Chennai: Allison Transmission India Pvt Ltd inaugurated a $60-million multi-purpose operations facility which is located at Oragadam near Chennai. The new 203,000-square-foot manufacturing plant is spread over 28 acres in the Sipcot Industrial Park.
The facility is expected to reach full capacity within the next two years. To begin with, it will import the raw materials and parts to make the components. Then it will start manufacturing the entire transmission assembly in phases. Eventually Allison will build up a world-class supplier base and the Chennai facility, which will have have common processing facilities, will source raw materials, including forgings, locally.
In addition to being capable of manufacturing vehicular drive train components, the facility will also serve as the regional headquarters of Allison Transmission India Pvt. Ltd., housing its executive and regional sales offices.
Approximately 300 employees are expected to be employed by the facility once it is fully operational.
Allison Transmission Chairman and CEO Lawrence E. Dewey remarked that the opening of the Chennai operations facility helps Allison Transmission expand its global footprint as well as its presence in India, where demand for Allison’s fully automatic transmissions is steadily growing. City transit bus and off-highway construction vehicles equipped with a broad range of Allison products are presently in service throughout India and are rapidly growing in numbers. In addition, the company is seeing increasing interest from Indian OEM’s for additional On- and Off-Highway vehicle applications for Allison transmissions.
Dewey said the factory was a cost-effective way to source components for its plants in other parts of the world as well as meet the future demand from neighbouring countries.
The new facility will make gears for series 3000 and 4000 transmissions being made in Allison's facilities in Indianapolis (US) and Hungary. The components made here are now being validated.
The company currently imports transmissions, customises and kits them out for supply to OEMs from another facility located at Madhavaram near Chennai.
The central location of India, along with its availability of developed airports and seaports, makes it an ideal site from which Allison Transmission can continue to grow globally, Dewey said. “In India, we see a transportation industry that continues to develop, embraces the latest technology and a country that is upgrading its transportation system in all facets. The future here is very bright,” Dewey told the gathering. Members of the international media, the design team, engineers and construction workers who were instrumental in finishing the project safely, on time and on budget were also in attendance.
The facility also incorporates design features which will allow it to expand quickly as future marketing opportunities develop.
Managing Director of Allison India Pvt. Ltd. Ram Amarnath noted that the company’s association with India dates back more than 50 years when Allison began serving transportation companies in the country’s mining and oil field industries. Allison’s presence in India also helped the company establish a network of distributors to support the large volume of its off-highway transmissions imported by global OEMs.
Amarnath also pointed out that Allison Transmission decided to better meet the demands of modernization in India by establishing permanent offices in India in 2007. During his remarks Amarnath said, “It is our intent to expand into the medium and heavy duty bus and truck segments” utilizing our comprehensive product line. Allison Transmission’s growth in India has been propelled by fitting automatics into low-floor CNG and diesel buses in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Nagpur and other Indian cities.
Allison Transmission Inc., Vice President of Operations David Parish, who oversaw the construction of the state-of-the-art facility, described the outstanding safety accomplishments of everyone involved in the project during the ceremony. Parish said, “We should all be humbled and proud that we achieved our greatest goal. No one was injured in the construction of this magnificent facility.” The facility, Parish added, is designed to be flexible in the products that it is capable of producing, allowing Allison Transmission the ability to respond quickly to changing market opportunities as they develop globally. The plant was also designed with themes of energy efficiency, environmentally clean, and meets the criteria to be classified as a zero discharge facility, a facility that completely recycles all water used from all the plant processes.
Allison Transmission Chairman and CEO Lawrence E. Dewey extended his personal gratitude and thanks to the Indian government and local officials for their warm welcome and continued support of the company’s initiatives in India. |