Sandeep Sinha the chief Operating officer of Cummins Group in India exited from the steering committee meeting between Cummins and Tata Motors Ltd., and started to walk towards his car, expressions of deep thought and concerned were visible on his face. He knew blocks were a bottle neck in achieving the numbers being asked by TML. TML was constantly asking for reasons for the sudden drop of supply and wanted the supply to be up. Emission changeover was around the corner and TML wanted to maximize sales in this pre-buy period. Sandeep entered his room and Ashwath Ram, Vice President manufacturing followed Sandeep. “What happened Sandeep?” asked Ashwath, “It has been one long meeting with TML on production numbers. TML is losing market share and we can’t let that happen for long” Sandeep said. “Well you know about the issues with block line, even if we buy a new machine we are down to 50% for next 8 months, its quality versus quantity, a catch 22 scenario” said Ashwath. “I know that, and I won’t ask you to compromise on quality but do something“Said Sandeep, “let me see to it” with these words Ashwath left and called an urgent meeting with key stakeholders Ashish Bhatnagar, plant Manager of TCPL Jamshedpur plant Master Black belt Sushma Mani and Block BU Head Ashwani Kumar, and asked them to start a Six Sigma project with an immediate effect to be completed less than 6 month.A cross functional team was formed with Anjan Mahanty as project lead. In the conference call with Sandeep, Sandeep promised all the resources however, “Anjan, I want a methodical coverage of this problem, I would be calling you for regular updates and support you but I need a date to commit to TATA Motors and you won’t get a day more”. “Right Sandeep I am on work” Said Anjan. Anjan was worried as he was the person who had the hands-on experience on this machine, and was trying to solve the problem without any results since last few months. Ashwini approached to Anjanand patted his back and said, “You look worried”, Anjan Said, “You know the effort gone into this machine, I am not sure how we are going to get this fixed in this short time, Sushma who was overhearing this conversation pitched in “We will do it Six Sigma Way”.
TCPL Block Machining lines were operating in full capacity to meet customer demands which were all time high and customer was gaining market share piggybacking on acceptance of Cummins engines. However, it was observed that honing parameters on Cylinder block were going out of specification. Soon High Engine Oil Consumption started reporting from the field in our engines and on investigation it was realized that surface finish is the root cause of these failures.
Based on Cummins philosophy of “Customer’s First” production stopped from this machine resulting in drop of production to 50%.
The project started at break neck speed with a deep dive Fault Tree Analysis done and constant leadership reviews followed. This was being done with a commitment to TML to start with the machine within 6 months of time. This project was closed in 172 days with a savings of around $32000.00.
Lessons Learned
- Systematic approach, problem analysis and data validation is very important for arriving at probable cause and get sustainable solutions.
- Root Cause elimination is key to avoid recurrence of any event.
- Participation from the cross functional team members are critical for success.