light headed!

It’s been seven months since i have moved back to Bombay. Fiscal 2007 has been one hell of a year so far.

The Small Yet Significant Hits

• We have our new office ready for production. It will seat three more people.
• We have a new manual Crane setup, it has already chopped off considerable cutting time of rods and pipes.
• We have a new rack which eases up the storage problem even if only by a infinitesimal margin. Need more work here.
• We had a meeting with our subcontractors at the beginning of the first quarter. These were mostly about Quality Improvements and reduction in double work and waste. Baby steps to a high quality product. The effect is there for all to see albeit with an undesirable side effect (Increased Inventory).
• A semi-finished system is in place with controls. Now we need more checks built in. We finally have dealt with Roles and Responsibilities, there is still much to be done on this front but we have a start! Tracking has been achieved to a large extent. We still want more transparency with the production file.
• And finally the one BIG HIT .. GROWTH!!!

Figures are Year On Year[YOY]

24%

Our growth in ’07 since April to September as can be seen is 24%. I have crossed out the rest of the entries under the ’07 column as they do not take into account actual production during the period.

The blue line tapers down from month 7 as there has been no production since September. (October figures are pending as of the time of writing this post.) Note that the rise in month 7(October) is due to poor performance in the corresponding month in ’06 (previous year).

Also note the sharp dip in the beginning of the fiscal and compare it with the red and the green lines. Production has shown negative growth in those periods until finally picking up in the following months. This is due to abnormal growth witnessed in April for ’06 and low base in ’05.

We expect the production to pick up in second half though not at the same growth rate. This possible deceleration is due to the high production rate during the previous years in the second half.
Other Changes
An Cad Operator has been hired for faster processing of designs. A new Manager has been hired for facilitating and co-coordinating efforts across the process chain.
So much more to do..
The changes in the offing are multifold,

EFFECT SHORT TERM

• Employ shifts in our bottle neck areas, to ease out traffic.
• Hire one more draftsman.
• Assign helpers to a particular set of machines to prevent unavailability. This will also allow the helper to be trained on his particular set of machines and thus breed skills in house.
• Create racks for Piston Rods for easier pick-up.

EFFECT LONG TERM

• Get people to document policies concerning their particular function. Redefine and revalidate if necessary.
• Create a new assembly area to facilitate faster Assembly and to separate assembly from the production line.
• Get a crane on another side of the shop floor, this should free up helpers.
• Standardize.
• Device a faster Assembly Line, time the current one.
• Have a design policy in place.

The journey finally begins…