Hyundai’s Smart Plant in Chennai is all set up to cater to the expanding present and even the electric future.
Hyundai Motor India have huge ambitions for the very near future, most of which are well-fulfilled already thanks to their state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Chennai. The Smart Plant, spread over 535 acres in Sriperumbudur, has been optimised over the years with retrofit LED lighting, four ponds for rainwater harvesting, and is almost running at its full production capacity of 7.13 lakh units. And it shows: Hyundai India rolled out their eighth millionth car in a record time of 19 years and 9 months. This, too, is set to see an expansion to 7.5 lakh units.
The target is to ‘make in India for the world’ and roll out 10 million (1 crore) cars in the first half of 2021. The six pillars underlining their effort to achieve this aim are ‘Safety Ambassador’, ‘Quality Marshal’, ‘Weight Reduction’, ‘Cost Reduction’, “Work Place Cleanliness’ and ‘Morale Captain’. The Smart Plant presently uses digitized manufacturing processes which captures 1.2 billion data points across processes. With advanced robots and complete weld automation already in operation, the Smart Plant is gearing up to produce electric vehicles, and is already equipped to meet norms for BS-VI emission class as well as car and pedestrian safety. Airbags and ABS will be offered as standard in all models. Eight new models will be launched in the next two years, including the new Kona, which is expected to arrive as early as next year.
Story: Jim Gorde
