Today, Tata Motors revealed that they restarting its CV and PV manufacturing operations, at select plants. Pantnagar (Uttarakhand) plant and Sanand (Gujarat) plant became operational last week for manufacturing passenger cars as well as commercial vehicles. At the Sanand plant, Tata manufactures Tiago and Tigor. At the Pantnagar plant, Tata manufactures CVs.
Tata Motors plants in Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh), Dharwad (Karnataka), Jamshedpur (Jharkhand) and Pune (only for Ambulance Vehicle manufacturing) are in final stage of readiness. Production is expected to begin in the next couple of days. Production of Harrier, Nexon and Altroz will not be started, as the area is in red zone. All three cars are produced at the company’s plant in Pune.
Restarting ops in under the strictest guidelines and can only be done upon receiving necessary approvals from government and local authorities. In time, Tata Motors will scale ops in a graded manner. This will be in line with symbiotic functioning of all aspects of business – suppliers, vendors, dealers and customers.
Guenter Butschek, CEO & MD, Tata Motors said, “Our utmost priority is the safety and wellbeing of our employees, customers and ecosystem partners. Therefore, we restart operations with limited, essential staff in each plant, adhering to all mandated safety norms while efficiently meeting operational requirements.”
At each location, Tata Motors has set up dedicated ‘Restart’ teams that will function under detailed guidelines having participated in training to maintain social distancing at all workplaces, shop floors and canteen facilities. Sanitisation measures have been enhanced. Limited staff is getting back to work in this phase. Those reporting to work will do so in personal vehicles or company transport.
As of now it’s unclear under which law the use of ‘Aarogya Setu’ app is being made somewhat of a compulsion. Companies getting back to work have directed workers to ‘download and use the mandatory app’. Employees are required to periodically declare their own and family’s health status on the Tata Motors in-house health track portal. As with other workplaces, employees and visitors entering and exiting plant premises are being screened for temperature checks.
Currently, about 200 dealerships and 300 workshops for passenger vehicles, and over 400 sales outlets and 885 workshops for commercial vehicles have restarted ops under renewed standard operating procedure (SOPs). Measures are concentrated on minimal interactions and maintaining physical distance during customer engagement.
At this point, Tata Motors reports vehicle bookings, passenger vehicle deliveries, and increasing inflow of vehicles for servicing. Customers discussion are being undertaken virtually. Necessary meetings are being conducted with prior appointment and verification of all requirements. Vehicle insurance and registration documents are being collected via mail or drop boxes.
Test drives are being offered following prior appointment at customer’s preferred location. Only one person drives the vehicle with a dealer staff member sitting in the rear seat. Every test drive is followed up with vehicle sanitation. Protective covers for interiors are being replaced following human contact.