“Shivraj, How are you placed tomorrow? I want to discuss something very urgent in tomorrow’s meeting so be on time” said Ramesh. “Sure” I replied but could sense the urgency in Ramesh’s voice. Next day I rushed to office, Ramesh and other Senior Leaders were present in Room. “1stJan is the deadline” said Shubhankar, Director - EBU, “We need to dismantle PMUC (Phaltan Midrange Upfit Center) and merge the business into TCL. Evacuate PMUC and hand over the facility to Cummins Fuel system(CFS) plant which is required for BS-IV launch. Tata Motors is banking on us and committing that they will give 3-5% higher Fuel economy over competitors with CFS fuel system. I know this seems to be impossible but we will have to make this possible”, he continued. “Shivraj I want you to lead this and ensure that we are ready by 1st Jan, stated Shubhankar. “PMUC & TCL extreme ends of one ship, TCL considered to be most LEAN plant where as PMUC the most complex working in batch production methodology, How are we going to bridge these gap” thoughts started floating in my mind.
You look baffled, said Ramesh. “Ramesh, TCL has only 16 types of variants where as PMUC has 400+ variants; 3000 new parts proliferations, throughput of variants varies from 25 to 75 mins, increase capacity from 20 to 50 / shift embed with different cultural approach to engines assembly, Are we going to achieve this in such a short span”
“LEAN” is the Answer Shivraj, Stated Ramesh.
In a discussion with Biswadeep(Regional leader for Operations excellence)suggested to use Value Stream Transformation through Six Sigma Way(D-144 days)
That’s It, this would be one of its kind approach ever taken in Cummins– To work on VST through Six Sigma.
Diverse Team was formed including members from Operations Excellence, Quality, SCM and PMUC Production team. We did 3 day workshop on VST to have focus. (D-130 Days)
Mr. TIM WOOD famously known as 7 wastes in VST pitched in and pinpointed the Non-Value Added process in system, collaborated with operators to understand the current pain area. Ms. Ease Effect filtered all easy to do and high impact action and handed it to Mr. Pareto who in turn funneled the actions and converted them to critical “X”. Mrs. RACI ensured that team was made accountable and responsible to accomplish the task. (D–100 Days)
Shubhankar invited Steve Cooper (Global Director, OE) to review this project, and give his insight. After reviewing Steve said, Guys your work till now is really commendable, I am looking forward to see the results, it will be a big breakthrough if you guys can crack it, All the best.” (D-75 days)
“Focus on the right approach and success will be yours” and 7 day ahead of schedule we could complete the project with PBIT Avoidance saving of $ 78,996. We all were jubilant to accomplish the results. This project was accoladed at various platform: Best Six sigma project in TCL, awarded in Integrated-SCM meets for significant contribution in improving delivery, runner up Award in LSSEA, Symbiosis Institute Pune.
Lessons Learned
- Develop leaders at each level of project with responsibility
- Synergy in business, thought process and approach yields great results
- Systematic approach, problem analysis and data validation is very important for arriving at probable cause and get sustainable solutions.
- Identifying Root Cause & its elimination is key to avoid recurrence of any event.
- Seek for every opportunity to convert issue into solution, functional team members are critical for success.