Bangalore engg company redefines assembly line

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The Nano has revolutionised the concept of a car. But it is a small engineering company in Bangalore that has driven this change, redefining the assembly line to make the Rs 1 lakh dream possible, reports CNBC-TV18's Faye D'souza.

 

For SPM India , a Rs 40 crore engineering company in Bangalore, the world's cheapest car was a challenge. It meant supplying an engine assembly line, with state of the art equipment, at the lowest prices possible, without compromising on quality.

 

"The best state of the art specifications were the requirement. And the RFID technology wherein data across station are stored against each engine has been included. What we have given them is a one of a kind assembly line," said GD Krishna, Director, SPM India.

 

And one of a kind assembly line, it is! It will churn out engines every 40 seconds, manufacturing a total of 1.2 million cars a year of four such lines. The cost to the Tatas would be Rs 12-15 crore per line.

 

The credit for the magic price of Rs 1,00,000 is shared by Tata's suppliers, including SPM, who among other things, sourced the supplies for this assembly line directly from manufacturers in Japan, rather than the traditional route via Singapore to bring down their cost by nearly 40%.

 

"If it was Japan, we went to Japan. If it was Europe, we went directly to the supplier to reduce the price. We pooled up all our requirements for one year in one pool and reduced the cost in a big way. We got a 40% advantage," said GD Krishna.

 

These engineers now hope that the Nano will also put the spotlight on Indian engineering and innovation and bring international clients to their doorstep.