Expanding on quality and technology

Established in 1995, Qualitech Machining Services Ltd. specializes in repair and manufacturing. Its primary aim is to serve the commercial and industrial communities of Trinidad and Tobago by providing comprehensive spare-part manufacturing and machine shop services that cater for any type of industrial plant and machinery.
“We pride ourselves on timely delivery and most importantly, quality workmanship.

As a matter of fact, since we started the business, it has always been our number one priority,” says Managing Director Deo N. Lall. “Qualitech is actually a combination of the words quality and technology; it has been embedded in everything we do.”

The range of services offered by Qualitech has expanded over the years in response to its customers’ requirements. The company presently occupies a modern workshop of over 45,000 sq. ft. on a two-acre site in the heart of the Point Lisas Industrial Estate, the industrial nucleus of the nation. “Our range of equipment is extremely diversified, as is the variety of machinery components which we are capable of manufacturing or repairing,” says Mr. Lall. “Qualitech will always be adding state-of-the-art equipment as the company grows, this is part of our philosophy.”

Qualitech is proud to be the first company in the Caribbean, and most of South America, to own a CNC waterjet cutting machine. This machine is capable of cutting up to 10” thick steel, stainless steel, monel, titanium, granite, marble, aluminum, brass, carbon fiber, composites, glass, rubber, plastics, and pretty much any other material known to man. The machine cuts most jobs rapidly, without heat, hence causing no metallurgical change or distortion. Customers’ jobs can be done in minutes instead of hours.

Mr. Lall, who has a BSc (Hons) degree in Nuclear Physics and has lived in Trinidad and Tobago since 1977, decided to start his own company when he realized that there were many opportunities he wanted to pursue that his employers at the time did not agree with. “I wanted to do things that I could not do in my previous job so I decided to implement them by creating my own company,” says Mr. Lall. “I have always loved technology and new opportunities. I did not have any money and the only capital I had was my house. So I spoke with my family and said: ‘Listen, I’ll take a chance, I’ll mortgage my house, open a small company.
I have been successful in what I have been doing so far, and if things don’t turn out, we’ll have to sell our home, rent a house and start all over again’. I was confident enough to know that the plan B would not be needed, and that I was going to survive.”

Since Mr. Lall launched Qualitech, it has grown steadily over the last 17 years. “I do not want the company to get too big because I want to keep control,” he says. “We have a lot of companies looking for joint ventures, but we are careful to pick the right companies. We are definitely open to new partnerships. For example, we have signed a contract with a company from the United States to work with them to repair gearboxes locally.”

To ensure that the quality of Qualitech’s service is always in tiptop shape, the company became ISO 9001:2008 certified in 2002 and they certify and inspect everything that they do.

“We always have meetings with our staff and let them know what is going on and what services are demanded,” says Mr. Lall. “At the end of the day everybody wants service and quality. We always have someone available; somebody is on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week to provide the required service.”

Mr. Lall also emphasizes the importance of human capital at Qualitech, and the training and the incentives the staff receive. “We have a lot of long-term employees because we put things in place for them: they have good health plans and we create retirement plans. We have people who started on day one with the company 17 years ago and are still with us. These are the things you need to encourage people, because money is not everything. And if you share the profits with the employees they are happier and they are willing to work harder.”

Although the company is doing extremely well, it still has many ambitions, for example being more high tech and technologically advanced. It has recently opened a company called Qualitech CNC Manufacturing Solutions Ltd., which is a demonstration of its investment in technology.