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Raja Simhan T.E.

Mr N. Mohanakrishnan, Special Director, Information Management Services.

Chennai , Aug. 30

ASHOK Leyland plans to reduce time-to-market - from drawing board to a vehicle roll out - of new products to around 15 months from the present 18-36 months by leveraging multiple technologies, said a company official.

"That's our target and we are working out a plan to achieve it by next year using barcode, GSM (global system for mobile communications) and RFID (radio frequency identification)," Mr N. Mohanakrishnan, Special Director, Information Management Services, Ashok Leyland, told Business Line.

The country's second largest manufacturer of commercial vehicles had spent around Rs 80 crore towards IT initiatives, including an ERP (enterprise resource planning), in the last three years. It plans to spend another Rs 80 crore in the next three years on various technologies, he said.

Ashok Leyland, which manufactured around 50,000 vehicles last year, operates from 75 locations. This includes five manufacturing locations: One at Ennore (Tamil Nadu), two at Hosur (Tamil Nadu), one each at Alwar (Rajasthan) and Bhandara (Maharashtra); three design centres at Vellivoyalchavadi, Hosur and Ennore. And besides the corporate office in Chennai, there are eight regional offices, 25 area offices and sales outlets for parts and vehicles numbering 40, he said.

All the manufacturing locations are interdependent, and there is a centralised sourcing and decentralised procurement planning — the company has around 450 suppliers and 250 dealers across India. With technology initiatives covering the enterprise and online interactions with vendors and dealers, it became necessary that the company's internal IT process (ERP) also be geared up for information processing by using multiple technologies. With the increase in volume, technology compressed the information cycle to real time from 10-12 days, he said.

On the GSM initiatives, Mr Mohanakrishnan said the company's ERP has built-in functionalities that enable integration of the ERP with mobile technology. These built-in functionalities enable despatching SMS (short messaging service) based on specific events in the transaction processing cycle.

One such initiative recently implemented relates to messaging leave status application registered by an employee online. On approval of the leave application online, an SMS is automatically generated and sent to the employee's mobile. As an added feature, ERP is also integrated with the messaging system, which enables forwarding an e-mail message to the employee in addition to the SMS, he said.

Mr Mohanakrishan said the company has implemented an integrated processes using barcode in the high volume engine production plant at Hosur. All engines manufactured in the plant are tracked using barcode labelling (automatically generated in the ERP), which enables tracking and monitoring of various stages of production in the assembly line and in the testing line, he said.

On RFID, he said it was deployed for tracking issue and receipt of various types of gauges/instruments used for testing through integration with the ERP processes. This enables tracking of assets in various locations to enhance the control analysis. The company is also evaluating the assembly automation process for the engine plant at Hosur with the use of RFID, he said.

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