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Productivity Improvement in Assembly Line of Automobile Industry by

Reducing Cycle time of Operations

Article  in  International Journal of Engineering and Technical Research · May 2016

DOI: 10.17577/IJERTV5IS050185

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Published by : International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
http://www.ijert.org ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 5 Issue 05, May-2016

Productivity Improvement in Assembly Line of

Automobile Industry by Reducing Cycle time of
Operations
Ashish Kalra Sachin Marwa
Mechanical Engineering Department Mechanical Engineering Departmen
Manav Rachna International University Manav Rachna International University
Faridabad, India Faridabad, India

Sandeep Srivastava Rajesh Bhatia

Physics Department General Manager
Manav Rachna International University Production
Faridabad, India Tractor manufacturing company

Abstract: The present study has been done at one of the Productivity is considered as a key source of economic
famous automobile industry, a leader manufacturer of development and competitiveness.
tractors. The aim of study is to identify various problems on
the assembly line which are causing assembly line to stop.
There are two assembly lines rear assembly line and front 1.2 Work Study
assembly line and the work has been done on the front Work study investigates the work done in a
assembly line. The bottle neck problem is found in front firm/company/organization and it aim to find the best and
assembly line and is solved by reducing the cycle time of the most efficient way of using all the resources which are
operations by utilizing the work study techniques and
available i.e. material, man, machine, money etc.
material handling techniques and it was found that cycle time
of the bottle neck operation was reduced by 14.66 % per Work study techniques involve Method study and Time
trolley. study techniques.
As shown in figure 1
Key words: Automobile industry, Assembly line, Work study
techniques, Material handling techniques.
WORK STUDY
1 INTRODUCTION
For an organization to survive and remain profitable in this
high competitive environment, organizations have to work
to increase its productivity by optimum use of resources
available within them.
METHOD TIME STUDY
1.1 Productivity STUDY
Productivity can be defined as a ratio between the output
volume and the volume of inputs. In other words, it [Figure 1]
measures how well production inputs, such as labour, time,
material, facility capital, are being used in an economy to
1.2.1 Method Study
produce a given level of output.
The expression for the productivity is as under:- Method study targets at finding the best way of doing the
work. Method study involves systematic investigation
Productivity = (output / input) (Which involves recording and critical investigation) of the
current method of doing the job so that easy, fast, which
“Productivity isn’t everything, but in the long run it is causes less fatigue to the worker, safe, economical way of
almost everything. A country’s ability to improve its doing the work can be developed and installed at low cost.
standard of living over time depends almost entirely on its This is basically achieved by eliminating the unnecessary
ability to raise its output per worker.” said Paul Krugman, motions which are involved in a procedure of doing the
The Age of Diminishing Expectations (1994). work and the same can also be achieved by changing the
sequence of operations or process itself.

IJERTV5IS050185 28
(This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.)
Published by : International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
http://www.ijert.org ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 5 Issue 05, May-2016

1.2.2 Time study  To conduct time study after implementation of the new
Time study is a technique of work measurement used to method.
establish time for a qualified worker to carry out specified  To compare the result of new method with result of the
task under specified conditions and at defined level of
performance. older method in terms of timing.
 To suggest new method to be implemented in the front
1.3 Case Study assembly line.
The study has been carried at one of the famous automobile
assembly plant which is a leading manufacturer of tractors 2 STUDIES AT COMPANY
in India and also famous for exporting tractors abroad. In 2.1 Method study implication
this company there are two assembly lines rear assembly  First step is to determine the sequence of the
line and front assembly line and the study has been carried operations in the front assembly line and create a
out on the front assembly line in which there are various process chart of front assembly line.
operation stages which are creating bottle neck on the front  Now from the past time study data provided by the
assembly line. It is desirable that 110 tractors to be company we studied the bottle neck operations and
assembled on the assembly line but it was observed that their respected stations which are reducing the
around 90% of tractors are assembled in a day. Thus the production rate and it was found that sub assembly of
concern of this paper is to present the ideas which can be the right fender of the tractor model 439XL took
used by the organization to reduce its cycle time of the around 17:37 minutes and the time should be around
operations in its front assembly line to enhance the 12 minutes for 4 pieces loaded in trolley.
efficiency of the system.  The problem associated with present method is that
sub assembly station for nut bolts is at different place
1.4 Objectives
and the sub assembly of the right side fender is at
 To identify the operations which are creating bottle different place. The worker has to move from sub
neck in the front assembly line. assembly station to assembly location of the nut bolts
 Identify the problem stations in assembly line where and then return to the original station where actual sub
bottle neck situation arises by using method study assembly of the fender is taking place. It was observed
that this extra movement involves around 32 seconds
technique.
on an average of 30 samples taken and the labour gets
 Develop a method to solve the problem which are fatigue when he do this again and again this reduces
causing assembly line to stop or to slow down its the performance of the labour due to unnecessary
production level than expected level. motion. Approximately 15 times worker have to move
 Conduct time study after implementation of the new unnecessary in a day just to create assembly of nut bolt
method for trial period of 10 days. and move to the sub assembly station where actual sub
assembly of the right hand side fender take place
 Suggest new method to the concern department in the
which means around 480 seconds are wasted in a day
organization. at this station and this effect is increased by the fatigue
of the worker caused by un-necessary motion of the
1.5 Productivity improvement technique workers.
The technique which has been used in this study is the And in this station it was found that pneumatic torque
work study technique in the first bottle neck operations to gun pipes get inter tangled with another stations pipes
identify the causes reducing the production rate by stopping as the point of pneumatic input to guns of different
the assembly line and then further on to these stations the station is common and 10 times approximately the pipe
root cause of the problems are identified by method study gets inter tangled with the other pneumatic gun pipe
technique and then after the new improved method was and workers cannot work when the pneumatic gun pips
developed and implemented for trial period of 10 days and are inter tangled, and around 15 seconds are spent just
trial period time study of these stations were conducted and to untangle the pipes and the time get wasted due to
the results of the time study were compared before and inter tangle of the pneumatic pipes is around 150
after implementation of the new method. seconds daily and total time wasted at this station
increases to (480 + 150)seconds= 630 seconds
1.6 Roles and Responsibility in the Study:- minimum or around 10:50 minutes per day and
 To study existing methods of doing the work and exhausted to labour also.
identifying the problems in the existing method which  Now a new material handling technique was proposed
are causing assembly line to stop. in which the nut bolt sub assembly is available by
welding cup holders to the trolley system in which nut
 To develop a practical, economical and most
bolt assembly is already available on the right hand
importantly safe method to be used in front assembly side of fender trolley, and instead of using pneumatic
line. torque guns battery operated torque guns idea was
 To implement and conduct the test run of the newly proposed which eliminate the problem of inter tangling
developed method for 10 days. of the pneumatic pipes.

IJERTV5IS050185 29
(This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.)
Published by : International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
http://www.ijert.org ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 5 Issue 05, May-2016

 The developed new material handling system and

battery operated torque guns idea was implemented for
period of 10 days.
 Time study was done for 10 days and it was found that
time required for assembly of right side fender trolley
of product 439XL was reduced to 15:02 minutes from
17:37 minutes and by using battery operated torque
gun the problem of inter tangling of pneumatic pipes
were eliminated and 15 seconds are saved on each
right hand fender trolley for 439XL product.

Figure-3(a) Drawing of improved Trolley system

Figure-2(a) Before 1

Figure-3(b) Battery operated torque gun

Sr Operations Time consumed by old Time consumed by

no. method 30 samples new method 30
average (min). samples average
(min).
1 Sub 17:37 15:02
assembly
of RH
Fender.
Table-1 Time description sheet

Figure-2(b) Before 2

Table-2 Motion description sheet

Figure-2(c) Before 3

IJERTV5IS050185 30
(This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.)
 Published by : International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
http://www.ijert.org ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 5 Issue 05, May-2016

25 4 REFERENCE
Observed time
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15 Assembly line of an Automotive Industry using Work Study
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10 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology
(IJERT) , ISSN: 2278-0181 , www.ijert.org.
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3.2 Conclusion
The main objective of this paper is to present ideas to
improve the productivity of automobile industry by
reducing the cycle time of the operations which are taking
extra time than desired time by using the concept of work
study and material handling techniques.

IJERTV5IS050185 31
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