Maruti Suzuki targets 25 percent faster product development

Maruti Suzuki India wants to make new cars faster than before. The company is trying to compress its traditional vehicle development timeline by 25 percent. Normally, it takes four years to develop a new car from start to finish. Maruti now wants to do it in just three years. This faster development is designed to support an aggressive rollout of nine new models over the next three years. Out of these nine, seven will be SUVs. If you are a Maruti fan, many new cars are coming soon.

The company is changing the way it works. In the past, Maruti used a sequential engineering process. This means one team would finish its work, and then the next team would start. This took a lot of time. Now, Maruti is moving to concurrent engineering. This means vehicle development, component design, tooling, and manufacturing preparations will all happen at the same time. This approach helps catch design flaws early and avoids costly, time-consuming structural redesigns later in the cycle. Working in parallel saves many months.

Maruti is also using more technology. The company is significantly expanding its use of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and advanced virtual simulations. Instead of building many physical prototypes for testing, engineers can now digitally evaluate vehicle blueprints on computers. This drastically cuts down the need for multiple rounds of physical prototype testing. Computers can run thousands of tests in the time it takes to build one physical car.

Component manufacturers and vendors are being brought into the process much earlier. In the past, suppliers were brought in after the car was mostly designed. Now, they are being integrated directly into the preliminary concept phase. Tooling configurations and validation cycles will run alongside vehicle engineering. This eliminates bottlenecks at the supplier end. When the car is ready for production, the suppliers are also ready with the parts.

Maruti is also targeting a high localisation rate of over 80 percent right from the start of production for future models. This means more than 80 percent of the car’s parts will be made in India. Transitioning to localised, high-tech components will improve supply chain security and reduce transit delays from import channels. Local parts are cheaper and faster to get than imported ones.

The Indian car market is very competitive. Passenger vehicle segments are experiencing faster product lifecycles. Competing car manufacturers have rapidly expanded their utility vehicle shares. Maruti Suzuki is using this faster pipeline to fortify its multi-pathway strategy. This means they will offer cars with internal combustion engines, CNG, hybrids, flex-fuel options, and battery electric vehicles. They want to have something for every type of buyer.

If you are thinking of buying a Maruti Suzuki car, you have many new models to look forward to. The company is launching nine new models over the next three years. Most of them will be SUVs. The development time is faster, so you will see new cars more often. The company is using AI and virtual simulations to make better cars faster. They are also using more local parts, which should keep prices competitive.