QS 9000: a network on new product development

Abstract

Brakes India Limited is a pioneer in the brake industry in India and a leader in this market. It has also been a pioneer in introducing new products to the Indian Automobile industry. With the liberalisation of the economy in the country and hence the fast entry of many multinational automobile manufacturers, the competition in the market has increased multifold. To sustain the competition and to constantly improve the business, it becomes imperative to seek new customers and develop new products and concepts within a very short period of time. I f new products are not developed quickly, the cost of lost opportunities will become very high since competition will throw us out of the market. Even though the new product introduction has been a well-planned activity right from the beginning and Brakes India has so far developed numerous new products to the satisfaction of its customers, the present industrial scenario warrants further improvement in this process. The customers want the products to be supplied to them at the quickest time possible so that they can roll out their vehicles in a very short period of time. This project aims at finding a way to reduce the time taken by Brakes India to respond to its customers' needs. With this in view a study was made to find out the time taken at present for new production development and introduction. For this, one regular product for OE market and one product for the export aftermarket were chosen. The products were chosen in such a way that the process of development is almost over and the customer has been supplied with either the sample product or the pilot batch. Upon arriving at the exact time taken for developing the identified products, atrial has been made to take these products through the QS 9000 procedures route. For this the Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) procedures were studied. The various phases of the APQP were fit into the new product introduction procedures and the procedures were assumed to have been applied for the two products identified. The possibilities of elimination of non-value added activities and also clubbing of activities have been explored so that the total time taken for developing these products could have been reduced to the maximum extent possible. By this process, the importance of APQP has been established and this is expected to give a thrust in strictly adhering to the APQP procedures. As a measure to implement the suggestions that have been given by the study, another OE product which is just at the beginning stages of development has been chosen and a framework has been suggested to develop this product in the shortest lead time possible. This forms the implementation stage of the project in the company. I t is expected that this project will throw light into the new product development process and help the company to shed off the lacunae in this process and develop and supply new products to customers in the shortest time possible. I t is only by this way that the company can sustain competition in the market and retain its leadership position.