Toyota Kirloskar starts third shift to reduce waiting period

PUNE: In order to cut down waiting periods on some of its popular models like Innova Crysta and Fortuner, auto major Toyota Kirloskar Motor has started a third shift at its plant at Bidadi, near Bangalore, to enhance production capacity by around 30 per cent.

Toyota started a third shift in the first week of May in its Bidadi factory to ramp up the manufacturing capacity.

The company has invested over Rs 90 crore to upgrade the existing infrastructure at the facility and added around 1,500 workers for the third shift at the plant.

“We have started a third shift at the plant to reduce the waiting period for our popular models like Innova Crysta, Innova Hycross, and Fortuner,” said Sudeep Dalvi, SVP and Chief Communication Officer at Toyota Kirloskar Motor.

He said the company has invested more than Rs 900 million in the plant to expand capacity.

Dalvi said the third shift would allow the plant to produce 30 per cent more, as compared to what it is producing right now, he added.

Toyota is targeting to produce 30,000 units more a year from plant 1, which currently has been utilizing its full capacity of producing 1 lakh units per annum.

The automaker has two facilities within the Bidadi compound, which roll out different sets of products. The total production capacity of plants 1 and 2 together have an installed capacity to produce 3.10 lakh units per annum at the Bidadi factory.