AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY NEEDS MONITORING FOR QUALITY

The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (UNISAME) has urged the Automobile Manufacturers Association of Pakistan (AMAP) to impress upon its members to maintain quality in the face of the depletion clause imposed by the government of Pakistan. It is unfortunate that the opportunity provided to the local industry to increase its participation is being misused and instead of improving their quality and matching Japanese standards they are trying to compromise on quality.

President UNISAME Zulfikar Thaver said every year the members of the AMAP are required to increase the use of indigenous parts and reduce imported parts for the manufacture of automobiles in Pakistan as per the depletion clause agreement as a result of which the AMAP members are finding it difficult to maintain the standard desired by the principals mostly in Japan. However this agreement does not allow them to compromise on the manufacturing standards and in fact they have to be more particular about the quality of the parts supplied by the local vendors and put them to rigid test for approval and acceptance.If only our vendors would improve their quality they would start getting orders for the automobile plants of many countries of the world.

There have been many complaints from the customers for substandard batteries and other parts supplied by the vendors and the customers are suffering although most of the members of the AMAP have increased their prices over a short period of time.

Thaver said that when a customer is paying such a handsome amount it is expected that the customer gets the worth of his money.
There have been several complaints about negligence and lack of check and control systems in the manufacturing units and also about many dealers who are also operating service maintenance and repair work not being up to the mark.

Recently many SMEs have complained about the inferior quality of the batteries supplied in bulk to the automobile plants and likewise the tyres both local and imported do not last long. Also other items such as plastic and rubber parts and accessories lack the strength and it seems the quality is compromised.

The union has urged the ministry of industries and production (MoI&P) to take notice of the decline in bench mark and also called upon the principals to ensure strict check and vigilance to ensure the quality.

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