1. Brief Description of the project:

To Enhance Productivity and Quality of life by implementation of Horizontal Parting Line Cold box process for Barrel Core Making.

2.What made your company to take up this Project? Describe briefly:

Foundry is being considered as one of the most hazardous and dangerous process consumes lots of natural resource.Team Foundry took a challenge to reduce the natural resource consumption and improve the Productivity.Foundry PU Capacity mapping and came to known that Core Room is the Bottleneck Process and the capacity was contrained to 40 Moulds/Hr.To overcome it M&M Foundry started looking for Innovative and sustainable and Productivity project for moving towards Improving quality of life, improving business performance, making technology affordable andGreen process to achieve sustainable business model, a positive step towards achieving an inclusive growth.Foundry Team did a process mapping of Core room and identified gas heating(High Cycle Time) is one of the influencing deterrent factor to aim our goal.Our team decided to think differently and create positive impact on our business with enhanced Productivity.The team challenged the conventional process of shell core process making and implemented cold box process for DI Cylinder Block barrel core making with changing the die design and thereby moving towards green product with determination for:

• Safety first.
• Crusade for natural resource conservation
• The urge for continuous improvement.
• Unprecedented challenge.

3.How did you generate the solution which you implemented?

Current Reaction Involved in the Shell Core Making Process
Multiple Ideas :-
By using TPM approach, Operational Excellence and robust planning, we took up the challenge to convert the existing 35 years young Equipment of Hot Box to a process involving green Curing named Cold Box.

4.Describe how the selected solution was implemented. Some of the aspectscould be:

Mahindra Foundry being single Source supplier for 85% product mix cannot lose a single day of Production. Cold Box Implementation has to be carried out Offline without affecting the current Production.
Following are the Challenges faced while Project Implementation: -

1. Machine Modification
2. Die Modification
3. Amine Gas generation panel
4. Wet Scrubber to dilute residual amine gas

1. Earlier machine was of open chamber type to support Die heating through PNG Gas but cold box core making process requires closed chamber to avoid Amine gas Leakages.The gas burner used for heating of the Cores is been converted into an Integrated Amine Purging unit required for the desired process.

   

2.Earlier it was of Open die type to support effective heating of Core die. We have converted this in to closed type passage inside the tooling & provided thorough Sealing arrangement for effective amine purging.

3.It is highly unsafe to transport Liquid Amine; thus, we have installed custom designed amine gas generation panel which converts the Liquid Amine to Gaseous amine used for gassing of core.

4. We have Installed Water based Scrubber unit to Neutralize Residual Amine gas.

After Cold Box Making Process: -
Here Amine Gas is used to Cure the core at Ambient Temperature: -

With each project, certain risk are involved For mitigating the risk, i.e. Irreversible machine modifications been done offline and only reversible machine Modifications done on machine. For ensuring quality of the core, we have carried out core filling and curing simulation with the help of simulation Software.

Training to Associates and Officers for New Technology: -
       1.Machine Working Principals and on job training

      2.Safety Training

5.Value Creation and Business Results.

Benefits under PQCDSME: -
P: -
Cycle time reduced from 5.2 min to 3.3 operator working in min. (Productivity improvement by 37%).
Q: -
1.Customer End rework reduced by 15%
2.Crankcase Millipore Improvement from 20 mg to Zero mg
3.Blow-hole rejection reduced from 2.9% to 2.1%.
C: -
1) Raw Material cost saving of 1.06 Crore/Annum
2) PNG Cost Saving of 12.67 Lacs/Annum
3) Rejection Cost saving of 8.91 Lacs/Annum
4) Manpower cost saving of 0.83 Lacs/Annum
5) New Capacity Generation of 17.6 Cr/Annum
6) Opportunity Cost saving of 5.6 Cr/Annum (New Machine Procurement)
D: -
1. Opportunity to generate new business .
2. Retaining existing cost competiveness in the market
S: -
1.Elimination of unsafe working condition of environment where Associates was working at 300°C.
2.Created Many Happy Stakeholders

6.Environmental considerations: (if any)

1.Carbon Foot Print saving of 62 Tons/Year
2.PNG consumption eliminated from 41 Tones/Annum to Zero
3.Associates morale improved due to safe & Tension free working environment.

7. Can the ideas, principles, concepts or techniques developed by you be implemented in other areas in your company and in similar / other industry? Describe.

Shared this Idea with the following Industry

Other Information: -
Won Third Prize in Mahindra AFS Best Energy Efficient Project :-

Project implementation start and end date:  18.09.2015 To 10.12.2015

Is it in continued operation now?: Yes

1.Brief Description of the project:

In Air Brakes application, requirement of air usage is increased and potential swift in usage of heavy duty air compressors (160cc & 230cc capacity) in commercial vehicles segment which results in increase of sales in Compression and Braking Unit  1 (C&B1). In C&B1 production unit, we do in-house machining of Crankcase, Crankshaft, Connecting rod, End cover & Cylinder head and Assembly & testing of compressor. Crankcase machining is being done in three island cells by using quite no. of SPM’s which occupies higher space and handling of variants iscomplex.

Also we had four compressor assembly lines established 10 years ago to manufacture 24 variants of compressors to cater 19 customers across India. In order to improve quality instead of upgrading all four assembly lines, we planned to develop single line byincorporating robust process controls withLEAN investment. If we adopt single assembly line concept for handling 40 variants delivering 19 customers is the challenge which will have16 changeover/ day whichwould consume6000min/month as setup changeover loss. In this scenario we have executed this project to fulfill the business need.

C&B 1 Sales in increased by 2X in 3 years No. of variants increased from 24 to 40 variants No. of customers : 19 Necessary to upgrade the lines to meetstringent quality norms

Expected Results:
1.Robust process controls supported by Poka yokes & control charts including product& process traceability.
2.CAPEX avoidance of 153 Lacs
3.Floor space savings of 100Sqmt, CAPEX avoidance of 120Lacs.
4.15 Manpower reduced, savings of 63 Lacs / annum
5.Energy cost savings of 26.9 Lacs / annum                Total savings: 363 LACS

2.What made your company to take up this Project? Describe briefly:

As per business need we need to upgrade our compressor assembly with single assembly line concept to cater 40 variants. Considering our production scheduling policy we need to produce both runner & repeater variants on every day basis to meet the customer requirements and to have minimal inventory of finished goods. As its consequence we need to do frequent setup changeover, as a result the line availability would be 68% by which we couldn’t meet customer requirements. In addition to that, we are single source for most of customers and having 95% share of market. In this context our company has approved compressor manufacturing flexibility improvement projects both in crankcase machining and compressor assembly.

3.How did you generate the solution which you implemented?

Crankcase Machining:WABCO’s unique standards (M&L standard, NVA elimination, process parameter optimization, ECRS method, introduction of new generation cutting tools) are used to optimize the cycle time, operations offloaded from SPM to VMC leading to reduction in number of machines, reduction in walking distance and capacity increase.

Compressor Assembly:

As per Pareto analysis of overall loss, Setup changeover is contributing for 87%.
WABCO Standard 15 Steps methodology is the reference for our implementation of changeover time optimization.
15 Steps “Change Over” Time Optimization using Standard DMAIC

Short Term Solution:We operated in extended shifts to meet customer requirements which increases our labour cost by 16.8Lacs/annum
Long Term Solution:We have used “PUGH MATRIX” tool to evaluate alternate options to select optimum product changeover strategy

1) Usage of QR code in product name plate for real time product changeover in conveyor assembly line.
2) Adopted ECRS concept for process & tooling optimization

4. Describe how the selected solution was implemented. Some of the aspects could be:

Crankcase Machining:
In current machining process, we have 12machines (3VMC, 1HMC, 8SPM) operated by engaging,
3 operators / shift, where cells are placed in 3Island. The current cell layout is shown below:

“Flow Analysis” is done to capture MAN and MATERIAL movements
 

Actions: 1.Introduce double component loading in VMC 2.Use New generation toolings like Ceramic & CBN tools 3.Combination of tools holders to increase metal removal rate 4.Re-balance the work content between operators and reduce 3     manpower / day.

Compressor Assembly:
Solution 1 : QR Code Implementation
Solution 2 : Integration of Leak testing
Solution 3 : Zero Point Clamping

5. Value Creation and Business Results.

Tangible Benefits :

• 12 Manpower reduced in compressor assembly and 3 Manpower reduced in crankcase machining, savings of 63 Lacs / annum.
• Potential Opportunity Loss of 180 Lacs is eliminated.
• As we are meeting customer demand requirements with single assembly line, which releases floor space savings of 100 Sqmt. In Crankcase machining by eliminating SPM machines, we could save floor space of 140 Sqmt. This space will be used for future new products and CAPEX avoidance of 120Lacs realized.

6. Environmental considerations: (if any)

• As the sealing of component is inbuilt in fixture, manually tightening of sealing adapter using pneumatic nut runner is eliminated. Also the product changeover is real time, assembly line uptime is improved. Energy savings of 5 Lacs/annum.
• In Crankcase machining, SPM’s used for drilling & tapping are operated by heavy duty motors which consumes high energy are replaced by off loading in VMC machines which enables us to reduce energy cost by 21.9 Lacs/annum
• Operator morale is improved by eliminating the pallet movement without any value addition.

7. Can the ideas, principles, concepts or techniques developed by you be implemented in other areas in your company and in similar / other industry? Describe.

• Similar methodology is adopted in Clutch servo assembly line which incorporates 50 variants, where changeover is instant by scanning 1D bar code in child parts – Completed in Jan’17
• Horizontal deployment will be done for 318cc compressor assembly line during upgradation – Q3 2017.

8. Give any other information that supplements your project / case study to be a winning entry.

• Adoption of QR code for Single Takt Set-up changeover.
• Demand served out of 4 lines is replaced by 1 line; having high level of flexibility and enhanced quality controls inclusive of Real time SPC control.
• Up-gradation of assembly process with latest technology resulted in reduction of Labour & Power cost.
• Line is upgraded to Industry 4.0 having online update on product & process characteristics.
• Customized engineering solutions can be more cost effective rather than adopting standard solutions.
• Collaborative team effort which results in generation of frugal ideas makes the project unique.

For any business sustainability- we need to minimize investment, optimize the manpower and same time speed up the outcomes. In line with these goals, BAL CVD Maintenance abandoned traditional thinking of improving skilled man power & come out with innovative thinking:

1. Why do we need skilled man power to inspect same points repeatedly to maintain Equipment health?
2. Why specialized skilled man power is needed to diagnose the interruptions?
3. Why not to eliminate inspection & increase in-house skill of our persons for restoration only.

Answer was - why not to build Maintenance Man’s thinking ability into the equipment itself to take decisions or guide the operator itself to take care.

This thinking can benefit us both financially as well as non-financially in saving PM time, Diagnosis time & man power substantially, with indirectly huge Productivity loss due to limited skill of in-house persons, particularly at the time of peak production demands in odd hours of seasons or times. Ultimately Increasing reliability & Uptime of equipment.

Solution was achieved through Present condition deep study, taking challenges as opportunity to improve & proposed new concept-for JH/PM & diagnosis:

To eliminate errors in manual JH/PM inspection and recording, 1st step was to integrate all check sheets into soft & through intelligent unit achieve auto scheduling of pending points, Abnormality & spares reports.

Next Step was to use max existing sensors to indicate deterioration/malfuction in cycle, to operator as Digital cock pit

New Intelligent Method for Diagnosis, eliminates skill

Total Sensors 143                       No Need of high skill to diagnose & search exact interruption

In this method, Each sensor location & its physical picture is linked with its computerised logical address. As sson as the interuption / malfuction of Sensor is triggered in a cycle, its remedial action & location along with picture is displayed to the operator for immediate corrective action by himself.

Pain:

1. Any single interruption if not detected & attended within 48 seconds lead to loss of one vehicle
2. Most of the time interruptions are resettled by Operator/ Line supervisors without informing to Maintenance
3. Interruptions are recorded manually by visiting each machine panel every shift to take corrective action.
4. Inspection of overhead sensors are unsafe to check daily/weekly.
5. Hence difficult to reduce minor stoppages occurrences due to such interruptions, affecting OLE.

Idea:  Make all shop equipment-Diagnosis & Sorting Easy & Quickly
Presently all such interuptions are manually recorded in register & latter on are studied for failure reasons. This leads to skipping of root cause actions with direct loss of prodution, inspite of having AND_ON llike system.
Following trend shows how it is taking long time to eliminate such interptions on various lines.

Idea & Concept: Interlinking of each equipment & each sensor with centralized SCADA system

On clicking the equipment, Failed equipment plan view with failed part sensor flashing is shown with its graphical picture location as shown below. Eliminating need of any skill to Diagnose the fault.