M/s Greaves, about 10 years ago came out with a three-wheeler, Garuda. But due to competitive pressures, which increased with each passing year Garuda could not hold on to the market in later years. There was definitely a need for a better and smarter product. And that is what the company decided to introduce in the market, in collaboration with Peugeot, the major stake holder in Greaves Vehicle I. Ltd. And Peugeot came out with a unique delivery van – it was more like a mini truck. The company wanted to uniquely position it in the market. Within 15 months, we became the market leader in this segment. This was a big shift from what was originally Garuda – a small vehicle, having no rooftop, no side wall. It became a big and challenging assignment for the plant operation. We had an option to invest in a new paint shop. That expansion would cost money. But the team with their own ideas and in consultation with the plant operating team overcame the problem by optimizing costs and continuous production, without any additional facility or expansion.

While studying optimization we found that though the capacity was there, there was lot of loss – the material was not coming in time, the machine broke down resulting in down times there were rejections and duplication of efforts. Initially, we took 198 days to somehow make 5,000 vehicles from the launch. We made the next batch of 5000 vehicles in 102 days, the next 5000 in 76 days, the fourth batch in 61days and the fifth in 57 days. We completed 25,000 vehicles in March 2001

The customer in the mini truck segment would like bright colours like green and red. So you have different colours for different versions. A different hanging arrangement is needed for painting the different version. So you had a setup change every time a different version was painted. To address this, the first decision was that the jeep passenger and pick up versions painting would be commonised by 100%. So we could reduce one down time, that is the setup change of passenger to pick up and pick up to passenger.

We agreed to have seven colors for the three versions. So 21 colour combinations were possible. And as I said the colours are different for passenger and pick up. If you run one type for a very long time, then you are not going to market the other versions. So we made PPC a controlling and coordinating agency. PPC would give the loading sequence, the batch size and colour size. Now after printing black you have to paint a yellow windshield, or a two-tone color. Again if you are changing colours, there would be a time loss, and small parts would take about 25% of the capacity. So another solution was, we painted off-line in a separate setup. We tried this out and found that it met all technical specifications, even if it was not painted in the main conveyor.

We have a merry-go-round kind of conveyor that brings the painted bodies and chassis outside, and the next body or chassis is loaded. The time taken is a function of the area to be printed. A big delivery van will take more time than a passenger vehicle. But the conveyor speed is the same, so in some cases the worker will not be fully occupied as the area to be painted is small. So here, with the help of the union and with the design of an electronic control, we deviced a method in which conveyers change to a higher speed with the flick of a switch as soon as the batch of passenger vehicles, which have much less area, came for printing.

Another consideration is that, by regulation, no painter can work inside the paint booth for more than 385 minutes because it’s hazardous and a troublesome operation. So the conveyor could run only 385 minutes in a shift of 510 minutes with 30 minutes for lunch. So, after discussion with the union, we worked out a reliever system so that the painter met the regulation, without affecting production. This in the end proved to be the turning point.

Then we discussed with our paint suppliers about improving the paint formulation so that without sacrificing the visual characteristics the time of painting could be reduced. We had to keep the body for pre-treatment for a specified period for the coating to be okay. We could not reduce this time. So we built a tank as another process in another place. By dipping the body in the tank and taking it out we saved a fair amount of time.

Then there is the problem of change of colour. If you are going to change from green to red, the green colour in the whole pipeline has to be flushed and totally removed and then only the automatic changeover to red colour can take place. If the two colours mix the finish paint will not be correct. For the changeover you require 7-8 minutes. In case you change colour four times a day, it will take to 30 minutes. So the group came out with the innovative idea that the colour should be changed during the lunch or tea breaks. For that the PPC had to schedule change of the batch according to the break schedules.

Quality Control : 

Then is the issue of quality check – this came from the workmen. They said when we pass a vehicle and you then check for quality, you do it in bright light. But when we paint inside, the light is dim. This will show a difference. Actually, light in the paint area is special. There is a fire hazard if the temperature of the light bulb ignites the paint spray. To take the workers’ objection into consideration, we had to literally redesign the paint area – insert a new cutout and put a high illumination, low heat light source there. This improved the quality tremendously. We had a similar experience after dust proofing the paint shop.

If a touch-up is required, we decided not to follow the earlier practice of unloading and keeping the work area as nobody knew what happened and what needed to be done. So we introduced on line inspections with continuous monitoring and feedback of the quality. There came a time when the plant was running so well that downtime data was not giving any indicator for further improvement. So we brought down the least count to 60 seconds i.e. even a breakdown of 60 seconds was to be captured.

We looked at rejections per thousand – parts per million is still a long way off. We found when rejection came down below 1% there was a certain amount of complacence. So we put an index of 100. So, if we were able to paint 100 vehicles in one shift in April and because of special paints and other improvements we could achieve 122, then 122 became the index of 100. We improved the processes and showed that better results could be achieved. Targets were set for the next month and not for the year. This allowed work to flow smoothly throughout the year.

There was a request from the union that there should be non-stop work from except for the tea break that all could have together (lunch was staggered) and we agreed from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. This helped in reducing downtime.

So this is our own real life experience. Without compromising on the color choice, without compromising on the product make, without compromising on any labour and government regulations, we could increase the per shift output from 100 per shift to 223 as size index – a percentage gain of more than 100 %. This is not for the sake of numbers but it is also what the customer wants. It was PPC’s responsibility to co-ordinate and schedule so that the monthly output was maximum with whatever mix wanted by Marketing being actually produced. Of course, there are always the special prestigious orders, say from Peru. The container has to be given to the shipping lines by so and so date. Here the scheduling has to be carefully done otherwise you lose the export order or the domestic customer gets annoyed. Thus we have to optimize set-up changes, as well as WIP.

Teamwork :

The key to it all was teamwork. The key organisational resources are the people. You can have the best technology, you can have the best system in the place, but if your people are not aligned with what you are trying to do, it will not happen. And there can always be reasons given for not doing – the paint was not there, PPC scheduled green paint and the green paint developed some fault, we are simply waiting for instructions, and so on. So, the first thing was that in a structured manner, from top to bottom including the union we discussed why we were doing this. We told them “It is for survival, if you do not do all this, your company, cannot remain profitable, and if you do not make profits, who is going to pay for your salary”. It was as simple as that. And once the message went home everybody starting working for the objective.

Secondly, there is a belief that unless you pressurize the team it does not deliver. We did the opposite. I said to myself – if people are doing a double shift every day they can never achieve the target. So we changed our way of working. As long as they are involved, and they are interested in what they are doing once they have come in, and are in line with PPC’s vision and mission, there would be no tight controls. This involved the union also.

Grievances :

Of course there were some small grievances that we addressed. Like poor ventilation near the tea point – so we put an exhaust fan. There was also some problem of the paint irritating them through the mask – so the mask was improved.

The feeder shop would always complain that in the morning we were told that it is commercial vehicle and at 4 o’clock somebody is saying it is changed, can you accommodate a passenger. If it is an express order like export, no point going with same schedule. PPC, instead of ordering them, discussed with them the reason for the change, what happened in the last few hours, we shall change the schedule, and so on. This has taken care of the problem to a large extent.

In our company we have also gone through an exercise of key performance areas in black and white after discussing it with the concerned manager. So, every officer knows what is expected out of him. There is a clear, time-bound target for people and this helps.

Preventing Downtime :

The union committee also agreed that we should not lose any marketing opportunity, the demand is there and we should sell the vehicle, so we will produce the vehicles. But then ofcourse they are looking for a financial reward. We structured a comprehensive, gain saving scheme in which we say in case the plant output is maintained just at the indicated figure they will get an incentive which is about 8% of their salary. That means they can earn upto 8% more by preventing downtime. We talked to the union and convinced them to make up for the two hours lost everyday due to power cuts. Let me share with you that from 1st May to 15th June we have not lost a single vehicle compared to that plan.

This year most of improved substantially our indices – be it production, energy consumption, labour productivity. We use the word throughput because we do not believe in only a section meeting their targets, that as far as I am concerned I fabricated the chassis, what happened next I don’t know, I was the in-charge of the fabrication. We are talking about throughput – what is finally delivered by the plant to the Marketing and, which has gone through the entire value chain. This really went up from 100 to 204. But how do we determine whether marketing got what they really want. If marketing wants 3000 vehicles and we produced 3,000 vehicles, it is 100% actualisation. What you want to say 3000 vehicles you can sale 3,000 vehicles given. But if the customer wanted passenger 1000 numbers and we make passenger only 500 but 500 extra delivery, we do not get credit for this 500 vehicles which marketing did not want. Of course, marketing sold whatever we produced extra but not happily.

We reduced the manpower used for every vehicle. Similarly the energy index of 100 in April had come down to 60 in one year. We have been using 40% less power compared to what we were using in April last year.
Our company does not believe in having any finish good stock anywhere. There is no storage of vehicles inside the factory, there is no real sales depot. We directly ship to the dealer as soon as they are made ready by the plant. They are loaded in the truck and dispatched. It is a very tough job, we have a target of delivering the vehicle within 72 hours of order receipt. The dealer indents directly to Marketing. So, there is no fresh goods inventory for more than a day on the company’s account.

Finally, just let me mention in passing that we export a lot of vehicles in containers to destinations as far away as Argentina and Peru and it’s a substantial cost. Now, and it’s a real engineering job, how many auto-rickshaws can you pack in one 40′ container. We have done something, which was initially not acceptable to our people i.e. hanging the chassis upside down. That is the first layer has a normal parking position, and on top of that is a layer where the chassis is hung upside down with the wheel on top. This visually unappealing idea has brought substantial cost saving to the company.