IILM INSTITUTE FOR HIGHER EDUCATION

Module Instructor: Ms.

Rajkumari Mittal

Work done by: Aasif Iqubal,

Akshat Mehta, Alapatti Sriram, Anjini Reddy,

Kumari Shanta, Vishnu Vg

Project Management “Tata Nano”

ACKNOWLEGEMENT

We express our sincere thanks to our teacher Ms. Rajkumari Mittal Ma’am for extending support & providing us with this unique opportunity to explore academic interests in the field of “Project Management”. It has been very enriching & enlightening experience to work under their valuable guidance.

We would like to thank our faculty for the knowledge they have shared in compiling the project and extended guidance.

Perfect & precious guidance, hard work, single-minded dedication and full encouragement helped us to complete the project study successfully.

We are also thankful to those who helped intellectually in preparation of this project directly or indirectly.

Aasif Iqubal

Akshat Mehta

Alapatti Sriram

Anjini Reddy

Kumari Shanta

Vishnu Vg

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DECLARATION

This report is submitted after complete study on the subject “Project Management” undertaken in the Elective course of our curriculum. The project was executed in order to understand the Project management concepts through the project Tata Nano.

We, Shanta, Aasif, Akshat, Alapatti, Vishnu, Anjini; Students of IILM Gurgaon, 1st year, have undergone careful Research on various factors of a Tata Nano project management.

This is our original work and has not been submitted earlier to IILM or to any other Institution for the fulfilment of the requirement for any course of study. We also declare that no chapter of this manuscript in whole or in part is lifted and incorporated in this report from any earlier/other work done by us or others.

Place: Gurgaon (Haryana)

Date: 27th August, 2013

CHAPTER: 01

INTRODUCTION: TATA NANO

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1.1 About Tata Motors:

Tata Motor’s history started in the middle of 1900s. Tata Motors was established as Tata

Engineering and Locomotive Company Limited (TELCO) in the year of 1945. The main

aim of the company was to manufacture locomotives and engineering products. After three

years of its incorporation, it launched a steam road roller in association with the UK based

Marshall Sons. Tata Motors Limited is India’s largest automobile company, with revenues

of US $32.67 billion in 2012. It is the leader in the commercial vehicles segment and comes

among the top three in passenger vehicle segment with winning products in the compact,

mid-size car and utility vehicle segments. Tata Motors is the world’s fourth largest truck

manufacturer and second largest bus manufacturer in the world. In March 2008, Tata

Motors acquired Ford’s UK based car brands Jaguar and Land Rover (BBC News, 2008).

Achieving all the milestones, the founder Mr. Ratan Naval Tata (Chairman of Tata Group),

felt that there is a need for an innovation in the automobile sector of Tata. And as a dream

Nano came into the existence. According to Mr. Ratan Tata “TATA Nano has got to do

something for Indians and the transport system. Unavailability of good transport and poor

quality of mass transport is a common problem in India. The scenario where a father is

driving a two wheeler with his elder child standing in front and wife sitting behind holding a

baby is normal in this country. This is a relatively an unsafe mode of a family transportation.

Hence, with this idea in mind Tata Nano was created as a safer form of transport. RATAN

TATA. The above statement makes clear how the idea for an affordable vehicle car was

generated in the mind of Tata.

1.2. Introducing Tata Nano:

The incorporation of Tata Nano got a huge public and media attention due to the reason of

being low price target. According to The Financial Times report: "If ever there were a

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symbol of India’s ambitions to become a modern nation it would surely be the Nano’ the

tiny car with the even tinier price-tag.’ Nano is a triumph of homegrown engineering the

$2,200 (€1,490, £1,186) Nano encapsulates the dream of millions of Indians groping

for a shot at urban prosperity." After the launch of Nano it was believed that the car is

expected to boost Indian economy by creating several entrepreneurial opportunities across

India and it will also expand the Indian car market by 65%. The car is a visionary dream

of Mr. Ratan Tata, Chairman of the Tata Group and according to him it as an eco-friendly

"people's car". Tata Nano got a good appreciation by many sources and the media since

its launch for its low cost and eco-friendly initiatives that include using compressed-air

as fuel and an electric-version (E-Nano) car.

The Cost-cutting features of Tata Nano include the following technical specifications:

The Nano's trunk is only accessible from inside the car as the rear hatch does not

open.

A windscreen wiper instead of the usual pair has been incorporated.

There is no power steering, unnecessary due to its light weight.

There are three lug nuts on the wheels instead of the usual four.

There is only one wing mirror.

Radio or CD player is optional (the idea picked on some basic car models in North

America) 

There is no airbags on any model.

The car has 624cc rear engine with 2 cylinders only.

No air conditioning in base model (as on most basic car models in Europe and North

America

CHAPTER: 02

PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROCESS: TATA NANO

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The project management process comprises of all the phases required to design and deliver

specific projects to consumer mass.

The Nano project started in the year of 2003. The project was assigned to Mr. Girish Wagh

(Vice President & Head Small Car Project of Tata Motors), the key figure in Tata Nano

project. He was the leader of a 500 member team developers of Nano. The key concept in

the mind of team behind the project was to maintain the low price target of the car.

2.1. Project planning:

Tata Nano project followed several planning element, some of them are listed below:

Safety standard (properly designed and built car)

Power

Affordability

STP (Segmentation Targeting positioning)

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2.2. Considerable Marketing elements:

Tata Nano has segmented the target customers and positioned Nano on the basis of

following variables used:

Geographic: Target geography of Nano are both rural and urban

Demographic: family size & income.

Behavioral: On the behavioral basis Nano was aimed to be benefit & user status.

Target Market: Target market include two wheeler segment, second hand car user,

auto rickshaw market, middle and lower income group people.

Positioning: Positioning of Tata Nano was done in the minds of consumer as People’s

car.

Strategic options: Strategic targeting was focused on undifferentiated marketing.

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2.3. Defining the project:

To define a project is an important aspect of project, as this stage needs to collect proper

information which is used throughout the phases of project life cycle in order to meet the

needs of all stakeholders. Clear definition of a project helps to measure the performance

against the strategic plan of the organization.

There are some steps needed to follow in order to define a project:

To define the scope of the project: In the project scope we need to define the project

objective, deliverables, Milestones, technical requirements, limits and exclusions and

customer feedback.

Establish the project priorities: The priorities for the project are decided by project

priority matrix.

To create WBS (Work Breakdown Structure): Once the scope and deliverables are

defined the whole project work is divided into smaller work elements.

Integration of WBS with the organization is the step after WBS is created.

2.4. Work breakdown structure of Tata Nano project:

Here we have created the WBS of Tata Nano project. The WBS comprises of three level

deliverables which finally clubbed to get work packages.

MS Project sheet of WB

Have to attach file ms project

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CHAPTER: 03

PROJECT TIME MANAGEMENT: TATA NANO

3.1. List of activities of project:

For Tata Nano project we have clubbed the list of activities that included in the project

management process with the total duration consumed in the particular process.

List of project activities Duration

Market Research 81 days

Manufacturing site selection 26 days

Preparing planning document 31 days

Total project cost estimation 36 days

S u b m i s s i o n o f a p p l i c a t i o n 07days

Application Approval/Disapproval 16 days

G e t t i n g Notification 10 days

Prototyping the model 363 days

Designing Standards 153 days

Obtaining permission 22 days

Issue Tender for raw material 07 days

Procedure of material 61 days

Preparing manufacturing Site 20 days

Constructing Foundation 25 days

Constructing Plant 130 days

Starting up manufacturing 12days

Commissioning production 11 days

T e s t i n g p r o d u c t 41 day

First public Appearance 07 days

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Activity task schedule- MS Project

Have to attach file

Gantt chart- MS Project

Have to attach file ms project

CHAPTER: 04

PROCUREMENT MANAGEMENT: TATA NANO

4.1 Contracts for Nano:

Key component suppliers of Nano are setup to get the maximum benefits of their low cost

technologies that made the world’s cheapest car a reality, with global biggies such as

Nissan-Renault , Toyota, VW and Honda approaching them for parts for their low cost cars.

4.2Project Environment and Development Cycle:

Tata Nano Car was designed at Italy's Institute of Development in Automotive Engineering.

Stages in designing the car are listed below:

To Benchmark existing products and perform trend analysis

Set targets for the project

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Finalize the of style and packaging of the project

Engine design

Body, trims and fitments, and other aggregates assembling

Manufacturing of prototypes

Test of prototypes

Finalize the design selected.

Near about 80 percent of the car’s equipments were outsourced from more than 100 vendors.

Some vendors are from the Tata Group such as Tata Ficosa , Tata Toyo Radiators,

Tata Visteon, Tata Yazaki, Tata Ficosa, TACO IPD etc. Apart from TATA Group there are

other vendors also like, Dephi, Caparo, Bosch, Continental AG, Denso, FAG, Saint-

Gobain, Mahle, HIS Auto, TRW, GKN, Ficosa, and Visteon. The car is assembled by the

trained mechanical experts with the outsourced parts of the car.

CHAPTER: 05

Project Quality and safety Management: tata nano

5.1. Project quality management:

Project quality is an essential element in the manufacturing and designing phase of a project.

Quality management has to be followed in the areas such as:

Technical specifications

Design parameters

Safety norms

Marketing strategies

Pricing

Tata Nano has incorporated several quality management standards in the Nano project.

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Some of them are listed below:

Eco friendly variants and initiatives of Tata Nano

Electric driven train or electric version of the car.

5.2. Project Safety Management:

T a t a N a n o f o l l o w s t h e s a f e t y p a r a m e t e r s as per car’s specification as well as

the production safety parameters

Parameters for Specification are

The electric version of Tata Nano consists of an airbag system.

Tata Nano has sheet metal body with crumple zones, intrusion-resistant doors, seat-

belts, strong seats and anchorages and tubeless tires as safety features i n c l u d e d t o

i t s s p e c i f i c a t i o n .

P a r a m e t e r s f o r production safety are

Helmets, Gloves, Goggles for the workers

Electrical Safety measures

Fire safety measures

Distance between the machinery

CHAPTER: 06

PROJECT MONITORING AND CONTROLLING: tata nano

6.1. Stages of project to be monitored:

Proper monitoring and control mechanism helps the project to complete with ease and

delivered to mass. As far as Tata Nano’s process monitoring and control is concerned,

here are the key areas that require consistent monitoring and controlling to be done:

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For Market Research work the true data has to be collected as per the precise research

results are extremely needed to complete a good project.

Site selection is an important aspect that needs to be monitored properly in order to

avoid further obstructions.

Designing Standard and specifications of the project should be monitored to satisfy

the consumer needs.

Control the price of raw material, as raw materials are the substrate for the

manufacture of product.

At last, Manufacturing has to be monitored to give the project final outcome.

6.2. Validation and Testing standards of Tata Nano:

Tata Nano complies with Bharat Stage-III and Euro-IV emission standards.

The car has passed the testing procedure of frontal crash and the side impact crash

Tata Nano passed the required 'homologation’tests with Pune based Automotive

Research Association of India (ARAI).

Tata Nano got to score around 24 km per litre during its ‘homologation’ tests with

ARAI.

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CHAPTER: 07

PROJECT RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: tata NANO

There are more than 100 vendors contributing to the Tata Nano. Proper allocation of

resource is very important factor of the resource management. Here is shown the supplier

and their products, these are the part of the Nano project

7.1. Administration and maintenance of the project site:

Tata has done a strategic site implementation. When the project got hampered in

Singur, Tata decided to start and set up the plant in Sanand, Gujarat. There are

advantages of the Sanand site selection cities like Rajkot (near to Sanand) where

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near about 30% of Nano's components are manufactured.

Another site administration network includes the satellite plant at Pant Nagar where

assembly lines of Ace Truck have been modified to produce Nano’s.

7.2. Project completion and delivery:

The project to deliver world’s cheapest car has started in 2003 and it completed with all the

specifications met. The car was presented by India’s TATA Motors at the 9th annual Auto

Expo on the January 10, 2008 in Pragati Maidan in New Delhi, India. Commercially the

Tata Nano got launched on 23rd March 2009.

CHAPTER: 08

CONSTRAINTS OR DIFFICULTIES IN DELIVERING TATA

NANO PROJECT

Every project faces certain challenges which results into the increase delay time as well as

cost enhancement of the project. Tata Nano project in the same way faced certain challenges

while production schedules. The main obstacles or constraints for the projects are listed

below:

As the project was planned according to the delivery of a low cost car but the rising

cost of materials affected the project and the share price started depreciating which

created difficulty for Nano project.

The other main problem faced by Tata Nano was the delay time of the project as the

whole plant got to relocate to the other place and there was risk associated to the new

manufacturing and it took time to get settle over there.

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The biggest hurdle for the project was the controversy of Singur plant, West Bengal.

There was a fear in the mind of people that the farmers and the environment will get

affected due to the start of manufacturing plant on the fertile land. There were lots of

protests done against this. The final outcome came out as Tata had to relocate the

plant to Gujarat (Sanand plant). This relocation affected the project by dallying it as

well as the money invested in the Singur plant (1500crore) was wasted due to the

controversies.

  The other limitation faced during the project was by the product development as they

had to work with a huge limitation of Rs 1 lakh constraints. 

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CHAPTER: 09

FUTURE OF TATA NANO Project

 

Emerging and developing markets are fertile ground for such innovations as Nano

performed. The challenge to fulfill the demand of the low income category helps the project

to deliver the huge mass consumer base in the future and Tata Motors have understood and

explored this challenge to become the leader.

As consumers gain more power they tend to demand more tailoring and value added services

to meet their need or expectations. The organization that meets the requirement gets

competitive advantage.

 After 100 years to Henry Ford era Tata Nano has given a new platform to the consumers to

explore more opportunities.

CHAPTER: 10

RECOMMENDATIONS

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Tata Nano project has got huge appreciations from not only India but globally also. Despite

the obstacles and challenge or controversies from the country people the car has delivered as

the “people’s car” fulfilling all the expectations of the consumers. There were certain facts

that we came across such as the Singur plant issue which delayed the project. These hurdles

would have been identified in the beginning of the project as a part of market research.

Because as a planned project perspective it is necessary to identify and mitigate these kind of

risks. There were some communication issues as well. The car Nano was positioned as it

was a cheap car rather than an innovative car. And in a country (India) where ownership of a

car is considered to be aspirational, it was not the right brand statement to be projected.

Many people use to say like as they cannot afford anything else so they thought to buy a

Nano. The shareholders of Tata seemed to be little unhappy as due to Nano the share prices

of Tata Motors decreased. Hence, as a project perspective there is needed to be fully packed

with all sorts of things starting from the initial project planning to the final delivery stage.

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CHAPTER: 11

CONCLUSION

We would like to conclude the project as only one statement that Tata Nano is an exemplary

project and a beautiful example of re-engineering work done. The project target was clear

and it delivered to the people as “people’s car”. The project has shattered many myths of

people such as cheap is unsafe, rear engine cars are not safer to use, the cheaper engine will

pollute the environment (623 cc engine produces comparatively lesser carbon dioxide than

normal small car) etc. So from a project perspective we can say that Tata Nano has presented

an innovative aspect of small affordable car with comparatively lesser cost.

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http://www.tatamotors.com/

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Jessie Scanlon; What Can Tata's Nano Teach Detroit?; Bloomberg Businessweek; March 18,2009

The Making of Tata Nano - NatGeo Channel

The Tata Nano case- Making of the World's Cheapest Car; ICMR

Overdrive Team, Network18; Tata Nano: The innovations by the team; March 19,2009

Shirin kumaana-wadia; Game Changer: The TATA Nano Story; Parsi Khabar;May 3, 2010

Indrajit Gupta & R Sriram; Interview with Ratan Tata: Making of Nano;The Economics Times;Jan11,2008

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"Will the Nano Change India's Auto Industry'," http://business.rediff.com, March 25, 2009

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