By 
March 29, 2018
BMW Group India celebrated 11th Anniversary of their Chennai Plant, located at Chengalpattu, Tamil Nadu. To mark the occasion, a talent development project – ‘Skill Next’ is launched.
Mr. Vikram Pawah, President of BMW Group India said “There is tremendous growth in the luxury vehicle segment in the last decade. With the growing number of cars on road, there is a huge requirement of excellent technical talents in the automotive industry”. The Managing Director, BMW Group Plant, Chennai, Dr. Jochen Stallkamp said know-how of advanced technology and complex processes elevates confidence level, which is an important asset in technical profession. “Skilled workforce is the foundation to produce outstanding quality product” he said.
Considerable number of engines and parts were water affected during the last extreme weather condition in and around Chennai. As per BMW quality standards, these parts were unusable. These are the same engine powering more than 50,000 vehicles on road been produced at BMW Chennai plant since 2007. The engine and the steptronic automatic transmission presently powers BMW 3 Series, BMW 3 Series Gran Turismo, BMW 5 Series, BMW X1 and BMW X3. For the upcoming MINI Countryman Cooper D, only the engine will be used.
These parts were insured by Bharti AXA General Insurance and they honoured the claims. BMW Group saw an opportunity and proposed Bharati AXA General Insurance to provide these unusable parts to the technical institutes across the country as learning resource. Students can get hands on experience through these modern machineries.
CEO & MD, Bharati AXA General Insurance, Mr. Sanjeev Srinivasan said, they were excited when BMW Group India approached them with this innovative idea of ‘Skill Next’ project. “Bharati AXA General Insurance is always ready to contribute toward the benefit of community and we could not let this opportunity go” said Mr. Sanjeev Srinivasan. Bharti AXA General Insurance paved the way through special approval to allow realisation of the unusable parts.
Dr. T.V. Geetha, Dean, College of Engineering, Anna University was present during the event. She said “Experiential learning plays a vital role. Project Skill Next will expose students to advanced technology from BMW Group, fuelling the passion of learning in students”.
Legendary cricketer and the brand ambassador of BMW India, Mr. Sachin Tendulkar present during the event said “One need to get in the field to play good cricket. Skill Next will assist students in learning advanced technology”.
SKILL NEXT – The Project
BMW Group India will give away their 365 unusable engine parts to the leading engineering and technical institutes across the country and Union Territories. These powertrains will be provided free of charges to Engineering Colleges, Industrial Training Institutes and Polytechnics. BMW will deliver these parts to the respective campuses by the end of 2018.
After handover, ‘Train the Trainers’ workshop will be conducted by 40 BMW Aftersales Master Technicians at BMW dealerships in more than 20 cities across India. Devised by professional trainers of BMW Group India Training Centre and BMW Chennai Plant, the workshop will be a combination of theory and practical in details.
Commemorating the project, 4 selected students from Anna University Engineering College, Chennai, assembled BMW Twin Power Turbo In-Line 4-Cylinder Diesel Engine and 8-Speed Steptronic Automatic Transmission at the BMW Chennai Plant. Mr. Sachin Tendulkar, fastened the final 4 bolts of the powertrain. Then after along with students Mr. Sachin Tendulkar bolted the powertrain to one of the chassis of BMW X3 on the main assembly line, symbolically rolling out the project.
Utilising the unusable parts for learning is surely an excellent concept. Project ‘Skill Next’ by BMW Group India is surely an excellent endeavour towards the automotive industry and the community at large.
