Chrysler to source axles from PARI

Pune: The Marysville Axle Plant, Chrysler’s new plant in North America, would be utilising the services of the Pune-based Precision Automotation and Robotics India Ltd (PARI) for the assembly of axles for their various vehicles.

Talking to presspersons, Dr Ranjit Date, co-founder of PARI, said it has been chosen for the turnkey automated manufacturing line for the assembly of axles. These axles would go into Chrysler’s range of SUV (sports utility vehicle), MUV (multi utility vehicles), UUV (urban utility vehicles) and crossovers.

The order value is over Rs 15 crore. The entire system would be designed, built and tested in India at its new automation city facility and then deployed in the US plant through its subsidiary, PARI Inc, based in Detroit. The project delivery is in March 2009.

Dr Date said phase I of the automation city was functional with assembly, testing and system integrators put in place. It is spread over 1,20,000 sq ft and has taken in an investment of Rs 25 crore.

Phase II has also been launched and the construction would begin in November this year.

This would also be spread over 1,20,000 sq ft with Rs 25 crore going in as investment. The automation city planned by PARI is spread over 75 acres and would take in a total investment of Rs 250 crore.

The first project that would come out of this automation city would be for General Motors, Chakan plant — for their engine manufacturing. Dr Date noted that the Chrysler project emphasised the innovative business model deployed by PARI four years ago — where a complete project performance responsibility was taken by the PARI Inc and executed through a combination of a few key US resources and the engineering, manufacturing and project execution base of PARI in India.

He pointed out that the present situation faced by the US automotive industry to reinvent their small and fuel-efficient car platforms, and to do so with much lower capital costs in order to remain financially viable despite the low margins in this segment, represented the opportunity for its business model.

He noted that the subsidiary currently has four personnel and would be doubling the number. He said the company was also in the process of acquiring a US company, which would happen by the year-end. With that the employee strength would go up to 20. He said it was looking at a company with a turnover of $25-30 million.