I N D I A ’ S N O . 1 M A G A Z I N E F O R A U T O M O T I V E N E W S , V I E W S & A N A LY S I S
Auto Monitor
Vol. 12 No. 44
w w w.am o n l i n e.i n
24 December 2012
42 Pages
` 50
INTERVIEW
SPECIAL
EMERGING MARKETS Pg 20
THE NEW LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT Phil Simmonds, Studio Design Director, Range Rover
Pg 24
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Yamaha Gets Service Savvy Jagdev Kalsi New Delhi
I
ndia Yamaha Motor, the Indian arm of Yamaha Motor Co Ltd, Japan, is sprucing up its after-sales network and talent pool. Some of the initiatives the company has taken are 24-hour commitment plans, 8 to 8 schedules, institutional tie-ups and mobile servicing activities as it expects to perform 10 million services by 2014, a five times growth from 2012 with an increase in number of mechanics from 7,500 to 20,000. The company claims current retention ratio (customers coming back for servicing) to be 75 percent and is gearing up to reach the 90 percent mark soon with its customer-oriented initiatives. Yamaha’s 24-hour commitment plan is targeted at reducing the wait to deliver a repaired or serviced vehicle back. For this, Yamaha is working, with its dealers, to keep the right stocks in place and also improving its supply chain for quicker delivery of components. Yamaha has also started to feed the southern market from Bangalore, which earlier received parts from Faridabad parts centre. The company has also shifted its Faridabad parts centre to Surajpur plant which ensures it more space to cater to other parts of the country. Yamaha plans to start this activity next year onwards, with
DATA MONITOR Top 5 3W makers Company
Nov-11
Nov-12
Change
BAL
16,814
20,992
24.85%
Piaggio
15,567
17,809
14.40%
M&M
5,889
6,867
16.61%
ATUL AUTO
2,240
3,006
34.20%
TVS
858
1,701
98.25%
Top 5 3W-Exporters Company
Nov-11
Nov-12
Change
BAL
25,696
24,574
-4.37%
TVS
1,848
3,353
81.44%
Piaggio
1,426
486
-65.92%
M&M
460
135
-70.65%
Force Motors
56
14
-75.00%
* Source: SIAM/ ** Excluding exports/ *** all sub segments considered/ ^ excluding MRPL
Yamaha Bike Stations adopting the procedure initially in metro cities. Ravinder Singh, Group Head-Service, India Yamaha Motor Pvt Ltd, says, “We are working on the concept of same day delivery. It is a big project and parts supply is one of the major factors here. Whatever be the issue, even if some parts supply is required the bike will be corrected the same day.” He also maintained that it took 5-7 days previously to sort issues and for part-deliveries. While he didn’t specify the investment required for a successful operation, he maintained, “Yamaha
has already planned to invest Rs 1,500 crore in the next two years in all aspects related to capacity and dealer network expansion. This will be included in that.” Yamaha has also asked its dealers to open service centres for 12 hours. “The extended service centre timings will allow especially the working class to take the delivery of their 2-wheelers on the same day,” says Singh. The company has also started a mobile service initiative, which is specifically targeted at those customers who revert to unauthorized service centres after the free-services get over.
Explaining the activity in detail, Ravinder added, “In case a vehicle has been sold 40kms away, and customer is coming only for free services, we have developed a mobile service van. At dealerend this mobile service happens in a particular area and customers are informed.” Yamaha has also adopted the policy of placing stickers on the bikes mentioning the next service due-date, the way it happens with 4-wheelers. The company has also tied-up with DayalBagh Institute in Agra for a 1-year mechanic course and has provided Yamaha’s technical know-how. EP Sreekumar, Head of Department, Yamaha Technical Academy, says, “When students come out of that place (institute) after 1 year, they become silver engine qualified (Yamaha’s internal ratings). The 2.5 years training (to become silver-engine qualified) is therefore reduced to 1 year training. Then they reach the silver level.” While Yamaha on its own has 4 training centres in India, it believes that the tie-up with institute is a market requirement. Singh added, “Currently we have 7,500
mechanics in our primary and secondary networks. In the next three years, we expect to reach 20,000. Last year we did overall, 2 million services and we are progressing towards 10million. Our all strategies like network, training etc. are based on that.”
Grooming Local Talent On Daimler’s Agenda Nabeel Khan Chennai
T
here is a lot more to India than the call centre and outsourced accounting, said Marc Llistosella, Managing Director & CEO of Daimler India Commercial Vehicles Limited (DICV). The company backs this statement by adopting a strategy for India. DICV has adopted a policy to groom local components suppliers not only for local requirement but also upgrading them so that they are ready to supply to the global market as well. The company has 240 Indian suppliers of which over five percent have been upgraded to be global suppliers for Daimler. Currently the company has around 85 percent localisation in the three models of vehicles they have launched and hope to con-
tinue similar percentage of local content in upcoming models. “We think the country has great talent and it needs to be utilised. We are working with them very closely to help them improve their standard,” Marc said. “We take into consideration the sound management of the supplier while selecting them as that is very important, we can help them in terms of technology but management is very important as it plays crucial role in deliver of the component on time,” he added. DICV has a team working on training the components makers and to check the quality at their plants. The company follows stringent global standards of quality check. Each product is checked at the suppliers unit. Simultaneously, the company also picks and checks the components of the Daimler plant components randomly. For the first time in the his-
tory of Daimler, the company has chosen to outsource cylinder block and heads, which are critical components, to an Indian supplier Craftsman Automation. Earlier Daimler produced this component at its own plant. “The development work happened together. We worked on all the development process and Daimler’s global engineering team was observing the product,” said S Ravi, Managing Director, Craftsman Automation. Craftsman currently supplies for the Indian requirement and hopes to supply for the commercial vehicle’s foreign markets also. The company has also got engines for some of the models of trucks from an Indian supplier. Avtec, a Birla Group company, supplies engines to some of the models of the trucks. “When we came to Daimler to be one of the suppliers, we focused on our association with
foreign partners to pitch for the deal, but ironically Daimler said, why not do by yourself? They trust us and helped us in terms of technology. We now supply gears for the transmission,” said Deep Kapuria, Chairman & Managing Director, Hi-Tech Gears Ltd. Llistosella launched a strong offensive to the heavy discounts being offered, saying, “Discounts are not the answer to the depression in the market. A better communication channel will play an important role.” Daimler has sold over 1,000 BharatBenz trucks and currently manages 20-plus dealerships. It hopes to extend the same to 120 dealers for its range of 17 trucks. “We are focusing on better efficiency and emission norms throughout the life cycle unlike other vehicles which fail to maintain the emission norms after a certain number of years,” Llistosella added.