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Motorola shifts Alpha range production to Bangalore

"Our Indian plant will become the hub for making the Alpha range of pagers for Asia barring China," Hank Henderson, plant manager, said. "As part of this expansion we have imported an entire production line using the latest surface mounted technology."

To cater to the expanding domestic market, Motorola has started a third shift in the factory. "Consequently, we will be adding employees to take the total to 250," Henderson said.

The Alpha pagers were earlier made in Singapore. Fifty percent of the output would be sold domestically and the other 50 per cent exported to Asia.

"Earlier we concentrated on CKD (completely knocked down) kits. The new production line will enable the company make decoders and receivers here," he said.

A part of the reason for the shift to Bangalore is the huge Indian market. "The Indian pager market on its second anniversary has crossed 500,000 subscribers. It took China seven years to reach this figure. America took 28 years," Henderson said.

The other reason is cost. Costs in Bangalore are comparable to Motorola's other manufacturing facilities worldwide. Part of Henderson's task is to make India the lowest cost producer in the world. Freight costs and longer cycle time have pushed costs higher in Bangalore.

Henderson said since its inception, Motorola had manufactured 1.5 million pagers in Bangalore. The company is currently focused on developing language pagers for the Indian market. Gujarati, Marathi and Hindi pagers are on the market. Subscribers can select one Indian language and English. For the southern pager market the company is designing a Malayalam pager at its design centre in Bangalore.

- Compiled from the Indian media

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