Auto Parts Asia — February 2018

30 | AutoPartsAsia | FEBRUARY 2018

are into trucks and buses.But those

garages need drastic overhaul. I expect

large fleet operators will have their own

garages for routine maintenance; some

have started,” he said. The company

will approach its field operators, may

be later, to ‘’ensure that we offer more

services directly in our workshops

and encourage our service dealers

also to offer more services because

that will be under the overall banner

of an aftermarket solutions provider,”

Muralidharan said.

For trucks and buses LIS has been

servicing fuel injection systems,

starters, alternators, batteries, electrical

systems, wipers, motors and the entire

range of filters and lube systems. It

is not into transmissions or engines

and may not enter that area as the

conventional internal combustion

engine is in a very transitory phase

with talks of alternate fuels and electric

vehicles. Some customers have a

mindset of only looking at parts

and services from multi-national

companies. To this he said, LIS

does not have any problem

servicing multinational products.

“We are not a product brand, we

are a corporate brand; that’s the

difference. Earlier it was Lucas

products and Lispart, today we are

not. We have many brands, but our

company is LIS. We want to be a

trail blazer and a consolidator in the

Indian market.” he said.

Remanufacturing

On the possibility of LIS entering the

remanufacturing segment, he said,

“Reman (remanufactured) in the

traditional European way will take quite

a while because the labour rates are

different. But Reman as a solution that

saves time, be it float units or whatever,

is distinctly possible. We will probably

have a repair solution, a float solution

(changing the part with a new or

refurbished one), and then a Reman

solution. We have to take it step-by-

step. I think the market will ensure it

happens when we get into things like

common rail. I doubt if we will have an

option of going in for full-fledged repair

of a common rail system. There is no

doubt that Reman solutions help the

environment. At the same time, not

many Indian customers change a part

until it is completely worn out. There

will be a tipping point of labour rates

and time consciousness where the

customer would prefer a Reman to a

full unit; something better than a repair.

For example, for batteries and fuel

injectors it would happen much earlier,

but I’m not too sure if it will happen for

all kinds of parts.”

Would lack of reverse logistics affect

the prospects of Reman? Muralidharan

said there should be reverse logistics

but that does not mean the parts need

to be taken to places thousands of

kilometres away for remanufacturing

operations. These can be taken up at

regional centres; LIS’s own workshops

can become the centres, which will be

a distinct advantage, he said.

The global integration is bound to have

a spill-over in India. One such spill-over

would be the increasing replacement

of repaired products with Reman ones.

It might not happen overnight, maybe

only for a few products it will happen

because the time to repair is also

becoming a factor. No vehicle owner,

fleet operator or car driver likes higher

turnaround time; everybody talks in

hours. People generally prefer six to

eight hours; they would like to leave

their vehicle in the morning and collect

it back in the evening. If the service

centres want that sort of speed, some

critical products would certainly go in

the direction of reman and recon, he

said.

Expansion

Consolidating his plans, Muralidharan

said the company will expand service

dealerships. “There will hardly be a

district in this country where we will

not have multiple service points. All

put together, including fuel injection

and auto electrical, we will touch a

thousand service points from about 600

now. The number of electricians in our

fold will reach 30,000 from the present

25,000. We will increase the touch

points – that’s a constant exercise –

and retailers.

For two-wheelers we have started a

retail engagement programme called

‘Mera dukan, mera LIS’ because

we had found that the two-wheeler

retailers were not really touched. In

western India we have nearly 2,000

retailers who are in this programme.

We will extend this to other regions; we

will follow the vehicle path; that’s it,”

Muralidharan concluded.

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