Auto Monitor - 6 May 2013

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. 13 No. 15

www.a m onli ne.i n

6 May 2013

INTERVIEW

Apply and develop Dr Christoff Krogmann, VP-APAC, Lanxess

26 Pages

`50

INTERVIEW

Supply chain strategising Pg 12

A Balaraman, MD, CGN India

Pg 13

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Clarton to play Minda’s tune Spanish horn producer acquired for Euro 7.5 mn Nabeel A Khan New Delhi

G

urgaon-based auto ancillary major Uno Minda Group has recently acquired 100 percent stake in Europe’s leading horn manufacturing firm Clarton Horn S. A.U, from PMAn Domestic AG. The company is hoping that the acquisition will help them achieve the world’s second largest horn producer status after Italy’s Fiamm Group.

The estimated cost of the acquisition is around Euro 7.5 million.

The acquisition will not only help the Uno Minda Group to reach out to new markets and customers but also establish a strong presence in the emerging electronic horns in India. Uno Minda currently holds close to 40 percent market share in the horn business in two- and four-wheelers segment. The Indian horn market is dominated by disc horns holding 95 percent market share, while electronic and trumpet horns have a marginal presence. In India, electronic horns are still nascent and mainly used in offhighway vehicles and luxury cars.

N K Minda, CMD, UNO MINDA, said, “The current acqui-

DATA MONITOR Top 5 2W Makers Company

Mar-12

Mar-13

Change

HML

5,13,552

4,51,396

-12.10%

HMSI

2,12,815

2,39,849

12.70%

Bajaj Auto

2,10,383

1,81,492

-13.73%

TVS

85,895

71,805

-16.40%

34,638

25,692

-25.83%

Suzuki

Top 5 2W Exporters Company

Mar-12

Mar-13

Change

Bajaj Auto

90,465

85,534

-5.45%

TVS

19,270

19,258

-0.06%

HML

14,738

16,887

14.58%

IYM

12,067

14,691

21.75%

HMSI

7,675

12,943

68.64%

* Source: SIAM/ ** Excluding exports/ *** all sub segments considered/ ^ excluding MRPL

sition will put us in the top league of suppliers of automotive horns.

It complements our strategy to drive innovation through organic and inorganic growth. Clarton Horn is known for its technical competence, innovation and quality products. The acquisition will help us service OEM needs from multi-locations and expand our genre of offerings.”

Clarton Horn is a leading manufacturer of automotive electronic horns, supplying to all major OEMs in Europe. Clarton also produces disk and trumpet horns. This strategic acquisition has positioned UNO MINDA amongst the top two horn manufacturers in the world. The transaction is financed through debt and internal accruals. The company has obtained all the necessary legal and statutory approvals.

“The acquisition is a step towards globalization for Horn as a product. Clarton Spain is the leader in electronic horns in the European market and supplies to BMW, VW, Skoda, Renault, PSA, Daimler and others. Electronic horns is the new generation technology and enhances durability/ life of horn to a great extent,” said Pradeep Tewari, CEO, Horn Business.

Although India is not a big market for electronic horns, OEMs are strongly looking at this technology because of its longer life. What is stalling its popularity is that it costs twice more than the disk horn. The acquisition will help the company substantiate its knowledge about electronic horns and strengthen its design skills of trumpets and disc horns. It will also gain them access to VW and Skoda as customers in India.

As a pr ice sensit ive market, the popularity of electronic horns may take time here.

Considering the Indian traffic conditions, the increasing use of disk horns leads to its failure.

“OEMs are experimenting with electronic horns and hope that it will be introduced in more models of cars in India,” said a spokes person of a leading car manufacturing firm.

Uno Minda Group will run the Spanish operations with the current management in Spain and serve European customers.

It will deploy finance executives and integration executives to understand Spanish operations, technical advantages and with the support of the Spanish management integrate these benefits to the India operations.

Anand Raghuvanshi (Director - Technical Integration, Clarton Horn), Sudhir Jain (ED & CFO, N K Minda Group), Arnd Karden (MD, Clarton Horn), Pradeep Tewari (ED & CEO, Chassis & Motor Domain), Sanjay Jain (Director - Commercial, Clarton Horn), Amit Srivastava (GM - Strategy, Chassis & Motor Domain) along with Managing Member Committee of Clarton Horn.

The annual turnover of Clarton Horn for 2012 was Euro 38 million. After the acquisition from Robert Bosch GmbH in 2008 by Quantum Kapital AG, the company underwent a successful turnaround with the support of the Quantum management team and has become the world’s second largest manufacturer of automotive horns.

Clarton Horn has a manufacturing plant in La Carolina, Spain.

It has a small setup in Morocco to cater to the African Market, with

sales offices in Brazil, France, Germany and Korea. It manufactures trumpet Horns, disc horns and electronic horns.

“This acquisition will have no adverse impact on employees, suppliers and the customer eco-system of Clarton Horn. The employees of Clarton Horn are now a part of UNO MINDA, N K Minda Group. Clarton Horn is the largest employer in La Carolina.

It is our commitment to maintain and grow the company,” Minda concluded.

ignoring such visible trends? The German carmaker has thought this through and has sought to strike a balance between performance and efficiency. The

hot hatches launched till now in India were all powered by gas guzzling 1.6 litre petrol engines.

Small wonder Pradeb Biswas Mumbai

V

olkswagen has entered its second innings in the hot hatch segment with the launch of the Polo GT TSI. The Polo hot hatch is powered by a 1.2 litre direct injection and turbo-charged petrol engine with maximum power and torque output of 105PS and 170Nm respectively. The only visual differences for the regular 1.2 litre Polo are the GT badge on the front grille along with the GT TSI stickers.

Performance at a budget hasn’t been a product formula that’s worked for manufacturers

in India. Many carmakers have tried it in the past and failed miserably at it, the Fiat Palio 1.6 in 2001 for instance or the Polo and Fabia 1.6. More recently, Tata and Fiat have introduced 90bhp petrol and diesel versions for the Vista and Punto but they haven’t set sales charts on fire either. Even Toyota has taken a crack at the segment with the Liva TRD Sportivo but the Liva continues to sell in small numbers. This is why majority of the manufacturers have stayed away from offering a hot hatch in their product portfolio.

So if it is tough to make a case for hot hatches, why is VW

Contd. on Pg 8

EDITORIAL The many faces of a downturn

E

veryone is averse to the word downturn or slowdown.

Those not would be few and far between. Admittedly, an ugly word. Usually associated with the pink slip for those employed or negative or scaled down balance sheets for companies.

It is not any different for the auto industry. At a time when companies are desperately looking at measures to scale up sales, and going to great lengths, their lesser known partners or suppliers are working differently (read story on page 8).

Some auto component makers are on an acquisition spree while others are busy honing skills in terms of R&D. Moreover, the acquisitions that they are making come with the advantage of coming for less than they bargained for.

What is interesting in all this, is that at a time when European companies too are willing to resign to their fate, Indian companies with their grit are going ahead marching into territory that is foreign to them. They are also willing to invest in understanding the nature of the way business is conducted abroad and bring that culture to India.

Actually, it is efforts like these that improve the quality of business relationships and conduct in our country too. A few

years ago, Indians were averse to acquiring foreign companies and preferred to form tie-ups that would enable them to bring in technology, products, etc. But this is changing what with the young brigade wanting more than mere royalty tie-ups.

So coming back to our auto component manufacturers, it would be interesting to note how they scale up business and take that global path that would orbit them into another trajectory altogether. While it will offer them newer markets and more products, what they need to do is shake off some of the Indian idiosyncrasies and take a whole new approach.

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QUOTES Dr. Pawan Goenka, President, Automotive & Farm Equipment Sectors, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd on the increase in excise duty for SUVs

Norbert Reithofer, the Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG

While the tax in itself is a concern, we are perplexed about the criterion and justification of this additional duty.

Despite the current weakness of car markets in Europe, the BMW Group has made a good start to the new financial year 2013.

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CONTENTS CORPORATE “Mileage is not something that one can demonstrate.”

8

With the launch of the Polo GT TSI, Volkswagen begins its second innings in the hot hatch segment.

Arvind Saxena, MD, Volkswagen Passenger Cars India, explains how and why.

08

ZF wins order for lightweight engine mount

18

The engine mount is now being produced in six model-specific versions for small and compact cars, as well as electric cars.

18

Growing out of trouble

8

Auto component manufacturers are onto to a new trend. In the midst of the downturn, they have decided to go in for acquisitions and mergers, thus making it cheaper for them.

Apply and develop with Dr Krogmann

12

Engineering Plastics are gaining importance. The potential for growth is high, which is why auto plastics manufacturers are aggressively investing in the country.

12

Eicher Engg Component inaugurates fourth mfrg facility

20

Eicher Engineering Component (EEC) inaugurated its fourth manufacturing facility at Dewas. The plant set up at an investment of `90 crores.

20

13

Supply chain Strategising

13

An interview with A Balaraman, Partner & Managing Director, India Operations, CGN India.

VW to consolidate dealership network

THE OTHER SIDE

24

15

Volkswagen India is looking to consolidate its dealership network even as it looks to strengthen its reach in key markets around the country.

Near term growth pressures on domestic and exports front Several factors including high inflation, firm interest rates, rising petrol prices, besides weak monsoons have been dampening demand in the domestic market over last several quarters.

16

VD Umashanker, Managing Director, BorgWarner Cooling Systems India V.D. Umashanker has over 38 years’ experience in the auto industry. He has previously worked with multinationals such as Eaton and Caterpillar, and an Indian company called Amalgamations.

Auto Monitor

6 MAY 2013

NEWS

8

“Mileage is not something that one can demonstrate.”

With the launch of the Polo GT TSI, Volkswagen begins its second innings in the hot hatch segment. Pradeb Biswas speaks to Arvind Saxena, Managing Director, Volkswagen Passenger Cars, India, to learn about the manufacturer’s plans and strategies in the near term.

What is your marketing strategy for the Polo 1.2 TSI? We are trying to project this as a product which offers maximum power and minimum consumption. That is the plank on which the Polo 1.2 TSI will be launched.

Other than power, we are also demonstrating convenience and the best-in-segment fuel economy. These are the three pillars on which we will market this car.

How do you intend to spread awareness about the Polo 1.2 TSI’s ‘Maximum Power Minimum Consumption’ at the dealership level?

Mileage is not something that one can demonstrate. One has to usually go with what the figures suggest. But power can be demonstrated by allowing customer to take a test drive. The cars are available at our dealerships and I believe people will go for a test drive and believe after experiencing the power of the engine and the convenience of the DSG transmission.

Sales of the Polo 1.6 failed to take off and the car has been pulled from VW’s product portfolio. How long can we expect the Polo 1.2 TSI to stay in the product portfolio?

We have not set a shelf life for the Polo 1.2 TSI as of now. So it is difficult for me to say anything.

We will continue to sell as long as there is customer demand, and we have not set any timeline for it either. There are no deadlines and this car is not a limited edition, by the way. It is a car in our regular product portfolio.

How lucrative do you find the hot hatch market in India?

Most of the cars launched in the Indian market till now offered only the power, while fuel consumption was very high

Growing out of trouble Nabeel A. Khan New Delhi

A

t a time when markets are not being kind to OEMs and their suppliers, the latter are still trying to make hay. And this seems to have caught on.

Since the last decade, companies and their product portfolio has seen tremendous growth. Most of them have had little time to introspect about future plans and chart out new paths. And the current lull in the market is helping them do just that.

“What you call slack, I call a breather. For the last two years, we have grown over 30 percent and if we had grown 30 percent this year, we would probably have gone under. We are grateful for this breather that the market has provided. I think this is important; every 2-3 years one requires some space that will help enhance the quality of growth,” says V C Sehgal, C ha i r ma n, Sa mv a rd ha na Motherson Group.

Firms such as these are busy enhancing their capability to be future ready. And going by the number of deals being signed, most industry leaders are busy signing technical alliances,

joint ventures and acquiring companies. The other important direction is building high quality research & development capability to increase efficiency and bring down the cost.

Indian that were traditionally conservative in terms of investing in R&D have now increased budgets as high as four percent in some cases. “If you want to be prepared for future, the best way is to invest in R&D,” says Sunil Arora, JMD, Abilities India Pistons & Rings.

Acquisitions are another focus for Indian companies.

The slowdown has decreased the values of the companies especially in the European markets. “If we would have acquired the company that we recently did during peak time, it would have cost us 30-40 percent more,” says Prabhakar Kadapa, Managing Director, Av tec, speaking about the acquisition of a Switzerland based company a few months ago.

Although the demand in the current scenario might be low the future looks good. As per estimates, if the growth of the automotive industry is not hampered by external negative influences, it has the potential to grow to nine million passenger cars, 30 million

The other important direction is building high quality R&D capability to increase efficiency and bring down the cost. Indian companies have now increased budgets as high as four percent in some cases. two-wheelers and two million commercial vehicles by 2020, thus making India the third largest producer of cars in the world. This will support additional employment of around 2.5 million every year both directly in manufacturing and indirectly at different levels of the values chain. For this to happen it is imperative that the fiscal and trade policies remain stable and in line with the spirit of the Automotive Mission Plan (AMP).

Another Indian component maker Vikas Group, which already had a foundry a few months ago, acquired another loss making foundry. The reason was to increase capacity

for future demand. In another effort to increase its technical proves the company has signed technica l agreement w ith Hitachi which is expected to transform into a JV soon. This will help them upgrade their foundry and increase efficiency. The other move it took is to increase localisation to counter exchange deficit.

Looking at the opportunity in the European market and to be global player Uno Minda Group also acquired a Spain based horn manufacturing company Clarton Horn. The company expects that the acquisition will help them increase capability in terms in the horn business.

It hopes that with this acquisition it will become world’s second largest horn producer in the world.

Me a n w h i l e , S a nd h a r Technologies has signed a technical collaboration with Jinyoung Electro-Mechanics Company Ltd (JEM) to diversify into electronic relay. To enhance its business in the plastic component, Sandhar has started supplying plastic parts to leading electronic company, LG. The other most important move that the component makers are taking is hiking exports to have better trade balance.

Mileage is not something that one can demonstrate.

One has to usually go with what the figures suggest.

But power can be demonstrated by allowing customer to take a test drive. because of the way the engines were mapped. This car offers a very different combination as one gets power, DSG gearbox and good fuel efficiency too. I hope people will like the Polo 1.2 TSI. Given the slowdown in automobile sales, what is the rationale behind taking this bold step and launching a 105bhp hot hatch?

Well, whether the market grows or doesn’t grow is an entirely different aspect. We are offering something which is very unique and very new. I am sure we will be able to find buyers for it.

The Polo 1.2 TSI gets a DSG gearbox but not paddle shifts.

Don’t you think the lack of paddle shifts will put off buyers?

I don’t think it will hamper sales. There will always be something more that everybody wants.

It is a decent combination for now and customers should like it.

Are you planning to offer any special finance options for the Polo 1.2 TSI? No, we are not going to offer anything new or special for this car other than the general finance options that we already offer for our products.

Small wonder Contd. from Pg 1 Despite being hatchbacks, the larger engine meant they did not qualify under the 12 percent excise duty bracket.

The Polo 1.2 GT TSI doesn’t have any of the above short comings.

According to company officials, this Polo GT TSI can sprint from 0-100 kmph in under 10 seconds, achieve a top speed of 190 km/hr and yet has an ARAI certified 17 KMPL mileage. It also sports a DSG gearbox. The flipside is that these units are expensive, driving the cost of the car up.

This Polo 1.2 GT TSI will come equipped with features like climate control, alloy wheels, stereo with USB, Auxin and SD card connectivity.

Also with features like ABS, ESP, and a hill hold function, the car comes well kitted.

Priced at `7.99 lakh, ex-showroom, Delhi, the Polo GT TSI is around `1.5 lakh dearer than the Highline variant of the Polo.

Volkswagen doesn’t expect this variant to sell in large numbers with majority buyers expected from metro cities.

What works for the Polo TSI is that this is currently the most technologically advanced hot hatch that one can buy in the country right now.

Auto Monitor

INTERVIEW

12

6 MAY 2013

Apply and develop with Dr Krogmann Engineering plastics are gaining importance in the fast-growing Indian automotive industry. The potential for growth is high, which is why automotive plastics manufacturers are aggressively investing in the country. Speacialty chemicals company Lanxess opened a 20,000 ton per year capacity plant in Jhagadia, Gujarat, in 2012 and to make good use of the facility, have set up an application development centre in Hong Kong that will be directly responsible for application development for Indian manufacturers.

Dr Christoff Krogmann, VP – APAC High Performance Materials Business Unit, Lanxess, talks to Anand Mohan at Lanxess’ Hong Kong Centre about the role of this centre, the growth of engineering plastics in India and competition in the plastics industry.

Now that the HK centre caters to Asia, what is the role of Lanxess’ main technical development centre in Dormagen, Germany? Will the involvement reduce?

It won’t. It is not that we have a closed fence centre here and in Germany. Both centres will complement each other and work very closely together. The focus of the centre here is of course the Asia-Pacific region and to a lesser extent, Europe. In the past, all the application develop-

ment work for APAC was done in Germany but now a lot of responsibility has shifted to Hong Kong.

Germany will concentrate more on Europe and the Americas. But if we have free capacity for work from Europe, we will invite our European colleagues here and vice-versa. There is a constant exchange of ideas and capacity utilization between the two centres. Eighty percent of projects here are APAC driven and 10-20 percent projects come from Europe.

Is the use of engineering plastics greater in Europe compared to Asia?

Not necessarily. I would say it’s more country specific. Average use of engineering plastics differs from OEM to OEM but overall is between 15-20 kg per car in Europe. In Korea, it is much higher – between 20-25 kg – so Hyundai is more advanced in this aspect.

The Japanese OEMs are lacking a bit behind for certain reasons.

They tend to be a bit conservative so the average use is around 10 kg.

Hyundai is the second largest manufacturer in India. So are these numbers that high for India too?

Yes, on an average of the entire fleet. India is definitely today a hub for small cars and since smaller cars are lighter, the pressure to replace metal is not as high as in mid-size sedans.

So you are saying that budget cars will not require as much light-weighting as a mid-size or a luxury car?

At the end of the day, the lighter the car, the better it is. OEMs are working on solutions with us to achieve this.

Is cost a major driver for the use of plastics or is it purely weight?

It is cost of course. Weight saving is equivalent to cost saving.

It definitely is in the long run but looking at it solely from a production point of view…

Yes, it is because you have a lot more design freedom and the induction moulding process gives you a part that you can take out of the machine and use. In a metal part, you cannot induction mould. First you have to press it, then form, and finally machine it. So there’s a lot of after-processing work and a lot of scrap in metals. In terms of process-ability, as an engineering plastics manufacturer, we offer a lot of value to OEMs. DSM is a major competitor for Lanxess with the same area of expertise and is rapidly growing in the Indian market. What are you doing to stay ahead of the competition?

I have nothing against competition as it is always stimulating and monopoly will not let you improve. I appreciate DSM’s activities in the Indian market since they are promoting engineering plastics. They are growing but if you look at our growth numbers, they are even more impressive than DSM’s numbers.

Of course, we come from a lower base, but in the past 2-3 years we are seeing significant growth rates in India. India is one of the most important markets in the world with enormous growth potential so there is room for competitors and Lanxess.

Can you give a break-up of the strongest products for Lanxess?

First of all, we have the Durethan brand.

Globally, more than 50 million cars drive with Lanxess-based frontend applications. This combination of metal and over-moulded engineering plastics is clearly our strength but also in air-intake manifolds, we are seen as the leaders by manufacturers. If you take the use of plastics in a car at about 10 kg, 8 kg is Durethan, and 2 kg is Pocan.

6 MAY 2013

Auto Monitor

INTERVIEW

13

Supply chain strategising The Indian auto sector is struggling to contain costs and stay profitable. Alagu Balaraman – Partner & Managing Director, India Operations, CGN India, shares his expertise in SCM, the auto industry, and what manufacturers can do to improve efficiencies and maximise returns. Excerpts from an interview with Jayashree Kini-Mendes.

The auto sector is in doldrums. Until the markets recover or buying improves, manufacturers will face a slowdown. Do you have a solution for them?

Consumer demand can vary for several reasons, sentiment being a major one. The reasons most commonly ascribed today are “economic slowdown”, high fuel costs, high interest costs and tax increases. Perceptions often fly in the face of facts, especially at a consumer level. People are not losing jobs. Fuel costs have been flat to declining in the past 2 years. The same is the case with interest rates. Tax increases only affect SUVs, which account for less than 10% of the total market.

But the reality is that consumers do not necessarily react to facts, but to sentiment. To overcome these negative perceptions, marketing has to have How can an efficient supply chain provide an edge over competitors?

An efficient supply chain helps to lower total cost. This provides additional margin to the company that it can put into its war chest and make dramatic use of in marketing and service offers. However, an efficient supply chain isn’t everything. I can have a very low cost model and service offering, but if my consumer sees more value in another offering, they will switch even if it is at a higher cost. Maruti has always been a cost leader in the market and had a market share of around 80% in 1995. Today it has about 45%, reflecting the changing value perceptions of consumers.

It is important to have a responsive supply chain: one that can adapt very quickly to changing market conditions. Many companies have invested in making their own operations highly responsive. But overall responsiveness is not possible without having a strong vendor eco-system that can support and respond as quickly as the market demands. Creating a responsive supply base, as against one that only focuses on cost, is also critical for competitive advantage.

How can auto companies benchmark their supply chain? Please provide details with the parameters.

Benchmarking is a useful tool, although it has its limitations. According to the Performance Measurement Group, over 70% of companies do not use benchmarking. In India, the main focus of benchmarking is cost comparison. A good set of benchmarks would cover reliability, responsiveness, flexibility, asset utilization and cost. These are outcome benchmarks. They should be used along with process benchmarks like the SCOR model (Supply Chain Operations Reference, created by the Supply Chain Council). Benchmarking is like a doctor taking a patient’s temperature. As an input it is useful, often vital, but it does not provide the solution or replace the need for the doctor.

Most companies have increased levels of complexity arising from a diversity of products, customers and IT systems. How would you advise them to streamline things so that the processes are smooth?

Complexity, in this situation, is caused either by introducing more models than the organization is capable of handling, or introducing new models faster than the organization can cope with. So there is a problem with management bandwidth or with agility. There are four fundamental ways in which this can be addressed.

First, restructure the company to decentralize decision making. The famous case of GM forming divisions is an example of this. Second, restructure the business processes to speed up decision making and in the early days of busi-

much stronger propositions.

Companies will actually have to sell their products, rather than simply launching them and pushing them into the pipeline for dealers to liquidate. A good salesman listens hard and is very responsive; similarly auto companies have to be more adaptive to market situations and nimble in response. To do this, among other things, the entire model of the supply chain has to change: from being focused on producing and shipping volumes to being responsive to the market.

In what ways can supply chain operations lead to creating and sustaining market differentiation for auto companies?

This is a good question, because in a market such as ours today, differentiation will be key for success. While the decision to buy a car is a considered one, the

actual selection depends upon a myriad of factors: is the new model at a dramatically newer price point? Is the salesman listening to my needs? What are the discounts offered? What is the dealer throwing in? Are there special maintenance packages? Is the colour and model that I want available? All of these will be jostling in the mind of the consumer to tilt the decision in favour of one model or another. The situation will also change rapidly as competitors, dealers and influencers make their moves.

To be an effective player in this field, it is necessary to ensure a high level of control over cost and availability. Creating supply chains that are faster to respond and opportunistic in nature; building cost structures that allow companies to make “killer” offers – these are crucial new capabilities for the Indian market.

Auto Monitor

INTERVIEW

14 ness process re-engineering (BPR), Ford’s accounts payable was a well known case. The third option is to fundamentally redesign the product and make it modular. VW has been working on what we call the MQB, a global initiative, with great success, to standardise whole modules and systems across platforms.

The fourth option is about sharper positioning, a combination of confident marketing and product design that led to Apple dominating different product market spaces with very few models. Why make more models when the few you launch are outstanding winners?

Each company, depending upon its business strategy can choose one or more of these approaches to deal with complexity. It is easy to choose, but much more difficult to implement. Whichever is chosen, the entire extended enterprise has to be realigned to the new model.

Skills will have to be reshaped and considerable management will is required to drive this multi-year cultural shift.

In times like today when sales have slumped, most manufacturers resort to just-in-time manufacturing. Even demand forecasting goes for a toss. How can companies even out capacity planning since most of them are operating below capacity?

The question itself is a contradiction in terms. When a company is operating well below capacity, the focus should not be on capacity levelling but on responsiveness. After all, even with the Manesar wage hikes, it is expected that Maruti’s labour costs will go from 2.4 percent of sales to 2.7 percent.

The focus should be less on locally optimising parts of the business and more on getting

6 MAY 2013

business. When having business is the constraint, other aspects should take secondary priority.

Profit management demands that discretionary expenditure be cut back. However, given that most costs are fixed in nature, it would be counterproductive to cut back on operational expense.

How can companies manage growth as far as supply chain is concerned?

Over the last two decades growth has been continuous. At times like this it is easy to manage growth. You keep adding capacity, you hire more people and vendors build additional capacity. Today, while growth will continue, it will be more volatile in nature. In such a situation, managing growth becomes more challenging. It requires much more careful assessment of investments, building in flexibility and responsiveness, and more importantly, it places a completely new level of challenge in managing business partners.

The process of managing business partners, both suppliers and dealers, has to evolve to a completely new level now.

Application of collaboration, rather than dictating terms, will become necessary. Just as the new generation of workers and managers entering the workforce have different expectations and need to be handled differently, so too will relationships with suppliers have to change.

How do you help companies with best practices, quality management and appraisal systems for supply chains?

CGN & Associates have been working with engineering and automotive companies around the world for nearly two decades now. During that time, CGN has focused on delivering superior

business performance through supply chain interventions.

Challenges can be about increasing profitability or reducing supply chain response times. To address these, a variety of tools and methods are used, often working across the dimensions of quality, cost, delivery and service to get the desired result. In India, we have seen a strong demand for supplier collaboration and development and for supply chain design and planning.

What can companies do to manage sourcing decisions and potential inherent risks?

I wish I could answer that question in a few sentences! Risk management involves a detailed analysis of potential risks and possible cost-effective solutions for them. In the area of sourcing today, we see operational risks arising out of poor visibility of demand, especially on the supply side with Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers and financial risk for these players.

Problems such as the bull whip effect are well-known in the industry, but continue to be propagated through poor policy and management. The result has been a huge amount of stopstart production and inventory pile-ups, which are financially damaging and competitively ruinous. These problems can be addressed, but not by a purchasing department only. It has to be a company level initiative.

Just as the creation of a supplier base was the big challenge of the late 80s and early 90s, so is the reinventing of the supplier relationship now.

What are your customers’ expectations when it comes to delivery? How do you know if you are fulfilling them?

While we are a consulting firm,

While growth will continue, it will be more volatile. In such a situation, managing growth becomes challenging.

It requires careful assessment of investments, building in responsiveness, and importantly, it places a new level of challenge in managing business partners. our delivery is not restricted to advice. We believe that long lasting client relationships can only be built on tangible value being provided – the kind that can be seen to impact a P&L statement.

As a result, most of CGN’s work is outcome-based work, wherein we analyze the problem, devise the solution and implement it on ground. Typically the financial benefits are approved by the client’s finance team and our fee is often linked to the outcomes being delivered. As a result, there is a strong alignment between our clients’ business goals and our own.

Can you talk briefly about your international presence and some supply- chain learnings you have gained in the process?

CGN was founded in the Midwestern United States and has worked with a Fortune 500 client base and their suppliers through the years. As our clients gave us more work around the world, our offices spread. Today we cover the US, Europe, India, China and SE Asia. Our client base started in engineering

and automotive, and now also includes consumer goods.

In this time, we have worked to both design and implement changes in supply chains in different countries and cultures.

We believe the science and fundamentals of supply chain design and performance are common across the world, but the implementation of solutions has to have a strong local understanding and expertise.

Making changes stick is one of our mantras and this means ensuring that the new changes are locked in with the appropriate measures, be they related to strategy, policy, procedure, technology or skills.

What are the IT tools you use for consultancy? What tools/applications/software do you use or have developed to enable data visibility?

IT tools are one weapon in the armoury that we deploy when battling supply chain problems.

Our approach to the application of tools is similar to our deployment of methods to solve problems – where an industry standard exists, use it, and where it doesn’t serve the purpose, create a new one. So in IT we might use tools for network optimisation, simulation, and supply chain planning and scheduling depending upon the need. If the client has an existing tool we use that. If a special version is needed, we use one of our proprietary tools. For example, in studying Total Cost of Ownership or Capacity Assessment, we use highly evolved tools to diagnose the problem.

At the end of the day, the tool is only as good as the people who use it. So, we try to ensure that we have really good consultants whose primary goal is to deliver the end result.

6 MAY 2013

COLUMN

Time to act The downturn could be an ideal time to introduce tough measures such as decontrol of fuel prices, BS IV, and electric vehicles, says Abhishek Parekh.

A

big concern for every car manufacturer today is what can be done to kick-start car sales.

Industry sources point out that car sales are likely to worsen in coming months (barring a few segments or manufacturers) and the industry is yet to see the bottom of the dip.

Industry players make it very evident that the big issue is not the lack of demand for new cars but rising aspirations (or value consciousness) coupled with shrinking affordability. Car manufacturer are just about coming to terms with this reality. Even as finance is getting increasingly difficult to get on ‘affordable’ terms, customers are unwilling to compromise on features and other amenities that go with owning a car.

Car sales in the financial year ended March 31, 2013 fell some 6.7 percent, according to data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). Sales

Auto Monitor

in March 2013 (compared to the same month last fiscal) had fallen 22.5 percent. The drop is the worst since the 2000-2001 financial year, when sales fell 7.7 percent, according to SIAM. Last year, India’s car sales grew 2.2 percent. The industry body had initially estimated a 10-12 percent growth for the last financial year, but was forced to slash that forecast three times in the face of actual sales figures.

The current downturn in the domestic automotive sector has been unnerving for industry players as sales in all vehicle segments are seeing lower or negative growth month after month.

In a first of its kind instance, twowheeler sales have also been sliding. Although new model introductions could help individual car makers (such as rush for the Honda Amaze indicates), it can at best offer temporary reprieve. As the market evolves and customers mature, a ‘one size fits all’ solution would be dif-

ficult to apply.

Increasingly, car makers will need to work on a package approach rather than just selling a car. Such a ‘package’ could include a service agreement, a parts replacement warranty, finance and other value additions and offering these would necessitate arrangements with multiple parties. Moreover, if the downturn intensifies financiers would expect car makers to offer huge discounts and share or take up the financial burden as has been the case in earlier downturns.

The impending downturn is perhaps the ideal time to correct imbalances in the auto sector like de-control of petrol/diesel prices, focus on electric vehicles, full scale (and timely) introduction of Bharat Stage IV emission norms and other tough measures.

Government needs to go ahead and introduce reform measures in above areas so that the measures do not act as dampeners during the recovery phase.

15

VW to consolidate dealership network Abhishek Parekh Mumbai

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olkswagen India is looking to consolidate its dealership network even as it looks to strengthen its reach in key markets around the country. In its effort to reach out to most key markets, it is looking to enhance relationships with its existing dealers and encouraging them to grow presence in existing and newer markets, rather than enrolling new dealers.

Sustaining the promise The company does not have a presence in the mass market or the A segment, which comprises the bulk of the sales in the passenger car segment.

Moreover, the company is looking at providing a superior and consistent customer service experience, according to a senior company official. He pointed out that existing dealers are likely to do more justice

to the brand, and the company is looking to help them grow and reach out to a larger number of customers.

“Our utmost priority is to sustain the promise that our brand provides to its customers. That experience cannot be compromised upon,” said Director Sales, Volkswagen India, Arvind Saxena on the sidelines of the launch of the company’s latest offering – the 1.2 litre new Polo GT TSI. The new offering is available with a seven-speed DSG gearbox priced at Rs 7.99 lakh (ex-showroom New Delhi).

The company has a distribution network spread over 120 sales and touch points across major towns and cities and this network may remain at the current level or trimmed down in order to help the company infuse more agility, according to the official. The major objective behind restructuring the distribution setup is also to increase contribution per dealer, and garner more business from existing and new dealers.

Daimler celebrates 50th anniversary of Fuso Canter

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a im ler India Commercial Vehicles Pvt. Ltd., a 100% wholly-owned subsidiary of Daimler AG, Stuttgart, Germany, has announced the 50th anniversary of the Fuso Canter. The first generation of the

Fuso Canter truck was launched in March 1963. Fifty years and eight generations later, Daimler is celebrating the truck as a bestselling hit with global sales of over 37,00,000 units since the market launch in its home market Japan. The light-duty Fuso

Canter truck is the flagship of Daimler subsidiary Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation (MFTBC), and is in demand in more than 150 countries around the world.

Dr. A lber t K irchma nn, President and CEO – MFTBC,

said, “We are proud of the successes we have enjoyed with the Fuso Canter for over five decades. Fifty years of product history can vouch for the trust and satisfaction our customers have in the Fuso Canter, which stands out with its high fuel effi-

ciency and optimal total cost of ownership.”

In India, the Canter is a well known name in the trucking industry. The BharatBenz light/ medium-duty trucks carry the genes of the Canter, besides the Fighter.

Auto Monitor

6 MAY 2013

REPORT

16

2W: Near term pressures to continue Trend in Sales Volumes of Indian 2W Industry

With domestic volume growth of 3.9 percent YoY and exports volume growth of minus (-) 1.1 percent YoY in 11m 2012-13, the Indian two-wheeler (2W) is currently amidst a slowdown phase last experienced in 2007-08/ 200809. High inflation, firm interest rates, rising petrol prices, besides weak monsoons have been dampening domestic demand over last several quarters. At the same time, overseas sales have been impacted by interest rate rises in several target countries, increase in import duty in Sri Lanka, trade restrictions imposed by Argentina and dollar sales embargo with Iran. One noteworthy statistic, however, is that based on CY2012 volumes, India is now the largest 2W market in the world with sales volumes of 13.8 million units (domestic), with China at 12.6 million units.

Growth Constituents The deceleration in volume growth of the domestic 2W industry, 3.9 percent YoY in 11m 2012-13, is largely attributable to the motorcycles segment which grew by 0.9 percent YoY; even as the scooters segment posted 16.2 percent YoY expansion during this period, albeit at a smaller

Source: SIAM

base. With this, the share of the scooters segment in the domestic 2W industry volumes increased to 21.1 percent in 11m 2012-13 from 17.5 percent in 2010-11.

Within the motorcycles segment, while the entry and executive segments comprising of 100cc bikes and the premium segment comprising of t150cc bikes have been experiencing anaemic demand, the 125cc segment (contribution of 20 percent to domestic motorcycle sales in 11m 2012-13) has been a positive outlier recording a volume growth of 29.7 percent YoY in 11m 2012-13, benefitting both from new model launches as also the trend in uptrading and down-trading from the respective lower and upper price/ performance segments.

Market Share Movement The last year and a half has been marked by greater traction in new product launches and focus on expansion of customer touch points by most 2W OEMs. As demand levels failed to impress, the 2W OEMs resorted to even more supply-side doses.

The OEMs had generally not resorted to these latter set of tools in 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12

and their return to use as a promotional lever is indicative of the weak demand conditions. In terms of market share, while Hero MotoCorp continues to remain the distant leader with a share of 43.0 percent in 11m 2012-13, it saw its share erode by 220 basis points (bps) during this period compared to the corresponding previous.

A large part of this market share set-back was caused by weakness in Hero MotoCorp’s sales volumes in the 100cc segment, even as the OEM expanded its market share in some of the other segments like the relatively faster growing scooters segment and the 125cc segment of bikes, by virtue of new product launches. The other two leading Indian OEMs too, namely, Bajaj Auto and TVS Motor experienced decline in their respective share in the domestic 2W market in 11m 2012-13. Honda, however, continued to demonstrate steady gains in market share across the board and strengthened its market share from 14.9 percent in 2011-12 to 18.6 percent in 11m 2012-13. Having overtaken TVS’ volumes in October 2011 and having achieved parity with Bajaj Auto’s volumes in recent months, Honda is now the sec-

ond largest 2W OEM in India. In ICRA’s view, the ongoing environment of weak demand is likely to have a dissimilar impact on each player depending on the respective OEMs’ product portfolio mix and marketing strategy. Hero MotoCorp’s adeptness at protecting its 100cc segment moat, Bajaj Auto’s ability to maintain a consistent brand strategy, TVS’ ability to plug its product portfolio gaps and Honda’s success in scaling up its distribution and service network will govern the overall domestic 2W market share distribution in the times to come.

Capacity Expansions and Investments Several industry participants have announced greenfield capacity expansion plans: Hero MotoCorp plans to invest `15 billion over the next two years; Honda is in the process of setting-up its third manufacturing facility; Yamaha is also setting up a new plant. Together, these three OEMs will add 4 million units of additional 2W capacity over the next two years, representing 22 percent addition on existing industry capacity. ICRA expects these large investments to pres-

sure the industry’s profitability metrics over the near term as volume growth moderation further takes root in the absence of immediate demand triggers.

Outlook Overall, ICRA expects the domestic 2W industry to report a volume growth of 4-5 percent in 2012-13 as demand slowdown as well as base effect catches up with the industry that has demonstrated a strong volume expansion over the last three years at CAGR of 21.8 percent. Over the medium term, the 2W industry is expected to report a volume CAGR of 8-9 percent to reach a size of 22-23 million units by 2016-17, as we believe the various structural positives associated with the domestic 2W industry including favourable demographic profile, moderate 2W penetration levels (in relation to several other emerging markets), under developed public transport system, growing urbanization, strong replacement demand and moderate share of financed purchases remain intact; as also the large opportunity available to grow presence in overseas markets, mainly Africa and Latin America.

Auto Monitor

6 MAY 2013

NEWS

18

ZF wins order for lightweight engine mount

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ightweight design is key to reducing the energy consumption of vehicles.

However, automotive manufacturers and suppliers are not able to draw on a superordinate patent solution. In actual fact, the sum of the individual weight reductions in numerous components must be made to add up. ZF Friedrichshafen AG has developed a pioneering rubber-plastic engine mount that immediately convinced RenaultNissan. It dampens vibrations just as effectively as previous rubber-metal constructions, yet weighs approximately 25 percent less.

The engine mount is now being produced in six modelspecific versions for small and compact cars, as well as electric cars of Renault-Nissan – they are made-to-measure in the housing, rubber interior part, and support arm engine mount components. “Our objective was to increase the maximum lightweight construction potential of standard engine mounts and to further optimise both functionality and reliability,” explained Dr. Torsten Bremer, Head of the

Rubber & Plastics business unit of the Chassis Technology division.

ZF engineers mastered this challenge by implementing the engine mount housing using fibre-glass reinforced polyamide instead of aluminium continuous casting as was previously the case. A total weight reduction of 25 percent is achieved thanks to the use of the plastic housing. However, it is crucial that the component remains just as efficient and stable as its predecessor. Furthermore, the part is also completely insensitive to corrosion and 100 percent recyclable.

With its modular construction, the ZF plastic engine mount can also be designed for various types of engines and vehicles at anytime. “In the automotive industry, we are currently noticing a marked trend towards plastic lightweight construction or downsizing and, as a result, we are also seeing a trend towards increased measures for environmental protection. Moreover, other vehicle manufacturers are intensively testing our innovation for their passenger car models,” Dr. Torsten Bremer said.

The engine mount is now being produced in six model-specific versions for small and compact cars, as well as electric cars of RenaultNissan.

Engine mounts perform important as well as diverse tasks in vehicles: as a joining element between the engine and the vehicle, they prevent undesired vibrations from the unit and driveline being transferred to the rest of the vehicle and, at the same time, they also ensure that noises are insulated. Above all, they must be strong enough to keep the engine stable within the vehicle, even when running on poor roads or in the event of a collision.

In order to develop a polyamide design with these characteristics, the automotive supplier used its lightweight construction expertise in con-

junction w it h innovative calculation and manufacturing processes. First, complex CAD models were created and based on the latest integrative simulation tools, ideal solutions were worked out within the context of comprehensive examinations.

For this purpose, topological, flow, and strength simulations were performed. As a result, ZF was able to provide close-toproduction components without

prototype trials and drastically reduce development cycles. That saves both time and money when it comes to development. With the help of the anisotropic simulation, the weight proportion and the alignment of the glass fibres are determined and used as needed. Being able to “read” these simulations requires a high level of know-how about plastics and an understanding of lightweight construction.

AMW continues dealer network expansion Sunrise Automotive appointed dealer at Mehsana, Gujarat.

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ndia’s third largest heavy commercial vehicle manufacturer, Asia MotorWorks (AMW), expanded its presence in the important Gujarat market with the opening of its newest dealership, Sunrise Automotive Pvt. Ltd. in Mehsana, on April 23, 2013.

Sunrise Automotive will be responsible for sales and service for the entire range of AMW vehicles in the territories of Mehsana, Banaskantha, Palanpur and Himmatnagar.

Rajnikant Patel, the Home Minister of Gujarat, inaugurated the dealership in the presence of Anirudh Bhuwalka, MD & CEO, and RC Mangal, Chief Marketing Officer, AMW Motors Ltd. and a large number of cus-

tomers and other dignitaries.

Ashok Chaudhary, MD, Sunrise Automotive, and past Mayor of Mehsana, welcomed the guests.

The region is among the largest milk producing regions in the country and a major user of milk tankers. In addition, Mehsana is an important oil exploration and extraction centre of ONGC. There are also a number of cement plants and mining and quarrying hubs in the region. AMW trucks cover over 90% of haulage applications in the medium and heavy segment, and the entire range of fully-built vehicles for the infrastructure and construction sectors.

Speaking on the occasion, Anirudh Bhuwalka said, “The expanded dealer network will

add to the already strong presence in Gujarat and western India. We are pleased to welcome Sunrise Automotive to our family. Our dealers are capable of delivering superior value and unparalleled customer service.

We are confident that we will be able to offer our customers the highest standards of quality and efficiency and bring in a totally modern purchase and ownership experience.”

Ashok Chaudhary of Sunrise Automotive said, “We are proud to be associated with AMW, which has shown such remarkable growth in the last four years. I am confident that the company’s world-class trucks will prove to be very popular in our region, thanks to their reliability, dura-

bility and excellent after-sales support. We will do our utmost

to bring in volumes and increase market shares for AMW.”

Greaves Cotton posts sales increase of 6.8 pc

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reaves Cot ton Limited, one of India’s leading engineering companies, reported net sales of `495.8 crore for the quarter ended 31 March 2013, as against `445.4 crore for the corresponding period last year; a rise of 11.3 percent. During the three-month period, the company reported net profit of `38.5 crore.

The company declared a final dividend of 25 percent or, `0.50 on a face value Rs 2. Following this full and final dividend the total dividend for the fiscal including interim dividend stood at 80 percent or `1.60. The EBIDTA margin for the quarter stood at 12.8 percent.

For the full year, the company registered net sa les of `1,873.3 crore as against

`1,753.4 crore during the yearago period, a rise of 6.8 percent.

Net profit for the year was at `138.0 crore as against `185.5 crore. It should be stated that the company had an advantage of exceptional income of `43.3 crore during Q4 and FY 11-12.

The net exceptional gain came from sale of land and buildings at `77.8 crores, and provision for obsolescence and utility and impairment of investment `20.3 crores and `14.2 crores respectively. The company reported EPS of `5.65 during 2012-13.

The Greaves Automotive Engine Business has been a key contributor to the growth story.

The strategy of product shift to the emerging four-wheeler small commercial vehicles industry, with regular supplies

to Tata Motors’s Ace Zip and Magic Iris, from the traditional three-wheeler segment has been welcomed by the industry and customers alike. This apart, addition of new customer Vibgyor Vehicles Ltd, and entering a seven year supply agreement with Atul Auto ensure smooth and efficient supplies across the year. The power business has recorded reasonable growth in spite of the prevailing diffidence in the market place. The Farm Equipment business will focus on newer products as part of its growth plan to improve its present market share.

The construction equipment business has also shown signs of recovery. The strategy of expanding the product range by adding products through technological

transfer from Samil, Korea, has been a key to this recovery. The recovery has been supported by the overall performance of the construction equipment industry and Greaves has improved its market share.

Gre ave s C ot ton has consciously worked on consolidating the aftermarket vertical in order to partner with its customers in co-creating demand.

The company has a focused Aftermarket vertical that caters to products and spares across businesses with the objective of providing minimum downtime to any Greaves product.

Commenting on the company’s performance during the year, Mr. Sunil Pahilajani, MD & CEO, said, “All our businesses are intrinsically woven with the growth of the key sectors of the

Indian economy. In spite of the turbulent economic backdrop we have been able to deliver growth. As an organisation we remain performance-driven and customer centred. We are confident that a clear focus on our multi- dimensional growth strateg y through expansion of product portfolio, expansion of markets and expansion of geographies will translate into sustainable and profitable growth. We as a company have invested significant efforts and resources to streamline systems and processes, both internally and externally. This we believe will lead to efficient and continuous improvements in product development and customer delight which in turn will usher innovation and value creation.”

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6 MAY 2013

NEWS

20

Eicher Engineering Component inaugurates fourth manufacturing facility Investment of `90 crore made in the plant

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icher E ng i neer i ng Component ( E EC ) inaugurated its fourth manufacturing facility at Dewas. The plant set up at an investment of `90 crores will have a peak production capacity of 180,000 transmission gears per month. This new plant will meet the requirements of transmission gears and shafts of Eicher Trucks and Buses, VE Powertrain and Royal Enfield. It will also cater to the requirements of other domestic and international OEMs. The new gear plant was inaugurated by Mr. Siddhartha Lal, Chairman and Managing Director,VECV and Mr. Joachim Rosenberg, VECV Board Member and Executive Vice President Volvo Group Trucks Sales and Marketing and JVs APAC. Eicher Eng ineer ing Components (EEC) is the automotive component division of VE Commercial Vehicles Limited (VECV), a 50-50 joint venture between the Volvo Group and Eicher Motors Limited.

Established in 1992, EEC meets all the automotive component requirements of Eicher trucks and buses, and also manufactures differential gears, transmission gears and shafts for a large number of domestic and global clientele, both in the OEM and spare-parts segments.

EEC also supplies gear boxes to industrial, agricultural and other segments in the United States and Canada.

EEC has three other manu-

The inauguration of the Eicher Engineering Component plant.

facturing plants, one in Thane (Maharashtra) manufacturing differential and transmission gears, one at Dewas (Madhya Pradesh) manufacturing the complete range of differential, transmission and engine gears, and one in Pithampur (Madhya

Pradesh) manufacturing gear boxes. It is continuously developing new products and upgrading its technology, while increasing operational efficiency, to make sure that it gets the best products to the market at the most competitive rates.

The new facility has a complete line of high technology CNC machines for gear cutting, gear shaving, and gear grinding.

It is also equipped with state of the art inspection facility and heat treatment furnaces which is core to any gear manufac-

turing process. The inspection facility helps in meeting the dimensional and metallurgical requirements. The layout has been done to optimize space utilization by keeping the storage areas and service area away from the production area.

Cognex upgrades its line of handheld barcode readers New features enhance existing groundbreaking technology

high-contrast codes are being read or when facing challenging DPM codes that cannot be read with standard settings.

Cog nex C or p or a t i on (NASDAQ: CGNX) has upgraded its line of DataMan 8000 series industrial handheld barcode readers with a major performance boost to both reading robustness and speed.

The handheld readers are now equipped with proprietary Cognex Hotbars image-analysis technology for the fastest 1-D barcode reading performance and Cognex 2DMax+ algorithm for fast decoding of 2-D printed and DPM matrix codes. The new features also include a rapid dual-focus image acquisition routine which enables the readers to decode a wide range of barcode sizes even faster.

Fast image acquisition and liquid lens settings The DataMan 8000 series is now equipped with patented auto-exposure algorithms and faster image acquisition and liquid lens performance. The faster imaging means readers can now be used in a dual focus mode, which allows users to increase the depth of field or to read a wide range of barcode sizes, from very large multi-inch barcodes to tiny 5 mil 2-D Data Matrix codes.

Available in two base models

The most advanced barcode readers on the market “The DataMan 8000 series was a true breakthrough for industrial handheld readers when it was released in 2010,” said Carl Gerst, Business Unit Manager for ID Products.

“However, at Cognex, we strive for excellence and are always looking for ways to break new ground in technology. With the addition of Hotbars, 2DMax+, and faster focusing capabil-

ity, the DataMan 8000 series is the most powerful and reliable industrial handheld reader available.” The DataMan 8000 series is designed for the factor y f loor and offers the most advanced code reading technology.

Easily read the most challenging 1-D barcodes 1DMax+ with Hotbars ena-

bles the DataMan 8000 series to read the most challenging 1-D barcodes quickly and easily even when those barcodes are damaged, blurred, at extreme perspective, or other wise challenging.

Customizable settings for 2-D code reading The DataMan 8000 series now utilizes the 2DMax+ algo-

rithm, which has the fastest decode times and is effective even on codes with perspective distortion, low contrast, or finder and clocking pattern damage. The DataMan 8000 series now allows the user to select the type of code to be read (from easy to extremely challenging). This is especially useful for increasing reading speeds when only printed or

DataMan8500: The DataMan 8500 readers incorporate patented UltraLight technology from Cognex for better image formation on any code type and surface. UltraLight illumination provides dark field, bright field and diffuse lighting all in one electronically controlled light.

DataMan 8100: The DataMan 8100 includes all of the features of the DataMan 8500 readers as well as bright field illumination. The DataMan 8100 readers are ideal for applications that require code reading without specialty lighting.

Auto Monitor

6 MAY 2013

NEWS

22

Land Rover celebrates 65th anniversary ‘HUE’ birthday cake flown in by Royal Navy Lynx display helicopter, Land Rover India celebrates anniversary with the launch of ‘Land Rover Experience’ off-roading events across the country.

Land Rover marked its 65th anniversary with a celebratory event at Packington Estate near its Solihull homeland. A ‘HUE’ birthday cake was flown in by special delivery in a Lynx helicopter by a member of the ‘Black Cats’ Royal Navy display team, renowned for thrilling audiences with their dynamic air displays.

The desire to create a vehicle that will tackle any terrain has been at the forefront of the Land Rover brand since the foundations were first sketched in the sand by Maurice Wilks. This principle has subsequently made Land Rover famous around the world since production began in 1948. ‘HUE 166’ was the very first Series I Land Rover, affectionately known by many as ‘Huey’, and was on prominent display at the event.

Around 150 heritage Land Rovers attended the celebratory event at Packington Estate, which was the testing ground for the original 1947-48 Land Rover prototypes through to the Range Rover development vehicles of the late 1960’s and early 70’s. These vehicles showcased key milestones in Land Rover’s 65-year history and also some 4x4 world firsts such as anti-lock brakes, adjustable air suspension, Electronic Traction Control, Hill Descent Control, Terrain Response and Stop/Start technologies.

The vehicles on display will demonstrate Land Rover’s legendary breadth of capability, with ploughing, emergency service, military, expedition, royal and concept vehicles all firmly positioning Land Rover as the world’s most versatile vehicle. They will sit alongside Land Rover’s current model lineup – the Defender, Discovery, Freelander, Range Rover, Range Rover Sport and Range Rover Evoque – and include the brand’s latest technological innovations in the form of the new Electric

A ‘HUE’ birthday cake was flown in by special delivery in a Lynx helicopter by a member of the ‘Black Cats’ Royal Navy display team.

Defender research vehicle and the world’s first 9-speed transmission for a passenger car.

Land Rover India will celebrate the 65th anniversary with the launch of its ‘Land Rover Experience’ customer events throughout India. The first event will commence on the 3rd May in Amby Valley, Lonavla, near Mumbai - where customers will experience Land Rover’s unrivalled all-terrain capabilities.

John Edwards, Land Rover’s Global Brand Director says: “Land Rover is celebrating 65 years of proud heritage. It is in fact a dual celebration, as March saw Land Rover deliver the strongest ever monthly and quarterly sales performance in its history.

“Since 1948, every component in our vehicles has been designed and engineered with intent and Land Rover continues to this day, to build the world’s most capable all-purpose vehicles. A blend of refinement, performance and unmatched all-terrain capability make Land Rover vehicles distinctive and unique, ready to tackle the world’s most challenging and inhospitable terrain.

“The all-new Range Rover and Range Rover Sport are the result of unprecedented investment in technology, in engineering and in our manufacturing facilities to produce the world’s first SUVs with a lightweight aluminium body structure. Investing in innovation has always been the lifeblood of Land Rover and we will continue to develop innovative new technology and sustainable motoring solutions for the future, whilst retaining the class-leading and legendary breadth of capability that Land Rover’s heritage is built upon.”

FIRST & National Instruments sign partnership Will put real-world engineering tools in student hands, students develop professional engineering skills, pursue career interests with next-generation FIRST robotics controller.

F

IRST (For Inspiration a nd Recog n it ion of Science a nd Tech nolog y) a nd National Instruments (Nasdaq: NATI) have announced that they are extending their technology partnership through 2019 with the shared goal of creating more scientists and engineers. FIRST engages young people in exciting mentor-based robotics programs that celebrate science and technology, inspire innovation, and foster self-confidence and communication skills. NI provides the real-world engineering tools that power these programs.

This phase of the technology partnership centres around the creation of a next-generation embedded robotics control

platform code-named “Athena.”

Athena is a super-rugged, reconfigurable controller that, when paired with NI LabVIEW system design software, makes it possible for FIRST teams to design real systems faster than ever.

Students will use Athena starting in the 2015 season of the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC).

Starting with Junior FIRST LEGO League (Jr.FLL), which is the entry-level program in a Progression of Programs at FIRST for youths ages 6 to 18, students use tools powered by LabVIEW to intuitively learn embedded control and robotics programming concepts.

As students advance through these four robotics programs,

Through a donation from NI, FIRST will provide these next-generation robotics systems to participating teams starting in 2015, providing hardware for FRC teams over a fiveyear period. access to tools that scale with each skill level is essential to their success. Athena, which is programmable with LabVIEW, gives high school students experience with the same tools they will use throughout college and

in their science and engineering careers.

“We’re excited to extend our technology partnership with FIRST to continue pursuing the shared goal of creating more scientists and engineers,” said Ray Almgren, vice president of corporate marketing at National Instruments. “We believe the combination of LabVIEW and this next-generation controller will continue making programming more accessible to all students.”

Through a donation from NI, FIRST will provide these nextgeneration robotics systems to participating teams starting in 2015. This donation provides hardware for all existing and “rookie” FRC teams over a five-

year period. NI also currently provides LabVIEW software to all FRC teams. Students in FIRST will use the same hardware and software platform professional engineers currently use to create applications in virtually every industry, from testing smartphones to launching spaceships.

“Support from partners like National Instruments is helping FIRST provide hands-on learning experiences that mirror what students will do in their future careers,” said Steve Chism, vice president of programs at FIRST. “We’re creating a generation of scientists and engineers ready to confidently take on the challenges facing our world.”

6 MAY 2013

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THE OTHER SIDE

Getting Personal with VD Umashanker, Managing Director, BorgWarner Cooling Systems India Pvt. Ltd., and BorgWarner MorseTEC India Pvt. Ltd., and Director, BorgWarner Thailand.

If not in the auto industry, where would you be?

Aerospace What car do you drive? What do you dream of driving?

A Honda Accord. I dream of driving the Audi R8.

Your most recent indulgence…

A Nikon D90 with extra lenses.

What are you currently reading?

Global TILT by Ram Charan.

What do you do when not talking auto?

Reading and listening to music (I never get tired of the Beatles!)

An outdoor activity you would miss office for…

Driving long distance in an SUV. Where did you go for your last holiday?

Tiger Temple, Kanchanaburi, Thailand.

You get angry when…

People refuse to take ownership for what they are responsible.

What is the one thing you would like to change about you?

Stop procrastinating.

Illustration: Chaitanya Dinesh Surpur

Best thing to have happened to you…

A grandson.

6 MAY 2013

In Real Life V.D. Umashanker has over 38 years’ experience in the auto industry. He has previously worked with multinationals such as Eaton and Caterpillar, and an Indian company called Amalgamations.

He also ran his own business for over ten years earlier in his career. He has contributed articles to the Economic Times in the past. He holds an engineering degree and an MBA from the University of Madras.

An experience I won’t forget…

Once when our business was in a fantastic growth phase, our manufacturing facility was flooded overnight. It was completely devastating. It is memorable because of the shock and suddenness of the incident. However, what I will never forget is the experiential learning from this -- the way we as a team stuck together and overcame the disaster in innovative ways and ensured there was no supply interruption to our customers. It was a learning experience for every member of the team, and a feather in their cap.

Regn. No. MH/MR/WEST/20/2012-2014. RNI No. MAHENG/2000/11414 Licenced to post at Mumbai patrika channel sorting office G.P.O. Mumbai 400 001.

Date Of Mailing:16th & 17th Fortnightly Issue. Date Of Publication: 13th of Every Month

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