Tata Nano Case Study 3.1

        Tata Motors were inspired to build the Tata Nano by seeing a father driving his families around with scooter. From the text, Tata was speaking at the unveiling ceremony at the 9th Auto Expo in New Delhi, He states that “I observed families riding on two-wheelers, the father driving the scooter, his young kid standing in front of him, his wife seat behind him holding a little baby. It led me to wonder whether one could conceive of a safe, affordable, all-weather form of transport for such a family” he knew that he could come up with something and help them. There was a need of inexpensive car in India because the consuming of cars in India was half of the population and the rest are motorcycles and scooters so he wanted to replace them to Tata Nano. According to the text, “the car is aimed at keeping the families of India’s growing middle class from having to travel with as many as four people on a scooter”.

        Tata Motors did a research on the customer by studying and trying to understand them. Understanding the customer’s values and what they need was the key concept to Tata and how the Nano car will be built and function. The engineers worked to do more with less. Tata has could cut down the price by asking his engineers and suppliers to redesign the many components to cut costs. For example, speedometer was placed the center of the dashboard over the air events, not behind the steering wheel, which the dashboard can be built with fewer parts. Tata and his engineer did their best to cut costs and meet the target of $2,500 for the price of the car. I think low price means poor quality because the main purpose of producing Tata Nano is to attract the middle class who couldn’t afford expensive car which lead cost-cutting ideas such as, eliminate actuators in the headlights, the levelers that adjust the angle of the beam depending on how the car was loaded. Nano is much lighter than comparable models because they reduce the amount of steel in the car including the use of aluminum engine and the use of lightweight steel as possible.

        Tata motors had originally planned to manufacture Nano in Singur, West Bengal, India. However, the problem arose immediately after the purchased of the land from West Bengal government. Because the government did not actually own the land, but acquired it from local farmers by imposing the force of eminent domain. The protests hinged upon allegations that Tata forced farmers from their land and handed out payments that were a portion of the land’s value. The dispute went to the peak, over thirty thousand activities and farmers were overwhelmed in Singur, West Bengal state, to march against the plant. The highway leading to Singur was blocked and Tata Motors was force to evacuate employees from the plant site. Employees failed to show up to work after a threats from protestors. Finally, Tata Motors was putting detailed plan together for the relocation of the plant and machinery, but ended up in Tata’s existing factory in Pantnagar in Uttarakhand. The important features of the Indian economic environment were land, because most was issued for agriculture. Local farmers living related to land. Therefore, doing business in India has to consider about the land and local farmers.