Alignment Systems, the world’s leading manufacturers of equipment for repair and inspection of damaged vehicles, has established its Indian entity recently. The Indian company, Alignment Systems Indian Private Ltd., will be headed by Mr. Jasvinder Singh, who will be its Country Manager.
Alignment Systems has two major brands – Car-o-Liner and Josam. They also provide knowledge through the Alignment Academy which focus on method training within the damage repair operations. The Indian entity will be responsible for Indian and Sri Lankan market.
In an exclusive interview to MOTORINDIA, Mr. Per Madsen, Director responsible for Asia and South America, said: “India is our top priority market and we want to deepen our presence. As a first step we have set up our Indian subsidiary and at a later stage we will establish our full-fledged training Academy here”.
Alignment Systems is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of equipment for repair and inspection of damaged vehicles, including cars, light trucks, heavy-duty trucks, trailers and buses. Alignment Systems consists of two groups, Car-O-Liner focusing on cars and light trucks and Josam focusing on heavy-duty vehicles. Both companies have extensive knowledge in their field of expertise and they form together unsurpassable competence.
The company provides total quality solution based upon the most efficient methods for repairing and measuring damaged vehicle bodies and frames. Moreover, Josam provides products and techniques for wheel- and axle alignment on heavy-duty vehicles.
“Alignment Systems has been in India for more than a decade now. The company initially started by selling its Car-o-Liner range of crash repair systems for passenger cars. Our first major customer in India was Honda”, recalls Mr. Madsen. Today there are more than 350 Car-o-Liner installations in India across the dealerships of all vehicle manufacturers.
Alignment Systems works with local distributors in all major markets. In India, the company is working with Madhus Equipments for the Car-o-Liner brand and Rai Automotive Systems for the Car-o-Liner brand and Josam brand along with Tribotech. “We will continue to work with our existing distributors and there is no change in the way we would be working in India”, adds Mr. Per Madsen.
A well-developed co-operation between Car-O-Liner and Josam, comprising product development, engineering and quality control, ensures that the products and services supplied by Alignment Systems, are of the highest possible quality. Repair methods and techniques are developed in-house at training centres or in the service workshops.
An essential part of the group activities is to provide standard as well as tailored training for customers, vehicle manufacturers and other important parties within the core business.
Alignment Systems has its subsidiaries based in Scandinavia, the US, England, Holland, Germany, Poland, France, Spain, Thailand and China. Most other parts of the world are covered through national distributors in more than 60 countries. The company has training centres at its headquarters in Sweden and at all their subsidiaries and at an important number of distributors around the world.
In India, Alignment Systems through the Alignment Academy is working very closely with vehicle manufacturers in developing training repair manuals and repair standards. The company has developed Body Repairs Manuals and Flat Rate Time Manuals for Maruti Suzuki. Alignment Academy, part of Alignment Systems develops and produces these repair manuals for various vehicle manufacturers. The material will be delivered as electronic multimedia manuals and videos and has just started the development of repair manuals for Tata Motors.
Alignment Systems is a major supplier of carsh repairs systems to all major OEMs in India including Honda, Toyota, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, BMW and Hyundai says Mr. Jasvinder. Car-o-Liner is the sole supplier of crash repair systems for all BMW service centers in India.
Having established the Car-o-Liner brand in the Indian market, the next focus is the Josam brand, says Mr. Madsen. Ten years back when Car-o-Liner was launched in the Indian market, it took a lot of efforts by educating customers through seminars and workshops on the need for crash repair systems. Today it is mandatory to have crash repair systems for all garages handling the new generation cars. “We expect a similar change to happen in the truck and bus segment”, says Mr. Madsen.
With most commercial vehicle manufacturers including Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, Volvo and Mercedes offering fully built solutions, it becomes necessary to have crash repair systems to cater to its customers in case of accidents. “Josam can put vehicles back on road very fast and this is a major advantage for fleet owners. We are planning to get more aggressive on Josam brand in India”, adds Mr. Madsen.
Volvo is already using Josam crash repair systems at its service centre in India. Josam also offers wheel aligners for trucks and buses. The new Mercedes truck assembly plant in Chakan uses Josam wheel aligners to check all the vehicles which roll out of the assembly line.
“Ashok Leyland has also installed two of Josam’s equipments in its dealerships. We are conducting seminars and demonstration camps to create more awareness for the product”, says Mr. Jasvinder Singh, Country Manager, Alignment Systems India Private Ltd.
With global vehicle manufacturers entering the Indian market, crash repair systems will be mandated by all these manufacturers as part of their service infrastructure. In the truck and bus segment, as manufacturers move towards offering fully built solutions with factory built cabins, it will become more necessary for service facilities to have crash repair systems for service these expensive vehicles.
Also with growing radialisation and increasing awareness among fleet operators on the advantages of wheel alignment, it will become compulsory for service centers to install wheel alignment systems.
