The Hindu Business Line : `TN auto industry size will be $15-20 b by 2015'

On a fast track
The annual output per employee is likely to increase to over Rs 16 lakh by 2010 and Rs 24 lakh by 2015.
The industry needs project management and problem solving skills to identify root causes for design issues.

Chennai , July 3

The size of the auto industry in Tamil Nadu will be $15-20 billion (Rs 67,500-90,000 crore) by 2015, according to the Confederation of Indian Industry's (CII) recent study on `Mapping of human resource skills in Tamil Nadu' in 2015.

The report said that since it is a manpower intensive industry, it would generate as much as 5 lakh fresh jobs in the next 10 years to increase the total number of employees in the State's auto sector to 5.8 lakh.

The report said the current productivity in the auto industry in terms of the annual output per employee stands at over Rs 12 lakh. With the industry registering around 8 per cent improvement in productivity, the annual output per employee is likely to increase to over Rs 16 lakh by 2010 and Rs 24 lakh by 2015, it said.

A CII press release said the report attributes this growth to several factors such as the adoption of lean manufacturing practices, and shifting roles of companies from being assemblers to contract manufacturers, shifting roles of product development from product testing to design and development, purchase becoming a techno-commercial function, instead of a purely commercial function.

Further, there is devolution of responsibilities of problem solving to lower levels.

Identifying some of the skill gaps in the industry, the study said that the industry needs project management and problem solving skills to identify root causes for design issues, and said that the process knowledge and system knowledge and the techno commercial orientation at the level of purchase executives is insufficient.

Also, the industry needs operators and technicians with the basic understanding of environmental, safety practices and quality concepts such as TQM and Six Sigma.

More Stories on : Automobiles | Tamil Nadu

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