Tata Motor’s Jamshedpur plant reached the milestone of producing 2 million trucks at its world class manufacturing unit. The plant specializes in manufacturing entire range of the heavy and medium commercial vehicles that includes Tata Prima which is used for both civil and defense purpose. Commenting on reaching the new milestone, MD of Tata Motors, Mr. Karl Slym said that the company is quite proud that the mother plant of the company from where they started their production has reached the 2 millionth milestones. He further said that company has modernized the plant that now produces most technologically advanced and high performance civil and defense products for customers across the globe. The plant manufacturers over 200 variants of trucks, that ranges from the multi-axle trucks, tippers, tractor trailers, special application vehicles and mixers. Jamshedpur plant has allowed company to evolve into a global manufacturer. Besides being sold in India these vehicles are also sold in the SAARC region, Russia, South Africa, Middle East and Myanmar.
The Jamshedpur plant of Tata Motors was set up in 1945 for manufacturing steam locomotives. It allowed company to venture into commercial automotive in 1954. The plant has seen heavy modification through the years. The plant comprises of a world class center for Design and Engineering. The center is responsible for the planning and innovation of the Tata Motor’s current and future truck programs. The center works on the complex digital design that are visualized through the 3D visuals of the new truck models, including their features and electrical design. It also comprises of facilities for prototype planning, benchmarking, chassis fabrication, vehicle assembly and customization unit. The testing unit inside the facility also includes the engine performance testing (indoor) and vehicle testing (outdoor), durability testing, NVH (Noise Vibration Harshness) testing and other testing units mainly for the performance related developments. The engine assembly plant manufacturers Tata 697/497 naturally aspirated and turbo charged engines. The plant has a capacity of about 200 engines per day.
The maim assembly line at the truck factory rolls out 5 trucks in every 5 min. There is another line that is dedicated to the vehicles that are designed for special purposes and mainly serves for defense requirement. The state of the art facility hires a flexible approach for manufacturing such that it is always ready to response with the rapid change in the customer demand and needs. The highly equipped foundry shop provides high grade SG Iron castings and is regarded as one of the highly automated foundry in the world. It also hires a high pressure molding line that holds a production capacity of about 90 molds per hour. Being one of the most advanced forging shops in India, it mainly expertise in forging critical parts like front axle beams, steering parts and crankshafts for the automobile plant. It can forge an axle beam at every 90 sec and a crankshaft per 120 sec. The forge unit has been certified as ISO 9002 and QS 9000 from BVQI.
The plant also hires a Cab & Cowl factory that is equipped with a central paint shop with the provisional metallic painting. The centralized lines helps in the faster and efficient movement of logistics and shower testing facility has been incorporated at the vehicle dispatch area. The factory also supports a clean room for the CRDi engines so, that a dust free environment can be ensured for fitting critical parts in the engine. It also has a training division and driver training Centre. Tata now uses some of the advanced technologies in its Medium and Heavy commercial vehicles like ABS (Anti-lock Breaking System), Power Steering, Automatic transmission, telematics for the fleet tracking, enhanced HVAC (Heating, ventilation and Air conditioning) system, advanced headlamp, adjustable steering, music system, on-board Diagnostic, electronic instrument cluster and other important features. The other interesting features like ESC (Electronic Stability Control in tractors and the ASR (Anti Slip Regulation) are the new technology that are currently in the developmental phase.
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