Maruti Suzuki

Just two years back, Maruti Suzuki inaugurated its state-of-the-art new engine plant at Gurgaon. This new technology plant churns out K-series engines that are lean, highly fuel efficient and environment friendly. The introduction of new technology engines is in line with the company's commitment to offer latest technology in full range of models. The Kseries engines presently power the Alto K10, A-star, Ritz, Estilo, WagonR, Swift and Swift Dzire models. The K-series engines would soon be extended to other models in the Maruti Suzuki range. Maruti Suzuki will be investing around Rs 1,250 crore (Rs 12.5 billion) on capacity expansion of the K-series engines. The expanded annual capacity will be over 7 lakh units from the present 5 lakh units. This will be a progressive investment to be completed by 2012. Over the quarter century of its existence, Maruti Suzuki's contribution as the growth engine for the Indian automobile industry is widely acknowledged. Maruti Suzuki has impacted the lifestyle and psyche of an entire generation of Indian middle class through the quality of its products and services that are in direct sync with the needs of the Indian populace. Network The company has a sales network of 802 centres in 555 towns and cities, and provides service support to customers at 2,740 workshops in over 1,335 towns and cities (as on March 31, 2010). The company is focused on rapidly expanding the sales and service further across the country.
Maruti Suzuki's Million

We began our operations way back in 1983, with the Maruti 800 - the vehicle which brought about a revolution in the Indian car market. Today, one in every two cars in India is a product of Maruti Suzuki. Our scale and manufacturing complexity have today moved to a different league from when it began. We have reached a capacity of one million cars annual production this year. This feat is entirely based on the company's constant endeavour to meet aspirations of a large

and diverse demography, by providing the best through innovative products and services. Today, each car from the Maruti Suzuki factories at Gurgaon, and Manesar, Haryana, North India are the tangible evidence of Quality, manufacturing standards and efficiency. Lean production Maruti Production System or MPS draws learning's from its parent company Suzuki Motor Corporation's concepts on `lean manufacturing' under Suzuki Production System i.e. SPS. Setting trends in new products and achieving customer delight starts with Manufacturing Excellence and Maruti's manufacturing excellence hinges around four important pillars-Cost, Quality, Safety and Productivity. Cost Every employee working on the line is 'cost sensitive' and functions in capacity of a Cost Manager. He is a key contributor in suggesting how to keep costs of production under control. Quality A product of poor quality requires repeated inspections, entails wastage in terms of repairs and replacements. "Do it right first time", is the principle followed to avoid wastage. To ensure quality, robots were devices and deployed especially where they reduced worker fatigue and were critical in delivering consistent quality. With consistent improvements in the plant the company was able to manufacture over 600,000 vehicles in 2006-07 with an installed capacity of just 350,000 vehicles per year. Safety "Home or work place; Safety takes First Place". This has been the motto of the company where safety is concerned. Maruti attaches great significance to safety of its people and strongly advocates that safety at work place adds to quality of the products and improves productivity of the plant significantly. In the Japanese manufacturing system, the central role is accorded, not so much to Quality, Productivity or Cost, but to Safety. When process flow, lay-out and systems are designed for maximum safety, they automatically contribute to better quality and productivity.

Production mgmt system Production Management System (PMS) is the next step towards moving ahead to sustain the momentum. It is a strategy to achieve Manufacturing Excellence evolved through participative approach. The system is people driven and ensures involvement of all levels (Managers, Executives, and Supervisors). The concept ensures participation and error free communication. The result is clarity of content, better understanding and openness towards feedback. These values make PMS a sustainable system. Having achieved the target of selling a million cars in the financial year 2009 - 2010, PMS has lead the production team towards greater enhanced productivity with perfection. PMS is derived from the basic Japanese principles of 5S, 3G and 3K In order to bring an improvement in overall processes and systems in Production Division through involvement of all levels, PMS was launched in Maruti Suzuki. Through various phases of PMS the company embarked on its journey of bring in a) Clarity of Role, Non-duplication of work, Ownership, Commitment and Standardization in all our process and systems across the production division. 5s Challenge 50 In the year 2002, to match up to the standards of Suzukis best global plant in Japan - the Kosai plant, we set upon a target of a 50 per cent improvement in productivity by 2005. This mission was termed Challenge 50. This challenge was approached in totality. Each process in the production and manufacturing plant was scrutinized and assessed. Layouts were altered, innovative equipment and processes were introduced and operations relentlessly made lean and efficient. In-house automation also played a major role in Challenge 50. We devised robots and deployed them, especially where they reduced worker fatigue and were critical in delivering consistent quality. At the end of three years, we achieved 46 per cent increase in Productivity, and a 30 per cent improvement in quality and cost - a tribute to the vision, courage and team work of our people. Pms

Challenge 50 helped us improve our plant productivity by 46 per cent in three years and cost & quality improved by 30 per cent. Moving ahead, the next target was to sustain this momentum. Production Management System (PMS) was the next bold step in this direction. PMS is a strategy to achieve Manufacturing Excellence evolved through participative approach. PMS is

A system which is people driven and ensures involvement of all levels ( Managers, Executives, Supervisors ) A system which ensures ownership A system which brings in standardization of systems & processes A system which ensures Sustainability

PMS has entered the fourth phase of implementation and the results have been overwhelming. Excellence through participative approach PMS is a bottoms-up approach where people of the work area are encouraged to give solutions to the problems at their end. It is implemented across levels. This motivates the operator and ensures his ownership all through the solution finding process. The concept ensures participation and error free communication. The result is clarity of content, better understanding and openness towards feedback. These values make PMS a sustainable system. Clarity of the Role One of the aspect that have bothered hierarchical structures is the clarity of the roles and responsibility across strata. Clarity on what is expected out of a supervisor, a manager or a technician at the shop floor has brought in structure and standardization to production management at Maruti. The result is that job duplication is eliminated and no man-hours are lost in understanding what each person is expected to do. The outcome of such clearly defined roles is increased efficiency of operations. Bringing in Standardization Through such people participation, PMS has brought in standardization that eliminates any scope of confusion at shop floor. A visual consistency across the manufacturing facilities is notable. Bins and trolleys are earmarked for tools and

components. Pictorial charts explaining processes and procedures are pasted at convenient and strategic points helping shop floor employees understand various mechanisms with ease. Wherever possible a colour coding control or visual control is followed to eliminate operator errors arising out of language constraints. This helps in clear distinction of different model and its components. All around Gains These processes have led to many operational improvements that have saved cost and time. At the same time these have brought in operational ease and a defined activity flow and sequence. Marching ahead towards the goal of selling a million vehicles by 2010, PMS will lead the production team towards greater enhanced productivity with perfection.