Frugal Engineering or Gandhian Engineering is the science of breaking up complex engineering processes/products into basic components and then rebuilding the product in the most economical manner possible. Frugal engineering results in simpler and easier to handle processes and cheaper products with necessary features. Indians and South Asians are known for frugal engineering. The Tata Nano, the cheapest car in the world today, is held up as an example of successful frugal engineering. In this context, it is frequently referd as “Gandhian engineering” in honor of Mahatma Gandhi.
Frugal engineering
The marketing and business aspect of Frugal engineering is to provide modern products with essential features to tap the bottom of the pyramid. For example, new basic mobile phones by Nokia in India which costs 20 USD which can only be used for phone calling / sms and basic functions, on purpose excluding more advanced functions. The per product profit margin is low but the volume of the market is so huge that the total profit is very high.
The term ‘frugal engineering’ was first used by Carlos Ghosn, the joint chief of Renault and Nissan. He has praised Indian engineers, saying: “Frugal engineering is achieving more with fewer resources.”
Gandhian engineering
Gandhian engineering is a concept introduced by Tata Motors intended to convey deep frugality and a willingness to challenge conventional wisdom applied to engineering, technological innovation, and new product development. The name originated from India, and was named following the Tata Motors’ Nano car conception, a cheap, frugal, low cost and innovative Indian car. It is associated with the sentence “Getting more [services] from less [resources] for more [people]”. The 2.000US$ Nano car, an artificial foot for 30US$, and drugs conception for 10 millions US$ have been cited as examples of radical Gandhian engineering.