Improvement of Material Handling System in an Automotive Component Manufacturing Industry

Sunil Castro.P*1, G.Gnanakumar*2,

1,2

Assistant Professor , Department of Mechanical Engineering, Karpagam college of Engineering, Coimbatore

1

sunil_castro@yahoo.co.in,2gnanakumar2040@gmail.com

Abstract The arrangement of the machines in an industry for the production is known as layout. The machines are arranged in such a way the handling of components are easy and distance travelled is lesser. This paper deals with a problem of material handling in an automotive industry which is manufacturing the engine cylinder blocks. Due to improper material handling methods, the cylinder blocks travels long distances which increase the transportation time. As the result of this WIP inventories are get accumulated before certain machineries which in turn increase the lead time of the product. The work in progress (WIP) inventories are reduced by, (i) Modification of layout for easy handling of the cylinder blocks and (ii) Improvement of ergonomic factors of the machines and environment. The use of value stream mapping reduces the waste and non value added activities. This paper finally concludes that the cranes used to transfer cylinder blocks are replaced by the roller conveyor which reduces the material handling time. Further the parallel conveyors are replaced by feeder a conveyor, which reduces the transportation time by reducing the travelling distance. These modifications reduce the WIP inventories resulting in reduced in lead time. KeywordsFacility layout, Value Stream mapping, Material handling system.

I. INTRODUCTION The arrangement of the machines in an industry for the production of the product is known as layout. It should be designed in such a way that it is easy to handle the materials. If these layouts are not properly designed then the distance travelled by the materials increases which results in increase in transportation time. Due to improper material handling methods, these cylinder blocks travels for a long distances increasing the transportation time. As the result of these WIP inventories of blocks are get accumulated before certain machineries which in turn increase the lead time of the product.An automotive industry which manufactures automobile parts faces such kind of problems. We had concentrated only on engine machining shop. II. LITERATURE REVIEW Fonseca et al. [1] discusses the development of a prototype expert system for industrial conveyor selection, providing the user with a list of conveyor solutions for their material handling needs along with a list of suppliers for the suggested conveyor devices. Conveyor types are selected on

the basis of a suitability score, which is a measure of the fulfilment of the material handling requirements by the characteristics of the conveyor. Medbo[2] reports on materials kit functionality , how the materials kit facilitates assembly work as well as promotes learning of plant with parallel flow, long cycle time assembly work, where the materials supply was designed to facilitate the layout work. To evaluate the usefulness of a materials kit from an assembly point of view, its configuration was related to the observed assembly work, and the level of structural congruence was estimated in order to judge to what extent the materials kit actually supported the assembly work. Parallel flow, long cycle time assembly systems call for knowledge about conformity in the execution of assembly Work within a workgroup. Neumann et al. [3] in their paper presents a design stage comparison of an existing big box material supply, which proposes narrow bin approach. Performance times, walking distances, layout space requirements were evaluated for 6 workstations. Biomechanical loading on spine and shoulder was estimated for one of the workstations. The use of narrow bin supply yielded significant reductions in rack lengths, Material Areas, Walking Distances , Indirect Work, and Cycle times. Peak and cumulative spinal load estimates showed. The narrow bin strategy also has implications for the material re-supply system, enables the use of flexible racking and can reduce lift-truck use. Work intensification may increase risks if time-gains are used only to increase direct assembly work repetitions. It is concluded that the narrow bin supply strategy has potential to both improve productivity and reduce risk characteristics of the system. Le Roy et al. [4] conducted a cross-sectional survey in France to describe occupational hazards at the workplace, including absence or presence of manual materials handling (MMH) with the number of hours per week and several psychosocial and physical hazards including various risk factors of musculoskeletal disorders. The highest occurrences of intensive MMH were observed in the manufacture of wood, paper, wood and paper products, retail trade and repair, manufacture of food products, manufacture of mineral products, wholesale trade, transport, and construction. High occurrences were not limited to blue collar workers, but extended to shop and store employees, hotel and restaurant workers, and care workers. The study of associations between

MMH and other occupational hazards emphasized situations with simultaneous exposure to MMH and other risk factors of musculoskeletal disorders. Xiaohong et al. [5] found that there exists severe wastes in the material handling system of the heavy weight parts machining workshop, which mainly includes the waste of work areas latency time and the waste of the material handling devices moving distance that caused by frequent circular and reverse routes. To eliminate the waste, a new heavy weight parts machining workshop material lean scheduling method is advanced. The initial universal response scheduling scheme of the heavy weight parts handling system based on genetic algorithm resolves the shortest response route problem when the material handling equipment responds to the requests from all the work areas at the beginning of a workday, which is being restricted to working procedures and the requests of as few as possible blank line. The simulation result shows that the designed new scheduling method is superior to the traditional ones evidently. III. PROBLEM DEFINITION
In engine machining shop the methods used to handle materials were poor. The conveyor used for the material handling is not a continuous, so the cranes are used to lift and move the cylinder blocks between the machineries and conveyors, this increases the non value added time. So as the result WIP inventories of blocks are get accumulated before certain machineries which in turn increase the lead time of the product. The unequal distance between the machineries was maintained which increases the travelling distance of the engine block. The ergonomics in the work stations was poor, height between work table and dais was more, which increases the stress of the associates.

To meet the customer demand the cycle time of every operation should not exceed takt time. So the time study was conducted, cycle time, value added time and non value added time of every operation are noted down and tabulated in below table2.

Table2. Time study for each operation

fig. 2. Cycle time Vs takt time of each operation

IV. METHODOLOGY
These above problems can be solved by (i)The layout of shop can be modified for easy handling of the cylinder blocks.(ii) The Ergonomic factors of the machines and environment can be improved which reduces the efforts and improves the performance of the associates. (iii)The cranes used to transfer cylinder blocks should be replaced by the movable conveyor and they are arranged closed to the machineries in a straight line which reduces the material handling time and transportation distance. The takt time required to meet the customer demand is first calculated. The cycle time of every process should be less than the takt time to meet the customer demand. Takt time calculation is as shown below in table 1.

Fig,3 Overall time study

From the above chart.1 it is clear that the cycle time of operation 180 is more than takt time. Also the cycle time for the remaining operations are not constant, the variation was found to be high. As the result of these WIP inventories of blocks are get accumulated before certain machineries which in turn increase the lead time of the product. So the cycle time of this operation is to be balanced to meet the customer demand without any disturbance. The detailed time study is represented in the fig,2.

Table1. Takt time calculation.

From the overall time study pie chart is shown in fig.3. It is clear that non value added time is more than the value added time. In this Non value added time the material handling time

contributes the major part. If this material handling time is reduced then NVA times get much reduced.

The following fig.1 shows the current lay out of the shop.

The machines should be arranged in such a way that the cylinder blocks travels short distance. By modifying the layout according to the above suggested way the non value activities can be reduced. Further ergonomics of the stages are improved to reduce the stresses of the associates. The dais height should be at the comfortable height for the each associate to work efficiently. The following fig.2 shows the new modified layout.

The results obtained from the current state value stream mapping are tabulated in the below table.3

V. RESULTS Table.4 Results of current VSM. Here if the travelling distance of the cylinder block is reduced, then NVA time gets reduced which results in decreased in lead time of the product. In this shop the engine blocks are moved to the next stage by the roller conveyor which is arranged parallel to machines. As the cylinder blocks comes for machining they are lifted and carried to load into the machines with the help of the crane. This activity of loading, which is a non value added activity, consumes time increasing the lead time of the product. This activity can be avoided by modifying the roller conveyor into feeder conveyor, which directly deliveries the engine block into the next machine. Once the process is completed then the engine block pulled which directly moves to the machines of the next operation. Here the crane is eliminated, which avoids the time and distance required to handle the cylinder block. In previous layout the roller conveyors was not continuously laid, so cranes were used to move the cylinder blocks between the conveyors. But when continous roller conveyors was installed such the cranes are eliminated, which avoids the time and distance required to handle the cylinder block. Using of loop conveyors at the end of the cell reduces the length of the conveyor enhance easy transport of the cylinder blocks within the cell. The following are the results obtained from the new modified layout.

VI. CONCLUSION Finally this paper finally concludes that the cranes used to transfer cylinder blocks were replaced by the roller conveyor which reduces the material handling time. Further the parallel conveyors are replaced by feeder a conveyor, which reduces the transportation time and distance. These modifications reduced the WIP inventories resulting in reduced in lead time. VII. REFERENCES
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