Dell now 'Made in India'

US computer major Dell Inc. has rolled out its first desktop computer from its new plant at Sriperumbudur near Chennai, July 30, thereby making India the third country in Asia Pacific, after China and Malaysia, to manufacture its range of desktop computers and notebooks outside of the US.



"This factory is unbelievably strategic for us in India. This will help us improve our competitive advantage in India," Rajan Anandan, Vice President, Dell India said at the function to mark the commencement of operations from the plant.

"The Chennai operation reaffirms the strategic importance of India to Dell, providing significant impetus to our growth plans and prospects here, where we are already among the fastest growing computer systems suppliers," he said.

Dell has launched a facility in Brazil and a similar one will be opened in Poland later this year, he said.

Speaking about the new Indian plant, Anandan said, "This plant will help reduce delivery lead time by 40–50 percent and also reduce costs. We will pass on the savings to the customers."

The facility – India Customer Center (ICC) – will employ 150 persons initially and would grow over a period of time, K.Y. Yong, general manager (manufacturing operations) said.

The plant has been set up on 50 acre of land spanning 1,10,000 sq. ft. with space to expand further as the company grows, he said.

"The ICC has a planned investment of $30 million over a period of five years with an initial capacity of 4,00,000 desktops per year and will go up to about 2.5 million units over a period of time," he added.

After formally selecting the Chennai site in September 2006, Dell commenced work on the project three months later. Sriperumbudur is the company's third manufacturing location in its Asia–Pacific and Japan region joining Penang, Malaysia, and Xiamen, China, and is part of Dell's global network of manufacturing facilities.