India’s largest car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki has announced its plans to automate its facility in Manesar to bring it at par with the auto plants in Japan. Certain critical production functions will be automated to the level of 99 percent including the press shop at the plant where steel sheets are moulded to form door frames and then hinged to the vehicle body.
According to Mr. MM Singh Chief Operating Officer (Production) Maruti Suzuki, the automation will be gradual and will enable the company to implement consistency in the quality of car production. He added that the process has been initiated at the facility to attain 99 percent automation.
Mr. Singh stated that all the facilities and new production lines being set up from now onwards will follow similar automation levels. In order to attain 99 percent automation levels, up from the current 90 percent, the company will deploy about 50-100 robots at the old facility in Manesar. The Gurgaon plants are currently operating at 60-65 percent automation levels.
It is yet to see how this automation drive will affect the company’s labor issues as automation is very likely to leave some workers unemployed as machines take over the production at the facilities.