Craftsman Automation
The Coimbatore Machinist That Became the Backbone of India's Powertrain Revolution
THE MOMENT
Inside every Maruti Swift, every Hyundai i20, every Ashok Leyland truck, and every Bajaj Pulsar, there is a cylinder block — the structural heart of the engine, the precision-bored housing that guides pistons through thousands of cycles per minute for hundreds of thousands of kilometres of operation. The dimensions of that cylinder block must be accurate to microns. The surface finish of the bore must allow the piston rings to seal without friction. A cylinder block that is wrong by a tenth of a millimetre is an engine that fails.
Craftsman Automation has been machining those cylinder blocks, cylinder heads, crankshafts, and transmission housings in Coimbatore since 1986. An OEM whose engine is built on Craftsman components has a supplier whose quality record spans four decades and whose machining precision is as good as anything available globally. This is the silent backbone of India's automotive powertrain.
The Turnaround at a Glance
Craftsman Automation
Timeline
1986
Craftsman Automation founded — precision machined components, Coimbatore
1992
Automotive powertrain components — cylinder blocks and heads for Indian OEMs
1998
Maruti and Hyundai supply — passenger car engine components
2003
Heavy vehicles — commercial vehicle cylinder blocks; Ashok Leyland supply
2008
Aluminium casting — lightweight components for fuel-efficient engines
2012
Industrial and engineering segment — non-auto precision machining
Before → After
Revenue
EV components
Aluminium casting
Industrial/storage
The Playbook Move
Move 4 — Reinvent the Product
Craftsman reinvented its product for the EV transition — from cylinder blocks to battery enclosures, from crankcases to e-axle housings. The machining centres did not change. The components changed. The reinvention was in the engineering application, not the factory.
“ICE or EV — the vehicle still needs precision machined aluminium. We make that. We will always make that.”
— Craftsman Automation leadership
THE COMPANY BEFORE
Craftsman Automation was founded in 1986 by Srinivasan Ravi — a Coimbatore engineer who built the company in the city that is India's machine tool and precision engineering capital. Coimbatore's industrial ecosystem — trained machinists, precision tool suppliers, and the engineering culture that textile machinery manufacturing had built over a century — gave Craftsman the talent and supply chain context that precision automotive manufacturing requires.
The founding competence was precision machining: taking raw castings and forgings and transforming them — through turning, milling, boring, and grinding — into the finished components whose dimensions and surface finishes determine engine performance. This capability, built for the passenger car segment with Maruti and Hyundai as anchor customers, became the foundation for every subsequent expansion.
THE CRISIS
Craftsman's strategic challenge through the 2010s was the EV transition's implied threat to its core powertrain business. A company whose revenue depends on internal combustion engine components — cylinder blocks, cylinder heads, crankshafts — has a structural exposure to the electrification of India's vehicle fleet that no short-term hedging can eliminate. Electric vehicles have no cylinders, no cranks, no pistons. If EVs replace ICE vehicles at scale, Craftsman's core product becomes obsolete.
The capital intensity of precision machining — large CNC machining centres costing crores each, transferred lines for high-volume components, and the tooling investment that each new engine programme requires — creates balance sheet exposure that a rapidly changing powertrain market makes strategically uncomfortable.
THE LEADERSHIP DECISION
Craftsman's leadership decisions were two-fold. First, deepen the ICE powertrain position — adding aluminium casting to the machining capability to serve the lightweight engine trend that fuel efficiency regulations drove — while the transition timeline remained uncertain. Second, actively develop EV component capabilities: battery pack enclosures, e-axle housings, motor end shields, and the aluminium structural components that EV platforms require.
The storage solutions diversification — building industrial racking and shelving systems for warehouses — was the non-automotive revenue hedge that reduced powertrain cycle dependence. An industrial racking business has no exposure to EV disruption; its demand tracks warehousing investment, not vehicle technology.
THE STRATEGIC PIVOT
Craftsman's pivot was from a pure ICE powertrain component manufacturer to a precision manufacturing platform company — with ICE powertrain as the established revenue base, EV components as the growth investment, and industrial products as the diversification buffer.
The EV component development — machining the aluminium battery enclosures and e-axle housings for Tata Motors, Ola Electric, and other Indian EV platforms — leverages exactly the same aluminium machining and precision boring capability that Craftsman built for ICE components. The machines do not change. The components change. The capability is the same.
MARKET REACTION
Indian automotive OEMs — Maruti, Hyundai, Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors, Hero, Bajaj — have maintained and grown their Craftsman supply relationships through successive engine generation transitions, each new engine programme a re-endorsement of the machining quality and programme management capability that Craftsman delivers.
The EV OEMs — Tata Motors EV, Ola Electric, and the new entrants — have found in Craftsman the rare combination of aluminium casting and precision machining at automotive scale that their component requirements demand, and a supplier whose quality systems meet the automotive tier-1 standards that EV manufacturers require from their supply chain.
THE FACTORY FLOOR
Craftsman's eleven manufacturing plants — in Coimbatore, Chennai, Pune, Manesar, and other automotive hub locations — house the transferred machining lines that produce cylinder blocks and heads at the volumes that OEM production schedules require. A transferred line — a series of dedicated CNC machining centres linked by automated material handling — produces one component family at high volume with the cycle time consistency that just-in-time automotive supply demands.
The aluminium casting and machining integration — where Craftsman casts the near-net-shape aluminium component and then machines it to final dimensions — is the vertical integration that reduces supply chain steps, improves dimensional consistency, and captures the casting margin that a pure machining company surrenders to its casting supplier.
THE RESULTS
THE PLAYBOOK MOVE
Move 4 — Reinvent the Product: Craftsman reinvented its product for the EV transition — from cylinder blocks to battery enclosures, from crankcases to e-axle housings. The machining centres did not change. The components changed. The reinvention was in the engineering application, not the factory.
THE LESSON
The Machinist Who Masters the Component That Changes Survives the Transition — The One Who Masters Only the Old Component Does Not
Craftsman's response to EV disruption was not to deny it or panic about it — it was to ask: what do EVs need that my machines can make? The answer was aluminium housings, structural enclosures, and precision machined motor components — all of which Craftsman's CNC machining centres could produce with the same process discipline as the cylinder blocks they had been making for thirty years. The transition threat became a transition opportunity because Craftsman asked the right question early enough to build the answer before the market required it.
As your industry transitions — to EVs, to digital, to renewable energy, to automation — what does the new technology need that your existing manufacturing capability can produce? The transition that threatens your current product may be creating demand for a different product that your factory is already equipped to make.