HCL inaugurates its manufacturing facility at Uttaranchal  

RUDRAPUR: HCL Infosystems Ltd, an information enabling and integration
company, has launched its second manufacturing facility in India at Rudrapur,
Uttranchal. Spread over 10 acres of land area in the SIDCUL Industrial Estate at
Pantnagar in Rudrapur, this facility would enhance the overall capacity of HCL
to two million PCs per annum. The company has an existing capacity of one
million systems per year. 

Beginning with production of desktops computers and LCD monitors, the plant
has the capability to manufacture an entire spectrum of ICT products —
including notebooks, servers as well as thin clients. 

Inaugurating the facility, chief minister of Uttaranchal ND Tiwari said,
"As Indian IT industry is growing at a rapid pace and is working
extensively to bridge the digital divide, we in Uttaranchal would like to
welcome HCL to the state. We are sure that this new facility of HCL will further
enable them to take computing and ICT, right till the most remote corner of the
country and will also prominently display Uttaranchal on the Indian IT map. We
are happy to welcome them and would like to extend our cooperation and support,
by providing a comprehensive blend of progressive industrial policies and
infrastructure." 

HCL Infosystem marketing executive VP George Paul said, “To be set up with
a total investment of Rs 75 crore over the next 3-5 years, this facility is the
largest vertically integrated ICT manufacturing facility in India. This facility
will also act as a strong catalyst for the development of regional economy.
While we have already recruited more than 200 local employees, we plan to up
this number to around 500 people in various capabilities as it commissions to
its full capacity.”

The Uttaranchal facility will cater to the additional volumes of HCL
servicing the northern markets. 

Talking on advanced capabilities and projected future plans, chairman &
CEO of HCL Infosystems Ajai Chowdhry said, "This facility will complement
our existing manufacturing base at Pondicherry — taking our overall annual
capacity to two million PCs per annum. Besides enabling us to manufacture a wide
spectrum of ICT products, this facility will also allow us to offer more
enhanced value to our customers through better logistic efficiency, lower time
to market as well as de-risk our complete manufacturing portfolio — with
strong facility base in both southern and northern India. Moreover it makes us
future-ready to take on expected strong growth potential, being expected in
Indian PC market." 

Completed in eight months time after commissioning, the new HCL manufacturing
base has already received its ISO 14001, ISO 9001:2000 certifications. The new
HCL facility has installed several processes as well as advanced testing
techniques. Some of these initiatives include components especially sourced and
tested for their tolerance towards temperature, humidity & heat, special
wireless LAN-based Reliability tests, extreme temperature tests, 5-feet drop
tests and other tests like which (electro static discharge) ESD test, Earth
Leakage test and etc. 

Further still, HCL also demonstrated the 'Build-to-order' (BTO) capabilities
of the manufacturing plant. This enables HCL to manufacture and design ICT
products with specific configurations — customized to suit the needs of
particular customers, in a matter of few hours. SAP is used right from the entry
point till the shipment, while the order entry is also done through automated
configurator, which ensures technical compatibility and correctness. 

The plant is networked and online with HCL branch and head offices. State of
the art IT systems in MRP, ERP, Online configurators are also in place to
leverage the power of IT in delivering optimum efficiency.