Trantor since 2005

Details: Category: Trantor; Created on Saturday, 22 October 2011 12:12; Last Updated on Saturday, 22 October 2011 12:12; Published on Saturday, 22 October 2011 12:12; Written by G.A.B. Edwards; Hits: 574

By 1999, the Trantor tractor team of engineers had found that few of the 95% of the UK-made automotive-components were available, as many small-quantity auto-parts makers closed down or were merged so that high-volumes of a narrower variety of componentry became the central basis of the UK auto-sector. This meant that manufacturers of relatively new concept-vehicles, in the low-but growing vehicle-sales category were forced to seek to locate a new supply chain but one that was not a British one. For the Brits in the design and manufacturing team at Trantor, this was a dramatic and significant change that the engineers did not much appreciate. Necessity, however, was the mother of new supply-chain invention.

When the international market for auto-components and assemblies was studied, the results were alarming as the new supply-chain for the revised range of Trantors (In the 80-130HP categories in 2 and 4 wheel Drive) was found ONLY to exist in Mexico and India. Countries, which were rather distant from Stockport and Sandbach, where Trantors had been built since 1985.

Young, bright engineers, however were "up for the challenge" even when the work of building the vehicles had to be conducted in Madhya Pradesh (M.P.), India with a company that was 2000-worker strong and where the UK-leader of the technical team was provided with a young, enthusiastic team of eight persons, working with a very able Indian team manager from Goa, who had been trained in management by Mahindra & Mahindra, now one of the largest volume farm tractor-makers in the world.

The professional approach to market research concerned appointing D.L.N. Rao of Tata Economic Consultants Ltd., to assess the size of the Indian market. It was encouraging and predicted sales of 10,000 Trantor tractors per annum plus but not to MOST of the 650million farmers of India. Rao identified a series of niche-markets, largely in the farming sector and with a farm tractor market of 300,000 annually the figure for Trantors was then small but, by UK standards, very large indeed.

The Trantor engineering team working in India were, in general, very frustrated by the attitudes to quality and inspection and found that training was the key item they were not experienced in.

After building the first three prototypes in M.P. the next requirement was to create a very suitable supply-chain from within India and utilising the members of the ACMA auto suppliers, whilst also working closely with TATA-Telco division, TVS-group and Ashok-Leyland-Hino.

In 2004, the reasonably-experienced (of Indian commercial & technical matters) team of Brits., were asked to establish a licence-agreement with an Indian PSU (Public-sector-unit) who had been profitable because they offered a Zetor-designed farm tractor to the Indian farming community and had not only made 500,000 farm tractors to Czech-design but were very profitable in the period prior to 2003.

Government control over tractor and automotive factories has not been successful in UK and India and, as Trantor tractors joined with HMT (watches, tractors, bearings, machine-tools) it soon became clear that export quality was beyond their abilities - but worse was to come when it became clear that India`s new government (which changed after the licence-signing) was about to practice what Manmohan Singh had preached .....privatise the manufacturing firms that need not be in the public sector.

The UK-team realised that the Indian Government would starve the HMT-firm to death and not provide funds, .....even for new Export-led products like the Trantor tractor, which by then, had been designed for use in over 100 countries and had made sales in 15 of them.

Whilst the TVL work with HMT was liquidated in UK at considerable cost, the International marketing of Trantor tractors continues with a series of improved designs of tractors & vehicles but now with the addition of an Indian, low-cost supply-chain.

The operational plans of Trantor International now focus on providing product-designs, technology and factory-designs, to those overseas countries that seek to create their industrialisation, by making farm tractors and farm implements locally but for a while will import some components and some assemblies. A good example is Kenya where the Japanese advisors, the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) have recommended that Tractors and Ag-implements should form the basis of their industrialisation plans.......just as Manchester chose textiles when new industrialisation was needed in England, so long ago.

The Trantor project lives on and, as always has been the case, the FUTURE is our interest and the past part of our learning.

G.A.B. Edwards, 20.10.2011