Suzuki wants to cut the time to launch new models by half

A Suzuki released at the end of September her new technological strategy for the next ten years, defining its approach at various levels – including when it comes to product launch.

In this sense, according to a statement, it will transform its development and production processes in order to cut “half the time needed to develop new vehicles” by 2020. It also covers a significant improvement in efficiency – 30 percent for development and 50 percent for manufacturing.

The pace of development of new models is one of the assets that Chinese manufacturers have as added value, and it is difficult for others to follow. The Renault Group, for example, also seeks to speed up its processes significantly, which it wants to take about two years – the new Twingo E-Tech was developed in just 21 months.

In the presentation, representative director and president Toshihiro Suzuki explained: “What we will change is how we proceed to development. Instead of moving on to the next step after finishing the previous one, we will evolve into a simultaneous and parallel development where planning, design, production, quality and acquisitions begin with the same goal in mind from the beginning.”.

The Japanese builder also plans to deepen modularization and resort to other valences – design standards and evaluation experience, as well as “knowledge acquired with real vehicles over many years in digital environments, thus increasing the efficiency of development itself”, in Toshihiro Suzuki’s words.

Strong investment in production in India

On the other hand, suzuki wants to increase its production capacity in India to at least four million units per year by 2030 – having in that country “an important global production centre”.

This does not mean that Japan is not important. On the contrary, technologies are developed there and then optimized for models suitable for the different regions.