Tata Indica - The Making Of The Small Car

The case provides an understanding of the issues concerning the supply chain management system at Telco in regard to its small car, Indica. It outlines how Telco, built the supply chain for the car by leveraging its existing competencies and how it transformed itself from an integrated truck manufacturer to an automobile integrator and from a product-centric company to competence- centric company. The case discusses various components of the supply chain and emphasises how Telco orchestrated them with the objective of minimizing costs.

 

"Telco's Indica not only has a new plant and a new set of people manning the plant, but also new manufacturing philosophies, new systems and new processes in place, as it gets ready to take on its competition in the millennium to come."

- Business India, March 22, 1999.

Background Note

The history of Telco, India's leading automobile manufacturer dates back to the early 1920s. The location of the Telco plant originally belonged to Peninsular Locomotive Company (Peninsular), which was established in Tatanagar, Jamshedpur in 1923. In 1927, Peninsular was taken over by East India Railway to manufacture passenger carriage underframes for the Indian Railways. In 1945, Tata Sons purchased the plant from the Government of India for manufacturing steam locomotive boilers and other engineering products, under the name Tata Locomotive & Engineering Company. Initially the company manufactured broad gauge open wagons for the Indian Railways. By 1947, it started producing boilers for imported locomotives. The company also entered into collaborations with Marshal Sons (UK) to manufacture steam road roller, and with Krauss Maffei (West Germany) to manufacture steam locomotives. In 1954, the company entered into a technical collaboration with Daimler-Benz to manufacture automotive vehicles.

The association with Daimler-Benz helped the company build up a strong in-house R&D center (Engineering Research Center - ERC) at Pune, Maharashtra. In 1960, company’s name was changed to Tata Engineering & Locomotive Company Ltd. By 1961, it was manufacturing construction equipments. Over the years, the company acquired technology from several collaborations and co-operation agreements with international companies (Refer Table I).

TABLE I
TELCO - COLLABORATIONS AND JOINT VENTURES

Source: www.telcoindia.com

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