[TusharK]

Jaguar Land Rover has laid off one-third of its workforce in India as part of a global restructuring exercise.



In the initial round of retrenchment, Jaguar Land Rover has laid off around 20 employees, mostly from the marketing, sales and administration and HR departments. The company stated that it was being done to increase efficiency in order to find the right cost structure for its workforce.

The Tata-owned brand is in the process of trimming 2,000 non-manufacturing jobs by the next financial year. This is part of the restructuring program dubbed as Project Charge+ which aims to save about GBP 2.5 billion.

In 2018, the carmaker had reduced its workforce by 1,000. In 2019, another 4,500 employees were laid off.

Source: Business Today

Link to Team-BHP News

[Leem]

While there are news about increasing global sales for the JLR, this is gloomy news.

[Turbanator]

They also need to get rid of many people in their Product planning. For every model they sell, it will have over 10 variants & we are not even talking about the options that one can add on these individual variants.

Anyone who has ever configured a RR as CBU import can understand. I cannot imagine how do they even manufacture so many options at first place?

Have a look at the different variants for Defender for our market. What a waste of resources at every level, for a product that may sell in double digits at most in whole of the Year.

[Mr.Boss]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

I cannot imagine how do they even manufacture so many options at first place?

You have the answer

Originally Posted by Turbanator

for a product that may sell in double digits at most in whole of the Year.

For a low volume product it is easy to make n-number of combinations at plant level. This holds (or sometimes grabs) few customers. Even making a couple of more sales with this versatility will add over 2% of their annual sales.

[Jeroen]

Sad news for those individuals involved. I wonder, on average, will it take less people to assemble an EV compared to a ICE vehicle?

Obviously, ICE has many more parts, but on the whole they get installed in big pre-assemblies.So the affects might be felt with subcontractors and so. JLR does produce/assemble its own engine I believe?

Going 100% electric, my gut feeling is that ultimately it would lead to fewer jobs (given the same volume of cars)

Jeroen

[GTO]

Layoffs are always sad to hear about. My heart goes out to those affected. Getting a job in this market isn't easy. If you ask me, Jaguar-Land Rover India should improve the way it runs its business instead of laying off people. There is a reason that the brand is a bit player in the luxury space. Poor pricing, poor variant planning, poor sales experience, poor reliability, poor after-sales, poor wait period for spare parts. A neighbour is shopping in the 50 - 70 lakh space currently. He got a stellar response from all luxury brands, except when he interacted with the Jaguar-Land Rover showroom.

Compared to the usual Economic Times stories we read, this Business Today article is refreshing, I must say. Good insights like:

"There were rumours of layoffs since the start of the year, but employees were made to believe that India, which is a very small market for JLR globally, might be spared. So, this has come as a shocker for many," said a company insider who requested anonymity.

Another employee said there was a false sense of complacency that because JLR's parent firm Tata Motors is an Indian entity, it would not touch its Indian employees. "The sackings are that way surprising even if one looks at the business environment, it is a no brainer. The top management have been left untouched though," he said.

"The overall number of white collar jobs in JLR is low so even with the small number of people being laid off, in percentage terms it is quite high. On the other hand, these people could have been easily absorbed by Tata Group but unfortunately that was not done."

JLR is considered a laggard in the Indian luxury car market, which itself has not grown by much in the last 5 years. The British brands saw their sales decline by 74 per cent in 2020 and a loss of market share of 10.62 percentage points. In comparison, the biggest in the business - Mercedes Benz - saw a 43 per cent decline, BMW by 32 per cent and Audi by 63 per cent.

Business Today should write some more .

[AKSarkar1]

Originally Posted by GTO

. A neighbour is shopping in the 50 - 70 lakh space currently. He got a stellar response from all luxury brands, except when he interacted with the Jaguar-Land Rover showroom.

Definitely can relate to this. I've shared the same experience with the JLR showroom guys. They seem to work in a super unmotivated way often times taking a week to send over simple documents that other SRs send in 2-3 days.

[Arun_S]

Originally Posted by GTO

Layoffs are always sad to hear about. My heart goes out to those affected. Getting a job in this market isn't easy. If you ask me, Jaguar-Land Rover India should improve the way it runs its business instead of laying off people. There is a reason that the brand is a bit player in the luxury space. Poor pricing, poor variant planning, poor sales experience, poor reliability, poor after-sales, poor wait period for spare parts. A neighbour is shopping in the 50 - 70 lakh space currently. He got a stellar response from all luxury brands, except when he interacted with the Jaguar-Land Rover showroom.

I don't have much idea how JLR's dealers were before Tata Purchased. But Tata Motors have ensured you can have uniform dealership experience across its brands, which is poor. Kudos to TaMo for this .

[Typhoon]

This is no surprise and a sign of paradigm shift that is about to happen. Ford is also cutting jobs and closing down factories in UK and Europe in a move towards electrification. This time it is non-manufacturing jobs, soon factory job losses will also arrive.

More electric cars mean fewer mechanical jobs as most car makers who used to make their own ICE will source the batteries and drive trains from suppliers in the short-term. Electric cars will have fewer moving parts - lesser build time and lesser chances for a mechanical breakdown or servicing requirements.
But as in the computer era, different skill sets will be required, with people required to handle chemicals, batteries, environmental specialists for after life of batteries, resourcing personnel for lithium-ion minerals etc.

In the immediate future the transition will be first towards hybrid cars and then all-electric cars, and the man hours required to build a conventional ICE to a hybrid to an electric will be in the ratio of 1:0.6:0.3

We will also see the fueling stations close down, as most EV vehicle owners will do most of their charging at home or workplace.
Sorry to digress to electrification (although that is one of the primary reasons why job losses are happening/will happen), but we will see many more automakers follow suit in cutting workforce until re-skilling happens.

[V.Narayan]

A lay-off is more than just a job loss. It affects the entire nuclear family and the extended family in several ways - loss of face, loss of confidence, the trauma on kids of seeing the bread winner (or one of the two bread winners) sitting at home, some need to force kids to change to cheaper schools, less cash for medical bills etc. With apologies to Josef Stalin a lay off is a statistic but for each laid off worker it is a tragedy for no fault of that employee.

There are many ways of dealing with a downturn but the larger you are either you don't want to look at other alternatives or complexity of law tie you down. In my business years at least on two occasions we offered all employees a pay cut as an alternative starting with a 50% cut for me and going down to 10% for those in lower middle echelons and no cut for employees drawing a nett take home below Rs 30,000. It worked without the need for lay-offs. But I'm talking here of a smaller workforce of ~1000 not the larger base of these giant companies like JLR and M&M.

Originally Posted by Typhoon

In the immediate future the transition will be first towards hybrid cars and then all-electric cars, and the man hours required to build a conventional ICE to a hybrid to an electric will be in the ratio of 1:0.6:0.3

You make some first class points in your post of the paradigm shift happening and the job loss in associated sectors such as petrol pumps. Do not wish to nit-pik but I would think the hybrid needs more man-hours on the production line than an ICE car due to its extra complexity of ICE + Electric Motor + Li-battery + Computer to control the back & forth.

[Typhoon]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

I would think the hybrid needs more man-hours on the production line than an ICE car due to its extra complexity of ICE + Electric Motor + Li-battery + Computer to control the back & forth.

You're right, I should've said man hours to build Hybrid:ICE:Electric in 1:0.6:0.3
Thought that but mixed up ratios when typing
Thank you!

[srini1785]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Sad news for those individuals involved. I wonder, on average, will it take less people to assemble an EV compared to a ICE vehicle?

Obviously, ICE has many more parts, but on the whole they get installed in big pre-assemblies.So the affects might be felt with subcontractors and so. JLR does produce/assemble its own engine I believe?

Going 100% electric, my gut feeling is that ultimately it would lead to fewer jobs (given the same volume of cars)

Jeroen

Originally Posted by Typhoon

More electric cars mean fewer mechanical jobs as most car makers who used to make their own ICE will source the batteries and drive trains from suppliers in the short-term. Electric cars will have fewer moving parts - lesser build time and lesser chances for a mechanical breakdown or servicing requirements.
But as in the computer era, different skill sets will be required, with people required to handle chemicals, batteries, environmental specialists for after life of batteries, resourcing personnel for lithium-ion minerals etc.

First of all, hope these guys get re employment. It always happens. God closes one door only to open another.

EV tech does not exactly lead to job losses. We should see mobility as a whole and not restrict our discussions to EV cars alone. While there would be a big leap from ICE to Electric , what we are forgetting is the scope for a level of sophistication that ICE could not offer. Just look at what the world is going through.

1. Hydrogen fuel cells
2. Fast chargers
3. Battery tech
4. What not that's mentioned under this thread :

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/gadge...ml#post5018745 (What new technologies do you expect in the 2020-30 decade?)

So all these would prop up the job market.

Its also a misunderstanding that EV's have fewer parts , for example the motor controller needs complex electronics which control every aspect of movement.

Only one main shift that i notice is ICE cars, already containing a heavy baggage of electronics in the form of sensors, actuators and controllers, would become more of a Electronic / electrical engineers domain rather than a mechanical engineers domain. That's the only shift. Job losses are temporary and re skilling would ensure more growth. Yes, corporates may sink. Adapt or perish, Darwin's theory equally applies to corporates too.

[saikarthik]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

A lay-off is more than just a job loss. It affects the entire nuclear family and the extended family in several ways - loss of face, loss of confidence, the trauma on kids of seeing the bread winner (or one of the two bread winners) sitting at home, some need to force kids to change to cheaper schools, less cash for medical bills etc.

I would think the hybrid needs more man-hours on the production line than an ICE car due to its extra complexity of ICE + Electric Motor + Li-battery + Computer to control the back & forth.

Yes, lay-offs are hard on employees and others related to them. I had few friends who got laid-off in western countries. The difference is that in some countries lay off can be sudden, but shielded by government for the income loss. In India, lay off are not sudden (till now) and employees (in lower levels) are informed to make other arrangements - still a bad news, but without the safety net it's much bigger concern.

Really feel sorry for bearer of another bad news, Mahindra also has laid off 300 executives - https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/india...xecutives.html (Mahindra sacks 300 executives)

For ICE to hybrid and EVs, I guess there is a misunderstanding. The manpower needed at factory for final assembly may be less because they get a pre-assembled battery pack and motor units. Behind the curtains there are lot more efforts going on to assemble and test the battery packs and e-drives. And of course the problem would be like you mentioned the manpower employed by support infrastructure in case of ICE will be vulnerable.

[FamilyTraveller]

JLR has been a laggard and will remain so until they are aggressive in their product portfolio and pricing. A week ago I called to enquire about XE. I was told there is zero stock in India. 2021 model has still not arrived and the sales guy had no clue when it would arrive!

These kind of statements destroys customer's confidence in the brand completely and I am now looking at 330i.