Improving Productivity in a Heat Treatment Shop for Piston Pins

Productivity improvement is a challenge to every industry and it means efficiency improvement at all stages i.e. man power, energy, machinery, process, money etc. Productivity is one of the major factor contributing to the profit of any company. The study focuses on improving the productivity of piston pin heat treatment process with continuous improvement and process improvement tools such as process mapping, FMEA's, control plans, and statistical techniques to increase productivity and create bottom-line savings.

The study aims to achieve the optimum utilisation of sealed quench furnace capacity by improving the fixture design, optimizing the lot size, improving the process parameters and thus improving the productivity of the heat-treatment process. The fundamental tools for improving a process is done by identification of root causes with the help of a fish bone diagram and why-why analysis. Furthermore FMEA identifies potential product related process failure modes and prevents wastes, rework, reduce cycle time and cost. The proposal or solution for the material and design selection procedure was obtained with the help of literature review finding, prioritization of various solutions by using FEA analysis and CES.

The ultimate results were improvement in productivity for selected five elements is 21.84%. The improvement of fixture design and wire holding system of parts helped to eliminate 14% of fixture weight to hold more parts. Effort has been made to improve the fixture design to hold more parts and FEA analysis is done to check the design behavior under static and thermal load. The productivity improvement resulted in a cost benefit of Rs. 10, 00, 000 per month. We conclude that the study has led to significant improvements in process efficiency.