Scope : Increase in production rate of a critical Defence system supplied to MoD

Objective : Ramp up of rate of production from 2 per month in Mar-19 to 6 per month by Mar-23. As the border tensions with China escalated, the customer wanted us to ramp up our production as much as we could, as quickly as possible.

Challenges faced while executing the project :

• Rate of production could be increased by capacity expansion, but that would require importing machinery which requires time in months.
• Rate of production could be increased by recruiting additional manpower, but that would require training them on niche skills in assembly & testing, so again it would require time in months.
• One year into the project, COVID struck in two successive years, causing loss of capacity due to unavailability of trained machinists and assembly/testing technicians.
• Third-party QA Agency appointed by customer had limited bandwidth, and further affected by COVID for two years.
• While ramp-up of assembly & testing activities was started with productivity improvement efforts, it required components to be available in increased quantities. Outsourcing of component machining to new suppliers was a challenge due to technical understanding of the requirements by them.
• As an impact of COVID, RM material supply was affected in 2020 & 2021
• Over last year or more, the supply of the bought-out Parts from war-affected zone is slowed down

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Objective: Production of 30000 Nos. of ICU Ventilators progressively within 3 months.

COVID spread in INDIA from March 2020 necessitating requirement of large no of ICU grade Ventilators to provide respiratory support to patients hospitalized.

Challenges faced while  executing the project:

• BEL entering into manufacturing of critical care medical equipment for first time without prior experience, domain knowledge and infrastructure.
• Import Procurement of components from OEMs due to export restrictions and overseas domestic demand.
• Dynamic pricing and uncertain lead time.
• Timeline of delivery is very challenging.
• Subcontracting of work packages from MSMEs due to the nation-wide lockdown.
• Logistics issues due to cross border traffic closure, etc.
• Concurrent production model adopted as CV200 Ventilator newly launched.
• Clinical validation and approval to be obtained at AIIMS-Delhi in a short span of time.
• Certification : ISO 13485:2016 for Ventilator manufacturing
• TUV Certification for CV200 Ventilator

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Project implementation start and end date:

Is it in continued operation now? Yes

Innovation: Elaborate in detail as to how your project stands out for its uniqueness / innovation

A] Consistent achievement of greater than 30% cost saved for 2 product types

1.Without any investments in infrastructure.

2.Without any direct material cost reduction.

B] Both product types have already registered higher sales

1.Product type 1 sale increased by 60% in volume

2.Product type 2 sale increased by 60% in volume

C] Additional capacity created leading to sales growth

1.Both Product type sale increased to 45 k per month.

D] Process Innovations

1.Standardization for the process of Holistic cost reduction that can be replicated across SKF Globally

2.Development of innovative process steps for improving performance of machines

3.Process innovations like kinetic energy transformation DOE for grinding

4.Process innovations like kinetic energy transformation honing process parameters.

5.Sequential analysis for vibration scrap reduction

6.Simulation DOE

E] Sustainability

1.Reduction in energy loss in grinding and honing by utilizing innovation idea of kinetic energy transformations

2.Setup chart validated and incorporated in PLC and parameters lock to reduce man machine intervention.

3.Training to all concerned employees completed across channels

Problem identification: Why was this problem selected?
What methodology was adopted to identify the problem?

1.Business Threat of 20 MINR

2.Selling Price of Bearing type 1 was 99.34 INR ,Standard cost of bearing was 100.88 INR, Actual Manufacturing cost was 148.8 INR, Competition was capturing market share for this type due to cost and capacity threat to the tune 1,00,000 brgs per year 10 MINR per year .

3.Selling Price of Bearing type 2 was 98.55 INR ,Standard cost of bearing was105.09 INR, Actual Manufacturing cost was 124.8 INR, Competition was capturing market share for this type due to cost and capacity threat to the tune 1,00,000 brgs per year 10 MINR per year .

4.Low productivity leading to Non Profitable business & Loss to channel financial parameters

1.Roadmap for productivity improvement & cost reduction started with Structured approach of Standard Cost Break up from Cost controller .

1.From Data collection and sensitive analysis 6 critical components were identified for further improvement An Integrated project management system with structured approach involving all channel management was used to ensuring timely completion of project activities

• Analytical Technique of Sequential analysis for improving quality of bearings developed and deployed involving operators
• This is very effective tool which builds a strong cause and effect relationship and contribution of each signification cause to effect via regression

5.Technique of optimizing honing parameters based on kinetic energy transformation and RSM (DOE)

Implementation: How was the chosen solution tested/validated and implemented?

A} FIRST CRITICAL X ….OVERHEAD COST REDUCTION:

Detail analysis was done categorically to understand Overhead cost parameters and which are important as seen in Pareto .

As Per Pareto first priority was to analyse and reduce wages cost ,Wages was analysed in terms of no of fix workmen and flexi workmen and their actual reporting channel ,Allocation of workmen was done on basis of their actual working channel .Possibility of Reduction of manpower was seen as per value addition and recommendation was given.

Second Priority was Cost of Depreciation. Assets on Channel having written down value were verified for their availability on channel and were keened machine wise item wise and removed from asset register or reallocated to appropriate

A} FINAL OVERHEAD COST REDUCTION After Analysis and action of overhead key parameter results show reduction in overhead cost

b)Financial benefits:

Institutionalization and horizontal deployment, if any:

Please elaborate on how the changes have been embedded in the system and horizontally deployed as applicable.
Umbrella Project Launched Across Channels of DGBB Pune on Different channels as per Customer Threat and Business Volume