Revving up for change

When the country's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki heard the alarm bells of a water shortage across its dealer servicing centres a few years ago, it knew this was an echo of a larger water related crisis slated to hit the country hard in the coming years. Something serious had to be done and soon! That alone would ensure the sustainability of its business and its client services in the future.

Applying its mind to the issue with the zeal that necessity is indeed the mother of invention, in a few years the car maker has managed to put in place several innovations to drastically bring down its consumption of water. From the 200 litres that was used in every traditional servicing and car wash, the company now uses a mere 40 to 50 litres.

“There were several challenges. First, the acute water shortage in some areas and pressure from the Pollution Control Board. Then, our wish to use a substance that would replace water, remain eco-friendly and biodegradable yet clean the car as well or better than water does,” recalls Executive Director (Service) Pankaj Narula as he relates the story of how the company scouted the globe for a solution and zeroed in on a formula that fitted the bill.

“So, we now have what has been christened, 'the Wow wash' solution which is produced by a third party vendor and has passed every test by our paints section. Dust deposits get lifted from the surface with the help of a micro fibre cloth used for the cleaning. It comes as a spray, cleans and shines the car's body and glass areas without staining the surface or fading the colour.”

The company undertook extensive research to figure out which were the car servicing functions that consumed the maximum water. While the top body wash used up over a 100 litres, the other hundred litres cleaned the engine room and the car's undercarriage. Both these culprits also had to be tackled.

For sprucing up the engine room Maruti uses a diesel-powered Korean contraption that converts water to steam. Workers train the steam jet towards every nook and corner of the engine, including the under bonnet. “The jet of steam is powerful and loosens up even the most stubborn bits of dirt that hang on to the bonnet and the tyre guards,” says Kaushal Verma, Deputy General Manager (Service), pointing out the procedure in action.

Maruti then focused on the third water using function – cleaning the car's underbody. Earlier this job was done manually and a lot of muck would come unstuck and fall on the worker cleaning the underbelly of the car. Besides, the water hose had to be kept going for long periods. “To deal with both the problems, we devised a roller system on which water jets have been installed. This moves below the car, cleaning every portion of it without human intervention,” explains Narula.

“In India, particularly road conditions and the vagaries of weather ensure that cars need much more cleaning during a servicing,” he says. With 500 company and dealer workshops already using the clean wash system and the roll out happening for others as well, the company feels it has started a water reduction movement that needs to be furthered in the country. 

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