Mahindra Ideal car assembly plant in Welipenna to be fully run by SL technicians

Sadhasivam Durairaj – automobile engineer and plant head at Mahindra Ideal Lanka Pvt Ltd. at its car assembly plant in Welipenna.

by Sanath Nanayakkare

An Indian automobile engineer who is plant head at Mahindra Ideal Lanka Pvt Ltd. (MILPL) car assembly plant in Welipenna is due to leave the island soon, having completed his car assembly training mission in Sri Lanka. After his departure, MILPL plant is set to be fully run by Sri Lankan technicians.

Engineer Sadhasivam Durairaj told The island Financial Review recently that he would be completing his two-year technology transfer mission and he had utmost confidence that Sri Lankan technicians have gained the knowledge and competency to assemble the cars according to the specifications of Mahindra & Mahindra, India.

“In fact, I can assure that Sri Lankan car assembly technicians at MILPL can perform the duties and responsibilities such as diagnostic tests on the assembled product to ensure efficiency and conduct adjustments as needed on a par with global standards,” he said.

Further speaking he said, “Assembly technicians must be knowledgeable about the technology and mechanical industry as well as have the ability to analyze designs as a guide for creating high-quality products. Sri Lankan technicians have fully absorbed all these skills to perform the assembly operations with no supervision”.

“I trained around 50 technicians and found that working at an assembly plant producing a quality product had come naturally to them. That made my job easier and more enjoyable.”

He added “The global automotive industry supply chain adopts lean manufacturing concepts, our Mahindra Ideal Lanka plant is a venue for lean production. We procure around 30% parts locally – seat, exhaust, battery and tyre, the local value-added parts are ordered based on the monthly requirements and procured on Just-In-Time (JIT) basis. similarly, other consumables and Imported parts are procured based on our stock holding policy – this depends on the lead time which includes packaging, shipment and Customs clearance.”

“Mahindra vehicles are a strong line-up of great reliability. In India, we call it Scorpio company or Bolero company because it is well- known for its sturdy products. And Ideal Motors Sri Lanka is a well established network with its service centers, showrooms, logistics and customer care centres. This synergy will ensure customer delight like no other partnership.”

“The plant’s annual capacity is 5,000 units, now we produce 100+ cars per month and we will ramp up daily production as market demand increases. Presently we have assembled KUV100 Manual Petrol variants, and we have planned to add KUV100 AMT Diesel variants in the time to come.”