Brake systems manufacturer, Wabco India Ltd (WIL), has announced plans to set up a new manufacturing facility in Lucknow, as part of its venture to expand its footprint across India.
The new plant, for which civil work is underway, will become operational in the first quarter of 2013. With an investment of Rs 15 crore, the unit is expected to bolster Wabco’s reach in north India. This will become Wabco’s fourth manufacturing facility. With two facilities in Chennai – one dedicated for exports, and another in Jamshedpur – the market leader in brake systems is making the right moves. Wabco also has an assembly facility in Pantnagar, dedicated to the needs of Ashok Leyland, its primary customer.
Ever since its demerger from the TVS Group in June 2009, Wabco India has been pushing its customers to go the ABS way. “Only around 10 percent of commercial vehicles in India use ABS,” laments P Kaniappan, wholetime director, WIL. To counter this and to instil a sense of the equipment and its benefits, at the grassroots level, WIL has embarked on technology drives and retro-fitment of ABS kits.
“As of now, we’ve retrofitted around 20,000 vehicles with our ABS systems. We have around 150-160 centres across the country to do this. It takes two days per vehicle and the complete kit costs around Rs 50,000,” says S Balachandran, vice-president, marketing – aftermarket. “Every month,” he adds, “500-600 trucks are ‘made safe.”
Asked if this process can be cut short by supplying ABS kits directly to the OEMs, Kaniappan explains: “There is no legislation that makes ABS mandatory for commercial vehicles, except for those carrying hazardous chemicals. Therefore, the OEM has no way of knowing what the truck that rolls off the assembly line is going to be used for. Since the technology comes at a price that sounds like a lot, the customers don’t opt for it.”
The legislation is slow in its coming but in 2006, the law made it mandatory for trucks and tankers ferrying hazardous chemicals, including petroleum, to have ABS. Before that, Kaniappan says, nobody would buy trucks fitted with ABS. “Even with the law, there are many who try to circumvent it,” he continues, “some oil companies make it a point to recommend that their transport contractors use ABS in their trucks while some like Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Indian Oil Corporation have made it mandatory.”
The legislation was extended to include tractor-trailers in 2007 and now they are factory fitted with ABS.
R&D's helping hand
Another advantage that the demerger brought was the ease in transfer of technology from Wabco to WIL’s R&D centre in India. Its R&D centre, which is located in Chennai, employs close to 300 engineers.
“Our team has a bunch of people who have 10-12 years of experience in ABS technology and this tech transfer has been a boon to them,” says Balachandran. Wabco’s main R&D centre is located in Hannover, Germany, with another centre in Poland. “Now we’re opening centres in China and USA,” adds Kaniappan.
Despite being a step backward in terms of technology, WIL’s R&D centre in India has played to its strengths and has taken over the R&D for conventional braking systems, while still working on other modern advancements. “We have about 40 years' experience about growing markets and customer association. This has helped us in being a strong leader in conventional brake systems and we are using this to develop conventional braking systems across the world.”
Kaniappan extols the demerger saying, “As soon as we became Wabco India, we were exposed to many advanced systems. We are currently selling the same generation of systems sold in Europe. It is the same ECU and valves that you’d find there.”
An ABS system has a few crucial parts like a sensor, valves, modulators and ECU. At present, all parts except the valves are imported. WIL also manufactures the wiring harnesses required for the system. “It makes sense to have a centralised location that has a volume of millions, especially when it comes to electronics like ECU and sensors,” says Kaniappan. WIL is on the lookout for suppliers for sensors, but Kaniappan says that unless volumes touch 100,000 units per annum, it would not be cost effective. Currently, volumes stand at around 20,000 to 25,000 units per year.