Lean Implementation At

Siemens Kalwa Plant

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 Siemens Introduction
First workshop, 1955

Started with 10 employees

55% subsidiary of Siemens AG Germany in 2009

Factories in Kalwa, Nasik, Calcutta, Aurangabad and Goa

Reached upto 4000 employees, 11 sales offices, 23 representatives, 300 dealers, 5

factories and e-offices

Became the second largest of Siemens manufacturing operations outside

Germany

Four major divisions: Industry, Energy, Healthcare and Consumer products

Kalwa Works: Medium Voltage division, sole manufacturer

Switchboard: second largest MV factory outside Germany

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 Need for a change
Batch Processing dampened inefficiencies
Errors had a ripple effect on overall manufacturing chain
Increasing amounts of scrap
Increased customer orders: need to utilize full capacity
Need for improvement in labor productivity, lower
inventory levels & higher throughput
In October 2006 : Proposal to implement Lean systems
In October 2007 : Gewald, Global head of lean projects
arrived at Kalwa and marked the official beginning of
the project.
The lean team was set and decided to implement for
Panels and VCBs units.

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 Benefits of Implementation
Increased productivity of labor

Reduction in inventory levels and associated costs

Improved space utilization

These Benefits promised to result in

Higher throughput of panels

Increased profits for the factory

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 Question 2: How was the
organizations change process
managed?
The company had different sections which needed
to change during lean management theory for
example : shop floor , design and engineering
departments, vendor and suppliers
All of these sections worked in traditional methods

Implementing Lean in the shop floor meant the

supporting departments also need to adopt lean
methodologies
Layout changes
Changes in support system
Changes in vendor management
Cultural changes

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 The organizations change process
In the first step two or three members of the team
including Vedak had a trip to the lean plant of Maruti
and they could see benefits of lean management
At the same time some American consultants arrived
to the Kalwa factory to cooperate with them in lean
management process implementation.
Managers needed to restructure layout and process
to implement lean management .
Obviously errors, inefficiencies and wastes were not
clear before implementation, during this process
managers asked every department idea to achieve
efficient ways and reduce next impact between
personnel
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 Issues with Workers
Bonus was linked to productivity : union wanted daily
production to be five panels per day per line but
management wanted eight
Workers classified as : productive and non productive
The pace of working quickly and relaxing was now not possible

Khandekar interacted with employees and made them aware

how their faults and performance resulted in loss to the
organisation.
This helped increase the interest of workers and employees
in lean meetings.
Khandekar also explained to the workers the role of lean in
increasing the productivity, thus making them part of the
process.
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 CHANGES IN THE SUPPORT
LAYOUT CHANGES SYSTEM

Installation of dashboards at the

beginning of every line
5 Assembly lines were Issues were posted by workers

formed and shop engineers on the dash

boards
Each line had 6 assembly
These issues were discussed on
workstations
daily basis to improve the
Takt time (time per
throughput and conflicts between
workstation was fixed at 1
departments and workers
hour)
Also root cause of the problem
was determined and solutions to
avoid them in future were noted
Gaps in skills were identified by
skill assessment test
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 CHANGES IN VENDOR
MANAGEMENT CULTURAL CHANGES
On time delivery with ensured
quality.
Vendors usually supplied
materials in batches
With the implementation of Joint prayer and exercise sessions for each
lean they are no longer assembly line at the beginning of every shift.
required by batch or customer Instill a sense of Team
order
Challenge for both suppliers
Belongingness
All the members were given a T-shirt imprinted
and the material planning team with Lean logo as a uniform
Vendors were presented with
sends message of team
the benefits of the program
Short term solution Suppliers Effort
can manufacture in Bulk and
the company will use Pull
philosophy, i.e. to pull material
when needed
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