 "Stringent quality standards to drive innovations in auto component industry")
Faced with the challenge of lower-than expected growth in sales of vehicle and competition from peers, the automotive companies are churning out new models with enhanced features and quality to attract customers. “We need to work towards building our ‘quality’ brand because in today’s world perception is reality. It is important to move towards developing capabilities to an extent that we can design, develop and validate a car on a turnkey basis in India. The day is not far when the Indian automotive industry will have arrived on the technology front,” said Dr Pawan Goenka, ED & president (automotive sector), Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, at recently held New Delhi Automotive Summit 2016, organised by the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association (ACMA).
While airbags and ABS are currently being offered as an option in base variants of cars, very soon these products will be a common feature in all cars due to implementation of stringent quality standards and increase in affordability level. Auto component industry will have to invest in research & development to help OEMs to make this transition and also gear up the auto industry for the adoption of BS VI emission norms by 2020.
“We have a mammoth challenge and an opportunity too, in form of scaling up to BS-VI by 2020. I am happy to see that the components industry is already ready to adapt to the technology being demanded for. To further fuel this zeal, I would strongly urge the Finance Ministry to introduce a Technology Fund in this year’s budget,” said Anant Geete, Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, at summit.
Globally, the auto component industry is a strong $ 1.75 trillion industry with $ 500 billion as its contribution in value-addition; last year top-100 component manufacturers invested close to $ 50 billion in R&D. “Moreover, in the last one-decade, 50 percent of total innovations in the automotive sector were co-developed by the auto component sector. Clearly the auto component industry is the engine of growth and development not only for the automotive nations but also for the global economy. While today, the Indian auto component sector contributes 3.8 percent to the national GDP, and is a $ 38.5 billion industry, with exports worth $ 11.2 billion,” opined Arvind Balaji, president, ACMA.
The Automotive Mission Plan 2026 envisions the Indian automotive industry ranking among top 3 in the world, contributing to over 12 percent of India’s GDP and providing for an additional 65 million jobs. To achieve this vision and to be ably support the vehicle industry, it is imperative for Indian component industry to enhance and augment the existing ecosystem by building higher value added capabilities.
Deep Kapuria, past president & chairman, Globalisation Committee, ACMA & chairman, The Hi-Tech Group, commented, “Globally, the industry is undergoing transformation, which will require us to develop capabilities for in-house design, harness frugal engineering and create product differentiation through innovation and move towards zero defect quality. To ensure a robust automotive manufacturing value chain, we need to create an ecosphere wherein each member will have to contribute in creating technology that makes us globally competitive.”
To compete globally, the component industry will have to achieve technological excellence with a focus on developing tooling and engineering quality. The Government’s ‘Make in India’ campaign, resulting in defence modernisation plans and enhanced focus on the aerospace sector, will also open up immense diversification opportunity for the Indian auto components industry.
“With the component industry all set to be BS VI compliant, I am confident that the OEMs will be able to reduce the huge import costs while making vehicles, which are compliant to BS VI as compared to today’s costs for delivering a BS IV vehicle. With this achievement, the year 2020 will mark a true success of the Make in India campaign,” opined Dr Pawan Goenka.
