16 www.autotechreview.com

interv iew New Products

when Aydogan cakmaz was assigned the responsibility of leading the product engineering function for BharatBenz, a daimler trucks brand created especially for the Indian market, he knew it was going to be a challenging task. He was heading to a market that is extremely cost conscious, yet demanding. But a strong will to make daimler products work in the Indian market saw cakmaz and his team develop interesting innovations that promises to make BharatBenz a brand to reckon with. Auto tech review caught up with him on the sidelines of BharatBenz’s product unveiling in Hyderabad recently.

“Customers In IndIa are muCh more CrItICal than anywhere else”

In his current role of Vice President – Product engineering at daimler India commercial Vehicles (dIcV), Aydogan Cakmaz is responsible for creating two new families of light and heavy duty trucks for the BharatBenz brand, dedicated for the Indian market. A mechanical engineering graduate, cakmaz started his career in 1985 with various divisional manager positions in research & devel-opment of Mercedes Benz cars, involving major projects in axles and

steering for the s-class and e-class premium sedans. After a 15-year stint with Mercedes Benz cars, cakmaz moved to the daimler truck division after 2000. His first stop was at Mercedes Benz trucks in turkey, where he served as a senior General Manager for research & development till 2004. the following year, cakmaz shifted base to his home country, where he continued as a senior General Manager, chassis system at Mercedes Benz trucks, Germany.

17autotechreview March 2012 Volume 1 | Issue 3

ATR _ It is indeed a pleasure to interact with you, Mr Cakmaz. Let us begin by talking about the two product families you have showcased here. This is surely a very significant moment for BharatBenz, the brand.AYDOGAN CAKMAZ _ This is very signifi-cant, especially thinking about the begin-ning of our journey in India, when every-one said it is impossible to bring about the products in the time span we’ve been given, or the budgets we were discussing. A lot of people recommended I step back from this assignment. But, we have made it because we had the willingness to do it. I had done similar business in Turkey ear-lier, and had learnt about how it happens in Brazil, through some of my colleagues. For us, there was no looking back; we only knew one direction, and that was to move forward.

I must admit, it was extremely difficult to begin with. To have experience and knowledge is one thing, but you can’t do everything alone. It was an absolutely new environment for me and some of my expat colleagues. We had to find the right people, and had to rely on them. It wasn’t easy. Today, we’ve reduced the number of expats significantly in the R&D depart-ment at DICV.

The launch of these products today would pave the way into our future in this coun-try. We believe we have introduced the right products in the market, but the fol-lowing few months in the market will tes-tify that. We have done extensive studies across the Indian market – what truckers need, what they have and what should be done better.

Is there any major learning from the Indian market you could talk about?We found that ‘time’ is still not very important in India. And that worries me a lot. I’m used to saving time and work effi-ciently. Usually, to create a product we would make five samples before deciding on the final product. Here we have had only two steps. We’ve taken great risks, but have insisted on efficiency. We’ve learnt that Indians are big risk takers, but we have achieved our tasks. In fact, even at our mother plant in Stuttgart, Germany, people realise that work can be done with less effort, and less money. For me, it was

very challenging, but also extremely positive.

India is a market with tough challenges and extreme complexities. What were your key challenges?Based on our knowledge of the market, we realised things that we had to improve, or things that we needed to add to the vehicles. There were things nobody in the world used, but it was important to have them in our vehicles in India. The roof load carrier is a classic example. The cabins are supposed to be light and func-tional, and are not supposed to carry any load on its roof. However, in India there is a demand for roof load carriers. Nobody has ever put a roof load carrier on the cabin as an OE-fitment that survives our rough roads. To ensure that it survives through the life of a vehicle, be it 200,000 km or 600,000 km, we had to design a roof load carrier that lasts a lifetime of the product. And this was done by Indian engineers.

The other key challenge was to get the suppliers understand our quality, our processes and our accuracies. We have ensured each and every part is tested and validated upfront, at the suppliers’ end. We put our own people at the suppliers’ facilities to ensure there is no let-up. We learnt that in this market, we have

to trace and track every part that comes from the suppliers. And that’s a big challenge. If that end is taken care of, we could possibly speed-up our production a bit.

Could you throw some light on the innova-tions you have undertaken, especially keeping Indian conditions in mind?All products from our tech family can be tailored to suit customer needs. Take the air intake system for example – we have added another filter to the main filter to ensure dust or other airborne particles is trapped before they reach the engine. The diesel quality in India is not as bad as people make out to be. Our investigations have shown that the quality of Euro IV diesel is very good, and even the Euro III diesel is quite close to Euro IV levels. But you still need a water separator or a fuel filter to protect your engine.

We have a modular format for our prod-ucts that gives our customers options of different wheelbases, or different heights of the cabins, for various need and appli-cations. In the light duty trucks (LDT) platform, for instance, customers can opt for 17 ft, 19 ft and 21 ft wheelbase options.

Talking about fuels, what to your mind is the future of propulsion technologies in trucks?The current market is obviously loaded towards petrol and diesel engines, but we don’t rule out bringing in a hybrid

there were things nobody in the world used, but it was important to have them in our vehicles

in India, cakmaz said.

I “...weonlyknewonedirection,

andthatwastomoveforward.”

18 www.autotechreview.com

interv iew New Products

solution or an electric or even a CNG application. The market has to be pre-pared for that. Having said that, it is important to note that there are other important requirements to be fulfilled in India. There are questions about the implementation of Euro V and Euro VI fuel qualities, but almost the entire nation drives with Euro II fuel quality or even earlier generations of fuel.

I’m of the opinion that the first aim should be to bring the entire nation to Euro III level. Today, there doesn’t seem to be much focus on maintaining the trucks well. That is what we have been telling our people in the plant. Mainte-nance is key, not just of your trucks but also in our day-to-day lives. In our facility in Chennai, no one can work with a dirty pair of shoes, because that dirt will go in and affect my trucks.

That’s indeed commendable. Tell us about the collaboration that happens between BharatBenz and other Daimler truck oper-ations globally.There are over 5,600 people working on engineering of Daimler trucks. We have close interactions with all our colleagues. We have a centralised documentation sys-

tem, and use the same design or CAE sim-ulation tools across our facilities.

Is there a particular level of competence being developed at the BharatBenz R&D centre?We are doing a lot of benchmarking in Chennai. Other locations do benchmark-ing as well, but we do a very high level of benchmarking, which makes us unique. In comparison to other locations, our development doesn’t start with advanced engineering, but with benchmarking. We look at the environment – what is the cost of tyre, fuel, clutches or brake pads per kilometre? We strip down to the last detail. This is something that is not done in Europe or the United States, Turkey or Brazil. I can tell you the exact rate of my front axle, the materials used and the process undertaken.

To my mind, the customer in India is much more critical than anywhere else. He would pay only for what he can use, touch, smell or see. He wouldn’t pay for anything that he doesn’t need. We want to add more safety features in our prod-ucts, not just for the driver but also for others on the road.

Safety is a prerequisite. I believe you have installed air brake systems in your light duty trucks.From the very beginning, our LDTs have got complete air brake system, not air

hydraulic system – even though they are expensive. We have optimised the whole air brake system so that the reaction time is faster. It’s not about more or less parts, but about the knowledge of how to install it and how to intelligently open and close the device. The idea is to make it more effective, and that is what we’ve done. Although we’d like to put disc brakes for added value, the market demands drum brakes, and we had to redesign the vehicle to accommodate drum brakes. In Turkey, we had to change from drum to disc, and had to revert to drum brakes in India.

The local content in your products, I understand, would remain in the range of 85–90 %. Could you explain the parts that are imported?There are small yet critical parts that are imported, mainly because sourcing of those parts are done under a global pur-chasing policy. There are a few suppliers that are tested and proven by Daimler standards. There are products that are sourced in millions, which are checked for quality and price. To get the same quality and meet the price points for those parts locally is not possible. Let’s take the example of one of the largest sup-pliers of injection systems, Bosch. They don’t produce injection systems in India, or for that matter in every market. But even if they do, we may continue to import injection systems because that gives us greater value.

Do you get to a 100 % level of localisation in India?It is possible to reach a level of complete localisation, but that may not make sense. Some of our parts are totally localised, such as the LDT engine, transmission and axles.

Should the market demand do we see DICV importing other engines into India?No, we are very sure that the engines we have for the Indian market, suit our requirements well. If there is a need for another engine, we will localise that as well.

TexT: deepangshu dev sarmah

cakmaz believes maintenance is key, not just in daimler trucks, but also in our day-to-day lives.

I “...Wearedoingalotof

benchmarkinginChennai.”

19autotechreview March 2012 Volume 1 | Issue 3

Anand_ATR_Mar'12.indd 1 05-03-2012 22:32:49