Successful Journey to Zero Defect in Manufacturing through Process Improvement Project in LTCG Division of Crompton Greaves at Nashik that Led to Achieve Profit in Loss Incurring Prime Product | Chapter 7 | Insights into Economics and Management Vol. 1

DOL Motor Starter, a premium product of the Low Tension Control Gear (LTCG) division belonging to the Control Equipment Product Category, had a 6 percent market share in the region. Marketing was carried out through regional offices and branch offices spread throughout India and also through Crompton Greaves' dealer network. In order to increase market share, the Division has infused its key capital to sustain the production set up. This was not done, however, despite the best efforts made in addition to this Prime product, which did not yield benefit. The General Manager of the LTCG Division was thinking of various lines in the light of this case. He called for the involvement of the corporate R&D team to research the situation and propose solutions. In collaboration with Divisional Design and Quality Control Heads, Self (Author) and the Technology Head of Corporate R & D formed a Cross Functional Team (CFT) to investigate the issues. It was found that there was a high degree of noise generation that was traditionally referred to as a non-conforming product and that led to rework. The level of the non-conforming product generation was the level of the The product conforms and that leads to reworking. The level of generation of the non-conforming product was in the order of 25% of the output and, on account of one single reason, the high level of noise generated during routine testing of the product. As this had been prevalent for the previous 4 to 5 years, individuals had learned to encounter this situation. I was fast to recognise the root cause of the problem when designing simulation in the laboratory, with history dealing with magnetic circuit in induction motor design. There was magnetic saturation and that was used for high noise output. A fast solution was recommended that was too quickly implementable. The level of non-conformity generation fell steeply from 25 percent to 0.3 percent when applied and matured as the new method as process changes were introduced in 3 phases. This was recognised in the 1990s as Zero Flaw.

Author (s) Details

Gururaj Kulkarni
Kirloskar Electric Co., Bangalore and Hubli, India, Crompton Greaves Ltd., Mumbai, India, Prince Containers Pvt. Ltd./Prince Multiplast Pvt. Ltd. Mumbai, India, JASANZ (Joint Accreditation Scheme for Australia and New Zealand), Canberra, Australia and Quality Council of India at National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies, New Delhi (based in Mumbai), India.

View Book :- https://bp.bookpi.org/index.php/bpi/catalog/book/276