Kishor Deshpande looked at his shopfloor from his office window and shook his head sadly.
As the MD of DES (Deshpande Engg Works, Pune) Kishor’s office was on the 2nd floor of the office block and overlooked the entire shop floor comprising of Forging, Machining & Assembly sections. DES was a TIER 2 vendor of many Automotive OEMS in Pune & Aurangabad and had 70 machines & employed 240 people in 3 shifts.
With the North Indian workers gone to their hometowns, 30% machines were idle. Unlike many other companies, DES had 100% Production schedules from July but they had a serious labour issue. They were recruiting new workers but the ‘Quality’ in terms of Knowledge & Attitude was questionable. As Kishor looked at his shopfloor with helpless anger, his phone rang.
” Kishor Sir, Good Morning. This is Shinde from Marshall Machines”
“Yes Shinde”. Kishor’s voice could not hide his irritation. (“These machine builders are trying to sell machines when 30% of my machines are IDLE. *&$%#@@ he cursed silently”)
Shinde could sense the irritation & it’s reason. He got to the point immediately.
” Kishor Sir, I am not calling to talk about new machines, but to help you use existing machines effectively. With the help of Marshall’s MAA”
” Shinde! Don’t waste my time. I am very upset because my operations are disrupted because of labour shortage and inexperienced replacements. And you are talking about Marshall’s MAA!!!”
” Sir, Please don’t get upset, I am explaining. Marshall’s MAA means 3 technologies that will not only remove the pain that you have but actually increase your Output by 20-25% and reduced Rejection by at least TEN times”
Kishor sensed that Shinde was serious. He calmed his mind.
” Please explain but be crisp & to the point”
” Sir, MAA stands for three technologies can be RETROFITTED QUICKLY on your existing machines in a few weeks.
M stands for Machine Monitoring which is a plug & play, cloud based technology that is universal & connects to any machine. CNC Lathe, VMC, Press, Furnace, Bandsaw, etc. Any machine running with Electricity.
M gives you complete information about OEE, Utilization, Downtime (and reasons) of each machine, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, wherever you are. Without any Supervisor or Engineer to manually do anything. Your efficiency will go up 20%!
A stands for Automation. With Gantry or Robot. On site.
A reduces your manpower dependence. Initially you can automate only the most critical machines and use new recruits monitored by M to operate other machines”
” Shinde, what about Quality. How do I ensure that my Automated machines or those operated by new recruits do not produce SCRAP. My losses in last 3 months are huge, margins are very low. REJECTION will kill me!”
” Kishor Sir, we have the solution to that. Second A stands for Auto-Correction. Our Auto-gauging station called SmartCorrect ECO uses your existing Air Gauges & sends measurements into smart device that uses advanced algorithms to auto-correct CNC Machine & ensure REJECTION is TEN times less than in case of skilled Operator. And you don’t need any Inspectors.
In case of non-CNC machines, Auto-correction is not possible & A stands for Auto-Alert to designated persons (SMS) who can come & correct the machine settings”
” Shinde, Will my existing people be able to handle all this new technology?”
Shinde’s voice could not hide his happiness & excitement.
” Sir. We have thought of that too. Marshall with its partner MachineMetrics (USA) has launched the world’s first HYBRID (Online Classes + PRACTICALS + PROJECT) programme called TRAINING 4.0: Up-skilling for Smart Manufacturing!
It will convert your key people into EAGER IMPLEMENTORS of Smart Technologies”
” Shinde, if what you have told is actually possible, it will be a DREAM COME TRUE! Please come over and do an assessment of entire factory and tell me what can be used with which machine. Forge shop & Machine shop are the priority. I think Marshall’s MAA can really help us in this difficult time. And please enrol 5 people in next batch of TRAINING 4.0 immediately”
