Atlas Honda Limited Sheikhupura Plant

Atlas Honda limited is a joint venture between the Atlas group and Honda Motor Company, Japan. Atlas Honda Limited manufactures and markets Honda motorcycles in collaboration with Honda Motor Company in Pakistan. Honda motor cycles are by far the best selling motorcycle in both new and repurchase market in the country with a market share of 47%. It dominates the roads of Pakistan with an unmatched reputation for high quality, reliability and after sales services. Atlas has undertaken to develop local manufacturing capabilities to the highest economically feasible level. While a major role in localization has been assigned to vendor industries, atlas has the countrys largest in house manufacturing capacity of 750000 units at its Sheikhupura plant. In the last year the plant operated with a total work force of 3696 employees (1582 Permanent and 2114 contractual employees) and at 84% productivity to produce 629789 bikes. The Sheikhupura facility in a manufacturing concern with four different sections i.e. manufacturing plant, casting plant, machining plan and assembly plant. Manufacturing plant manufactures painted fuel tanks, front and rear fenders. At manufacturing plant processes like spot welding, seam welding and die punching are performed through manual assembly line operations. Casting plant casts different engine parts and then these parts are machined at the machining plant using various CNC lathe machines. Three process of casting used were high pressure casting, low pressure casting and gravity casting. Both casting and machining plant operates in a batch flow. The final output is then sent to warehouse from where it is fed to the preceding process. The main production area i.e. assembly plant, can be defined as a highly automated assembly operation where different parts are fed to the assembly line and the final product is assembled accordingly. Assembly plant has four sub-sections which are Engine assembly plant, frame assembly plant, welding plant and ED paint shop. Frame body welding shop manufactures frame body and ED paint shop is used to paint these frame bodies. Output from the Machining plant is then used in Engine assembly section for assembling the Engine. Whereas, welding plant, ED paint plant and manufacturing plant work as the material feeding plants to the frame assembly section. The assembly conveyor is divided into two sections i.e. engine assembly section and frame assembly section. Working on the conveyor the engine is assembled using inputs from the machining plant and the output i.e. engine is brought to frame assembly. Here frame assembly is

also fed with painted frame body, fuel tank, fenders. The entire assembly line is 145m longs and has a cycle time of 27second and throughput time of 20 min. Assembled bike is then brought to final inspection section where it is tested for quality and then finally shifted to finished good inventory. The complete process is reinforced by Quality Control measures, where the entire production is inspected using various tools (sensors and gauges). The process is stopped in case a defect arises, and continues to stay shut unless defect is traced and resolved. Total Quality Management (TQM) is practically implemented in the form of Quality improvement programs and Kaizens. This result in constructive self-expression, recognition leading to employee motivation, increased process responsibility by the workers, amplified team work and continuous process improvement. More importantly, it acts as a motivational factor which develops workers interest in a dehumanized assembly line operation at the factory. The company also has a progressive training and development program known as Skill Evaluation Criteria. The aim of this program is to encourages and enable each member to develop himself and contribute to his full potential during his work. It has resulted in skill enhancement resulting in innovations, cost savings and a low turnover figure of 2% only. Due to the cost of breakdown and production loss, reactive Maintenance or breakdowns is something that is avoided at the factory. Machines are maintained through a preventive maintenance schedule that varies in time and activities from machine to machine. The preventive maintenance is part of routine operations and is undertaken with the remaining plant under operations. Other control systems that prevail at the factory are monitoring daily completion rate, Management by Objectives and Do it right the first time (DRIFT). The planning department operates to set monthly and daily targets in accordance to annual targets set by market research department. The communication function of the firm is managed by the ERP system SAP.