Reduction of veriety-ABB: Calcutta.

Abstract

A summary is given below for the project study on "Reduction of Variety": • Business Area - Air Handling Equipment ( IAH ) of Asea Brown Boveri Ltd. has several old series of fans under existing production range. The product line has been bloated over the years as a result of introduction of new fan series from time to time. Presently the necessity has been felt to rationalise the production range by reducing some of those old fan series. The objective of this project study is to identify an old fan series which can be effectively replaced by a new fan series already available in manufacturing range. • An old fan series named GLC(A,B) has been identified which can be replaced by a new fan series named GF(A,B)B. However, three models of GLC(A,B) series can not be discontinued due to non-availability of equivalent fan models. These three models are GLCB-3-160, GLCB-5- 160andGLCA-5-160. • The detailed study shows that the manufacturing time and fan weights for different models of GLC(A,B) series are more than the equivalent GF(A,B)B fan models. Therefore, by discontinuing GLC(A,B) series, the organisation can increase productivity and may become price competitive. • The discontinuation of GLC(A,B) series will reduce drawing handling activities, inventory level and market response time. • GLC(A,B) fan series have some design constraints like high vibration level, higher moment of inertia etc. which can be eliminated with equivalent GF(A,B)B models. • It is felt that if suitable replacements can be developed for GLCB-3-160, GLCB-5-160 and GLCA-5-160, the impact of discontinuation of the entire GLC(A,B) series will be more effective. • It is recommended that before introduction of a new fan series in future, the discardable series should be identified. Also, the technical as well as commercial superiority of the new series should be scrutinised. • It is also recommended that before discontinuation of an old fan series, the marketing personnel should convince customers towards the impact of rationalisation from customer's point of concern.