TVS Motors
Encyclopedia
TVS Motor Company is the third largest two-wheeler manufacturer in India.
It is the flagship company of the parent TVS Group
employing over 40,000 people with an estimated 15 million customers. It manufactures motorcycles, scooters
, moped
s and auto rickshaws. It is India's only two-wheeler company to have won the Deming Prize
awarded for commitment to quality control, received in 2002.
who gave up lucrative careers in the Indian Railways
and in banking to set up his own business. He began with Madurai's
first bus service in 1912 and founded T.V.Sundaram Iyengar and Sons Limited, a company that consolidated its presence in the transportation business with a large fleet of trucks and buses under the name of Southern Roadways Limited. When he died in 1955 his sons took the company ahead with several forays in the automobile sector, including finance, insurance, manufacture of two-wheelers, tyres and components. The group has managed to run 33 companies that account for a combined turnover of nearly $3 billion.
in 1978 to manufacture moped
s as part of a new division. A technical collaboration with the Japanese auto giant resulted in the joint-venture Ind Suzuki Limited in 1982 between Sundaram Clayton Ltd and Suzuki Motor Corporation
. Commercial production of motorcycles began in 1984.
period during which Suzuki promised not to enter the Indian market with competing two-wheelers. The company also got over a period of labour unrest
that required Chairman Venu Srinivasan to take tough measures to resurrect a company that was in a state of turmoil. He would go on to invest in new technology, nurture in-house design, and implement Toyota-style quality programs.
manufacturing plants in Hosur, Mysore and Nalagarh
in India and Karawang
in Indonesia
. TVS Motor is credited with many innovations in the Indian automobile industry, notable among them being the introduction of India's first two-seater moped, the TVS 50cc. The company became the leader in its category of sub 100 cc mopeds, having sold 7 million units. It also introduced the TVS Scooty
, which is India's second largest brand in the scooterette segment. The TVS Jive launched in November 2009 became India's first clutch
-free motorbike aimed at a stress-free rider experience while the unisex
scooter Wego is targeted at urban couples, featuring body-balance technology for easier handling.
in 2002, becoming the first and only Indian two-wheeler company to win the award given to companies that do outstanding work in the field of Quality Management
. It is considered to be one of the world's most prestigious quality awards. The same year, the work done for the TVS Victor motorcycle won TVS Motor the National Award for successful commercialization of indigenous technology from the Technology Development Board, Ministry of Science & Technology
, Government of India
. In 2004, TVS Scooty Pep won the 'Outstanding Design Excellence Award' from BusinessWorld
magazine and the National Institute of Design
, Ahmedabad
. The effective implementation of Total Productivity Maintenance
practices won TVS Motor the TPM Excellence Award given by the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance in 2008.
TVS Motor has won several management awards, notable among them being the Emerging Corporate Giant in the Private Sector awarded by The Economic Times
and the Harvard Business School Association of India. Business Today
magazine awarded TVS Motor the Best Managed Company and the Most Investor Friendly Company awards. Its advertising practices won it the Good Advertising award by Auto India Best Brand Awards 2009. Company Chairman Venu Srinivasan
is a recipient of several awards for corporate excellence such as the Star of Asia Award by Bloomberg BusinessWeek and the JRD Tata Corporate Leadership Award. The University of Warwick
, United Kingdom gave him an honorary Doctorate of Science
degree while the Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri
, one of India's highest civilian distinctions.
Innovative implementation of Information Technology
has won TVS Motor the Ace Award for Most Innovative NetWeaver Implementation in 2007 awarded by technology major SAP AG
and the Team Tech 2007 Award of Excellence for Integrated use of Computer-aided engineering
Technologies.
TVS was ranked 54th in The Brand Trust Report
published by Trust Research Advisory.
It is the flagship company of the parent TVS Group
TVS group
TVS Group is an Indian diversified industrial conglomerate with its principal headquarters located in Chennai and Madurai. Almost all holdings of the group are private...
employing over 40,000 people with an estimated 15 million customers. It manufactures motorcycles, scooters
Scooter (motorcycle)
A scooter is a motorcycle with step-through frame and a platform for the operator's feet. Elements of scooter design have been present in some of the earliest motorcycles, and motorcycles identifiable as scooters have been made from 1914 or earlier...
, moped
Moped
Mopeds are a type of low-powered motorcycle designed to provide economical and relatively safe transport with minimal licensing requirements.Mopeds were once all equipped with bicycle-like pedals , but moped has been increasingly applied by governments to vehicles without pedals, based on their...
s and auto rickshaws. It is India's only two-wheeler company to have won the Deming Prize
Deming Prize
The Deming prize, established in December 1950 in honor of W. Edwards Deming, was originally designed to reward Japanese companies for major advances in quality improvement...
awarded for commitment to quality control, received in 2002.
History
TVS Motor traces its origins back to the entrepreneurial spirit of Thirukurungudi Venkagaruswamy Sundaram IyengarT. V. Sundaram Iyengar
T. V. Sundaram Iyengar Thirukurungudi Venkagaruswamy, was an industrialist, the founder of TV Sundaram Iyengar and Sons group of companies, one of India's largest industrial conglomerates. With his humble beginning as a lawyer, he grew into one of the most successful industrialists of his time....
who gave up lucrative careers in the Indian Railways
Indian Railways
Indian Railways , abbreviated as IR , is a departmental undertaking of Government of India, which owns and operates most of India's rail transport. It is overseen by the Ministry of Railways of the Government of India....
and in banking to set up his own business. He began with Madurai's
Madurai
Madurai is the third largest city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It served as the capital city of the Pandyan Kingdom. It is the administrative headquarters of Madurai District and is famous for its temples built by Pandyan and...
first bus service in 1912 and founded T.V.Sundaram Iyengar and Sons Limited, a company that consolidated its presence in the transportation business with a large fleet of trucks and buses under the name of Southern Roadways Limited. When he died in 1955 his sons took the company ahead with several forays in the automobile sector, including finance, insurance, manufacture of two-wheelers, tyres and components. The group has managed to run 33 companies that account for a combined turnover of nearly $3 billion.
Early years
Sundaram Clayton, then the flagship company, was founded in 1962 in collaboration with Clayton Dewandre Holdings, United Kingdom. It manufactured brakes, exhausts, compressors and various other automotive parts. The company set up a plant at HosurHosur
Hosur is a town and a municipality in Krishnagiri district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.The name of the town is from Kannada language which means 'New settlement/town' . It is a taluk of Krishnagiri district. It is located about 40 kilometres south-east of Bangalore and 38 kilometres from...
in 1978 to manufacture moped
Moped
Mopeds are a type of low-powered motorcycle designed to provide economical and relatively safe transport with minimal licensing requirements.Mopeds were once all equipped with bicycle-like pedals , but moped has been increasingly applied by governments to vehicles without pedals, based on their...
s as part of a new division. A technical collaboration with the Japanese auto giant resulted in the joint-venture Ind Suzuki Limited in 1982 between Sundaram Clayton Ltd and Suzuki Motor Corporation
Suzuki
is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Hamamatsu, Japan that specializes in manufacturing compact automobiles and 4x4 vehicles, a full range of motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles , outboard marine engines, wheelchairs and a variety of other small internal combustion engines...
. Commercial production of motorcycles began in 1984.
Suzuki relationship
TVS and Suzuki shared a 19 year long relationship that was aimed at technology transfer to enable design and manufacture of two-wheelers specifically for the Indian market. Rechristened TVS-Suzuki, the company brought out several models such as the Suzuki Samurai, Suzuki Shogun and Suzuki Fiero. Differences in opinion on how to run the join venture eventually led to the partners going their separate ways in 2001 with the company being renamed TVS Motor, relinquishing rights to use the Suzuki name. There was also a 30 month moratoriumMoratorium (law)
A moratorium is a delay or suspension of an activity or a law. In a legal context, it may refer to the temporary suspension of a law to allow a legal challenge to be carried out....
period during which Suzuki promised not to enter the Indian market with competing two-wheelers. The company also got over a period of labour unrest
Labor unrest
Labor unrest is a term used by employers or those generally in the business community to describe organizing and strike actions undertaken by labor unions, especially where labor disputes become violent or where industrial actions in which members of a workforce obstruct the normal process of...
that required Chairman Venu Srinivasan to take tough measures to resurrect a company that was in a state of turmoil. He would go on to invest in new technology, nurture in-house design, and implement Toyota-style quality programs.
Recent
Over the years TVS Motor has grown to be the largest in the group, both in terms of size and turnover, with four state of the artState of the art
The state of the art is the highest level of development, as of a device, technique, or scientific field, achieved at a particular time. It also refers to the level of development reached at any particular time as a result of the latest methodologies employed.- Origin :The earliest use of the term...
manufacturing plants in Hosur, Mysore and Nalagarh
Nalagarh
#REDIRECT Target page nameNalagarh is a city and a municipal committee in Solan district in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. It was the seat of the eponymous princely state during the British Raj, and known in medieval period as the state of Hindur. It was founded by the Chandella Rajputs in...
in India and Karawang
Karawang
Karawang is the capital of the Karawang Regency of West Java, Indonesia. It is located 32 miles east of Jakarta. Karawang has a population of 2,150,610 ....
in Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
. TVS Motor is credited with many innovations in the Indian automobile industry, notable among them being the introduction of India's first two-seater moped, the TVS 50cc. The company became the leader in its category of sub 100 cc mopeds, having sold 7 million units. It also introduced the TVS Scooty
TVS Scooty
Scooty is an Indian brand of Scooters manufactured by TVS Motors. Designed for women, Scooty is the largest selling Scooter brand in its segment. It has come to represent a generic name for any women's two-wheeler in India.-History:...
, which is India's second largest brand in the scooterette segment. The TVS Jive launched in November 2009 became India's first clutch
Clutch
A clutch is a mechanical device which provides for the transmission of power from one component to another...
-free motorbike aimed at a stress-free rider experience while the unisex
Unisex
Unisex stands for the meaning that either gender or sex will be able to, but can also be another term for gender-blindness.The term was coined in the 1962 and was used fairly informally...
scooter Wego is targeted at urban couples, featuring body-balance technology for easier handling.
Awards
TVS Motor won the Deming Application PrizeDeming Prize
The Deming prize, established in December 1950 in honor of W. Edwards Deming, was originally designed to reward Japanese companies for major advances in quality improvement...
in 2002, becoming the first and only Indian two-wheeler company to win the award given to companies that do outstanding work in the field of Quality Management
Quality management
The term Quality management has a specific meaning within many business sectors. This specific definition, which does not aim to assure 'good quality' by the more general definition , can be considered to have four main components: quality planning, quality control, quality assurance and quality...
. It is considered to be one of the world's most prestigious quality awards. The same year, the work done for the TVS Victor motorcycle won TVS Motor the National Award for successful commercialization of indigenous technology from the Technology Development Board, Ministry of Science & Technology
Ministry of Science and Technology (India)
The Ministry of Science and Technology is the Indian government ministry charged with formulation and administration of the rules and regulations and laws relating to science and technology in India.The current minister is Shri Vilasrao Deshmukh....
, Government of India
Government of India
The Government of India, officially known as the Union Government, and also known as the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of the union of 28 states and seven union territories, collectively called the Republic of India...
. In 2004, TVS Scooty Pep won the 'Outstanding Design Excellence Award' from BusinessWorld
BusinessWorld
BusinessWorld is a business newspaper in the Philippines. Its forerunner, BusinessDay, whose maiden issue came out on February 27,1967, was Southeast Asia’s first business daily. As of September 2011, it has a daily circulation of 65,000....
magazine and the National Institute of Design
National Institute of Design
The article for the postgraduate campus can be found at National Institute of Design Gandhinagar and National Institute of Design BangaloreNational Institute of Design is a design school in India. The institute functions as an autonomous body under the Department of Industrial Policy and...
, Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad also known as Karnavati is the largest city in Gujarat, India. It is the former capital of Gujarat and is also the judicial capital of Gujarat as the Gujarat High Court has its seat in Ahmedabad...
. The effective implementation of Total Productivity Maintenance
Total Productive Maintenance
Total productive maintenance originated in Japan in 1971 as a method for improved machine availability through better utilization of maintenance and production resources....
practices won TVS Motor the TPM Excellence Award given by the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance in 2008.
TVS Motor has won several management awards, notable among them being the Emerging Corporate Giant in the Private Sector awarded by The Economic Times
The Economic Times
The Economic Times is an English-language Indian daily newspaper published by the Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.. The Economic Times was started in 1961. It is the most popular and widely read financial daily in India, read by more than 8 lakh people...
and the Harvard Business School Association of India. Business Today
Business Today (Business Magazine)
Business Today is an Indian fortnightly business magazine published by Living Media India Limited, in publication since 1992. It had a second quarter 2010 readership of 338,000 per issue, ninth among English language magazines surveyed.-External links:...
magazine awarded TVS Motor the Best Managed Company and the Most Investor Friendly Company awards. Its advertising practices won it the Good Advertising award by Auto India Best Brand Awards 2009. Company Chairman Venu Srinivasan
Venu Srinivasan
Venu Srinivasan is an Indian industrialist; the Chairman and Managing Director of Sundaram Clayton Ltd and TVS Motor Company, the third largest two wheeler manufacturer in India. He also served as the President of Confederation of Indian Industry for the year 2009-10...
is a recipient of several awards for corporate excellence such as the Star of Asia Award by Bloomberg BusinessWeek and the JRD Tata Corporate Leadership Award. The University of Warwick
University of Warwick
The University of Warwick is a public research university located in Coventry, United Kingdom...
, United Kingdom gave him an honorary Doctorate of Science
Doctor of Science
Doctor of Science , usually abbreviated Sc.D., D.Sc., S.D. or Dr.Sc., is an academic research degree awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. In some countries Doctor of Science is the name used for the standard doctorate in the sciences, elsewhere the Sc.D...
degree while the Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri
Padma Shri
Padma Shri is the fourth highest civilian award in the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan...
, one of India's highest civilian distinctions.
Innovative implementation of Information Technology
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
has won TVS Motor the Ace Award for Most Innovative NetWeaver Implementation in 2007 awarded by technology major SAP AG
SAP AG
SAP AG is a German software corporation that makes enterprise software to manage business operations and customer relations. Headquartered in Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg, with regional offices around the world, SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software...
and the Team Tech 2007 Award of Excellence for Integrated use of Computer-aided engineering
Computer-aided engineering
Computer-aided engineering is the broad usage of computer software to aid in engineering tasks. It includes computer-aided design , computer-aided analysis , computer-integrated manufacturing , computer-aided manufacturing , material requirements planning , and computer-aided planning .- Overview...
Technologies.
TVS was ranked 54th in The Brand Trust Report
The Brand Trust Report
The Brand Trust Report, India Study, 2011 is published by Trust Research Advisory . The book is a result of a syndicated primary research on Brand Trust that generated 10,00,000 data points and 16,000 unique brands from over 10,000 hours of fieldwork conducted in 9 cities TRA’s study partners in...
published by Trust Research Advisory.