Traceabilit

y
improveme
nt of parts
routed
through
vendor
operation

A Project Report

By M S Girish

1
 Acknowledgement
I have immense pleasure to present this project report. Firstly I thank god to give me such
a great opportunity to test my capabilities as a manager and allowing me to successfully complete
the project in Sundram Fasteners Limited, Padi, Chennai.
I sincerely thank Mr. Mahesh, Manager- HR for recruiting me to Sundram Fasteners and
showing confidence in my abilities as a manager. I sincerely express my thanks to Mr.
P.RamaSubramaniam, DGM - Manufacturing Sundram Fasteners for the approval and
guidance given to me along this project and helping me with his full support in spite of his busy
schedule. I also thank Mr. Suresh of Subcontracting cell and all the others of the cell for the help
they extended to me for this project. I also take this opportunity to remember all those who have
assisted me in enriching my knowledge level and helped in my learning experience atSundram
Fasteners Limited.
I express my gratitude to the Symbiosis Institute of Operations Management (SIOM)
Director, Dr. Vandana Sonawane for the moral support and motivation provided to me. I thank
Prof. Parameshwaran for the valuable guidance they have provided to me while traversing with
my project.
I would also like to thank all the people who have contributed to this project directly or indirectly.

Sincerely,
M S Girish,
Symbiosis Institute of Operations Management,
Nashik.

2
S No Title Page No

1 Executive Summary 05
Objective of the project
2 07

3 Scope of the project 08

4 Introduction 09
Conceptual review of project
5 13

Problem statement – Analysis &

6 Findings 23

Conclusion & recommendation

7 25

Final value addition

8 31

Next steps to be taken

9 32

Bibliography
10 34

11 Glossary 35

3
 Executive Summary

Sundram Fasteners Ltd manufactures fasteners, radiator caps and other fastening needs for
the industrial needs. The Padi plant manufactures rivets, bolts, nuts, customised fasteners and
radiator caps. PADI HEX is that segment of the Padi plant which manufactures rivets, bolts
& customised fasteners.

All these products are manufactured in a process layout. The main processes constituted by

 Raw material processing

 Forging

 Rolling (Threading operations)

 Heat treatment

 Finishing process

Further based on the product lines, products are divided under cells as

 Standard

 Special

 Subcontracting

 Secondary

 Process

Of the 4 cells, the scope of the project is concentrated to the subcontracting cell. The
subcontracting operations are given jobs based on two aspects; firstly, operational uniqueness
& secondly capacity. The subcontracting cell consists of 37 vendor & 4 logistics agents.
4
Around 1500 parts of 7000 parts are manufactured by routing through these Subcontractors
throughout the year. And on an average, 350 to 400 parts are routed through Subcontractors
every month.

The process of moving these parts from the plant premise to the subcontractor premise can be
at any stage of the process from raw material to the finishing process.

Previously, in the process of transportation, the traceability of the batch maintained as

trolleys are lost because of bad discipline by the transportation, subcontracting & SFL
personnel. This process of transportation from SFL to Sub contractor is subject to
examination, improved by way of study and a customized improved test run was also carried
out. Guidelines were provided to the ones involved,

By this improved process, various benefits were achieved

 The traceability was well adhered to.

 The customer complaints would be addressed in a better manner.

 Resources used for quality product output & bad quality output were tracked easily.

 Tracking the product at semi finished goods state would be easier.

Financial benefits that can be achieved in a nutshell:

1. Financial benefits could be arrived as absence of scraped material resulting because of
material mix up or loss of traceability.

2. As part of our guidelines the SFL subcontracting cell, they were asked to scrap the use
of Gunny bags which was predominantly used for convenience of operation.

5
 Objective of the project
In logistics, traceability refers to the capability for tracing goods along the distribution chain
on a batch number or series number basis. Traceability is an important aspect for example in
the automotive industry, where it makes recalls possible, or in the food industry where it
contributes to food safety.

These examples of traceability in different industries are taken for their importance. The
importance to trace back to source origination at every previous level is the objective of the
traceability project specific to the sub contracting area.

6
 Scope of the project
A fastener making process has been explained in detail. And, traceability being very
important for batch products, the project concentrates to the area of subcontracting cell
mainly. In a way, this is justified by taking every process into the project would have
constraints of time and not compromising the concentration to the particular area of scope.

If a systems approach is given to this project, the time taken to this project would be around a
year or more. There were too many discrepancies at every process level. For instance, at
rolling process, the number of routing tags issued from MQA by forging personnel did not
reach the rolling personnel. If this was also taken into concern & rolling operation was
studied and awareness creation, rules creation, action plan implemented, imparting
importance of routing tag, etc. were done, the project by another 3 weeks time.

So, the project was restricted to the processes such as Forging & Subcontracting cell alone.
Major assumptions are listed down such as:

1. No of routing tags issued were 5 in number for subcontracting process.

2. RM Heat number mix up has not occurred during the forging operation

3. All the routing tags issued initially reached the subcontracting area.

The project also dealt with an important objective that the solution provided should be a very
simple one. The subcontractors, transporters or the SFL’s personnel shouldn’t find this a
7
complex system to follow. Though they were planning to upgrade to barcodes & RFID
enabled systems. All these advanced techniques needed infrastructure. That is taking time to
build.

Introduction

‘Customer is God’ & ‘Customer is king’. These expressions have been heard & followed by
manufacturers around the world. In a globalised scenario, the level of competition in any
industry, the manufacturers face the problem of attending to customer complaints. These
complaints are attended with the help of reference identification.

At Sundram Fasteners Ltd, the environment is B 2 B. They serve to other businesses who use
the products in their equipment, component, machines they produce. Fastener making process
is a batch type process. The process of a bolt making in this HEX division is explained
below.

Raw Material
Raw material for fastener making process is coils or wires. These coils are procured or
already stored in the RM yard based on the requirement. The RM yard inventory is generally
3 month storage. If the requirement is of a special type, then it is duly procured before the
requirement.
The RM yard generally stores raw material inventory at two levels. One is the FIFO yard &
the mud yard. These coils stored at the yards are processed – pickled (if required) & drawn.

8
The coil always carries a supplier tag along which has details such as who is the supplier,
what is material, imported or Indian manufacturer, specifications – both material &
dimensional aspects. After drawing process, an internally developed SAP sticker is attached
with the coil. It has the mother details and details after drawing also. This is the first
identification reference for the coil generated by SFL. Internal logistics is generally carried
out with the help of fork lifts.

Forging
Forging operations are carried out based on the product required. The forging machines get
their input from the RM area. They are delivered by fork lifts. These fork lifts have a shift
data as to what coil is required by individual forging machines. These forging machines have
their shift plan. This is generally worked on the first shift. The direction for the processing is
given by cell leaders to operators. They are asked to process the coil delivered by forklift
based on plan. This work order specifies the quantity to be produced.

All the forged parts are collected in trolleys. There are counters on the forging machines.
They help the operators with the counting. Shift counting is also done on another counter.
They are stored in areas where they are stipulated to. ‘Forged parts’, ‘Rejected parts’ are
some areas where these are stationed.

Rolling
Rolling is the operation where the forged parts are threaded. These are planned based on the
monthly plan. Every morning, forging cell leaders discuss what are to be produced by rolling
with the respective in-charges. They also have a log sheet, work order, counter & drawing
where the operation details are explained and output of the process- measurement, quality,
and metric wise are recorded. All these have the base reference as part number. If a part
number is to be forged or rolled, the drawing, tools, work order sheet are all provided and
logged to. Log sheet gives the output data for the shift output aggregated together for the day
output.

Process area
Process area consists of 2 levels
- Heat treatment
- Finishing namely phosphating or plating
9
Heat treatment area has 5 furnaces with a capacity of 108 tonnes/ day. Based the requirement
of the customer, the parts are grouped together to pass through the process. i.e. if a specific
part X needs a specific property, it cannot be processed with ordinary part A. It needs to be
processed with the part Y which needs similar specifications to be set in the furnace. Here the
furnace output is in Kgs. Since the forging and rolling operations use counting, the heat
treatment has a metric of weight; there is a vulnerable state for minor error. Here trolleys are
collected on a rough basis of 350 Kgs. Later they are weighed on a machine for accurate
measurement.

Finishing
Finishing processes include phosphating & plating. Both processes are the same as from our
view point of project. The loading, data registry and weighing are all same. These two lines
have barrels where in parts of 75 to 80 Kgs are loaded and they are processed in tanks
containing respective chemicals for Phosphating or for Plating.

Subcontracting Cell
This cell manages 37 vendors and 4 logistics agents who supply and deliver parts to the
vendors. The subcontracting cell consists of vendors who specialize in certain operations. The
vendors generally are planned based on either the capacity or the speciality of these vendors
to do the job at a higher quality. Specific premium customers are also given preference by
SFL to channel it through certain subcontractors.

FQA
FQA (Final Quality Audit) is the Quality Audit area where the final testing for any part or
product. Generally a sample based testing of an order is checked for. When the processing is
presumed to be bad, then, the whole order lot is 100% checked for visual testing and a large
sample is tested for mechanical properties. The subcontracting cell, its working and modus
operandi shall be studied in detail since it is in the project scope.

Despatch

10
Despatch area is the location where packaging of all the parts is done. These are based on
respective customer whether it is to be despatched to Jamshedpur or Madurai or Hosur or
Nashik or Bombay or Pune or for retailing in Chennai itself. These are assorted with primary
packaging at despatch area. Here accurate number of fasteners is packaged. The despatch
area provides a Delivery Advice. This DA (Delivery Advice) is duly matched to local shop
floor routing tag also. This is a point where a customer is helped with the help of DA. Any
DA reference and a query is asked for. The Quality department should be in a position to
explain with exact facts.

Logistics
Logistics of packaged parts is generally planned through TVS logistics or Southern
Transport. Both logistics partners are part of the TVS group. Various other third party
logistics agents are used for local participation like in various states. These logistics generally
work in the South Indian states periphery. And mainly supply and distribute to south based
hubs in Hosur, Madurai, Chennai, etc.

11
 Conceptual Review of the Project

The project is specific to certain areas as explained in scope of the project. These are the
forging and the subcontracting cell. These areas are studied in detail, their modus operandi
understood, the flaws of the system found and a solution is suggested.

The project sticks to the area of traceability. At SFL, traceability, batch control is
synonymously used.

Traceability refers to the completeness of the information about every step in a process chain.
A formal definition for traceability is the ability to chronologically interrelate the uniquely
identifiable entities in a way that is verifiable. Traceability is the ability to verify the history,
location, or application of an item by means of documented recorded identification. These
recorded information can be by means of simple log sheets, excel sheets, bar codes, RFID,
ERP – SAP tools also. But the tools used should be feasible through out the organisation. It
should be useful, understood by every stakeholder and should be guided in using it and taking
forward for any future update possible.

As part of the project, traceability related operations in forging & subcontracting cells are
explained in detail.

12
Forging: Forging as an operation was discussed in brief in the introduction part. Here the
forging operation is studied in detail. This process of studying the forging operation is
possibly studying the root cause of the problem without basic analyses. The forging operation
begins with the receipt of wire drawn coils with specific SAP generated tags. This has certain
details of mother coil and newly generated serial type number at SFL.

The basic operation is done based on a monthly plan that is received in the first week of every
month. This figure is based on various marketing personnel’s demand that is aggregated. The
figures are arrived by subtracting the available number of parts at the hubs or warehouses to
the required. This will arrive at a figure which is to be newly forged.

These inputs are received from various quarters of the marketing team. This is arrived by
taking into stock the available and the demand. They are approached by existing and new
markets also.

The first week of the month, a meeting is held with marketing personnel, planning personnel,
manufacturing personnel and other deciding authorities. They decide if the input quantity
given by the marketing is a feasible one based on various factors such as

 Capacity of machines

 Priority for this part/product

 Quantity demanded

 Customer value

 Tool availability

 Others ( such as complexity of process, worthiness on return)

These factors play a major role in deciding the accepted quantity. The accepted quantity is
the agreed level of output that can be manufactured in the following month. This happens on
a monthly basis based on customer demand. The part, if available at the hub, is provided to
the customer immediately. New orders are also taken during the middle of the month. These
are duly accommodated with the help of vendor activity. The process is at times run for an
extra shift to suffice these new orders. These orders are manufactured at a premium cost as
vendor will need a premium on the same.

13
The products manufacturing is planned based on promised date. They back schedule certain
parts of premium customers. Based on the orders, the forging plan is made. The forging cell
leaders plan and give a daily plan to their operators. For example, a part X has been ordered
by customers A, B, C & D. The quantities ordered by all these customers are aggregated and
the monthly plan is schedule. There are other factors such as raw material availability, tool
availability & complexity to change machine settings. These factors dominate the schedule
plan of various parts. i.e. when the parts X & Y need total change in machine setting, then it
is not chosen. The setting of these machines is to be minimally changed. In that way, the next
job is chosen.

The procedure of manufacture of a part and its Route Tag issue are all explained below in
detail. The coil is received as per the plan. The forging operator gets a Work Order with
details such as Part no., quantity to be forged, raw material reference no. or the drawn wire
no. These are most important as they are a part of the routing tag issue process. The coil once
loaded in the chuck and the forging is started. The parts are checked visually, checked for
dimensional specifications such as pitch, diameter, head diameter, etc. as part of Operator
Quality Assurance (OQA). This OQA is a primary check by the operator at the machine.
Once the operator checks the sample part and is ok with the quality of the output, they
approach the Manufacturing Quality Assurance (MQA).

MQA is the final authority to give a green signal for the part. They do various intricate
checks for the part if it is in conformance to the quality. After this is done, the route tag is
issued. The route tag is issued on a basis said by the operator. The operator uses an arbitrary
way of ascertaining number of route tags to be issued. If the operator feels the order quantity
will fill in 3 trolleys, then he takes 15 (3X5) tags. These route tags are placed on trolleys
when they are received from the MQA.

Traceability can be ensured by 2 significant things. i.e. Route tag & RM Heat numbers. Route
tag has been written about in detail. The RM heat numbers are the heat numbers in which
they were processed in the wire drawing industry. These coils are steel melted on the same
heat. They have the same mechanical and metallurgical properties if not put to any other heat
treatment process. So maintenance of RM heat number throughout the process flow is an
important aspect of Traceability.

A coil could be 1.8 Tonnes or 3.6 Tonnes. Around 20 to 25 coils of same heat are received
from Raw material supplier. When there is requirement at the forging machine for any raw
14
material requirement, the raw material is supplied with RM heat number taken into account.
Since, the order quantity could be higher or lower than 1.8 or 3.6 Tonnes. The order quantity
is generally matched with the RM tonnage. Problem could be that there is always a possibility
of mismatch of raw material quantity and order quantity.

Photo: A Routing tag with details.

There are certain rules followed regarding routing tags:

15
  A trolley without a routing tag cannot move for the next operation.

 A trolley without a routing tag is supposedly doesn’t move because it doesn’t know
where it is to move next.

These were some basic rules that were framed. But to explain the importance of routing tag,
the project explains and framed new rules for movement of trolley, routing tag rules, etc.

There are some precise rules regarding the stationing of trolley. There are specific areas
where the trolleys need to be stationed. If it is to be moved for the subsequent process, then, it
is placed in the ‘area for next operation’, there is an area demarcated in red paint which is
the area for rejected parts trolleys. Likewise, there are specific areas for the trolleys. Since
there is a very high no. of casual labours involved for loading, removing trolley from output
area, there needs to be simple methods, clear indications for every important step in the shop
floor.

Photo: Routing tag placed in a trolley – waiting for next operation.

16
The routing tag is an item of special importance and this will have to be explained in detail.
Routing tag is similar to the routing file. It explains the following very clearly.

i. Part number with finish

ii. Unique number

iii. Part description

iv. Wire drawn RM number

v. Date of forging start

vi. Time of Routing Tag issue

vii. No of routing tags issued

viii. No of pages of the routing tag (RT extends to the 2 nd & 3rd pages because of
complexity involved in the processes)

ix. Operation sequence, operation, cost centre (CC), date & signature of operator

x. RM Heat No.

xi. Heat load number (refers to number given by Furnace reference no., date & month)

Of these specifications, the 9th specification generally helps in the routing of the trolley. The
routing tag always shows the processes which have been completed are and which are to be
completed. There are certain rules regarding how a routing tag detail is to be is

i. The completed process generally is signed by the operator and date of completion of
the operation is also recorded.

ii. The next operation to be processed in the sequencing is generally are ticked. These
are supposedly the rules framed by the quality department and to be abided by
operators.

The sequential Routing Tag handling as explained above has been framed and being followed
in a partial manner. These routing cards are the only file which moves along with the trolley.

17
Sub Contracting Operations:

The next area of the project’s scope is the subcontracting area or vendor area. The
subcontracting cell operates with 37 Subcontractors and 4 logistics agents. The working of
the subcontracting cell can be explained below.

The working of the subcontracting cell starts with the Material Flow Management plan. The
MFM plans for the capacity of the 100 % in-house capacity and later the subcontractor
operation is planned. The Agreed quantity in the input plan is generally taking into the
account the subcontractor’s output also. The Subcontractors perform operations such as
rolling, finishing, tapping, grinding, turning operations, hot forging, etc.

The modus operandi of a sub contracting operation is explained in detail. The forging
operations are generally done in the premise of SFL itself. There are not many jobs that are to
be forged outside SFL i.e. for any sub contract operation. Here, we assume that all the jobs/
parts are forged in SFL. These are sent for operation such as rolling, finishing, tapping,
grinding, turning operations. The operations performed are routed evenly through all the
vendors.

The parts are generally kept at areas where they are stipulated to be. The routing tag, if it has
a code ‘12900’, is to be routed through the subcontractor. This is very commonly understood
by the SFL, subcontractor’s loaders, & known by all subcontractor loading personnel. Every
morning, the subcontractor will come to know the part that is to be sent for their sub
contractor premise for working. So they go round searching for their component and spot
them at different points. These are duly picked and moved to subcontracting cell. Then these
are weighed. And SFL’s operators at forging or at rolling or at heat treatment furnace know
what the jobs the subcontractor performs.

The most important of all is the pick up of all the trolleys. These trolleys are converted into
trays for convenience sake. A trolleys weight is around 420 to 430 Kgs. They are split into
plastic trays which contain 80 to 90 Kgs. The trolley when it is 420 to 430 Kgs is too heavy
to be transported from ground to vehicle loading platform. If they weigh around 80Kgs, they
are comparatively easier for lifting.

Then these are loaded on the vehicles and these are sent as trays loaded in the vehicles. It is a
clear example of a milk run. Their modus operandi is as follows. A transporter has a group of
10 vendors to be catered to. There would be specific loading personnel for this transporter
18
who does this job of filling the truck or lorry for the transporter. He knows which
subcontractor makes which job. So, he collects on confirmation from subcontracting cell
personnel, the trolleys which contain these jobs. He also confirms from the forging or rolling
or furnace operators. The other primal check is the routing tag. Thus he takes them to the
subcontracting cell for weighing. He collects enough trolley to fill his truck – mostly HTL.
They maintain HTL vehicles because of a cost benefit they get in comparison to a FTL
vehicle. There are many advantages like easier commuting, higher petrol efficiency, easy
pick ups and quicker filling. They deliver it to various Subcontractors at the same go. It is at a
minimum 3 Subcontractors to 8 at the maximum. While returning back, they also bring
finished parts from Subcontractors to SFL.

The routing of some parts can be a simple single pass at the same subcontractor’s shop. At
times, it can also be a double or a triple pass at the same subcontractor’s shop. This happens
because of the complexity of the job involved.

The other possibility is the transfer from S/C 1 to S/C 2 and S/C 2 to S/C 3. This is to aid the
availability process. S/C 1 possesses a process & S/C 2 does another, then it is transported.

The next important process is the S/C 1 to SFL premise & SFL premise to S/C 2. This is all
done on a basis of cost and ease of operation. If SFL plans to acquire some exclusive
operation, it might not be an option in the immediate context. So, SFL has developed this
kind of a vendor circuit. The farthest vendor from SFL is at a distance of 7 kms.

19
Diagram: A flow chart of Subcontracting Operations fitment into general process flow

List of subcontractors at Sundram Fasteners Ltd., Padi.

20
 1 A K INDUSTRIES
2 ANCILLARY INDUSTRIES
3 ANUSHA ENGINEERING
4 ARK INDUSTRIES
5 ASK ENGINEERING
6 ATHILAKSHMI INDUSTRIES
7 BHAVANIENGINEERING
8 COMEX TECHNIKX
9 DL INDUSTRIES
10 ELECTRO CHEM ENTERPRISES
11 INDIA INDUSTRIES
12 JAK SUPER
13 KAYBE KRAFT
14 KR.INDUSTRIES
15 PRICISSION HEAT TREATERS
16 RATHNAM INDUSTRIES
17 SHARP ENGINEERING
18 SHENBAGA INDUSTRIES
19 SHRI AMBAL INDUSTRIES
20 SIVASAKTHI INDUSTRIES
21 SK ENGINEERING
22 SREE MARUTHI INDUSTRIES
23 SRI KRISHNA INDUSTRIES
24 SRI NAGAMMAI INDUSTRIES
25 SRI SHANMUGAM INDUSTRIES
26 SRINIVASA MACHINE WORKS
27 SUMAINDUSTRIES
28 SUN FAM INDUSTRIES
29 SUNMAX ENGINEERING
30 SUPER TECH
31 TECH MAT
32 UDAYAM INDUSTRIES
33 UPPASANA ENGINEERING
34 VENKATESWARA INDUSTRIES
35 VIJAYA INDUSTRIES
36 VIJAYALAKSHMI FORGE
37 VIMAL INDUSTRIES

Problem Statement: Analysis & Findings

The following were some of the areas where the problems were found out.

 There are work instructions in the RM yard. These are not followed religiously as
they need to be.

 Raw material from the yard was generally issued on the basis of aggregate planning.
Aggregation at forging level: When an order is placed by a customer A, customer B &
21
 customer C for the same part X. All these are summed up to find suitable date, tool
availability, RM availability, the part’s forging is planned. In this process, there is
every possibility of basic RM heat number getting lost. Evidently, the heat numbers
can get mixed up when the order quantity X unit weight without taking the metal
losses into concern.

 The next area of concern and our scope is the subcontracting area. Here, one should
understand the purpose of issuing 5 routing tags at the MQA level. For all the parts
which have a C C code of ‘12900’, the trolleys are converted into 5 trays. And these
trays should have 5 routing tags. The no of routing tags issued and no of trays do not
match. This is because bigger parts occupy greater space. This is not known to forging
& MQA personnel.

 Routing tags were lost after issue. The no of routing tag reaching the subcontract area
is less than 5. There were serious discipline problems.

 There is a particular way of handling routing tags at the subcontracting cell by the
loaders of transport agents. They take away the routing tag in their pockets. They
claim that they have knowledge of what parts they are and how many roughly if the
no. of trays is counted.

 They used gunny bags in tray’s place during conversion. These gunny bags were used
to fill gaps such as unavailability of trays. The gunny bags never held the routing tags
as is held by a trolley.

 In the premise of the subcontractor, the process of transferring from one centre to
other, the trays are mixed. They do not have any sequencing rule. They do have their
own internal tag. But not put to use.

 These are mixed up when they return. The heat numbers are not maintained when 2 or
3 heat number in the same lot was sent.

The above were commission error. There are certain imbibed problems which were visible.

 At every level, the operators are complacent and always claim they are experienced
and they know what the issues are. They take a very narrow outlook about there
22
 machine centre. They are not aware about the external customer & internal customer
problems.

 Decisions taken at one stage is not transparent at other lower stages.

 Too many manual transactions were a problem:

1. The planning is done on a manual basis.

2. The sequencing & selection of jobs are maintained as a manual one.

3. The loaders of transporter search and group items to be transported near the
subcontracting cell. This is done at the discretion of the subcontracting cell
personnel.

Conclusion and recommendations

The causes of the problems that occurred because of no traceability were written in detail.

Certain steps were taken jointly with the other project as part of our projects.

A questionnaire was circulated among the forging cell operators to know how many routing
tags they issue from the MQA. There was ambiguity in their answers. Few things came to be
known from the questionnaire.

The questionnaire is appended:

23
 1. Do you know what route tags are for? Y/N

2. If Y, what’s a route tag’s purpose? Write briefly.

3. How many route tags per trolley do you collect from the MQA?

a. Standard part nos. :

b. M part nos. / Subcontracting cell nos. :

4. How many route tags do you place in a trolley?

5. Do you know what traceability is?

6. What is the effect of traceability/losses faced by co. because of this traceability

problem?

The forging operators knew what routing tags were for. But, the number of routing tags for
standard parts and subcontracting parts. The answers were 2, 3 & 5. They were confusing it
with the number of routing tags for standard parts.

Thus, came to a conclusion that the awareness regarding routing tags & traceability is
missing. So a drive for improving the traceability was conducted. Display cards were placed.
Cell leaders were asked to impart knowledge regarding traceability.

The other area of scope - subcontracting cell was also given a solution.

A grid sheet was introduced which had following details:

Trolley No. : 1st trolley

Tray No. : Tray numbers which are split from respective trolley

Heat No. : RM Heat No. of the trolley

Copy of grid sheet of test run:

S K Engineering Works Vendor Trolley - Tray Grid sheet Date: 08.06.2009

S
No Trolley
. Ht No. Part No. No. Tray No.

24
1 DBSA97820 M38570 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
2 BAA201283B M38570 2 10 11 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3
3 BAA201283B M38570 3 20 21 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4
4 BAA201283B M38570 4 31 32 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2
4 4 4 4 4 5 5
5 DBSA97820 M38570 5 43 44 5 6 7 8 9 0 1

Test run for new system: A subcontractor was chosen and he was selected because M/s S K
Engineering was the subcontractor who had his own transport agents. And he also possessed
plastic trays beforehand. The other subcontractors were still processing the trolley - tray with
steel trays. A lot of these trays along with other components were sent to the subcontractor.
These trays were processed in a synchronous manner to maintain the heat no. and trays not to
be interchanged with other trolleys. There was a convenience in this simple tool; the trays can
be mixed within the trolley. i.e. if the trolley is split into 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. The trays 1-2-3-4‘s
parts can be interchanged among themselves. If the next lot is going to be a different heat no.
with tray numbers starting 5, 6, 7, 8; they can also be interchanged but these trays cannot be
interchanged with 1-5 or1-8, likewise. This tool cannot be called a foolproof one.

There was an important aspect to be kept in mind. The tool is simple and there should be
accountability in SFL and subcontractor’s side to follow this. There can be other
technologically high end tools such as SAP, RFID, and ASP-SAP. The shortcomings in all
these are listed below:

• Cost of infrastructure development for all the above

• Signals may have problems with some materials
• Some tags can fail
• Standards are still being developed

The grid sheet’s filling is to be assigned to an accountable, responsible person. The most
prominent person would be the one who receives the Delivery Advice from SFL for
subcontractor.

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Photo: Before the grid sheet was introduced, the trays without numbering.

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Photo: After numbering of the trays, the tray numbers are recorded in the grid sheet.

Various guidelines were framed for the subcontractor and the transporter

While sending the parts to vendors,

1. Mandatory condition: 10 Routing Tags per Trolley

2. Two Heat nos. in the same trolley should be considered faulty.

3. Use of gunny bags should be abolished

4. In challan sheet, ensure no. of trays = no. of route tags (Consider pt 1 & pt 4)

5. Plastic trays Min of 10 tags

While receiving the parts from vendors,

1. No of trolleys while sending and receiving the job should be the same or at least the size of
batches received from the vendor should be in the multiples of no of trolleys or no of trays.

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Single batch split into multiple batches since despatch priority is forced.

2. Rules regarding the no of tags to be sent with finished products from vendor should be
made clear. So that no tag stays with the vendor and the tags which are sent with the job
comes back with the job.

3. Once if a lot sent out is received back completely, it should be ensured that the no of tags
sent with the lots have also been received. If not, track where the tag has been missed.

4. These procedures should also be followed when the material travels from a vendor to
vendor.

Guidelines for the transporter:

• Grid sheet hard copy form to be filled in and duly given to the personnel issuing
delivery advice.

• The personnel getting the DA issued will be entering

Other important project that will aid this project is ‘Rationalisation of number of vendors’.
This project is about the vendor development by enhancing unique selling points (USPs) of
specific vendors who excel. The number of vendors will also be reduced in this process. The
non performing vendor will lose their partnering with SFL.

How will this help in this project? There is always a race for excellence when such rightsizing
happens. This will naturally be the best vendor who’ll continue with SFL. These people are
easy to be disciplined. They are bent upon doing certain things that SFL asks from them.

One main guideline given to SFL & vendors is that the main issue of Gunny bag. These
gunny bags can nowhere hold the routing tags. And these can result in big losses. There is no
standard weighing when gunny bag is used. When a tray is used, there is a level beyond
which loading is stopped. The gunny bags are not weighed anywhere and these tend to only
complex the issues such as loss of heat number of the part contained in the bag, part mix up
(no traceability), etc.

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 Final value addition
The project for traceability conformance has advised certain guidelines for the forging and
the subcontracting cell. These guidelines have been with an understanding of the mix of
realistic situation & problem. These guidelines if followed will lead to the first steps of
achieving traceability of parts.

Benefits could be achieved in two forms – monetary & non-monetary. Assuming the
traceability for a part is achieved, the following will be the non-monetary benefits that can be
reaped out of this project are:

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 1. The outcome will lead to a very good customer complaint tracking. This will
take the least time. The most important thing is that the tracking is correct and
traceability could lead to source problems also. SFL might not be the cause of every
error that it is facing from the customer as complaints.

2. If a part’s quality is achieved at benchmarking level, it could be traced to its

exact combination of resources. The resources are machine centre used, material used
raw material used, which operator operated on the job, etc.

3. At any moment, the part can be tracked at which stage of the process it is in.

Monetary benefits that could be achieved have been tracked. It can be narrowed down as the
minimization of scrap due to parts mix up. Parts mix up is no traceability.

The other intricate analysis could be defaulting because of wrong batch reaching the
customer. They could be working on a JIT environment. The line stoppages problem could
lead to heavy penalty charges and earning bad image.

Next steps to be taken by Subcontracting cell, SFL.

There are a few areas where SFL needs to upgrade to meet the global level competition it
might face in the near future.

They are

It should make more utilisation of SAP resource – making it a multi faceted tool by linking
marketing, manufacturing, planning, sales & performance management systems.

Automation of certain planning tools with the help of Advanced Scheduling & Planning, etc.

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Lessen manual intervention at every decision making point. A person’s discretion is the only
factor on the shop floor, currently. There should be a standard method instead if manual
discretion.

Use of Bar codes & RFIDs should be taken into consideration. Bar codes have been in
existence for the past 40 years. Still SFL is not using it intelligently.

Bibliography & references

• Representing and Reasoning About Quality Using Enterprise Models - A thesis by
Henry M Kim
• Traceability management data creation method, traceability management data creation
apparatus and traceability management data creation program storage medium
- A study by Keiichi Kataoka

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 Glossary of terms:
Routing tag: Similar to a routing file. Routing tag is the primary detail in a process industry
for flow of parts.

Operator Quality Audit (OQA): Operator’s visual inspection and primary specification
check at machine centre.

Manufacturing Quality Audit (MQA): Quality Department’s first check for actual
dimension under lab conditions with equipments.

S/C (or) Vendor (or) Subcontractor: Outsourced work given to an external agent.

RFID: Radio Frequency Identification.

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