Tata Motors is putting women in the frontline of Indian automobile manufacturing with the first ever all-women car assembly line at its Pune plant.
This all-women assembly line, where the company’s two flagship SUVs – Harrier and Safari – are assembled by women from scratch.
For the past three years, over 1,700 women hailing from some of the remotest corners of Maharashtra have been building these cars at the Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles (PV) plant in Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune, from scratch, including lifting windshields weighing 15kg.
The project, which envisaged only women on the shop floor, began in April 2021, the first made-by-women SUV was rolled out from this assembly shop in February 2022, with the women associates undergoing a rigorous 45-day training before being stationed on the shopfloor.
The company said in a statement, “In February 2023, the first batch of 80 women from the Trim, Chassis and Final-2 (TCF-2) assembly line will graduate from the Tata Motors’ ‘Earn and Learn’ programme.”
“In fact, every employee on the TCF-2 shopfloor today is a part of the ‘Earn and Learn’ programme delivered in partnership with the Nettur Technical Training Foundation.” it added.
The programme ensures women continue pursuing self-growth and development while also being financially independent. The women receive both on-ground and technical training, preparing them for the job market.
“Tata Motors has always remained committed towards cultivating a culture of diversity and inclusion in the workplace,” says Ravindra Kumar, President and Chief Human Resources Officer, Tata Motors.
“The all-women TCF-2 production line was driven by a desire to transform the traditionally male-dominated automobile industry by placing women at the very heart of its operations”, Ravindra Kumar added.
Tata Motors engineers made several structural changes to the old design model at the TCF-1 line. The company introduced manipulators and robotics, raised the height of some workstations, and redesigned certain lifts, tackles, and torquing tools — to be suitable for women employees who would go on to form the new TCF-2 assembly line.
These changes were not just structural, but also infrastructural. The interest in driving this dream to realization came from the senior most leadership and the message was simple — first, create the infrastructure.
The washrooms and hygiene systems, safe residential options, a secure workspace, door-to-door transportation, cafeteria services with special attention to nutritional needs, and medical facilities with female attendants were some of the initiatives.
With the success of TCF-2, Tata Motors ‘Earn and Learn’ programme has become a proven model of change and capacity enhancement that can be replicated.
“We have received requests from other Tata companies to study this model and going forward we aim to hire 20 percent women across all our manufacturing plants,” says Alok Singh, Pune plant head, Commercial Vehicles Business Unit, Tata Motors.
“We have to start at the bottom and build a pipeline of entry-level population today, so that five years down the line we have women leadership in manufacturing, and who can do this better than the Tatas?” adds Sitaram Kandi, Vice President, Human Resources, Tata Motors.
