LEAN IMPLEMENTATION AT

SIEMENS KALWA PLANT

Submitted by: Makrand Kolekar

A 025
IIIrd Year, PTMBA, 2014-17
Siemens company
Siemens Kalwa Plant

The Siemens Kalwa factory in Mumbai, also referred to as Kalwa Works (KW), started in
1973.

Started with 10 employees now became the second largest of Siemens manufacturing
operations outside Germany.

Kalwa Works: Medium Voltage division, sole manufacturer.

Switchboard: second largest MV factory outside Germany .

Product Portfolio : Medium voltage switch boards , Indoor and outdoor vacuum circuit
breaker , Gas insulated switchgear , Ring main unit.
Order Fulfillment As it was
Need for change Program

The Siemens Batch Processing dampened inefficiencies.

Errors were corrected on the shop floor had a ripple effect manufacturing chain.

Increasing amounts of scrap

Increased customer orders: need to utilize full capacity.

Need for improvement in labor productivity, lower inventory levels & higher throughput

In October 2006, Siemens AG decided to have world wide roll out lean manufacturing
(Siemens Production System)
The Lean Program

Restructuring of both the Layout and the Processes

The current process flow chart

Brainstorming the ways & means to make process more efficient

Implementing Lean in the shop floor meant the supporting departments need to adopt lean
Layout changes
Changes in support system
Changes in vendor management
Cultural changes
 Layout Changes Changes in Support System

Five Assembly lines were formed Installation of dashboards at the

Each line had 6 assembly workstations beginning of every line.
Issues were posted by workers and shop
Takt time
engineers on the dash boards
(time per workstation was fixed at 1
hour) These issues were discussed on daily
basis to improve the throughput and
Add on light conflicts between departments and
workers
Also root cause of the problem was
determined and solutions to avoid them
in future were noted
Gaps in skills were identified by skill
assessment test
 Culture Changes
Joint prayer and exercise sessions for
each assembly line at the beginning of
every shift.
Inculcate a sense of Team
Belongingness
All the members were given a T-shirt
imprinted with Lean logo as a uniform
Sends message of eam Effort
Changes in Vendor Management
On time delivery with ensured quality.
Vendors usually supplied materials in
batches.
With the implementation of lean they
are no longer required by batch or
customer order.
Challenge for both suppliers and the
material planning team.
Vendors were presented with the
benefits of the program
Short term solution Suppliers can
manufacture in Bulk and the company
will use Pull philosophy, i.e. to pull
material when needed
Issues while Implementation

Resentment among people from different department: blame game started

Employees believed it is another project by management.

Bonus was linked to productivity .

Working quickly and relaxing was not possible for workers after lean.

Union wanted daily production to be five panels per day per line but management
wanted eight.
Monitoring Performance

Switchboard management continue to report KPIs to the Siemens AG on monthly basis.

The lean project ended in Oct 2008 as it had intended to be a one year project.

In just one year, KPI sheets showed improvements

Throughput time on shop floor reduced by 30%
Workers productivity increased by 30%
Lessons learnt

Implementation of Lean at Seimens Kawla has lead to

Greater productivity
Greater throughput
Improved quality
Reduced cycle times
Reduced operating costs
Cultivate an attitude of its okay to make mistakes.
Dare to be different. See problems as opportunities
Questions