Maruti to restructure Gurgaon assembly line

New Delhi: Maruti Suzuki is working out a strategy to make its assembly line at the Gurgaon plant more flexible to meet the demand for some of its models such as the Swift and Splash.

The company’s strategy is triggered by the fact that the Gurgaon plant that makes models such as the Alto, Wagon-R, Zen is not being utilised at full capacity owing to a slowing demand.

The cost for restructuring the assembly line will be part of the Rs 9,000-crore investment announced earlier by the company till 2010. It requires the fitting of additional pads or rifts on the conveyor belt so that the assembly line is equipped to make newer models.

While the Gurgaon plant still has capacity, it is the Manesar plant that requires breathing space in production.

“The Manesar plant is under tremendous pressure. So we are deeply studying the option to make the Gurgaon plant flexible to make Swift and other newer models like Splash,” Mr S. Maitra, Executive Director, Supply Chain, Maruti Suzuki India said.

Earlier, the company had said the Gurgaon plant was running at full capacity. However, since September onwards as the demand was slowing down, the company is evaluating the option of beginning Swift production at the plant to ease the pressure on the Manesar plant. The company has already scaled down its operations to two shifts from three shifts at the Gurgaon facility.

Splash would be the new compact car that is likely to be rolled out by early next year. By 2010, Maruti is aiming to produce one million units — 3 lakh will be produced from the Manesar plant and the remaining 7 lakh from the Gurgaon facility. The company completed the expansion at the Manesar plant last month to take its production capacity to the optimum level.

At the same time, its new plant at Manesar which began operations in 2006 and makes the Swift hatchback, Dzire sedan and the newly launched A-Star is not able to cater to the demand.

Even in the current slowdown when most auto companies are cutting production due to the drop in demand, the Swift hatchback in the diesel variant has a waiting period of almost 2-3 months. In case of its entry level sedan Dzire, the waiting period continues to be as high as 7-8 months.