The Hindu Business Line : Nissan starts outsourcing non-core work to India

EVEN as it is testing the waters in the country's automobile market, Nissan Motor Company's US operations has started outsourcing non-core work to India.

Currently confined to work at one of its North American assembly plants in Smyrna in Tennessee, the outsourcing activity is likely to affect about 150 jobs and is aimed at making Nissan more effective and efficient."These jobs have been outsourced to Genpact (formerly GECIS) facilities in Gurgaon, Hyderabad and Bangalore. This activity is part of an overall effort to find ways to make Nissan more effective and efficient," Mr Fred Standish, Nissan's Director for Corporate Communications for North America, told Business Line in reply to an e-mailed questionnaire.

Genpact works in the area of sales & marketing analytics, financial services, finance and accounting information technology services.

Mr Standish did not say how much Nissan will save because of such outsourcing activity. "We have no comment about potential savings, since this is a purely internal matter," he said.

Sources close to Nissan said about 150 jobs may get affected because of the outsourcing of work to India.

Nissan is also keen to outsource infotech related jobs to India. The Nissan Chief Executive Officer, Mr Carlos Ghosn, was in India last year scouting for infotech companies to whom the automaker could outsource IT work. But Mr Standish did not say whether any progress has been made after the visit of Mr Ghosn.

"We are constantly looking for ways to make our company more effective and efficient. However, we aren't going to comment on our future plans, including those related to IT matters," he said.

Nissan has assembly plants in Smyrna in Tennessee and Canton in Mississippi, its corporate and design offices in California, an engine manufacturing plant in Decherd, Tennessee, an engineering and product testing office near Detroit and a call centre in Dallas for its financial division.

Meanwhile, Nissan has major plans to expand its automobile operations in the country.

According to Mr Neeraj Garg, Country Head and Director (Marketing), India is part of Nissan's global Value-Up programme. Under this programme, Nissan will aim to produce 4.2 million cars worldwide by 2007.

It currently imports and sells X-trail, a sport-utility-vehicle, in the country. Average sales are about 25-30 vehicles per month.

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