Maruti Suzuki’s board is likely to meet on Monday to decide when to resume production at its Manesar facility.
?We are awaiting the investigation report on Monday and after taking a stock of the entire situation including the technical assessment, we will decide what to do,? A Y Siddiqui COO, administration, IT and HR told FE.
Though Siddiqui declined to divulge any further details, saying that the call will be taken only after Monday, sources said the company was looking at resuming production by last week August at the plant. ?Most facilities at the plant have been restored… once we decide to resume production, which will hopefully be the case on Monday, it will take us at least one week to start the plant once again,? sources said. Maruti has been losing production of about 1,900 cars owing to the lockout.
However, it will take the company at least a month to resume production at full capacity, said another official. ?Since we need to conduct all checks, on paint, welding etc, on the first day, we will produce just a handful of cars and, then, slowly ramp it up to 10 the next day and may be 50 on the third,? he said. Given that Maruti ran its Manesar operations in two shifts, it will possibly take it at least a month to achieve full capacity of 1,900 cars a month.
What?s still not clear is how the company plans to arrange for the manpower. Each shift requires about 3,000 workers. Around 40% of its workers are temporary. This will become clear once the company reviews the police report and takes its final call.