CIMAHI, mot.sbm.itb.ac.id – The academic community of the School of Business and Management Institut Teknologi Bandung (SBM-ITB) who are members of the Management of Technology Laboratory (MoT Lab) made an industrial visit to the local automotive company FIN Komodo this afternoon (16/5/2023). This company is located in Cimahi City, West Java. This visit is intended as an effort to understand the practice of domestic technology-based industries, specifically the automotive industry.
“Through this visit, it is hoped that we can understand the dynamics of the automotive industry, especially the domestic industry”, said Dr. Eko Agus Prasetio, SBM-ITB innovation management lecturer who led this visit.
FIN Komodo is a multi-purpose offroad vehicle that is made and developed entirely 100% from national resources, established in 2005. This company was founded as a principal company, which is independent in designing, manufacturing, and developing its own products. This vehicle is specifically designed for off-road use in accordance with the natural conditions of Indonesia with the support of spare parts available on the market which are relatively affordable, easy maintenance and provide optimum comfort and safety.
This vehicle with the name FIN Komodo is the result of its own research and development, has been tested since 2008, and has entered the market in stages. In 2013 mass production began with 120 units per year, and in 2020 it was increased to 1000 units per year. Komodo FIN buyers are not only in Indonesia, reaching Malaysia and even the farthest buyers are from Africa.
FIN Komodo implements a blue ocean strategy with a focus on the market for areas with poor infrastructure. The purpose of FIN Komodo is to build Indonesia’s technological culture by creating an independent automotive industry. “Why ‘culture’? Capability in technology is like a culture that has been formed for a long time and cannot be formed instantly by simply adopting it. In developing technology, it is carried out in stages, step-by-step.” said Ir. Ibnu Susilo, founder of FIN Komodo.
During this visit, the SBM-ITB community members consisted of members of the SBM-ITB MoT Lab, namely Dr. Eko Agus Prasetio, Dedy Sushandoyo, PhD., Uruqul Nadhif Dzakiy, MT., and Lely Anggarini, MSM. who is a research assistant lecturer. Apart from conducting interviews, we had the opportunity to test drive the FIN Komodo vehicle. It is hoped that from this visit we can take lessons learned so that we can use them for research and teaching.
“Through this visit, we hope that we can take lessons learned from local industrial development practices that can survive in the midst of intense competition like FIN Komodo and then serve as a source for our research or teaching in class.”, concluded Dedy Sushandoyo, PhD. a People and Knowledge Management (PKM) SBM-ITB lecturer.