MEAGALSTELPLAST:

STEERING A NEW PATH TOWARDS IMPROVING AND EXPANDING

MANUFACTURING OPERATIONS

Mohit Choraria
EPGP-13C-050
 MSL OVERVIEW

• MSL was formed in Delhi by Anil Kishore in 1995.

• On average, MSL produced 15000 horns per month, of which 20% were branded as MSL
• Two models of horns account for 80% of production - Classic Hero Honda 90 dia and Mithu
AC 72 dia
• MSL enjoys trust of its employees and has one of the lowest attrition rates
• MSL does not possess any kind of quality certification.
 AUTO INDUSTRY AND COMPETITION
 Majority SME’s are unorganised and not registered.

 Estimates indicates that Indian auto component industry will grow by 16-18% in 2011-12.

 Cheaper Chinese imports expected to negatively impact the replacement market growth

 MSL’s largest competitor, having almost same facilities, manufactures 28000 horns per month.
 MSL’S CURRENT OPERATIONS
 Supplies to replacement market where demand in unpredictable, thus follows Made to
Order policy.

 Orders, invoices, inventory and bill of materials maintained manually.

 Disparity in the way new and old workers are compensated – piece rate v/s monthly
wage.

 Inventory maintained for production of 3000 horns. Next batch of raw materials ordered
when stock reduces to 500 horns. Typical lead time of 4 days.

 Critical items – diaphragm, copper wire and point assembly.

 Costly items such as copper wires and tungsten points being pilfered.
CURRENT PROCESS DIAGRAM
PLANT LAYOUT
 GENERAL LOOPHOLES OBSERVED

 Unorganised work station –As seen in the video, the materials at the workstations are un-organised and random
spread out. It can result in pilferage.

 Difficult to find skilled labors especially testers as there is no consistency on quality of horns produced due to use
of inferior raw materials.

 Workers’ reluctance to use automation machines.

 Demand Forecasting –Not being done. Currently following a very reactive approach.

 Lot of vacant land which can be used for expansion or better inventory management.

 A lot of manual work goes into nut and bolt tightening.

 RECOMMENDATIONS

 Capacity utilization for the batch process stands at 63%. Improvements like automation, following a U shaped layout,
employee skill training etc. need to be adopted.

 Vacant land should be used to set up a new assembly line for OEM which can meet all the necessary quality
requirements of ISO/BIS.

 Assembly line will help meet the increased demand and being in OEM business will stabilize the uncertainty in demand
as well.

 Improving material management by allocating only necessary amount of raw material for a batch. It will help reduce
pilferage and will help quantify any pilferage or wastage.