Bajaj Auto is currently India's largest two and three-wheeler manufacturer and one of the biggest in the world. It has long left behind its annual turnover of Rs.72 million (1968), to currently register an impressive figure of Rs.39 billion (US $ 920 million).

The company is committed to high quality standards with a motive for productivity behind it. Its constant drive for perfection and the single-minded pursuit of excellence of its people makes it one of the largest manufacturers of two and three-wheelers and gives it the resilience to take on competition from the world's biggest players. This commitment starts with the top management and extends to every worker on the shop floor.

Its growth in volumes, profitability and market share, year after year, is possible only because every aspect of its operations is managed to perfection through effective management systems, HRD initiatives and quality assurance and control.

Its products are more than just a process output. They are an expression of creative and innovative energies, in which technology plays a passionate role. And in the midst of all this, Bajaj Auto has never lost sight of the human factor. Acutely tuned to lifestyles and social conditions, Bajaj engineers are trained to develop products that precisely match consumer needs. The process of achieving such high levels of quality begins at the product development stage itself and continues right up to the time the vehicle stands gleaming in a dealer showroom.

During the elaborate development procedure, prototypes over three different stages are subjected to a battery of laboratory and field tests. Besides supervising the pre-production process, Quality Assurance lays down norms for the vendor force. Their close interaction ensures that agreed quality levels are unfailingly maintained.

On the shop floor, mistakes are not rectified but they are prevented. Cell members conduct a scrupulous self-inspection of components while Quality Control experts measure and improve manufacturing processes through the application of statistical tools. Every engine and transmission assembly, and finally every vehicle go through a series of static and dynamic product verification checks by 'Quality Control' before clearance for dispatch to the dealers.

The process of quality control is extended to its dealerships and its sales and service outlets where every dealer conducts an extensive pre-delivery inspection before a vehicle is delivered to a customer. Workshops are manned by skilled company-trained mechanics and equipped with appropriate tools, testing facilities and adequate stocks of spare parts.

The determined effort to optimise employee output has led to the adoption of the unique V1-V10 system of cellular manufacture. This model calls for a continuous minimisation ofall inputs - space, men, material, and equipment - to achieve the same level of output.

Results have been creditable. Manpower productivity measured in terms of number of vehicles per year has grown by 88% in this decade alone. More significantly, the increase in capacity at Bajaj Auto in recent years has been largely due to a surge in productivity rather than a rise in investment.

Based on their our own brand of globalisation, Bajaj Auto has built their own distribution network in over 60 countries worldwide and multiplied exports from 1% of total turnover in fiscal 1989-90 to over 5% in fiscal 1996-97.

The countries where their products have a large market are Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Italy, Sweden, Germany, Iran and Egypt. Bajaj Auto leads Colombia with 65% of the scooter market, in Uruguay with 30% of the motorcycle market and in Bangladesh with 95% of the three-wheeler market.

Text & photos: Bajaj Auto