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Toyota Kirloskar Auto Parts transmissions for IMV
programme

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Published May, 2006

AsaTier1supplierfromIndia,ToyotaKirloskarAutoPartsisgearingupforbiggerthings.

If one traces the history of the onceubiquitous

Maruti 800, the first People's Car of India, the
gearbox was the last thing to be indigenised.
Obviously, Suzuki Motor Corporation was loath to
part with what the company then considered its
last trump card in the Indian venture. Of course,
this was nearly a decade ago and much water has
flown under the bridge of globalisation since then.
Cut to the present millennium when Toyota Motor
Corporation conceived the IMVProject, of which
the Innova is the first offering in India. Even before
the Innova was launched in India, Toyota Kirloskar
Auto Parts (TKAP), the ToyotaKirloskar joint
venture, had won the honour to manufacture the
Rtype manual gearbox for other models like pick
up trucks based on the IMV platform, in the face of
global competition from Toyota plants in Thailand and the Philippines, along with Poland, the only
other locations outside Japan to make manual transmissions for the company.
TKAP was formed in the year 2002 as a joint venture between Toyota Motor Corporation, Toyota
Industries Corporation and Kirloskar Systems Limited. The latter was a company promoted by Vikram
Kirloskar to manufacture front and rear axles and propeller shafts for the utility vehicle Qualis,
Toyota's maiden offering in India. For the R150 manual transmission production, a separate facility
was built and production began in the year 2004 with the initial capacity of 1,60,000 units a figure
that rose to 1,70,000 units in 2005. The entire production is exported. Though TKAP was formed
especially for production of manual transmissions to cater to the Toyota's global requirements of the
IMVProject, the original plant continues to make front and rear axles and propeller shafts, now for
the Innova in India. However, gearboxes for the Innova are not manufactured locally but imported
from other Toyota production bases.
A visit to the TKAP plant at Bidadi, in the vicinity
of Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) plant, is a
revealing experience. Spread over an area of
approximately 2,00,000 sq.m, of what was once
barren, hilly terrain, now landscaped meticulously,
stand the two buildings representing the two
product lines of TKAP. Environmental concern is
high on Toyota's list of priorities, a water
harvesting scheme is implemented on the
premises. Given the popularity of the sport in
India, the premises of TKAP has a cricket ground as
well. The company has a total strength of 700
between the two plants.
As with any other facility associated with Toyota,
the facility is neatly divided across different lines
with various degrees of automation, none of it
really high, and associated checks and balances. It
has successfully adopted the Toyota Production
System (TPS), which is Toyota's variant of a lean
manufacturing system based on demand pull from
and commitment to the customer and standard
work practices. Even without any significant
automation, an operator can conveniently handle
five or six machines, and the plant works smoothly
minus the clutter of inventory, a periodic 'milkrun'
replenishing the bins, says T R Parasuraman,
general manager, HR & IR Admin, who was formerly the DGM (manufacturing).
The plant depends on 22 major and several minor vendors across the country for its requirement of

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supplies. After the various forgings are received, these pass through the various stages of soft
machining, heat treatment, hard machining and then onto subassembly and main assembly, before
ending up in the packaging bay. Nearly half the machines in the plant are from local manufacturers,
something that helped keep the cost down but also created some initial hiccups.
Kiyomichi Ito, managing director, TKAP, keeping
with the typical Toyota style of understatement,
revealed nothing of the company's strategy in
India, while providing all the information on the
transmission plant. But enough has already been
written about this plant, truly India's first real Tier
I supplier and an indicator of the importance of
the emerging Indian automotive market to Toyota
Motor Corporation. "We are still studying the
requirements of the Indian market and shall
respond according to the needs," says Ito, in reply
to the query, What next?
But Toyota Motors globally is known to be very
methodical in its approach to any market,
established or emerging. The company invests a
lot of time and resources in conducting feasibility studies and devising strategies before making a
move. The company has stated its intention of launching a product in the small car segment in the
near future and capturing figuring among the top three automobile manufacturers in India. The
company today is said to be revenue and profitabilitywise the top automobile manufacturer in the
world and within striking distance of displacing General Motors as the World No. 1 manufacturer in
terms of numbers. So, as and when it begins implementing its India strategy, TKAP would have an
important role to play in it.

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