Robots are fast replacing human-hands on factory floors of domestic carmakers, as they turn to automation in search of higher efficiencies and improved quality levels in a highly competitive market environment.

While efficient production is necessitated by rising input costs, companies are turning to automation also to safeguard against production disruption arising from labour disputes. In the past few months, auto belts such as Gurgaon-Manesar, Chennai region and Halol have all seen labour strikes.

The newer plants of recent market entrants such as Renault-Nissan and Volkswagen are being built with high reliability on machinery. But older facilities, such as Honda Siel’s Greater Noida plant and Maruti Suzuki’s over two-decade-old Gurgaon facility, too have been re-fitted over time to accommodate higher mechanisation.

“When we started out in 1984, the efficiency at the Gurgaon plant was low at about 45 per cent. Now, these same lines have above 75 per cent efficiency. At Manesar, where we are putting up second and third highly automated lines, the efficiency will be above 90 per cent,” said Mr M M Singh, Maruti Suzuki’s Managing Executive Officer for Production told Business Line.

The company, which casts its shadow over almost half the car market, now makes around a lakh and a half cars more at its Gurgaon plant, over an installed capacity of seven lakh units a year. This has been attained though efficient techniques and balancing of production lines.

Mr Anup Wadhwa, Director of Automation Industry Association, says automation leads to “more throughput, greater safety to operating personnel, and reliability of movement”.

“Automation levels depend on plant capacities. India is a volume market, so with high capacities the automation increases. The advantage over labour is that there is no fatigue and the quality levels are high. Over the years, technology has developed and become much cheaper,” said Mr Praveen Paranjape, Vice President for Manufacturing, Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI).

A car-making joint venture between Japan’s Honda and Siddharth Shriram Group - HSCI’s mechanisation levels at its Greater Noida factory in 1998 (capacity of 30,000 cars a year) stood at 30 per cent. But now with an annual capacity of 1.2 lakh units a year, automation levels have been increased to 80 per cent.

Labour Issues

Despite labour costs at home being relatively cheaper than the US and Europe – where there are higher levels of automation, the increasing spate of labour disputes is also making automakers invest more in machinery.

“The increased number of labour disputes in the sector is also an important consideration for companies to increase automation. Over the long-term, this will be a big issue as labour demands will increase with wages … the work environment is tough in the factories,” Mr Paranjape said.

Areas for automation

Though automation is not ideal at all stages of production, especially at the assembly lines where wiring requires manual labour, other areas such as the weld and paint shops are now completely being handed over to robots. Also, lifting of heavy parts and vehicle bodies has been completely left to machines to minimise time wastage and injury risks to humans.

Jobs involving repetitive movements, high precision,(or) jobs involving unsafe operations for humans such as operations near furnace doors, for instance, are better done by robots as they are accurate, do not have fatigue, or loose concentration, said Mr Bipin Jirge from IFM electronic India, makers of components like the sensors used in factory machines.

>roudra.b@thehindu.co.in

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