Relationship with workers and unions is important, says Maruti Suzuki MD

Kenichi Ayukawa, Managing Director and CEO, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, is well aware that success of his business lies in constant communication with not only consumers, but also workers and unions.

A trained lawyer, Ayukawa, took charge in 2013, at a time when the company was facing tough challenges even as it was preparing to set up another entity in Gujarat.

“It is a fact that we had issues in 2012…we worked on it, continued negotiations and dealings with the workers union. In fact, talks with unions still continue. Every month, I meet them and discuss their problems as well as what is happening at the company. This is very important. We have to communicate with each other. We also have to listen to the unions’ concerns,” he said at a select media interaction to share the company’s strategy.

The Gujarat unit is being set up through a new business model wherein land will be owned by Maruti Suzuki India and manufacturing will be done by Suzuki Motors Gujarat, a subsidiary of the parent Suzuki Motor Corp, Japan. This model itself is a challenge for the company. “We have to set up the manufacturing plant in Gujarat and integrate it with the business at Maruti Suzuki. Whether we are successful or not is a big challenge. If we are successful that will be a big chance for us to look beyond…,” he said adding that relationship with workers and unions is important.

“Basic understanding of each other and communication with each other, sharing information between both sides is necessary. We try to tackle the problems between the company and unions as and when they come,” he said.

The company is preparing to roll out cars from Hansalpur plant in Gujarat from January 2017. To be set up at a total investment of ₹18,500 crore, the unit will have a production capacity of 1.5 million per annum, starting with 250,000 units in phase-1.

Ayukawa said the company’s medium-to long-term plan was to produce two million vehicles and beyond, introduce 15 new products, have 4,000 sales outlets by 2020 and 400 NEXA dealerships., Ayukawa said that the requirement for safety and emission regulations is now a national trend. As a manufacturer the company has to look at how to minimise the cost, which is a big challenge, he added.

While safety and emissions regulations were becoming more stringent, as a manufacturer the company’s challenge was to control cost.

On the recent Supreme Court-ordered ban of selling diesel passenger vehicles above 2,000-cc engine capacity in the national capital , Ayukawa said that it may not be a complete solution. “We have to look at practical solutions. We have to see how much PM 2.5 is coming from cars and how to reduce it. Environment-friendly products should be provided. The industry and everyone else has to work together on this,” he added.

Referring to the increase in recalls by vehicle manufacturers, he said while there was no aversion towards the word “recall”, it was the duty of companies to recall if they noticed certain defects in vehicles.

Recalls are of two types — manufacturing or design, he said adding that “manufacturing defect we can avoid if we take proper care. But it is not easy as automotive manufacturing has a lot of steps. Designing defect we have to avoid, sometimes things go beyond our imagination a problem happens.”

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