January 29, 2014: Ohio-based Dana Holding Corporation has inaugurated its technical centre in Pune, which become the company’s 15th facility in India.
According to Robert Pyle, president, light vehicle driveline technologies, Dana Holding Corporation, the company has invested in the range of US$ 28-30 million to set up the new technical centre, which will enable the company to perform all R&D-specific operations ranging from making product designs to building product prototypes and validating them.
“At this new technical centre, we can build our product prototypes and validate them thus shortening the duration involved in the product development cycle and also making the entire process more viable for the company,” said Pyle, who revealed that earlier the product prototypes were built and validated at offshore destinations.
Dana’s new technical centre is spread across 8,000 square metres and houses some crucial facilities such as axle testing labs (dynamometers for light vehicles and HCVs), embedded systems lab (software development for engine control units and others), fatigue area (linear, rotary actuators and other machines), materials lab, multi-axis spin stand and many other sophisticated equipment. Currently, the technical center is home to over 240 engineers.
According to company officials, the firm is committed to offer best-in-class services to its customers such as Ashok Leyland, Caterpillar India, Deere & Co,, Maruti Suzuki, Force Motors, Ford India, General Motors India, Mahindra & Mahindra, Mahindra Trucks & Buses, TAFE, Tata Motors, VE Commercial Vehicles and others. The company’s export clients include Ford Motor Company, Land Rover, Nissan, Renault, Toyota and Caterpillar.
Pyle told Autocar Professional that “this technical centre will be dedicated to our Indian operations and other markets, which will include Europe, Thailand, Australia, Indonesia and some parts of the US. While the market is down and is low on sales, it is intentional on our part to inaugurate our new technical centre during these tough times as we want to demonstrate that we are bullish about India and firmly believe in the mid- and long-term growth prospects of this region.”
Giving a rough estimate, he highlighted that the Asia-Pacific region contributes to nearly 20 percent of Dana’s global sales currently. “We are consistently working to find the right balance between global quality and cost pressures. We deal with tremendous cost pressures and yet we have to maintain our global quality across all products and services. Thus, we are working on tailored solutions for various regions and build customised products most suitable to our customers,” elaborated Pyle while talking about cost pressures involved in India-specific products.
The light vehicle drivelines is the largest vertical for Dana Holding Corporation, followed by the commercial vehicle drivelines segment, globally.
AMIT PANDAY