HARMAN, a wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., today announced an expansion to its automotive electronics manufacturing plant at Chakan, near Pune, Maharashtra, in sync with the national priority program of ‘Make in India’.
Honorable Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Shri Devendra Fadvanis inaugurated the second phase of the plant today, while marking this as the first major manufacturing investment by a top global corporation, post 2019 general elections. CEO of National Institute for Transforming India (NITI Aayog), Shri. Amitabh Kant was also present at the occasion.
Established in 2014, currently HARMAN’s Chakan (Pune) plant manufactures highly sophisticated connected car solutions including automotive infotainment units for India’s domestic and global automotive customers.
After a very successful launch of phase one, the phase II expansion will triple its production capacity by the year 2021. HARMAN will install four new world- class SMT production/assembly lines, scaling from existing two to six lines, to meet the growing demands for innovative connected car solutions globally.
In the next three years, the production of Digital Cockpit Units (DCU) and Telematics Control Units (TCU) from the Chakan plant will increase from current 2,00,000 units to over 25,00,000 units annually – a steep 12-fold rise. HARMAN will also double its factory headcount to about 800 employees in the same time period. The total value of this investment is 350 Crore (US$50m).
With this expansion, HARMAN will be able to manufacture highly complex, customized connected car electronics solutions for its large domestic and global customers including Maruti Suzuki, Daimler (Mercedes Benz), Volkswagen Group, TATA Motors and Fiat Chrysler.
Speaking at the occasion, Shri Devendra Fadvanis, Honorable Chief Minister of Maharashtra, India, said “We welcome HARMAN’s new investment to boost manufacturing in the State of Maharashtra. Over the last five years, our government has had a relentless focus towards improving the ease of doing business in our State. We are excited to see a large, global corporation like HARMAN taking advantage of our programs and working towards empowering skilled workforce in India. Our Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, often calls Pune – ‘Detroit of India’ – as we see immense potential in the city, for it to lead as the global hub of automotive manufacturing.”
“We believe that the future of India’s economy is dependent on the strength and nature of our large corporations, and I’m encouraged to the first major investment by HARMAN, coming immediately after the general elections. Under our Hon’ble Prime Minister’s governance, India is set on a high trajectory growth rate by undertaking a series of structural reforms across sectors, which will catalyze private sector investments and job creation. HARMAN’s announcement today is taking a definitive step in the right direction.” said Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog.
“HARMAN is the leading supplier of critical electronic systems to the global connected car industry. Rapid improvement in India’s business friendly policies and ease of doing business helped us make this investment decision. This significant manufacturing expansion is largely in support of our growth plans and ‘Make in India’ vision. This is a major milestone for us and demonstrates our growing commitment to the country. We already have over 9,000 world class engineers and scientists at our R&D centers in Bangalore, Pune and Delhi who are contributing to our global growth. We are grateful for the support we have received from the state of Maharashtra.” said Dinesh C. Paliwal, President & CEO, HARMAN, who was present at the ground-breaking ceremony today.
HARMAN’s Chakan (Pune) plant has notched up many impressive milestones in its operations, including highest level of Quality standards including Certified and “A” ranked for VDA 6.3, IATF 16949, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001, ANSI ESD 20.20 and ISO Class 8. TATA Motors awarded HARMAN ‘Supplier of Year 2014’ and Volkswagen has applauded the Chakan plant for ‘Quality Performance’ in 2017.
Chakan Plant is part of HARMAN’s global automotive manufacturing network, which is spread across China, Hungary, Mexico, Brazil and Germany.
SOURCE: HARMAN
