A Leap Into A New Future

The Mahindra Navistar Automotive Limited (MNAL), a wholly-owned M&M group company had an Auto Tech Review who recently visited the company’s Chakan plant in Maharashtra to gain first-hand experience and learn more about the country’s most modern CV manufacturing plants.

The visit to the plants gave an insight into the fact that MNAL is focusing on creating differentiators which would play a deciding role in the company’s growth in the future keeping in mind that Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland are the two large players in the automotive industry.

MNAL has left no stone unturned in building a strong product, a robust product development team and a modern plant with the best of equipments with an aim of becoming the third leading player in the industry. For example, MNAL products now come with storage space under the driver seats and berths which earlier went unutilized.

Another key aspect at MNAL is the efforts being made on bringing down the cost of operations through improved fuel efficiency and flexibility to map and optimize the usage pattern. Mr. Kiran Vairagkar, Senior General Manager – Product Development brought to light the innovations on telematics and future models having improved functionalities like drain interval, reduction in oil capacity and use of small filters to ensure lowered cost of production.

The MNAL manufacturing facility in Chakan, Pune is automated to the extent of 89%, with manual activities limited to processes such as sample inspections and checks. The MNAL press shop is flexible to accommodate panel work of all kinds of vehicles. At the press shop, a systematic methodology at the piercing station is followed which ends by a manual checking procedure of checking scratches, cracks and other defects to ensure zero faults.

In order to estimate improved efficiency, The Mahindra Quality System (MQS) is used in all parts of the automotive sector and frequent audits are undertaken which looks into the details of the sustainability aspect along with The Central Quality Assurance department which undertakes audits from a consumer’s perspective.

Mr. Nalin Mehta, Managing Director & CEO, MNAL believes that MNAL is set to take the next steps towards building a growth path on its own with M&M and its American joint venture partner Navistar International Corporation announcing that the Indian Auto major would purchase Navistar Group’s 49% stake in MNAL and Mahindra Navistar Engines Pvt. Ltd (MNEPL) for Rs. 175 crores.

Mr. Nalin Mehta Speaks About The Future Of MNAL

Within a few days of Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) announcing the completion of purchase of the Navistar Group’s stake in Mahindra Navistar Automotives Ltd (MNAL) and Mahindra Navistar Engines Pvt. Ltd (MNEPL), Auto Tech Review spoke to Mr. Nalin Mehta, Managing Director MNAL to understand the roadmap for the company in India henceforth. Increasing market penetration, better understanding of customer requirements and improved product and distribution strategy would be the key growth drivers for the company.

Born in 1958, Mr. Nalin Mehta went on to complete his Bachelor of Technology from IIT, Kharagpur and then followed that up with MBA from Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University after which he worked with Hindustan Motors for a period of nine years and adding life to the market by launching the Mitsubishi Lancer, which was noticed for many innovative firsts in the Indian Automotive market. He later took over as Chief Operating Officer of MNAL, before taking charge as its Managing Director a year later.

Mr. Nalin Mehta spoke about India being a huge market in itself and by tapping into the right resources the company can reach different heights. At MNAL, we have worked hard to build a great product, a strong product development team, and a modern plant with the best equipments and focusing on improving productivity which are strong reasons for the business to grow. The efforts have largely been directed towards giving the customers a delightful experience by filling-in small gaps in the industry by offering services like a 24x7 call centre and four years of unlimited warranty and focusing on improving productivity.

We are working towards the use of reefer vans which has great scope and potential in the market as there exists an excise benefit if reefer vans are sold directly by a manufacturer. The use of reefer vans would lower operating costs and increase fuel efficiency. Along with reefer vans, we are creating sub-segments in the 25-49 tonne segments offering concrete mixtures integrated with the truck along with looking at readymade, customized solutions.

However, it is known that the trucking industry is very heterogeneous in nature and the biggest challenge faced is real world usage information. As the industry does not organize itself well, for instance, the operators are not able to share the kind of data a developer would want. Hence there is a necessity for more and more accurate real world information, so one can stimulate it.

We are a rising player in the market with a market share of 11% in LCV business; a business that M&M was already in. As far as the HCV’s are concerned, there are about 7,000 HCV’s in the market today with a steady increase in market share month-on-month. We saw an increased market share this January at 4.2%.

Our future looks bright and promising as we are well-positioned to take advantage of a situation which is moving towards modernization. Their focus will remain unchanged from the modern, youth transporter, offering superior services and packaged services.

Outperformers' League Meet at Tiruchengode

The Outperformers' League is an exclusive forum, where Fleet owners interact with other stakeholders in the trucking industry. It provides the perfect platform for them to access first-hand information on crucial business-related aspects and concerns.

The OPL came together once again on March 25^th, 2013 to discuss the specialized segment of Rig and Borewell operators. As per market information, there are close to 4000 rigs owned by operators in and around Tiruchengode today. Therefore, it was fitting that the event was conducted in this small town. A total of 294 people participated, of which 201 unique fleet owners were from the Rig Segment.

Dr. Suresh Kumaram of SKS Auto gave the welcome address at the event. Guest Speaker Dr. Viswesaran, an expert in Hydrogeology and Water Management spoke about the “Thumb Rules for Water Drilling”. Sharing his experiences of working with the Public Water works department, United Nations/ WHO and World Bank projects from across the globe.

Key MNAL customers were also felicitated at the event, Mr. Mohan C (Gem Rock Drillers) who purchased the first MN25 (Converted to Rig Drilling) and Mr. Loganathan (SVB Borewells ) who purchased the Load King (Converted to Rig Drilling for Small Ops). The MNAL sales team also congratulated and appreciated the efforts of SKS Automobiles (Dealer from Salem) for their strong sales effort.

Overall it was another successful event with the joint efforts of the SKS, MNAL and Anantara sales team, who helped further our philosophy of outperformance.

Outperformer’s League- A recap of the year 2012

FLEET OWNER MEETS

A series of 15 ‘Fleet owner meets’ took place all throughout India in different parts of the country starting from the 18^th of May 2012 in Vijayawada. These sessions were attended by all the Fleet owners from their respective cities. The gathering was addressed by various eminent people from the Automobile and Infrastructure Industry who spoke on different aspects of Fleet Management.

Mr. Uttam Ramani, Head Logistics, JSW Steel addressed the gathering in New Delhi on the 19^th of May 2012 and spoke on “Best Practices in Steel Transportation (Road)” along with other renowned people like Mr. Pankaj Joshi, GM – Mahindra Logistics who also presented the potential opportunities for road transportation.

The event was a highly enriching experience for all the Fleet owners as different topics of varying importance were addressed ranging from Tyre Life Cycle Management, Customer Expectations from Fleet Owners to Best Practices in Steel Transportation, Good Practices in Cement Transportation and many more. On the 29^th of October 2012, the final session was addressed by Mr. Pradeep C.Varaiya, Head Training with Indag Rubber Ltd where he provided valuable insights on Tyre Maintenance and its effects on the vehicle which marked the end of the series of events.

DRIVER MEETS

Keeping the welfare and benefit of the truck drivers in mind, Mahindra Navistar organized Truck Driver camps in different cities for the betterment of the truck drivers. The duration of these camps were from 1 to 3 days in cities like Kolkata, Lucknow, Chandrapur, Hyderabad etc where all the truck drivers received proper health checkup which included BMI, Blood Sugar and Eye checkup. Medical kits along with food packets were distributed to each one of them.

In order to build awareness among them Skits were organized in Hindi, Tamil and Gujarati addressing issues like HIV and STD. The drivers received special counseling sessions to educate them on issues of vital importance like HIV and driver safety. A Yoga camp was held by a Yoga expert who conducted exercises relating to the lifestyle of drivers which proved to be beneficial and useful for them.

An initiative has been taken by the Agrawal Packers and Movers who created Driver Kendra, a facility for all drivers who need to take a break from long hours of driving to utilize the retiring facilities and restart their journey afresh. The idea behind this approach is to address the needs of the drivers who are a vital part of this country. The final camp took place in Vijayawada on the 22^nd of January 2013 which was inaugurated by Dealership – Mr. Kishore from Varun Motors. 

Chennai

 

 Vijaywada

Jaipur

 

Lucknow

 

Kolkata

 

Hyderabad

 

Delhi

MPOWERing the Future

On the 23rd of Jan 2013, at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA), the Management Development Program for Youth Transport Entrepreneurs, MPOWER, a new initiative of Mahindra for the nextgen of transport fraternity, was launched.

Mr. Anand Mahindra had shared the guiding philosophy of this pioneering and unique intiative. at the Mahindra Transport Excellence Awards ceremony.  He explained the program to the youth entrepreneurs at the awards as “Take forward your family business with your OWN vision.”

30 young transport entrepreneurs, chosen by invitation and belonging to some of the finest transport companies of India, checked in for the 14 days course which is aimed at professionalizing the Indian transport sector in the long run. This course has been specifically designed keeping the transport sector issues in focus. Half a dozen highly accomplished faculty members of IIMA are running the course that covers subjects like, professionalism, business planning, market & segments, HR practices, service quality, financial management & accounting, supply chain management, legal and regulatory, information technology, industry focused sessions.

The idea is to empower bright minds with skills to improve current operations, while delivering the knowledge to transform the industry in the long term. Mahindra is helping transform these young transporters through this Management Development initiative while helping to drive positive change in the transport ecosystem.The program, MPOWER, which started on the 23rd Jan was concluded on the 5th of Feb ’13 with the valedictory session.