interview - Apollo Tyres · 2016. 9. 30. · 2.2-times that of Baroda. But we have not realized that as yet – it can only be realized once the plant goes to terminal capacity. But

interview

16 www.TireTechnologyInternational.com October 2010

INTERVIEW

www.TireTechnologyInternational.com October 2010 17

A pollo’s greenfield site in Sriperumbudur, Chennai may be the company’s ninth manufacturing site in the

world, and its fourth in India, but it is quite unlike any of the others. Thanks to some cutting-edge technology, the PCR and TBR plant is designed to give in excess of twice the productivity of the company’s modern plant in Baroda.

“For the first time in our history we have spent an awful lot on automation processes,” says Satish Sharma, Apollo’s head of India operations.

The company is well-placed for such

investment, having reached turnover of €1.37 billion, a doubling of revenue in less than three years – three years that, it must be remembered, have seen a global recession, and rising oil and rubber prices.

Apollo approached Finnish company Cimcorp for its automation needs, and decided upon a customized version of its dream-factory concept. This automated-logistics concept uses a single operating system to supervise the material flows throughout the entire plant. Handling operations are automated at every stage of TBR production, from tire building

Satish Sharma, Apollo’s head of Indian operations, reveals how he is making the company’s Chennai plant a world leader in automationby Adam Gavine

Satish Sharma, Apollo’s head of Indian operations, reveals

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interview

and the green tire buffer, through curing to finishing and uniformity testing, finishing with storage, picking, and dispatch at the loading dock.

A combination of linear transfer robots, overhead gantry robots, palletizing robots, and automated storage and retrieval systems use the factory space efficiently, optimizing material flows and minimizing buffer stocks. In addition, a warehouse-control system provides control of the order picking and material flows, enabling individual tires to be tracked through the entire process, from the building machines to the warehouse.

The Chennai contract is Cimcorp’s largest TBR project to date. For PCR production, the company supplied automation in the finishing area, including two tire buffer systems, and control of the material flow. The end result is predicted to be a daily output of 16,000 PCR tires, and 6,000 TBR tires.

But let’s go back to the basics of why the plant is so efficient.

“Primarily, it starts with the layout of the plant,” says Sharma. “The layout is fairly innovative in that it has a central spine. This spine houses several utilities and we have a distributed cafeteria system, which means we have seven or eight canteens, so team members are never far away from their machine center.

“On one side of the spine is PCR, and on the other, TBR tires. This layout has been designed to generate material flow and ensure it is very systematic, which has also helped us cut a lot of manpower.”

Glass walls to the cafeterias help ensure that operators can be tracked at all times, and they can monitor their stations. Actually ‘operators’ is a misnomer, following the compression of the Chennai plant’s organizational

structure from seven levels to four. Job titles are team member, team leader, group leader, and unit head. All team members are diploma graduates, trained for about 700 man-days in the Baroda plant before they move to Chennai.

“They do a whole lot of maintenance related to size and setup changes themselves, which is again a first for us,” comments Sharma. “Before this we had a so-called blue-collar workforce, which is unionized in our other plants, and they would not do any of these things.”

To further boost worker morale, communication has been improved, with microphones and visual aids used in the production areas so that management, even from the headquarters in Gurgaon, can communicate with the workforce.

Another big part of the Chennai project is its manufacturing, information

WillthelightsgooutatChennai?CouldtheincreasingautomationoftheChennaiplantleadtoanautomator’sdreamscenariointhefuture,thatofworker-free,lights-offproduction?

“No,wearealongwayoffthat.Wehavenotevenenvisionedthatscenario,”saysSharma.“ThreeorfouryearsagoIsawsuchamachineatContinentalinHannover.Itwasagiantofamachinethatjusthadoneoperatorhiddensomewhere.Wearenotinthatmoldasofnow.It’snoteveninourthoughtprocess.”

TatachallengedApollotoproducetiresforthemuch-publicizedRs.1lakh(US$2,200)Nano.Agreatchancetobepartofahigh-profiledomesticproject,youwouldthink.However,therewasacatch:Apollohadtomeetatargetpriceof3,000rupeesforasetoffivetires,whichislessthanUS$68.

“Wecouldnotmeetit,”Sharmastates.“Wedidourarithmeticandfranklywecouldnotmeetthosecosts.Weinvited[Tata]tosetupaplantalongwithus,andiftheythoughttherewouldbeanywaytomakemoneyonthatprice,wewouldbehappytojointhemintheirdiscoveryofmakingatthatprice,butobviouslytheydidnottakeouroffer.”

However,theofferdidstimulatesomeinterestingresearch.

“Onewaytogoisfrugalengineering,whichisabuzzwordinIndia–howyoucancutdowncoststothebarebonesand

getittomassproduction.Sothereisanewwayofthinkingwithmanufacturingprocesses,withnewtechnologytobeabletodeliverthisfrugalengineering.

“Theotherwayistousethemoststateoftheart,best-in-classmanufacturingthereisintheworld,butinawaythatis

meaningful.ThesearethetwodirectionshappeningintheIndianmanufacturingworld,andwedodabblewithbothendsofthespectrum.

“Butwecan’tsellatalossobviously.Wedotakedecisionstowalkawayfrombusiness,ifitdoesn’tmakesensetous.Webelieveinprofitablegrowthasastrategy.”

Nanotiresatnanoprices

To ensure European buyers are impressed, on top of 100% x-ray inspection, a human check follows


interview

and management system. Known as PIBS (from the Dutch, productie-, informatie- en besturings- systeem), the system has been borrowed from Vredestein Banden, acquired by Apollo in 2009.

“We studied this system at our Holland plant and found that their lost time on account of materials is almost negligible,” says Sharma. “A machine was never idle because of material loss. What we found at our Baroda plant was that it was about 2-3%, and that’s what persuaded us to use this system.

“We found the best practice for this system was to share and do a horizontal deployment of the PIBS system into Africa, and later on in Baroda. Right now, we are in the process of implementing this in Chennai. It has been implemented in a few sections of our process, and what it does is to start scheduling.

“It takes the requirements from sales and then finds out how many green tires and how many cured tires are needed, and then goes down to schedule every component. So it’s a market-down approach of planning, and is a fairly intricate software-driven automated production-planning system.”

Along the line in the warehousing operations, new management and transport systems have also been implemented, along with advanced supplier notification systems which Sharma describes as, “pretty neat”.

All the Chennai plant’s systems, from PIBS, to SCADA (run on almost every machine), real-time quality parameters, production orders, production postings and breakdown postings, all converge into a manufacturing integration and intelligence (MMI) system, so all information is available in real-time.

“Whether it is your XPP charge or your statistical techniques that you need to follow, this is a first for us, and we believe it is going to achieve a lot of high-quality manufacturing,” says Sharma.

Nothing was left to chance, with Ernst & Young engaged to do an Asset Business Plan costing model for each work center.

“This is again the first time for us – previously we were on a standard costing model, which had some hiccups, with some costs allocated and not real costs.”

The final part of the technology offensive is known internally as AIMS.

“We have used the opportunity of the Chennai plant, our experiences in the other Indian plants, and in South Africa and Holland, and sat together as a team

The extrusion line is linked to all other systems

VMI provided the tire-building machinery for the truck and bus radial production lines in Chennai


interview

and documented what we now call the Apollo Integrated Manufacturing Systems (AIMS),” says Sharma.

“AIMS contains production systems, quality systems, safety, health and environment systems, maintenance and human resources,” he says. “That is the 360° wheel, and at the center are our

tire production-system elements. This is to standardize our leaning and best practices, and to synergize.

“We are now at a level where in our design books we have productivity 2.2-times that of Baroda. But we have not realized that as yet – it can only be

realized once the plant goes to terminal capacity. But we are pretty confident of realizing it.”

The plant’s machinery inventory is almost complete, though at present only three of its intended eight Banburys are in place. The TBR operation is using “the latest, most contemporary” tire building

machines from VMI, and PCR production uses in-house designed machines.

“Apollo is the only company in India which manufactures passenger car tire-building machines,” explains Sharma. “I wouldn’t say they are special, but they are up there.”

Asked about the future direction of the production line, Sharma states that he sees it becoming more and more real-time.

“The digitization of machinery has to keep happening – there is no end to that. It should also become more compact, and cycle times need to improve. That is the general direction in which our production systems are progressing.”

However, there is one area where technology is not being used optimally.

“Inspection is a very big issue,” admits Sharma. “I would consider it to be a weak point of Apollo Tyres.”

The problem lies, not in the technology, because every single tire that leaves the Chennai plant is x-rayed. The issue seems to be one of trusting the technology.

SuperZonesApollohasimplementedagreatwayofinvolvingthebuyingpublicinIndiawithamuch-ignoredproduct.‘ApolloZones’havebeenestablishedaroundIndia,providing15modern,up-marketretail-formatlocationsforsellingtires.Theaimistoensureamplevisualappeal,comfort,andconveniencetocustomers,andprovideanopportunitytolearnabouttheproduct’sapplicationsandperformancebeforemakingthefinalpurchase.

A16thzonehasjustbeeninauguratedbyApolloTyres’Chairman,OnkarS.KanwarattheIndoRadialClubinKolkata,WestBengal.Thiszoneisonalargerscalethantheothers,andiscalledan‘ApolloSuperZone’,with5,000ft2ofshowroomspace,comprisingproductdisplays,akids’zone,acustomerloungeandcafeteria.Italsohasaparkingareaof3,000ft2withmultiplecar-servicebays.

“The digitization of machinery has to keep happening – there is no end to that. It should also become more compact, and cycle times need to improve”


interview

“As we are getting into the European market we have really increased our exposure to the OEMs,” points out Sharma. “Each has its own systems, which are largely the same, but they have their finer points which are different. To be able to take care of all these complexities and the fact we are going to Europe for the first time, and we want to be extra cautious and careful, right now, our inspections are horribly severe. To an operations person it is not very pleasant, and at the moment we are erring on the side of caution, and probably have one level more of inspection than is necessary for a mass-production plant.”

This extra level means that on top of 100% x-ray inspection, a human check follows, with a final human check just prior to dispatch.

“We have attempted to implement

technology in several locations for the aftermarket on a sample basis, but right now we x-ray 100%. But with the degree of automation that has been employed at Chennai, and as we get more experienced in the European market, I think we will reduce our inspection levels,” explains Sharma.

As experience is gained in automated inspection, the technology may be implemented in other plants such as Baroda, which still employs purely manual inspection processes.

“It is a difficult decision for us, and you must appreciate that, because when you try to justify your automation costs against manpower costs, it is hard to justify, especially in a country like ours where manpower is relatively much cheaper [than Europe].”

There is a further case for automation.

“Wage costs will eventually go up, and are beginning to go up already,” he explains. “We are experiencing those higher levels of productivity [at Chennai], which are 2.2-times those of Baroda, and are also, to the best of our knowledge, higher than the best, anywhere in the world. I cannot make that claim 100%, but it is very much up there against the world’s best.”

We can expect to see more output from Chennai in the future though, as the company pushes toward its goal of becoming a ‘Top Ten’ tire manufacturer.

“We are not experimenting with some of the cycle speeds we wrote in our design books until the process gets more robust,” says Sharma. “These are the challenges of having an ongoing project, with commercial production going on at the same time.” tire

ResearchgoesDutch?Apollo’stakeoverofVredesteinBandenisbringingnewresearchonbothsides,accordingtoSharma.“Likeanytwoorganizations,whenwebecomeone,therearemanythingswebringtothetable,andmanythingstheybringtothetable.Iwouldsayit’sharmonious.ThereareplentyofthingswhichourIndianteamistellingthemonthetechnologyside,especiallyintheareasofcompoundrecipesandsilicamixing,etc.Andthereareplentyofthingssuchassidewalldesignthatwearelearningfromthem.”ThelatterislargelyduetoVredestein’sdesigninputfromGiugiaro.

“Inourintegrationprocesswehavedocumentedtheso-calledlow-hangingfruitsfrombothsides.Wefeelthatinthefirstcoupleofyearsitisimportanttopluckthelow-hangingfruitandgettheadvantagesonbothsides,andthatiswhatweareengagedinnow.Andoncethatisdone,Ithinkwithmaturity,coordinationandunderstandinggettingbettereachdayasweworktogether,thenwecanworktogetheronmorecomplicatedandintenseissues.”

Far left: Steel cords being processed – just one of the highly automated processes at ChennaiLeft: The Cimcorp Warehouse Control System manages buffer storage, material flow and palletizingBelow: Chennai’s plant features VMI machinery, and in-house designs, all to the highest specifications


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interview - Apollo Tyres · 2016. 9. 30. · 2.2-times that of Baroda. But we have not realized that as yet – it can only be realized once the plant goes to terminal capacity. But