About

Someone who pioneered Lean in India — and has studied it for 35 of his 50+ years.

A Lean thinker and hands-on practitioner who has transformed traditional companies into Total Lean Enterprises. I mentor, speak, and address conferences and seminars, and have authored publications on Lean Manufacturing, leadership, case studies, and management.

There are not too many people in the world who have taken a conventional organisation and transformed it into a lean one. I have done it twice, from the ground up.

Markets: America, India, Asia — and why not Europe.

Sanjeev Baitmangalkar
The centerpiece

The Mysore Kirloskar transformation

Throughput time reduced 96–97% — generally regarded as India's first end-to-end lean factory transformation, recognised on the shop floor by Toyota's own visiting team.

How it happened

Setup

Mysore Kirloskar Ltd (MKL) was the pioneer in machine-tool manufacturing in India — over 90% of the Hubli factory's output exported to first-world countries since the early 1960s, TUV-certified quality. The 1980s recession closed dealerships across America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and the small, price-sensitive domestic market couldn't absorb the lost export capacity.

The turning point

Our Managing Director heard Dr. Schonberger speak on Just-in-Time and decided to become a JIT company. I was transferred to head the Hubli SBU and implement it. There was no training, no consultants, no seminars, and no examples in India to visit — today I consider that a blessing.

What I did

I self-taught through experiments, mistakes, and failures — flow, velocity, exposing problems and solving them. We did away with the conventional Production Planning & Control and Inspection departments; customer orders drove production FIFO, the entire process run by workmen from procurement to shipping, coordinated visually — no spreadsheets, no computers. Our best performers became lean leaders.

Caption pending — to be confirmed
“
We never expected to see such a factory in India.
TOYOTA'S VISITING TEAM — on seeing the Hubli factory
Not a one-off

The pattern repeats — across companies and decades.

Bridgeport Perkasa. A five-year-old US–Indonesian joint venture had trained staff and installed plant — and had never shipped a single machine. The chairman told me, “I don't know what to do with this company.” Within six months of applying lean thinking to product, supply chain, and quality together, we were swamped with orders from Asia and Europe — a turnaround visited by the Indonesian President and the American Ambassador.

A senior colleague in another city, with whom I'd bounce ideas and strategies, was of great value in the early days of JIT implementation — before he left the company as the harder work was still ahead.

Leadership roles across industry

VP & SBU Head — Mysore Kirloskar MD — Roots Multiclean Director & CEO — Texmaco
More turnarounds
Browse all case studies
CASE STUDY

A Machine Builder

“I am sinking.” Shop-floor teaching cut lead times 84–92%; the company broke even in six months.

Read →
CASE STUDY

A Supply Cluster

Business process re-engineering across many suppliers at once — one connected value stream instead of a dozen local optima.

Read →
Client segments

100+ organizations, across roughly 30 industry segments.

TextilesFloricultureChemicalsPackaging

A sample of the segments served. Select a segment to see the client marks shared with permission; segments shown as plain labels have no cleared logo to display.

From the shop floor

Where the work happens.

A shop floor laid out for flow: machines in line, walkways and work areas marked on the floor in yellow.
A shop floor laid out for flow, with walkways and work areas marked.
How Stratmann works

Not a firm with staff. A network I assemble.

From inception, Stratmann Consulting has been different from a conventional consulting company. We are a network of highly experienced people who come together if, when, and where a client needs them. What I try to do in every engagement is build a team inside the client's own organization, so they can take the work forward without staying dependent on outside help.

Outside of work

I represented my university in cricket and basketball, and played hockey, football, volleyball, badminton, and table tennis — squash came later. I've traveled to more than fifty countries, read widely — self-improvement, psychology, suspense, and professional books — and love being around family.