Essay Example about Maruti Suzuki

Maruti is India's largest automobile company.

The company, a joint venture with Suzuki of Japan, has been a success story like no other in the annals of the Indian Automobile industry. Today, Maruti is India's largest automobile company. This feat was achieved by the Missionary zeal of our employees across the line and the far-sighted vision of our Management.We must be an internationally competitive company in terms of our products and services. We must retain our leadership in India and should also aspire to be among the global players.

Their focus is on: * Building a continuously improving organization adaptable to quick changes * Providing value and satisfaction to the customer * Aligning and fully involving all our employees, suppliers and dealers to face * competition * Maximizing Shareholder's value * Being a responsible corporate citizen At Maruti, they have a clear perspective on manpower.They see it as a unique resource, in the sense that optimal productivity of other resources depends largely on the way human resources are utilized. The basic philosophy of management that Underlies the Maruti culture is that all employees of the company should be put into a team which then strives as one, to achieve commonly shared company goals And objectives. To make this philosophy tenable, the Company takes several kinds Initiatives. Inputs are sought from employees at all levels. They believe that each one should contribute to the formulation of company policies, to achieve goals and Objectives.

Secondly, at Maruti, they encourage leadership in the best sense of the Word. According to us, a leader is one who must be impartial, must have the ability to rise above his own subjectivity, and, most importantly, must practice what he preaches. They understand that the process of creating a sense of belonging that all employees can identify with is a lengthy one. To ensure that this translates into concrete reality, they have taken several simple but specific and well thought out measures. The first step in this direction has been the introduction of a common uniform for all employees.Another measure is the creation of a common canteen where all the employees have lunch, stand in common queues, and sit on the same table.

Common toilets, common transport and similar facilities for all levels of employees are other measures that reinforce their emphasis on genuine equality in the workplace. At Maruti They do not believe in the notion of organizational hierarchies. As a matter of fact, the management structure and systems in Maruti have been designed to promote decentralization of authority. Maruti has a horizontal management structure with only four functional levels of responsibility to facilitate quicker decision making.

Another focus area of the Maruti culture is the maintenance of a smoothly functioning communication network. Maruti believes that communication channels between labor and management cannot simply consist of having a labor representative on the Board of the Company. They have faith in the ability of labor to effectively participate in management and make constructive suggestions. To encourage this, they ensure that there is a thorough dissemination of information at all levels, through newsletters or via a letter from the Chief Executive to all employees.Meetings with the Union are held regularly, and programmers being contemplated by the Company are discussed with the Union. The Sahyog Samiti, a collection of representatives of non-unionized employees, training programmers in Japan, Quality Circles, productivity-linked incentive schemes, and an ethos of discipline and teamwork, all contribute to the Maruti culture.

Several measures of performance have made amply clear that Maruti has established a truly healthy work culture. They have met all project and performance targets since inception.Their productivity levels are constantly improving. The Company has had good labor relations with employees from the very beginning, and they have been successful in the export market.

Yet, the Maruti culture is one that does not believe in resting on its laurels. They adhere to the spirit of Kaizen, which states that constant improvement is always possible. The most basic tenet of productivity that they hold dear is that " Today should be better than Yesterday and Tomorrow should be better than Today".Maruti Udyog Limited (MUL) was established in Feb 1981 through an Act of Parliament, to meet the growing demand of a personal mode of transport caused by the lack of an efficient public transport system.

Suzuki Motor Company was chosen from seven prospective partners worldwide. This was due not only to their undisputed leadership in small cars but also to their commitment to actively bring to MUL contemporary technology and Japanese management practices (which had catapulted Japan over USA to the status of the top auto manufacturing country in the world).A license and a Joint Venture agreement was signed between Government of India and Suzuki Motor Company (now Suzuki Motor Corporation of Japan) in Oct 1982. The objectives of MUL then were: Modernization of the Indian Automobile Industry Production of fuel-efficient vehicles to conserve scarce resources. Production of large number of motor vehicles, which was necessary for economic growth.A car is an engineering product, only as good as the technology used to make it.

Actual users of our technology are saying something very clearly Maruti Suzuki is No. 1 in quality: Maruti Suzuki owners experience fewer problems with their vehicles than any other can manufacturer in India (J. D. Power IQS Study 2004). The Alto was chosen No.

1 in the premium compact car segment and the Esteem in the entry level mid-size car segment across 9 parameters. The J. D. Power APEAL Study 2004 proclaimed the Wagon R. No. 1 in the premium compact car segment and the Esteem No.

1 in the entry level midsize car segment.This study measures owner delight in terms of design, content, layout and performance of vehicles across 8 parameters. Maruti Suzuki has a sales network of 307 state-of-the-art showrooms across 189 cities*, with a workforce of over 6000 trained sales personnel to guide our customers in finding the right car. Our high sales and customer care standards led us to achieve the No. 1 nameplate in the J.

D. Power SSI study 2004. The SSI study measures sales satisfaction across 6 parameters: deal received, paperwork, dealer facility, salesperson, delivery timing and delivery process.Maruti Suzuki has not only got the No.

1 nameplate in the J. D. Power SSI study 2004, but also ranked way above the industry average (Maruti Suzuki was at 784 while industry average was at 760). What is significant is that it was ranked above Skoda, Ford, Chevrolet, Mitsubishi and Hyundai. To be really happy with the car you own, it should have a reliable service network at hand and within easy reach.

Their 1036 city strong service network is equipped to service 20,000 vehicles a day.No wonder Maruti Suzuki has been awarded the No. nameplate in customer satisfaction in India for the fifth year in a row, a feat unprecedented for any automobile market leader in the world. A Buying Experience like No Other Maruti Suzuki has a sales network of 307 state-of -the-art showrooms across 189 cities, with a workforce of over 6000 trained sales personnel to guide our customers in finding the right car.

Our high sales and customer care standards led us to achieve the No. 1 nameplate in the J. D. Power SSI Study 2004.

Quality Service across 1036 Cities In the J. D. Power CSI Study 2004, Maruti Suzuki scored the highest across all 7 Parameters: least problems experienced with vehicle serviced, highest service quality, best in-service experience, best service delivery, best service advisor experience, most user-friendly service and best service initiation experience. 92% of Maruti Suzuki owners feel that work gets done right the first time during service.

The J. D. Power CSI study 2004 also reveals that 97% of Maruti Suzuki owners would probably recommend the same make of vehicle, while 90% owners would probably repurchase the same make of vehicle.The Low Cost Maintenance Advantage The acquisition cost is unfortunately not the only cost you face when buying a car. Although a car may be affordable to buy, it may not necessarily be affordable to maintain, as some of its regularly used spare parts may be priced quite steeply. Not so in the case of a Maruti Suzuki.

It is in the economy segment that the affordability of spares is most competitive, and it is here where Maruti Suzuki shines. The recent Auto car Survey conducted in August 2004 bears testimony to this fact.In the Maruti Suzuki stable, the Omni has the lowest aggregate cost of spares followed by the Maruti-800. The Maruti- 800 has the cheapest spares of any Indian car with a basket of just Rs. 23,422.

In the Lower Mid-size segment as well, price-consciousness is very high, where the cars have to be not only affordable on purchase price but also need to combine quality, drivability and have comfortable interiors. In this segment, the Maruti Suzuki Versa has scored particularly well with the lowest cost of spares in the segment.In the Upper Mid-size segment, the Maruti Suzuki Baleno has the segment's lowest prices on a majority of the spares. ISO 9001:2000 At Maruti, our approach to quality is in keeping with the Japanese practice--"build it into the product". Technicians themselves inspect the quality of work. Supervisors educate and instruct technicians to continually improve productivity and quality.

The movement of quality indicators is reviewed in weekly meetings by the top management. In 2001, Maruti Udyog Ltd became one of the first automobile companies anywhere in the world to get an ISO 9000:2000 certification.AV Belgium, global auditors for International Organization for Standardization(ISO), certified Maruti after a four day long audit, covering varied parameters like Customer Focused organization, Leadership, Involvement of people, Process approach, System approach to Management, Continual improvement, etc. In May 1995, Maruti got ISO 9002 certification.

The audit for this covered quality assurance in production, installation, marketing and sales as well as after sales services. We were also one of the first companies in the world to pioneer ISO 9000 certification for our dealers.In October 1993, MUL passed the Conformity of Production (COP) Audit, which is based on a European Union Directive. This authenticated our quality systems and testing facilities for export to Europe. Their emphasis on total quality has meant that today they are in a position to guide vendors and dealers in establishing and consolidating their individual quality systems. This commitment to quality has ensured a consistently satisfying product and world-class sales and after-sales services.

Stages in Buying Decision Process 1) Need recognition on Information Search ) Evaluation of alternatives 3) Purchase decision 4) Post purchase behavior The consumer passes through five stages: Problem recognition information search, evaluation of alternatives purchases decision and post-purchase behavior. Clearly the buying process starts long before the actual purchase and has consequences long after the purchase. This model implies that consumers pass through all five stages in buying a product. But this is not the case, especially in low-involvement purchase. Consumers may skip or reverse some stages.

Thus a woman buying her regular brand of toothpaste goes directly from the need for toothpaste to the purchase decision, skipping information search and evaluation. However, we have already used the model in above, because it captures the full range of consideration that arise when a consumer facer a highly involving new purchase. We will allude again to Linda Brown and try to understand how she became interested in buying a laptop computer and the try to understand how she became interested in buying a laptop computer and stages she went through to make her final choice.