Automobile Industry of India

As of India 2019, India is 4th largest automobile market in the world and also surpassed
Germany in terms of Sales
The majority of India's car manufacturing industry is evenly divided into three "clusters".
Around Chennai is the southernmost and largest, with a 35% revenue share, accounting for
60% of the country's automotive exports, and home of the operations of Heavy Vehicles
Factory, Engine Factory Avadi, Ford, Hyundai, Renault, Mitsubishi, Nissan, BMW, Hindustan
Motors, Daimler, Caparo, Mini, and Datsun.
Near Mumbai, Maharashtra, along the Chakan corridor near Pune, is the western cluster,
with a 33% share of the market. Audi, Volkswagen, and Skoda are located
in Aurangabad. Mahindra and Mahindra have an SUV and engine assembly plant
at Nashik. General Motors, Tata Motors, Mercedes Benz, Land Rover, Jaguar, Fiat, and Force
Motors have assembly plants in the area.
The northern cluster is around the National Capital Region, and contributes
32%. Gurgaon and Manesar, in Haryana, are where the country's largest car
manufacturer, Maruti Suzuki, is based.
An emerging cluster is the state of Gujarat, with a manufacturing facility of MG Motors, Atul
Auto in Rajkot, Ford, Maruti Suzuki, and Peugeot-Citroën plants are also planned for
Gujarat.
Kolkata with HindustanMotors (inactive), Noida with Honda,Bengaluru with Toyota, Volvo a
nd Scania and Andhra with Isuzu and Kia are other automotive manufacturing regions
around the country.

Maruti Suzuki

Maruti Suzuki India Limited, formerly known as Maruti Udyog Limited, is an automobile
manufacturer in India. It is a 56.21% owned subsidiary of the Japanese car and motorcycle
manufacturer Suzuki Motor Corporation. As of July 2018, it had a market share of 53% of
the Indian passenger car market. Maruti Suzuki manufactures and sells popular cars such as
the Ciaz, Ertiga, Wagon R, Alto K10 and Alto 800, Swift, Celerio, Swift
Dzire, Baleno, Omni, Eeco, Ignis, S-Cross, Vitara Brezza and newly launched S-Presso small
SUV. The company is headquartered at New Delhi. In May 2015, the company produced its
fifteen millionth vehicle in India, a Swift Dzire.
Who Supplies What to Maruti Suzuki
DRIVE TRAIN

Automated Manual Transmission [Diesel 1.3L]

MAGNETI MARELLI

Transmission Piston Accumulator

FREUDENBERG

Accelerator Pedal Sensor

HELLA

Shock Absorbers & Struts

TENNECO

Bushings
VIBRACOUSTIC

EXTERIOR

Door Trim Panel

KRISHNA MARUTI

Wiring Harness
MOTHERSON SUMI

Shock Absorber Seal

FREUDENBERG

Wiper System
DENSO

HASSIS

Fog Light Lamp

MAGNETI MARELLI

Rear Lamp Bulb

MAGNETI MARELLI
Tail Lamp
MAGNETI MARELLI

Multirib Belts
CONTINENTAL

Front Lighting
LUMAX

Headlamp
LUMAX

ELECTRIC/ELECTRONICS

Condenser with Radiator

DENSO

Fuel System
PLASTIC OMNIUM

Cooler EGR
BORGWARNER

Turbo/ Supercharger
TURBO ENERGY

Fuel Injector
BOSCH/DENSO

Exhaust Cold End

FUTABA

Diesel Filter
UFI FILTERS

 
INTERIOR

Central Body Control Module

OMRON

Seat Recliner
TECHNICO SHIROKI

Air Temperature Sensors

HELLA

Manual Heater Control

JAY U-SHIN

Seat Assembly
KRISHNA MARUTI

Rain Light Sensor

VALEO

Floor Console
MINDA

Power Window
DENSO
Suppliers and Distribution of Maruti Suzuki

Maruti Suzuki has 3598 sales outlets across 1,861 cities in India. The company aims to
double its sales network to 4,000 outlets by 2020. It has 3,792 service stations across 1,861
cities throughout India. Maruti's dealership network is larger than that of enough known
companies combined. Service is a major revenue generator of the company. Most of the
service stations are managed on franchise basis, where Maruti Suzuki trains the local staff.
Also, The Express Service stations exist, sending across their repair man to the vehicle if it is
away from a normal service center.

Maruti Suzuki use two main distinct retail channels-:

1. Maruti Suzuki ARENA
2. NEXA
3. True Value
4. Commercials
Maruti Suzuki ARENA

 It is the core of their strategy to transform their network and meet customer
expectations.
 This concept is different itself from rest of the marketing platform through Digital
innovation integration.
 Customer can book their cars and even personalize models according to their
preference on the highly interactive.
 It will also provide enhanced transparency, Creation of interest and delight
customers with an exciting purchase expectation, seamlessly from the digital cloud
space to physical showrooms experience.

NEXA

 Maruti Suzuki launched a new branded retail network sales channel called “NEXA” to
an attempt to enter the high-end car segment with launch of first of its kind
premium retail network.
 It is the network from MSIL that caters the high-end consumer who wants to go for
beyond their first cars and looking for a new experience.
 The main responsibility of creating Nexa managed to successfully change customer
perception about Maruti Suzuki and through Nexa they successfully entered the
premium car segment with some very good product offering.

True Value 

At Maruti Suzuki True Value, the goal is to establish the customer's trust in the brand, by
giving customer the best ever used car buying experience. Customer handling across all the
outlets of the brand is carried out quite carefully and diligently by the True value. Unlike any
other used car outlet, making sense of all the technicalities or finding the car that is a
perfect fit for customer’s needs, all by themselves, is not something customer will have to
worry about the True value. To save customer from any such hassles, the brand maintains
dedicated experts across all their outlets. These professionals can help customer with
everything from car selection to paperwork, thus making the entire process seamless and
quick. At Maruti Suzuki True Value, every little concern of the customer, be it about the age
of the Used Car or its fuel type, is given equal attention.
Commercial 

Maruti also enters into the LCV vehicles (Light Commercial Vehicles). They launched their
Super Carry LCV with a starting ex-showroom price of Rs.4.01 Lakhs. The launch of Super
Carry LCV by Maruti has introduced dealership for retailers across the country which will
help in carrying the new identity in the corporates. The first dealership was opened in
Ludhiana, Ahmedabad, and Kolkata.

Overall Distribution Strategy

Distribution is an important marketing mix. In earlier days the consumers used to book for a
car and wait for more than a year to actually buy it. Also the concept of Show rooms was
non- existent. Even worse thing was the state of the after sales service. With an objective to
change this scenario & to offer better service to customers, Maruti took initiative. To gain
competitive advantage, Maruti Suzuki developed a unique distribution network. Presently
the company has a sales network of 802 centres in 555 towns and cities, and provides
service support to customers at 2740 workshops in over 1335 towns and cities. The basic
objective behind establishing the vast distribution network was to reach the customers even
in remote areas and deliver the products of the company. The company has formed the
Dealer territories and the concept of competition amongst these dealers has been brought
about. Periodically corporate image campaigns in all dealership are carried out. In 2003, to
increase the competition the company implemented a strategy for its dealers to increase
their profitability levels. Special awards were sometimes given by company for sales of
special categories. Maruti Suzuki had given an opportunity to dealers to make more profits
from various avenues like used car finance and insurance services. In 2001, Maruti started
an initiative known as “Non-Stop Maruti Express Highway ‘. As a part of this initiative Maruti
developed 255 customer service outlets along with 21 highway routes by 2001-02. Also with
an intention to provide fast service in less time Maruti had offered Express Service Facility.
In the year 2008, Maruti had near about 2,500 rural dealer sales executives, among the total
15,000 dealer sales executives.

Logistics
Logistics has evolved with the overall responsibility for the movement, storage and handling
of both inbound material and outbound products. Logistics innovativeness and logistics
service differentiation both positively influence logistics performance.

Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) is one of the most successful stories in supply chain and
logistics management in the Indian automobile market. Over the years it has worked to
convert obstacles into opportunities.
Over years, MSIL has been redefining supply chain strategies and operations and designing
their operations to maximize throughput and lower cost. To improve profitability and
efficiency, MSIL has been innovating to achieve operational excellence, reduce operating
cost and enhance customer service through efficient supply chain and logistics
management. MSIL understand that sustainable logistic operations positively affect the
supply chain (Grant et al., 2013)1. Lean supply chain and logistics management are critical
success factors and just-in-time (JIT) in supply chain and logistics are powerful strategies.

The company has 246 local suppliers and 20 global ones which function in a seamless
manner. The company strictly receives their supplies ordered the previous night in a two-
hour slot the next day.

For MSIL, Logistics has played an important role in keeping overall supply chain costs as low
as possible, particularly in reducing inventory. MSIL constantly innovate to achieve logistics
improvements, including studying new routes and trade options. MSIL has outsourced the
management of spare parts and components in terms of warehouse management and
transportation. The outsourced logistics service partner gets an access to the e-nagare
system of MSIL, through which MSIL can download the production schedule and coordinate
with suppliers for the components and the quantity. Logistic service providers (LSPs) actually
operate as Tier I suppliers to MSIL and maintain an inventory of 3 days in the warehouse
and 2 days of in-transit inventory. The spare parts are directly dispatched to the dealers
after receiving the indents through the MSIL system.

MSIL’s 80-plus vehicle carriers operate a combined fleet of around 9,000 trucks or trailers.
MSIL has deployed the trako Visual Cargo solution in outbound logistics trucks that
transport new cars from the factory to MSIL dealers across India. The solution provides
transport companies associated with MSIL better visibility into the transport logistics to
streamline business operations, improve efficiencies and safety, control costs and meet
delivery timelines.

MSIL has been responsive to the dynamic market and has been innovating their supply chain
and logistics management process. The changes implemented have benefited all the
partners in terms of lean operations, integration of partners in the value chain, lowering of
cost, inventory reduction, lesser transit time of finished vehicles and spare parts to their
dealers, and fulfilment of ever-changing customer expectations. The future will present
further challenges, MSIL will be required to be flexible and responsive towards their supply
chain and logistics management process and consistently introduce innovations in order to
further improve operational efficiency, quality and cost effectiveness.

 
Role of Distribution Channel in Maruti Suzuki 
Basically, Maruti Suzuki involves a distributor/franchise to sell its cars to the end customer,
it is said to be using an indirect channel. Intermediaries (wholesalers, retailers, distributors)
are needed because manufacturers lack the necessary human resources to carry out direct
marketing. Maruti Suzuki Corporation sells its cars through more than 600 dealer outlets in
India and abroad. It will not be feasible for Maruti Suzuki Corporation to buy out its dealer
network and sell cars throughout the country and abroad.

One-level Channel (Manufacturer to Distributor/Franchise to Customer): Maruti Suzuki use

one level strategy to reach their product to the end consumer which means that there is
one intermediary between the Maruti Suzuki and the consumers. Here, Dealers buy the cars
from MSIL and who in return sell the cars to the customers.