Leveraging the Power of Examples

The Indian manufacturing industry is a witness to companies striving relentlessly to increase their productivity, reduce costs, and enhance and sustain compe-titiveness. By organizing the National Productivity Summits that highlight and applaud the projects which have excelled in achieving outstanding perfor-mances in manufacturing, IMTMA has positioned itself in the forefront to champion the cause of providing solutions to the productivity challenges faced by the industry.

Girish Shankar, Secretary, Department of Heavy Industry, Government of India and Shishir Joshipura, Managing Director, SKF India, graced the occasion as the Chief Guest and Guest of Honour respectively.

With insightful industry visits, enriching key notes and interesting live case study presentations, this year’s summit made for a repeat edition of its legendary success.

Industry stalwarts at the inaugural ceremony of the NPS 2017.

Keynotes that inspired

As part of the Summit, industry leaders shed light on their executed practices and shared their expertise and experiences. Sunil Kaul, Group President, Excellence in Manufacturing, Innovation and Technology, ANAND Automotive, revealed the “Quality Culture at ANAND – Leader Led Transformation for Zero Defect”. Dattatreya Gaur, Vice President and Business Unit Head, Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions, enlightened the participants on the “Relevance of Smart Manufacturing in the Indian Context”. Ravi Damodaran, President, Technology & Strategy, Varroc Engineering, presented his take on the “Challenges in Manufacturing Productivity – The Way Forward”. Parag Satpute, Managing Director, Sandvik Asia Pvt Ltd elaborated on the ways to Maximise Productivity through sustained Innovation.

IMTMA - ACE Micromatic Productivity

Championship Awards 2017

IMTMA strongly believes in acknowledging efforts of those who have been instrumental in productivity improvement in the Indian manufacturing industry. With this objective, it has instituted the Productivity Championship Awards to felici-tate them with cash prizes worth `10 Lakhs. ACE Micromatic Group graciously sponsored
the Productivity Championship Awards 2017.

Selection parameters for winners

A competitive process is used to bring the highest objectivity in identifying and rewarding the productivity champions. Entries in the form of case studies are called from a wide spectrum of the manufacturing industry, describing the productivity improvement projects implemented by them. These are examined critically for their intrinsic merits and the breakthrough achievements that have brought in significant competitive advantages to these companies by an independent screening panel, in the areas of Productivity, Technology, New Equipment Design, Solution to challenges in manufacturing and so on. The short-listed case studies are then presented at the National Productivity Summit. Based on the presentation and the interactions with the jury and the delegates, the awards are decided.

Proud winners of the IMTMA - ACE Micromatic Productivity Championship Awards 2017.

This year the jury comprised N Ramanathan, an Independent Counselor in Quality-based Management engaged in training and counseling select companies; T Parabrahman, an Independent Director on board of BFW, a member of CII Karnataka State Council and a member of the advisory committee for development of a new generation shuttle-less loom; and AV Govekar who has over 40 years of experience in Quality Assurance, Production, Planning and Supply chain Management functions across various types of production volumes.

Best practices recognized

Out of the eight case study presentations at the Summit — Bajaj Auto, Hero Motocorp, Mahindra & Mahindra, Mahle Behr, Titan Company, TVS Motor Company and WABCO India -- that contested for the Awards, Mahindra & Mahindra was declared the winner for accomplishing the almost impossible feat of converting an existing Hot Core box to Cold box process to make shell cores without stopping production for a single day. By doing this modification of equipment and Die for core making, it overcame a productivity bottleneck, significantly reduced rejections and reduced cost of production. Carbon Foot Print reduction was an additional benefit.

WABCO India and Bajaj Auto, Waluj was the first and second runners-up, in that order. WABCO India, Chennai, struggled
with 40 variants in mass manufacture of compression-brake units for vehicles. Innovative use of QR code on nameplate for automated variant switchover on production line, along with systematic use of Lean methodology, better cutting tools, cutting parameters and reducing setup change time to accommodate more variants resulted in an increased machine availability to 94 percent.

The panel of jury members listening to the presentations of the contestants at the National Productivity Summit 2017.

Bajaj Auto, Waluj eliminated manual errors in inspection, recording, sorting, analysis and diagnosis of maintenance related activities. On its journey to becoming an Intelligent Factory, it automated its TPM dashboard with maintenance records, manuals, machine monitoring and diagnostics, resulting in increased uptime of mass production machines by 25 percent and de-skilling routine maintenance work.

The next National Productivity Summit will be held in Chennai to yet again serve its purpose of acknowledging industry’s best manufacturing practices and encouraging others to follow suit.

P K Chatterjee

Senior Correspondent
Magic Wand Media Inc

info@magicwandmedia.in