Maruti Suzuki India is to help set up skill training and enhancement centres at its over 400 component vendors by 2020. These skill training facilities, christened 'Dojo centres', will act as training grounds for fresh workmen and also provide an re-skilling opportunity for the existing workforce.

The company states these centres will replicate the working conditions as on a typical shopfloor, so that workers feel at ease after resuming work following training. The word Dojo in Japanese means ‘a place of the way’ or a place to train in martial arts. 

In manufacturing parlance, the Dojo centre will serve as a workshop that helps in skilling, re-skilling and right-skilling workers. It will help acclimatise professionals and thoroughly prepare them, especially new workforce, before they begin working on the shopfloor at manufacturing plants. 

Commenting on the initiative, A K Tomer, executive director (Corporate Planning), Maruti Suzuki India, said, “To meet the ever-evolving customer expectations, ensuring quality at vendor-end is critical. To help achieve this, Maruti Suzuki has institutionalised the concept of Dojo Centre to be set up at our partners’ facilities. By 2020, our over 400 Tier 1 partners will have Dojo centres. These state-of-the-art centres develop skills in areas of quality, safety and productivity. This effort is to bring global quality standards and complement the Make in India initiative.”

Maruti Suzuki has institutionalised the Dojo Centre facilities and will help with the concept, while the partners make the investment towards setting up of the skill training and enhancement facility. Under the initiative ideally, a new worker will be trained for up to two weeks before he joins the shopfloor. An assessment test will be conducted at the end of the training, and only qualified workers are sent to the shopfloor.

Re-skilling for existing workforce is also being undertaken at the centres to refresh manufacturing concepts and educate them about technological advancements. It will also provide both theory and practical lessons in basic concepts of manufacturing apart from a brief overview of the company. Maruti Suzuki states that the main thrust of the Dojo training will remain on-the-job training, while inculcating a safety culture.

It may be recollected that a little over three years ago, Osamu Suzuki, chairman, Suzuki Motor Corporation, while speaking at the ACMA Convention 2015 in New Delhi, exhorted Indian suppliers to reinvest their profits in their second and third plants and enrich their manufacturing. In addition to 'Make in India', auto component suppliers should also focus on quality and cost, he said. 

Also read: SMC's Osamu Suzuki: ‘‘Besides Make in India, you also require Quality in India and Cost in India.”