A 30-member team of CEOs from leading Indian automobile components companies will be participating in a five-day orientation programme at Massachusetts Institute of Technology on product design and development.

The programme has been tailored to meet the future needs of Indian component makers to emerge as a major source of parts for automobile of the future that can be several notches more demanding than at present in terms of safety, environment and cost.

The programme will be conducted by two eminent professors at MIT - Steven Eppinger and Charles Fine - who are considered to be experts in the field of product development and supply chain strategy and value chain road-mapping.

Eppinger's book Product Design and Development is used in hundreds of universities across the world and he is considered an expert on engineered product development. Fine is known for his book Clockspeed: Winning Industry Control in the Age of Temporary Advantage.

Vishnu Mathur, executive director, Automotive Components Manufacturers' Association, said, "Indian component makers are well-recognised for their best practices in manufacturing and cost-advantage. The future, however, lies in the ability to develop products from scratch for global automobile manufacturers."

Eppinger's recent visit to India and his findings based on visits to several component-making plants is the basis on which the programme has been designed. "What is interesting is that the programme is not a routine one for engineers and managers but for CEOs, who can steer their company towards product development for the future," said Mathur.

Some of the prominent CEOs who will be participating in this programme are Sanjay Labroo of Asahi India Glass [Get Quote], Deep Kapuria of Hi-Tech Gears, Jatendar Mehta of Omax Auto, Arvind Kapur, Rico Auto Industries [Get Quote], and Srivats Ram of Wheels India [Get Quote].

The cost of this programme which is in excess of Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 million) has been funded by ACMA and the participants CEOs.