Maruti Suzuki CEO flags global supply risks, calls for deeper localisation across automotive supply chain

Maruti Suzuki India Managing Director and CEO Hisashi Takeuchi on Wednesday called for deeper localisation across the automotive supply chain, saying the restructuring of global supply chains has created an opportunity for India to emerge as a trusted manufacturing hub.

Speaking at the 66th ACMA Annual Session, Takeuchi said cost was no longer the only factor shaping global supply chains, with reliability and continuity becoming equally important after years of disruptions ranging from semiconductor shortages to geopolitical conflicts.

“Deep localisation is about reducing our exposure to external disruptions by strengthening domestic capabilities and progressively owning a larger share of the value chain,” Takeuchi said.


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Global supply chains are being reconfigured

“The first favorable factor is that global supply chains are being reconfigured. Cost is no longer the only consideration. Reliability and continuity have become equally important. This creates a significant opportunity for India to emerge as a trusted manufacturing and supply chain hub,” he said.

Takeuchi also pointed to government policy and the scale of India’s domestic market as factors supporting greater localisation. He cited the PLI scheme and India Semiconductor Mission as initiatives that can help build capabilities in critical areas and reduce strategic dependencies.

“Recently, the Hon'ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, while speaking about ‘Sapta Dhara’, identified manufacturing as one of the key streams that will drive India's future growth. He emphasised that India should manufacture everything from small components to large-scale products,” Takeuchi said.

“GST 2.0 has accelerated the auto industry growth in the domestic market. At the same time, India's export potential continues to strengthen,” he noted.

Takeuchi said the combination of domestic demand and exports was creating the scale needed to invest in technologies that were previously difficult to manufacture competitively in India.

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“These are together creating an opportunity of scale and justify the need to invest in localisation, including advanced technologies that were previously considered difficult to manufacture competitively in India,” he said.

Maruti flags supplier gaps

Takeuchi, however, said localisation alone would not be enough. Indian-made products would also need to match global quality standards, requiring stronger capabilities across the supplier ecosystem.

“That requires quality to become our signature,” he said.

He said the focus needs to extend beyond large automakers to smaller suppliers.

“Unless our Tier-2 and Tier-3 suppliers are capable, we can’t produce world-class quality,” Takeuchi said.

“Supporting them through technology, quality systems, and engineering capability will be critical for long-term competitiveness,” he noted.

Takeuchi also said the industry must prepare for changing demand while expanding capacity.

“So, while scaling up capacity, we need to build capability to handle fluctuations. Advance planning of capacity expansion and building flexibility in manufacturing is the key to address this issue,” he said.

On technology, Takeuchi said Maruti is using supplier location mapping and localised weather intelligence to identify potential disruptions in advance.

“By geo-mapping supplier locations and integrating localised weather intelligence, we are able to provide advance alerts about potential disruptions, giving suppliers and our teams more time to prepare,” he said.

“The objective is not to predict every disruption. That is impossible. The objective is to identify risks early enough to take counter measures,” Takeuchi said.

He identified four areas that can help the industry move beyond resilience: deep localisation, people, collective learning and technology.