Industrial System Design Project

Industrial System Design Project

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Productivity Improvement of Telly Tube Product at

Citizen Press Components, Ludhiana

A project report submitted for the completion of course in

Industrial System Design

Submitted by

Harsh Punjabi Roll No. - 401257016

Under the guidance of

Dr Ajay Batish

Professor

Mechanical Engineering Department Thapar University

Group Members

Zorawar Singh (401257013)

Eishnoor Singh (401257014)

Navneet Singh (401257003)


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CERTIFICATE

I hereby certify that the work which is being presented in this Project report entitled “Productivity Improvement Of Telly Tube Product at Citizen Press Components, Ludhiana”, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the completion of course in Industrial system design and submitted to the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Thapar University, Patiala is an authentic record of my own work carried out during a period from July, 2014 to December, 2014 under the supervision of Dr. Ajay Batish, Professor, Mechanical Engineering Department. The matter presented in this Project Report has not been submitted by me elsewhere. Signature of Student Signature of the Supervisor


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Acknowledgment I am highly grateful to the authorities of Thapar University, Patiala for providing the opportunity to carry out this project work. I would like to express a deep sense of gratitude and thank profusely to my course instructor Dr Ajay Batish, Professor, Mechanical Engineering Department, Thapar University for his sincere and invaluable guidance, suggestion and sympathetic attitude which inspired me to submit this project report in the present form. I would also like congratulate and thank my team members for the successful completion of this project. Without their assistance and support, this project work couldn’t have been compIeted. I would also like to thank Mr. Manjinder Singh, MD, Citizen Group for providing us the chance to work out this project despite our naivety and providing all assistance that we needed for the completion of project. We are also thankful to the authors whose work we have consulted

and quoted in this project.


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Productivity Improvement of Telly Tube Product at Citizen

Press Components, Ludhiana

INTRODUCTION

This project dealt with increasing the productivity of the Telly Tube product being

manufactured by Citizen Press Components, which is a high volume flagship product of the

company. This was performed by first studying the parameters and the pre-existent setup

and then optimizing them to increase the output by means of minimum investment and

most possible readjustments. The major areas looked into were Layout, Manpower,

Machine and Process.

BACKGROUND

Productivity of a company/manufacturing unit is the output gained per unit of input

implemented in the production activity. It can more simply be put as:-

PRODUCTIVITY = OUTPUT/INPUT

For the given company, the Telly Tube is very high volume flagship product for the reason

that they are the only suppliers of this particular product in the entire north Indian region.

The major customers for the same include Hero Cycles, Avon Cycles etc.

This brings us to the question that what really is a telly tube? Well, since the customers are

major bicycle manufacturers, it would be obvious that it is a component of a bicycle.

Telly tube is a part of the front fork of the bicycle. The fork assembly holds the wheel hub on

which the wheel rotates. The fork is further connected to the handle for steering the front

wheel. The telly tube(s) is the part of the fork which connected to the T-bar on one end, and

wheel hub on the other. The pictorial presentation is shown here. The black rods are telly

tubes which are welded together by a liner.


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The product is made of steel and is procured in the form of steel pipes cut of the desired

length by the vendor itself. The pipe is originally made by rolling a steel sheet and doing a

seam welding in the joint. This process however is not a part of the productivity data

considered here because the vendor undertakes this process and its cost is included into the

raw material cost for the company.

The tool used for carrying out the productivity improvement is Work Measurement and

Methods Engineering. Work Measurement entails applying techniques to record and

establish the time taken by a worker to carry out a particular manufacturing task at a

defined level of performance. Methods engineering is a very wide concept but in the

shortest form it can be defined as the design of the productive process in which a person is

involved.

The first step here was noting the cycle time data with the help of a stopwatch. Then the

next step was to calculate the Daily Output, Line Capacity and Line efficiency to understand

the level at which the production was being carried out.

The collection of this data and these calculations gave us a rough idea as to which direction

we were supposed to head in. The bottleneck processes were clearly evident in the cycle

time data, and we essentially realised that the efficiency could also be increased. A process

flow chart was made which gave a detailed view of every action in the processes and we

could easily analyse the delays and Non-Value Added activities and work to minimize them

in the most economical way possible.

The factors that were taken into consideration to work out the process parameters were

first of all analysed with the help of a fishbone (cause and effect) diagram to filter out the

specifics to be worked upon. The major factors in which work was done is

1. Layout

2. Manpower

3. Machine

The changes and readjustments made in the stated factors were a means to minimize the

non-value added activities and clear out the bottlenecks. There were various models

designed and referred to the company officials of which few suggestions were out rightly

rejected by the officials there owing to its impracticality as per their experience.

Owing to the impossibility of implementing and testing every model owing to the company’s

constraints, an estimated data was calculated for each model and the final model with the

optimum combination of the best possible data values and the officials’ approval were

implemented and a slight improvement was seen in the overall productivity.


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DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

The first thing done here was to collect the data and analyse it before starting the

improvement process planning and simulations. The following areas were covered in the

same

i. Calculation of Cycle Time:-

The cycle time was calculated with the means of a stopwatch and then the

output was calculated hour wise and shift wise taking all the concerned

parameters into account.


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ii. Calculation of Plant Capacity, Line efficiency and Line Output:-

The calculations of the Plant Capacity, Line Efficiency and Line output give us a

measuring tool to check the final effectiveness of and the difference between the

previously existent and newly incorporated production process. The data is

calculated with the help of the SAM (Standard Allowed Minute) which is a

standardized time for the process.

iii. Illustrating the operations:-

The operations were illustrated in sequence as shown in the illustration below so

as to consider any possible changes in the process design. These give a clear


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picture of how the product undergoes the transformation from raw material to

final dispatch by means of several processes.

iv. Process Flow Diagram:-

The process flow diagram is a very important tool to study each and every action

being carried out in a production activity. It classifies all the actions as ‘Transport,

Storage, Delay, Inspection and Operation’. This was made by studying every

process and recording the actions being carried out. The classification helps in

minimizing the delays and the Non-Value added activities. The process flow

diagram for the given production line is hereby given.


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v. Identified Non-Value Added activities and Bottlenecks:-

The non-value added activities are mostly the delays when looked in the process

flow diagram. It does not necessarily mean every NVA or Delay is the same or

different. It depends on the factors affecting the particular delay.

In the given case, the Non Value Added activities chosen and worked upon are

-> Delay in waiting for trolley from Forming process

-> Delay in waiting for trolley from Embossing process

These Non-Value added activities were tackled by the means of optimizing the

factors taken into consideration.

The bottlenecks in the processes were analysed after studying the cycle time

data carefully, and we came to the inference that,

-> Drilling process is the slowest and thus is the bottleneck causing slower

production rate.

-> Followed by Drilling, there are Forming, Draw 1 and Draw 2 processes also not

considerably faster.

These were too tackled by means of optimizing the operation and machine.

OPTIMIZING THE FACTORS IN CONSIDERATION

After we analysed the existing process and drew out our diagnosis on the blockages causing

low productivity, we narrowed down 4 factors we had to optimize to carry out our

production improvement work. The optimization of these factors would result in minimized

blockages and thus improved productivity. The factors taken into consideration are

-> Layout

-> Manpower

-> Machine


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-> Process

The work done in the respective areas is as follows.

i. Layout:-

We took the layout design currently being followed and calculated all the

distances and wastage in transportation time for the same. It was all simulated

process-wise in a layout efficiency table, which is nothing complicated, but just

percentage time of Idle, Process and Setup for Machine and labour. The lower

the percentage time of staying Idle or Setup, the lesser the wastage, i.e. NVA

would be minimized.

The obvious question raised is that layout change can affect idle time but how

would it affect setup time?

Well, with the layout changes, the loading and unloading systems are also

optimized (mentioned in Work Place diagrams in the forthcoming changes) and

the setup time is reduced.

The layout efficiency table was not calculated by implementing each layout

as a trial. It was estimated using the distance reduction that was measured.

The layout with the maximum estimated efficiency was suggested and

implemented.

The final shift also was made with the consent of the company authorities.

The only movable machines are Draw 1, Draw 2, and forming. These

machines are motor operated hydraulic machine and thus do not have an

underground foundation. The other presses were of 10 ton capacity and

had a very deep foundation and were difficult to move. Thus only Draw 1,

Draw 2 and Forming machines were moved.

a) Old Layout


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b) First Suggested Layout (Not Implemented)

Changed the sequence of Draw1, Draw2 and Forming

Brought Drilling near to the embossing process by replacing the Hydraulic

Machine.


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This layout reduced the distance between Forming and Washer Assembly by a considerable

value and thus also reduced the transport time to a high extent. In this case, the drilling

machine was displaced and placed right next to embossing machine. This caused a major

change in the setup and idle time of the drilling machine, thus increasing the efficiency of

the process.

This layout was however not implemented. The next layout which was tentatively more

promising was approved by the company officials and thus implemented.

c) Second suggested Layout (Implemented)

L-type Layout where Draw1, Draw2 and forming are entirely shifted from

their location and brought in an L-Shaped arrangement with the rest of

the machines.

There is no trolley travel time except from Swaging left. This was

executed was displacing one more hydraulic machine to the place where

the drilling machine was kept in the very first layout that was originally

being followed.

This also includes the optimized Pressing, Punching, Embossing and

Drilling machines which will be mentioned in the next section.


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So finally the third L-type layout was accepted by the company officials.

ii. Manpower:-

There are in total 12 people employed on this particular line fabricating the telly

tube. After studying the data carefully, we realised that the Embossing process

was producing at a phenomenally faster rate as compared to others. The other

processes would produce near around 3000 pieces per shift, but the embossing

had the capacity to produce around 21000 pieces per shift. This meant the

worker sitting here had the highest idle time owing to the fact that the incoming

pieces won’t be more than 3000 and that meant an idle time worth of

manufacturing time for 18000 pieces for the worker. The first idea was to

redesign the die for the Pressing + Punching and the embossing process into a


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hybrid die which would carry out the Pressing, Punching and Embossing Process

all in one go and would essentially mean reduction of manpower in the process

while still maintaining the same level of production. The die design being

followed previously and being followed now is given below.

PREVIOUS DIE DESIGN (Pressing Punching and Embossing)

NEW DIE DESIGN (Pressing, Punching and Embossing Hybrid)


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This design was however out rightly rejected by the company officials on the ground that

this would encounter high breakage rates. This lead to further thinking and other ways to

optimize the machines were designed.

The Manpower couldn’t be reduced, but it could be readjusted to procure a better output.

The Pressing Punching and Embossing operations were performed on two separate

machines, but both the dies were redesigned in such a way that the speed of both were

normalised and overall speed was increased for the process. Initially the dies were Pressing

+ Punching on one die and embossing on the other. The new design had Pressing on one,

and Punching + Embossing on the other.

Initially, the pressing + punching produced around 3000 pieces in a shift which brought

down the output of embossing to 3000 pieces per shift, whereas its capacity was 21000

pieces. Now, the Pressing operation alone gives around 3400 pieces in a shift, and

punching + embossing has a capacity of 4000 pieces per shift. Thus the load was

normalised and the lag covered increasing the output of the pieces by 400 pieces.

This was successfully accepted by the company officials and implemented. The die was

made in the company’s tool room. And it took relatively lesser time to synthesize, for the

reason that the spare die(s) for the same processes were reworked for the implementation.

The new die design for the Punching + Embossing can be seen here like


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The next change done was on the Drilling machine. The entire optimization is explained in

the next section. However, this too was subject to a lot of brainstorming and rejection of

ideas, the technical aspect is more related to machine changes and thus is explained there.

In respect to manpower, the most apparent work done was integrating the inspection and

drilling process and using the manpower to tackle the bottleneck in its entirety. The

inspection is visual inspection, and thus that is the only why the two could be integrated.

This way, the manpower was readjusted and the output of both, the drilling and the

inspection was improved.

iii. Machine:-

The machines were subjected to a lot of focus and scrutiny. A lot of possible

ideas were brought up. But given the time and resources constraint, most of

them were taken to the grave even before their conception.

The main machines causing bottlenecks which were taken into consideration

were ‘Drilling, Pressing + Punching, Embossing, Forming, Draw 1, Draw 2 and

Forming’

The first step before doing anything was to study the machines and their

specifications.

The Draw 1, Draw 2 and forming machines are motor powered hydraulic

machines. The company however in the span of these 6 months upgraded the

motors of these machines and we eventually had to recalculate the data. This is

not a contribution by us, but something that company invariably did by itself.

The dies of the Pressing Punching and Embossing processes were redesigned and

implemented as mentioned in the manpower section above. This brought a

considerable change in the machine and process functioning.

The next major thing done was the work on the drilling table. The inspection and

Drilling processes and clubbed and the inspection labour was employed on the


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drilling table as well. The new table design enabled the two people to work more

efficiently on the machine. The main drilling operator wouldn’t have to worry

about the loading and unloading and would only have to move the table and

carry out the drilling operation. Whereas the labour sitting right next to it would

load and unload the respective finished and unfinished work piece and inspect it

in the meanwhile. This seems difficult but is very much possible considering the

high operating time of the Drilling Machine. In the while that the operator drills

the hole, which is roughly 8 seconds, the other labour unloads the finished piece,

and loads the unfinished one and then checks the unloaded piece by means of

visual inspection. The loading takes 1.2 seconds, unloading takes 1.5 seconds and

the inspection takes 4 seconds. This gives a buffer of 1.3 seconds to the

inspecting worker in the while the drilling worker drills the hole.

The entire scheme can be more clearly evident by the means of the CAD model

and the working diagram as shown.


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The table works on the basis of a bearing and cylinder arrangement. The process

steps can be specified as:-

1. The drilling worker drills the hole in the piece placed in one slot.

2. The table is rotated after the drilling is done, and the next slot is drilled

3. The inspection worker unloads the finished piece, loads the unfinished piece

and inspects the finished piece by means of visual inspection.

4. There are two unloading baskets kept. One is for rejected pieces and one is

for accepted pieces.

This process was analysed by the company officials and successfully adopted by

their consent.

The table was synthesized in the tool room of the company and the synthesis

spanned a considerable amount of time owing to the complexity of the design.

But this was successfully tried and readings calculated. It is still in trial stages of

the company.

iv. Process:-

The process was studied by analysing the workplace diagrams individually of

every operation. The inference drawn was that the unloading process was

causing unrequited arm movement and wastage of time. The problem was

tackled by providing a ramp right next to the machine, directly connected to the

unloading trolley. The worker would just have to move his arm less than half the

usual distance and the finished piece would drop down in the unloading trolley

by means of the ramp. The diagrams are shown here.

THE ORIGINAL WORKPLACE DIAGRAMS


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The average distance between the machine and unloading trolley is 0.8 ft in

almost every case. The distances were optimized by providing a ramp and

resettling the entire workplace.

THE CORRECTED WORKPLACE DIAGRAMS


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By doing this, the distance of arm travel of almost all workers was reduced from

0.8 to 0.3 ft. The ramps were made out of scrap in the company and these were

then tested for any improvement. These decreased the unloading time

considerably and reduced the overall cycle time.

The drilling workplace area was changed according to the machine design

change. So that doesn’t count much into reduction of the unloading time.


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RESULTS

After all the changes were documented and the necessary apparatus for the trial run was

arranged for, a trial run was undertaken to study whether if really all the changes had made

an effect. The new data collected was used to do the calculations all over again and contrast

the old setup to the new.

The new data collected is as follows.


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CONCLUSION:-

The new incorporated changes brought the following changes to the process

1. The line output increased from 2484 to 3203 pieces owing to the optimized drilling

operation.

2. The production capacity was increased from 3200 pieces a day to 4028 pieces a day.

3. The line efficiency increased from 51% to 59%.

4. The overall transport time and delay was minimized and unproductive time was

tackled.


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REFERENCES

1. Citizen Press Components, Focal Point, Ludhiana, Punjab (India)

2. Dr. Ajay Batish, DOPA and Professor MED, Thapar University, Patiala

3. Work Study and Methods Engineering study material, Prof. Supreet Bhullar,

MED, Thapar University, Patiala

4. http://www.google.com/

http://www.google.com/

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Industrial System Design Project