General Overview- Mahindra and Mahindra (Training Experience)

About Mahindra and Mahindra’s Farm Equipment Division-

Mahindra & Mahindra’s Farm Equipment division is the top-selling tractor company in the world, with annual sales over 150,000, a presence in more than 40 countries and more than 1,000 dealers worldwide.  They manufacture tractors at four state-of-the-art plants in India, two in China, three in the US, and one in Australia, grounding us in four major agricultural hubs to give us close on-the-ground understanding of what farmers need from their tractors.  Their strong R&D team of more than 600 engineers constantly push technology forward.

 Mahindra’s constant commitment to deliver more to the customers has brought us 27 years of sustained market leadership and a 41 percent share of the domestic market.  They’ve earned a customer satisfaction index (CSI) of 88 percent—the highest in the industry.

 Its US subsidiary, Mahindra USA, sells thousands of tractors each year to farmers across the country. They also manufacture in Australia and entered the Chinese market through a joint venture in 2007.  Despite stagnation in the Chinese farming sector, Mahindra (China) Tractor Company recorded growth of 21 percent from 2009 to 2010.  They’ve also undertaken a joint venture with the Jiangsu Yueda Group, creating the Mahindra Yueda (Yancheng) Tractor Company to sell 16-125 HP tractors under the Jinma brand.

 Extreme hard work has attracted several accolades.  In 2009, the Wall Street Journal featured it in its list of the top 10 most innovative Indian companies in its survey of Asia’s 200 most admired and innovative companies.  It has received the prestigious Golden Peacock Award 2008 in the Innovative Product/Services category for in-house development of a load car, the first of its kind in the Indian tractor industry.  And in 2007, they became the only tractor company to win the Deming Application Prize and the Japan Quality Medal for Total Quality Management excellence in entire business operations—two of the highest global quality awards.

Nagpur Division-(My experience) 

Mahindra Farm Equipment Division, Nagpur is located on Hingna Road in Nagpur. It has various divisions, namely-Transmission, Engine, Machining, Assembly, Sheet metal working and Paint job. All these departments are further classified into maintenance, machining and testing centers. I was very lucky to be offered a Summer Internship at such a prestigious globally recognized pioneer in the tractor industry during my third year summer vacations. It was an ecstatic experience working on a live project at the Transmission Machining Shop under my guide, Mr Rajendra Kadu, who provided personal attention and an opportunity to work on a live project. The training took place in a systematic way- the first few days were devoted to understanding the working of tractors, the mechanism of gears, drives, engine, differential and all that is to learn about the machine. The next week was spent inside the machine shop- where the problem statement was given and different machining operations were studied in detail. I had the chance to see the various operations involved- Drilling, Boring, Milling, Super-finishing operations like lapping, Back spot facing and all the machinery associated with these operations. My mentors had incorporated a lot of the newly developed improvements in tools as well as manufacturing and the system seemed perfect. The problem statement- “Improving the productivity of the Speed housing Machining line with a frugal mind-set” seemed like an imposing challenge, as the plant was already working on the latest technological development. The few ideas that were incorporated were:

1. The Japanese idea of “KAIZEN”. Kaizen is “an attitude of mind” –Not just a management technique. Kaizen is participatory: –Frontline knows the best. Use your brains as well as your hands. Use of various tools like 5S,DMAIC.
2. Tool Development- Projects like replacing the 3 edged cutters with 5 edged cutters had already been incorporated. Also, many boring and drilling HSS tools were replaced by the more economical carbide insert types.

Thus, most of my remaining time was used up in research and interaction with the workers. I learnt about all the problems faced by them and how I could try and suggest some changes to make their work easier as well as more efficient. In the end, I did come up with two suggestions that would increase the productivity of the speed casing machining line and help it reach the targeted production rate.

A general view at tractors

The word "tractor" is related to words like "traction" and "tractive," from the Latin word "tractus" meaning drawing (pulling): a tractor is essentially a machine designed to pull things along, usually very slowly and surely. Tractors have large and powerful diesel engines and, in theory, that means they should be able to go incredibly fast, just like sports cars. But in a tractor, the engine's power is designed to be used in an entirely different way: for pulling big and heavy loads. What makes this possible is the tractor's gearbox, which converts the high-speed revolutions of the mighty diesel engine into much lower-speed revolutions of the wheels, increasing the force the tractor can use for pulling things at the same time. The Engine is pretty much the same as any other automobile and hence requires no explanation.

Traction parts of a modern tractor

Transmission casing

Speed/Gear housing

Rear housing

Productivity- A general Idea

Productivity is, above all, an attitude of mind. It is an attitude that seeks the continuous improvement of what exists. It is a conviction that one can do better today than yesterday, and that tomorrow shall be better than today. Further, it requires constant efforts that adapt economic activities to ever-changing conditions, and the application of new theories and new methods. It is a firm belief in the progress of humanity.
There are thousands of ways to measure productivity. Determining the best method is the dilemma many companies face. Time is money. The single greatest impact on productivity is how time is spent on the manufacturing floor. In the precision-turned parts industry, most machine cycle times are in seconds, which makes “minutes” a highly prized commodity.

What do Minutes Mean?

Minutes are the measure of minutes of machine productivity for each employee labor hour. It is easy to determine and can be monitored weekly. Minutes tend to increase when business is strong and conversely decrease when business slows. The two components of minutes—machine hours and labor hours—are key measures for productivity and profitability. Each of these components has unique drivers. Machine hours are primarily driven by customer demand, and labor hours are controlled by company management. Maintaining a balance between the two can have a significant impact on profitability.

Thus, I concluded that the best way to approach the problem of productivity will be by six sigma lean manufacturing, which focuses on increasing the output and decreasing the error margin within economic limits.

Lean manufacturing is “A systematic approach for identifying and eliminating waste through continuous improvement by flowing the product at the pull of customer in pursuit of perfection”. Lean manufacturing concepts are mostly applied in industries where more repetitive human resources are used. In these industries productivity is highly influenced by the efficiency working people with tools or operating equipment. To eliminate waste, it is important to understand exactly what it is and where it exists. The processes add either value or waste to the production of goods. The seven manufacturing wastes originated in Japan, where waste knows  as “muda”. In the cited literature, Researchers revealed the importance of lean concepts in the competitive industries especially for improving the productivity, quality of products, profitability, and for reducing lean wastes and inventories.

Six Sigma is new, emerging, approach to quality assurance and quality management with emphasis on continuous quality improvements. The main goal of this approach is reaching level of  quality and reliability that will satisfy and even exceed demands and expectations of today’s demanding customer . A term Sigma Quality Level is used as an indicator of a process goodness. Lower Sigma quality level means greater possibility of defective products, while, higher Sigma quality level means smaller possibility of defective products within process .

If Sigma quality level equals six, chances for defective products are 3,4 ppm. Achieving Six Sigma quality level involves leadership, infrastructure, appropriate tools and methods, while quality have to become a part of corporate business plan.

 

Credits:

Jugal Shah