Royal Enfield begins rolling out bikes from Oragadam plant

Chennai, April 30, 2013: Royal Enfield, which has for long been strapped for growth due to paucity of capacity, has begun commercial production from its all-new manufacturing facility at Oragadam, Tamil Nadu.

Spread over 50 acres, the Oragadam plant has an installed production capacity of 150,000 units, which is slated to be increased to 250,000 in 2014. The new plant will produce the entire six-model Royal Enfield range.

Rolling out the first motorcycle, Siddhartha Lal, MD & CEO, Eicher Motors, said, “We have recorded a major milestone with this plant becoming operational. Royal Enfield has witnessed a huge surge in demand in the recent past, recording a growth of over 50 percent for the last two years. Since demand continues to outpace supply, we conceived of a master-plan that can take production here to over 500,000 units per year. With the speedy execution of the first phase, we have increased our production target in 2013 to 175,000 motorcycles from both plants. Work on the second phase of expansion at Oragadam, which will further increase capacity to 250,000 motorcycles in 2014, has already begun.”

He added, “This new plant has been benchmarked to achieve the highest level of quality and productivity. We have re-tooled many of the parts that make up our motorcycles – so that they are of exacting accuracy and finish. The substrate quality of the sheet metal parts, for example, is now at par with the best in the world; when these parts undergo the world-leading CED and paint process here at Oragadam – they will have a surface finish and life of the highest quality.” Talking about Royal Enfield’s future plans, he said, “The ability to increase capacity fast and superior quality of motorcycles is a crucial step for Royal Enfield towards meeting our global ambitions. While we are adding new models and new dealerships in the Indian market which is fuelling our growth, we are also working on building our presence globally. Higher investments into brand and distribution, as well as new products that are very appealing to international markets are going to be key for us.” In addition to increasing capacity, the Oragadam plant has been designed to optimise production through automation while retaining the human craftsmanship distinct to Royal Enfield motorcycles.

Among the highlights are a new CED paint shop with painting capacity of 600 motorcycles per day along with a robotic painting system and powder coating system. The vehicle assembly line now has ergonomic assembly work stations, torque-controlled tools with feedback device and a capacity of producing one motorcycle a minute, or over 800 per day on two shifts. A modern IT-enable infrastructure is in place, right from material handling to review mechanisms. On the testing front, Royal Enfield has installed chassis dynamometers and has a 1.4-kilometre-long test track to put the bikes through their paces.