[ManualMaestro]

I think I saw a reel showing the installation of drivetrain in Nexon. The workers absolutely butchered the cooling radiator/ac radiator at multiple places by pushing on as the drivetrain ascended to the body on a jack.
The comments were filled with disappointment towards the QC process because things like radiator are very hard to check on PDIs.

[amoi]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

Thanks!
Looks like you went to the Tata Motors plant that is also in Sanand. This is the Tata Passenger Electric Mobility plant that Tata took over from Ford. As of now, they manufacture only the Nexon ICE and EV.

I did not know they had 2 facilities in Sanand. having such volume sellers in one place might be great for logistics too.

[Quatro]

Hi, many thanks for taking us inside and it was an excellent report.

I was curious to know about wiring - when do they complete it and how much of it is automated (robots) and how much is manual.

Thanks.

[Bhokal]

It seems they invited many influencers and auto-journalists to this plant recently. Already seen a couple of videos in last few days.

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by TheStoryweaver

A question. Are you allowed to have a q&a with the management?

We did have a presentation by the senior management of the Plant, followed by a Q&A. Since this was an interaction with the Plant management and not with the Tata Motors leadership, our discussion was limited to the operation of the plant.

Originally Posted by Quatro

I was curious to know about wiring - when do they complete it and how much of it is automated (robots) and how much is manual.

Thanks!

Wiring harnesses are added manually, during the Final Assembly process.

[alphamike_1612]

Thank you for the excellent write up libranof1987!

Do you have any insight on why the automation is only 50% at the paint shop? I would think that the human led operations such as the placement of stickers/decals or waxing also seem to be achievable by machines and would be more uniform than when done by hand.

Is there a "technical" (for lack of a better term) reason for this or is it more of a cost/HR issue?

My understanding of why the painting/dipping area is automated is that, those people working in enclosed spaces with such large volumes of paint for 8 hours on a daily basis would very quickly become ill and would have long standing respiratory illnesses.

[kiku007]

Thanks for sharing the photos @libranof1987. It is heartening to see the Ford plant getting a second life.

Originally Posted by libranof1987

Cars are randomly selected for an expert customer inspection and audit, wherein they have typical paying (trained) customers come in to evaluate the car and give feedback:

This is interesting. How does this work? Does someone who's booked a Tata Nexon get a chance to go this plant, do a PDI on their car, find issues if any, get them resolved, and take delivery later? Or is this just similar to Market research/Beta testing feedback collection? If it is not the former, then it is not, "Customer Acceptance Review Evaluation" as the board says.

Originally Posted by CEF_Beasts

Surprising to see no one has a safety helmet on the shop floor, this was not the case at TML Pune !!

IIRC people on the Press Shop would be wearing hard hats. It is a good practice to have visitors wear hard hats anywhere inside the plant to minimize the risk of injury. Are you referring to the Press shop as the Shop floor or in general all areas?

IMHO these two gentlemen should have been wearing hard hats. It is cringe to read the, "SAFETY FIRST" signage above the person.


You can see people in the Tata Motors Pune (PICS: Tata Motors Factory! Detailed report on making of the Indica & Indigo eCS)Press Shop wearing hard hats.


or the ones from Maruti here (Pics & Report: Inside Maruti-Suzuki's Manesar Factory),

or the ones from Honda here (Pics: Inside Honda's Rajasthan Factory. Detailed report on the making of Hondas),

[MaxTorque]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

At the next stage, humans take over from the robots as the shell receives a layer of wax on the main welding points:
Attachment 2609948
At the end of this process, all the points on the shell which are exposed to water / can serve as an entry point for seepage, such as the roof - A / B / C pillar joints and near the dashboard, are checked for paint integrity through infrared radiation.

Beautiful thread. It took me back to memory lane. Just thought of mentioning some small points. This picture is of sealing process and not waxing process. This process is done after electrocoated body is baked (the body in picture is not painted). In this process body panel joints which are exposed to water will get sealed with a PU sealant and underbody coating is done. In waxing a hot wax mixture is applied in the cavities/box sections in the body structure so that water which may get entrapped there will not cause corrosion.

Originally Posted by alphamike_1612

Thank you for the excellent write up libranof1987!

Do you have any insight on why the automation is only 50% at the paint shop? I would think that the human led operations such as the placement of stickers/decals or waxing also seem to be achievable by machines and would be more uniform than when done by hand.

Is there a "technical" (for lack of a better term) reason for this or is it more of a cost/HR issue?

My understanding of why the painting/dipping area is automated is that, those people working in enclosed spaces with such large volumes of paint for 8 hours on a daily basis would very quickly become ill and would have long standing respiratory illnesses.

Thought of adding few points. The time 7-8 hours is the time between a body entered and exited from the Paintshop. Majority of this time, the body will be getting prepared for painting, transporting from one stage to other, waiting in storage area for cooling down after baking, waiting for drying the paint before baking, drying the sealant, inspection, fixing jigs and fixtures before processing the body etc.

From a capital investment point of view, Paintshop is the costliest investment. Naturally there will be a tendancy to set up a paintshop which can process different models, platforms etc. This will result in manual interventions. In another word robots are more effective, when there is not many variety of bodies. So paint shop will have lots of manual activities compared to other manufacturing process.

Also, many processes in paintshop requires manual activities - I am referring to a mass production set up. For example, when a body received from weld shop they need to have a number of fixtures, jigs to keep the door partially open/close, inspect and remove any staines/stickers etc, do sealing and underbody (some of it can be handled by robots), some of the painting and then inspection. Majority of these taks can be automated if the variety of bodies is less.

[CEF_Beasts]

Originally Posted by kiku007

IIRC people on the Press Shop would be wearing hard hats. It is a good practice to have visitors wear hard hats anywhere inside the plant to minimize the risk of injury. Are you referring to the Press shop as the Shop floor or in general all areas?

All areas in general is what I’m referring to as the Shop Floor, atleast this is how it is followed by visitors and employees alike at the Pune plant!

Can check this video out of the TML Pune Plant, this is the CVBU (Commercial Vehicle Business Unit):

https://youtu.be/JihMd2AChoA?feature=shared

[mugen_pinaki27]

Thanks a lot @libranof1987 for such beautiful images from the homegrown brand. BTW, this might be a noob question. But does Tata employ a similar strategy when making JLR cars? How much QC does Tata exercise over there? Or are there other entities involved in the manufacturing process other than Tata? Enligtened BHPians, would love to learn your thoughts on the same!

[userAditya]

Hi is there a process to take an appointment for plant visit ?