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Traceability improvement of parts routed through vendor operation

A Project Report

By M S Girish

Acknowledgement

I have immense pleasure to present this project report. Firstly I thank god to give me such

a great opportunity to test my capabilities as a manager and allowing me to successfully complete

the project in Sundram Fasteners Limited, Padi, Chennai.

I sincerely thank Mr. Mahesh, Manager- HR for recruiting me to Sundram Fasteners and

showing confidence in my abilities as a manager. I sincerely express my thanks to Mr.

P.RamaSubramaniam, DGM - Manufacturing Sundram Fasteners for the approval and

guidance given to me along this project and helping me with his full support in spite of his busy

schedule. I also thank Mr. Suresh of Subcontracting cell and all the others of the cell for the help

they extended to me for this project. I also take this opportunity to remember all those who have

assisted me in enriching my knowledge level and helped in my learning experience atSundram

Fasteners Limited.

I express my gratitude to the Symbiosis Institute of Operations Management (SIOM)

Director, Dr. Vandana Sonawane for the moral support and motivation provided to me. I thank

Prof. Parameshwaran for the valuable guidance they have provided to me while traversing with

my project.

I would also like to thank all the people who have contributed to this project directly or indirectly.

Sincerely,

M S Girish,

Symbiosis Institute of Operations Management,

Nashik.

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S No Title Page No

1 Executive Summary 05

2Objective of the project

07

3 Scope of the project 08

4 Introduction 09

5Conceptual review of project

13

6

Problem statement – Analysis &

Findings 23

7Conclusion & recommendation

25

8Final value addition

31

9 Next steps to be taken 32

3

10Bibliography

34

11 Glossary 35

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Executive Summary

Sundram Fasteners Ltd manufactures fasteners, radiator caps and other fastening needs for

the industrial needs. The Padi plant manufactures rivets, bolts, nuts, customised fasteners and

radiator caps. PADI HEX is that segment of the Padi plant which manufactures rivets, bolts

& customised fasteners.

All these products are manufactured in a process layout. The main processes constituted by

Raw material processing

Forging

Rolling (Threading operations)

Heat treatment

Finishing process

Further based on the product lines, products are divided under cells as

Standard

Special

Subcontracting

Secondary

Process

Of the 4 cells, the scope of the project is concentrated to the subcontracting cell. The

subcontracting operations are given jobs based on two aspects; firstly, operational uniqueness

& secondly capacity. The subcontracting cell consists of 37 vendor & 4 logistics agents.

Around 1500 parts of 7000 parts are manufactured by routing through these Subcontractors

throughout the year. And on an average, 350 to 400 parts are routed through Subcontractors

every month.

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The process of moving these parts from the plant premise to the subcontractor premise can be

at any stage of the process from raw material to the finishing process.

Previously, in the process of transportation, the traceability of the batch maintained as

trolleys are lost because of bad discipline by the transportation, subcontracting & SFL

personnel. This process of transportation from SFL to Sub contractor is subject to

examination, improved by way of study and a customized improved test run was also carried

out. Guidelines were provided to the ones involved,

By this improved process, various benefits were achieved

The traceability was well adhered to.

The customer complaints would be addressed in a better manner.

Resources used for quality product output & bad quality output were tracked easily.

Tracking the product at semi finished goods state would be easier.

Financial benefits that can be achieved in a nutshell:

1. Financial benefits could be arrived as absence of scraped material resulting because of

material mix up or loss of traceability.

2. As part of our guidelines the SFL subcontracting cell, they were asked to scrap the use

of Gunny bags which was predominantly used for convenience of operation.

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Objective of the project

In logistics, traceability refers to the capability for tracing goods along the distribution chain

on a batch number or series number basis. Traceability is an important aspect for example in

the automotive industry, where it makes recalls possible, or in the food industry where it

contributes to food safety.

These examples of traceability in different industries are taken for their importance. The

importance to trace back to source origination at every previous level is the objective of the

traceability project specific to the sub contracting area.

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Scope of the project

A fastener making process has been explained in detail. And, traceability being very

important for batch products, the project concentrates to the area of subcontracting cell

mainly. In a way, this is justified by taking every process into the project would have

constraints of time and not compromising the concentration to the particular area of scope.

If a systems approach is given to this project, the time taken to this project would be around a

year or more. There were too many discrepancies at every process level. For instance, at

rolling process, the number of routing tags issued from MQA by forging personnel did not

reach the rolling personnel. If this was also taken into concern & rolling operation was

studied and awareness creation, rules creation, action plan implemented, imparting

importance of routing tag, etc. were done, the project by another 3 weeks time.

So, the project was restricted to the processes such as Forging & Subcontracting cell alone.

Major assumptions are listed down such as:

1. No of routing tags issued were 5 in number for subcontracting process.

2. RM Heat number mix up has not occurred during the forging operation

3. All the routing tags issued initially reached the subcontracting area.

The project also dealt with an important objective that the solution provided should be a very

simple one. The subcontractors, transporters or the SFL’s personnel shouldn’t find this a

complex system to follow. Though they were planning to upgrade to barcodes & RFID

enabled systems. All these advanced techniques needed infrastructure. That is taking time to

build.

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Introduction

‘Customer is God’ & ‘Customer is king’. These expressions have been heard & followed by

manufacturers around the world. In a globalised scenario, the level of competition in any

industry, the manufacturers face the problem of attending to customer complaints. These

complaints are attended with the help of reference identification.

At Sundram Fasteners Ltd, the environment is B 2 B. They serve to other businesses who use

the products in their equipment, component, machines they produce. Fastener making process

is a batch type process. The process of a bolt making in this HEX division is explained

below.

Raw Material

Raw material for fastener making process is coils or wires. These coils are procured or

already stored in the RM yard based on the requirement. The RM yard inventory is generally

3 month storage. If the requirement is of a special type, then it is duly procured before the

requirement.

The RM yard generally stores raw material inventory at two levels. One is the FIFO yard &

the mud yard. These coils stored at the yards are processed – pickled (if required) & drawn.

The coil always carries a supplier tag along which has details such as who is the supplier,

what is material, imported or Indian manufacturer, specifications – both material &

dimensional aspects. After drawing process, an internally developed SAP sticker is attached

with the coil. It has the mother details and details after drawing also. This is the first

identification reference for the coil generated by SFL. Internal logistics is generally carried

out with the help of fork lifts.

Forging

Forging operations are carried out based on the product required. The forging machines get

their input from the RM area. They are delivered by fork lifts. These fork lifts have a shift

data as to what coil is required by individual forging machines. These forging machines have

their shift plan. This is generally worked on the first shift. The direction for the processing is

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given by cell leaders to operators. They are asked to process the coil delivered by forklift

based on plan. This work order specifies the quantity to be produced.

All the forged parts are collected in trolleys. There are counters on the forging machines.

They help the operators with the counting. Shift counting is also done on another counter.

They are stored in areas where they are stipulated to. ‘Forged parts’, ‘Rejected parts’ are

some areas where these are stationed.

Rolling

Rolling is the operation where the forged parts are threaded. These are planned based on the

monthly plan. Every morning, forging cell leaders discuss what are to be produced by rolling

with the respective in-charges. They also have a log sheet, work order, counter & drawing

where the operation details are explained and output of the process- measurement, quality,

and metric wise are recorded. All these have the base reference as part number. If a part

number is to be forged or rolled, the drawing, tools, work order sheet are all provided and

logged to. Log sheet gives the output data for the shift output aggregated together for the day

output.

Process area

Process area consists of 2 levels

- Heat treatment

- Finishing namely phosphating or plating

Heat treatment area has 5 furnaces with a capacity of 108 tonnes/ day. Based the requirement

of the customer, the parts are grouped together to pass through the process. i.e. if a specific

part X needs a specific property, it cannot be processed with ordinary part A. It needs to be

processed with the part Y which needs similar specifications to be set in the furnace. Here the

furnace output is in Kgs. Since the forging and rolling operations use counting, the heat

treatment has a metric of weight; there is a vulnerable state for minor error. Here trolleys are

collected on a rough basis of 350 Kgs. Later they are weighed on a machine for accurate

measurement.

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Finishing

Finishing processes include phosphating & plating. Both processes are the same as from our

view point of project. The loading, data registry and weighing are all same. These two lines

have barrels where in parts of 75 to 80 Kgs are loaded and they are processed in tanks

containing respective chemicals for Phosphating or for Plating.

Subcontracting Cell

This cell manages 37 vendors and 4 logistics agents who supply and deliver parts to the

vendors. The subcontracting cell consists of vendors who specialize in certain operations. The

vendors generally are planned based on either the capacity or the speciality of these vendors

to do the job at a higher quality. Specific premium customers are also given preference by

SFL to channel it through certain subcontractors.

FQA

FQA (Final Quality Audit) is the Quality Audit area where the final testing for any part or

product. Generally a sample based testing of an order is checked for. When the processing is

presumed to be bad, then, the whole order lot is 100% checked for visual testing and a large

sample is tested for mechanical properties. The subcontracting cell, its working and modus

operandi shall be studied in detail since it is in the project scope.

Despatch

Despatch area is the location where packaging of all the parts is done. These are based on

respective customer whether it is to be despatched to Jamshedpur or Madurai or Hosur or

Nashik or Bombay or Pune or for retailing in Chennai itself. These are assorted with primary

packaging at despatch area. Here accurate number of fasteners is packaged. The despatch

area provides a Delivery Advice. This DA (Delivery Advice) is duly matched to local shop

floor routing tag also. This is a point where a customer is helped with the help of DA. Any

DA reference and a query is asked for. The Quality department should be in a position to

explain with exact facts.

Logistics

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Logistics of packaged parts is generally planned through TVS logistics or Southern

Transport. Both logistics partners are part of the TVS group. Various other third party

logistics agents are used for local participation like in various states. These logistics generally

work in the South Indian states periphery. And mainly supply and distribute to south based

hubs in Hosur, Madurai, Chennai, etc.

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Conceptual Review of the Project

The project is specific to certain areas as explained in scope of the project. These are the

forging and the subcontracting cell. These areas are studied in detail, their modus operandi

understood, the flaws of the system found and a solution is suggested.

The project sticks to the area of traceability. At SFL, traceability, batch control is

synonymously used.

Traceability refers to the completeness of the information about every step in a process chain.

A formal definition for traceability is the ability to chronologically interrelate the uniquely

identifiable entities in a way that is verifiable. Traceability is the ability to verify the history,

location, or application of an item by means of documented recorded identification. These

recorded information can be by means of simple log sheets, excel sheets, bar codes, RFID,

ERP – SAP tools also. But the tools used should be feasible through out the organisation. It

should be useful, understood by every stakeholder and should be guided in using it and taking

forward for any future update possible.

As part of the project, traceability related operations in forging & subcontracting cells are

explained in detail.

Forging: Forging as an operation was discussed in brief in the introduction part. Here the

forging operation is studied in detail. This process of studying the forging operation is

possibly studying the root cause of the problem without basic analyses. The forging operation

begins with the receipt of wire drawn coils with specific SAP generated tags. This has certain

details of mother coil and newly generated serial type number at SFL.

The basic operation is done based on a monthly plan that is received in the first week of every

month. This figure is based on various marketing personnel’s demand that is aggregated. The

figures are arrived by subtracting the available number of parts at the hubs or warehouses to

the required. This will arrive at a figure which is to be newly forged.

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These inputs are received from various quarters of the marketing team. This is arrived by

taking into stock the available and the demand. They are approached by existing and new

markets also.

The first week of the month, a meeting is held with marketing personnel, planning personnel,

manufacturing personnel and other deciding authorities. They decide if the input quantity

given by the marketing is a feasible one based on various factors such as

Capacity of machines

Priority for this part/product

Quantity demanded

Customer value

Tool availability

Others ( such as complexity of process, worthiness on return)

These factors play a major role in deciding the accepted quantity. The accepted quantity is

the agreed level of output that can be manufactured in the following month. This happens on

a monthly basis based on customer demand. The part, if available at the hub, is provided to

the customer immediately. New orders are also taken during the middle of the month. These

are duly accommodated with the help of vendor activity. The process is at times run for an

extra shift to suffice these new orders. These orders are manufactured at a premium cost as

vendor will need a premium on the same.

The products manufacturing is planned based on promised date. They back schedule certain

parts of premium customers. Based on the orders, the forging plan is made. The forging cell

leaders plan and give a daily plan to their operators. For example, a part X has been ordered

by customers A, B, C & D. The quantities ordered by all these customers are aggregated and

the monthly plan is schedule. There are other factors such as raw material availability, tool

availability & complexity to change machine settings. These factors dominate the schedule

plan of various parts. i.e. when the parts X & Y need total change in machine setting, then it

is not chosen. The setting of these machines is to be minimally changed. In that way, the next

job is chosen.

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The procedure of manufacture of a part and its Route Tag issue are all explained below in

detail. The coil is received as per the plan. The forging operator gets a Work Order with

details such as Part no., quantity to be forged, raw material reference no. or the drawn wire

no. These are most important as they are a part of the routing tag issue process. The coil once

loaded in the chuck and the forging is started. The parts are checked visually, checked for

dimensional specifications such as pitch, diameter, head diameter, etc. as part of Operator

Quality Assurance (OQA). This OQA is a primary check by the operator at the machine.

Once the operator checks the sample part and is ok with the quality of the output, they

approach the Manufacturing Quality Assurance (MQA).

MQA is the final authority to give a green signal for the part. They do various intricate

checks for the part if it is in conformance to the quality. After this is done, the route tag is

issued. The route tag is issued on a basis said by the operator. The operator uses an arbitrary

way of ascertaining number of route tags to be issued. If the operator feels the order quantity

will fill in 3 trolleys, then he takes 15 (3X5) tags. These route tags are placed on trolleys

when they are received from the MQA.

Traceability can be ensured by 2 significant things. i.e. Route tag & RM Heat numbers. Route

tag has been written about in detail. The RM heat numbers are the heat numbers in which

they were processed in the wire drawing industry. These coils are steel melted on the same

heat. They have the same mechanical and metallurgical properties if not put to any other heat

treatment process. So maintenance of RM heat number throughout the process flow is an

important aspect of Traceability.

A coil could be 1.8 Tonnes or 3.6 Tonnes. Around 20 to 25 coils of same heat are received

from Raw material supplier. When there is requirement at the forging machine for any raw

material requirement, the raw material is supplied with RM heat number taken into account.

Since, the order quantity could be higher or lower than 1.8 or 3.6 Tonnes. The order quantity

is generally matched with the RM tonnage. Problem could be that there is always a possibility

of mismatch of raw material quantity and order quantity.

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Photo: A Routing tag with details.

There are certain rules followed regarding routing tags:

A trolley without a routing tag cannot move for the next operation.

A trolley without a routing tag is supposedly doesn’t move because it doesn’t know

where it is to move next.

These were some basic rules that were framed. But to explain the importance of routing tag,

the project explains and framed new rules for movement of trolley, routing tag rules, etc.

There are some precise rules regarding the stationing of trolley. There are specific areas

where the trolleys need to be stationed. If it is to be moved for the subsequent process, then, it

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is placed in the ‘area for next operation’, there is an area demarcated in red paint which is

the area for rejected parts trolleys. Likewise, there are specific areas for the trolleys. Since

there is a very high no. of casual labours involved for loading, removing trolley from output

area, there needs to be simple methods, clear indications for every important step in the shop

floor.

Photo: Routing tag placed in a trolley – waiting for next operation.

The routing tag is an item of special importance and this will have to be explained in detail.

Routing tag is similar to the routing file. It explains the following very clearly.

i. Part number with finish

ii. Unique number

iii. Part description

iv. Wire drawn RM number

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v. Date of forging start

vi. Time of Routing Tag issue

vii. No of routing tags issued

viii. No of pages of the routing tag (RT extends to the 2nd & 3rd pages because of

complexity involved in the processes)

ix. Operation sequence, operation, cost centre (CC), date & signature of operator

x. RM Heat No.

xi. Heat load number (refers to number given by Furnace reference no., date & month)

Of these specifications, the 9th specification generally helps in the routing of the trolley. The

routing tag always shows the processes which have been completed are and which are to be

completed. There are certain rules regarding how a routing tag detail is to be is

i. The completed process generally is signed by the operator and date of completion of

the operation is also recorded.

ii. The next operation to be processed in the sequencing is generally are ticked. These

are supposedly the rules framed by the quality department and to be abided by

operators.

The sequential Routing Tag handling as explained above has been framed and being followed

in a partial manner. These routing cards are the only file which moves along with the trolley.

Sub Contracting Operations:

The next area of the project’s scope is the subcontracting area or vendor area. The

subcontracting cell operates with 37 Subcontractors and 4 logistics agents. The working of

the subcontracting cell can be explained below.

The working of the subcontracting cell starts with the Material Flow Management plan. The

MFM plans for the capacity of the 100 % in-house capacity and later the subcontractor

operation is planned. The Agreed quantity in the input plan is generally taking into the

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account the subcontractor’s output also. The Subcontractors perform operations such as

rolling, finishing, tapping, grinding, turning operations, hot forging, etc.

The modus operandi of a sub contracting operation is explained in detail. The forging

operations are generally done in the premise of SFL itself. There are not many jobs that are to

be forged outside SFL i.e. for any sub contract operation. Here, we assume that all the jobs/

parts are forged in SFL. These are sent for operation such as rolling, finishing, tapping,

grinding, turning operations. The operations performed are routed evenly through all the

vendors.

The parts are generally kept at areas where they are stipulated to be. The routing tag, if it has

a code ‘12900’, is to be routed through the subcontractor. This is very commonly understood

by the SFL, subcontractor’s loaders, & known by all subcontractor loading personnel. Every

morning, the subcontractor will come to know the part that is to be sent for their sub

contractor premise for working. So they go round searching for their component and spot

them at different points. These are duly picked and moved to subcontracting cell. Then these

are weighed. And SFL’s operators at forging or at rolling or at heat treatment furnace know

what the jobs the subcontractor performs.

The most important of all is the pick up of all the trolleys. These trolleys are converted into

trays for convenience sake. A trolleys weight is around 420 to 430 Kgs. They are split into

plastic trays which contain 80 to 90 Kgs. The trolley when it is 420 to 430 Kgs is too heavy

to be transported from ground to vehicle loading platform. If they weigh around 80Kgs, they

are comparatively easier for lifting.

Then these are loaded on the vehicles and these are sent as trays loaded in the vehicles. It is a

clear example of a milk run. Their modus operandi is as follows. A transporter has a group of

10 vendors to be catered to. There would be specific loading personnel for this transporter

who does this job of filling the truck or lorry for the transporter. He knows which

subcontractor makes which job. So, he collects on confirmation from subcontracting cell

personnel, the trolleys which contain these jobs. He also confirms from the forging or rolling

or furnace operators. The other primal check is the routing tag. Thus he takes them to the

subcontracting cell for weighing. He collects enough trolley to fill his truck – mostly HTL.

They maintain HTL vehicles because of a cost benefit they get in comparison to a FTL

vehicle. There are many advantages like easier commuting, higher petrol efficiency, easy

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pick ups and quicker filling. They deliver it to various Subcontractors at the same go. It is at a

minimum 3 Subcontractors to 8 at the maximum. While returning back, they also bring

finished parts from Subcontractors to SFL.

The routing of some parts can be a simple single pass at the same subcontractor’s shop. At

times, it can also be a double or a triple pass at the same subcontractor’s shop. This happens

because of the complexity of the job involved.

The other possibility is the transfer from S/C 1 to S/C 2 and S/C 2 to S/C 3. This is to aid the

availability process. S/C 1 possesses a process & S/C 2 does another, then it is transported.

The next important process is the S/C 1 to SFL premise & SFL premise to S/C 2. This is all

done on a basis of cost and ease of operation. If SFL plans to acquire some exclusive

operation, it might not be an option in the immediate context. So, SFL has developed this

kind of a vendor circuit. The farthest vendor from SFL is at a distance of 7 kms.

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Diagram: A flow chart of Subcontracting Operations fitment into general process flow

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List of subcontractors at Sundram Fasteners Ltd., Padi.

1 A K INDUSTRIES

2 ANCILLARY INDUSTRIES

3 ANUSHA ENGINEERING

4 ARK INDUSTRIES

5 ASK ENGINEERING

6 ATHILAKSHMI INDUSTRIES

7 BHAVANIENGINEERING

8 COMEX TECHNIKX

9 DL INDUSTRIES

10 ELECTRO CHEM ENTERPRISES

11 INDIA INDUSTRIES

12 JAK SUPER

13 KAYBE KRAFT

14 KR.INDUSTRIES

15 PRICISSION HEAT TREATERS

16 RATHNAM INDUSTRIES

17 SHARP ENGINEERING

18 SHENBAGA INDUSTRIES

19 SHRI AMBAL INDUSTRIES

20 SIVASAKTHI INDUSTRIES

21 SK ENGINEERING

22 SREE MARUTHI INDUSTRIES

23 SRI KRISHNA INDUSTRIES

24 SRI NAGAMMAI INDUSTRIES

25 SRI SHANMUGAM INDUSTRIES

26 SRINIVASA MACHINE WORKS

27 SUMAINDUSTRIES

28 SUN FAM INDUSTRIES

29 SUNMAX ENGINEERING

30 SUPER TECH

31 TECH MAT

32 UDAYAM INDUSTRIES

33 UPPASANA ENGINEERING

34 VENKATESWARA INDUSTRIES

35 VIJAYA INDUSTRIES

36 VIJAYALAKSHMI FORGE

37 VIMAL INDUSTRIES

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Problem Statement: Analysis & Findings

The following were some of the areas where the problems were found out.

There are work instructions in the RM yard. These are not followed religiously as

they need to be.

Raw material from the yard was generally issued on the basis of aggregate planning.

Aggregation at forging level: When an order is placed by a customer A, customer B &

customer C for the same part X. All these are summed up to find suitable date, tool

availability, RM availability, the part’s forging is planned. In this process, there is

every possibility of basic RM heat number getting lost. Evidently, the heat numbers

can get mixed up when the order quantity X unit weight without taking the metal

losses into concern.

The next area of concern and our scope is the subcontracting area. Here, one should

understand the purpose of issuing 5 routing tags at the MQA level. For all the parts

which have a C C code of ‘12900’, the trolleys are converted into 5 trays. And these

trays should have 5 routing tags. The no of routing tags issued and no of trays do not

match. This is because bigger parts occupy greater space. This is not known to forging

& MQA personnel.

Routing tags were lost after issue. The no of routing tag reaching the subcontract area

is less than 5. There were serious discipline problems.

There is a particular way of handling routing tags at the subcontracting cell by the

loaders of transport agents. They take away the routing tag in their pockets. They

claim that they have knowledge of what parts they are and how many roughly if the

no. of trays is counted.

They used gunny bags in tray’s place during conversion. These gunny bags were used

to fill gaps such as unavailability of trays. The gunny bags never held the routing tags

as is held by a trolley.

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In the premise of the subcontractor, the process of transferring from one centre to

other, the trays are mixed. They do not have any sequencing rule. They do have their

own internal tag. But not put to use.

These are mixed up when they return. The heat numbers are not maintained when 2 or

3 heat number in the same lot was sent.

The above were commission error. There are certain imbibed problems which were visible.

At every level, the operators are complacent and always claim they are experienced

and they know what the issues are. They take a very narrow outlook about there

machine centre. They are not aware about the external customer & internal customer

problems.

Decisions taken at one stage is not transparent at other lower stages.

Too many manual transactions were a problem:

1. The planning is done on a manual basis.

2. The sequencing & selection of jobs are maintained as a manual one.

3. The loaders of transporter search and group items to be transported near the

subcontracting cell. This is done at the discretion of the subcontracting cell

personnel.

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Conclusion and recommendations

The causes of the problems that occurred because of no traceability were written in detail.

Certain steps were taken jointly with the other project as part of our projects.

A questionnaire was circulated among the forging cell operators to know how many routing

tags they issue from the MQA. There was ambiguity in their answers. Few things came to be

known from the questionnaire.

The questionnaire is appended:

1. Do you know what route tags are for? Y/N2. If Y, what’s a route tag’s purpose? Write briefly.3. How many route tags per trolley do you collect from the MQA?

a. Standard part nos. :b. M part nos. / Subcontracting cell nos. :

4. How many route tags do you place in a trolley?5. Do you know what traceability is?6. What is the effect of traceability/losses faced by co. because of this traceability problem?

The forging operators knew what routing tags were for. But, the number of routing tags for

standard parts and subcontracting parts. The answers were 2, 3 & 5. They were confusing it

with the number of routing tags for standard parts.

Thus, came to a conclusion that the awareness regarding routing tags & traceability is

missing. So a drive for improving the traceability was conducted. Display cards were placed.

Cell leaders were asked to impart knowledge regarding traceability.

The other area of scope - subcontracting cell was also given a solution.

A grid sheet was introduced which had following details:

Trolley No. : 1st trolley

Tray No. : Tray numbers which are split from respective trolley

Heat No. : RM Heat No. of the trolley

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Copy of grid sheet of test run:

S K Engineering Works Vendor Trolley - Tray Grid sheet Date: 08.06.2009

S No. Ht No. Part No.

Trolley No. Tray No.

1 DBSA97820 M38570 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

2 BAA201283B M38570 2 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

3 BAA201283B M38570 3 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

4 BAA201283B M38570 4 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42

5 DBSA97820 M38570 5 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51

Test run for new system: A subcontractor was chosen and he was selected because M/s S K

Engineering was the subcontractor who had his own transport agents. And he also possessed

plastic trays beforehand. The other subcontractors were still processing the trolley - tray with

steel trays. A lot of these trays along with other components were sent to the subcontractor.

These trays were processed in a synchronous manner to maintain the heat no. and trays not to

be interchanged with other trolleys. There was a convenience in this simple tool; the trays can

be mixed within the trolley. i.e. if the trolley is split into 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. The trays 1-2-3-4‘s

parts can be interchanged among themselves. If the next lot is going to be a different heat no.

with tray numbers starting 5, 6, 7, 8; they can also be interchanged but these trays cannot be

interchanged with 1-5 or1-8, likewise. This tool cannot be called a foolproof one.

There was an important aspect to be kept in mind. The tool is simple and there should be

accountability in SFL and subcontractor’s side to follow this. There can be other

technologically high end tools such as SAP, RFID, and ASP-SAP. The shortcomings in all

these are listed below:

Cost of infrastructure development for all the above

Signals may have problems with some materials

Some tags can fail

Standards are still being developed

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The grid sheet’s filling is to be assigned to an accountable, responsible person. The most

prominent person would be the one who receives the Delivery Advice from SFL for

subcontractor.

Photo: Before the grid sheet was introduced, the trays without numbering.

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Photo: After numbering of the trays, the tray numbers are recorded in the grid sheet.

Various guidelines were framed for the subcontractor and the transporter

While sending the parts to vendors,

1. Mandatory condition: 10 Routing Tags per Trolley

2. Two Heat nos. in the same trolley should be considered faulty.

3. Use of gunny bags should be abolished

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4. In challan sheet, ensure no. of trays = no. of route tags (Consider pt 1 & pt 4)

5. Plastic trays Min of 10 tags

While receiving the parts from vendors,

1. No of trolleys while sending and receiving the job should be the same or at least the size of

batches received from the vendor should be in the multiples of no of trolleys or no of trays.

Single batch split into multiple batches since despatch priority is forced.

2. Rules regarding the no of tags to be sent with finished products from vendor should be

made clear. So that no tag stays with the vendor and the tags which are sent with the job

comes back with the job.

3. Once if a lot sent out is received back completely, it should be ensured that the no of tags

sent with the lots have also been received. If not, track where the tag has been missed.

4. These procedures should also be followed when the material travels from a vendor to

vendor.

Guidelines for the transporter:

Grid sheet hard copy form to be filled in and duly given to the personnel issuing

delivery advice.

The personnel getting the DA issued will be entering

Other important project that will aid this project is ‘Rationalisation of number of vendors’.

This project is about the vendor development by enhancing unique selling points (USPs) of

specific vendors who excel. The number of vendors will also be reduced in this process. The

non performing vendor will lose their partnering with SFL.

How will this help in this project? There is always a race for excellence when such rightsizing

happens. This will naturally be the best vendor who’ll continue with SFL. These people are

easy to be disciplined. They are bent upon doing certain things that SFL asks from them.

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One main guideline given to SFL & vendors is that the main issue of Gunny bag. These

gunny bags can nowhere hold the routing tags. And these can result in big losses. There is no

standard weighing when gunny bag is used. When a tray is used, there is a level beyond

which loading is stopped. The gunny bags are not weighed anywhere and these tend to only

complex the issues such as loss of heat number of the part contained in the bag, part mix up

(no traceability), etc.

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Final value addition

The project for traceability conformance has advised certain guidelines for the forging and

the subcontracting cell. These guidelines have been with an understanding of the mix of

realistic situation & problem. These guidelines if followed will lead to the first steps of

achieving traceability of parts.

Benefits could be achieved in two forms – monetary & non-monetary. Assuming the

traceability for a part is achieved, the following will be the non-monetary benefits that can be

reaped out of this project are:

1. The outcome will lead to a very good customer complaint tracking. This will take the

least time. The most important thing is that the tracking is correct and traceability could

lead to source problems also. SFL might not be the cause of every error that it is facing

from the customer as complaints.

2. If a part’s quality is achieved at benchmarking level, it could be traced to its exact

combination of resources. The resources are machine centre used, material used raw

material used, which operator operated on the job, etc.

3. At any moment, the part can be tracked at which stage of the process it is in.

Monetary benefits that could be achieved have been tracked. It can be narrowed down as the

minimization of scrap due to parts mix up. Parts mix up is no traceability.

The other intricate analysis could be defaulting because of wrong batch reaching the

customer. They could be working on a JIT environment. The line stoppages problem could

lead to heavy penalty charges and earning bad image.

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Next steps to be taken by Subcontracting cell, SFL.

There are a few areas where SFL needs to upgrade to meet the global level competition it

might face in the near future.

They are

It should make more utilisation of SAP resource – making it a multi faceted tool by linking

marketing, manufacturing, planning, sales & performance management systems.

Automation of certain planning tools with the help of Advanced Scheduling & Planning, etc.

Lessen manual intervention at every decision making point. A person’s discretion is the only

factor on the shop floor, currently. There should be a standard method instead if manual

discretion.

Use of Bar codes & RFIDs should be taken into consideration. Bar codes have been in

existence for the past 40 years. Still SFL is not using it intelligently.

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Bibliography & references

Representing and Reasoning About Quality Using Enterprise Models - A thesis by

Henry M Kim

Traceability management data creation method, traceability management data creation

apparatus and traceability management data creation program storage medium

- A study by Keiichi Kataoka

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Glossary of terms:

Routing tag: Similar to a routing file. Routing tag is the primary detail in a process industry

for flow of parts.

Operator Quality Audit (OQA): Operator’s visual inspection and primary specification

check at machine centre.

Manufacturing Quality Audit (MQA): Quality Department’s first check for actual

dimension under lab conditions with equipments.

S/C (or) Vendor (or) Subcontractor: Outsourced work given to an external agent.

RFID: Radio Frequency Identification.

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