Annual Report 2011 (5.07 MB, PDF-File) - Oerlikon

30 % higher output with
40 % less labor
“We have really improved our production operation – and the
entire workforce did its part to accomplish this.” Deva Jacob,
Director of the Oerlikon Drive Systems Belgaum in Maharashtra,
Southwestern India, is proud of his team. They have partially
or completely automated many work steps in favor of automation.
By engaging all 800 workers in the process, the plant
director was able to demonstrate that automation doesn’t automatically
mean unemployment.
“Today, we produce 30 % more than before, and we do it with
60 % of the people we would have needed before,” Deva says.
“But we didn’t lay off anybody – we actually created more
jobs.” The reason: rapidly rising demand for the gear components
and complete gears produced at the plant. A total of
250 000 gear components and nearly 4 000 complete gears
now leave the factory each month. The facility serves an international
customer base, namely the United States. Domestic
sales, however, are expanding due to Indian construction and
agricultural equipment industry demand.
High acceptance among employees
In defining and carrying out this modernization effort, Deva integrated
the entire workforce into the process. All employees
did their part: machine operators, maintenance technicians,
production designers, tool suppliers and master technicians.
Deva and his team optimized 100 machines to eliminate a
number of manual procedures. The milling and deburring of
loose gears, the drilling of oil conduits and the cutting, lathing
and grinding processes have been partially or fully automated.
Deva introduced lean production methods and set up production
lines in places where products had been made in cells.
Components are no longer transported manually; instead, they
move between the various workstations on conveyor belts. A
total of 30 production lines are now working at the same time.
The transition from batch mode production to flow production
accounts for the improvements in both efficiency and adherence
to schedules.
Integration of the workforce was crucial to the projects’ success.