The main objective of this compilation is to better understand the importance of quality in any organisation. Quality can be categorised in various ways, in terms of quality of the organization's customer service, quality of the raw materials used, quality of inspection or in terms of the quality of the product itself, but here we would not be discussing any of these, on the contrary, we would be overly focussing on the quality of production processes that these organisations carry out.
Toyota Motor corporation is one of the largest automobile manufacturing company in the world and Toyo-Denki are the pioneers in Power Generation Systems and Rail transportation systems, but here we compare and contrast their approaches towards production control and material management ,and how it effects these global organizations.
The production methods imbibed in Toyota Kirloskar Motors are mostly influenced by production methods of Toyota Motor Corporation, whereas Toyo Denki Power systems has a mixed culture of Toyo Denki - Japan and Kirloskar Group. Toyota Kirloskar Motors as well as Toyo Denki Power systems in India, are partly owned by Kirloskar Group, hence it would give us a brief description as to how two sister concern companies differ in terms of their production methodologies.
Production Planning and control and Material management are the integral part of the production processes in any manufacturing organisation. These processes are essential to stream line the process flow and to improve the processing time of any product and further enhancing its Quality in any organisation.
INTRODUCTION:
Toyo Denki Power System:
Toyo Denki Power Systems (TDPS) is a joint venture between Toyo Denki Seizo K K, Japan and the Kirloskar Group, India, for the manufacture of AC Generators- up to 55MW. TDPS also provides power plant solutions, from custom engineering designs for each AC Generator to on-site commissioning of their products. TD Power Systems has employee strength of 800+, in 2 operational manufacturing units situated at Dobaspet, Bangalore. The company has an annual turnover in excess of US$ 50 million.
Toyo Denki Seizo K.K. - Japan, is considered as the pioneer in power generators. It was established in the year 1918 and was one of the first manufacturers of electrical equipment for railways in Japan. They later diversified their organisation into -
Transportation System - Total Rail transport engineering solutions.
Industrial System - Power generation systems.
Information Systems - IT system products.
Toyo Denki Seizo K.K. Japan (TDS) entered the Indian market in the year 1982. It exported its Heavy duty generators from Japan to the Indian customers. TDS had a handful of competitors like Kirloskar Oil Engines Limited (KOEL) and the New Government Electric Factory (NGEF). TDS planned to start a manufacturing unit in India, due to increase in demand and further, to reduce the cost of the product in terms of production and logistics. Hence, Toyo Denki Power Systems was established in the year 1999 at Bangalore. TDPS started production in the year 2001, along with commissioning, sales and services of their generators under license from Toyo Denki Seizo, Japan. In the next year itself TDPS was accredited with ISO 9001:2000 certification.
Toyo-Denki Power Systems - Company Time Line
The plant layout of Toyo Denki Power System, Unit -1, is as shown below:
Exit
Entry
Water treatment plant
GARDEN
STORAGE / WAREHOUSE
Final Testing
Packaging
Final Assembly
Rotor Balancing section
Coil Testing
Vacuum Pressure Impregnation (VPI) chamber
Coil Stretching section
Stator Winding Section
Coil Looping
Rotor Winding Section
Paint Booth1414141414141414141414141414
Core Assembly1414141414141414141414141414
A
D
M
I
N
I
S
T
R
A
T
I
V
E
BLOCK
Entry
Generator Room
Parking
SECURITY
TOYOTA KIRLOSKAR MOTORS:
Toyota Kirloskar Motor Private Limited (TKM) is a joint venture between Toyota Motor Corporation (Japan) and Kirloskar Group (India) for the manufacture, sales and services of Toyota cars in India, employing around 3000+ employees across 2 operational sites. Toyota Motor Corporation holds 89% of the shares and Kirloskar group holds the remaining 11%. Toyota Kirloskar Motors has an annual turnover in excess of US$ 587 million.
Toyota Motor Corporation was established in the year 1937, and after gaining years of experience in the automobile industry, Toyota established a unit in India on the 6th of October 1997. They based their manufacturing plant at Bidadi, Bangalore. This facility has the capacity to manufacture 80,000 vehicles per annum, which can be increased to 150,000 vehicles per annum according to demand. The Phase-I and Phase-II construction of the plant had an investment of US$ 340 million and US$ 240 million respectively. Toyota Kirloskar Motors is expected to inaugurate Phase-III of the manufacturing unit in Dec 2010, especially for the small and mid-car segment entree's "Toyota Prius" and "Toyota Etios". Phase-III has had an investment of US$ 160million.
Toyota achieved success in India due to several factors, a well-established brand name, world-class manufacturing practises, in-depth market analysis, excellent customer support, etc., but the prime factor that leveraged their existence in the Indian automobile industry was their superior product quality. This was achieved by implementing "Toyota Production System".
Toyota Kirloskar Motors - TIME LINE
Approach-
Toyota Motor Corporation and Toyo Denki Seizo both have attained years of experience in maintaining top quality standards in their organisations, but in this report we try to analyse the difference in approaches of both the Japanese companies, which have started manufacturing units in India. How the Japanese quality standards are still maintained in India, in these organisations? What are the adaptations done in these organisations with reference to Quality standards?
Toyota Kirloskar Motors -
The production process at Toyota Kirloskar Motors is based on TPS (Toyota Production system). This system is also used in all other Toyota Motor Corporation manufacturing units.
Toyota production system.
Toyota Production System is a well-known production system first implemented by Toyota Motor Corporation in the late 1950's. This system has been an integral part of all Toyota manufacturing units including Toyota Kirloskar Motors, India. TPS is an integrated socio-technical system, which aides in streamlining the manufacturing and logistic processes in an organisation. It also emphasises on inducing an effective channel of communication between the organisation and its suppliers & consumers. The main objective of TPS is to eliminate the seven kinds of waste that every organisation comes across, they are:
Wastes
Description
Over-Production
Production exceeding the required demand.
Unnecessary Transportation
Unnecessary logistics may cause loss/damage to the product and delays in the process.
Motion
It refers to the unnecessary movement of the worker/technician/equipment. Causes delays.
Inventory
Raw materials or Finished product which is not being actively processed is a waste.
Defects
Defects will cause wastage of resources, man-hours or the product itself.
Over-Processing
Excess work done on any product than required or specified by the customer.
Waiting
Delay caused due to bottle-necks in the process.
Quality Assessment implemented under Toyota Production system:
Total Quality Management (TQM):
TQM as defined by ISO: "TQM is a management approach of an organization, centered on quality, based on the participation of all its members and aiming at long-term success through customer satisfaction, and benefits to all members of the organization and to society". Toyota Kirloskar Motors has the reputation of achieving high rate of quality in the vehicles they produce, by introducing TQM. Quality takes precedence over all other operations that are carried out. The Quality department at Toyota Kirloskar Motors is segmented into two divisions:
Quality Assurance.
Quality Control.
Quality Assessment
Quality Assurance:
The main reason of involving quality assessment in any industry is to identify and/or rectify an error that a product may contain, before it is handed over to the consumer, but Toyota relies on means and ways to prevent any errors from occurring in the product or the process, in the first place. So as to ensure this, Quality Assurance department was introduced.
Quality assurance (QA) department takes a process based approach. The main objective of the QA department is to ensure that the process undertaken adheres to the quality requirements of the consumer. QA always starts assessment on the process before the actual production of the component takes place. The QA department initiates the process by systematic planning, analysis and design of the operational procedures, and further inculcates any changes that can improve quality of the process. It also monitors inspection processes that are conducted by Quality Control technicians, if any frequent errors in any particular operation are reported at the assembly line; QA inspects the error and issues statements and reports with corrective action to be taken.
QA department acts as an interface between the Engineering department, Manufacturing department, Quality Control Department and the customers themselves. It co-ordinates the quality inspection of the material in-flow and monitors them for any errors.
The other responsibilities of the QA department are:
Innovating new process methodologies to improve product quality and reduce process time.
Resolve issues pertaining to the quality of material supplied by the vendors and sub-contractors.
Collect data of any changes in the efficiency of a process and create reports to resolve them.
Create and maintain audit reports for the process, systems, product and the suppliers (audit report: contains a checklist provided by the Quality certification authority - ISO).
Ensure availability of resources such as high precision machinery and calibrating devices, required for the quality inspection of any given process.
Installation of statistical sampling processes where 100% inspection is not feasible.
Quality Control.
The major difference between Quality control (QC) and Quality Assurance (QA) is that assurance of quality is initiated before manufacturing the product, whereas quality control starts after the product is manufactured.
QC department works in conjuncture with the QA department, before production the QA department sets the quality standards according to the customer requirements and once the product is manufactured, the QC department inspects the product to the standards set by the QA department. It deals with all incoming, in-process and finished products. QC department performs 100% visual and dimensional point based inspection (all Toyota vehicles have 160 point inspection), on the product as required by the specifications. QC also conducts general inspection of raw materials/outsourced components received from suppliers, vendors and sub-contractors, but most of the sub-contractors and vendors are the sister concern companies of Toyota Kirloskar Motors such as Toyota Kirloskar Auto Parts, Toyota Tsusho, Toyota Techno Park, etc., hence the level of inspection varies from supplier to supplier.
Other responsibilities of QC department:
QC department ensures proper quarantine of re-work and rejected materials.
Issue of quality check stamps to all the components which adhere to the quality requirements.
Tabulate and document test results.
Preparing NCR (Non Conformance Report) for all the products and raw materials with errors. The NCR states whether the particular product can be reworked (type of rectification process) or needs to be rejected.
Toyo Denki Power Systems:
The Quality policy of TDPS is as stated below:
"To provide quality products on time to the customer through continual improvement in every process which shall result in total customer satisfaction"
The prime quality objectives of TDPS are:
Improvement in customer satisfaction.
Supplier performance improvement.
On-time delivery of the product.
Reduction of wastage.
Quality Engineering Department:
In this organization, the role of Quality Control and Quality Assurance is replaced by a single body - Quality Engineering (QE) Department.
Quality assessment at TDPS is highly prioritized because of the high risk potential of their products. It takes place in three phases:
In-coming materials and components.
In-process testing (Coil Testing).
Final testing.
Process Flow and role of Quality Engineering Department in the process flow:
Rotor Winding
Final Assly.
Final Testing
Packing
Rotor Balancing
Core Assly.
VPI Processing
Coil Testing
Coil Stretching
Stator Winding
Coil looping
3
2
1
Production Planning and Control
Quality Engineering department
Manufacturing Department
Manufacturing Indent
Suppliers and Vendors
Marketing Department
Material Management
Design Department
Bill of Materials (BOM)
Goods supplied
Purchase Order
Purchase Order
Client
Process outflow of information
Inflow of sub-contracted parts from the vendor / supplier
1
Phases of Quality checks.
Scheduling Process
Quality Engineering control
Client-Company Communication
In-coming materials and components:
This is the first phase of quality assessment at TDPS. In this phase, the raw materials are inspected either at the suppliers work unit or at TDPS lab by obtaining samples of the same from the suppliers. The outsourced components, such as fabricated, and precision machined parts are particularly examined and tested at the suppliers work. In some cases of specific customer demand, some samples are even tested by competent external agencies for special test requirements, such as NDT (Non-Destructive testing), VPI (Vacuum Pressure Impregnation) resin evaluation, etc.
In-process testing (Coil testing):
This inspection process is carried out after the coil stretching process in the process flow. A quality check at this stage of production is essential since majority of the damages occur during the coil stretching process. The coils are tested with high voltage, to locate any damage on the coil core or the coil coating.
Final testing:
After the complete assembly of the generator, it is tested at ratings above the customer specifications work settings, such that the factor of safety of the generator is monitored and documented. This testing is carried out in the presence of the customer and on a work bench at TDPS.
Quality Standards:
TDPS is accredited with ISO 9001:2000 certification (Quality management standards). As per these standards the organisation has to adhere to the following set of requirements:
Standardised set of procedures are followed for all key processes in the organisation.
These procedures are constantly monitored to justify their effectiveness in the functioning of the organisation.
Adequate documentation of all the set of procedures and operations in the organisation is maintained and referred in the time of external audit.
Inspection and testing of finished products is carried out and implementation of appropriate corrective measures is done, wherever necessary.
Facilitating of continual improvement is done. Reviews from the management, engineers, managers, operators and customers are taken into consideration and steps are taken to improve the organisation as a whole.
Every organisation that is certified with the ISO standard is independently audited and checked for any irregularities by the issuing authorities.
Quality assessment process:
Start
Drawing reference number referred from the source.
Drawing reference number is checked against technical specifications
Rejected
Inspection is carried out as per inspection plan and the status of the inspection is documented
OK
NC
QC - OK tag is placed on the component
NC tag is placed on the component and it is moved to NC area.
After receipt of the NC report, corrective action is carried out on the component
Rework
Rejected
Finish
Accepted
asd
Scrap
Compare and Contrast: TKM & TDPS
Process structure and implementation
TKM
TDPS
Processes are planned and designed by Quality Assurance department.
The processes are planned and designed by QE department, but on the basis of ISO - Quality management standards.
Analysis
Process implementation and operation is more simplified in case of TKM, because any changes in it can be introduced independently without any delays, whereas TDPS would have to take the consideration of the certification board for any changes to be introduced.
Implementation is more stringent, hence more unbiased in case of TDPS, because it is audited by an external authority.
Control of supplier quality.
TKM
TDPS
Formal inspection of all its raw materials and outsourced components.
Stringent inspection of all its raw materials and outsourced components.
Analysis
Inspection of outsourced components at TKM is formal because most of the sub-contractors are sister concern companies of TKM, hence quality of raw materials is guaranteed.
TDPS has stringent inspection and testing of all its in-flow materials. Frequent inspections are carried out at every supplier's work unit. Any new supplier is evaluated for his manufacturing quality and capability before placing trial orders by a cross functional team.
Inspection
TKM
TDPS
All testing procedures done in-house.
Most of the testing procedure done in-house, except for special cases
Analysis
All the testing procedures are performed in-house, hence more control over the process, in case of TKM.
TDPS has most of the testing procedures done in-house, but some inspections are performed by external agencies, on special requests from the customers.
Customer Interaction
TKM
TDPS
Minimal customer interaction.
Customer satisfaction is guaranteed by high level of customer involvement.
Analysis
There is minimal customer involvement in the quality management of TKM.
High customer involvement. Final testing is carried out in the presence of the customer. External agency testing is done on special requests from the customer. This increases customer satisfaction.
Recommendations for TDPS:
Quality management methodologies like Total Quality Management and Six Sigma can be introduced in the organisation so as increase the overall quality of the product and the process.
More importance to proper quality process planning and design, because they have efficient screening process, but it does not have steps to avoid the error from occurring in the first place.
Implementation of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system, so as to facilitate inter-departmental communication. Since QE department overviews all the departments.
Implementation of Quality control software like Oracle Aim.
Diversification of Quality Engineering department into Quality Control and Quality Assurance departments, so as to implement proper process design and planning.
Introduction of in-house high precision machining operations, which are being outsourced to various sub-contractors, so as to have more control over the quality.
Technology transfer with companies like GE and Sicme Motori (for generator manufacturing below 55MW and for wind power generators respectively, tie-up already exists, but no tech transfer), which are pioneers in Generator manufacturing, so as to reduce the defects that occur in the process flow and improve overall quality of the product and increase customer satisfaction.
Critical Evaluation:
Every industry has its own set of Quality standards and each quality standard have their own advantages and disadvantages. This report gave me a chance to co-relate the quality standards of Toyo Denki Power Systems - the company that I worked for, and Toyota Kirloskar Motors (TKM).
Toyota Kirloskar Motors in India is a part of Toyota Motor Corporation-Japan, Toyota (TMC) has been a pioneer in implementing exceptional quality in their operational methodologies, whereas Toyo Denki Power system is a well-placed organization in terms of market capture in India. It has been in rapport with the some of the major industries in India for a long period of time. It has had very few competitors like Kirloskar Electric and NGEF (New Government Electric factory). This report would give us a standard of benchmarking that Toyo Denki Power systems can achieve by implementing some of the methodologies of Toyota Kirloskar Motors.
I have had the privilege of working for this company for a brief period of time, and that is the reason for me to choose this company for this report. I have seen and experienced various aspects of the company, such as their process implementation methodologies, how they differ from their competitors, how do they cope to changes, etc., TDPS is very stringent about their methodologies, this operational attitude would cause problems to incorporate any change in the system, which may be required to be implemented for the betterment of the organisation and an effective incorporation of continuous improvement in their organisation would help them to increase the organisation's efficiency towards fulfilling its goals.
The subject "Operational management" is very vast and elaborative concept, but extremely important in the proper functioning of any organisation, be it manufacturing industry or a service industry. It basically deals with the process flow of an organisation and how the process flow can be streamlined to improve the lead time of the product. Every organisation employs different operation management methodologies by design, execution and control (PDCA cycle) of the firms resources to increase the efficiency of the operations taking place in the organisation, to achieve maximum efficiency these objectives are employed with the least possible resources used.
This report on Operation management was very helpful for me to cross-reference the theory I learnt in class with the practical facts i noticed in my organisation and thus help me understand the functionality of an organisation in a much better sense.
