Asia Motors Works (AMW) plans to enter the medium commercial vehicle segment. With this in mind, the company has set itself a target of annual sales of 50,000 units over the next two years. This will help the company fully utilise its installed capacity at its Bhuj plant.

AMW manufactures tippers and tractors but with its foray into the medium commercial vehicle segment, it hopes to tap the country’s CV market which is expected to grow to 250,000 units in around two to three years. India’s truck market is currently estimated at 175,000 units annually with more than 60 percent accounted for by medium-duty vehicles in the nine- to 15-tonne category.

An overwhelmingly high percentage of the rest – over 95 percent – is dominated by the tipper and tractor segments. AMW began its operations in 2005 with the launch of two trucks – the 4923 tractor and 2523 tipper. It later expanded its portfolio by introducing a few models in 40-tonne and 31-tonne capacities respectively, including rigid-axle trucks and transit mixers. At present, the company offers two engine configurations – 180 hp and 230 hp – manufactured by Cummins India. It hopes to introduce the 270 hp engine soon. Its vehicle parc is over 10,000 units.

In 2009-10, AMW sold 3,500 units and in the current fiscal, it hopes to sell about 15,000 vehicles. Towards this objective, it is ramping up production and is currently churning out about 500 units a month. So far the company has invested Rs 1,500 crore in developing capacity to make 50,000 CV units at its Bhuj facility including fully-built solutions and 15 million wheel rims, according to Deepak Thakur, chief of HCV operations, AMW. The company is also establishing a vendor park in its factory premises. Of the 600 acres it owns, about 100 acres have been earmarked for this purpose. The land will be converted into plots and allocated to component manufacturers.

Besides, AMW is also mulling options to provide its vendors with some common facilities to support their manufacturing processes. The company is in talks with fuel tank, child parts and sheet metal component manufacturers; 15 vendors have evinced interest in setting up shop at AMW’s premises. At present, the company has a vendor base of 150 companies. Essar Steel plans to set up a steel servicing centre at the site to enable AMW to minimise inventories even as it gets uninterrupted supplies of steel.

In the initial phase, AMW had been importing several aggregates including gearboxes, axles and cabins. Over a period of time, it localised several components and now gets its gearbox from Eaton and axles from Meritor. In the case of cabins, it currently imports sheet metal components and welds them at the plant to build the cab. AMW is also developing a new cabin for the medium CV segment.

How AMW built its Bhuj facility The truck manufacturer's state-of-the-art unit has brought jobs and prosperity to a barren area. By building its truck-manufacturing facility at Bhuj in Gujarat, which was flattened after the 2002 earthquake, AMW was able to create jobs and help develop the area. The company’s foray into the medium CV segment will leverage the technology and capacity of the plant it built at an estimated cost of Rs 1500 crore.

To build the plant, AMW deployed a software called MOST or Menord Operating Sequence Technology, for process development and line balancing which enabled it to simulate every operation. This type of simulated planning is typical of passenger car manufacturing. However, by using this method in the commercial vehicle space, AMW was able to begin pilot production in October 2008 within 14 months of commencement of construction. Besides, “it helped us get things right at the first instance itself,” says Annirudh Bhuwalka, CEO and managing director of AMW. If the company had chosen the conventional method, it would have taken a minimum of 30 months to commence pilot production. At the Bhuj facility, the assembly line has been provided with a flexible pitch, which enables it to make four models on one line. Based on the criticality of the joints, it has deployed electric, oil pulse and pneumatic tools, all of which are suspended from top to free up floor space.

The assembly starts from the north end of the shed with integration of crossmembers with the chassis that come from the chassis shop. The components, sub-assemblies and axles are then fixed and after going through 12 assembly stations, the chassis is transported to the other side of the shed. Normally the assembly line should take a ‘U’ turn or lift-and-drop at the other side. However, AMW decided to take a different approach – getting the chassis onto a moving platform, which takes it to the assembly line on the other side. The chassis that was moving back till station No. 12 now moves forward. “This helped in containing investments while eliminating risks in case the chassis being lifted and dropped falls,” he says. The powertrain is integrated into the chassis at station number 15. On the shopfloor, special pallets have been developed for aggregates depending upon their need and criticality. While the chassis moves forward from the south end of the assembly shop to the north side, the trim assembly begins at the north end on the painted cabs that come from the paint shop. Painted cabs are moved to the trim line manually at present for which the company is building an automatic transfer line.

The system moves the cab to the assembly line as per the production sequence. The trim line has 33 stations and assembles three models of cabs – standard roof, mid roof (with single berth) and high berth (having berths for two). At Bhuj, the body in white cab shell from the cab weld shop is taken manually for painting. Every cab goes through seven stages of dipping and coating. The booth has a seven-axis robot to give the colour coat and can give 21 different shades. The colour changeover takes less than a minute; the total painting process takes about nine hours. The fully automated paint shop has been designed by Durr AG, Germany. The paint shop has two state-of-the-art coating lines for carriages and cabs.

Besides, it is also equipped with advanced machinery and profiling coating technology that is highly automated. These processes ensure consistent quality and real- time monitoring of the entire system that gives results that are at a par with international OEMs, Bhuwalka said. At the Bhuj facility, production is planned three days in advance. However, MOST offers the flexibility to change or alter production even one day in advance. The company has developed standard operating procedures (SOP) to seamlessly assemble three different cabs and four different chassis. Besides, it also has developed SOP for process flow design.

“We want to be innovative not only in product offerings but in manufacturing too. That is why our trucks are made like cars and get assembled in a car plant,” Bhuwalka said. Located 35km from Bhuj airport on a 600-acre plot, AMW’s factory has 12 sub-plants that are designated for several truck manufacturing functions including truck assembly, welding and painting at one end and auto components, wheel rims, tippers and trailers at the other. According to Bhuwalka, AMW is the largest single location plant for wheel rims in Asia supplying pressed metal components to several multinational automobile companies including GM and Fiat. With a capacity of over 15 million wheel rims per annum, the Bhuj plant makes wheel rims for cars, trucks, tractors and off-road vehicles.

In the components section, it manufactures door panels, fenders and other sheet metal components for OEMs in India and abroad. It also produces pressed metal components for white goods and general engineering industries.

There are other focus areas too. In order to enhance employee productivity, AMW has installed air coolers in its assembly shop for proper ventilation. Bhuwalka signs off by saying,”Our wellness and balance programme ensures that employees maintain a rich work-life balance.”