Ford installs 92 robots at Chennai unit

Ford Motor India has installed 92 robots at its Maraimalainagar factory, which were sourced from ABB of Sweden and Durr of Germany. The company said these robots were imported to cope with surging demand, precision-build quality, flexible manufacturing capability and worker safety.

According to Michael Boneham, president and managing director, Ford India, robots take about 10-15 per cent of the load. “The sophisticated robots are installed primarily into key areas of the plant to handle repetitive tasks with high degree of accuracy and precision,” he said.

These include mostly repetitive tasks such as applying successive coats of paint, welding the car body structure, sealing a car’s underbody and hemming car doors.

The new robots were part of a planned transformation of the company's production operations to involve higher levels of automation. The plant was originally designed for manual assembly methods.

"We have 66 robots stationed at the body shop area that oversee critical processes like spot welding, sealer application and door-hemming processes. In paint shop, we have three robots to apply sealers and 16 for application of our new three-wet high-solids painting system.

Ford Motor India invested $500 million in its Chennai plant last year to double capacity to 2,00,000 cars per year, and has also added a second shift at its factory.

The first shift has a capacity of one lakh vehicles, by adding second shift the factory can produce another 40,000 cars. The company reported a 270 per cent growth during the first quarter of 2010 registering sales of 22,858 units compared to 6,814 units a year ago.