TN Auto industry to create 5 lakh new jobs: CII study

Chennai, July 3 (UNI) The Tamil Nadu auto industry, which currently employs around 80,000 people, will generate as much as five lakh fresh jobs in the next ten years, according to a recent study by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

The study on 'Mapping of Human Resource Skills in Tamil Nadu 2015' said the auto sector in Tamil Nadu, which had 30 per cent share of auto components industry and 17 to 20 per cent share of vehicle industry, had a potential of six to seven fold increase in auto sector output.

It estimated that the projected size of the industry in the state would be USD 15 to 20 billion by 2015. Since the auto sector was manpower intensive, the growth would subsequently result in increased employment, taking the total number of employees to 5.80 lakh by 2015.

The study said the current productivity in the auto industry in terms of the annual output per employee stood at over Rs 12 lakh.

With the industry registering around eight per cent improvement in productivity, the annual output per employee was likely to increase to over Rs 16 lakh by 2010 and Rs 24 lakh by 2015.

On the skill gaps that existed in the auto industry in the state, the study said factors like increasing focus on cost competitiveness, product development, exports and global manufacturing and quality practices had been redefining the skill requirments in the industry's core activities, including sourcing, supply chain management, quality, inventory management, manufacturing, packaging and distribution and sales.

The CII study said the recent trends observed in the auto industry were adoption of lean manufacturing practices, quality practices, shifting roles of companies from being assemblers to contract manufacturers, shifting roles of product development - from product testing to design and development and purchase becoming a techno-commercial function instead of a pure commercial function.

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