The country's largest car manufacturer, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. (MSIL), is losing around 30 million rupees per day because of the production halt at its Manesar plant. The dispute arose after the company suspended 21 employees on allegations of sabotaging its operations and deliberately causing quality problems in the vehicles being manufactured at the factory.
Among the malpractices, the workers were cutting wire harnesses from cars, which were fresh off the assembly line and removing hinges on car doors so that, entire doors would fall off during quality checks. These activities by the workers led the company on bringing out a 'good conduct bond'. The bond stated that the workers could not participate in activities that may hamper the plant's normal production.
Today, the factory, which is in close proximity to New Delhi, was guarded by the Police and the main entrance was sealed with sheets of tin. In addition to that, the company today suspended 16 more of its permanent workers and stopped the services of 12 trainees. The stand-off between the workers and the management grew further, affecting the production for the second day.
In the last three months, this is the third time that production has been suspended at the Manesar plant. This plant is responsible for the manufacturing of the A-Star, Swift and SX4 models of the Maruti Suzuki Company. The automobile manufacturer produces around 1,200 cars per day at this plant, and company has already lost production of as many units yesterday. This also caused a loss in revenue of the company to the tune of Rs.40 crores.
The Maruti Suzuki Company introduced the all-new edition of its premium hatchback Swift on August 17. At the time the company had received more than 50,000 advance bookings for the car. Company officials had, at that time, said that the customers would have to wait for around 3 months to get the delivery, which would now go up further. In the meantime, other car makers may cash in on this production halt and it may lead to MSIL to temporarily lose its market share.
Now, the Maruti Suzuki Company is tapping for new trained people from various technical institutes whom it plans to employ in the next few days to resume production and fair practices. According to the official statement of MSIL, "In the last 30 hours since production came to a halt, the company’s managers and engineers have been scouting for experienced and ITI trained manpower in the Manesar belt., they have identified over 200 people and expressed confidence that production would be ramped up in the next few days. These 200 people are likely to join in the next 2-3 days on a contract basis".
This production halt of MSIL has caused a decline in the overall sales of passenger cars in the country. This is because MSIL has a market share of around 45% in India. Unless, the production is brought back to its original numbers, the Maruti Suzuki Company would continue to lose its sales as well as revenue.
