INDUSTRIAL VISIT REPORT OF
“VOLKSWAGEN, PUNE PLANT”
SUBMITTED BY
M.E. MACHINE DESIGN STUDENTS
UNDER GUIDANCE OF
PROF. D. N. JADHAV
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, SARDAR PATEL COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, MUMBAI-400058 2013-14
Table of Contents
1.
Background: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3
2.
Introduction to VolksWagen Pune plant: ------------------------------------------------------------ 3
3.
Production Line: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3
4.
Assembly line: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4
5.
Benefits from Industrial visit: -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5
6.
Vote of thanks: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5
1. Background: After concrete efforts of our Department, the students of Sardar Patel college of Engineering got this esteemed opportunity to have an Industrial visit to a prestigious company like Volkswagen, India Ltd. We appreciate the efforts of the management of SPCE & VW for executing this successful Industrial trip.
2. Introduction to VolksWagen Pune plant: We reached the Volkswagen plant at chakan, Pune. We headed to the Conference room and were
briefed
about
the
Company
by
a
presentation from Mr. Chaitnya Halbe (Asst. Manager- Communication). The Volkswagen plant in Chakan occupies a total area of over 2.3 million square meters (575 acres), with buildings covering about 1,15,000 square meters.
A workforce of over 3,500 people was engaged in building it during its peak construction stages. The plant was built in a record time of 17 months, with an investment commitment of INR 3,800 Crores (580 million Euros) by Volkswagen India Private Limited. It is the largest investment by a German company to date in the growing Indian market.
3. Production Line: The plant has a production capacity of 130,000 vehicles a year, which in capacity was maximised in 2011. The construction of the plant commenced in 2007. The Pune plant is one of the most modern in the Volkswagen Group. It has a high level of vertical integration and a large share of local suppliers. The facility is the only production plant operated by a German automaker in India that covers the entire production process, from press shop through body
shop and paint shop to final assembly. The facility uses futuristically designed state-of-the-art equipment. For example, the body shop uses the Diode Laser Brazing (DLB) technology, whereas the Roof & Side Framer laser technology is used for welding the roof to the body of the car. The facility is also one of the few environment-friendly manufacturing plants around the area. For instance, the exhaust of the paint shop is re-burnt and the resultant heat and energy is reused.
4. Assembly line: A conveyor that is about 20 feet wide and includes a box that is preloaded with all the parts required for this car during this assembly phase. (These boxes are restocked five times during the vehicle's assembly process.) The circles along the sides of the conveyor are airconditioning vents, and each car rides on a platform that each worker can elevate to a level that is comfortable for him or her. Inductive chargers beneath the maple flooring, like those that recharged the old GM EV1, recharge the electric screwdrivers and torque wrenches. The conveyor moves at a very slow pace, and there is no official time limit to get each job done. If a worker feels he or she needs more time, the time is allotted, so that quality is ensured. That said, the current production rate is a fairly leisurely 420 cars per day over two shifts. After one lap on the floor-mounted conveyor belt, the body is placed on one of 31 overhead carriers, each of which can rotate the body to a comfortable angle for the employee to fasten underbody components. Most
work
at
the
transparent
factory is done by hand, but robots handle five operations. This one is pressing
the
composite-plastic
adhesive-bonded spare-tire
well
into the steel chassis. The spare-tire well arrives in the plant with the pneumatic suspension's air compressor already installed. After one lap of both the upstairs conveyor and the suspension and drivetrain
loop,
the
Phaeton
moves down to the ground floor. The two robots we see here are installing the road wheels (farther away) and the windshield and the
rear-window glass. Basically, the robots handle the work that is too heavy or uncomfortable for the 227 line workers to perform. Two instrument panels have just arrived on a carrier, delivered by an autonomous robot, and seen pulling out from the front of the IP carrier. Many of these little robots run around the factory delivering the boxes of parts and other components just in time. At this stop, various hoses are connected to the front of the car, and coolant, brake fluid, and gasoline are added to the car. We couldn't see a single drop of spilled fluid, nor could we sniff a whiff of vapor. Following all of this, a high-pressure water bath checks for leaks, several final system checks are performed, and visual checks of the paint finish and panel fits are conducted in light booths like this one.
5. Benefits from Industrial visit: We got a great opportunity of visiting a Multinational Company. We saw a good sort of organizational structure. We learnt about well automated production and assembly lines. We saw an application Computerized Integrated Manufacturing (CIM), Computer Aided Quality Control (CAQC), and computer controlled robots and material handling systems. We saw various advanced manufacturing technologies like Diode Laser Brazing (DLB) technology. We saw application of various industrial engineering philosophies like Just in Time (JIT) and environmental and safety policies like Green Manufacturing, Think Blue, Mach 18, OHSAS, etc.
6. Vote of thanks: On behalf of all the M.E. Machine Design students we take this opportunity to thank the HR team of Volkswagen, Pune for providing us with the practical information and well as wonderful hospitality. We also take moment to offer our greetings to the Prof. D.N. Jadhav (M.E. Machine Design coordinator) and Prof. Rajesh Buktar (Head of Dept.) for organizing this Visit.
PHOTO
