiatives.
To address the current challenges of local refurbishment in India, KEDA India's Chinese management team launched a lean project focused on improving efficiency and reducing costs in polishing & squaring head refurbishment. With the support of lean principles and tools, and strong collaboration between the Chinese and Indian teams, the project achieved impressive results: a 60% boost in efficiency and a 59.22% reduction in costs, marking a significant improvement in both productivity and cost-effectiveness!
▲Nik and his Indian colleagues took part in a lean management project
Reflecting on the outcome, Nik expressed his amazement, saying, "We used to think our daily operations were already efficient, but through lean tools and methods, we discovered hidden waste in the process and achieved much higher productivity. This approach is incredible—I can't wait to bring it back to India and share it with the whole team. We'll definitely promote it widely".
With the full advancement of localized production and services, KEDA India continues to strengthen its local presence. The company's influence in the region is growing steadily, making it a model for KEDA's vision of becoming a global building ceramic production service provider through localization.
(KEDA Ceramic Machinery)
