One for every four: Robots sweep Maruti’s shopfloor
NEW DELHI: Signalling the rising tide of automation in India, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd has at least one robot for every four human workers employed at its Manesar and Gurgaon automobile plants — the country’s largest.
Robots are deployed largely in the weld shop, the paint shop and the press shop, where automobile car bodies are shaped. The three are 100% automated.
Manual work is now done mostly in car assembly.
India’s largest carmaker is now buying C-series robots, which are smaller in size, consume less space and are 15% faster than their predecessors. Among the suppliers of the robots is the Japanese company Fanuc Robotics. For the company’s upcoming car, the new generation Dzire, as many as 104 C Series high-speed robots are being used for welding.
More than 2,000 robots work seamlessly at the weld shop in Maruti’s Manesar facility. On a single stage frame basis, at least 12 robots work on a single car, the company said in a presentation during a media visit to the Manesar plant on Friday.
There are around 160 robots in the body paint shop and 65 in the bumper paint shop.
“We have around 2,500 robots at the Manesar facility. In total, including the Gurgaon plant, there must be around 5,000 robots,” said Rajiv Gandhi, executive director (production), Maruti Suzuki India Ltd.
Robots are becoming more ubiquitous on the shopfloors of factories across the world, sparking concern about job losses. According to International Labour Organisation numbers released in July, an estimated 137 million Asian workers could lose their jobs to robots in the next 20 years. Adidas’s Ansbach factory in Germany, run almost entirely by robot workers, is due to start production this year.
As of March 31, Maruti employed as many as 22,000 workers, its chief financial officer Ajay Seth said recently. Between 2010-11 and 2016-17, production increased from 1.27 million units to 1.6 million units.
There are still some models such as the Eeco van, where automation levels are as low as 30%. The company plans to take them up to 50-60%, Gandhi said. “On all the new models, level of automation will increase. With automation, fit and finish is better.”
Technological changes, addition of new features in automobiles, an increase in the number of parts that go into each vehicle and higher production has necessitated automation, he said.