Typical improvement at Conn-Rod engine production company (Part 1)

Albon PLC is a company with extensive experience in the field of manufacturing automobile engines and transport components. During its 50 years of operation, Albon PLC has become a reliable supplier to many industries as well as various transportation sectors such as trucking, water and air transport.

In response to customer needs, Albon PLC has developed a research and innovation department to provide better access to multiple market segments. Although this division has done well in its role, but also because of that, Albon has to face the problem of unmet output due to the number of orders increasing rapidly.

Specifically, in 2018, after the company conquered the trust of many major customers in the UK and Serbia. Along with that is the number of orders increased dramatically, especially with the line of connecting rods products (Conn-Rod). It is estimated that within 3 months, the company needs to increase output from 1052 rods / day to a maximum of 1788 rods / day.

The transmission rod, also known as the Conn-Rod is an indispensable part of the internal combustion engine, its sole purpose is to connect the elbows and pistons to provide cushioning distance for more precise movement. between these two engine components. It is not uncommon for Albon to use prototype parts for machining from a single billet, which is used when tailoring the Conn-Rod to the engine design prior to the manufacture of the die, for mass production purposes.

Based on this principle, experts have been oriented towards an improvement plan rather than the expansion of production scale, because the second way requires a major overhaul in both production line and staff. the. Another reason is that Albon’s management also wants to build a sustainable, standardized process for replication on other lines, while maintaining remuneration for their employees (The Company discourages recruiting more manpower and overtime at weekends).

Albon’s innovation team has built a Value Stream Mapping to give managers a better overview of the seven most common types of waste, including: Shipping, Inventory , Excess motion, Waiting, Overproduction, Unnecessary production, Defective / finished product ratio. These wastes can be quantified by calculating OEE through three indicators: Availability, Quality Factor and Performance factor.

Accordingly, by identifying unplanned downtime, waste / finished product ratio and actual equipment performance relative to design, Albon has developed an improved process. help increase production 70% in just 3 months.

(To be continue)

Productivity and Quality Office