The sector is known to hold as much promise for the country as the much touted IT and ITeS industry. And much like its IT counterpart, the auto industry is being driven by India''s advantage of a vast availability of low cost- high skilled manpower.

The next time you pick up a glossy to ogle at the specs of a futuristically designed car, you may just be able to trace its genesis back to India. Automotive engineering design services is the new buzzword and what this entails is the outsourcing of engineering and design jobs by global auto majors to countries like India.

The automobile is one of the most complex consumer products in existence. And although, worldwide the auto industry is known to have one of the most mature manufacturing processes, there are dramatic changes in product development and technology occurring even today.

Two of the most critical issues that have emerged in the recent past are competitiveness in cost, quality, and product offerings and shorter lead times to market. This in turn has encouraged auto companies to adopt world car concepts that transcend diverse geographies. No wonder then that the automotive business is being played out on a worldwide stage, with India emerging as one of the key players.

The sector is known to hold as much promise for the country as the much touted IT and ITeS industry. And much like its IT counterpart, the auto industry is being driven by India''s advantage of a vast availability of low-cost, high-skilled manpower.

Sample these developments that showcase the growth in the sector — Toyota has made India a global hub for transmissions, sourcing as many as 160,000 units a year; Hyundai has made the country an export hub for small cars; Ford is exporting the indigenously manufactured CKDs of Ikon to South Africa and other countries. Be they auto components, engineering services or ready to export passenger vehicles, most global auto majors have deepened their commitment and ties with the country, projecting India as one of the world''s auto hubs.

Historically, however, automotive employment has been tightly clustered, with major concentrations in the cities such as Nagoya (Japan) and Detroit (Chicago-US). It is in the search for cheaper labor forces, and growing domestic demand in developing countries, that of late we have been witness to trends of de-clustering, wherein supply chains of auto companies have gotten increasingly large and spread out.

The challenge today thus lies in achieving a new level of visibility and flexibility through this chain of disparate operations. It follows that to succeed in today''s business environment; automakers must be adept and agile in reconfiguring the supply chains spread across different geographies to respond to shifts in market opportunities.

One of the corner stones to an expanded visibility is the need for real-time access to integrated information across departments, supply chains and pretty much the entire workflow. But because current manufacturing processes and administrative systems are usually based on separate ''silos of information'' that run on different proprietary or fieldbus networks, the all-important real-time data required to take key decisions is often hidden.

Enter the need for Intelligent Networked Manufacturing. Intelligent Networked Manufacturing creates a single, open, intelligent, standards-based Ethernet platform that provides for a new generation of collaborative applications. Such a network integrates information and processes spanning the entire manufacturing workflow, dramatically increasing visibility and flexibility across the following areas of an automobile company:

Product Development
The solution facilitates instant delivery of key product data, including customer requirements, service records, lifecycle costs, and factory floor specifications to the design team. This visibility accelerates new product introduction, ensures manufacturability, and allows teams to more effectively drive to cost targets without compromising product quality.

Remote Supply Management
Supply chain managers can access important supplier inventory and customer requirement data, as well as component cost, availability, and manufacturing requirements. This visibility helps prevent delays in the supply chain before they occur, minimizes cost and forecast risk, and helps companies make better informed supply-chain process outsourcing or out-tasking decisions.

Production Management
The solution brings open, standards-based Industrial Ethernet to the factory floor for greater efficiency and uptime. Plant managers can then access production line information to validate inventory and reduce maintenance costs. Wireless LANs can connect assembly lines to warehouses, and run video surveillance cameras for greater security. This flexibility also allows managers to maintain and control manufacturing processes at remote or overseas manufacturing operations. E-learning applications can train production employees on new equipment and process changes more cost effectively than instructor-led training.

Sales Management
Visibility can be easily extended to customers at the point of sale — virtual showrooms that create simulated automobile experiences as per parameters selected by the customer will further improve the buying experience. Unified messaging and IP telephony applications will enable sales and support staff to respond to customer, partner, and corporate requests more quickly and efficiently.

Service Management
The solution provides service personnel and call center agents with customer records and product data so they can respond faster, more knowledgeably, and more cost-effectively, which ultimately impacts customer loyalty and retention. Service and engineering staff can also collaborate on customer issues and solutions in a virtual call center environment, improving customer satisfaction with timely resolution to their issues.

Whichever way you look at it, intelligent networks are here to help the automobile industry continually innovate, remain cost competitive and increase customer value, not to mention a day in the near future when India''s designs will appear on leading international auto magazine centre folds.

*The author is Sr vice president, Cisco Systems (India & SAARC)