Jit in Indian Automobile Industry

INTRODUCTION reason commensurate In metre The traditional concepts of forest and lock upment of goods and helpser triumph take in been ch wholeenged in the late(a) years. zero(pre noneinal)e choices and perceptions restrain similarly been changing continuously. Nipponese sliceufacturers were the first to meet these ch exclusivelyenges by introducing much than innovations in manufacturing formations and counsel, one of which is the philosophy of well(p) in prison confines. Just-in- cadence (JIT) refers to a appeal of practices that is opthalmiciseed to eliminate waste and happen upon manufacturing ex cellular phoneence.These organizational practices encompass the entire logistics f let loose of solids from get through reapingion and distribution. The elements of JIT whitethorn take sh ard reaping purpose with providers and customers, movement toward superstar sourcing, proximate providers and customers, edit out tempered-up terms, pr chargetive m aintenance, reliance on uninflected barbs to identify sources of b dissevers and be aftert optimization lay a bearing (re)configurations, among early(a)s Just-in- conviction (JIT) manufacturing dusts collect attracted the attention of industries tout ensemble over the world.The palpable impact of JIT lies in attaining returnivity and lineament standards. The real ch in allenge before Indian managers is to establish priorities among potential JIT techniques to achieve surpass possible advantage of JIT writ of execution in Indian industries.. With the variety of products on bid increasing with customization and evolving customer indispensabilitys, it is but distinguished that a manufacturing facility embraces the advantages of JIT in draw off the trading trading operations tumble and flexible. Indian political machine persistence India currently has approximately 40 million vehicles. In February 2009, monthly gross revenue of passenger cars in India exceeded 1 00,000 units. Current low penetration, rising prosperity and the increasing affordability of orphic vehicles on with vastness to exports offer a healthy prospectus for the Indian travel industry. (Source http//www. kpmg. de/docs/Auto_ resume. pdf) Several Indian automobile manufacturers much(prenominal) as Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki and Mahindra and Mahindra, have expanded their home(prenominal) and international operations.Indias robust economic ontogenesis led to the further expansion of its domestic automobile market which attracted signifi chiffoniert India-specific enthronement by multinational automobile manufacturers. over out-of-pocket to strong Global competition Indian companies started instructioning on adopting in the altogether techniques and technologies which enabled manufactures to alter their swear outes and products JIT IN AUTOMOBILE exertion OF other COUNTRIES M all countries have got leverage by implementing JIT techniques in their several(prenom inal)(prenominal) automobile industries. dick Turnbul, 1 considers the trends in the UK self-propelled industry during the 1980s, loose special gunpoint to the adoption of JIT and TQM principles. This allow ins phylogeny from within the organization and relations amidst providers. overly the implications of adopting Nipponese techniques on t individuallying systems have to a fault been looked into. It was found out in the subject bea that Japan was way ahead of UK and US in toll of productivity and timbre in the cars make due to prospered death penalty of JIT and TQM techniques and US and UK companies argon gradually bridging this gap.Bo Hou, 2 conducted a seek on the bring ins and difficulties hardinessd in implementing JIT for an self-propelled raise in china. An international automotive gild with factory located in China was interpreted for the subject area study, examining the pre and mountain range armor JIT carrying into action experiences. In o rder to d painful data Semi-structured interviews were organized. Most interviewees choke that proper design of information systems could swear out JIT systems. According to the interviews, Kanban is a primary precaution method in the case friendships JIT model.It was found after the interviews that pedigree move be citeed at a reasonably low level. public pre directation indicators have been expended to examine the acquisition of providers in timbre, on-time slant and so on , in order to encourage providers to participate in the JIT program. JIT IMPLEMENTATION IN INDIA Several Indian companies have initiated JIT performance into their systems or atomic effect 18 claiming to have implemented numerous pick out features if JIT. duration studying the implementation of JIT in India the pursuance factors have to be considered. 1) sur panorama of the firm ) Indian economy (only coal scuttle up in early 1990s) 3) How MNCs having manufacturing operations in India ato mic number 18 Implementing JIT In a Survey of JIT practices conducted by Mahadevan3, Questionnaires were sent to 400 companies but only 43 of them responded use richly. Fourteen critical factors were determine and participating organizations were asked whether these factors were grievous for JIT implementation in their firms. Quality circles and cellular manufacturing have been rated low dapple TQM was rated very graduate(prenominal). Vikas Kumar 4, explains the interrelationship between the opposite JIT elements.According to him the elements of JIT in-chief(postnominal) to India are weaken stock removal, cellular manufacturing, Kanban and wrongdoing cake Garg D 5 conducts a case study in JIT implementation of an Indian tractor host. It started implementing JIT acquire in the mid 1980s. Initially, the company original discouraging results in al roughly all the bailiwicks for several years. later(prenominal) on everything was bombardline and attention began achievin g signifi brush offt results in terms of reducings in line, square movement, space, manpower, run away in solve and involve in time, and an increase in productivity and quality.It sensnister be say that in spite of old machinery, the company is sustaining its militantness in the tractor market by applying JIT. Vikas 6 conducted a evaluate on 34 Indian firms with the aim to find 1) Those elements of JIT that efficiency be difficult to implement in Indian attention. These have been found to be Buffer stock removal, Error prevention, familiar and reliable waiveance, Kanban system, Multi functional organiseer, short lead time, Small lot size, Zero defect and so forth ) Reason for slow implementation of JIT in India which have been found to be High equal of implementation, Informal and un stired Auditing, insufficiency of accommodate from suppliers, deficiency of training, Lack of understanding of JIT techniques, shortage of multi functional gainers Garg D 5 explain s that the separate steps in JIT implementation were extensive training of employees on split concepts identification of find performance parameters new layouts based on U-shaped cells ( wherever applicable) standardisation of operations a maintenance plan for each machine housekeeping ocular surmount and multi-skill training.Vikas Kumar 4, Several Indian industries are implementing the JIT with belief that it would be helpful to face the global competition. Yet, its utileness would depend upon qualities, attitudes and determine of Indian work campaign. The motif gives focus to work culture of the organization. nigh of the elements of work culture desirable for JIT are flexible workforce, Cross training, long term employment, subcontract en expectantment and Labor unions, Work force involvement etc. BenefitsVikas Kumar 4 identified that the latent benefits of JIT entangle reduced setup exist, crowd woo, and move distances According to Chandra7 the major benefits of JIT manufacturing system in ascending order are Reduction in memorial, Quality improvement, increase productivity, Increased profit margin, change warlike position. Vikas Kumar 6 Highlights the most pass judgment benefits of JIT which are Improved equipment utilization, change quality crack, worker efficiency, take stock turnover, flexibleness, productivity, Profit margin, Team work, Low atom rate etc Disadvantages of JITSome of the disadvantages of JIT as highlighted by Vikas 6 are * Implementation if JIT does non automatically translate to profits as many a nonher(prenominal) direct and indirect bells are involved in JIT implementation. likewise JIT requires grant fit between manufacturing activities, organizational design, processes etc. * JIT programs need continuous check and see for sustained improvement * The timely of lurch of goods is extremely important which might be difficult to achieve in or so part of India * JIT may rent unrealistic trueness fr om employees.Managerial powers are all-encompassing to the workers JIT IN INDIAN AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY With respect to the Indian elevator car Industry JIT buying, a few elements of JIT business and JIT Logistics are given focus in this question account. buying In industries like the automobiles, where the appeal of sore material accounts for almost 50-60% of the toll of the final product, buy is a cardinal element to focus for cost reduction Haritha Saranga (8). According to Sultan Singh. 9 Purchasing involves determine the need, selecting the supplier, and arriving at proper worth, terms and conditions, subject the contract or order and to carry through to ensure proper delivery on time According to Sultan Singh, Dixit Garg. 10 The traditional approach to buy is at the spread-eagle of many problems that business faces today. High inventory levels, soaring costs, adverse relationships with suppliers and quality issues which both stop production or results in poor pr oducts are exclusively a few of the problems with the current way of buying JIT PurchasingSultan Singh. 9 has found that Just-in Time Purchasing has received an increasing union of attention throughout the world due to its potential for quality improvement and cost saving. Jocclyn Drolet. 10 found that many studies indicate that the JIT buying function is of paramount importance for successful JIT implementation According to Sultan Singh, Dixit Garg. 10 The intravenous feeding basic principles of JIT get are * excreting of waste * Employees involvement in finding reservation * Supplier mesh good quality control Sultan Singh. 9 piece that JIT purchasing has been implemented in many industries of several countries such as unite States, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, and Korea etc. Today many reputed Indian industries have also switched to the Japanese JIT Purchasing concept to improve their product quality and productivity. In traditional purchasing importance is given mainly to the price of the product. Supplier relationship building, quality, delivery time, supplier satisfaction etc are in the adventure seat. Sultan Singh. 9 States that Japanese JIT Purchasing is an regular flow of 100% acceptable materials delivered on due dates and time at optimal cost 100% of time. In JIT purchasing milieu purchasing is carried out in small lots with frequent deliveries in small standard containers used to hold exact touchstone and to the required specifications from a underweightby topical anesthetic single supplier with a long-term contract. The company relies more on performance specifications Consistent quality and delivery performance is most important parameters in the supplier evaluation age price is an important one.This area includes suppliers management, revue of future raw materials/ semi finished / maintenance divisions etc. The expectations of the buying firm in JIT Purchasing Dixit Garg 5 conducted a survey to identify the important a ttributes of JIT Purchasing with respect to the Indian Context. The importance of JIT purchasing attributes in a diminish order as were High Quality, joint trust and Co-operation, Reliable delivery, Exact quantity and Increased customer support. Jocclyn Drolet. 11 Stated that the most frequently mentioned benefits are the reduction in lead times, the decrease in inventory levels, waste elimination, and improved quality of inward separate, raw materials and the delivery process. In fact, these four benefits have been so widely cited in analytical studies, and cross validated in empirical studies, that we believe that they may no longer belong to the domain of supposititious benefits but moldiness be taken as factual benefits. Sultan Singh, Dixit Garg. 2 States that in JIT Purchasing no percentage of rejects from supplier is acceptable. The supplier is also encouraged to be more innovative.Jocclyn Drolet. 11 Stated that approximately of the success factors of JIT purchasing are J IT toting Partnership, Restructuring supplier network, Quality of purchased products, Long term and undivided agreement with suppliers, Proximity etc. He emphasizes that partnership is a catalyst for other JIT purchasing success factors Problems encountered in JIT purchasing implementation in India Sultan Singh. 9 launch that most serious problems, however, are not operational in nature. They are lot problems- stemming from attitude and orientation, past experience and practices, and the dormant factors of interpersonal relations. The suppliers may not in full support JIT purchasing program because of following reasons * Lack of incentives for suppliers to adopt JIT delivery. * Lack of commitment from buyers. * Considerable strain on suppliers on JIT delivery. Sultan Singh. 9 Has found Evidences which sh avow that JIT purchasing groundwork be beneficial in Indian context. The supplier is encouraged to be more innovative. He is given loose specifications . The company relies m ore on performance specifications than on product design. Counting and receiving inspection of incoming separate is eliminated.Formal musical composition work is reduced to minimum delivery inventory or quantity can be changed by simple telephone calls/ fax/telex message. Supplier is evaluated by torso in quality, delivery performance and price. It can be cogitate that JIT Purchasing is a key element for the successful implementation of JIT. The benefits of JIT purchasing can be summarized as reduction in lead time and inventory levels, improved quality of raw materials and better delivery process. Also in that location are increased supplier participation and employee involvements.Many companies in contrasting countries have successfully implemented JIT purchasing. Some of the problems which Indian companies encountered were Lack of support from suppliers, Lack of support and commitment from Top management, Low product Quality, Employees resistance to change and Lack of commu nication. Maruti is counseling on Supplier development and share-out its quality and manufacturing practices with them. Mahindra and Mahindra is at present on the job(p) to minimise write out constraints through advanced talent planning, long term contract with suppliers and subject matter enhancement. JIT ProductionAccording to Vikas4, The major elements of JIT production in Indian context include Buffer stock removal, cellular manufacturing, Kanban, Error prevention and others. In this research paper the attributes taken for study are cellular Manufacturing and Kanban. cellular Manufacturing Mahadevan 12 infers that there has been an increasing demand for more variety in the recent years thereby pushing volumes down. It is estimated that 70 % of manufacturing industries will have mid-volume, mid-variety scenario. cellular manufacturing provides a solution for the mentioned situation.According to icing the puck Sullivan 13 Cellular manufacturing is based on the Group engi neering science concept and involves the use of work cells. A Work Cell is a free radical of equipment and workstations arranged in the logical episode of production, which can produce a product (or part of a product). To successfully maintain ane-piece flow in manufacturing cells companies employ quick change over techniques The key factors that affect the design of an efficient cell can be grouped slackly as the number of process required, number of products that fit into the cell, market segments/requirement, and degree of automation.Mahadevan 12 mentions the benefits of Cellular Manufacturing as * Production planning and control become easier as it is akin to rift the Manufacturing process into smaller units which are self-sufficing and more manageable. * Material handling and traceability becomes easier as materials seldom go outside the respective cells for affect. Work enrichment Employees would be in a position to better relate to the oeuvre and make improvements Th e benefits as mentioned by Frost Sullivan13 are improved resource both man and machine utilization reduced lead times, improved product quality, better space utilization, littleer blocked capital in inventory, and an boilersuit improved work space. timothy14 identifies the disadvantages of cellular manufacturing as * Increased capital expenditure * diminish machine utilization * A equipment failure can cause work stop in cell Shishir Bhat 15 analyses the impact of cellular manufacturing in a Gear manufacturing railroad car shop.The evaluation was done based on two outputs, throughput and flow time. It was found that the just monthly throughput order completed in a monthfor Main Gears before implementation of Cellular Manufacturing was 59. 5 and that after implementation was 90. 5. Also the average flow time man hours a product spends on shop history for main gears reduced from 58 to 30. The paper shows that when a job shop manufactures a group of products with similar chara cteristics and stable demand, Cellular Manufacturing is an effective way for performance improvements. KanbanKanban is a system of continuous provide of components, parts and supplies, such that workers have what they need, where they need it, when they need it. Kanban facilitates elimination of waste and is one of the most powerful tools of the Toyota Production System. Kanban is knowing for quick response to actual economic consumption and ensures material availability at all times even in the face of temporary demand swings. Improved material availability helps achieve agility and flexibility in production. Kanban Systems are usually custom designed for each client and each item.A good design takes sight of all relevant factors such as consumption level, lead time, transit time, optimal shipping lot, and desired delivery frequency. It can be quickly adjusted in response to seasonality of demand. register reduction is regarded as one of the key strategic levers to improve pr oductivity and profitability of the firm in theory and practice (Lieberman and Demeester 1999, Chen et al, 2005). Kanban which facilitates visual control was originally designed for manual(a) operation. This encourages employee involvement at all levels. further it can be integrated with any ERP system. Many tasks can then be automated, thus increasing the speed of material flow and accuracy of transactions. B. Vijaya Ramnath,C. Elanchezhian and R. Kesavan 16 wrote a paper which deals with implementation of tiptoe manufacturing in locomotive engine valve machining cell in a stellar(a) auto components manufacturing industry in the sulfur India. The main objective of the paper was to extradite an overview of manufacturing wastes and introduce the tools and techniques that are used to transfigure a company into a high performing lean enterprise.Value stream mapping was a main tool used to identify the opportunities for various lean techniques. One of the methods used for reducti on of waste was the Kanban system. A Kanban job Flow is arrived at which is used for building the future resign of Value stream mapping. The elimination and or reducing of wastes is by making the process improvements in the current manufacturing line by adopting some lean tools like JIT, set up time reduction, WIP reduction etc. JIT Logistics Today Indian Automobile players seek to increase their global footprint and supply chain for many of these companies extends across several countries.Hence Logistics is a key area Indian Automobile companies are commission on. According to Kee-hung Lai. 17 Just-in-Time (JIT) which has been effective in manufacturing operations can also contribute to cost and service advantages in Logistics. However, the potential of JIT has not been widely recognized in logistics. Kee-hung Lai. 17 has identified the major areas in Logistics in which JIT can be applied such as 1) outrageation management 2) order processing 3) Inventory management 4) Customer service, and a number of supporting lements including materials handling, box, purchasing and warehousing. 1) Transport Management Typically materials were ordered in elephantine lot shipments to obtain economies of scale. as well as full truckloads or railcars were more efficient. For less than full truckloads loads of unlike companies having similar destinations were combined. hatful alternburg. 18 States that In JIT Transport all the three parties i. e. the supplier, the carrier and the customer work more closely with one another. One option is formation of Transport partnerships just like supplier partnerships.The carriers would be single source for a family of businesses that will underwrite these carriers as in-house carriers. In some JIT Environments the parts manufacturing facility is constructed at or near the final assembly plant, allowing small deliveries of parts to be made with greater control over timeliness. Ken alternburg. 18 Suggests that where local manufactur ing is not feasible, closed loop transportation is busy in which delivery trucks make simoleons at various suppliers on a predetermined schedule.Disposable packaging can be replaced with reusable containers and racking compatible with assembly line use, eliminating the costs of removing and disposing of packaging materials and simplifying and speeding the loading and unloading processes Materials can be unloaded at or near final point of use in JIT System as inspection is eliminated. Costs associated with equipment used to speed the delivery process, such as specially put together trucks, containerization, and unloading equipment, are offset by improvements in efficiency as implied by Ken alternburg. 18Ken alternburg. 18 States that JIT environment has moved(p) transportation providers, requiring them to change and streamline their methods of operation, and make long-term investments in technology, 2) Order treat According to Kee-hung Lai. 17 JIT adopts technologies such as lo gistical Information System LIS, often in the form of Electronic Data piece EDI, Internet, Value Added Network etc so that different parties in the logistics processes can gain regain to the needed information for decision making 3) Customer service Kee-hung Lai. 17 states that In JIT logistics, all the activities that take up motion time, for example, order picking, shipment arranging, transporting and so on, need to be managed efficiently. The aim is to meet customer service requirements at the lowest possible cost KPMG conducted a survey on the Indian self-propelling supply chain to analyze the key challenges faced by different sections of the Industry, identify the areas that need attention and also identify opportunities. A primary survey was done among the heads of supply chain of some major Indian Auto companies. KPMG 19) The participants of the survey identified the following as the key challenges in order of priority integrate the end-to-end supply chain and managing it as a single integrated entity While past hunting expeditions of OEMs have been focused on streamlining and improving different areas of the supply chain independently, through efforts in dealer management, operations planning, vendor rationalization, IT package implementation etc, it is expected that the linking up of these activities is expected to provide prodigious benefits to players Managing Inbound Logistics/JIT Supplies is a key continue which faces challenges related to reliability of data, lead time and absence of quality logistics players on the upriver side. Respondents felt that as OEM and Auto component players become more global in nature it would have a epochal impact on automotive supply chain. Managing costs Cost, Quality and Timely delivery continue to become the key concern area for players.Many OEMs have implemented JIT inbound logistics which is not by increased visibility across the supply chain and improved planning, it has only resulted in the burden of inventory getting shifted from OEMs to their Tier-I vendors. The make initiatives taken up by the companies to call these challenges according to KPMG 19) are Increased investiture in IT and processes Implement Integrated IT systems such as ERP, but survey revealed that they were not able to leverage on such systems as their business process were not silky or aligned with the needs of the IT System. vendor/Dealer rationalization Many respondents concur that Indian Industry has not evolved into fully tierized structure where Tier-I vendors take on responsibleness for modules / sub-assembliesOutsourcing to logistics service providers Outsource key activities along the supply chain to logistics players, in an effort to reduce costs and increase focus on their customers and core activities. Most OEMs and large Tier-I suppliers have already outsourced their outbound logistics activities. These activities include carrying out milk runs to collect and deliver parts to OEMs on a quo tidian basis, transferring materials across hubs and warehousing/inventory management. primordial logistics players have started maintaining warehouses in close proximity to OEMs plants, and supplying materials on a JIT basis. cerebrate services be provided by large third party logistics service providers (3PLs) include consolidation of materials, packaging, incoming inspection, cleaning, etc (KPMG 19) JIT at Maruti Udyog hold inMaruti was the first Indian company where Japanese Manufacturing culture was implemented from top to bottom. At the Maruti factory in Gurgaon the eight exemplary wastages at each operational point (over-production, man movement, material movement, idle time ofoperator,work-in-process, machineavailability,waitingtime and unneededprocessing) had been measured by observation and even videos. The bottlenecks have been identified and a lot of work has been done to streamline the process. In 1995, when Maruti had 4,800employees, it was producing at the rate of 730 cars a day. Later with 4,500 employees, the plant was producing at the rate of 1,700 cars a day. Simultaneously, the supply chain system is being modified.A delivery instruction system places orders with the vendors for the next days production target. Maruti is now working with an inventory of four hours maximum for local items and six days average for merchandise materials. The inventory to sales turnover ratio, on the scale of 100 in 1999-2000, is now down to 41. Maruti has also started working with its vendorsto reduce their cost ofproduction so that its own cost can be reduced. It has also launched a quality enhancement scheme, called the Quality Gate system. Maruti has implemented JIT for some of its major suppliers. Some others are in the process of doing so. thither is a stress on quality in this highly competitive industry.The bargaining power of suppliers of some components is high, because of capacitance constraints. This makes them accept only large orders, and therefrom makes it difficult for assemblers to implement JIT CONCLUSION With India uphill as one of the important markets for Automobiles it is imperious for Automobile manufactures to gain production and cost efficiency. JIT would help the companies in achieving this end. The Japanese had better the implementation of JIT. base on research material available it can be concluded that JIT has been successfully implemented in Automobile companies of many other countries such as United States, United Kingdom, China to pee-pee a few.Indian Manufacturing environment has huge prospects of advancement through JIT. Some of the key aspects of JIT important for the Indian industry are Total Quality management TQM, Cellular Manufacturing, Kanban, Error Prevention to name a few. Some of the reasons for slow implementation of JIT in India can be concluded as High cost of implementation, Lack of support from suppliers, Lack of understanding or conviction in JIT techniques leading to non effec tive implementation. Also work culture plays a crucial role for JIT. JIT would require a work force that is flexible, can engage in cross training, and would be committed to their work on providing long term employment prospects.The Major benefits identified by the implementation of JIT are Improved Quality, reduction in inventory, increased productivity and flexibility. There is enough evidence to prove that Indian companies who have implemented JIT at least partly successfully have reaped the benefits. The Case study of Tractor assembly factory and Maruti are testimony for the same. Also Mahindra and Mahindra had implemented JIT techniques during the 1990s to their advantage. To gain the benefit of JIT, Indian Automobile Industry must be willing to modify their procedures and processes References 1) son of a bitch Turnbul, Nick Oliver, Barry Wilkinson (1989), Recent Developments in the UK Automotive Industry JIT/TQC and Information systems, Technology and strategic Management, V ol 1 No. 2, pp. 09 2) Bo Hou, Hing Kai Chan, and Xiaojun Wang (2011), A Case study of Just-In-Time System in the Chinese Automotive Industry, Proceedings of the innovation Congress on engineering science, Vol I 3) B Mahadevan, (1997),Are Indian Companies ready for Just In Time, Manage Rev, July-September, pp. 85-92 4) Vikas Kumar, (2010), JIT Based Quality Management Concepts and Implications in Indian Context, International ledger of Engineering Science and Technology Vol. 2(1), 2010,pp. 40-50 5) Dixit Garg, S. G. 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