Tata Harrier and Safari now being built by women-only workforce
The Tata Safari and Harrier SUVs are now being built by a women-only workforce at Tata Motors' Pune plant. The project was signed off in April 2021 and since June 2022 there are now 1,500 women employees manufacturing these SUVs across three shifts.
Tata Motors says this is the only assembly line with a 100% female workforce. To create this, the firm brought in youngsters via the Kaushaliya (Learn and Earn scheme) programme. These women are pursuing diplomas and engineering degrees sponsored by Tata Motors are I.T.I. or 12th pass. This was meant to increase employability and they now work on this line that makes 100 cars each shift, with 500 women workers across each of the three shifts. Each car takes 170 minutes to be made, while numerous ergonomic changes have been made to the production line to accommodate women.
The company also made significant changes to its assembly line to accommodate women. This was by introduced robotics and raised workstations, redesigned tools, and lifts. To enhance the overall well-being of women workers infrastructure, including hygiene, residential options, secure workspace, transportation, cafeteria, and medical facilities with female attendants have been introduced as well.
Notably, this TCF Line 2 is the same one that earlier manufactured the Indica family of cars and had been dormant this those cars were discontinued.