Its been almost a week since Maruti workers at the automaker’s Manesar plant went on a flash strike protesting against Maruti’s decision of not engaging contractual workers in gainful employment. Ever since, accusations and counter accusations have flown across both sides even as the Haryana government is stepping in to de-recognize the striking Maruti workers’ unions. Even so, production has been severely affected at Maruti, and that isn’t just at Maruti’s Manesar plant which manufactures the Swift A-Star and the SX4.
Even the Gurgaon plant has lost a chunk of production as workers of Suzuki Powertrain Limited, expressing solidarity with the striking workers of Maruti’s Manesar plant have gone on a flash strike. Due to this, the gearbox and other engine components that Suzuki Powertrain supplies to Maruti’s Gurgaon plant has been badly affected. Maruti Suzuki, like most automakers following Japanese production principles operates on a Just-In-Time(JIT) manufacturing schedule. This means that the automaker, now facing a shortage of parts is not able to build cars at its Gurgaon plant also.
Therefore, the production of Maruti Suzuki’s best selling cars, the Alto and the Dzire, which are both manufactured at the Gurgaon plant has been affected. The Dzire in particular clocked a superb units last month and considering the already long waiting period Dzire Diesels come saddled with, any more delay in production of the Dzire could mean that harried prospective customers look at other options like the Tata Manza and the Toyota Etios. The Alto, for long Maruti’s and India’s largest selling car is also expected to face some heat after the Hyundai Eon has been launched earlier today.
Production of the recently new Swift Hatchback, of which Maruti has received over 1,00,000 bookings so far and the SX4 Sedan, has also been badly affected since the Manesar plant remained shut down for the 6th day. The Indian festive season ofDusshera-Diwali is a time when Indian car industry makes merry due to sales peaking by 20% over other parts of the year. This time around, the festive season might nt bring much cheer to the country’s largest automaker as it has been beset with labour problems for the past few months. The competition meanwhile, will make merry even as Maruti grapples with the workers strike that seems to drag on forever.
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