Automotive Mahindra Vehicles

Mahindra rises with digitally planned new vehicle manufacturing facility

Products Mahindra Vehicle Manufacturers ceed and to create a better future for Teamcenter, Tecnomatix Limited (Mahindra Vehicles) themselves, their families and their com- uses Tecnomatix to establish a munities. In the spirit of “Rise,” a new Mahindra manufac­turing facility recently Business challenges state-of-the-art automotive rose in the Chakan corridor near Pune, manufacturing plant Manage global markets and India. competition A world leader in vehicle manufacturing Mahindra Group’s Automotive Sector man- Shorten the vehicle develop- rises in South Asia ufactures and markets light commercial ment lead time to reduce Mahindra Group (Mahindra) is among the and utility vehicles, including auto rick- time-to-market biggest and most powerful publicly listed shaws (three-wheelers). The sector has Minimize manufacturing companies in the world. It operates in the been the leader in India’s utility vehicles launch issues to accelerate key industries that drive economic growth, market since its inception, and currently production ramp-up enjoying a leadership position in tractors, accounts for about half of India’s utility utility vehicles, information technology Meet increasing demand for vehicle market. The company exports its (IT) and vacation ownership. Mahindra highly customized vehicles products to Europe, Africa, South America, focuses on enabling people to “Rise,” a call South Asia and the Middle East. to action to unite the many companies Keys to success within the Mahindra Group to a common Mahindra decided to expand its lineup to Get the new Chakan plant up purpose. More specifically, Mahindra include a new range of medium and heavy and running quickly employees are encouraged to rise, to suc- commercial vehicles, including SUVs, Improve quality and consis- tency in manufacturing, sup- porting “first time right” approach Analyze the impact of product mixes on production through- put and optimize facilities layouts Virtually analyze complex assembly scenarios of the new product lines Share best practice process data between multiple sites and with suppliers

The new Maxximo light commercial vehicle, manufactured at the Final Assembly of the Mahindra Navistar Mahindra Chakan plant. truck in the Mahindra Chakan plant.

www.siemens.com/plm A Mahindra manufacturing engi- neer uses Manufacturing Process Planner.

Results trucks and buses. This expansion required assembly suppliers use Teamcenter® soft- Reduced lead time and the a new plant, so Mahindra decided to estab- ware for product lifecycle management overall duration of a vehicle lish a new manufacturing facility in (PLM). The company also uses NX™ soft- project Chakan. Mahindra’s challenge was how to ware for some of the powertrain product assess, design and build the facility, plus design, and a few years ago Mahindra Decreased capital investment get it running and producing vehicles started using Tecnomatix® software for in machines and conveyors according to the aggressive schedule that digital manufacturing. Substantially shortened lead management had defined. time for concept design of “In 2007, we selected and introduced the production facilities As of 2012, 1,500,000 cars are produced Tecnomatix solution, because it offers a Reduced bottlenecks in annually in the Chakan corridor by full range of digital manufacturing tools production Mahindra, Volkswagen, General Motors, that serve our needs, integrates smoothly Mercedes Benz and other automotive man- with our existing product data manage- Increased re-use of manufac- ufacturers. Mahindra is one of the largest ment systems and clearly stands out in turing tools manufacturers in this area, producing light meeting the criteria we had defined,“ says Maximized production commercial vehicles (LCV), pick-up trucks, Nagesh Nidamaluri, senior general man- resource utilization SUVs and the Mahindra Navistar heavy ager, Assembly Systems, MES and Digital duty trucks. Manufacturing, Chakan plant, Mahindra Vehicles. Revisiting engineering processes to establish “state-of-the-art” plant Mahindra uses the Manufacturing Process Mahindra is a long-time customer of Planner solution in the Teamcenter Siemens PLM Software. Designers, data portfolio for the planning of various pro- administrators and some of its product duction processes; as well as Plant

“ The Tecnomatix solution...offers a full range of digital manufacturing tools that serve our needs.”

Nagesh Nidamaluri Senior General Manager Assembly Systems, MES and Digital Manufacturing Mahindra Vehicle Manufacturers Limited Simulation, FactoryCAD™ software and Laying out the new Chakan plant in 3D “In 2007, we selected and FactoryFlow™ software, all in the While constructing the new plant in introduced the Tecnomatix Tecnomatix portfolio, for plant design and Chakan, Mahindra decided to significantly solution, because it offers a optimization; Process Designer and Process upgrade the way it creates and manages full range of digital manufac- Simulate and Jack™ software, also all in plant layout data. There were a number of turing tools that serve our the Tecnomatix portfolio, for assembly issues to deal with, including the fact that needs, integrates smoothly planning and validation. there was no uniform plant layout method with our existing product across the enterprise. Each site was man- data management systems The establishment of a new plant was a aging plant layout separately. Plant layout and clearly stands out in good opportunity to revisit Mahindra’s cur- drawings were not maintained in a central meeting the criteria we had rent engineering processes. “We have real- repository, which made it very time-con- defined.“ ized that in order to shorten a vehicle suming to locate them when they were Nagesh Nidamaluri manufacturing project, we need to deploy needed. There was no revision manage- Senior General Manager concurrent engineering methods,” ment system and only one engineer at a Assembly Systems, MES and Nidamaluri says. “This means that manu- time could work on any given layout. Digital Manufacturing facturing engineering needs to work con- Drawings provided by suppliers were Mahindra Vehicle currently with product design. Digital maintained in different layers in the same Manufacturers Limited manufacturing tools provided by Siemens file, resulting in duplication of data and PLM Software facilitate this approach. This unnecessarily large files, which degrade is a dramatic change to our current engi- visualization performance. “Providing the essentials neering processes. needed to create detailed To resolve these issues, FactoryCAD was and intelligent factory mod- “We have a gate system, and one of the used to create 3D plant layouts for all of els, FactoryCAD allowed our gates is the virtual validation gate. In the the Chakan plant production lines, includ- planners to use ‘smart past, mostly the product design group was ing body and trim, chassis and final (TCF). objects’ to represent their actually doing validations for this gate; but “Providing the essentials needed to create factory resources.” now, with the help of Tecnomatix digital detailed and intelligent factory models, manufacturing tools, the manufacturing FactoryCAD allowed our planners to use Anupam Patil engineering group is very active in prepa- ‘smart objects’ to represent their factory Senior Manager rations for this gate.” resources,” says Anupam Patil, senior man- IT and PLM ager, IT and PLM, Chakan plant, Mahindra Mahindra Vehicle Mahindra decided to execute the digital Vehicles. Manufacturers Limited manufacturing journey at the Chakan plant in a series of steps, deploying point solu- “This was especially advantageous because tions to address specific needs, followed the objects provided the ability to snap a by the manufacturing bill of materials layout model together, instead of wasting (MBOM) and fi`nally the bill of process time drawing the individual equipment. (BOP). Mahindra plans to clone proven Using FactoryCAD, we were able to methodologies developed in the Chakan resolve many issues before erecting and plant at other plants. commissioning of the factory, such as interferences of process and utility equip-

Left: Truck cargo mounting analysis created with Jack human simulation.

Middle: Engine docking station simulation cre- ated with Jack human simulation.

Right: Interference of a robot and a column found using FactoryCAD. Left: Plant Simulation model – routing with no cross-over.

Right: Plant Simulation model – routing with a cross-over for empty skids.

ment with the civil structure, for example, into three separate TCF assembly lines. as well as a monorail system that caused Tecnomatix Plant Simulation was used to interference with the supporting beams at conduct a what-if simulation to determine a specific area and a robot that caused the best scenarios for the plant’s inter- interference with the building column in shop conveyor system. Several scenarios another area.” of mixed-model production volumes were simulated and the optimal size of central A planned production line, virtually painted body buffer storage and individual simulated BIW shop storage was determined. This Before building the production line, simulation project substantially reduces Mahindra completed a number of simula- the lead time in designing the storage. tion projects that helped to make impor- tant decisions in configuring the Another project was to determine the production line. One of the projects optimal routing method of painted vehicle addressed the inter-connections of the bodies from the single paint line to the body-in-white (BIW) welding shop, paint three TCF assembly lines. “The simulation line and the TCF assembly line, where all helped to identify bottlenecks, and the parts are assembled to form a com- verify the robustness of the selected pleted vehicle. option,” says Amit Jahagirdar, digital man- ufacturing manager, Chakan plant, The goal of the simulation project was to Mahindra Vehicles. “One simulated option find out the optimal buffer storage capac- was a clockwise flow of bodies with no ity in between these production lines. The cross-over. The simulation showed that in challenge arose because there were three the event that one of the three TCF lines is BIW planned production lines (for the shut-down, the respective bodies in the Maxximo, Genio and XUV vehicles) going main line would create blockage in moving into a single paint line, which then goes bodies to the other TCF lines. The second option was a counter-clockwise flow, with a cross-over for the empty skids to flow back to the paint shop. This is a more “The simulation helped to robust option because each TCF feeder line is practically independent of others. So, there is little or no impact on the overall identify bottlenecks, and performance of the line shutdowns.”

verify the robustness of the Using Plant Simulation, Mahindra gained critical insight regarding its factory layout and installation processes across vehicle selected option.” lines. Accurate and fast validation of pro- cesses enabled the company to achieve its Amit Jahagirdar goal of getting the implementation right Digital Manufacturing Manager, the first time. Detailed throughput exami- Chakan plant nation notably reduced bottlenecks, and Mahindra Vehicle Manufacturers Limited “So, we decided to use dedicated tools for this task, and developed a robust MBOM creation and update methodology using Manufacturing Process Planner.”

Anupam Patil Senior Manager IT and PLM Mahindra Vehicle Manufacturers Limited

what-if analysis capabilities substantially process. For example, in the paint line, the decreased unnecessary capital investment chassis will be represented by a bare chas- in machines and conveyors. sis, cathodic electrocoat deposition body and painted body. These forms, which we MBOM creation means no part is call ‘semi-finished parts,’ appear as a single forgotten in the production assembly in the EBOM, but as different The engineering bill of materials (EBOM) is assemblies in the MBOM. Another exam- created and managed using Teamcenter. ple of MBOM-specific information is the Then manufacturing engineers create the addition of scrap weight to the stamped MBOM using Manufacturing Process parts, as this information is used down- Planner by consuming parts from the stream in the recycling process. EBOM. The MBOM is then sent from Manufacturing Process Planner to SAP® “Handling the MBOM changes throughout software, the enterprise resource planning the development lifecycle is crucial for us. (ERP) system Mahindra uses. Therefore, the engineering notifications are transferred along with the EBOM from “In the previous method, planners used Teamcenter. The notifications are put into Microsoft Excel to define and maintain the a common pull, and from there they are MBOM,” Patil says. “While the tool is intui- assigned to the relevant MBOM planner. In tive, it was clear to us that this is not sus- addition, once an initial MBOM is created, tainable for handling large BOMs and all subsequent changes in the MBOM are sharing engineering data. So, we decided done in a controlled configuration, using to use dedicated tools for this task, and the incremental change mechanism, developed a robust MBOM creation and which enables us to analyze very clearly update methodology using Manufacturing the impact of any EBOM change on the Process Planner. Using this methodology, MBOM. Within the incremental change, planners adjust the EBOM and add relevant we use the workflow mechanism of MBOM in Manufacturing Process Planner with “make or buy” definitions. production information such as a ‘make or Teamcenter which helps ensure that every buy’ definition for each item and the point change goes through a predefined of consumption along the production line, sequence of events and an authorized which is later used by the shop floor logis- approval. These capabilities are unique, tics management system.” and provide us the ability to put a lot of structure into the MBOM creation “The MBOM will include the car parts in process.” their form through the entire production “We use the workflow mecha- Due to the importance of maintaining an could support sufficient door opening. The nism of Teamcenter which accurate MBOM, starting from the engi- limit to which the doors can be opened ensures that every change neering team and down to the shop floor, was calculated based on the virtual 3D goes through a predefined Mahindra uses Teamcenter to execute a simulation, instead of waiting for actual sequence of events and an daily update to synchronize any incremen- parts to arrive at plant. This resulted in authorized approval. These tal changes to the EBOM. In a similar man- cost and time savings and reduced the capabilities are unique, and ner, Teamcenter integration for SAP number of iterations of the hanger provide us the ability to put synchronizes the MBOM daily with SAP design,” says Jahagirdar. a lot of structure into the based on make or buy attributes. For MBOM creation process.” example, any assembly node with children, which was identified in the MBOM as a Anupam Patil purchased assembly, will be automatically Senior Manager exported and will appear in SAP as a IT and PLM single node. Mahindra Vehicle Manufacturers Limited Dynamic 3D simulation supports analysis of complex assembly scenarios “Manufacturing engineers for the new Maxximo used Process Simulate to val- The painted body of the Maxximo mini- idate hanger design that truck is transported inside the new assem- could support sufficient door bly shop for operations. The car body is opening. The limit to which moved along using a hanger system in the Process Simulate is used to simulate the doors open- ing while the truck is on a hanger. the doors can be opened was underbody areas and on transfer lines. The calculated based on the vir- system was initially designed to carry the tual 3D simulation, instead car body with the doors closed. After ana- The assembly process for the Maxximo was of waiting for actual parts to lyzing the conceptual flow of assembly, planned so that the engine assembly from arrive at plant. This resulted other possible assembly operations were the engine production unit is transferred in cost and saving of time analyzed. It was found that in order to to the final assembly shop from a logistic and iterations of the hanger reduce production time, some assembly area. It moves on a predefined track and design.” operations could be executed when the car gets synchronized with the conveyor carry- body is on the hanger, as long as the doors ing the Maxximo car bodies on hangers. Amit Jahagirdar could be opened to a certain extent, which Because this is a complex scenario, which Digital Manufacturing will enable operators to work inside the involves many parameters, manufacturing Manager cabin area. engineers also performed a dynamic 3D Mahindra Vehicle simulation of this scenario. “The main Manufacturers Limited “Manufacturing engineers used Process objective of this simulation was to validate Simulate to validate hanger design that the planned process and its duration esti-

“ Manufacturing engineers used Process Simulate to validate hanger design....This resulted in cost and saving of time and iter- ations of the hanger design.”

Amit Jahagirdar Digital Manufacturing Manager Mahindra Vehicle Manufacturers Limited Implementing Tecnomatix portfolio enabled a 25 percent reduction in the green field plant setup time, a 28 percent improve- ment in effective working time.

mation. The ergonomics of operators was “The digital manufacturing tools play a key “We have defined a workflow also evaluated based on Mahindra stan- role in the first steps of a car project,” says using Teamcenter to classify dards,” Jahagirdar says. Nidamaluri. “These tools are already used our existing and new tools in the requirements definition phase of a by part number, so that Tools management lowers cost by new or modified production line. This eventually we will have a enabling re-use enables us to provide more mature engi- structured library of tools Mahindra plans to use the resource classifi- neering information upfront to our system across the Mahindra auto- cation capability of Teamcenter to manage suppliers, and will therefore reduce lead motive sector.” its many production tools. According to time and the overall duration of a car proj- Amit Jahagirdar Jahagirdar, “The objective of this initiative ect. I also expect that our production facili- Digital Manufacturing is to lower costs, reduce lead time and ties and tools suppliers will interact with Manager improve quality by helping the manufac- the system, and introduce their inputs.” Mahindra Vehicle turing engineer/planner select the proper Manufacturers Limited resource, increasing the re-use of manu- Mahindra Vehicles receives top award facturing tools, reducing tool inventory, Mahindra Vehicles received the top honor maximizing resource utilization and deliv- in Siemens PLM Software’s Asia Pacific “The benefits of the ering digital models for verification and Innovation Awards 2012, which places a Tecnomatix digital manufac- simulation.” spotlight on how PLM technology enables turing tools for Mahindra are companies to make smarter decisions that already invaluable. This tool- “We have defined simple categories for any lead to the creation of better products. set deployment strengthens tool we have in our production plants, The top award is presented to the com- the ‘first time right’ mindset including a tool suitable to a specific part, pany that uses PLM technology in a way we have in Mahindra, as it such as fixtures or specific gauges. There that enables it to be a hallmark of success enables us to conduct differ- are also more generic tools, such as robots in the manufacturing industry, maximizing ent ‘what-if’ analyses of and torque wrenches. Based on this, we the value derived from its products production scenarios.” are defining a workflow using Teamcenter throughout the entire lifecycle to stream- Nagesh Nidamaluri to classify our existing and new tools by line its productivity and performance. Senior General Manager part number, so that eventually we will Assembly Systems, MES and have a structured library of tools across the Implementing Tecnomatix portfolio Digital Manufacturing Mahindra automotive sector.” enabled Mahindra Vehicles to come closer Mahindra Vehicle than ever before to real-time digital manu- Manufacturers Limited The next step is the development of the facturing. Other benefits included a 25 BOP using Manufacturing Process Planner. percent reduction in the green field plant Assembly operations and their duration are setup time, a 28 percent improvement in defined, and then linked to the parts that effective working time by validating and should be handled and to the specific tools reducing nonvalue-added activities and an required to carry out the work. This meth- overall increase in flexibility, which pro- odology enables Mahindra manufacturing duced more product model mixes and engineers to re-use best practices and cap- reduced time-to-market. tured knowledge in planning or modifying a production line. Solutions/Services Teamcenter Manufacturing Process Planner www.siemens.com/teamcenter Tecnomatix Process Designer Process Simulate Plant Simulation FactoryCAD FactoryFlow Jack www.siemens.com/tecnomatix

Robotic simulation created with Tecnomatix to reduce cycle time of welding operations. Customer’s primary business Mahindra Vehicle Manufacturers Limited manu- “First time right” will lead to a brighter robots in our Chakan plant. Currently, even factures and markets utility future the slightest change in a robot program and light commercial vehicles, “The benefits of the Tecnomatix digital requires us to contact the line builder and including auto rickshaws manufacturing tools for Mahindra are ask for modifications. I believe we can (three-wheelers). It is the already invaluable,” Nidamaluri says. “This develop skills by using the Tecnomatix leader in utility vehicles in toolset deployment strengthens the ‘first robotics offline programming tools to con- India and currently accounts time right’ mindset we have in Mahindra, duct some of this work ourselves. This will for about half of the country’s as it enables us to conduct different ‘what- bring multiple benefits, including higher utility vehicle market. The if’ analyses of production scenarios. Still, flexibility due to greater engineering capa- Mahindra Group’s Automotive we are looking forward to make more bility, shortening the modifications lead Sector is part of the globally progress in the digital manufacturing jour- time and reducing cost.” recognized Mahindra Group, ney. For example, we have more than 100 which is among the top 10 industrial companies in India. www.mahindra.com “ The benefits of the Tecnomatix Customer location Chakan, Pune, Maharashtra District digital manufacturing tools for India Mahindra are already invaluable.”

Partner Nagesh Nidamaluri Tesis PLMware GmbH Senior General Manager Assembly Systems www.tesis.de/plmware MES and Digital Manufacturing Mahindra Vehicle Manufacturers Limited

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