Tata Motors starts first all-female car production line for the Harrier and Safari
Tata Motors has always been committed to fostering a culture of diversity and inclusion in the workplace, and this Tata Motors starts first all-female car production line for the Harrier and Safari initiative is part of Tata Motors' 'Earn and Learn' program.
Tata Motors starts first all-female car production line for the Harrier and Safari
Tata Motors, the Indian global automaker, is always known for its good deeds in the business world. As one of its diverse and inclusive work models, Tata Motors starts first all-female car production line at its Pune plant.
With this initiative, Tata Motors is bringing women to the forefront of Indian automotive manufacturing with the first all-women assembly line for its passenger cars.
The company’s two flagship SUVs, the Harrier and Safari, are assembled from the ground up by women at this production line at the Pune plant.
Over the past three years, more than 1,700 women from different parts of Maharashtra have assembled these cars from scratch at Tata Motors’ passenger vehicle (PV) plant in Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune, including lifting 15-kg windshields.
The project, which required only women to work on the assembly floor, began in April 2021, and the first all-female SUV was shipped from this assembly plant in February 2022, with female employees undergoing a rigorous 45-day training course before being assigned to the assembly line.
In a statement, Tata Motors said, “In February 2023, the first group of 80 women from the Trim, Chassis, and Final-2 (TCF-2) assembly line will complete Tata Motors’ ‘Earn and Learn’ program.”
“In fact, every employee on the TCF-2 production line is now part of the ‘Earn and Learn’ program, which is conducted in partnership with the Nettur Technical Training Foundation,” the statement added.
The program ensures that the women develop themselves and are financially independent. The women receive both practical and technical training that prepares them for the job market.
“Tata Motors has always been committed to fostering a culture of diversity and inclusion in the workplace,” says Ravindra Kumar, president and chief human resources officer, Tata Motors.
“The TCF-2 all-female production line was driven by a desire to transform the traditionally male-dominated automotive industry by putting women at the center of operations,” Ravindra Kumar added.
Tata Motors engineers made several structural changes to the old design model on the TCF-1 line. The company introduced manipulators and robots, increased the height of some workstations, and redesigned certain lifting devices, fixtures, and torque tools to make them suitable for female workers who would later form the new TCF-2 assembly line.
These changes involved not only structural aspects, but also infrastructural ones. The interest in realizing this dream came from top management, and the message was simple: first, the infrastructure must be created.
Initiatives included washrooms and hygiene systems, safe housing, a secure workplace, door-to-door transportation, cafeteria services with special attention to nutritional needs, and medical facilities with female nurses.
With the success of TCF-2, Tata Motors’ ‘Earn and Learn’ program has become a replicable model for change and capacity expansion.
“We have received requests from other Tata companies to study this model, and in the future we plan to hire 20 percent women in all our manufacturing plants,” says Alok Singh, Pune plant manager, commercial vehicles business unit, Tata Motors.
“We need to start at the bottom and build a pipeline of entrants today so that in five years we have women leaders in manufacturing, and who better than the Tatas to do that,” adds Sitaram Kandi, vice president, human resources, at Tata Motors.
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