Hero Honda
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Hero Honda Motorcycle Ltd. | |
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| Type | Public company BSE:HEROHONDA M |
|---|---|
| Founded | January 19, 1984 in Gurgaon, Haryana, India |
| Headquarters |  Haryana, India |
| Key people | Om Prakash Munjal, Founder
Mr. Pawan Munjal, Managing Director, CEO |
| Industry | Automotive |
| Products | Motorcycles, Scooters |
| Revenue |  U$ 2.8 billion |
| Website | www.HeroHonda.com |
Hero Honda Motorcycles is the World's biggest manufacturer of motorcycles (by quantity). Hero Honda is a 50:50 joint venture that began in 1984 between the Hero group of India and Honda from Japan. It has been the world's biggest manufacturer of 2-wheeled motorized vehicles since 2001, when it produced 1.3 million motorbikes in a single year. Hero Honda's Splendor is the world's largest selling motorcycle. Its 2 plants are in Dharuhera and Gurgaon, both in Haryana, India. It specializes in dual use motorcycles that are low powered but very fuel efficient.
Contents |
[edit] Models
[edit] Bikes
- Hero Honda CD Dawn
- Hero Honda CD Deluxe
- Hero Honda Pleasure
- Hero Honda Splendor
- Hero Honda Splendor+
- Hero Honda Passion
- Hero Honda Passion Plus
- Hero Honda Super Splendor
- Hero Honda Glamour
- Hero Honda Glamour-FI
- Hero Honda Achiever
- Hero Honda Karizma
- Hero Honda CBZ
- Hero Honda CBZ X-Treme
[edit] Company Profile
“Hero”, is the brand name used by the Munjal brothers in the year 1956 with the flagship company Hero Cycles. The two-wheeler manufacturing business of bicycle components had originally started in the 1940’s and turned into the world’s largest bicycle manufacturer today. Hero, is a name synonymous with two-wheelers in India today. The Munjals roll their own steel, make free wheel and other critical bicycle components and have diversified into different ventures like product design. The Hero Group philosophy is: “To provide excellent transportation to the common man at easily affordable prices and to provide total satisfaction in all its spheres of activity”. The Hero group vision is to build long lasting relationships with everyone (customers, workers, dealers and vendors). The Hero Group has a passion for setting higher standards and “Engineering Satisfaction” is the prime motivation, way of life and work culture of the Group.
In the year 1984, Mr. Brijmohan Lal Munjal, the Chairman and Managing Director of Hero Honda Motors (HHM), headed an alliance between the Munjal family and Honda Motor Company Ltd. (HMC). HHM Mission Statement is: “We, at Hero Honda, are continuously striving for synergy between technology, systems, and human resources to provide products and services that meet the quality, performance, and price aspirations of our customers. While doing so, we maintain the highest standards of ethics and societal responsibilities, constantly innovate products and processes, and develop teams that keep the momentum going to take the company to excellence in the new millennium”. This alliance became one of the most successful joint ventures in India, until the year 1999 when HMC had announced a 100% subsidiary, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI). This announcement caused the HHM stock price to decrease by 30 percent that same day. Munjal had to come up with some new strategic decisions as, HMSI and other foreign new entry companies were causing increased intensity of rivalry for HHM.
[edit] History
India has the largest number of two wheelers in the world with 41.6 million vehicles. India has a mix of 30 percent automobiles and 70 percent two wheelers in the country. India was the second largest two wheeler manufacturer in the world starting in the 1950’s with the birth of Automobile Products of India (API) that manufactured scooters. API manufactured the Lambrettas but, another company, Bajaj Auto Ltd. surpassed API and remained through the turn of the century from its association with Piaggio of Italy (manufacturer of Vespa).
The license raj that existed between the1940s to1980s in India, did not allow foreign companies to enter the market and imports were tightly controlled. This regulatory maze, before the economic liberalization, made business easier for local players to have a seller’s market. Customers in India were forced to wait 12 years to buy a scooter from Bajaj. The CEO of Bajaj commented that he did not need a marketing department, only a dispatch department. By the year 1990, Bajaj had a waiting list that was twenty-six times its annual output for scooters.
The motorcycle segment had the same long wait times with three manufacturers; Royal Enfield, Ideal Jawa, and Escorts. Royal Enfield made a 350cc Bullet with the only four-stroke engine at that time and took the higher end of the market but, there was little competition for their customers. Ideal Jawa and Escorts took the middle and lower end of the market respectively.
In the mid-1980s, the Indian government regulations changed and permitted foreign companies to enter the Indian market through minority joint ventures. The two-wheeler market changed with four Indo-Japanese joint ventures: Hero Honda, TVS Suzuki, Bajaj Kawasaki and Kinetic Honda. The entry of these foreign companies changed the Indian market dynamics from the supply side to the demand side. With a larger selection of two-wheelers on the Indian market, consumers started to gain influence over the products they bought and raised higher customer expectations. The industry produced more models, styling options, prices, and different fuel efficiencies. The foreign companies new technologies helped make the products more reliable and with better quality. Indian companies had to change to keep up with their global counterparts.
[edit] Growth
The business growth of Hero Honda has been phenomenal throughout its early days. The Munjal family started a modest business of bicycle components. Hero Group expanded so big that by 2002 they had sold 86 million bicycles producing 16000 bicycles a day. Today Hero Honda has an assembly line of 9 different models of motorcycles available. It holds the record for most popular bike in the world by sales for Its Splendor model. Hero Honda Motors Limited was established in joint venture with Honda Motors of Japan in 1984, to manufacture motorcycles. It is currently the largest producer of Two Wheelers in the world. It sold 3 million bikes in the year 2005-2006. Recently it has also entered in scooter manufacturing, with its model PLEASURE mainly aimed at girls. The Hero Group has done business differently right from the start and that is what has helped them to achieve break-through in the competitive two-wheeler market. The Group's low key, but focused, style of management has earned the company plaudits amidst investors, employees, vendors and dealers, as also worldwide recognition.
The growth of the Group through the years has been influenced by a number of factors:
[edit] Just-in-Time
The Hero Group through the Hero Cycles Division was the first to introduce the concept of just-in-time inventory. The Group boasts of superb operational efficiencies. Every assembly line worker operates two machines simultaneously to save time and improve productivity. The fact that most of the machines are either developed or fabricated in-house, has resulted in low inventory levels. In Hero Cycles Limited, the just-in-time inventory principle has been working since the beginning of production in the unit and is functional even till date.. This is the Japanese style of production and in India; Hero is probably the only company to have mastered the art of the just-in-time inventory principle.
[edit] Ancillarisation
An integral part of the Group strategy of doing business differently was providing support to ancillary units. There are over 300 ancillary units today, whose production is dedicated to Hero's requirements and also a large number of other vendors, which include some of the better known companies in the automotive segment. Employee Policy:
Another Striking feature within the Hero Group is the commitment and dedication of its workers. There is no organized labor union and family members of employees find ready employment within Hero. The philosophy with regard to labor management is "Hero is growing, grow with Hero." When it comes to workers' benefitsthe industry norms. Long before other companies did so, Hero was giving its employees a uniform allowance, as well as House Rent Allowance (HRA) and Leave Travel Allowance (LTA). Extra benefits took the form of medical check-ups, not just for workers, but also for the immediate family members.
[edit] Financial Planning
The Hero Group benefits from the Group Chairman's financial acumen and his grasp on technology, manufacturing and marketing. Group Company, Hero Cycles Limited has one of the highest labor productivity rates in the world. In Hero Honda Motors Ltd, the focus is on financial and raw material management and a low employee turnover.
[edit] Quality
Quality at Hero is attained not just by modern plants and equipment and through latest technology, but by enforcing a strict discipline. At the Group factories, attaining quality standards is an everyday practice - a strictly pursued discipline. It comes from an amalgamation of the latest technology with deep-rooted experience derived from nearly four decades of hard labor. It is an attitude that masters the challenge of growth and change - change in consumers' perceptions about products and new aspirations arising from a new generation of buyers.
Constant technology up gradation ensures that the Group stays in the global mainstream and maintains its competitive edge. With each of its foreign collaborations, the Group goes onto strengthen its quality measures as per the book. The Group also employs the services of independent experts from around the world to assist in new design and production processes.
[edit] Diversification
Throughout the years of enormous growth, the Group Chairman, Mr. Lall has actively looked at diversification. A considerable level of backward integration in its manufacturing activities has been ample in the Group's growth and led to the establishment of the Hero Cycles Cold Rolling Division, Munjal and Sunbeam Castings, Munjal Auto Components and Munjal Showa Limited amongst other component-manufacturing units.
Then there were the expansion into the automotive segment with the setting up of Majestic Auto Limited, where the first indigenously designed moped, Hero Majestic, went into commercial production in 1978. Then came Hero Motors which introduced Hero Puch, in collaboration with global technology leader Steyr Daimler Puch of Austria. Hero Honda Motors was established in 1984 to manufacture 100 cc motorcycles.
The Hero Group also took a venture into other segments like exports, financial services, information technology, which includes customer response services and software development. Further expansion is expected in the areas of Insurance and Telecommunication.
The Hero Group's phenomenal growth is the result of constant innovations, a close watch on costs and the dynamic leadership of the Group Chairman, characterized by a culture of entrepreneurship, of right attitudes and building stronger relationships with investors, partners, vendors and dealers and customers.
