Production Management System of Maruti Suzuki

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, Nonduplication of work, Ownership, Commitment and Standardization in all our process and systems across the production division.

Challenge 50

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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.

Production Management System

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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.

Sources http://www.marutisuzuki.com/production-management-system.aspx

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