TOYOTA'S INDIA HUB: (Left) Vikram Kirloskar, Vice Chairman, TKAP, at Toyota-Kirloskar's auto comp plant near Bangalore

Abban Kuppe Meleruva
Suryana Kanalu
Namma Karayagara Vamananthe Kiriya E Dina
Aadre Aaguvudu Vishwadalli Hiriya
Hutti Baraya Kannada Nelladalli Hutti Baraaya

Every morning at the crack of dawn 400 workers in Abban Kuppe, Bidadi, a sleepy village 40 km from the heart of Bangalore off the Bangalore-Mysore highway, break into the above song (of which only a verse has been reproduced), which is in the local dialect, Kannada. No, this isn't a village choral group giving its vocal cords a workout. Rather, these are the workers of Toyota Kirloskar Auto Parts (abbreviated TKAP, and pronounced Tee Cap), the components operations of the Japanese auto giant. The song has been written by Kiyomichi Ito, the 54-year-old soft-spoken Managing Director of TKAP, and translated into the local language. It extols how the Abban Kuppe plant will become a giant in the auto world and exhorts workers to collectively strive towards this goal.

TKAP is 64 per cent owned by Toyota Motor Corporation (which makes the Qualis, Corolla and Camry for the Indian market), 26 per cent is held by Toyota Industries and 10 per cent by Vice Chairman Vikram Kirloskar. The 520 acres (including the 50-acre campus of TKAP) that Toyota calls home houses a hi-tech unit in the midst of rolling paddy fields. From here Toyota is planning to make India its hub for manual transmissions, exporting it to asean, South America and African markets.

TKAP will manufacture R type manual transmissions, which will go into a new integrated multi-purpose vehicle that Toyota is set to roll out shortly to replace the older Kijang. TKAP has invested Rs 370 crore in the new plant and commercial production started from May 31, 2004. The plant has a capacity of turning out 1,60,000 of these transmission gearboxes. TKAP expects to export some Rs 400 crore worth of these systems.

For a company that was initially planning on just assembling, and not manufacturing, making India a production hub is indeed remarkable. The only other factory where Toyota manufactures R type manual transmissions is in Japan. Toyota is inevitably implementing its Kaizen (continuous improvement model) practices here. Kirloskar points out that Toyota Motor Corp has been able to increase capacity in India by 30 per cent with an additional investment of just 5 per cent.

It's not all hunky-dory-the Japanese aren't too thrilled by the quality of infrastructure. For instance, it takes Toyota workers 90 minutes to cover the 40 km distance between Bangalore and the plant. Ito zeroes in on the cultural divide. ''When an Indian says 'No Problem' it does not necessarily mean there is no problem. He might have said that just to please his superior,'' he laughs. Perhaps it's time for Ito to add some new verses to his favourite song.