The History of Escorts

The genesis of Escorts goes back to 1944 when two brothers, Mr. H. P. Nanda and Mr. Yudi Nanda, launched a small agency house, Escorts Agents Ltd. in Lahore. Over the years, Escorts has surged ahead and evolved into one of India's largest conglomerates. In this journey of six decades, Escorts has had the privilege of being associated with some of the world leaders in the engineering manufacturing space like Minneapolis Moline, Massey Ferguson, Goetze, Mahle, URSUS, CEKOP, Ford Motor Company, J C Bamford Excavators, Yamaha, Claas, Carraro, Lucky Goldstar, First Pacific Company, Hughes Communications, Jeumont Schneider, Dynapac . These valued relationships be it technological or marketing, are our highly cherished experiences treasures, which have helped us inculcate best in class manufacturing practices and to emerge as a technologically independent world class engineering organization.

PRODUCTS

Agri Machinery
The Engineering Division of Escorts Ltd. is the leading manufacturer of auto suspension products including shock absorbers, struts and telescopic front forks. Escorts was the pioneer in Automotive Shock Absorber manufacturing in India in 1966 in Technical Collaboration with Fichtel & Sachs, Germany. Over the years the technology obtained from Fichtel & Sachs of Germany has been continuously upgraded and new reliable products have been introduced. Another step forward in this direction is a comprehensive technical collaboration with world leaders Kayaba of Japan. A strong in-house design and development infrastructure of the Division enables introduction of new applications as per specifications of customers. The fact that the farm mechanization is the key vector for enhancement of farm productivity and in many respects the catalyst for the next wave of farm mechanization has brought about two large customer centric initiatives to the fore at Escorts New Products and variants that are aligned with changing and emerging applications & end usages and the shift of Escorts from being a standalone tractor manufacturer to being a complete 'Farm Solution' provider

Escorts is laying greater emphasis on improvement, innovation and effective execution of its offerings. They are constantly evolving and creating new products to suit market demands and are closely monitoring the quality of the products and re-gearing strategies which are both customer and market focused. The launch of tractors fitted with 4 - Cylinder engines that are around 15% more fuel efficient than most other tractors in the market, or the entry segment tractor (Powertrac 429) to cater to the aspirations of small farmers and first time buyers, or the 'XTRA Torque' series of tractors that are meant specially for the emerging trends of using 'rotary' implements, or India's first-ever INVERTER TRACTOR have been all case in points where the farmers' 'cost of ownership', his overall operating economics and his need for enhancing productivity have been supreme considerations for Escorts

Tractors
The Escorts Jai Kisan Series recognizes the new market order for varied needs of the Indian farmer, changing tractor uses for specialized applications and usage of modern and heavy-duty implements & attachments, thereby offering wider options for agricultural, infrastructure as well as specialized applications for land development activities. The Jai Kisan Series comes in five new categories ValueMaxx, LoadMaxx, AgMaxx, InfraMaxx and SuperMaxx. While the VALUEMAXX is the variant for basic agricultural purposes, the LOADMAXX and AGMAXX variants specialize in haulage-based applications and specialized Agri-applications respectively. The SUPERMAXX series is ideal for all types of agriculture and non-farming purposes besides offering add-on applications for dual needs whereas, the INFRAMXX variant would specialize in infrastructure-based applications. The 'Jai Kisan Series is currently available in the FARMTRAC line of Escorts tractors.

FARMTRAC

FARMTRAC

SUPERMAXX

AGMAXX

VALUEMAXX

LOADMAXX

INFRAMAXX

POWERTRAC

POWERTRAC

ESCORT

ESCORT

Background
In 1960, parent company, Escorts, set up the strategic Agri Machinery Group (AMG) to venture into tractors.

In 1965, it rolled out our first batch of tractors under the brand name of Escort.
In 1969 a separate company, Escorts Tractors Ltd., was established with equity participation of Ford Motor Co., Basildon, UK for the manufacture of Ford agricultural tractors in India. In the year 1996 Escorts Tractors Ltd. formally merged with the parent company, Escorts Ltd. Since then,escorts have manufactured over 1 million tractors.

Technologies
Escorts Agri Machinery has three recognized and wellaccepted tractor brands, which are on distinct and separate technology platforms. Farmtrac: World Class Premium tractors, with single reduction and epicyclic reduction transmissions from 34 to 75 HP. Powertrac: Utility and Value-for-money tractors, offering straight-axle and hub-reduction tractors from 34 to 55 HP. India's No.1 economy range engineered to give spectacular diesel economy. Escort: Economy tractors having hub-reduction transmission and twin-cylinder engines from 27 to 35 HP. Pioneering brand of tractors introduced by Escorts with unbeatable advantages.\

Functional Excellence
Manufacturing

Quality Assurance

Materials Management

Sales & Marketing

Knowledge Management

Finance

Human Resource

Information Technology

Quality Assurance
Quality Management History and Achievements
Collaborated with leading European tractor manufacturers in 1960's and 1970's. Thus world best practices and Quality System in manufacturing and vendor development were already in use much before they were started by any other Tractor Manufacturer in India. With increased access to global markets from the 1990's, we have adopted current best practices in operational areas. 1995- First Tractor company( Farmtrac Plant) in India to get ISO-9001 certification. 1997-All other plants also got ISO-9001 certification 1997-2000 - Adopted BPR practices in all Manufacturing plant 2002-2003- Adoption of Oracle ERP 2001-2004 - Implementation of TS -16949 based Quality system and Certification
2006 - till date - TQM principles with new and focused understanding

Benefits of ISO 9001 and TS 16949 certifications

To streamline and strengthen the procedures and systems of Escorts To have a uniform approach as a company for resolving customer related issues and focus on customer satisfaction Build a base for making improvements through BPR, New advanced tools and techniques Capturing Customer Voice. Converting This Voice Into Products Meeting Customer Requirements Fully With Targets On: Quality Cost Delivery Focused approach on " Continuous Improvement To have the approach Of " Prevention" rather than " Reaction".

TQM Practices Being Followed

Escorts Ltd is TS-16949 Certified company since 2004. We follow the documented system based on requirements specified in the ISO/TS-16949 Standard. We practise the following : Customer Satisfaction Measurement Problem Solving Techniques

Measurement System Analysis ( MSA)

TPM Control Plans/SOPs

FMEA -design as well as process

Continuing Initiatives
The Agri Machinery group has set the Vision to 'GO GLOBAL'. This Vision means:

World class products with state of art technology Innovative products creating customer Delight in all continents World class Manufactured Quality Flexible manufacturing systems Best After sales service Use of world class Practices, tools and techniques Employees contributing through innovations and benchmarking Reliable and Improved Vendor quality through system improvement approach

Materials Management
Materials Department - Strategic Sourcing Department
Presently procuring materials for 72,000 tractors per annum. Present procurement value over US$ 30 million. Production will rise to 100,000 tractors per annum in 2 years. Procurement value will rise to almost US$ 45 million in that period. Presently 387 suppliers of which over 95% are India domestic. Advantages of low costs of materials in India. Items procured are: Castings Forging Machine Parts Sheet Metal

Major initiatives are: Consolidate and rationalise our vendor base Capacity planning to deal with large increase in volumes planned Rationalising cost of ownership

Strengthen Supply Chain and Manufacturing Requirements Planning Cost reduction and Value Engineering programs Adopt e-sourcing for a growing volume of our procurement

Sales & Marketing

Vision: Create the "PULL" for AMG's Products and Services such that , actualize the aspirations of sustained profitable growth. IT is done through appropriate Brand positioning and creation of Brand Value, which will focus on each of the 4 P's of the Marketing Mix - Product, Price, Promotion and Place. Brand Propositions: Escorts AMG has three powerful and well accepted brands Farmtrac, Powertrac and Escorts, the brand propositions of which have been designed in a manner that they complement each other in the market place. The 3 brands are based on distinct technologies designed to suit varied soil conditions and applications for agricultural and commercial usage. They have institutionalized the "Proactive Approach" of identifying the latent needs of the customer and offering the right product design for the right application.

The Offering: The Product offering to our valued customers is our Tri Offering of
Products Services Spares

based on the foundations of Customer Relationship, Dealer Management and Innovation.

The Brand Propositions, the offering and the distinct technological advantages of products are promoted in the market place through various ATL (Above the Line) and BTL (Below the Line) activities - which are arrived at scientifically through an iterative process.
The Marketing efforts are deployed through the National Sales and Service Grid of: Tractor sales to over 41 countries of the globe. Over 200 sales offices strategically located across country. Over 1200 national dealers,sub dealers,distributors &stockists backed effectively for deployment down till the village level. The Value Set of the entire Sales Effort is the 3 Pillars of Integrity, Self Esteem and Ownership based on the foundations of Transparency, Trust and Confidence.

The Sales Management follows a Virtuous Cash Cycle and its important components are: Sales/Collection Channel Management Retail/Channel Finance Trade-In Supply And Logistics Customer Satisfaction is vital for escorts. They perform customer follow-up after a sale is made. Satisfaction ratings are ascertained. Similarly they evaluate Dealers and Service Centres by inviting Customer feedback. This feedback is an essential part of efforts to serve the customer better and better.

Global tractor industry

The global spotlight on Tractor manufacture certainly in terms of unit volume seems to be swinging away from the USA, UK and Western and Eastern Europe towards India and China where growth in the number of producers and the total volume in recent years have been impressive.
Country Volume %

India
USA China Sri Lanka Australia Europe Pakistan

2,40,000
1,90,000 95,000 5,000 10,000 1,75,000 45,000

31
25 12 2 1 23 6