Auto Components India

www.autocomponentsindia.com Vol 1 Issue 1

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MARCH 2014

AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA

VOICE OF THE AUTOMOTIVE SUPPLIERS

Don Hillebrand,

Harish Lakshman,

President, SAE International

President ACMA

CAN COUNTERFEIT BE CONTAINED? L

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SHOP FLOOR SOJOURN: RTSSL TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION: HYUNDAI GRAND I10

CORPORATE OFFICE: BKT HOUSE, BALKRISHNA INDUSTRIES LTD. C / 15, Trade World, Kamala Mills Compound, Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel, Mumbai 400 013, India. Tel : +91 22 66663800.

EDITORIAL

Smart Move

W

elcome to Auto Components India, the tenth title from Next Gen Publishing which also brings out Car India, Bike India and CV magazine. As the name denotes, the new magazine will primarily focus on the end-to-end value chain of the automotive components industry and allied segments such as machine tools, service tools, testing equipment, consumables and IT. In covering these sectors, ACI does not exactly neglect OEMs. Under the ‘technology’ and ‘innovation’ sections, recently launched vehicles are analysed with respect to contribution from vendors.

The cover story of the inaugural issue delves into counterfeiting, arguably, the most vexing issue confronting the automotive industry today. Starting an investigation from source, we examine the causes and the ambient environment sustaining this deep-rooted malaise. We also attempt to set out solutions with respect to education, regulation and enforcement.

The automotive industry seems to be on the cusp of a mild recovery. It could well be a temporary respite, or the effects of a low base, but is welcome nevertheless. In this scenario, the RBI raising its policy repo rate by 25 basis points does not seem to send the right signals to industry. Industry leaders opine that it cannot always be a case of inflation control triumphing over much-needed measures to spur economic growth.

While the last calendar year proved to be a record of sorts for many of the world’s largest car makers in terms of global sales, performance was tepid in the domestic market for all except those in the luxury segment. While the farm equipment segment performed better, the scenario is mixed for two-wheelers and it is abysmally low in the commercial vehicle segment.

Coming to the auto components space, while most tier-1 companies reeled under the slowdown, some tier-2 and tier-3 players have had to shut shop altogether. Undeniably, therefore, the situation is worrisome, but it does bring in its wake, enough opportunity to introspect and plot for the next wave of growth. Thinking out of the box could mean diversification into new industries or even to grow footprint outside India. We are happy to note that some of these measures are already being implemented. It is one of the foremost objectives of this magazine to bring you instances of enterprise, lateral thinking and best practices.

Do send us your views and comments. ACI aims to offer a 360-degree perspective of the industry. In this 2.0 world, more often than not, it will be you who will tell us what you want to read and hopefully, write for us as well. One of the ways to get in touch with us is through our spanking new website www. autocomponentsindia.com

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com mponentsindia. www.autoco MARCH 2014 Vol 1 Issue 1

AUTO INDIA COMPONENTSVE SUPPLIERS MOTI

AUTO VOICE OF THE

Don Hillebrand, al

an, Harish Lakshm ACMA President

President, SAE Internation

TERFEIT

CAN COUNBE CONTAINED? AL UR UG E! INA SSU

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NOLO GY & INNO URN: RTSS L TECH

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Digital Platform Partners

Available on

Have a great Auto Expo!

T Murrali Editor t.murrali@nextgenpublishing.net 4

AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA MARCH 2014

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MARCH 2014 AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA 5

AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA

VOICE OF THE AUTOMOTIVE SUPPLIERS

AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA

CONTENTS 04 08

16 20

EDITORIAL CORPORATE Sona Koyo - Sona Koyo goes off-highway to stay on track Fiem - Fiem Industries: spreading lights wider COVER STORY Counterfeit - Can counterfeit be contained?

INTERVIEW Harish Lakshman There are opportunities in crisis: Harish Lakshman, president ACMA

Don Hillebrand

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FOCUS Indo MIM

Quality drives at RTSSL drives you safe

RSB Transmission expands footprint, product portfolio

Indo MIM adds China to its export list

Pricol Pricol to supply powertrain components to Renault Nissan

ALLIED INDUSTRIES JM Tyre Marc JM Tyre Marc to focus on tyre care products

Micromatic Machine Tools Micromatic Machine Tools offers smart solutions to up productivity

TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION How Hyundai scripted Grand i10

SHORT TAKES Kenwood Kenwood tunes in to smart phone users

Isuzu Isuzu plans engine facility

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PERSPECTIVE Frost & Sullivan

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OEM Ashok Leyland Partner

Technology outlook for auto components in global passenger vehicles

Atlas F24 emerges as Partner, MiTR from ALL-Nissan JV

Ashok Leyland Captain + Mercedes Ashok Leyland pins hope on ‘Captain’ to tide over slowdown Mercedes 2014 S Class challenges vendors’ capabilities

GLOBESCAN Bosch Group reports marginal increases in sales Dana introduces new Central Tyre Inflation System

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Regional Marketing Manager Salma Jabbar (Chennai) Area Advertising Manager

SPECIAL REPORT RSB Transmission

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Regional Marketing Manager Chanchal Arora (Delhi) Regional Marketing Manager Girish Shet (Bangalore)

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48

Principal Correspondent Senior Correspondent Contributor Creative Director Designers Image Desk Production Executive Publisher

T.Murrali H. S. Billimoria-CEO, NGPL Aspi Bhathena-Editor, Car India & Bike India Sridhar Chari-Editor, CV J Srikant Bhargav TS Krishna Kumar Atul Bandekar Ajit Manjrekar, Prakash Gavnang Ravi Parmar, Deepak Narkar Dinesh Bhajnik Marzban Jasoomani

Don Hillebrand, president, SAE International

SHOP FLOOR SOJOURN Rane TRW

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Editor Editorial Advisory Board

Couple engineering expertise with market and infrastructure:

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MARCH 2014

Trade World, C-Wing, 2nd Floor, Kamala Mills Compound, Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel (W), Mumbai 400013, India Tel +91 22 43525252 Fax +91 22 24955394 Email us at cv@nextgenpublishing.net

OFF BEAT Speedometer Up to speed with speedometers

Minocher Parakh (Mumbai)

Assistant Circulation Managers Kapil Kaushik (Delhi), Sanjeev Roy (West) Subscription Supervisor Sachin Kelkar Tel +91 22 43525220 Fax +91 22 24955394 Apple Newsstand & Magzter Queries: help@magzter.com For Pocket Mags Queries: help@pocketmags.com Territory Sales Incharge (Circulation) Richard G.C. (Hyderabad) Cell +91 09949217127 Territory Sales Incharge (Circulation) Vidyasagar Gupta (Kolkata) Mob: 09804085683 REGIONAL MARKETING OFFICES Next Gen Publishing Ltd. Trade World, C-Wing, 2nd Floor, Kamala Mills Compound, Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel (W), Mumbai 400013, India Tel +91 22 43525252 Fax +91 22 24955394 26 B, Ground Floor, Okhla Industrial Estate, Okhla Phase III, New Delhi - 110020, India Tel +91 11 42346678 Fax +91 11 42346679 #509, 5th Floor, ‘B’ wing, Mittal Towers, MG Road, Bangalore -560001, India Tel +91 080 66110116 Unit No:20,Third floor, Modern Towers, 35/23 West Cott Road, Royapettah, Chennai - 600014, India Tel +91 44 39149889/90/91 Fax +91 44 39149892 305, 3rd Floor, AEON Complex Near Angira Society, Vijay Cross Roads Navrangpura, Ahmedabad - 380014, India Views and opinions expressed in the magazine are not necessarily those of Next Gen Publishing Ltd. Next Gen Publishing does not take responsibility for returning unsolicited manuscripts, photographs or other material. All material published in Auto Components India is copyright and no part of the magazine may be reproduced in part or full without the express prior written permission of the publisher Printed by Marzban Jasoomani Next Gen Publishing Ltd., Trade World, C-Wing, 2nd Floor, Kamala Mills Compound, Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel(W), Mumbai 400013. Published by Marzban Jasoomani on behalf of Next Gen Publishing Ltd., Trade World, C-Wing, 2nd Floor, Kamala Mills Compound, Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel(W), Mumbai 400013. Printed at M/s. Cirrus Graphics Pvt Ltd, B 62/14, Phase II, Naraina Industrial Area, New Delhi 110 028. Published at Next Gen Publishing Ltd., Trade World, C-Wing, 2nd Floor, Kamala Mills Compound, Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel (W), Mumbai 400013.

All readers are recommended to make their own independent enquiries before sending money, incurring expenses or entering into commitments in relation to any advertisement appearing in the publication. Auto Components India does not vouch for any claims made by advertisers for their products and services. The editor, publisher, printer and employees of the publication shall not be held liable for any consequence in the events of such claims not being honoured by the advertisers. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and forums in PUBLISHING Mumbai only.

Editor T.Murrali

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CORPORATE

Sona Koyo goes off-highway to stay on track Story & Photography: J Srikant

“We are going to focus on the Indian farm equipment market in the future,” says Sunjay Kapur, managing director, Sona Koyo Steering Systems.

The only thing that is doing well today is the rural sector. “So we see some kind of growth there,” he adds.

The year 2013 experienced timely

è Training session in progress

The company focuses on containing manufacturing cost to build a more efficient business

è

Sona Koyo Steering Systems, India’s leading steering manufacturer is following the ‘look elsewhere’ policy to beat the slowdown blues.

The company, which gets most of its business from the passenger car segment, is now shifting focus towards the agricultural sector.

While the passenger car segment has put out its worst performance in over a decade, the agri business has managed to evade a direct blow from the slowing economy.

and good monsoons, which translated into higher production and better farmer sentiments. This led to a growth of over 20 percent in the tractor segment. This market, three years ago, was on a downtrend.

Now it is growing steadily and is expected to grow for another five to

seven years. Finding better traction in the agri equipment segment is one of the many steps Sona Koyo has taken to ensure that the impact of a bad year is minimal. Kapur explained that it was during the downturn that one gets opportunities to do a lot of training and optimisation.

The company began as Sona Steering in 1987, a time when Maruti had just started manufacture. It had a technical collaboration with a company called Koyo Seiko which is now the JTEKT. Primarily in the passenger car steering business, it is also present in the small commercial vehicle segment. As the technology shifted from hydraulic power steering to column-type electronic power steering, Sona Koyo set up subsidiaries to gain expertise in these technologies. Sona holds 49 percent in JTEKT Sona Automotive India (JSAI) whereas JTEKT holds 51 percent. The company supplies Colum-type Electric Power Steering (C-EPS) to Toyota, Nissan and MSIL and other car makers. Sona Koya

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CORPORATE IN CONVERSATION Sunjay Kapur Revenue break up

15%

85%

Sales come from the passenger vehicle segment -

Q: Can you tell us about your plans to relocate manufacturing facilities? Also, what are the key aspects that you are looking at to improve efficiency and optimisation?

We are relocating to a place called Daruhera because in Gurgaon we cannot relay the lines to make them more efficient. Coming to the key aspects, I would say fishbone layout is one which gives us much more flexibility when it comes to manufacturing. It helps us bring down our cycle time. This means we can increase capacity without any extra cost. Then clubbing all the products together at one place and not having lines in different plants, which is the way we expanded.

Q: What about optimising manpower resources and the human-machine interface?

We do a lot of Kaizen. Kaizen really means incremental changes. We have got group Kaizen activities. Here, every employee of the organisation gets trained to understand what Kaizens are. Through that change, there is a fair amount of automation and improvements that we see. For example, over a period of time we have been able to build our own machines because through Kaizen activities we realised that there is a lot of involvement of the workforce.

Another thing we do is machine cleaning. Every manager is assigned a machine and one day every week the person has to clean the machine.

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It gives interaction with the workers and interaction with the machines.

Sales from non-passenger segment (including the off-highway vehicle

Q: What would you advice an auto component industry to do to see through this slowdown?

First thing we should do is use this time to build a better business and everybody is doing that.

Build production efficiencies, kill the fat. When I say kill the fat, one should get rid of processes and practices that are adding to your cost. If you look at travel, we have really come down to zero budgets; one person travels as opposed to three people, and that too only when it is extremely necessary. This is where I would rather cut cost rather than getting rid of people.

Q: What have been your learnings from the Deming Award that you won?

It took us five years to get to Deming. It is a five-year process where you really improve your quality systems. It is management as a science.

We were the first steering manufacturer in the world to get the Deming Award. And we got it 10 years ago. We had to create a mindset which was quality oriented. Between 2009 and this downturn, productivity had increased tenfold.

Because of that production pressure it was easy to lose focus on quality. But the quality system and quality drive is very strong in our company and that is something that Deming has really taught us.

segment) -

Sona Koyo starts Skill development Institute in Gurgaon Sona Koyo Steering system is focusing on skill development and has extended its skill building capability by setting up a new training center at its Gurgaon plant. This is in addition to the training programme running at Nagina, Mewat district.

Sunjay Kapur, Managing Director, Sona Koyo Steering Systems says the new institute is part of their CSR with close to 80 percent of students being absorbed by industry. By engaging professionals from industry the institute is expected to fill up the gap between industry requirement and training courseware. There is a lack of congruence between industry needs and the programmes set up by academia but this will be corrected now so that the right type of skills are imparted to students.

The institute is expected to train over 4,000 students and nearly 1,000 employees of Sona Koyo over the course period of three years. It will also offer courses of monthlong duration.

MARCH 2014 AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA 9

CORPORATE Steering on the other hand supplies C-EPS to Mahindra and Tata Motors.

Sona is also part of another company called Sona Fuji Automotive Limited with Fuji Kiko (a part of the JTEKT group). Sona here owns 51 percent whereas Fuji Kiko controls the rest. The company has now also diversified into pressure die-casting and sheet metals, which started as a captive division but is now looking towards expansion.

While the overall industry has been slackening, Sona Koyo has performed well. In the Q2 results in FY13-14, the company reported a Rs 12.62 crore profit, up from Rs 6.94 in the same period the year before. Even its stocks have performed consistently ever since. The company has also been able to save on material cost, which is its largest cost, through localisation programme. The focus is also on bringing down the manufacturing cost so as to build a more efficient business.

The company will also re-locate most of its operations from Gurgaon to a place called Daruhera which is just 35 km from the current location. It is also moving some equipment to Sanand and Chennai. This is primarily for manufacturing optimisation since a lot of processes have changed and become more sophisticated.

2013 experienced timely and good monsoons, which translated into higher production and better farmer sentiments.

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è The company has also been able to save on material cost through localisation programme

The company’s pursuit of garnering market share in the off-highway segment is bolstered by its much acclaimed Electronic Power Assist Module (EPAM), a patented technology. Sona Koyo has already made an announcement about investments into EPAM and farm equipment to the tune of Rs 50 crore.

John Deere, a Fortune 500 company known for manufacturing farm equipment, is one of the clients of this technology.

Kapur added that the company is banking on EPAM to widen its export base as it is pre-dominantly for the export market. As far as the EPAM product is concerned, they are focusing on the United States. He also said that he is open to acquisitions, collaborations and other avenues for growing the export base, without giving any specific details.

The company has exited from its venture with Fuji Autotech, Europe which had given it a presence in Eastern Europe and South America.

This was because it was only a minority investment made earlier to create an export market for their components. Since they felt they had achieved what they wanted to get out of the partnership they pulled out just a few months ago.

In fact, with growth likely to make a comeback in the US, most auto component manufacturers are eyeing that market to compensate for the falling domestic market.

The companies exporting to the US have done very well in the current year and this is an area that most other companies would be looking at. Sona Koyo has 10 percent of its revenue coming in from direct exports over and above indirect exports through OEMs. ACI WWW.AUTOCOMPONENTSINDIA.COM

CORPORATE

Fiem Industries: spreading lights wider Italy in concurrence with Fiem Industries Japan KK and make the relevant tooling at the India plant in Rai, Sonepat, near Delhi. Additionally, Fiem Industries has seven manufacturing facilities; three in Hosur, Tamil Nadu and one each in Kundli, Haryana, Mysore, Karnataka, Nalagarh, Himachal Pradesh and Tapukara, Rajasthan.

the photometry results.

Automotive lighting company Fiem Industries is planning to expand its R&D centre - Centro Ricerche Fiem Horustech S.r.l. (CRFH) that was recently set up in Italy.

CRFH is 50:50 joint venture with Horustech S.r.l., Italy and the objective is to support the existing customers of automotive lamps and LED Luminarie, a division of Fiem Industries catering to domestic and industrial lighting. The JV Company has 15 designers now and hopes to double the headcount this year.

As the company wanted to graduate from a ‘print-to-part’ to ‘concept-to-part’ solution provider, Fiem Industries will invest Rs 100 crore in the tool room. “The tool room will help us provide customers end-to-end solutions without custom duties, and faster deliveries as well. We aim to develop designs and the required tooling, and supply the part to the customers in about three months flat. This exercise will benefit customers by reducing new product development by 50 percent and cost by 30 percent,” Jain said.

In an exclusive interview to Auto Components India, J K Jain, chairman and managing director, Fiem Industries, said the company will establish a full-fledged laboratory at CRFH next quarter. The lab will validate the design developed by CRFH and match it with

In 2005 the company established a wholly owned subsidiary - Fiem Industries Japan KK for design and development.

The India centre will coordinate with its counterparts in Japan and Italy to support customers’ demands. The strategy is to design all the lamps and luminaries in

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AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA MARCH 2014

Plastic Moulding facility at Fiem Industries

è

Story : T Murrali

As part of its expansion programme, the company is looking for joint ventures to expand its product range like locks, wiper and batteries. Jain indicates they are considering acquisition of European companies, in the current year itself, that supply to four-wheeler OEMs in Europe or Japan. Fiem makes headlamps, tail lamps, blinker lamps, inside and outside rear view mirrors, and plastic parts like cowl, pulley cover, belt guard and mud flaps.

Also, it makes sheet metal components lighting and signaling equipment. It caters to two wheelers, four wheelers, tractors, commercial vehicles and the aftermarket. Its clientele includes Ashok Leyland-Nissan, DICV, Eicher, Force Motors, GM India, Hero, HMSI, JCB, Maruti, Mahindra, Suzuki, Tata Motors, TVS Motors, Volkswagen and Yamaha India. Exports are to Kubota, Sparex, Honda, Piaggio, Zadi, Suzuki and TVS Anda Inspirasinya.

The company has lately commenced headlamp supplies to Harley Davidson, India, which is also exported to other manufacturing locations of the OEM. For Honda, it is supplying almost all the lamps for its new global two-wheeler. It exports to 11 worldwide destinations including Japan, Korea and Thailand.

Fiem supplies LED tail lamps and blinkers to almost all two wheeler OEMs except WWW.AUTOCOMPONENTSINDIA.COM

CORPORATE Motor India. The company offers warning triangles to almost all the OEMs, supplies LED displays to Tata Marcopolo, and is developing tail lamps for Ashok LeylandNissan Dost.

Globally, OEMs are working with lighting system manufacturers to introduce LED headlamps in two-wheelers by 2015 or 2016. In three years costs for twowheeler LED headlamps has dropped to Rs 2,500 from Rs 6,000; however, it has to compete with conventional lighting that is about one sixth the present cost.

A few LED bulb manufacturers including Philips and Osram are working to meet this requirement. Sharma affirms the LED headlamp prototypes have been successfully tested and FIEM is talking to a few vehicle manufacturers for commercialisation. At present LEDs are confined to the position lamps supplied to TVS Motor and Mahindra for two wheelers.

Sharma continued that optimising optics and dissipation of heat are two issues in developing LED lamps. Three mockup samples have passed the homologation requirements, he said. Earlier, two bulbs with one watt each were deployed for high and low beams. The company’s research has enabled it to use only one bulb of one watt coupled with a motorised tilting shield, which facilitates to control symmetrical beams adhering to high and low beams. Currently it is supplying license plate LED lamps to Honda Cars and trunk lamps to Hyundai

Rahul Jain, director and J K Jain, CMD - Fiem Industries

è

HMSI. Rajesh Sharma, executive director (marketing & development), Fiem Industries, said the company recently commenced supplies for one model of HMSI and hopes to expand supplies of tail lamps for all models soon.

In order to enhance quality the company is installing a robot to inspect every printed circuit board of the LED lamp’s driver unit. In addition, it will select the bulbs based on the required view angle (between 120 and 130 degrees), which is key to maintain the level of beams. To be installed in few weeks, the robots will also enable assembly of LEDs based on the inherent angle, eventually optimizing the light output.

In addition to lighting, Fiem Industries is also in to plastic parts and mirrors. This division has two plants in Tapukara to make ABS and PP plastic parts, supplying to HMSI. Recently it has commenced supplies of few parts including fenders and windscreen to Suzuki Motorcycle

India Limited. The company’s Hosur plant supplies rear fenders, blinkers and number plate lamps to HMSI’s plant in Narasapura, near Bangalore. Fiem Industries has recently received letter of intent from Suzuki in Indonesia. It is also likely to supply to Yamaha in Vietnam and Thailand soon. These will be direct exports, he adds.

Despite auto industry reeling under severe slowdown, Fiem’s presence in varied segments and especially in two wheelers has given a breather now said S Narayanan, Head (commercial & international operations), Fiem Industries. The company’s diversification in to two more segments – LED Luminairies (for indoor and outdoor applications) and LED display and integrated passenger information system (for buses and railways) has begun paying dividends. These two segments will supersede the sales performance of automotive segment soon, he said. ACI

Product Mix percentage 13 Lamps

71

Mirrors

10 Plastic Molded parts

3

Fabrication items Others

3

TOTAL - 100

Turnover in Rs (in crore)

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COVER STORY

Can counterfeit be contained?

Story : T Murrali Technological advancement is always welcome as it minimises the efforts of human beings - be it in services or manufacturing. While innovation, in the field of application engineering and rapid prototyping, helps in faster product development, it has simultaneously fortified the parallel economy by way of fake parts manufacture. Rapid prototyping aids copycats in making spurious parts faster, even before genuine parts arrive in the replacement market.

Counterfeits affect of all industry segments. Off late it has become the most resonating aspect confounding the automotive industry. The primary need today is for technical and legal knowledge to enforce Intellectual Property Rights.

Counterfeiting, the business of fabricating fake auto parts became a visible threat to automotive aftermarket way back in the 1980s.

High consumable parts like diesel filters, piston rings, clutch plate assemblies, lighting systems, shock absorbers, spark plugs, alternators, starter motors and fuel pumps are most vulnerable to counterfeiting.

Attraction Various factors that fuel counterfeiting include ease of manufacturing, packaging, higher margins, easier imports, supply constraints of original parts manufacturers and shortcomings of existing legislation.

Industry sources say the fake parts 16

AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA MARCH 2014

market is anywhere between Rs 5,500 crore to Rs 7,500 crore, constituting more than 40 percent of the total component aftermarket. Sanjeev Singh, director (Aftermarket India), Federal-Mogul Corporation, estimates that more than 50 percent of spare parts sold in the retail market are spurious.

in minimising brand infringement and dilution besides, conducting raids to confiscate spurious parts. Sanjeev Singh opines that while the spurious parts bound to impact revenue, sales and overall brand image of manufacturers, the end consumers suffer from problems of product quality, longevity and safety.

The White Paper by ACMA and Ernst and Young, on improving legislation to combat auto counterfeiting, estimates job loss due to fakes as 1.15 million. This also results in end-users paying for an additional 109 million liters of petrol and 8 million liters of diesel per annum.

Few component manufacturers are concerned that some OEMs restrict them from selling in the aftermarkets.

To this, Harish Lakshman, president, ACMA said, “vehicle manufacturers should not restrict component manufacturers especially where the technology belongs to the vendors.

In the EU it is not allowed by law because it is anti-competitive while in India there is no such thing.”

While agreeing that this leads to flooding the market with spurious parts, Lakshman said OEMs are trying increase the reach and sell parts through their own distribution network. Ultimately, it is all about access to markets and the profits that can be generated.

Higher margin is the primary reason for expanding counterfeits said Col K G Ramani, founder director, C3i, an investigative agency specialising

Allowing component makers to sell products, based on vehicle manufacturer’s technology, in retail markets for additional royalty payment, will keep counterfeiters at bay.

è Amarjit Singh, secretary, Indian chapter of International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI) and vice chairman - Global Anti-Counterfeiting Group.

COVER STORY

Allowing component makers to sell products (made as per vehicle manufacturers’ technology) in the retail market for an additional royalty payment will ensure the interests of both parties are contractually protected while keeping counterfeiters at bay. This will also help end-customers get genuine parts, averred Amarjit Singh, who is also the secretary general of AntiCounterfeiting Group of India (ACGI), which is part of the Global AntiCounterfeiting Network (GACN). ACGI is in to proposing law reforms, sharing best practices in different countries, training of customs, police and public prosecutors, interacting with law makers on legislative skills and different kinds of laws. GACN observes 8 June as world anti-counterfeiting day.

leader, Deloitte India, says OEMs invest substantial time and money to develop a part or a system so it is not feasible for them to sell it to someone who has not been a part of the investment. “Companies are far more aware that if holding on to the IP ceases to be of competitive advantage, they do let go of the IP. It is a problem for legitimate manufacturers as there is a loss of revenue. There are plenty of uninformed customers who buy products from grey market ultimately affecting the brand image of the OEMs,” he said.

Why Counterfeits?

Lack of strict laws and the absence of stringent punishment encourage counterfeiters who usually leverage the demand for low technology and high consumption products. That is why companies like Cummins and Meritor have largely remained unaffected. Cummins supplies engines to mining, railways and power generation where the Mean Time before Failure (MTBF) and Maximum Time before Restoration (MTBR) are vital parameters. “The customers’ low tolerance for downtime makes them reach out to OEMs for spare parts,” said Vipul Tandon, vice president,

è Col K G Ramani, founder director, C3i

Cummins Sales & Service-India. High technology genuine replacement parts that enhance performance and strategy, like NanoNet fuel filters, restrain customers from buying fakes.

However, for low value spares the company has seen significant increase in spurious parts from China. This can be curbed by OEMs educating customers on quality maintenance and assisting authorities on enforcement.

è

The huge price difference between OEM spares and counterfeits draws customers to the latter. “Vehicle manufacturers to some extent contribute to the growing counterfeit menace,” says Amarjit Singh, secretary, Indian chapter of International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI) and vice chairman – Global AntiCounterfeiting Group. Apprehensive of losing lucrative revenue, they restrict vendors from selling in the retail market through contractual agreements. “Mostly the price of the counterfeit product is almost equal to the price that vendors supply parts to vehicle makers.” If the price was kept marginally higher the end-customers would settle for genuine parts, he opined.

Synchrocones-Original and Fake

There is no dearth for law as India has the Contract Act, Sale of Goods Act, Essential Commodities Act, Consumer Protection Act, Standards of Weights & Measures Act, Patents Act, Copyrights Act, Trade Marks Act and the Designs Act. What action can be taken with the prevailing laws when the

Brand custodians are partly responsible for counterfeits, by not taking proper action when required, opined Col Ramani. Countering this argument, Kumar Kandaswamy, country manufacturing industry MARCH 2014 AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA 17

COVER STORY Loyalty programmes for mechanics fail since the difference between the incentives provided by OE part makers and the profitability out of fake parts is unavoidably huge. means of enforcement is the one that actually stands in the way for effective prevention of malignancy?

According to Amarjit Singh, Consumer Protection Act will come in handy if the end user is affected by spurious parts. The Act deals in issues relating to protection, enforcement, mediation and arbitration with reference to IP. ‘Parts’ are classified as those not visible in a vehicle but functional and these are either subject matter of patents or in public domain. Those that are visible or decorative are classified as ‘fittings,’ protected by the Designs Act. Trade Mark Act protects the name or the identity while Copyright is on the parts that are impossible to make without technical drawings or blueprint.

Ramani says the Designs Act is weak; the maximum punishment is a fine of about Rs 2,000. The 2005 amendment diluted the Trade Marks Act. There is a clash between the two acts as it exists in India and other countries.

Elsewhere, unlike in India, it is sufficient if companies register under Trade Marks Act, as the Copyright is inherently registered. In India, most 18

AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA MARCH 2014

etc” says G N Balasubramaniam, head-aftermarket, India Nippon Electricals Limited. Recently C3i seized fake spark plugs worth Rs 80 lakh in Delhi. Even crankshafts, camshafts and common rail direct injection systems are manufactured by counterfeiters now. To prevent this several companies including INEL have initiated use of holographic stickers on cartons, besides ensuring timely supplies. According to Ramani, ‘loyalty programme’ for mechanics has failed as the difference between the incentives provided by the OE part maker and the profitability out of fake parts is unavoidably huge.

MNCs and local companies have not registered their logo under Copyright Act while registered under Trade Marks Act, which is sheer cussedness on their part says Ramani.

The earlier law allowed a subinspector to conduct raids, confiscate material and arrest the shop owner.

The amended law gives this power to an Assistant Commissioner of Police in the cities, and Deputy Superintendent of Police in the districts. These officials are not trained to identify fakes and are busy with other responsibilities so no action is taken. The law, however, allows them to refer cases back to Trade Marks authorities. So, Ramani says, counterfeiting can be contained but never eliminated. Kandaswamy informs there are no laws specific to automobile sector in India, most Acts are widespread.

“We have conducted more than 10 raids in the last three years in south state capitals. We raided two retail shops (Vikas Auto Centre and Jain Auto Centre) in Bangalore in 2011 and the owners were arrested for selling INEL duplicate parts like CDI

è Sanjeev Singh, Director, Aftermarket, India, Federal-Mogul Corporation, Vehicle Components Segment

COVER STORY Ramani says counterfeit automotive parts, unlike drugs and cosmetics, are not life threatening and do not come under cognizable and nonbailable offences. Amarjit Singh responds that under the Trade and Merchandise Mark Act 1958 the act of falsification and counterfeiting was not cognizable and bailable but under Trade Marks Act 1999 and Copyright Act the offences of counterfeiting are cognizable. Patents and Designs Act do not have any criminal liability.

anti-counterfeit barcode that features online authentication. A unique identification number is assigned to each stock keeping unit in the market, and buyers can check product credibility by scanning the 16-digit bar code at any authorised distributor location. è Vipul Tandon - vice president - Cummins Sales & Service - India

The department tracks revenue loss on imported parts if underinvoiced, which is the usual practice of counterfeiters. Brand custodians must involve in this process otherwise dilution will certainly take place.

It is difficult to connect accidents with spurious parts. However, the White Paper, based on primary research, estimates that around 20 percent of total road accidents in India can be directly or indirectly attributed to counterfeit automotive parts. This resulted in 25,400 deaths and more than 93,000 injuries during 2009.

It is untrue to state that India is the only victim market for counterfeits since companies in many countries are involved in this business.

Counterfeits from India get exported to several other markets including South Africa, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. While low-end products are manufactured in India the high technology ones are imported mainly from China where suppliers use the internet to advertise their products using OEM part numbers. Anonymity is synchronous with online trading as sites display only email addresses and mobile numbers, so tracing cheaters will always be a problem.

The Solution Well, what are the options available for those affected by counterfeits?

Ramani insists that customers ignore low costs and buy only original parts with proper invoice. Consumers do away with bills to avoid paying sales tax and other surcharges.

Many companies are unaware that illegal imports can be prevented by registering their IP with Customs.

Sanjeev Singh feels counterfeiting needs to be tackled by industry bodies, manufacturers and other relevant stakeholders. Federal-Mogul has specially designed tamper-proof product packaging for the twowheeler segment with an exclusive

According to P Raghavendra Rao, director-marketing, Kusalava International, counterfeiters copy their packaging of parts meant for older vehicles. This is more in the price sensitive tractors and power tiller segments. As the company is registered its brand, design and packing under the Trade Marks Act, it send legal notices, with high compensation due, to spurious suppliers. Selecting knowledgeable distributors and dealers in the supply chain, generating frequent market reports, conducting surprise raids, creating awareness and maintaining adequate stocks can contain counterfeits, he opined.

Balasubramaniam feels that stringent laws should be put in place as offenders now are released within a day or two. INEL, a leader in auto electrical systems, loses about Rs three crore yearly because of counterfeits in their two-wheeler ignition and power management products like control units CDI, regulator and rectifier units, ignition coils etc.

è Fake clutch plates

Kandaswamy believes that controlling counterfeiting has certainly improved over the years as many companies are offering extended warranties for parts. Since the warranty becomes void if violated, more people are going to legitimate outlets for genuine spares. To effectively combat counterfeits it is necessary to orchestrate consented efforts to include all stake holders and make it an ongoing exercise rather than an occasional event. ACI MARCH 2014 AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA 19

Q&A

There are opportunities in crisis: Harish Lakshman, President ACMA The current slowdown is the longest in the recent history of Indian auto industry with almost all the segments going down. This is certainly a cause of concern.

Harish Lakshman tells T Murrali that though no green shoots are visible in the economy, there seems to be some for the auto component industry.

Edited excerpts: Q: What do you have to say on the current slowdown? Do you see opportunities in this crisis?

HL: We are yet to see the light at the end of the tunnel; it will take some more time before the market picks up. A crisis always presents a company with an opportunity to introspect, to find avenues to save costs.

At Rane, for example, we had always felt that fixed cost is fixed but it was only in the downturn that we found the same could be broken into two categories - discretionary and non-discretionary. There are many things in discretionary costs, which when controlled can end up in savings. Secondly, it gives options to look out for avenues of growth, like exports to both OEMs and aftermarkets.

Generally, in the last 10 to 15 years most auto component manufacturers have focused on the OEM who has grown tremendously.

About 15 years ago 80 percent of exports were to the aftermarkets and rest to the OEMs; today it is reversed. There is a clear revival in the aftermarket with the US estimated at $450 billion where India’s participation is very low compared to China’s and others. Therefore, we have to look at new markets, new segments, and new geographies. There are companies that have achieved this in the last one year, going into non-traditional markets.

Q: While there is a commitment taken by the OEMs from every supplier on the cost reduction roadmap, it is not reflected in the price revision to match increasing raw 20

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material prices? As ACMA Chief, what do you have to say on this issue? How can the industry mitigate eroding profits?

HL: It’s a challenge because of complexities and is difficult to generalise since vehicle manufacturers follow different policies. Most multinationals have very rigid contracts and once the supplier signs it, they identify the risks the supplier has to bear. Take

We have very good engineering capabilities in the country, in many ways low cost too. for example, the fluctuation in the dollar price. Some vehicle manufacturers allow for forex adjustments. Then certain raw materials including steel, iron, copper, nickel or aluminium commoditised and linked together. Many manufacturers have these kinds of contracts which are transparent, though not necessarily fair, but with annual built-in price reductions. However, the problem arises when it comes to volumes.

Very few vehicle manufacturers link it to volume. There are definitely give and take between the manufacturers and the suppliers.

Q: Is there a way for ACMA to formalise a template for the vendors to get their due in volatile conditions?

HL: I don’t think it will be possible for ACMA to do it. The new Competition Act restricts industry associations from anything that is anti-competitive to the end customer. Also it is very difficult to have one standard formula that will work across all vehicle manufacturers.

The only thing that ACMA can do is to wear the flag of the industry and inform it of the difficult times, price escalation, forex besides, creating general awareness.

Q: Encouraging R&D seems to be confined only with forums; how can this benefit in the long run?

HL: You are right; if you actually get into the nitty-gritty of it, there isn’t much happening in R&D and innovation. We lived in a closed market till 1990 and nothing much was happening as there was no demand. There was pressure to be competitive and to bring in more technologies when the markets suddenly opened up. Also, multinationals have come in with amazing technologies against whom we have to compete, though there was no fundamental engineering done in India. According to SIAM only ten percent of the vehicles are designed in India and that too commercial vehicles.

Q: Then how can multinational companies rely on Indian component manufacturers?

HL:Ultimately, it is the market. After 2020 or 2025, according to all OEMs’ forecasts, India will be the third largest market after China and America. Because of the sheer size a WWW.AUTOCOMPONENTSINDIA.COM

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MARCH 2014 AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA 21

Q&A lot more value in terms of engineering and manufacturing could be added. We have very good engineering capability in the country, in many ways low cost too.

Q: Is the relationship between OEMs and vendors transactional or is the collaborative approach opening up?

HL: It’s definitely going to be more collaborative.

Difficult to generalise because some tend to be transactional especially in difficult times when everybody is trying to save their bottom lines but I would say it’s more collaborative. The western OEMs have found that transactional relationship does not really work.

Q: Is there a stimulus or support from the government to the vendor industry that will help it grow?

HL: We are working with SIAM for stimulus to the auto industry. Whatever SIAM is asking for will directly help us. We have also been asking the government for a few things. One is export benefits, since we are not exporting enough.

The government introduced two schemes in the last two years - market product focus linked scheme and the product linked scheme. These are good initiatives due to export benefits and it depends on the country exported to and the products exported. The value could be anywhere between one to four percent, but not all products and markets are covered.

ACMA has been successful in adding more products and more countries.

Another major area we are working on is the technology accreditation fund on the similar lines that the textile industry was given. Third is in the area of taxation; there are some rules that are unfair and bureaucratic. The government must step in and amend certain rules including depreciation for capital goods. Also, VAT and GST will stabilise prices across the country and put a stop to all the bad practices in the industry.

Q: To what extent the Indian component industry is affected by FTAs? HL: FTA is again a controversial subject and the key is how well we negotiate our position.

Specifically commenting on Japan and Thailand the auto-component industry has had a negative impact. It has allowed more imports 22

AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA MARCH 2014

of auto-components. At the same time we have not been able to utilise the vehicle exports to these countries vis-a-vis our components.

Brazil is still under way and the EU is going on. We have signed with ASEAN. There is also Regional Cooperative Economic Agreement that includes ASEAN, China and Korea. It is a regional agreement at large scale, however, it will take time. The target is 2016 to reach an understanding. This is a major initiative when the Indian government is involved and we are working to ensure our interests are protected especially because of China with whom we have refused to sign a FTA. Q: Is FTA a necessary evil? Are there possibilities to look at it positively, build upon the strengths and utilise it as an opportunity?

HL: Yes, definitely. When EU, Japan or Korea sign FTA the companies in the respective countries immensely involve in drafting the agreements. For example, Toyota is fully

Export is a good opportunity. If the rupee maintains the 58-62 bandwidth to a dollar, the Indian component manufacturers can definitely be competitive.

involved in drafting the Japanese FTA and Hyundai with Korea’s. They make sure their business interests are protected. Similarly, today we have associations like SIAM and ACMA working better with the government to take care of our welfare.

Q: Why are we not contemplating on establishing FTA with countries where the strengths could complement each other?

HL: I think Brazil is definitely an interesting market and opportunities there are opening up. The country is looking for local manufacturing operations as it wants investments to come in. That is why it has now increased import duties on auto-components significantly. Though it has been done within the WTO framework, it is a step back from the free trade standpoint.

Q: Is Brazil a good market for Indian component manufacturers to enter?

HL: Certainly; some companies are exporting but it is necessary to know the customers and quantum of business in order to set up a plant.

In the future, Mexico will be an attractive country for Indian exporters. Today the US is in the top of the list for exports and if the volume of business reaches a certain size then they would like you to manufacture within the country.

Q: What about investing in Turkey, which is a conduit between Asia and Europe?

HL: The importance of setting up plants in Turkey is that customers would have better access; but I don’t think it is equal to Mexico.

For example, in Eastern Europe, Poland and Romania have benefitted much from the EU than from Turkey. TRW, Rane’s partner, has eight plants in Poland with over a billion dollars of sales coming from there.

Q: What about exports as an option to counter slowdown in the domestic market?

HL: Export is a good opportunity. If the rupee maintains the 58-62 bandwidth to a dollar, the Indian component manufacturers can definitely be competitive. Therefore, I expect exports to pick up but keep in mind that the product development lead time for us is WWW.AUTOCOMPONENTSINDIA.COM

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Q&A anything from 15 to 24 months.

Components Exports Q: Can you update on ACMA’s cluster programme?

HL: Cluster programme is one of the most important initiatives of ACMA delivered through ACT (ACMA Centre of Technology).

About 400 plants in India have gone through the cluster programme. It helps companies in their introspection process especially during downturn. We have funds provided

by UNIDO and we will cover SMEs in the auto-component space. We have recently allowed non-ACMA members to also participate in this programme. If they apply for a cluster programme, they automatically become ACMA members, the costs have been reworked so that they don’t have to pay anything significant for the membership.

Q: What is the update on ACMA’s collaborative approach with NSDC? HL: The Automotive Skill Development Council (ASDC) under the National Skill Development Council started off on the right note with small development centres across the country. Even private companies can set up training schools by facilitating through NSDC. The ASDC President is an ACMA member from this year and under his leadership we plan to strengthen the skill development initiatives. Centres have been opened across the country in few places including Bangalore and NCR. Q: Even the machine tool industry is working on these lines since 60 to 70 percent of their customers are from the automotive sector. Is there a possibility for ACMA and the IMTMA to collaborate?

HL: Yes, definitely it’s possible but the two associations have not discussed this so far.

Q: Your comments on people getting into the non-automotive business.

HL: It’s a good initiative. Even in Rane we are looking at non-automotive business but it’s not going to be more than 10 to 15 percent. You must have core competency in your business and you can have nonautomotive up to 20 percent, to take care of the bad years ACI 24

AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA MARCH 2014

20%

20%

80%

80%

15 years ago OEM 20 percent; Aftermarket 80 percent

Present OEM 80 percent and Aftermarket 20 percent

Current value of US aftermarket: USD 450 billion Export Destination (in percent)

Asia 25

Americas 26

South America 4

Australia 1

Europe 35

Africa 9

Imports (in percent)

Europe 32

Asia 59

North America 8 South America 1 WWW.AUTOCOMPONENTSINDIA.COM

Q&A

Couple engineering expertise with market, infrastructure: Don Hillebrand, President, SAE International From being confined to an American, European and Japanese one, the auto industry has transformed itself into a global industry. India has become a launching pad for many global companies. And the century old SAE International, USA, has significantly contributed to this change. During a recent visit to India, Dr Don Hillebrand, spoke to T Murrali on the evolution of the industry and various other issues. Edited excerpts: Q: Can you tell us what is SAE’s contribution to the transformation happening in the automotive world?

DH: Internationally, it is all linked together. USA, Europe and Japan are all changing. Earlier SAE had created affiliated organisations in the countries that were shifting, especially the BRIC countries, implementing new technologies. For example, the Brazilian market is changing really fast; they are designing aircraft and making their own cars. Korea is a major manufacturer - it does not just build cars, instead it innovates. India is slightly behind but it is doing exactly the same thing. As part of my current visit, I had an opportunity to see Ashok Leyland’s research facility. They are designing next generation vehicles and marketing them globally. SAE helps to link these countries together to make sure they enter the world of automotive engineering as equal partners. SAE, 20 years ago, saw to it that they were all linked together. Now that these markets are developing, they are going to grow as large as the US and Europe, producing their own vehicles but it is going to be integrated with other markets as well to become one big, self-sustaining power.

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Q: What is the next step for India, Brazil and Korea?

DH: That’s a good question. SAE’s role is to sustain the communication and mobility between the groups where the international and regional community can benefit from one another. SAE will support the individual engineers, the individual companies and company members to make sure they have the best of what is going on. Ultimately, we hope to develop uniform SAE standards that are globally recognised across the world with interconnected interoperable type systems.

The biggest strengths is that India produces the best engineers in the world.

Q: How do you see the drop in growth in India over the last seven quarters?

DH: Frankly, I am not an expert on India but I think this is only a temporary setback.

We cannot go forward all the time. In the US, we would have been thrilled to have

the kind of growth that you call a slowdown. It is just a natural cycle of business.

India is moving up because there is so much development that is happening.

With the development of people and infrastructure, the increase in wages and wealth, growth is inevitable.

Q: A few global leaders think of India as a hub for frugal engineering and also for small vehicles. What according to you are India’s strengths and weaknesses? How can India build on its strengths, for the future?

DH: One of the biggest strengths is that India produces the best engineers in the world. In the case of Argonne National Laboratory in the US where I work, a large proportion of the engineers are from India.

Previously India exported them to the US because that was the place they would go to, to do exciting work. What is interesting now is that the senior people that I have met have all spent 20 years in the US and now they have come home. This is the biggest strength.

Coming to weaknesses, the infrastructure is the biggest disadvantage and there are WWW.AUTOCOMPONENTSINDIA.COM

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MARCH 2014 AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA 27

Q&A two aspects to that. Firstly, it is poorly put together and secondly, there are layers and layers of rules that keep things from happening. It is not just physical problems but mental, emotional and spiritual ones too. Once these are pushed through, then development will happen the way it has to happen. To build for the future I think it is necessary to use the engineering capabilities coupled with a growing market.

I personally feel that some leaders will have to come up through governmental policies to take care of infrastructure issues and couple engineering expertise to the growing market with proper infrastructure.

Then advances can be made very, very quickly. Weaknesses, I think, are mostly in the mind.

Q: Sustainable mobility is not country specific, it has not been taken up by the emerging economies as expected. Can SAE develop standards that could offset the imbalance between the developed and the emerging nations?

DH: Sustainability is different things to different regions of the world based on how advanced they are and how much infrastructure they have built. Sustainability in Europe is that banana peels are not thrown but recycled. In other places, high value products are disposed off but it is ensured that the high value is not lost like in the case of cardboards, shipping containers etc. So a single standard is hard to do but they could all be linked together to form a common framework to ensure that ultimately they are all going to the same place, in the same direction.

Q: What is the level of participation from India in SAE for developing standards to the world?

DH: Well, I think, of the 18 board members, several of them are from India. The numbers go up and down over the years but the connection is very tight.

Q: SAE through its magazines help component manufacturers exhibit their products and create awareness with the vehicle manufacturers globally. Will 28

AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA MARCH 2014

that continue in India?

DH: We can certainly continue that in India as we have just launched a new magazine.

This is a step forward for doing it.

Q: As an individual, you are in the list of the most influential hundred persons in the industry. What is your view on electric vehicles?

DH: My personal view is that partial electrification is inevitable. The path we take to get there will be slow, slower than what people think. A slow build-up of plug-in hybrids, a lot of battery cars with the required infrastructure built up slowly so that it is less expensive. We are looking at electrification over a 25-year perspective and not short term.

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For EVs, I think, partial electrification is inevitable. The path we take to get there will be slow, slower than what people think.

Q: What are the significant challenges ahead?

DH: One is people’s mindset, learning how to use electric vehicles correctly.

The education component here is very important. The second is the cost related to electrification; it has got to be cheaper.

Government intervention is a must, otherwise things will not move as it should.

Q: What about hybrids?

DH: A mature technology like hybrids will have an effective role in a free society, to drive down costs to make it profitable.

Costs will continue to come down. Power electronics get better by ten percent a year, batteries improve by five percent a year proving that hybrid vehicles are only going to get better, which makes it a really effective technology. ACI

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SHOP FLOOR S O J O U R N

Quality drives at RTSSL drives you safe

Story & Photography: T Murrali ‘Safety first and foremost’ is the mantra that defines the makers of the hydraulic pump and the rack & pinion, the two vital components of the steering architecture that ensure you reach your destination in safety and comfort.

One company that stands out in the production of hydraulic pumps and rack & pinion is Rane TRW Steering Systems Limited (RTSSL), Chennai, whose commitment to the highest standards of quality led them to become one of the leading suppliers to utility and commercial vehicle OMEs. WWW.AUTOCOMPONENTSINDIA.COM

We undertook a short journey to the RTSSL plant to observe the transfiguration of rack & pinion and hydraulic pumps at the company’s flagship facility in Guduvancherry, about 35 km south of Chennai. This facility has two manufacturing value streams – to make hydraulic pumps and rack & pinion gears.

The pump division has 81 suppliers including ten from abroad, primarily sourced from Korea and Japan. The rack & pinion division has 82 suppliers including 27 mainly from Europe with most of whom TRW, it partner, has an ongoing partnership.

While driving, when you twirl the steering wheel, does your vehicle take the turn smooth and efficiently without any discomfort? If the answer is yes, then it is due to the efforts exerted by steering system manufacturers, who are aptly supported by the one who makes the rack & pinions as well as hydraulic pumps.

MARCH 2014 AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA 29

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AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA MARCH 2014

Product Development

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Production and Despatch

Hydraulic Pump The key elements of the hydraulic pump include the housing, shaft and internal parts like the cam, rotor and blades. All these parts are machined to accuracy levels of less than five microns. It has two dedicated lines for housing - ferrous (for CVs) and aluminum (for passenger cars). Interestingly, cams of various sizes are machined in a single machine. Similarly, rotors of different sizes are machined in one piece of equipment, which has helped the company optimise its manufacturing efficiency.

The assembly section has four different streams, one each for CVs and passenger cars and the rest for utility vehicles, owing to the sheer volumes WWW.AUTOCOMPONENTSINDIA.COM

on hand. These are flexible lines with each one making up to six different models. Interestingly, the changeover time between models is minimised to less than 10 minutes due to its special fixtures, multiple sensors and supporting poke yokes.

Irrespective of the extent of customisation across the myriad variants calling for innumerable specialised parts, work proceeds smoothly due to the kits system backed by systematic planning. Each pallet has the required parts to make the number of units scheduled by the OEMs and – the ‘first in, first out,’ concept helps maintain consumption and replenishment sequentially.

MARCH 2014 AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA 31

SHOP FLOOR S O J O U R N ProEngineer help the company in the design and development of new products. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) assesses the kinetics of fluid while CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) supports in evaluating the dynamics of the hydraulic fluid by simulating the flow of medium in the pump.

Controlling noise is a huge challenge for present-day manufacturers since modern vehicles are much more quieter than what it used to be earlier.

è

Power rack & pinion As the name indicates, the housing and rack are machined in this shop and later sent to the production line.

The bought out parts like the rack tube, bellows, and inner and outer ball joint assembly reach the line from the stores after a thorough quality check.

The assembly line is fully automated with physical operations confined to loading and unloading of parts. The line has more than 1,000 poke yokes to ensure that non-conforming products do not move to the subsequent station for further value addition. Servo motors are deployed for these kinds of precision operations while the load cells help in continuous monitoring

32

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P V Gopalakrishnan, vice president-Operations (fifth from right) with his team.

of the flow line. Totally, there are ten assembly lines in U-formation to make 30 variants of the rack & pinion.

Leak test In the next stage, seals and components are thoroughly checked for leaks. High/ low pressure testing as also vacuum tests augments these processes. The error proof technique deployed here is in the machine itself that generates the serial number. It will not release a number and the related bar code if a particular part does not meet the minimum requirements of the performance test.

Design and development Several types of software including

The company also undertakes different types of stress /fatigue analyses with detailed mathematical simulation of functional characteristics. These initiatives have helped contain the number of prototypes significantly. At present only one or two prototypes are made in which several parameters are assessed enabling corrective actions to be taken when required. Minimum iterations in developing a new product and the respective prototypes help RTSSL to contain new product development time by up to 30 percent.

Currently, 75 models are in production at RTSSL with 39 for rack & pinion with pumps accounting for the rest. It caters to Ford, Tata Motors, Renault (Duster and Dacia), Mahindra, Force Motors, Ashok Leyland, Ashok Leyland-Nissan and Daimler. The plant makes 50,000 pumps a month and 70,000 rack & pinion sets. The present capacity utilisation is down to about 50 percent. Due to the slowdown it works only for two shifts now.

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In conversation: G Parthipan, President, RTSSL

best practices across the company and its products.

What is your current PPM level for the pump and rack & pinion? How do you plan to contain it further?

On an average, we maintain less than 70 PPM in the power rack & pinion while it is around 80 PPM for pumps. Customers express issues on noise as the cabin is becoming much quieter now. This is in spite of individual products, in our case the rack & pinion and the pump, meeting customer specifications.

We discount these issues classifying them as ‘No Trouble Found (NTF)’ cases. However, we have begun accounting NTF too since the last two years as it helps to improve quality further.

Tell us about the initiatives taken at the shop floor and the benefits accrued?

Improving robustness of manufacturing processes is a priority since adherence to parameters will improve quality. Customer complaints have been given the highest priority.

Sensitivity within the organisation has significantly increased. Even the smallest concern is taken seriously by even the operators and discussed at shop floor meetings to resolve it.

Secondly, it helps in implementing the 34

AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA MARCH 2014

How are you managing the current slowdown while optimising a robust manufacturing process?

We go the whole hog on every day output, and reduce the number of working days as it helps in optimising the fixed costs. Besides, we reduced the shifts to two. These steps will help us

become a leaner organisation.

What is your mantra to optimise slowdown and the peak demand conditions – by resorting to automation or banking on people?

Difficult to say which one is the right recipe. Our philosophy has been to adapt low-cost automation since it has to gel well with men and machines.

However, from the quality perspective, we do not mind going high on automation.

Can you tell us about the new programmes that you are working on?

Being a dominant player in the CV space holding more than 50 percent market share, we continue working with almost all our customers for their new programmes in LCV, ICV and MHCVs. Ditto with passenger cars for the hydraulic power steering segment. For instance, we are working with Renault on a high volume programme and with Isuzu.

We are working with our partner TRW to enter Russia.

Can you tell us about your sales performance and share of exports?

Currently, 23 percent of the total sales come from exports. Our turnover last year was Rs 558 crores, and this year it may drop by five to seven percent. ACI WWW.AUTOCOMPONENTSINDIA.COM

SPECIAL REPORT

RSB Transmission expands footprint, product portfolio Story : T Murrali The automotive division of the Pune-based RSB Transmissions (I) Limited (RSBTIL) is expanding its product portfolio by foraying into manufacturing new aggregates including the complete gearbox, in addition to castings and forging parts.

The vice chairman and managing director of the company S K Behera said the company is developing a gearbox for Ashok Leyland Nissan - Dost at its I Design Engineering Solutions. “We have commenced supplies to the OEM by importing some units,” he said. RSBTIL will be the second source for Dost. The company is also developing live axles for vehicles up to four tonne GVW. At present, it makes dummy axles and beams for intermediate and MHCVs. Recently it has submitted transmission part samples to Honda Cars for evaluation.

The three-decade expertise acquired

by RSBTIL in design and development of propeller shafts is yielding fruits now. The company is talking to a few customers in Brazil and the US to supply these components. Once finalised, RSBTIL will set up an assembly plant in Brazil and an assembly line at its existing US factory to assemble components shipped out of India. This strategy will help leverage adequate capacities created at its facilities in India while being cost effective to local customers.

RSBTIL has recently commenced forging operations in Cuttack and will start ferrous castings in March.

The company has invested Rs 85 WWW.AUTOCOMPONENTSINDIA.COM

crore in this 2,500 tonne per month capacity greenfield facility. One fourth of casting capacity will be for captive consumption of RSB group while the rest is for exports in fully finished condition. Towards this the company is setting up a machining facility that will make castings up to 20 kg. It plans to make few components including cylinder blocks, for smaller engines (up to three cylinders) and a few housings.

RSBTIL has two divisions: automotive and construction equipment. Under the automotive division it makes propeller shafts, axle beams, transmission parts and front axles. It has three plants in Jamshedpur, two in Orissa, one each in Lucknow, Pantnagar and Pune. The plants of construction equipment division are in Jamshedpur, Dharwad and Chennai. Abroad, it has plants in Belgium, Mexico and in the US. Last November, the automotive division had bagged the Deming Prize.

Practicing TQM for more than five years has helped RSBTIL to improve clarity, and align clearly with its vision and mission. Transparency and uniformity, stronger business planning including the selection of new products, focused investments, benchmarking products, best processes and costing, strictly following the PDCA (Plan, Do, Check and Act) has resulted in improvements in every area of operation. These initiatives have helped in resource maximisation, cost reduction and customer satisfaction, which has ensured that customers think of RSBTIL first for all supplies.

INTERVIEW - S.K. Behera, vice chairman & managing director RSBTIL What are the benefits of getting the Deming Award?

It is on how to align the organisation to achieve goals and objectives. It has taken five years to drive the mission and vision of the company from the top management to the operator level.

The exercise also demarcated the responsibilities of every individual to satisfy not only customers but also every stakeholder including employees and bankers.

How have your customers taken it?

Customers’ own assessment on delivery and quality levels at which they get components or systems from us, have been incorporated in our system. It has helped in identifying and plugging the gaps by getting information from the plants at Jamshedpur, Pantnagar and Pune. Deming highlights our cultural change of delivery to customers in terms of right quality, time, volume and sequence. The award educates the customer of this change, to expect only top class products from us. We have started work on the next stage of Deming.

How has this journey helped in managing the slowdown since you primarily depend up on CVs that witnessed the worst dip?

The CV segment has been down for the last seven quarters. It is a tight situation and we are trying to keep the breakeven point low. The journey has enabled us to continuously prepare ourselves to keep our costs low. ACI

MARCH 2014 AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA 35

FOCUS

Indo MIM adds China to its export list Story : Bhargav TS issue. “We demonstrated our quality and offered more value than the local companies,” he said.

Speaking to Auto Components 36

AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA MARCH 2014

India, the chairman of Indo MIM, Dr Krishna Chivukula said, “We make components through MIM process, which combines the shape-making capabilities of plastic injection molding with the material flexibility of powder metallurgy.” As scope in the domestic market was meagre when the technology was introduced in 1998 the company focused on exports. About 92 percent of the production is exported now. “Bagging orders from China is significant since it is a very big market,” he said. This was possible as it established its marketing office in the country. There are companies making components though MIM process, but quality is an

Machine Injection Moulding process is a boon to auto component industry as it helps in making intricate parts.

è

Bangalore-based Indo MIM, the manufacturer of components through Metal Injection Moulding (MIM) process will soon commence exports to China. The company has been shipping precision-engineered products to more than 45 countries.

Suitable to make critical metal components of complex geometries and three-dimensional asymmetry in large volumes, MIM technology is sought after by the auto industry for intricate parts used in engines, gearboxes, turbochargers, locking mechanisms, steering systems and electronic systems.

Process Flow MIM production process can be classified in to four major steps: compounding, molding, de-binding, and sintering. Fine metal powders of particle size less than 20 microns are homogeneously mixed with the proprietary binders to produce a feedstock, which is then injected under high pressure into an engineered mould cavity to form a specific shape.

As the ‘green part’ that emerges out of the earlier process has binder constituents, it undergoes a debinding process to remove 90 percent of the binders. Later the component passes through vacuum furnace and undergoes thermal process for 22 hours where the remaining binders are extracted. Here the part shrinks by around 20 percent of its original size.

è MIM process brings designers dream in to reality WWW.AUTOCOMPONENTSINDIA.COM

FOCUS è Dr. Krishna Chivukula, chairman, Indo MIM

mechanism, brake parts, ABS, injector nozzles, armatures, housings for fuel systems, turbocharger, hydraulic spools, rocker arm, connectors and heat sinks for electrical systems.

Capable of bringing designers’ dream into reality the process gives the entire contour of the component immediately on production in shorter lead-time. Except for specific applications customers will benefit out of eliminating secondary process or assembly operations. Though this process has a limitation to make up to 80 grams, Indo MIM has developed capabilities to make up to 200 grams, Kabre added.

High-strength steels, stainless steels, refractory metals, titanium and copper alloys are commonly used in MIM to produce a part that typically weighs between 0.5 up to 200 grams.

Currently Indo MIM imports metal powders in particle size less than twenty microns from Germany and stainless steel from the UK and Japan.

Due to this small size of powder, the density of the component increases to 98.5 percent of theoretical desnity so the parts get stronger and can take stress equivalent to wrought material. As a backward integration the company hopes to make metal powders in house due to large consumption.

The company’s plant in Doddaballapur in Bangalore has precision machining and special process shop for non-destructive testing, heat treatment and chemical processes such as painting, surface cleaning and part marking.

Chivukula views Indian market as a difficult one to predict because the business here is politically driven and without continuity in the policies.

“We have to have predictability in policies on tax, investment and foreign exchange policies because we invest for long term,” he stated.

Capacity Expansion Indo MIM has also earmarked a capex of US $30 million in 2014 to expand its two plants in Bangalore, mainly on the core process and tool room. According to the company it holds the largest installed capacity, however, as part of its strategy it creates additional capacities well ahead of the demand.

Of the current market size for MIM products of around $ one billion the company holds 12 percent. The company has been growing at 30 percent CAGR and it hopes to reach register a turnover of Rs 550 crore in the current fiscal against Rs 377 crore last year. It is confident to reach Rs 2,000 crore in the next five years. In India the company serves most of the vehicle manufacture as well as component manufactures including Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, Bajaj Auto, INA Schaeffler, EATON, Bosch and Lucas TVS. ACI

Apart from the various off-the-shelf material solutions for heat, wear, and corrosion resistance, Indo-MIM also relies on its in-house materials laboratory, which is a pioneer in using the MIM process with the material such as T400, XEV, Nimonic 90/60, says Manoj Kabre, vice president – marketing, Indo MIM. These high-temperature-resistant materials are used in turbocharger and fuel injection components. è

Parts produced by Indo MIM are used for sensor housings, seatbelt WWW.AUTOCOMPONENTSINDIA.COM

Remaining binders are extracted in this furnace MARCH 2014 AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA 37

FOCUS

Pricol to supply powertrain components to Renault Nissan Story : Bhargav TS switches, power train products and fleet management solutions.

“Till today we have been supplying oil and water pumps to the twowheelers and commercial vehicles, but now we have made an entry into the four-wheeler segment. We will send the first prototype by middle of this year. Initially we will supply 300,000 units annually to Renault Nissan in Chennai for their entry-level cars.,” said K U Subbaiah, CEO, Pricol.

Off late, OEMs have increasingly queried Pricol on new products that it can develop. From a range of powertrain parts, especially auto fuel cocks, chain tensioners and oil pumps for two-wheelers, the company will develop new generation products in the areas of sensors and switches, telematics, oil and water pumps for commercial vehicles. è

Pricol has been part of the evolution of speedometers - from stanalone instruments to clusters

After catering to two-wheeler and commercial vehicles for more than quarter century, the Coimbatorebased Pricol Limited has clinched a deal from Renault Nissan in India to supply oil and water pumps. This is the first business for the company from the passenger car segment to supply powertrain components.

38

AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA MARCH 2014

è

The 40-year old company has also cast its mid-term plan to setup a manufacturing facility either in Chennai or in a location in Gujarat to support its local and multi-national OEMs. Began its operations by manufacturing rounded instruments including speedometers the

NextGen Pumps It may be recalled that Pricol has established a technical tie-up with German-based component manufacturer IAV in 2011 to make oil and water pumps. The tie-up has come in handy for the company to cater to Renault-Nissan India with the next generation pumps - variable speed oil pumps. The new breed of pump has an advantage of achieving better fuel efficiency by metering the oil depending on the engine RPM.

K U Subbaiah, CEO, Pricol

company now has four streams of products – instrument cluster (driver information system), sensors and

The instrument clusters in passenger vehicles are getting modernised every year. Since Pricol felt that it WWW.AUTOCOMPONENTSINDIA.COM

FOCUS

would be appropriate to partner with some of the global instrument cluster manufacturers, it join hands with the two global companies, Johnson Controls and Denso, adds Subbaiah.

Johnson Controls Pricol (JCP), a 50:50 joint venture between Johnson Controls and Pricol formed in early 2012. While the JV is focussing on instrument clusters, the Body Control Modules (BCM), immobilisers and driver information systems are on the cards. The idea of this JV is to leverage frugal engineering capabilities of Pricol, especially in two-wheeler segment and use engineering capabilities of Johnson Controls. JCP is located at Pricol’s instrument cluster production unit in Pune, from where it caters to Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M), Tata Motors, GM India and Bajaj Auto.

Pricol’s JV with Denso is in to design and manufacturing instrument clusters for passenger vehicles. It is looking for various options to expand its business.

WWW.AUTOCOMPONENTSINDIA.COM

Pricol manufacturers a wide range of oil and water pumps and supplies to a band of customers in 2-wheelers and CVs

Sales Performance (in crores) Financial Year Domestic International

08-09 4,766 1,375

09-10 6,338 1,086

10-11 7,083 1,058

11-12 6,747 1,428

12-13 6,997 1286

Total Sales

6,141

7,424

8,141

8,175

8,283

Pricol currently holds about 35 percent market share in instrument clusters for two wheelers. “We have been getting new enquiries from all the major customers. We believe our market share will go up to 40 per cent in the coming years. Currently we supply our instrument clusters to Hero Motocorp and Bajaj; soon we will be supplying to a Japanese twowheeler major,” he said.

Pricol has always been in the

forefront in terms of new product development. A testimony to this is its spend on R&D; the company spends close to about four per cent of its top line for R&D and engineering. In the year 201213, Pricol recorded a standalone turnover of Rs 822 crore and is expecting growth even in the sluggish situation on account of healthy order book due to increase in growth in two-wheeler and tractor segment. ACI MARCH 2014 AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA 39

ALLIED INDUSTRIES

JM Tyre Marc to focus on tyre care products of the issues relating to tyre care tools, which has a higher chance of tyre break leading to explosion. But now the tyre repair has gone to the next level of making it almost to the original form, assuring better safety.

è

“We foresee a large requirement for reliable and easy to use equipment.

The new Desktop Repair Station that we developed follows the international standards in terms of deploying proper tools, process and standardisation,” he said. Besides, it comes with tools and equipments required for entire tyre repair operation that increases the productivity. The entire process takes just half the time to repair the damage when compared with the conventional method, while enhancing the tyre life by about 50 percent.

Story : Bhargav TS

Desktop Repair Station ups productivity by over 50 percent

Coimbatore-based JM Tyre Marc, manufacturer of tyre equipment and retreading tools is planning to focus on tyre repair and service equipment. Currently the company is manufacturing and trading garage equipment and tools for tyre retreading. Recently the company has developed a new professional tyre repair station equipped with tyre spreader, tyre spotter and other tools that are required for complete tyre care system. The new system, called ‘Desktop Repair Station’ is suitable to repair passenger car radials (PCR) up to 16 inch diameter as well as truck bus radials (TBR) up to 22.5 inch diameter.

According to the company’s CEO, Joseph Raj, accidents caused are also due to damaged tyres and the subsequent improper tyre repair. Until recently repairing the damaged tyre has not been recommended because 40

AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA MARCH 2014

Earlier the company was offering individual tools for tyre repair, but after gaining expertise in the tyre care products JM Tyre Marc has developed this new equipment, he said.

Normally for the sidewall damage, the tyre should be replaced with a new one, which is very expensive. But now with the new generation tyre care products, repairs are carried out easily and quickly at a minimal cost -about ten percent of the cost of the new

è Joseph Raj, CEO, JM Tyre Marc

tyre. Raj explained that a larger piece of rubber material should be placed inside of a broken part and it has to be treated well so that it does not bulge and create an air gap inside the patch.

JM Tyre Marc has started supplying its new desktop tyre repair station to its clients in Bangalore and New Delhi who are involved in passenger cars and truck & bus repairs respectively.

The company is also in talks with major transport corporation in the country to supply its repair equipment. On the export front, the equipment maker is planning to ship it to Sri Lanka, Kenya, UAE, and Oman, where currently it is supplying its other products.

After entering into the tyre repair and servicing equipment, JM Tyre Marc has also launched a range of equipments like tyre changers, wheel balancers, car lifts, digital tyre vulcanisers, digital inflators and nitrogen inflators.

The company currently has pan India presence in selling tools and equipments. Soon it will be establishing tyre care centres for trucks through franchise route. Typically, these centres will offer tyre services like mounting, demounting, tyre rotation, pressure testing, repairing and nitrogen filling. The CEO also informed that the company plans to launch tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS) for passenger cars and commercial vehicles in the next couple of months.

Began in 1989, JM Tyre Marc started manufacturing pre-cured retreading machines and created a strong client base among tyre retreaders and state transport corporations. The company also makes plant machineries such as inspection spreaders, tread builders, buffers, curing chambers and tyre retreading accessories. ACI WWW.AUTOCOMPONENTSINDIA.COM

ALLIED INDUSTRIES

Micromatic Machine Tools offers smart solutions to up productivity

Micromatic Machine Tools (MMT ) the customer face of a leading machine tool manufacturing company - Ace Micromatic Group, is focusing on new breed of smart machines that will help its customers to enhance overall productivity.

Enthused by telemedicine concept the group company AceMicromatic Manufacturing Intelligence Technologies (AMIT ) formerly known as Pioneer CT, has developed TPM Trak, an add-on hardware that helps users in monitoring Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE) of the machine, the process using cycle level energy profiles, energy consumption among others.

Speaking to Auto Components India, the CEO of MMT, Ramesh TK 42

AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA MARCH 2014

said the key driver for developing the concept is the expectations from OEMs on reducing cost on a continuous basis. And for the Tier-1 companies and SME the opportunities to execute this exercise has been thinning down due to increasing cost for material, manpower and energy. However, automation is not the solution due to cost. Therefore, they are left with addressing only the nonproductive cost, which cannot be controlled without adequate data.

“We thought that there can be some level of smartness be built into the machines,” and TPM Trak emerged.

Developed by AAIT, TPM Trak can be coupled with the new or existing machines marketed by MMT and

è

with CNC machines from other brands. At the click of the mouse it can generate more than 60 different reports on many aspects including energy, interaction between support teams, work flow, process decay etc , and enable the users to take decision to not only manage the operations but also take corrective action early. Besides, the system helps the operator to alert different departments through SMS, thereby reducing the mean time to respond to one fifth of the normal time. Its compatibility with ERP and SAP make the monitoring process not only easier but also documenting the progress. As an extension it helps in offering remote diagnostics solutions to the customers, he said.

Schematic digram of TPM Trak

MMT has successfully deployed TPM Trak in hundreds of machines, most of whom are suppliers to vehicle manufacturers. “We have gone two stages beyond the prototype.

For our first generation machines, there has been good response from customers.

Using this system, a leading auto component manufacturer based in Chennai could enhance operator efficiency from 65 percent to 89 percent and OEE from 65 percent to 80 percent. Besides, it also helped in reducing offset-connection (reason for machine stoppage) from 80 percent to nine percent and eliminate one shift. This is because the component manufacturer could see 15 percent improvement in WWW.AUTOCOMPONENTSINDIA.COM

ALLIED INDUSTRIES reduction in shop floor supervision because of operator being enabled to evaluate the process and improve on it. Interestingly, the return on investment is around 12 weeks, which is driving the customers to adopt this technology, Ramesh said.

è Ramesh TK, CEO, MMT

the output per shift per machine, eventually reducing the manpower by one third. It was possible since the downtime analysis had been carried out on real-time basis and

MMT helps in setting new paradigms in productivity by interfacing the technological prowess of the group’s manufacturing units with customers.

These include application engineering, commissioning and training, tech centres and monitoring of product performances.

Ace Micromatic Group hopes to touch Rs 3,000 crore as turnover by

2015. The group company reported Rs 1,000 crore in 2012-13 against Rs 1,200 crore in the previous year. The group is present in three segments - turning, milling and grinding.

The market size (production minus exports plus imports) of turning machines is around 7,000 units with the group contributing to about 2,500 units. In the case of milling and machining centre size the market size is around 4,000 units with one fourth coming from the group. Annually about 300 CNC grinding machines are sold with the group selling about 130. Overall, the company holds about 33 percent market share in the segments it is operating in. ACI

FOR MANY DECADES NOW, WE HAVE PLAYED MUSIC FOR MANY OF THE WORLD'S ROADS. We continue to do so, being one among the top five horn manufacturers in the world. Our growing recognition as a multi-auto-accessories solutions provider stems from the fact that our product base spans batteries, halogen lamps, brake pads, brake shoes among others.

Roots. Adding value.

Electric Horns

Halogen Lamp

Clutch Plate Brake Shoe

Brake Pad

Batteries

Roots Industries India Limited Thoppampatti, Coimbatore - 641 017, India | Customer Care No: +91 (422) 2460 377, 2460 188, 2461 974 | E-mail: customercare@roots.co.in www.rootsindia.com First horn manufacturer to be ISO/TS 16949:2009 certified. Environment safety standards ISO 14001:2004 certified.

WWW.AUTOCOMPONENTSINDIA.COM

MARCH 2014 AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA 43

TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION

How Hyundai scripted Grand i10

Story : T Murrali & Bhargav TS Hyundai Grand i10 has increasingly becoming the buyers’ choice for the features it packed. It is for this reason that the car won the Best Indian Car of the Year award for 2013. Besides, quiet a few auto magazines and blogs have paid full throat encomiums to the vehicle. In terms of sales, it is clocking about 10,000 units per month, though cannibalising to some extent, its siblings selected models of i20. Well, what is special in the car? The answer is simple – a large room for a compact car packed with some features that were hitherto confined with only premium cars. However, it was not simple for the suppliers to meet the challenges as Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL) raised the bar significantly in terms of features, quality and comfort. Besides, the project was 44

AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA MARCH 2014

completed in just 22 months from the day the concept is finalised.

The objective to launch Grand i10 is to primarily to fill the gap in the compact high segment, which was missing in HMIL’s product portfolio. As the car is positioned between the compact entry i10 and the hatch premium i20, the company decided to make it as a grand offering and aptly named it Grand i10 - quite a large small car. The new car is built on a completely new platform and is different from i10. One significant difference is that the Grand i10 gets Hyundai’s fluidic design language, though not heavily.

Interiors are refreshing due to increased

space and dual tone renderings. The top half is finished in high-quality, non-reflective black plastic while the lower portion of the dash is covered with beige colour.

HMIL’s R&D centres in Chennai and Hyderabad worked together with Hyundai’s research facility in Namyang, Korea to create the new offereing.

“We worked heavily on standardisation as we export most of the components to Turkey, where Grand i10 is assembled for European markets. Moreover standardisation gives flexibility,” said Sarangarajan, vice president –production, HMIL. However, the overall length of the India-spec (BA version for domestic market ) Grand is about 100mm WWW.AUTOCOMPONENTSINDIA.COM

TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION

Like other HMIL’s top models, the Grand i10 gets both petrol and diesel engines. The petrol head is the same Kappa 1.2 dual VTVT engine that powers i10 and i20. For the first time, Hyundai has introduced its second generation U2 -1,120cc, three-cylinder diesel engine in Grand i10. For better fuel efficiency and packaging, one cylinder is eliminated from its premium hatch i20’s 1.4-litre engine.

The new engine produces 71PS @4,000rpm and is mated to a fivespeed manual gearbox.

Normally three cylinder engines are prone to severe NVH as the noise is not cancelled due to incomplete (by the missing fourth cylinder)cycle.

During the test drive there was a noticeable thrum emanating from the engine and vibration felt, but only during idling. These discomforts vanish once the vehicle moves. The company has managed this issue well by tweaking the crankshaft and WWW.AUTOCOMPONENTSINDIA.COM

For city driving, the power delivery is very linear and smooth but on the highways, engine requires more power, especially after reaching 3500 rpm. This is perhaps due to flat torque. Hyundai claims the diesel engine is Euro V ready and has lowest CO2 emission by homologation value of 85 g/km in this segment.

Major suppliers of Hyundai Grand i10

è

flywheel that vibrates softly at idle speed and with optimised counterbalancing shaft. Can it not be made silent even while idling? Sarangarajan says, “there is a trade-off in managing it – either it can be tuned for ideal speed or running speed. We decided for running speed as the car will be running most of the time.”

tail lamps from SL Lumax.

The most interesting aspect, which has also become the USP of the car is the HVAC system as it improved cabin space and efficiency. HVCC supplied the entire climate system –the passenger side and the engine side as well. The challenge for the company was in managing it in limited space, improve fuel efficiency and reduce weight without losing on comforts, said Subu Nagasubramony, president, Asia Pacific, HVCC.

è

longer with 70mm longer wheel base when compared with the European version. Increased wheel base creaed more legroom in the rear row. Besides, it also gets an air-con blower that are usually missing in compact cars.

Sarangarajan, vice president, production, HMIL

“We co-worked with customers to understand their requirements. After benchmarking, we made our own concept design and proposed to customers and then validated it,” said

Vendors’ Endeavour Several vendors contributed to the success of Grand i10. Significant among them include Dymos for seating system, Halla Visteon Climate Control (HVCC) for HVAC system, Sharda Motors and Faurecia for exhaust system. Windshields are supplied by SaintGobain for domestic market and Asahi for exports. Supply of tyres are shared by Goodyear and Apollo while battery is from Exide. Wiring harness comes from KIML and headlamps and MARCH 2014 AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA 45

TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION compressor,” he said.

Space reduction: In order to reduce space and weight HVCC adopted semi-central stack mounting methodology in the passenger side, for the first time in compact car segment. It gave 20 percent more space in the cockpit. “We have tweaked the entire system and introduced high capacity blower motors to increase overall efficiency,” Hwang said.

The central stack being symmetrical offered flexibility to the OEM to use the same unit for both left hand drive and right hand drive models as well. This standardisation in HVAC system has come as a boon for the vendor in terms of economies of scale and for the OEM in terms of manufacturing and serviceability.

“We have developed high efficiency Internal Heat Exchangers (IHX) with special radiator, which is lesser in weight and thinnest (10.8mm) in the market. We have introduced high efficiency slim condensers (12mm) and high efficiency Rotary Suction (RS) compressor, which weighs ten percent less than the older versions.

The five percent fuel efficiency is achieved through its new technology heat exchanger, AC lines and the RS 46

AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA MARCH 2014

HVAC system and new design cockpit improved cabin space by 20 percent.

è

Dong Woo Hwang, director South Asia Product Development, HVCC.

è Subu Nagasubramony, president, Asia Pacific, HVCC. Dong Woo Hwang, director South Asia Product Development, HVCC.

è Internal Heat Exchanger tube in tube

è RS Compressor

IHX IHX replaces parts of the existing suction and liquid refrigerant lines with an innovative co-axial tube, which exchanges heat between the cooler suction gas and the warmer liquid.

This additional heat transfer increases the cooling capacity, improves fuel economy, and lowers carbon emission by increasing air conditioning efficiency. It also enabled customers to adopt environmental friendly R1234yf refrigerants without additional system modification. Overall it improved system cooling capacity by 14 percent and system efficiency by 12 percent.

The weight of the radiator is reduced by 30 percent. All these benefits and standardisation helped in optimising cost, Hwang said.

The RS compressor replaced the reed valve with rotary suction valve, thereby increasing the coefficient of performance by nine percent.

The centre suction route helped in optimising lubrication thereby enhancing the durability by up to 40 percent and reducing weight by eight percent. The unique vane blade design cuts down on the NVH while increasing the airflow. The saw-toothed profile in the fan shroud avoids the turbulence. Air clean system and cluster ionizer adds to the comfort besides, increasing the flow by ten percent.

While the vendors were banking on their capabilities in design development and system and integration, HMIL was focusing on sequential integration of systems through digital pre-assembly. This combination helped in taking corrective action besides, nullifying the iterations while making the tools and dies, eventually making cost effective vehicle at a shorter lead time. ACI WWW.AUTOCOMPONENTSINDIA.COM

www.elofic.com

Growing With Green Ideas

SHORT TAKES

Kenwood tunes in to smart phone users Navigation’ model - DNN 9330 BT, that has just hit the Indian market. With the support of smart phone through Wi-fi, the equipment can get connected to the world of internet, enabling users to feel the comfort of the office while sitting in their car too.

Shimmen was of the opinion that this model could be a real trendsetter or a game-changer in the in-car entertainment arena, as Indians, especially the youth, are fun-loving and net-savvy. In 2010, when the Indian auto industry was going strong, it was estimated to be a near Rs 100 crore market that was expected to grow immensely. After tyres, the car infotainment system was the fastest growing accessory product. However, the overall slowdown in the market has hurt this industry the most.

Story : J Srikant Kenwood, one of the leading car infotainment solutions providers in India, is soon expected to launch highend audio systems to tap the maturing Indian market.

To stay afloat in this market, Kenwood is now shifting its focus from entrylevel audio systems towards the highend segment. These are tough times to compete in a cheaper price segment.

Therefore, “we are thinking of additional products that are slightly higher in cost with better features,” said Shimmen.

The company will be launching this

Equipped with innovative technology, the new audio systems will target the youth who carry their world around on their mobiles. “The new product will offer users the kind of convenience that the smart-phone gives,” said Takeshi Shimmen, marketing head (car electronics business group) at Kenwood India. The technology helps mirror the smart-phone screen on audio system’s display, thus allowing all media on phone to be played through the audio system, he added.

Kenwood is hoping that the new technology will help strengthen its stand in a shaky market. The effect of slowdown in car sales has now trickled down to the allied industry, which has nowhere to go but in the direction where the OEM industry is heading to. The company boasts of the state-of-the-art and unique ‘Network 48

AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA MARCH 2014

è Takeshi Shimmen, marketing head (car electronics business group), Kenwood India

product in the second half of 2014, he added. Reasoning this stand of the company in a market where cheaper priced models are more popular, he said brand equity will be much more important than volumes. In a mature market, people are expected to give more preference to quality of the product than the price. The company will start with demonstrations of its various products by the end of this month. It is also planning to highlight the presence of their new line-up in most of the metros. “We are still deciding on the methodologies,” said Shimmen.

Kenwood’s decision to shift their focus from entry-level audio systems is primarily motivated by the increasing competition in that segment. The Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 market is primarily dominated by Sony and Pioneer, and the company believes it will be tougher to make a dent here. “If you look at the prices, there is a significant difference in pricing between our products and those of the said players,” he said. The marketing head, who is well-versed with Indian markets, said that it is getting even tougher in the aftermarket which is shrinking more in India. With many of the car manufacturers adding stereo systems as a standard feature, the number of people going to the aftermarket for a new system is reducing. “Unlike earlier, where we were planning to increase our share in the aftermarket, we are looking to increase our OEM footprint,” he explained.

To safeguard itself from the severity of the downturn, Kenwood is now planning to put their eggs in different baskets. It is planning to increase its attention in the two-way radio segment as well. ACI WWW.AUTOCOMPONENTSINDIA.COM

SHORT TAKES

Isuzu plans engine facility Story : Bhargav TS The Japanese manufacturer will invest about Rs 3,000 crore in the new facility which is expected to create 2,000 to 3,000 jobs.

Japanese-auto major Isuzu Motors is planning to set up an engine plant in India. The company is yet to finalise on the location for the plant and the amount of investment for the engine facility. Isuzu is globally known for its diesel engines, which is currently used by many global OEMs. It also specialises in the manufacture of LCVs and SUVs. Speaking on the sidelines of the ground breaking ceremony at Sri City SEZ in Andhra Pradesh, Isuzu India’s President and Managing Director Takashi Kikuchi said, “We are evaluating to setup an engine plant in India, but yet to decide on the location. It will make sense to set up engine facility inside the SEZ, but we have to decide on it. Currently we are importing our engines from Thailand to various companies.”

Isuzu Motors acquired the land in Sri City SEZ in 2013 after it inked a MoU with the Andhra Pradesh government. The new plant is slated to begin operations by 2016 and phase I of the facility can produce 50,000 units and can be expanded to 1.20 lakh units in phase II.

MURATEC Automated Turning Solutions

According to Kikuchi, the cars that will roll out from the new facility will have up to 70 pecent local content, which will be increased to cent percent in three years, starting from 2016. The company started its Indian operations by bringing in limited volumes of completely built units. However, it has commenced local assembly at Hindustan Motors’ plant in Thiruvallur near Chennai rolled out its first Indian assembled MU-7 SUV couple of months ago. The vehicles are assembled out of the CKD kits received from Thailand. At present it is assembling only the MU-7 SUV. Soon it will commence the assembly of D-Max pick-up truck. ACI

To meet the Expanding Global Supply Market Requirements, MURATEC has been a global leader in supply of Turning Machines with advanced Automation solutions. It is fully prepared to provide the most appropriate level of Automation solution to meet the growing demand in India for Medium to High Volume Global supply market combined with High-Precision Standards. It also caters to the rapidity increasing volume requirements of the domestic Indian Automobile industry.

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Our MW/MS Series Twin and Single spindle automated turning machines and MD series turning centers have more than 6,000 installations worldwide. We are proud to say that,”MURATEC MOVES YOUR CAR" MURATEC machines are available in a wide range of chuck sizes: capacities ranging from 6" to 15" chuck size. These advanced, precision turning machines come with highly reliable, integrated, intelligent CNC 3-axis servo controlled gantry loader for smart, fully automated, flexible workpiece load/unload operations. Integrated Process Solutions like Turning, Drilling, Milling, etc., in single set-up are also provided to enhance High Precision and High Productivity.

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MARCH 2014 AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA 49

PERSPECTIVE

Technology outlook for auto components in global passenger vehicles The global automotive market has seen tremendous growth since 2010 recording a Year on Year (YoY) growth of 3.9 percent in 2013 compared to 2012; to approximately 83.5 million vehicles and is expected to grow to 107.9 million vehicles by 2020. Asian markets are likely to lead the growth in Passenger Vehicle (PV) production accounting for 44 percent of global automotive sales. Small hatchbacks are expected to account for 55 percent of total sales and compact vehicles priced at $10,000–$15,000 are expected to be an attractive market in developed economies, with a share of about 21 percent. Cars are also expected to shift from traditional sizes (more than 3,500 mm length) to Micro-cars with less than 3,500 mm length.

With the tech savvy Gen Y, that is, people born between mid-1970s and mid-1990s, vehicle technology will become more connected and will also become a part of the ‘Internet of Things’, (uniquely identifiable objects and their virtual representations in an Internetlike structure). As more and more intelligent vehicles are introduced with technologies like 3G/ Wi-Fi connectivity, Internet radio, Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) communication, comfort and safety features, which will make vehicular travel less cumbersome will be brought in.

Powertrain All major auto regulatory bodies in developed markets have established strict emission and efficiency norms and similar bodies in developing markets are hastening enforcement of such plans without hindering industrial growth. With the already strict emission regulations looking to get stricter, OEMs have taken a few steps to reduce their carbon footprint, the first of which is to downsize the engine while maintaining power output, by application of technologies such as Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI), Variable Valve 50

AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA MARCH 2014

Timing (VVT), and Turbocharging.

OEMs have switched to lighter materials, such as aluminum, to construct their engine blocks to reduce overall weight, while motorsports and exotic vehicles have switched to magnesium.

They have also moved on to more electronic controlled transmission operation systems to increase the comfort of city driving with the introduction of automatic transmissions. Due to the increased costs involved with automatics, emerging countries are expected to switch to Automated Manual Transmissions (AMT), which provides the comfort of shifting without adding much cost or weight.

With the many nations embracing the concept of ‘Innovating to Zero’, which envisages a ‘Zero Concept’ world with zero emissions, zero accidents, zero fatalities, zero defects, and zero breaches of security, vehicle designers are focusing more on electric and hybrid vehicles. A large number of hybrid concepts by all major OEMs were displayed in various auto shows in 2013. A major focus is on plug-in hybrids with full hybrids expected to become plug-in hybrids in the developed world, and 85 percent of cars in the European Union expected to have start-stop systems by 2020. These vehicles have entirely different components in their powertrain and are expected to increase the size of the components market for hybrid vehicles.

Chassis All major OEMs have adopted aluminum space frames over the traditional ladder chassis due to weight saving and increased stiffness. This has vastly reduced weight by replacing steel with aluminum but steel is still used in many punched parts due to its formability and strength at low costs. A recent trend has been the use of advanced high strength steel to replace traditional steel components to reduce

the weight by up to 20 percent at almost no extra cost.

Another trend is OEMs switching to modular designs for their platforms. This enables sharing of systems and components across model line-ups and across vehicle types, which results in an increase in components volumes while driving down costs.

With more and more customers looking for ease of driving, systems such as electric power steering are expected to become standard in all vehicles. Other technologies that are expected to increase their penetration are active steering systems and drive-by-wire systems.

Body in White Another measure by OEMs to reduce overall weight is to use lighter plastics and polycarbonates instead of traditional materials in the interior paneling and other comfort components. OEMs have switched to the use of plastics in major components such as fuel tanks and HVAC systems. HVAC systems traditionally used steel as the primary material but are now manufactured with aluminum in the heat exchanger and plastic ducting. This replacement using plastics can save up to 50 percent in weight and the insulating nature of plastic prevents transfer of heat to the body.

A possible technology to replace automotive glass is the use of clear polycarbonates and polycarbonate-glazed glass, which are currently used in motorsports and exotic vehicles. The use of such polycarbonates can reduce weight of the transparent components by up to 50 percent but current manufacturing costs are too high for mass market use.

Currently, polycarbonate plastics are used for headlight housing. A point of concern for using polycarbonates is that they do not shatter like glass and could hamper the efforts of rescue WWW.AUTOCOMPONENTSINDIA.COM

PERSPECTIVE personnel in the event of an accident.

Safety Government bodies have become very safety-oriented with increasing number of accidents on road and fatalities. With this in mind, multiple organizations are working on a slew of technologies, which can be integrated into each vehicle. With the advent of vehicleto-vehicle connectivity and vehicleto-infrastructure communications (collectively referred to as V2X), safety systems will take a major leap into Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) such as collision assist, Automatic Cruise Control (ACC) and Lane Departure Warning (LDW). The various systems that are expected to be introduced are mapped with their timelines, (See iIlustration).

Most of the systems listed in illustration require complex algorithms and robust V2X communication to work as expected. Global OEMs have formed alliances and partnerships with global tech majors to integrate these systems in vehicles by 2020. Some European OEMs have already installed some of these ADAS into their high-end models and have plans to bring them into their mass models as well, to meet stricter safety regulations being imposed in developed markets.

Telematics and Infotainment Telematics typically is any integrated use of telecommunications and WWW.AUTOCOMPONENTSINDIA.COM

informatics. GPS navigation, integrated hands-free cell phones, wireless safety communications, and automatic driving assistance systems are covered under the telematics umbrella. These technologies are being integrated into the vehicle entertainment system and hence the term “Infotainment”.

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Carbon fiber and carbon fiber reinforced polymers are also employed in motorsport and exotic vehicles to add safety while reducing overall weight.

This technology, like polycarbonate is currently too expensive to be used in mass market vehicles but with the increase in safety and improvement in carbon fiber manufacturing processes to reduce manufacturing costs the possibility of future vehicles featuring this is very high.

OEMs are working on two types of infotainment systems: embedded connected systems, and hybrid connected system. Embedded connected systems, which is an OEM developed system, is hardwired into the cars infotainment system and smartphones have minimal roles and hybrid connected system utilise standards like Real VNC (Virtual Network Computing) viewer and server (software development kit) SDK to host content from smartphone in car at different levels. An embedded system incurs development cost and time, and is mostly supported by dedicated application stores while hybrid systems have low development costs, take less time to market, and have solutions supported by robust standards from the computing world.

Key: DAS: Driver Assistance System; TSR: Traffic Sign Recognition; IA: Interaction Assist; BSD: Blind Spot Detection; FCW: Forward Collision Warning; IHC: Integrated Headlamp Control Source: Frost and Sullivan Analysis

Innovations in display technology, such as the use of dual-view display and 3D displays will enable these systems to pass information to the driver efficiently without affecting passenger entertainment.

Bottom Line With vehicle technology converging with intelligent software, there will be smarter vehicles in the future capable of autonomous driving. All advanced systems such as ADAS, ACC, etc. will require an array of sensors and cameras to work as envisaged, thereby increasing volumes of the components market.

Stricter safety norms in conjunction with emission and efficiency norms mean vehicle light-weighting is here to stay. This involves replacing heavy components made from steel and other traditional materials with lighter ones made from polycarbonates, carbon fiber, and plastics. ACI

By Automotive & Transportation Practice, Frost & Sullivan.

MARCH 2014 AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA 51

OEM

Atlas F24 emerges as Partner, MiTR from ALL-Nissan JV Story : T Murrali Ashok Leyland – Nissan Motor Company joint venture has recently unveiled ‘Partner’ truck and ‘MiTR’ bus in the LCV segment. Based on Nissan’s Atlas F24 platform these vehicles are completely redesigned and value engineered to suit local conditions. Interestingly, Nissan, UD Nissan Diesel (a Volvo AB company) and Renault- Nissan alliance has been using this platform for more than a decade. In addition, under a reciprocal agreement, the partners - Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation (subsidiary of Daimler),and Nissan Motor Company sell the same vehicle; the former sells Fuso Canter-variant badged as Nissan Atlas while the latter sells Atlas as Fuso Canter.

Well, what is so great about this platform? Vice chairman of Ashok Leyland, Sumantran says, “the F24 is a very optimally configured vehicle in the four to six tonne segment. While there are other users, the Intellectual Property Rights is with our partner Nissan.”

The cabin is retained in Partner while MiTR has been completely reworked to suit local conditions, enabling the company to achieve localisation up to 95 percent. Major components including frame, transmission and suspension have been redesigned to achieve the requisite cost proposition. Besides, it helped in doubling the load carrying capacity of the Partner to four tonne payload when compared with Atlas F24.

The JV company has reconfigured the three-litre Common Rail TCIC Nissan ZD30 diesel engine to spew 118 hp @ 2750 rpm, churning out 320Nm Torque @ 1500-2400 rpm. Compatible for BS3 and BS4 norms the DDTI (double overhead camshaft), high pressure (1,600 bar) common rail injection, turbo intercooled engine is tuned for a flat torque of 320 Nm, which is upgradable to 400Nm with a 15 percent back up torque for better drivability on different terrains. The peak 52

AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA MARCH 2014

torque, therefore, has been increased from the original 280 Nm to 320 Nm. Since Indian drivers, unlike their peers in developed countries, tend to drive at lower speeds at higher gears, “we have re-tuned the engine by boosting the low end torque.

We depowered the engine from 110 kW to 87 kW, eventually de-speeding the engine.

Reduction in friction and combustion chamber optimisation reduced engine weight by three percent. The engine, fitted with viscous fan drive and mated with a full synchromesh gearbox with five forward and one reverse, offers five to eight percent more fuel economy over the same category of vehicles,” he said. About four million vehicle km tests were conducted before the launch, Sumantran added.

The cabin is improved in terms of reinforcements to take on the rough roads.

The larger door openings in the cabin is an attraction and the load body height (455 mm) facilitates easy loading and unloading of cargo.

The large windshield allows better forward view, while its sloping waistline expands side visibility. Rounded and cubic shape of the cabin improved aerodynamics.

The six-tyre version of Partner comes in 2,850mm and 3,350mm wheelbase, and two sizes of load body (3,415 mm and 4,235mm) with 6600kgs GVW. Plans are on to launch a four-tyre variant soon. In addition to regular load body, refrigerated carriers, curtain slider (for logistics and white goods segment) and tippers are on the cards.

While MiTR has parabolic suspension in both front and the rear, the truck has it only in the front axle to improve cabin comfort. MiTR is offered as a school bus and staff bus as well. While the 6-tyre 27-seat configuration will be available soon, the 16-seater 4-tyre version, including an air-conditioned variant, will be launched by June. Tubular hat-rack for overhead storage has contributed to weight savings. It has two emergency exits (side and rear) and meets stringent MH/TN regulations on the School Bus Code. Both the vehicles have cable-operated gear shifter and powerassisted tilt steering as standard feature.

“There is a demand for improving operating economics and we hope with the improved fuel efficiency and driveability, Partner and MiTR will plug the gap,” Sumantran concluded. ACI WWW.AUTOCOMPONENTSINDIA.COM

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OEM Ashok Leyland pins hope on ‘Captain’ to tide over slowdown Story: J Srikant In a bid to buck the slowdown trend, Ashok Leyland, one of the leading commercial vehicle manufacturers in India, has launched its all new ‘Captain Series’. Unveiled by Mahendra Singh Dhoni on 6 January, the series, with its Captain 2523 Tipper, will also include tractors and haulage vehicles.

Introducing the series, Vinod K. Dasari, managing director Ashok Leyland, said, “The series is aptly named Captain, as it will take the flagship position for Ashok Leyland.” He added that the “Captain series has a cabin which is newly designed and developed specifically suited to customer needs as opposed to adapting an existing cabin design.

The Captain comes with heavy-duty aggregates and a customised powertrain and will be available across the 16 to 49 tonne GVW. The

vehicle is powered by company’s ‘H-Series’ CRDI engine. Mated to a 9-speed gear box with a 8.83 : 1 gear ratio, the vehicle is suitable to carry heavy load even on steep inclines effortlessly.

The vehicle is also engineered to address the increasing demand for commercial vehicles that give better fuel economy.

The company claimed that the vehicle has undergone over two million kilometres of on-road equivalent trials and reliability testing and has recorded consistent availability during customer trials in mining.

Adding to the high-performance engine and transmission, Captain Series has huge emphasis on the driver comfort. It boasts of a DIN bin slots, USB port and infotainment system and a tiltable and telescopic steering adjustments and a mechanically suspended seats for a more pliant ride. Another feature that makes it a sturdy vehicle for long distance travelling is the on-board diagnostic port. It is a 16-pin diagnostic

system that will warn the driver about impending problems.

The launch of captain series comes close on heels to Ashok Leylands unveiling of its Boss series in September. The two launches in quick successions come at a time when the commercial vehicle industry is reeling under slowdown. This has led the industry experts to question the decision.

However, Dasari, calling this an opportunity said, “Yes, the industry has seen close to 25 percent slowdown. But this also means that there is no other way but upwards from here.”

He added that when the market rebounds, the one who has entered the market first will reap the benefits.

The company has pumped in nearly Rs 600 crores in to the development of the product. It will be launching close to 18 variants on this platform in the coming year. ACI

Sixth- generation Mercedes S Class challenges vendors’ capabilities The high-end luxury car segment got its point of reference pushed several notches higher with the launch of Mercedes flagship 2014 S-Class.

The new car is a step-up in almost all systems compared to the outgoing version, given utmost challenge for the suppliers in rising to the expectation of the OEM. Priced at more than Rs 1.5 crore the S 500 edition is sure to give its cousins from Munich and Ingostat a few sleepless nights. S-class competes with Audi A8 and BMW 7-Series.

The company has only launched the S500 version. It will be followed up by S350CDI later in the year. While the S500 is imported as a CBU at present, it is expected to be assembled at Mercedes Pune plant from April onwards.

The launch of S-Class was one of the most keenly watched auto sector event of 2014. The car’s popularity can be assessed from the fact that all 54

AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA MARCH 2014

125 units which have been allotted for India were sold 16 days before the launch itself, despite its crore-plus price tag.

Eberhard Kern, managing director and CEO, Mercedes-Benz India said, “the launch of the S-Class commences our ‘Year of Excellence’ in the Indian market and perfectly lives up to its role as a representative of the power of innovation and exclusivity of MercedesBenz. The new S-Class brings together luxury, design and technology that meet the highest standards of perfection, surpassing expectations for a vehicle of this class.

The sixth-generation S-Class, codenamed W222, is powered by a 4.6-litre bi-turbo petrol V8 engine, which puts out 460bhp and 700nm of torque. It is mated to a 7G-TRONIC PLUS automatic gearbox and can reach a top speed of 250kmph with 100kmph mark crossed in 5.7seconds.

Mercedes has met the high expectations by arming the car with many firsts in the automotive industry. This is the first time not even a single conventional bulb used in the car. Everything, right from the headlamp, interior lighting to taillights, use LEDs. There are nearly 500 adorning the car. The backseats have in-built hot stone massage function, again a automotive first.

The list of exclusive touches in the interiors also includes seven colour ambient lighting with a choice of five dimming options, two highresolution TFT screens, a high-quality Burmester music system with 24 speakers and nine tweeters and a 360-degree surround view camera along with night view assist.

The new S-Class is also looking to fill the void that was created by the discontinuation of its Daimlers uber luxury brand Maybach, as the features and interiors are comparable. ACI WWW.AUTOCOMPONENTSINDIA.COM

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Bosch Group reports marginal increases in sales Auto component major Bosch Group witnessed 2.7 percent growth in sales in 2013 to 46.4 billion Euros, despite the difficult economic environment (adjusted previous-year figure: Euro Volkmar Denner, 45.2 billion), according chairman of the board of management of Robert to preliminary figures.

Bosch GmbH The strong Euro places a considerable burden on the sales revenue in the form of negative exchange-rate effects to the tune of some Euro 1.5 billion. Earnings have developed fundamentally better, but are once again affected by the situation of the solar energy division, which remained difficult in 2013. In early 2013, the company announced its decision to exit its activities in crystalline photovoltaics.

According to the company’s press release, its EBIT margin comes to some six percent. This is roughly one percentage point more than in the previous year. Including the extraordinary

burden as a result of photovoltaics, which are likely to total Euro 1.3 billion, EBIT margin is about three percent. “The many measures taken to improve profitability are clearly working. In fact, we have made better progress with result than expected,” said Volkmar Denner, chairman of the board of management of Robert Bosch GmbH. Asia Pacific sales grew by five percent. In North America, growth was more than three percent. At roughly minus three percent in nominal terms, sales developed negatively in South America. Nominal sales in Europe grew slightly by two percent. In 2014, global GDP is expected to grow by 2.8 percent. Against this background, the Bosch Group expects sales to grow slightly in 2014, with its earnings situation continuing to improve.

The Automotive Technology business with gasoline direct injection and diesel injection systems grew significantly in 2013.

In Industrial Technology, the packaging machinery business was able to record good

growth. By contrast, the global weakness of the mechanical engineering sector caused a considerable slump in the Drive and Control Technology division. In Consumer Goods, Bosch was once again successful with power tools, both for professional and DIY users. Developments in the Energy and Building Technology business sector were overshadowed by the difficult situation in the Solar Energy division. The Security Systems division grew strongly while the Thermotechnology division was successful with energy efficient condensing appliances.

Bosch is also working intensively on the mobility of the future, which will be electric, automated, and connected. In 2013, Bosch launched many products and services related to these trends. They include highly efficient gasoline and diesel injection systems, driver assistance systems such as motorcycle stability control, infotainment systems such as mySPIN, telematics services for the management of vehicle fleets, and robotics applications such as the “Indego” lawnmower. ACI

Dana introduces new Central Tyre Inflation System Ohio headquartered auto component major Dana Holding Corporation has launched new technology to support its Central Tire Inflation System (CTIS) of Spicer. The new technology optimises the performance of lower flow CTIS applications for specifically engineered for ground mobility vehicles, internally transportable-light strike vehicles and high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles with a new Mechatronic Control Unit (MCU) option.

According to the company press release, the system identifies and reacts to tire inflation issues more effectively by enabling individual wheel control. The MCU is an integrated unit that includes electronic, computer, and mechanical engineering for delivering improved reliability, a smaller footprint, reduced weight, and less wiring complexity.

56

AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA MARCH 2014

Spicer CTIS technology maximises vehicle mobility by allowing operators, from inside the cab, to adjust tire pressure to the optimum footprint on any terrain. Used on thousands of military vehicles worldwide over the past two decades, this innovative system also allows vehicles to effectively operate with extremely low tire pressures and makes it possible to free a stuck vehicle or take on grades and other extreme conditions, transporting soldiers to safety in the most strenuous environments.

Dana is leading supplier of driveline, sealing, and thermal-management technologies that improve the efficiency and performance of passenger, commercial, and off-highway vehicles with both conventional and alternative-energy powertrains. ACI WWW.AUTOCOMPONENTSINDIA.COM

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Up to speed with speedometers The first cars - basically motorised carriages - were so slow that measuring speed objectively was unnecessary. However, the increase in vehicle population reflected in the rate of accidents as well. Therefore, the need to measure speed accurately was felt, eventually giving birth to speedometers. Called tachometer it emerged on 7th October, 1902, about 111 years ago, when the Berlin imperial office granted Otto Schulze a patent for his eddy current speed indicator.

Schulze was the first to construct this type of speedometer for automobiles based on a patent.

It went into series production in 1905 and the French company E.Seignol began to market it globally after three years.

The gear ratio between the transmission and display determined the accurate measurement of distance. The gears were adjusted to make every turn of the number drum to be one mile. Varying forms of worm drive were also used. In 1928 zinc replaced brass to make it lighter.

In the mid-1930s instrument cluster concept emerged that continues to define the device to this day. The first cluster had surface-treated sheet metal mounting plate where many individual instruments including speedometer, fuel gauge and battery indicator were fitted.

It was not until the 1990s that this concept was superseded by the integrated cluster construction where centralised electronics with pointer drives were put into use. The individual speedometer was enwrapped into the integrated cluster.

The eddy current measurement technology monopolised for about half a century till the electronics entered in early 1950s. The new generation systems were fitted to buses as the installation of the drive shaft with large but necessary bending radii was troublesome. The challenge was to find a solution that would continue to provide the same level of accuracy while simultaneously reducing manufacturing effort. Electrical speed signals that replaced the mechanical links solved the issue. A dynamo on the transmission generates electrical voltage 58

AUTO COMPONENTS INDIA MARCH 2014

depending on the number of revolutions.

It is converted into direct current and transmuted to the moving coil mechanism to display the speed.

The complete electronic speedometer appeared in 1993. It evolved to encompass a stepper motor as a pointer drive coupled with microcontroller to display the speed.

Consonant with this new technology is the transformation in display and illumination of the instrument panel. The classic speedometer was, and remains, a round instrument with a pointer either a concentric or eccentric scale. There were many variations of the horizontal display.

Illuminating the dial and pointer vane became a

common feature from 1980s. Modern day LightEmitting Diodes (LEDs) first came in instrument clusters in 1990s. The only thing that continues from Otto Schulze’s days is the shape as the instruments are still round in shape. ACI

Compiled by Krishna Kumar Courtesy: Continental Automotive Components India

From Otto Schulze To Continental 1908 1921 1925 1928

1929 1942 1951 1973 1986 1991 1992 1994 1997 2001 2007

E. Seignol, Paris and O.S. Autometerwerke E. Seignol, Frankfurt, established OSA Apparate GmbH, Frankfurt, established by Adolf Schindling, Georg HauBler and Heinrich Lang Renamed OTA Apparate due to legal protection of names Merger of the speedometer division of Deuta Werke, Berlin, and OTA Apparate, Frankfurt: creation of VDO Tachometer AG – Vereinigte Deuta OTA, Frankfurt “VDO” is registered as a trademark on May 24, 1929 Kienzle, speedometer manufacturer, established Link with Deuta is dissolved VDO Tachometer AG restricted into a GmbH: VDO Tachometer Werke, Adolf Schindling GmbH Renamed VDO Adolf Schindling AG Initial public offering of VDO Adolf Schindling AG Mannesmann AG takes over the majority share in VDO Adolf Schindling AG Mannesmann-Kienzle is integrated into the VDO Group VDO taken over completely by Mannesmann AG Renamed Mannesmann VDO AG Siemens Automotive merges with Mannesmann VDO Automotive AG Continental acquires Siemens VDO Automotive

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