Process Improvement in Engine Manufacturing to Reduce Contamination Using Quality Management Approach

Globalization, privatization and liberalization of the Indian automobile industry has resulted in wide exposure to global competition. The competition has forced the manufacturers to introduce customer delight factors in their product that became basic requirement over a period of time. Automobile industry penetrated their products in to middle class and lower middle classes. Automobile has now become more of a utility product than of social status. Most of the customers started looking for products which have value for money, reliability and durability. Initial trouble free performance became a key factor to sell the product in the market. As a result, industry started more focus on improving durability and reliability measures to improve trouble free performance. A key factor in improved trouble free performance is reduced engine contamination. This work was carried out to reduce engine contamination in three wheelers. The objective of the work has been achieved using different quality management tools and techniques. The results were validated using statistical tools. It was observed that they was 44% improvement in engine contamination reduction from the initial stage.