POWER DRIVE: TVS' mobike plant at Hosur has placed the company among front-runners in the auto comp race

In the late nineties, when the split between Suzuki and TVS Motor Company was beginning to appear inevitable, the Indian company's R&D team was just about ready with its four-stroke scooter, Spectra. The product didn't exactly set the Cauvery on fire, but that's not important. What is relevant is that the Spectra gave TVS the confidence it needed to develop a four-stroke engine without Suzuki. In 2000, the blueprint for the Victor was formulated, and TVS gave itself 18 months to come up with an indigenous four-stroke bike. ''It was intensive work,'' recalls Vinay Harne, Vice President, R&D. The development of the Spectra might have provided motivation, but little else. For starters, TVS had to develop a 100cc engine; the Spectra is 150cc, bring in fuel efficiency (not the Spectra's strongest point), styling, and other features like smooth acceleration and deceleration. Intensive work, indeed.

Before the Victor eventually hit the market in September 2001, four prototypes did the rounds for customer feedback, based on which improvements were made. During trials, the company went to the extent of fitting sensors to the head, elbows and other joints of the rider to judge trauma impact when the bike went over potholes and speed-breakers and to reduce the impact to a minimum. The trials also ensured that deficiencies in existing bikes were removed-for instance, avoiding poor torque and pick-up response and ensuring optimum power and acceleration. Venu Srinivasan, Chairman & Managing Director, TVS Motor Co, was confident enough at launch time to assert that ''the Victor is a star for TVS''. And all at an investment of Rs 80 crore.

He's dead right. Today, there are some 1 million Victors on the roads. Marketshare has climbed from 6 to 10 to 12 per cent, and is expected to stabilise at 10 per cent as newer products arrive in the TVS stable. The Victor GLX, an upgraded version of the Victor, which was launched in July, sold 10,000 bikes in the first month. An economy variant is expected in September to take on Bajaj's Boxer.

RUNNING ON R&D

» Made Victor a sensation with just Rs 80 crore of investment » 1 million Victors on the roads today » Some 30 machines have been designed in-house » Economy variant of Victor scheduled for launch soon » VT-i technology a key differentiator

Consumers might have got a glimpse of TVS' design and development capabilities by 2001 with the Victor launch, but few would be aware that the seeds of those competencies were sowed way back in 1992-93, when the company initiated a change management process. Total Quality Management was kicked off, and measures like cost controls and manpower reduction-which may appear run-of-the-mill today, but were pretty radical (not just by southern standards) a decade ago-were implemented. Shopfloor operators, for so long quantity-obsessed, were tuned to become quality-oriented. Manufacturing cells were formed, accountability fixed. Supplier rationalisation also began.

If in the 1990-95 period, the focus was on employer involvement, education and training and the restructuring of manufacturing with TQM for the top management, the spotlight by the second half of the nineties moved on to sales, service and improvements-and, most important, new product development. Computer-aided designs were in, robotics was being used in manufacturing, and computer-controlled systems monitored supplier deliveries on a monthly and weekly basis on the shop floor.

TVS opted for its own customised machine tooling to the maximum extent. Some 30 machines were designed in-house with newer concepts. ''Buying machines is like a buying a pc readymade-they could have a number of features that we won't use, and may not have the one we most require,'' explains K.N. Radhakrishnan, Vice President, Planning.

It was decided that the manufacturing line would be lean and flexible, with an ability to make several models at once. This came at a cost, but the management was clearly investing in the future. Today the Victor and its new upgrade are made on one line, and the Centra and Scooty Pep on another. ''Flexibility is important because products have a lower shelf life; variety is becoming the order of the day,'' says Srinivasan. Since the launch of the Victor 23 products have entered the market.

One of the strategies the TVS team has been implementing ever since the development of the Victor is the creation of patents. The Victor's key differentiator, for instance, is the ignition's digital mapping, which reveals to users whether the engine is in power mode or in economy mode. That's not the only patent in the TVS vault. A team of 400 engineers is responsible for the 55-odd patents till date, 20 per cent of them for process development, and the rest for product development. The VT-i technology in the Centra and the Victor GLX is one manifestation of the R&D team's handiwork.

The VT-i uses effective combustion. There is a twin spark, with the second one following immediately after the first, after adjusting to engine temperature and completing the combustion process; this gets effectively translated to the wheel by eliminating friction. During deceleration, under normal circumstances the engine sucks fuel, but VT-i technology stops fuel flow to the engine without stalling it.

Immediately after the split with Suzuki, Srinivasan had declared: ''We can no longer stop with one product launch for three years, now it has to be three products in one year.'' He obviously knew what he was talking about. Expect more products, and more technological innovations like the VT-i in those TVS machines.