Improving manufacturing effectiveness: In gear shop by the application of cellular manufacturing concepts-Bharath Earth Movers Ltd: Kolar.

Abstract

Bharat earth movers limited Is a leading heavy engineering company. The gear shop at Earth mover division caters to the production of wide variety of gear components required for earth moving equipments. The manufacturing capability of wide variety of gears offers a competitive edge to company's business strategy. In this study an attempt has been made to improve manufacturing effectiveness in gear shop in order to gain competitive manufe^turing advantage through Quality, Cost and Delivery. The present manufacturing situation in gear shop has been studied by considering various issues concerning components, processes, organization structure, layout, parts flow, material handling etc. An opinion pool was conducted to understand the perceptions of the shop executives regarding the current situation. It was found that the present system is oriented towards just to meet production targets and machine utilisaton. There is too much of follow up, material handling, long lead time, high work in progress, co-ordination problems, poor management control and organization structure in the shop. A simpTe, feasible, people-oriented re-orientation to manufacturing using principles of Group technology has been suggested. Detailed production flow analysis and load capacity analysis were done to form possible cells. The suggested cell composition consists of seven groups in gear shop to cater to easy management control and production flow. A suitable organization structure, cellular re-layout is also suggested. A separate tool management cell for gear shop has been suggested. By adopting the suggested cellular manufacturing in gear shop, it is expected that material handling efforts will be reduced by 50%, lead time and hence work-in-progress will also be drastically reduced. The other benefits envisaged includes building supplier-customer relationship with in shop/division, Less production control, supervision, inspection efforts, Better co-ordination, communication and satisfaction among personnel. The concept of cellular manufacturing or group technology can be extended to other manufacturing activities in the company on the similar lines. It is hoped that the efforts made in the current study will help to improve quality, cost and delivery parameters substantially.