Pune Plant (Tata Motors)

Pune Plant

Built	1966
Location	Pune, Maharashtra, India
Industry	Motor vehicle manufacture
Products	Tata Indica (1998- present) Tata Indigo (2000- present)

Pune Plant is a commercial and passenger vehicle manufacturing facility located in Pune, Maharashtra; owned and operated by Tata Motors. The plant manufactures various commercial vehicles, and the Indigo, and Indica passenger vehicle models.

About

The Pune unit is spread over two geographical regions- Pimpri (800 acres) and Chinchwad (130 acres). It was established in 1966 and has a Production Engineering Division, which has one of the most versatile tool making facilities in the Indian sub-continent. It houses a vehicle manufacturing complex which is one of the most integrated automotive manufacturing centres in India; producing a large variety of individual items and aggregates. It is engaged in the design and manufacture of sophisticated press tools, jigs, fixtures, gauges, metal pattern and special tools, as well as models for the development of new ranges of automobile products. Its capabilities have enabled Tata Motors to introduce new products and improve existing ones without resorting to imports of dies or fixtures.

Over the years, this division has designed and manufactured automated dies, fixtures and welding equipment. Its large design group has some of the latest CAD facilities and manufacturing facilities consisting of light and heavy CNC machine shops, jig boring room, plastic template shop, wood pattern and model pattern shop, five axis precision machine tools and laser control machines. To cope with such a diverse range, four assembly lines have been established, three for commercial vehicles, and one for passenger vehicles(Tata Indica and Indigo).

The Passenger Car Division in 'K' block executes the entire process of car manufacture over five shops - the engine shop, the transmission shop, press and body shops, paint shop and the trim and final assembly shop. The shops are fully automated ensuring that there is minimal chance for error in the manufacturing processes. After the car is completely assembled, it goes through several checks like wheel alignment, sideslip test, brake test, shower test, and a short test run before it is ready for dispatch. All systems such as materials management, maintenance and other activities are computerized, enabling smooth operations and minimum inventory needs.

The Electronics Division is engaged in the production of a wide variety of machine tool controllers, test rig instrumentation, servomotors, proximity switches. In addition, it has developed a number of components such as flashers, horns, timers that are used in Tata's passenger and commercial vehicles.

Industry experts rate the fully automated foundries at Chinchwad and Maval against others worldwide. The Iron Foundry at Chinchwad produced 37,000 Tons of high precision castings in 2006-2007 while the Iron Foundry at Maval produced 14,000 Tons of spheroidal Iron castings in 2006-2007. These include cylinder blocks, cylinder heads, gear box housing, etc. For overseas demand; an Aluminium Foundry with an annual capacity of 3,300 tonnes has also been established.

It is widely believed that the new Land Rover Defender will be assembled at the Pune Plant, as well as plants in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, when it is released in 2015.