Process Improvement at an Automotive Assembly Plant

Abstract

Continuous process improvement holds a key to the overall growth of an organization. It provides a firm platform to the company to satisfy customer needs as well as maintaining the cost levels of the company as low as possible. For a supplier of an automotive company, it is mandatory to satisfy international standards to fulfil mass production. Three such requirements - measurement system capability, process capability and efficient internal logistics are included in the scope of this project undertaken at a Tier 1 greenfield automotive supplier plant.

The objective of the project is to analyse process parameters like measurement system, process capability and material handling within the plant and recommend improvements in these areas accordingly. Gage R & R (Repeatability and Reproducibility) study is undertaken to identify the measurement variations occurring due to interaction amongst parts, operators and measuring instruments. Corrective actions are proposed to reduce these variations and a better formulation is suggested to calculate measurement errors based on research conducted by leading quality experts. Initial process capability study is performed at one of the assembly line to explore the capability issues. Data is collected and analysed using Minitab software. Based on the analysis, action plan and root cause analysis is done to solve the process incapability. For the internal logistics process, initial warehouse location is studied with the help of CRAFT (Computerised Relative Allocation of Facilities Technique). New warehouse layout is proposed and implemented based on the analysis with improved material flow and reduced material handling cost.