In 2007, Allison bagged the first major order from DTC for 650 automatic transmission units to be fitted on the Tata Marcopolo low-floor city buses. This was the just the start of things for Allison in India. The company has been working very closely with all major Indian OEMs and has won some major repeat orders from DTC and fresh orders from other corporations. Having established its presence in the city bus segment, the company is now looking at opportunities in trucks and off-highway segment.
As part of its commitment to the Indian market, Allison has established a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility at Oragadam on the outskirts of Chennai at an investment of $60 million spread across 203,000 sq.ft.
Inaugurating the new facility, Allison Transmission Chairman and CEO Lawrence E. Dewey said: “The opening of the Chennai facility helps Allison Transmission expand its global footprint as well as its presence in India, where demand for Allison’s fully automatic transmissions is steadily growing. City transit bus and off-highway construction vehicles equipped with a broad range of Allison products are presently in service throughout India and are rapidly growing in numbers. In addition, the company is seeing increasing interest from Indian OEMs for additional On- and Off-Highway vehicle applications for Allison transmissions. In India, we see a transportation industry that continues to develop, embraces the latest technology keeps upgrading its transportation system in all facets. The future here is very bright.”
Allison Transmission Inc., Vice President of Operations David Parish, who oversaw the construction of the state-of-the-art facility, described the outstanding safety accomplishments of everyone involved in the project during the ceremony. He said: “We should all be humbled and proud that we achieved our greatest goal. No one was injured in the construction of this magnificent facility.”
The facility is designed to be flexible in the products that it is capable of producing, allowing Allison Transmission the ability to respond quickly to changing market opportunities as they develop globally. The plant was also designed with themes of energy efficiency, environmentally clean, and meets the criteria to be classified as a zero discharge facility, a facility that completely recycles all water used from all the plant processes”.
The new facility will initially manufacture three important drive train components – the sun gear, the ring gear and the pinion gear. These components will then be exported back to Allison’s global facilities for assembling them in the transmissions. In addition to being capable of manufacturing vehicular drive train components, the Chennai facility will also serve as the regional headquarters of Allison Transmission India Pvt. Ltd., housing its executive and regional sales offices. The facility also incorporates design features which will allow it to expand quickly as future marketing opportunities develop. Approximately 300 employees are expected to be employed by the facility once it is fully operational.
Mr. Ram Amarnath, Managing Director of Allison India Pvt. Ltd. in his welcome address, said: “It is a monumental day in the history of Allison Transmission. We are inaugurating the Allison India facility and it is the first wholly owned Allison facility outside of Indianapolis, Indiana. This facility is not just a manufacturing site but will also house all functional and support staff to enhance our capabilities in all stages of the value chain from design and manufacture to customisation and delivery to end user experience. We have established a world class facility with state-of-the-art machinery”.
At the launch of the project, Mr. Dewey and Mr. Parish made it very clear that the Indian facility should be world class with the best safety and manufacturing practices.
Mr. Amarnath further said: “The company’s association with India dates back more than 50 years when Allison began serving transportation companies in the country’s mining and oil field industries. Allison’s presence in India also helped the company establish a network of distributors to support the large volume of its off-highway transmissions imported by global OEMs. In the 1980s, Allison Transmission entered into a technical licensing agreement with Hindustan Motors – Power Products Divisions, now AVTEC, to localise and manufacture Allison’s off-highway series of transmissions in India under the brand name Hindustan Transmissions. Over the years this partnership has provided Allison with business growth in the Indian off-highway market segment”.
He also said: “It is our intent to expand into the medium and heavy duty bus and truck segments, utilizing our comprehensive product line. Allison Transmission’s growth in India has been propelled by fitting automatics into low-floor CNG and diesel buses in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Nagpur and other Indian cities. As we see Indian commercial vehicle manufacturers expanding in the domestic and global markets, we see great opportunity for Allison Transmission. We also feel that Indian vehicle manufacturers will demand improved safety, productivity, reliability, availability and durability of their products. Allison Transmission has become the automatic choice of commercial vehicle OEMs to meet and deliver these customer expectations”.
Allison also has manufacturing and customization facilities in North America, Hungary, Netherlands, Brazil, China and Japan. As with all its operations – whether in North America, Latin America, Europe, or Asia – delivering on the Allison Brand Promise of an automatic experience with an unrivalled combination of Quality, Reliability, Durability, Vocational Value, and Customer Service is of paramount importance, company officials said.
