Assembly
There are 5 stations in the assembly line operations. In station one, housing of these components and sub assemblies of worm shaft and rack piston take place. The second station takes care of sector shaft and side cover assembly. The third and fourth stations take care of the wall house assembly and finally the assembled components will go for leak testing. Leak testing is done with specially imported Japanese machines. Similarly with the machines imported from Australia the balance testing is performed before delivery.
For housing, a component has to be measured for its dimensional accuracy. When it conforms to the specifications it is tagged ‘go ahead’. The profile projector is used to magnify the component on the screen as the automotive industry is sensitive to dimensional accuracies. Similarly with the help of video measuring machine intersection angles and the curvature measurements are taken care.
Surface finishing is mandatory for all the components and grinding operations takes the lead in that.
In 2007-08, only 2-3 models were being manufactured in the plant. But now there are more than 25 models and the metrology calls for more investment in equipment. As the import costs are alarming indigenisation has become a necessity. Rane encourages the employees to innovate. As it has localised the procurement, the company is able to work on its lead time.
receive ‘Deming Prize’ in India and that exhibits our quality strength. We have come up with the ‘Rane Business Excellence Model’ and started giving tangible results to the model. Training is our major strength and we are able to sustain the TQM principles in our outputs through high morale of the employees.”