India’s second largest car-maker, Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL), has declared No Production Days (NPD) for a few departments at its plant Irungattukottai due to the downturn in the automobile sector.
“We had NPD last week in the passenger car department. Departments, including the body shop, engine shop, transmission lines went through the same process last week,” said a worker from HMIL. According to a notice from Natwar Kadel, Department Head – ER Planning, in the passenger car department the engine shop-1 stopped production since August 9 and will remain closed till August 21. Engine shop-2 department will see no work on August 24 and 31.
Normal duty
“A few lines in departments mentioned shall be operated as per the need and requirement of the department,” the notice said. All other departments will work as usual and the employees concerned will attend normal duty.
Another worker from HMIL said the company indicated that if the situation worsened there will be more NPDs in the coming days.
When contacted, a HMIL spokesperson told The Hindu, that the production downtime as and when they occur/planned has been in line with the firm’s operational plan. “All of us are aware that the Indian auto industry is going through unprecedented times of fluctuating market demands,” it said.
The company added, “Emergence of new technologies and changing customer preferences have also led to new product categories coming up, leading to the auto industry into a transitory phase. In this context , HMIL has been working on multiple strategies like tweaking production cycles, initiating new internal projects and managing the UPH (units per hour) volumes in this scenario.”
“Our flexible manufacturing process is completely aligned to the market pull, and is capable of seamlessly handling the varying market requirements. The specific variances of the market have been incorporated into our Business and Operational Plan, thereby streamlining production schedules accordingly. “Both our plants are working smoothly as per the operational plans,” the company spokesperson added.
