Finally piling up the whole thing. I have still not completed my projects and time to go back has come. So I have decided to not go for detailed study and give small solutions to the problem which i picked in the last few weeks of the training duration.

I wished to do some FEA for heat sink for the oil filling machine but could not find any CAD system for that. Moreover the certain details about torquemeter clamp are not available. So as of now i am done with the solution to the Bolero Exhaust Twist problem and Scorpio A-Pillar trim problem. So rest of my time goes to the assy line to see what i have missed and each time i go to the line i find so many new things to see which i could not notice before. May be a 2 month exhaustive OBSERVATIONAL TRAINING would have sufficed for a assy line like this.

Last week I gained some momentum as I got the model file of A pillar trim as well as got a new project to work upon, enough to keep me busy. Although finding a CAD system in a place where finding a desktop PC to work upon was very difficult (for a trainee) but i managed to get myself a CAD workstation.

Visit to the vendor of Exhaust system (Walker India Pvt. Ltd.) could not be realised but i got the inspection data from the quality assurance of Walker via email. The sheet contained data of ONLY ONE SAMPLE of exhaust system!!. Though i asked the concerned person for an exhaustive inspection data but I could not dare to wait for more to come and drew my conclusions. Still unsatisfied by my analysis I decided to have another look to the assembly of Exhaust system with Chassis on the line.

In the meanwhile I got a project to design a clamp for Torque meter for measuring glass winding effort in Scorpio and Bolero. Moreover I got some information about Display device of Brake oil filling machine on Scorpio TCF line, like temperature range in which it works fine and the temperature which it gains in peak summer. So now i have started working on another project which i was waiting for weeks. This project is to reduce the working termperature of the device as it malfunctions at high temperatures.

Last week I waited, waited and then waited.... I needed the drawing of A-pillar trim which has to be brought from Kandivali plant (Mumbai) and Report of the inspection of Exhaust System from Walker Exhaust Pvt Ltd, Pune. I haven't got any of them as of now. So in the meantime I read some books on automobile technologies. I also went through some previously solved concerns to know more about the earlier concerns, the modus operandi of solving them and the frequency of their repeatation.

Last week was not productive as far as project is concerned, because I wanted some drawings which were available in the Kandivali unit of Mahindra. When I contacted the concerned person he agreed to bring them from there (it was not possible to send the drawings through mail as the size of drawings was ~10MB and were too big for attachments). I wondered how poor was their network that one has to move to Mumbai from Nasik for a drawing. Anyway I waited for the drawing and I am still waiting from them. In the meanwhile I continued my observational training. Learnt a lot on my own by reading some books.

I tried taking some measurements for Bolero exhaust system and found that required fixture is not available here nor is any other method to check dimensions. So I went to metrology lab but it was also not much helpful because the method which was used there to measure the dimension was such that error incorporated in the method was of the same order as I got deviation in the dimension of the part from the drawing. So I decided to meet the vendor. Now I have a schedule to visit the vendor in the next week.

As of now I have nothing to do regarding my projects except waiting for some drawings and visit to the vendor. So I have started picking some small projects. I hope it will help. Till then I will continue my observational training.

Hi,
Last week was the annual shutdown in the company. So I visited the chassis vendor for some measurements. I also visited plant during this shutdown. Beside the routine maintenance work the plant was upgraded. Bolero assembly line was conveyorised. Moreover the plant capacity was also enhanced.

In the week thereafter I focused on the other small projects assigned to me as our trip to exhaust pipe manufacturer was being postponed number of times, when we ourselves went to company then we came to know that the part we were interested in was not being manufactured there. Our project guide didnot know who is the manufacturer of that part. It was after we told him, that he realised his mistake. Then I took measurements of the interior trim of the Scorpio as there were concerns of gap after the assembly. I also took some measurements of the back door slam effort of Scorpio.

A 24 hour journey and I got to Nasik; Nashik if I say it in Marathi. First thing that came to bite me was the tax that I had to pay to Nasik Municipal Corporation for my computer, escaped it by fooling the guy on the chungi naka.
Then I met a friend of my senior, who worked in Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. He helped me getting a accommodation. Nice place for a public show with two walls of my room full of windows, all 5 feet high. I passed Sunday by visiting some nearby markets.
On the first day of company I met HRD people, who had no immediate plans for me. So on the first day I just read some reports of previous trainees and had some information about the company. I left from the company a little early as I had to look for a better place (remember those big windows, which worked like solar heater in the daytime). Second day I visited the Scorpio assembly line, but my plans were still in process, with HRD people. I got my schedule of orientation program at the plant, scheduled for the next two days. I had to visit the whole plant and then chose a department for the project.
Next two days I visited the plant. I visited:

1. Scorpio PU (production unit)
TCF (Trim, chassis and final line)
Press shop
Body shop
2. CME (Central Manufacturing Engg.)
3. PVT (Plant vehicle Team)
4. Body PU
Body shop
Body Supply module
5. Vehicle PU
Vehicle Assembly
Bolero Assembly
6. Improvement Cell
7. PPC (Production, planning and Control)

These two days were not like first two days and were very tiring. After visiting all departments next day I was told to make report on what I saw. So I spent half of my day in writing the report. In the rest half of the day I went to the Scorpio TCF as I could not visit it thoroughly in the time given to me.

I chose PVT to work in as it is the most challenging department in the plant. It deals with the customer concerns of all severity. Work in this department is not a routine engineering exercise. I met Mr. Venugopal, Head PVT, and he put me under Mr. Atul Patil, who gave me several problems to choose from which bothered customer as well as company regarding Bolero and Scorpio models. Out of many I chose to work on following problems:
1. Bolero exhaust pipe insulator twist (which I am working upon with Tanpreet)
2. A-pillar trim uneven gap.

On the same day I went to assembly line to observe the problem and this is how my first week went.




Week 2

Now I had something to work upon. First day I just observed the problem on the assembly line for a sample of chassis of Bolero to have an idea of the causes of the problem. On the next day I worked upon the cause and affect diagrams and got some engineering drawings. After that my work has been quite monotonous. I have been observing the assembly sequence of exhaust system to body and taking dimensions of different mountings on chassis.

Plant runs in two shifts 7:30 to 15:30 and then 15:30 to 23:30. Second shift is rarely operational. So the production in the plant stops at 15:30, but the important thing is that the set target for the day has to be achieved also so the workers sometime overtime without getting overtime wages to achieve the target.

My observation related to my project stops at 15:30 but I continue thereafter for the observational part of the training.

We had to visit the vendors of chassis and exhaust system for the correctness of dimension with the drawings but the trip has been not scheduled yet by our project guide.