About Maruti Suzuki

Maruti Suzuki was established in Feb 1981 through an act of parliament to meet the growing demands of the personal mode of transport in India. It was the brain child of Sanjay Gandhi. A joint venture agreement was signed between Govt. of India and Suzuki Motors Corporation in Oct 1982

Some of the key highlights of MSIL y It has two manufacturing facilities located at Gurgaon and Manesar with an installed capacity of 1.2 million vehicles annually y 14th December 1983 the first Maruti 800 was rolled off y Plans to expand capacity to 1.73 million by 2013 y In fiscal 2009-10 MSIL became the only Indian company to manufacture and sell 1 million cars y It is currently No 1 in the passenger car segment with a total Market share of 45 % y It has a total employee strength of 8500 y It has 12 models with over 100 variants

Some of the popular models of Maruti

Maruti 800

Maruti Alto

Wagon R

Swift

How is a Car Made

1. The making of a car starts from the press shop, where the raw material is obtained in the form of cold- rolled sheets. 2. From the press shop, the parts are sent to the weld shop, where they are welded to make the frame of the car. 3. From the weld shop, these frames are transferred via conveyors to the paint shop, where these are coated and glazed. 4. From the paint shop, these are sent to the assembly shop, where through a conveyor system, various parts are fitted at various canopies or stations. 5. The machine shop and the Engine assembly shops are located close to the respective assemblies, and the car engine and other transmission parts are also fitted in the assembly shop itself. 6. Then, the V.I dept. conducts various tests to ensure that no defects remain before the car is dispatched via trucks to various parts of the country

Press Shop
The Press Shop can be regarded as the starting point of the car manufacturing process Components manufactured are y Skin panels y Roof panels y Door panels Raw material: The Coils are in the form of cold rolled steel coils. Blanking lines: There are two blanking lines one for cutting rectangular shapes and the other for cutting irregular shapes Stamping line: There are six presses of capacity varying from 1500 Tons to 4000 Tons out of which 5 are transfer press and one is semiautomatic press. The die can be changed to obtain different body components. White Body: The doors, hood and back door are attached on the main body with the help of bolts and screws to make it a white body. The body is checked for dent, burr and spatter and these defects are repaired. After inspection and repairs the body is called WBOK. It is sent to the paint shop thereafter

Paint Shop
The paint shop is the place where the cars are painted. The Painting process is divided into five processes. The Five processes are as follows y Pre-treatment y Electro deposition y Solid sealing y IC y Dry sanding y Top Coat y Touch up

y Pre-Treatment: The White Body coming from the weld shop is first thoroughly washed to remove dirt and soil and then the body is treated with ZnPO4 (phosphating) to prevent corroding of the body. y Electro deposition :The ED coat is deposited by electric deposition method at 240 dc supply .After that it is baked in Oven y Solid Sealing : Here the holes generated by welding are provided with solid seals to provide for water proofing y Intermediate Coat : The Intermediate coat is done to provide a base for Final Painting .It is done by Spray Painting with the help of 10 Kawasaki Robots y Top Coat: The Final painting is done by 20 Kawasaki Robots in the form of spray painting

Assembly Shop
There are 3 assembly shops in Gurgaon Plant. Due to Paucity of time we have been able to study only Assembly Shop-1. Some of the Basic characteristics of the Assembly Shop are y The Gurgaon Plant Produces a Total of 1750 Cars through the 3 assembly plants y The Assembly shop Receives painted body through over head conveyor y The Gurgaon plant mainly produces Maruti 800(domestic and export), Zen Estillo (Domestic and export), Omni( Passenger and Cargo), EECO, RITZ & WAGONR. The Rest of the models are produced in the Manesar Plant for Eg. A Star, Swift(Petrol and Diesel Version), Swift Dzire y There are about 80 stations in assembly line 1

The Assembly Line can be further subdivided into 3 parts

1. Trim Line 2. Chassis Line 3. Final Line

Trim Line
It is the First Part of the Assembly line. Here the Painted body enters the assembly line and there are no door attached to the body. The Trim line is further divided into 3 lines y Trim 1 y Trim 2 y Trim 3

Trim 1
Here various kinds of works are done for eg: attachment of hydraulic supports to the boost. Door and floor grommets , electric wiring , parking brake cables , inner and outer door openers model stickers and emblems, roof silencer and cabin lamps

Trim 2
It starts with Rear combination light fitment. Other operations done here are vacuum booster/ brake master cylinder fitment, seat belts, fuse box, wiper sprayer and motor- accelerator, clutch, brake pedals, door glasses and a/c panel fitment. Trim 2 ends with the fitment of the instrument panel, which is received from an instrument panel subassembly. This sub assembly involves the fitting of the speedometer console, ashtray and stereo system.

Trim 3
The fittings done here are inside cover for boot, back door glass and wind shield , quarter glass and connecting pipe between fuel pump and fuel lid

CHASSIS
Here all the Under Body fitments are done. The Body is loaded over head jigs. The Chassis can be further divided into again three parts.

y Chassis 1 y Chassis 2

CHASIS 1
Various fitments made here are rear shock absorbers, brake pipes, front coil spring with knuckle, steering wheel, tie rods, rear suspension, fuel pipes, fuel tank and rear brake drum. There is a knuckle sub assembly that feeds the line with knuckles for the front suspension system. Process check is done at the end of Chassis 1.

CHASIS 2
The fitments made here the exhaust system (silencer and catalytic converter), engine cum transmission case assembly, gearshift rod, front and rear bumpers, stabilizer bars and tyres. The tie rod and drive shafts are connected to the knuckle to complete the front suspension system and ID plate fixation. A process check is done at the end of chassis 2.

FINAL
The Final part of the Assembly line is known as Final Fitment area. Here onwards the steel case is referred to as vehicle. The Final area is divided into 3 parts as follows.

y Final 1 y Final2 y Final3

Final 1
Here the following fitments are done y Spare wheel cover y Seats y Roof trim y Battery y Air cleaner y Clutch cable and parking brake connections y Brake oil

Final 2
Here petrol and A/c charging is done in the vehicle

Final 3
Here the vehicle is checked according to the check sheet. If the all the fitment have done as per the check sheet then the vehicle is termed as AB OK and is sent to the vehicle inspection line.

Vehicle Inspection
In Vehicle Inspection (VI) the vehicle is checked at different check points in the below mentioned order. At each check points various parameters are checked. Each vehicle is provided with a check sheet and the inspector marks down the defects if any or otherwise marks OK. If any defect is found it is sent to the following areas depending on the defects y y y y Assembly repair Weld repair Paint Repair Engine Assembly Repair

The following check points are as follows y y y y y Toe in test Slip test Head lamp test Appearance test Drum test

y y y y y

Brake test Engine room and pit test Shower test Road test Final test

Toe in test
Toe-in refers to the alignment of the wheels. Generally the wheels are pointed slightly in-wards (toe-in) or outwards (toe out). If the wheel is not perfectly aligned then there will be tyre wear and slippage .Another thing that is tested here is the correct steering position. Correct steering position refers to the setting of the steering wheel that would allow the car to move in a straight direction

Slip Tester
It is used to check the vehicle slippage after the toe in testing.

Head Lamp tester

Due to maladjustment of vehicle beam the beam might fall on unwanted subjects. The head light beam is then adjusted so that it falls on the desired objects.

Appearance test
This test involves evaluating a vehicle on a large no of parameters ranging mainly from external appearance of the vehicle to the internal trim fittings. The vehicle is loaded on a conveyor. The vehicle is visually inspected for weld, paint and assembly defects and the same is marked on the check sheet. The appearance check points are y ID Plates

y y y y y y y y y

Emblems Bumper Doors Fuel lid Front hood Seats Tyres Glasses Seat belts

Shower Test
It is used to detect whether there is any seepage in the cabin. The Vehicles are passed through a shower with the doors and windows rolled up. If a particular defect is found then the particular defect is repaired and then the particular defect is repaired. After shower test it is then sent for road test

Final Check
This is the last of the vehicle inspection checks. After the vehicle has gone through the other tests and if there are no repairs to be done then it is sent to final check. Here the overall appearance of the vehicle is checked again. Scratches, dents, cleanliness and Cemedine(windscreen sealer) leftovers are checked for.. Inspection stamps for all the previous check stations are checked to see that there is no inspection misses. Finally the chassis and engine number on the I.D. plate are verified and the Final

Learnings
From Our Plant visit we had the following learnings 1. We understood the process how a car is Made 2. We also understood the continuous Production system

3. We also understood how quality can achieved hand in hand with efficiency 4. In the process of plant visit we got to understand and see various kaizens implemented at various stations 5. Although our visit was restricted to understanding the process of manufacture of the car but we could see the practical application of Just in Time where MSIL keeps a very low level of inventory at its end 6. We also saw the application of 5S in the shop floor

Some More Pictures

Vehicle in assembly line

White Body moving out of weld shop to paint shop

Vehicle lined up in dispatch section ready to be dispatched

References