[supremeBaleno]

Excellent report, FlyingSpur !!! Gives a detailed & pictorial view into the whole car manufacturing process.
The welding robots at work was an interesting watch.

[AutoSphere]

Originally Posted by FlyingSpur

A tour by MSIL’s senior production personnel with an invite to click as many photographs as we liked? Sounded like a superb opportunity for us to give you a peek into what goes on behind the towering numbers, and how the cars actually come together behind the scenes.[/list]

I've seen an internet document on the VW factory in Germany but - nothing like having a first-hand report, with awesome pics. It is very educative and helps one relate with the complexity of manufacturing such volumes.

A bit surprised that there were no restrictions on photography, though !

[Theyota]

From the pictures, I get a feeling that this is not the most well maintained manufacturing plant. I could see machines not well maintained, improper wiring and missing basic craftsmanship/professionalism. I hope the real situation is lot better. A company making as much profit as Maruti is expected to be among the best.

Manufacturing is a gig that I do for living & therefore I see in these pictures what a lot of you do not see.

[PrasannaDhana]

Hi, great report!!

Do you have details about capacity allocation, material handling and inventory management? I would love to know how they cope up with their challenging supply chain management. It looks like a product layout more than a process layout. Is there a dedicated shop floor for nexa products?

Originally Posted by Theyota

From the pictures, I get a feeling that this is not the most well maintained manufacturing plant. I could see machines not well maintained, improper wiring and missing basic craftsmanship/professionalism. I hope the real situation is lot better. A company making as much profit as Maruti is expected to be among the best.

Manufacturing is a gig that I do for living & therefore I see in these pictures what a lot of you do not see.

IMO the plant looks good by Indian standards (comparing with what I have seen). I have been with Greaves Cotton petrol engines manufacturing unit for an year and it was not half as organised as the Manesar plant is. And comparing it with famous industries in my city, I would say Maruti plant looks way better.

[Theyota]

@Prasanna,
It is an OK plant. But I expected it to be even better, I am pretty sure there are some very good plants in India owned by Indian groups. Well known companies are expected to operate companies with same professionalism no matter what country they operate in. Based on volumes and labor costs, only the level of automation could be different in different countries.


On the side note, I am also surprised to see no women on the assembly line. There are many positions that could be manned by women. Women are perfect for many assembly jobs. They are more stable, complain less, consistent in repetitive work of such jobs, etc. Men on the other hand get bored with such monotonous jobs, are too ambitious due to social pressures, etc. If Maruti wants to have less trade union problems, one of the things they can do is hire as many women as possible for shop floor jobs.

[romeomidhun]

Another very useful article. Good work.

One question: Even though we can calculate that a car is coming out at every 20 seconds, for a single car, how much time will it take to manufacture?

Originally Posted by FlyingSpur

Headlamps and tail lamps being attached:
...
Windshield goes on as well:

Was wondering why can't these too be automated.

[Theyota]

Very simple reason, it is not cost feasible.

[landcruiser123]

Great thread. Deserves a 5 star rating. Reminds me of the time I spent at the Hyundai factory.

Did you get to see anything apart from this?

Originally Posted by FlyingSpur

Sustainability initiatives:

• MSIL claims that in 2015-16, sustainability initiatives have led to a 25% increase in the use of water per car produced, and a 7% reduction in power consumption per car. Impressive!

Shouldn't that be decrease?

[AutoInt]

Excellent thread . Thank you for bringing out manufacturing steps of India's largest automobile manufacturer. Its a treat to go through these pictures and to know the steps involved in producing a car / automobile. I watched the Tata Nano production plant in NatGeo, this plant is comparable to that one from my point of view.

Good insight into what measures are employed to reduce the carbon footprint and generation of power using the heat generated in the manufacturing process.

Were you allowed to interact with the shop floor staffs? Would be great to hear their thoughts on being part of MSIL .

[n.devdath]

Originally Posted by Theyota

Manufacturing is a gig that I do for living & therefore I see in these pictures what a lot of you do not see.

Could you point out a few examples? All of us can learn from you.

[maddy42]

Great thread Flying spur! The supply chain part would be another bigger beast.

Originally Posted by Theyota

From the pictures, I get a feeling that this is not the most well maintained manufacturing plant. I could see machines not well maintained, improper wiring and missing basic craftsmanship/professionalism. I hope the real situation is lot better. A company making as much profit as Maruti is expected to be among the best.

Manufacturing is a gig that I do for living & therefore I see in these pictures what a lot of you do not see.

Attention to detail in the plant layout! Thanks for that comment as its very important. Why do you think its missing here or is it just a chalta hai thing?

Originally Posted by Theyota

@Prasanna,
It is an OK plant. But I expected it to be even better, I am pretty sure there are some very good plants in India owned by Indian groups. Well known companies are expected to operate companies with same professionalism no matter what country they operate in. Based on volumes and labor costs, only the level of automation could be different in different countries.


On the side note, I am also surprised to see no women on the assembly line. There are many positions that could be manned by women. Women are perfect for many assembly jobs. They are more stable, complain less, consistent in repetitive work of such jobs, etc. Men on the other hand get bored with such monotonous jobs, are too ambitious due to social pressures, etc. If Maruti wants to have less trade union problems, one of the things they can do is hire as many women as possible for shop floor jobs.

Never thought of this point with women on shop floors. Hope maruti is reading this.

From your experience which factory would you rate as top quality in india? I did visit a Ashok leyland factory in hosur which was dark, dimly lit and not beautiful. I did watch a video on the Hero manesar plant which was done by Natl Geography and that was a treat to watch.

Watching Tesla make the Model S in their factory is totally surreal. Clean environment and attention to detail! Do check that out.

Maddy

[Whenasked]

Originally Posted by Theyota

@Prasanna,
It is an OK plant. But I expected it to be even better, I am pretty sure there are some very good plants in India owned by Indian groups. Well known companies are expected to operate companies with same professionalism no matter what country they operate in. Based on volumes and labor costs, only the level of automation could be different in different countries.


On the side note, I am also surprised to see no women on the assembly line. There are many positions that could be manned by women. Women are perfect for many assembly jobs. They are more stable, complain less, consistent in repetitive work of such jobs, etc. Men on the other hand get bored with such monotonous jobs, are too ambitious due to social pressures, etc. If Maruti wants to have less trade union problems, one of the things they can do is hire as many women as possible for shop floor jobs.

I have been to Toyota Manufacturing plan at Georgetown Kentucky. I saw more women on the line. Hopefully Indian scene will change soon

[Theyota]

Originally Posted by maddy42

From your experience which factory would you rate as top quality in india? I did visit a Ashok leyland factory in hosur which was dark, dimly lit and not beautiful. I did watch a video on the Hero manesar plant which was done by Natl Geography and that was a treat to watch.


Maddy

I have not visited major plants in India, so I do not have first hand experience. But I have heard Tata', Bharat Forge, Mahindras, etc run decent plants. Someone had posted pictures from a Tata plant before. It looked good. Among the foreign run companies, I expect Bosch to have good plants.

Originally Posted by maddy42

Attention to detail in the plant layout! Thanks for that comment as its very important. Why do you think its missing here or is it just a chalta hai thing?

Maddy

It is the culture of chalta hai attitude in our country in general. Sometimes it is also because our people have not seen any better to know what is better.

In our country, it is almost impossible to get technicians/engineers out of colleges/vocational schools who have proper understanding of good craftsmanship. It is the duty of large corporations such as Maruti who have huge resources to start their own vocational training programs for young 16 year olds. As an example, it is near to impossible to train an electrician who already has 10 years of experience to change his habits of bad wiring. So it makes sense to start young, when you can afford it. It pays back exponentially in the long term. It is also important for top down management to insist and persist on finer details to build such culture.

Germany is a manufacturing powerhouse because of good in-house vocational training programs run by private companies. Guys with 3 years of vocational training and a few years of on the job experience develop into specialists who design and build robotic lines that you see in the pictures in this thread. With all the young human resource we have in our country, we could emulate this model, flood the world with skilled technicians and dominate manufacturing like nobody’s business.

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by Theyota

Sure, why not.....but firstly, I would like to clarify that I don't want to discredit the managers of this plant. You can find some of the things I will point out in the best of the best plants if you know where to look. It would be unfair for me to speak ill of people working their just based on some pictures. If I was running that plant, I would never allow an external visitor to take pictures for the risk of them being posted on the internet like we are doing now and not because of exposing some high technology. There is no rocket science that can be interpreted from those pictures, although there could be some interesting things on the floor.

Can you upload the photos once again? None of the attachments are visible. I think you just uploaded the attachments using image link which is not the right way. You need to download and upload again.

[ghodlur]

Fantastic report Flying spur and thanks a ton for the peek inside the country's biggest car company.

The one thing that irks me the most and is applicable in all car manufacturing plants is non adherence to safety. Making helmets available for the visitors but not made mandatory for the employees. They already have the safety gloves, then why not the safety goggles or hard hats. Sorry being in Risk management, I am used to seeing risks every where.

Are there different assembly lines for Ciaz, S Cross? Where are the engines tested? At Fiat factories?