Bajaj Auto’s Chakan Plant Bags TPM Award

The Japanese Institute of Plant Maintenance (JIPM) has awarded Bajaj’s Chakan plant, the world-class TPM achievement award. The highest level of achievement in total productive maintenance (TPM) as acknowledged by the JIPM was something that Bajaj Auto was not chasing, explains Pradeep Shrivastava, Executive Director, Bajaj Auto, but simply applied to boost morale. 

The company has been practising TPM in Chakan since 2004, By bagging the TPM award, Shrivastava claimed that workers in the factory will be further motivated, which will improve their mindset and also eliminate losses proactively. 

For the uninitiated, the TPM award takes into consideration the morale, productivity safety, quality etc of a production facility from the outside. It also checks the enthusiasm level of employees and the extent to which they participate in any particular task. This sort of equipment efficiency is further checked in the organisation and across hierarchies. 

As a result of prolonged TPM initiatives, Bajaj Auto's EBITDA is also among the highest. It takes into consideration different ways to eliminate extra costs of production, which in turn helps generate higher profits. 

The Chakan facility is often referred to as Bajaj Auto’s manufacturing powerhouse that helped the brand reach new heights. This was further reiterated when it commenced production of the baby KTM Dukes in India for the global market.  The Chakan plant was also home to the Pulsars which continue to reign today even after more than two decades of production. 

Such has been the development scale at Bajaj’s Chakan plant that the company had to commission a second plant there. Whereas, its first and oldest facility in Akurdi, which saw the production of Bajaj Chetak scooters, has been rebooted to cater the production of the current-gen Bajaj Chetak electric scooter.