Eaton Corporation has named Shyam Kambeyanda as the managing director for India operations. His appointment stands effective from November 1, 2007. Kambeyanda will report to James McGill, Eaton vice president –Asia Pacific and will be located in India. Dee Walter who has also been appointed as the Director, Human Resources will report to Kambeyanda and functionally to Amy Lau, director, Human Resources – Asia Pacific. Walter will take charge of office effective September 24, 2007. In this role, Kambeyanda will be responsible for working with Eaton's businesses to develop strategies that build Eaton's overall presence and success in India. Walters will be responsible for the overall human resources function in India.

Development of ‘green’ or ‘environmentally-friendly’ products is the most important environmental issue facing manufacturing businesses in India today, according to an international study on sustainability and environmental trends conducted by Harris Interactive for Dow Corning Corporation. 

More than one in four managers and professionals in rank this as a higher priority than other environmental factors such as increasing energy efficiency or reducing waste. The study of more than 1,000 people in seven countries also reveals how attitudes about sustainability vary across the world. Managers in India, China and the Americas for example, consider the health and safety of employees, customers and supplies as important – but in Korea, the highest importance is given to long term sustainability of the business. "Although there are differences in emphasis around the world, it’s evident from this research that sustainability is becoming more and more important for companies of all sizes in India," said Peter Cartwright, Dow Corning executive director for environment. "Managers in India clearly understand the importance of innovating products that have less impact on the environment and are also safer for people". 

He added, "In Dow Corning we’ve certainly see a trend amongst our own customers for ‘green’ products; often in response to consumers who are becoming more environmentally conscious As a result, we’ve worked closely with several companies to come up with some innovative approaches that help to reduce wastage, improve water quality and make buildings more sustainable."

Nikhil Nanda has taken over as the joint managing director of Escorts. He was elevated from the position of director and chief operating officer of the company. In his new role, Nanda will lead the operations of the company and will drive the business growth initiatives of Escorts. Nikhil Nanda has been the executive director of the company since May 2000 and later in October 2005 he took over the additional role of chief operating Officer. As ED & COO he has been instrumental in strategically positioning Escorts in the global arena. Very successfully he has been driving the expansion program of the construction equipment business, the fastest growing business of Escorts, through its subsidiary Escorts Construction Equipment Limited. 

To further consolidate the leadership position of Escorts in construction equipment business, he has been driving the setting up of a green field project at Ballabhgarh for manufacturing a whole range of construction equipment. On completion, this facility will provide a multiplier growth to the business top line of Escorts. In his endeavour of offering best in class technology and products from the stable of Escorts, he has successfully concluded arrangements for technology for several new products like forklifts, tower cranes, crawler cranes, loaders with technology front runners like Doosan, IHI, Weihai Huata, ALTEC.

Atlas Copco has modernised and concentrated manufacturing at its two production sites in India, creating local centers of competence for compressor and construction and mining technology. 

"India is one of our most important growth markets, where we have doubled in size over the last three years, " says Ronnie Leten, Business Area President for Compressor Technique, Atlas Copco AB. "By modernizing and concentrating our factories we will be able to introduce more new products to our customers, and it gives us a strong base to support future growth in the country ." 

Investments have been made into state-of-the-art machinery and new factory buildings amounting to approximately Rs. 525 Million (US$ 13 Million). Production has in the process also been transferred between the sites, located in Pune and Nasik, allowing them to focus entirely on compressors and construction and mining equipment respectively. 

The facility for production of compressors in Pune is being inaugurated today, at a ceremony attended by Ronnie Leten , Business Area President for Compressor Technique, Atlas Copco AB; Mike Mustapha, Managing Director of Atlas Copco (India) Ltd. and Bengt Kvarnback, Senior Advisor, Atlas Copco AB. 

Mike Mustapha said, "We have a long-term commitment to India and we are committed to our customer's superior productivity. The new production structure will result in substantial reduction in the manufacturing lead times and ultimately in much better deliveries for our customers ." 

"We have also invested in building a new World class Logistics Centre in Pune which will be inaugurated in October this year with the aim of improving the availability of spare parts which will lead to reducing the delivery time. A new state of the art Service Center for Element Rebuilding has been inaugurated in June 2007. This service centre is 5 times bigger in capacity than the earlier one. We are also introducing a new training centre focused on providing training to our customers and their employees", he added. 

Today the company has a nationwide network of 11 regional offices (North: Delhi, Chandigarh, Udaipur; West: Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur; South: Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai; East: Kolkata, Ranchi) ; 7 area offices and 10 resident offices. Atlas Copco currently has more than 1 200 employees in India. Orders received last year increased 46%, with strong growth in all business areas: Compressor Technique, Construction and Mining Technique and Industrial Technique.

Russian tractor major Traktornye Zavody would set up a production facility in India to assemble small industrial track-type tractors. According to Traktornye Zavody president and owner Mikhail Bolotin, the production unit will cost between $1 million and $1.5 million to build. The plant will assemble 150-200 vehicles every year from 2009. Traktornye Zavody comprises 15 large engineering plants that produce agricultural, road building, timber harvesting and military equipment. The concern's consolidated earnings in Jan-Aug 2007 totalled about $766 million. 

The Russian holding has been active in the Indian market since 1999. India, where Traktornye Zavody products are in high demand, has also established the licensed production of armoured carriers BMP-1 and BMP-2. These carriers are designed by Kurganmashzavod, a member of Traktornye Zavody holding. The industrial tractors will cost between $150,000 and $270,000, depending on the model. By beginning production in India, Traktornye Zavody will save on high import duties, enabling the company to sell its tractors at a lower price. Russian experts believe that cheaper labour and infrastructure in India will reduce production costs by as much as 30 per cent. 

According to Nikolai Gromov, deputy director of Traktornye Zavody, the holding is planning to establish similar assembly operations in Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Apart from industrial tractors, Traktornye Zavody also intends to manufacture air conditioners in India at the same site through the Malaysian company, Dunham-Bush, which the holding bought at the end of last year. It plans to invest $10 million in this project.

Suzuki Motorcycle India Ltd (SMIL), a wholly owned subsidiary of the $30-billion Japanese auto major, will invest Rs 1.5 billion over the next 12-18 months to expand the installed capacity of its Gurgaon plant and roll out new models in motorbike and scooter segments. "We have already invested Rs 3.5 billion since 2006 to set up the plant in Haryana with an installed capacity of 100,000 and added another 70,000-unit capacity this year to foray into the scooter segment," said SMIL joint managing director Katsumi Takata. "The additional investment will take the capacity to 220,000 units in the next fiscal (2008-09) for launching three more models - two in the motorbike and one in the scooter segment," he added. 

Takata was speaking at the launch of Suzuki's Access 125 gearless scooter in the south Indian market at Bangalore. Although Suzuki was the first overseas firm to have entered India in partnership with the Chennai-based TVS Ltd in the late eighties to introduce the two-stroke 100cc motorcycle Ind-Suzuki, the mandatory three-year lock-in period after pulling out of the joint venture (JV) delayed its entry into the Indian two-wheeler market, second largest after China worldwide. "As per the separation terms with TVS in 2002, we had to wait for three years to enter the Indian market on our own. Overwhelming response to our two motorcycles and increasing sales have emboldened us to expand our capacity and launch new models every 6-8 months in both the segments," Takata pointed out. 

While motorcycles dominate the two-wheeler market in India, mid-size gearless scooters have been making inroads over the last couple of years, thanks to its utility value, convenience and comfort. Post-expansion, Suzuki plans to increase the production share of scooters to 40 per cent of the installed capacity, with the rest of the assembly line to be used for motorcycles with higher horsepower.

Small car leader, Maruti Udyog will henceforth be called Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. The registrar of companies on September 17 approved the name change, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.The board of directors had approved 'Maruti Suzuki India Ltd' as its new name in July, while the shareholders gave their consent at the Annual General Meeting on September 6. 

'Maruti' continues to have the predominant position in the new name as it is one of the strongest corporate brand names in the country, in terms of awareness, recall, trust and customer care. While 'Suzuki' adds an international dimension, the company said. 

The international dimension would help Maruti expand its role in the global markets, when the company would launch a model for export to Europe in the next couple of years, it added. The company is also developing capabilities to assume the role of being Suzuki's Research and Development hub for Asia outside Japan.

The TPM Club India would organise the 10th Kaizen Conference 2007 - Conference cum Competition on 09-10 October 2007 in New Delhi. 

Kaizen Conferences have come a long way since the inception few years ago. It started from a simple OHP presentation to the usage of animation, cut models etc to make the presentation easily understood and kept lively. It has become a ground for displaying the innovative thoughts put to action successfully. 

The 5 winning companies at the 10th Kaizen Conference will compete with the 5 winners of 9th Kaizen Conference at the 8th TPM National Conference at Chennai during March 2008. They would be competing for Kaizen Champion trophy and also Sona Kaizen Award (cash award). At the Delhi Conference, 55 excellent Kaizens selected, screened and corrected from over 160 responses to the call for paper will be presented by 55 companies. For more details, contact: Ranjit Bhandari, Counsellor - TPM Club India, Tel: 0124-4014074(D)/ 4014060-67, Email: ranjit.bhandari@ciionline.org, URL: www.cii.in/www.tpmclubindia.org

DaimlerChrysler India Pvt. Ltd, makers of the Mercedes-Benz cars, flagged off a unique pan India drive from their manufacturing facility in Chikhali, Pune. Managing Director and CEO Dr. Wilfried Aulbur flagged-off this drive. Present on this occasion were top auto industry experts from all over the country who will be participating in this drive. 

Titled “Mercedes-Benz: The India Trail”, this drive attempts to delve deep into the hearts of this fascinating country which embodies the true spirit of rich and diverse culture, heritage and natural beauty. The trip will feature the complete portfolio of diesel cars from the Mercedes-Benz stable in India — S-Class, C-Class, E-Class, M-Class, the Bio-Diesel C-Class and the Viano. The seven cars in this entourage will cover a cumulative distance of more than 40,000 kms from September 17– October 10. The drive will touch upon larger parts of south, west and northern India. The platform epitomizes the classic synergies of superior automotive technology and driving pleasure across the country.

Kinetic Engineering Limited (KEL), the auto-component manufacturing company of the Kinetic Group, has bagged the order for supply of complete gearbox and gears for the Tata Motor's small car. 

Announcing the order, Arun Firodia, Chairman of Kinetic Group said," The small car holds big potential as it can bring safe and affordable mobility to many families. We are excited to be part of this prestigious project, and even more so as the gearbox work is important high end engineering, and a critical component of the car." 

Earlier in the year, Kinetic Group had announced completion of its business and financial restructuring aimed at tapping opportunities in the auto component manufacturing sector, estimated to reach $33-40 billion by year 2015. Under this restructuring, group company Kinetic Engineering now focuses exclusively on auto-component manufacturing and has built up a client roster that includes Tata Motors, Force Motors and several international companies from Canada, USA and Europe including MV Agusta, Tomos, Bombardier Recreational Products, Carraro, Visteon, GKN Rockford, Piaggio and Electrolux.. 

Some of Kinetic Engineering's products include small engines up to 500 cc ideal for two-wheelers & recreational products such as ATVs or jetski, complete gear boxes for automobiles, earth moving equipment, and commercial vehicles; and a wide array precision components focused on engine and transmission components.

Onward Technologies Limited (OTL), a leading player in the Engineering Design Services has announced that a dedicated Engineering Services Excellence Centre is being formed for John Deere India in Pune. 

The five-year contract will see OTL setting up this state-of-the-art dedicated facility for providing services in the areas of Product Engineering, Manufacturing and Supply management. The Centre will be operational with a staff of 50 mechanical engineers and is expected to grow. The formation of this centre builds on an already existing partnership that has added significant value to both players. 

“We have been working with Deere & Company in other areas for a few years now, and this contract takes it a step further in cementing our relationship. John Deere and Onward will be involved in design, engineering analysis, reliability and maintenance, process planning, fixtures and tool design, development support, and manufacturing support through this centre for Deere’s global product line,” Harish Mehta, Chairman and Managing Director of Onward Technologies said.