MBA 2013-2015

Production & Operations Management Project Study of Layout, Cranksgaft Division, Escorts Agri Machinery Group, Faridabadh

Submitted by:- Abhishek Bhatnagar (2013H149231P)

Darvin Xeona (2013H149266P) Dipesh Joshi (2013H149291P) Prateek Singh Bapna (2013H149284P) Sachin Soni (2013H149265P) Saurabh Tripathi (2013H149232P) Suhas John (2013H149288P)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Words are only representations of our regards and gratitude that we have towards our actions

and their inherent associations. As a matter of fact, without co-operation, no thought could be

coined into real action. Consistent motivation and invaluable support throughout any project

is an issue that cannot be quantitatively measured. These acknowledgements are only a

fraction of regards towards their gestures.

“Vital to every operation is co-operation”. We really agree to this wonderful quotation put

forth by Mr. Frank Tyger. This project was successful due to the co-operation extended by

people who have truly contributed towards it. We gratefully acknowledge Dr. Rajesh Matai

who’s deep sharing and synergy has moved us many levels beyond our own thinking. We

express our deep sense of gratitude to ma`am who has been a source of inspiration throughout

the course of this work with her inestimable advice and moral encouragement.

We are thankful to following persons for their valuable inputs and their kind co-operation and

guidance which helped us in carrying out this project study.

• Mr. Vijay Gambhir, Production head (ESCORTS Crankshaft Manufacturing Division

Plant Faridabad)

• Mr. Dinesh Prasad, Senior Plant Production Manager

We take this responsibility to express our profound and sincere gratitude to Department of

Management, BITS Pilani for providing us with the opportunity to explore the corridors of

the corporate world and gather invaluable knowledge and practical experience via the

Production and Operations Management project.

Finally, we would like to thanks those people who all are attached to this Project directly or

indirectly.

TABLE OF CONTENTS SL. NO. DESCRIPTION PAGE NO.

1 Introduction 1

2 Facility Layout Problem 4

3 Company Profile 7

4 Product description - Crankshaft 10

5 Operational details of plant 11

6 Plant layout 12

7 Addressing issue 14

8 Theory of constraints 15

9 Constraint identified 19

10 Recommendations 20

11 Conclusion 22

1. INTRODUCTION

Facility layout means planning for the location of all machines, utilities, employee workstations,

customer service areas, material storage areas, aisles, rest rooms, lunchrooms, drinking fountains, internal

walls, offices, and computer rooms, and for the flow patterns of materials and people around, into, and

within buildings. Through facility layouts, the physical arrangement of these processes within and around

buildings, the space necessary for the operation of these processes, and provided the space required for

support functions. As process planning and facility layout planning information continuous interchange

between these two planning activities, because each affects the other the objective of the facility layout

study is to minimize total cost, this cost comprises of construction cost, installation cost, material

handling cost, ease of future expansion, production cost, machine downtime cost, in-process storage cost,

safety cost, ease of supervision

There are five basic types of layouts for manufacturing facilities; process, product, cellular

manufacturing (CM), fixed position and Hybrid Layouts:

1. Process layouts (functional layouts, or job shops)

These are designed to accommodate variety in product designs and small batches .Process layout use

general purpose machines that can be changed over rapidly to new operations for different product

designs. These machines are usually arranged according to type of process being performed.

Manufacturing Operations Layout

• High Production capacity

• Low costs • Easy maintenance

Warehouse Layout • Efficient loading and

unloading • Ease of inventory

counts • Effective stocking

Service Operations Layout • Customer comfort • Stock rotation • Privacy and

Communication in work areas

Office operations layouts • Organization

structure reinforcement

• Privacy in work areas

1

2. Product layout (production lines or assembly lines)

These are designed to accommodate only a few product designs. The machinery or equipment is

arranged to ensure continuous flow of material in an orderly mode throughout the plant.

Examples of product layout, Paper mills, dairies, cement factories, and automotive assembly plants,

Auto manufacturing. Product layout use specialized machines that are set up once to perform a specific

operation for a long period of time on one product, this machines requires great expense and long

down times to change over to a new product design. Companies that produce only a few product types

often set up a different production line for each product type. The facility layout would allow for the

different product lines to separate from each other.

Workers repeatedly perform a narrow range of activities on only a few product designs& required a

small rate of skill, training and supervision.

The planning and scheduling activities are complex, they are not ongoing (continuous), rather

planning & scheduling tend to be done intermittently as product changeovers occur. The primary

objective is to minimize material handling cost by properly arranging the equipment in the processing

sequence.

3. Cellular manufacturing layouts (CM)

In these layouts machines are grouped into cells, and the cells function somewhat like a product layout

island within a larger shop or process layout although the cell layout can take on many different forms,

the flow of parts more like a product layout than a job shop. CM layout would be attempted for these

reasons:

1-Machine changeovers are simplified.

2- Training periods for workers are shortened.

3-Materials-handling costs are reduced.

4- Parts can be made faster and shipped more quickly.

5- Required less in-process inventory.

6- Production is easier to automate.

4. Fixed-Position Layouts

Some manufacturing and construction firms use a layout for arranging work that locates the product in

a fixed position and transports workers, materials, machines, and subcontractors to and from the

product. Missile assembly, large aircraft assembly, ship construction, and bridge construction are

examples of Fixed-position layouts. Fixed-position layouts are used when a product is very bulky,

large, heavy, or fragile. The fixed-position nature of the layout minimizes the amount of product

movement required. Examples of fixed-position layout include larger shipbuilding and airplane

2

manufacturing. Here, the ship or airplane is too large to be moved around the shop, the various stages

of manufacture (particularly assembly) are performed in one place by bringing all tools to the plane or

ship

5. Hybrid Layouts

Most manufacturing facilities use a combination of layout types( Hybrid Layouts .As an example of a

hybrid layout consider the final assembly of Boeing's commercial aircraft (i.e., models 737, 747, 757,

767, and 777). During final assembly, each aircraft unit is located in a fixed-position assembly bay.

However, every two or three days each aircraft unit is rolled out of its bay and pushed into the next

assembly bay, where different assembly tasks are performed. So, even though an aircraft is assembled

for two or three days at a time in a fixed position, it passes through six or eight different assembly bays

in a product layout fashion. It is important to understand the characteristics, advantages, and

disadvantages of each basic type of layout.

3

2. FACILITY LAYOUT PROBLEM

The facility layout problem is one of the most fundamental quadratic assignment problems in

Operations Research. The problem has been widely studied by many researchers in Operations

Research and management science, and known to be NP complete (NP, nondeterministic polynomial).

A facility layout problem (FLP) is about arranging the physical departments or machines within a

facility to help the facility work in a productive way. A poor layout can lead to accumulation of work-

in process inventory, overloading of material handling system, inefficient setups and longer queues.

Therefore, solution of an FLP is a strategic study to be conducted. Traditionally, there are two

approaches for the facility layout problem. The first one is the quantitative approach aiming at

minimizing the total material handling cost between departments or machines based on a distance

function. The second one is the qualitative approach aiming at maximizing closeness rating scores

between departments or machines based on a closeness function.

Classification of FLP

When the flows of materials between the departments are fixed during the planning horizon, facility

layout problem is known as the static (single period) facility layout problem (SFLP). Researchers had

paid more attentions to SFLP, and now SFLP has two new trends. Approaches to get flexibility for

SFLP include to modify the SFLP and to increase the robustness of the SFLP. Gradually, SFLP

develops these two approaches to the dynamic facility layout problem (DFLP) and robust layout,

respectively.

Up to now, there are existing three basic types of layout problem, including SFLP, DFLP and robust

layout problem. How to select the suitable type of layout problem is an urgent task. The appropriate

type of layout problem is based on the judgment conditions. The judgment conditions include whether

the material handling flows change over a long time or not, and whether it is easy for rearrangement or

not when the production requirement changes drastically. If the material handling flows change over a

long time, choose DFLP or robust layout; if not, choose SFLP. If rearrangement is easy when the

production requirement change drastically, choose DFLP; if not, choose robust layout.

Objectives of FLP

Traditionally, there are two basic types of objectives for FLP. The first one is the quantitative

(distance-based) objective aiming at minimizing the total material handling cost between departments

based on a distance function. The distance-based objective, considers all distance pairs, but due to

department areas, inter-department distances may be misleading. To help relieve this concern,

4

distances have been measured in a variety of ways: from department centroid-to-centroid, expected

distance, distance from department boundaries, distance along the material handling network, etc.

The second one is the qualitative (adjacency-based) goal, aimed at maximizing the closeness

relationship scores between departments based on the placement of departments that utilize common

materials, personnel, or utilities adjacent to one another, while separating departments for reasons of

safety, noise, or cleanliness. The adjacency-based objective, if interpreted from a material handling

cost perspective, is based on the assumption that the material handling costs between two departments

are reduced significantly when the two departments are adjacent.

Constraints of FLP

Facility layout plays a crucial role in determining the throughout time of a manufacturing process. The

objective of the facility layout problem in manufacturing environment is the arrangement of facilities

on a floor shop, subject to the following constraints:

1. to reduce the flows among all facilities;

2. to have a regular flow of the parts and products not permitting bottleneck in the production;

3. to rationalize the space occupied by the facilities;

4. to permit flexibility considering that with the technological progress and the new demands in the

market, facilities could be added or changed.

5. to locate in a specified location.

Facilities are including machines, departments, storage equipment, and factory, material handling

systems, commerce and warehouse. In the manufacturing system it may be distinguished machines,

material handling systems and storage equipment.

Mathematical formulation of FLP

The facility layout problem is one of the best-studied problems in the field of combinatorial

optimization. A number of formulations have been developed for this problem. Models are categorized

depending on their nature, assumptions and objectives. More particularly the FLP has been modeled as

quadratic assignment problem (QAP), quadratic set covering problem (QSP), linear integer

programming problem (LIP), mixed integer programming problem (MIP), and graph theoretic

problem.

Solution methodologies for FLP

Several researches have been done in the facility layout problem. The solution methodologies for FLP

can be divided into exact algorithms, heuristics and meta-heuristic algorithms. The exact methods such

as the branch-and-bound and cutting plane algorithm have been successfully applied to FLP when the

5

number of facilities is less than 16. However, when the number of facilities is larger than 16, FLP

cannot be solved optimally in reasonable time. In order to obtain good (near optimal) solution in a

reasonable computational time, heuristics were developed. Recently, meta-heuristic approaches such as

simulated annealing (SA), genetic algorithms (GA), tabu search (TS), and colony optimization have

been successfully applied to solve large FLP.

Other approaches

The major drawbacks of the aforementioned approaches lie in the fact that the search for the best

layout is not very efficient and the multi-objective nature are not considered in the problem. As a

matter of fact, facility layout problem can be considered one of the truly difficult ill-structured, multi-

criteria and combinatorial optimization problems. Many researchers still finding out for new and recent

developments rather than conventional approaches to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks.

Intelligent techniques such as expert systems, fuzzy logic and neural networks have been used as new

advancements for the tackled problem.

6

3. COMPANY PROFILE

The Escorts Group is among India's leading engineering conglomerates operating in the high growth

sectors of agri-machinery, construction & material handling equipment, railway equipment and auto

components. Having pioneered farm mechanization in the country, Escorts has played a pivotal role in

the agricultural growth of India for over five decades. One of the leading tractor manufacturers of the

country, Escorts offers a comprehensive range of tractors, more than45 variants starting from 25 to 80

HP. Escort, Farmtrac and Powertrac are the widely accepted and preferred brands of tractors from the

house of Escorts. A leading material handling and construction equipment manufacturer, we

manufacture and market a diverse range of equipment like cranes, loaders, vibratory rollers and

forklifts. Escorts today is the world's largest Pick 'n' Carry Hydraulic Mobile Crane manufacturer.

Escorts has been a major player in the railway equipment business in India for nearly five decades. Our

product offering includes brakes, couplers, shock absorbers, rail fastening systems, composite brake

blocks and vulcanized rubber parts. In the auto components segment, Escorts is a leading manufacturer

of auto suspension products including shock absorbers and telescopic front forks. Over the years, with

continuous development and improvement in manufacturing technology and design, new reliable

products have been introduced.

Throughout the evolution of Escorts, technology has always been its greatest ally for growth. In the

over six decades of our inception, Escorts has been much more than just being one of India's largest

engineering companies. It has been a harbinger of new technology, a prime mover on the industrial

front, at every stage introducing products and technologies that helped take the country forward in key

growth areas. Over a million tractors and over 16,000 construction and material handling equipment

that have rolled out from the facilities of Escorts, complemented by a highly satisfied customer base,

are testimony to the manufacturing excellence of Escorts. Following the globally accepted best

manufacturing practices with relentless focus on research and development, Escorts is today in the

league of premier corporate entities in India. Technological and business collaboration with world

leaders over the years, globally competitive indigenous engineering capabilities, over 1600 sales and

service outlets and footprints in over 40 countries have been instrumental in making Escorts the Indian

7

multinational. At a time when the world is looking at India as an outsourcing destination, Escorts is

rightly placed to be the dependable outsourcing partner of world's leading engineering corporations

looking at outsourcing manufacture of engines, transmissions, gears, hydraulics, implements and

attachments to tractors, and shock absorbers for heavy trailers. In today's Global Market Place, Escorts

is fast on the path of an internal transformation, which will help it to be a key driver of manufacturing

excellence in the global arena. For this they are going beyond just adhering to prevailing norms, they

are setting their own standards and relentlessly pursuing them to achieve their desired benchmarks of

excellence.

YEAR PRODUCT COMPANY DIVISION

LOCATION

1961 Escorts Tractors Escorts Ltd. (Tractor Division)

Faridabad

1962 Railway Couplers &Shock Absorbers

Escorts Railway Equipment Division

Faridabad

1963 Automotive Shock Absorbers

Automotive Suspension Product (Engg. Division)

Faridabad

1969 Ford Tractors, Now manufactured under the name “FARMTRAC”

Escorts Tractors Ltd. Faridabad

1971 Industrial & Construction Equipment

Escorts Construction & Equipment Ltd.

Faridabad

1991 Financial Services Escorts Finance Ltd. New Delhi 1996 Disengagement of

joint venture With new Holland & launch of FARMTRAC Tractor

Escorts Farmtrac div.

Faridabad

1998 Foundation of Tractor Transmission Plant(J.V. CarraroGrp, Italy)

Carraro India Ltd. Pune

1998 Foundation of 3rd Tractor Plant

Escorts Ltd. Pune

8

Functional Divisions of Escorts

Overview of manufacturing division

Escorts - AMG has Tractor manufacturing capacity of 98,940 tractors / annum which is the highest in

Asia at one location. Its manufacturing operations are divided in three plants as

Component Plant

Tractor Assembly Plant

Crankshaft & Hydraulic Plant

Since we have visited and studied crankshaft department of the manufacturing division of the company

our area of focus in this report will be on that only and not other two.

Crankshaft & Hydraulic Plant is divided into two parts

Crankshaft Line

Hydraulics Line.

Crankshaft line consists of machine shop where crankshafts of all Tractor models are being

machined. It has State of the Art machines such as Rotary Miller, Pin Grinder, Journal Grinder, etc.

Hydraulic line consists of Machining as well as Assembly activities where critical parts of tractor

hydraulics such as Distributor, Hydraulic Cylinder, etc. are being machined and assembled. It has State

of the Art Honing and other precision machines.

9

4. PRODUCT DESCRIPTION - CRANKSHAFT

The crankshaft, sometimes abbreviated to crank, is responsible for conversion between reciprocating

motion and rotational motion. In a reciprocating engine, it translates reciprocating linear piston motion

into rotational motion, whereas in a reciprocating compressor, it converts the rotational motion into

reciprocating motion. In order to do the conversion between two motions, the crankshaft has "crank

throws" or "crankpins", additional bearing surfaces whose axis is offset from that of the crank, to

which the "big ends" of the connecting rods from each cylinder attach.

It is typically connected to a flywheel to reduce the pulsation characteristic of the four-stroke cycle,

and sometimes a torsional or vibrational damper at the opposite end, to reduce the torsional vibrations

often caused along the length of the crankshaft by the cylinders farthest from the output end acting on

the torsional elasticity of the metal.

10

5. OPERATIONAL DETAILS OF PLANT

The plant visited by us for carrying out the study of our project Solely manufactures the crankshafts

used in power tractors of escorts. These crankshafts are then transported to the assembly division

plant in Faridabad.

• The crankshaft manufacturing division plant works on following modes of operations-

- CNC software controlled machines (Computer numeric controlled)

- Manually handled machines ( only drilling part comprises of manual operations)

Following are some of the details about the operations of the plant :-

• Total no. of workers are:- 50-60

• On the floor workers:- 40-45

• Multi-machining and multi-skilling being implemented by workers for example, one person

on three machines

• Imported machines from Germany, Austria

• Lever machine tools

• FANUO software based machines

• Plant timings:- 0800 – 1630 hrs

• No. of shifts:- Single

• Target output : 75 crankshafts per day ( Decided based on the maximum possible utility of

available resources in accordance with the demand generated in the assembly plant.

• Actual output : 50-60 Crankshafts per day

The production line of the plant is Line Production which involves repetitive manufacturing process

in which each product passes through the same sequence of operations, and the machines and other

equipment are laid-out in the order they are used. Line production is dedicated to the needs of a

single or small group of products and (unlike in batch production) the process does not have to be

stopped and restarted for each new product.

11

6. PLANT LAYOUT

Sequential processes carried out in the plant

Below mentioned are the series of machines that are used in the production of crankshafts –

1. Facing and centering machine

2. Miven CNC Turning machine

3. GF CNC machine (finishing)

4. GF CNC machine/KWS Turning machine

5. BFW Pin milling machine

6. Angular oil hole machine

7. Cross oil hole machine

8. Number Punching and 45 degree chamfering machine

9. Tapping at gear end of crank shaft

10. Rolling Machine

11. Final Turning

12. Induction hardening

13. Tempering Furnace

14. Grinding Machine (external)

15. Grinding Machine (internal)

16. Green Grinding

17. AWH 800 CNC

12

18. Straightening

19. Naxospin Grinder

20. Flark hole drilling

21. Threading of holes (Conventional, Radial, Drilling machine)

22. Lapping after grinding (Done manually)

23. Final threading of holes

24. ABRO Dynamic balancing (two machines simultaneously used here to increase production)

25. Final inspection (Quality assurance)

26. Oil dipping for rust prevention (And then send to storage)

Great care must be observed in the manufacture of the crankshaft. While machining, the shaft must

be properly supported between centres and special precautions should be taken to avoid springing.

The journals and the crank pins are ground to exact size after turning. After this, the crankshaft is

balanced. Large shafts of low speed engines are balanced statically. Grinding is followed by hand

lapping with emery cloth.

Forged Crankshaft

Forged crankshafts are made from SAE 1045 or a similar type of steel. The crankshaft is formed

from a hot steel billet through a series of forging dies. Each die changes the shape of the billet

slightly. The crankshaft blank is finally formed with the last die. The blanks are then machined to

finish the crankshaft. Forging makes a very dense, tough crankshaft with a metal’s grain structure

running parallel to the principle direction of stress.

Production Process

First the molten metal is poured in the moulds of crankshaft to give it a shape. Then from machines 1

to 16 all the drilling, shaping, filing process takes place. Then a crankshaft is ready it is given a high

pressure air cleaning using air compressor to remove all the dust particles from it. After that

hardening process starts in which three units of crankshaft is heated to a very high temperature in the

tempering furnace and then suddenly it is cooled down by dipping it into the very cold water. After

this batch of 30 crankshafts are heated slowly to a very high temperature and then it is slowly cooled

down. After this, finishing process takes place. Then the ready crankshafts are sent to the inspection

team where the crankshafts undergo quality checks and are checked whether the crankshafts are of

proper measurement. If it is not then they are sent to the proper stage where it can get corrected.

After this the selected crankshafts are dipped in the oil tank to protect them from the rust. When all

this process is done these crankshafts are sent to warehouse.

13

7. ADDRESSING ISSUE

The plant was capable of producing 75 crankshafts per shift and as per the agreement between

management and workers this was the target also. But as per the records available in the plant it was

producing only 50-60 crankshafts per day. That is a dip of about 20%-33%. The facts that this plant

produces half of the requirement and crankshaft is an important part in the engine makes this a very

important issue as any dip in production rate here reduces the entire system efficiency of Agri

Machines Group. Hence we took up this as our addressing issue and tried to find out whether any

layout problems are there associated to this dip in production and tried analysing those to arrive at

some recommendations.

The problems that we identified during this study are

Bottleneck issues (Constraints)

The constraint that we identified in the system was the conveyor belt which causes hinderance to

worker movements and scrap movements.

Maintenance issues

The plant was having problems with maintenance of the machines. Maintenance was taking long

time and the unavailability of CNC programmers was another issue that the plant was facing

Operator problems

Operators of the equipment were trained just to operate the machine they were not having required

knowledge about the machine that they were working on. Hence maintenance department were

required for even for minor issues of the machines.

Lengthy tool changeover time

There were some machines were tool was required to be changed for completing the operation. Such

machines were creating delays as the tool changeover time was not considered while allotting the

time limitations to machines.

Work area

The area available in the plant was less. This created problems especially in the movement of

workers inside the plant.

We also observed that some machines were taking batches of crankshaft in batch of 3 or even 30 to

process while some others were taking individual crankshaft. But as this issue was already addressed

by the plant management we did not consider this issue in our study.

14

8. THEORY OF CONSTRAINTS Concept of “Theory of Constraint” was given by Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt in 1984 in his famous book

“The Goal” where he described it for the first time.

It assumes that in an organization consisting of multilinked process, there will always be a constraint

(bottleneck) that will lower down the efficiency of organization. If the constraint is identified and

modified, overall efficiency of the organization can be improved.

The five focusing steps of Theory of Constraint

1. Identify the system's constraint(s) (that which prevents the organization from obtaining more

of the goal in a unit of time)

2. Decide how to exploit the system's constraint(s) (how to get the most out of the constraint)

3. Subordinate everything else to the above decision (align the whole system or organization to

support the decision made above)

4. Elevate the system's constraint(s) (make other major changes needed to increase the

constraint's capacity)

5. Repeat If in the previous steps a constraint has been broken, go back to step 1, but do not

allow inertia to cause a system's constraint.

The goal of a commercial organization is: "Make more money now and in the future", and its

measurements are given by throughput accounting as: throughput, inventory, and operating expenses.

The five focusing steps aim to ensure ongoing improvement efforts are centered on the organization's

constraint(s). In the TOC literature, this is referred to as the process of ongoing

improvement (POOGI).

15

Step One – Identify the Constraint

In this step, the manufacturing process is reviewed to identify the constraint. A simple but often

effective technique is to literally walk through the manufacturing process looking for indications of

the constraint.

Look for large accumulations of work-in-process on the plant floor. Inventory often

accumulates immediately before the constraint.

Look for areas where process expeditors are frequently involved. Special attention and

handholding are often needed at the constraint to ensure that critical orders are completed on

time.

Review equipment performance data to determine which equipment has the longest average

cycle time. Adjust out time where the equipment is not operating due to external factors, such

as being starved by an upstream process or blocked by a downstream process. Although such

time affects throughput, the time loss is usually not caused or controlled by the

starved/blocked equipment.

Ask operators where they think equipment is not keeping up with demand. Pay close

attention to these areas, but also look for other supporting indicators.

The deliverable for this step is the identification of the single piece of equipment that is constraining

process throughput.

Step Two – Exploit the Constraint

In this step, the objective is to make the most of what you have – maximize throughput of the

constraint using currently available resources. The line between exploiting the constraint (this step)

and elevating the constraint (the fourth step) is not always clear. This step focuses on quick wins and

rapid relief; leaving more complex and substantive changes for later.

Create a suitably sized inventory buffer immediately in front of the constraint to ensure that it

can keep operating even if an upstream process stops.

Check quality immediately before the constraint so only known good parts are processed by

the constraint.

Ensure that the constraint is continuously scheduled for operation (e.g. operate the constraint

during breaks, approve overtime, schedule fewer changeovers, cross-train employees to

ensure there are always skilled employees available for operating the constraint).

Move routine maintenance activities outside of constraint production time (e.g. during

changeovers).

Offload some constraint work to other machines. Even if they are less efficient, the improved

system throughput is likely to improve overall profitability.

16

Offload some work to other companies. This should be a last resort if other techniques are not

sufficient to relieve the constraint.

The deliverable for this step is improved utilization of the constraint, which in turn will result in

improved throughput for the process. If the actions taken in this step “break” the constraint (i.e. the

constraint moves) jump ahead to Step Five. Otherwise, continue to Step Three.

Step Three – Subordinate and Synchronize to the Constraint

In this step, the focus is on non-constraint equipment. The primary objective is to support the needs

of the constraint (i.e. subordinate to the constraint). Efficiency of non-constraint equipment is a

secondary concern as long as constraint operation is not adversely impacted.

By definition, all non-constraint equipment has some degree of excess capacity. This excess capacity

is a virtue, as it enables smoother operation of the constraint. The manufacturing process is purposely

unbalanced:

Upstream equipment has excess capacity that ensures that the constraint buffer is

continuously filled (but not overfilled) so that the constraint is never “starved” by the

upstream process.

Downstream equipment has excess capacity that ensures that material from the constraint is

continually processed so the constraint is never “blocked” by the downstream process.

Some useful techniques for this step include:

Implement DBR (Drum-Buffer-Rope) on the constraint as a way of synchronizing the

manufacturing process to the needs of the constraint.

Subordinate maintenance to the constraint by ensuring that the constraint is always the

highest priority for maintenance calls.

Add sprint capacity to non-constraint equipment to ensure that interruptions to their operation

(e.g. breakdowns or material changes) can quickly be offset by faster operation and additional

output.

Operate non-constraint equipment at a steady pace to minimize stops. Frequent inertial

changes (i.e. stops and speed changes) can increase wear and result in breakdowns.

The deliverable for this step is fewer instances of constraint operation being stopped by upstream or

downstream equipment, which in turn results in improved throughput for the process. If the actions

taken in this step “break” the constraint (i.e. the constraint moves) jump ahead to Step Five.

Otherwise, continue to Step Four.

Step Four – Elevate Performance of the Constraint

In this step, more substantive changes are implemented to “break” the constraint. These changes may

necessitate a significant investment of time and/or money (e.g. adding equipment or hiring more

17

staff). The key is to ensure that all such investments are evaluated for effectiveness (preferably using

Throughput Accounting metrics).

Use performance data (e.g. Overall Equipment Effectiveness metrics plus down time

analytics) to identify the largest sources of lost productive time at the constraint.

Target the largest sources of lost productive time, one-by-one, with cross-functional teams.

Implement ongoing plant floor reviews within shifts (a technique called Short Interval

Control) to identify tactical actions that will improve constraint performance.

Implement a setup reduction program to reduce the amount of productive time lost to

changeovers.

Evaluate the constraint for potential design updates and/or component upgrades.

Purchase additional equipment to supplement the constraint (a last resort).

The deliverable for this step is a significant enough performance improvement to break the constraint

(i.e. move the constraint elsewhere).

Step Five – Repeat the Process

In this step, the objective is to ensure that the Five Focusing Steps are not implemented as a one-off

improvement project. Instead, they should be implemented as a continuous improvement process.

If the constraint has been broken (the normal case), recognize that there is a new constraint.

Finding and eliminating the new constraint is the new priority (restart at Step One).

If the constraint has not been broken, recognize that more work is required, and a fresh look

needs to be taken, including verifying that the constraint has been correctly identified (restart

at Step One).

18

9. CONSTRAINT IDENTIFIED

We identified that the conveyor belt of the plant is the constraint that limits the entire plants

efficiency. The design of the conveyor belt was such that it occupies a major portion of the space and

restricts worker and scrap movement. Whenever a forklift comes in for taking the scrap out, some

portions of the conveyor belt had to be removed for making way for the forklift. Thus flow gets

broken for some time. Also the forklift further reduces the space inside the plant and causes a major

safety concern that further reduces the worker movements which causes a decline in the production

rate.

The conveyor belt used was manual were workers were required to push the batches of crankshaft

through the rollers manually. This system provided flexibility and the workers were free to work

without any time limitation as they themselves are controlling the flow. This also created a negative

impact on the efficiency. Workers were not adhering to any time limits set by the management. Once

a batch of crankshaft arrives at a particular workstation the time limit set by the management for

finishing the work in a station is 5-6mins (for majority of stations). The workers ‘utilized’ the

flexibility provided by the system and they were taking more than the set limits.

Another major problem created was that since the conveyor belt system was manually operated and

the workers are required to push the crankshaft from each workstation to next workstation, the

workstations were placed close to each other to reduce the distance between them to the minimum

possible. Thus the space between each of the machines is very less. This created a major problem

while a maintenance issue arises for any of the machines in the plant.

19

10. RECOMMENDATIONS

After the close observation and holistic analysis of the process and paradigms followed in Escorts ltd

we recommend that the existing manual conveyor belt should be replaced by an overhead conveyor

belt with hanging hooks. The fig given below shows the so called overhead conveyor belt with

hanging hooks. In Escorts each work station takes 5-6 mins for completing the particular work. So

the conveyor belt should be operated to move at a constant speed. The belt should be made to lower

down at each work station so that the employees can load the inventories. The hurdles that Escorts

will face are the cost incurred and the time taken for the installation. When discussed with the plant

supervisor we were informed about the company policy of providing paid holidays to their

employees during low demand seasons. This time can be utilized for the installation of the overhead

conveyor belt.

Advantages that they will get

Better utilization of floor space of the plant

Employees’ adherence to time

No hindrance to the existing assembly line

Inventories and scraps carried through the conveyor belt can be easily handled and removed

Can move the inventories in any direction

Move items in bulk

Better safety

Other recommendations include:

CNC Programmer – For troubleshooting

Change time allotments

Increase safety measures

Give separate storage for work in progress inventory

Optimize loading, unloading and tool change timings

Introduce shift system

20

Since most of the machines are fully automated with CNCs, it is very necessary to have a full time

CNC trouble shoot expert within the plant. The unnecessary delay caused due to the trouble shooting

of the CNCs have cost the company huge. The practice followed for the storage of work in progress

inventories is that they are left on the conveyor belt. We strongly recommend that a separate space

should be allocated for storing the work in progress inventories. Optimizations of the loading,

unloading and tool change timings will reduce the time taken for the production activity and the

productivity can be increased. Introducing work in shift practice will help in motivating the

employees and improving the efficiency of the plant.

21

11. CONCLUSION

This industrial project provided us the ultimate experience & opportunity to have practical

knowledge about the best practices followed in the industry. We were able to relate the concepts of

Production & operations management with the real-world scenarios and based on the Layout study

what we have done on ESCORTS Faridabad plant by the virtue of this project, we were able to

identify a few loopholes in the existing system and hence successfully came up with the feasible

solution for the same using the theory of constraints. The recommendations made by us have been

successfully conveyed to the concerned authorities of the ESCORT’S crankshaft manufacturing

division.

22