Page 24 - CleanIndiaJournal June Digital Issue

Focus

Case studies:
Smart mechanisation in

automobile industry

An automobile or auto-ancillary manufacturing plant is divided into

multiple sub plants (engine, piston, valve, paint shop etc), each following
a different process and having differing FM needs. Forbes Facility Services’
Nitin Lamba, Operations Head - Zone I and Vasanth Kumar Rangaraj,
Operations Head - Zone II illustrate how they cater to these needs in two

of the facilities.

Bajaj Chetak, Akurdi, Pune Shriram Pistons & Rings Ltd,
Ghaziabad
Why mechanise?

Over an eight hour shift, one person with Turnaround time
a dry mop can cover 32,000sqft. To service Spillage of oil and residual chips occurs very
3 lakh sqft of the Akurdi plant, 10 such quickly. Since the plant has vast areas that need
personnel would be needed. “Instead, we to be continuously cleaned, the 5S mechanism is
introduced a ride-on dry mopping machine mandatory for quick TAT to ensure zero deviation
which can cover 60,000sqft every hour. from SLAs. “The job-card approach sets clear
Where 10 people were required, now just one time and result expectations for each team
machine operator sufficed”, shared Rangaraj. member, reducing turnaround time and optimising
Manually cleaning a typical production manpower”, said Lamba.
facility washroom of 600sqft would take 40
minutes; a high-pressure foamer machine Smart choices
will take just 15 minutes. This machine –
used with water-based chemicals – prevents Instead of regular mops, FFS uses microfibre-
damage caused by acidic toilet cleaning based smart mops which work without water.
chemicals and toilet brushes, which degrade Cleaning machines like ride-on auto scrubber,
the glossy finish of ceramic fittings. “We do walk-behind scrubber-driers and robotic scrubber-
not have a ‘washroom cleaner’ in our system; driers are in use for various surfaces and ride-on
we simply call them ‘machine operators’”, and walk-behind machines in the main galleries.
stated Rangaraj.
Clean room
Difficult-to-clean The cleanroom workforce is separately trained,
Staircases in such facilities can never be wears appropriate PPE and enters the area only
scrubbed; cleaning corners becomes difficult. after passing through an air blast/air shower.
The area at the base of pillars tends to see high “Cleaning equipment used in cleanrooms is
dust concentration, sometimes with oil. If this isolated from regular housekeeping equipment to
isn’t cleaned in time, more manpower needs to avoid cross-contamination”, Lamba mentioned.
be deployed for more thorough cleaning.
To resolve this, FFS introduced battery- In the future
operated mini-motor scrubbers to clean Robotic cleaning machines, app-based cleaning
untouched corners, edges and pillars. No more monitoring systems and technology to clean high-
does anyone need to bend to clean. Fatigue, rise areas will usher in change. Conveyor belts can
absenteeism and attrition all reduced, and be introduced to transport chips and waste oil to the
productivity increased. designated place, saving on manpower and costs.

JUNE 2023•Clean India Journal
24 www.cleanindiajournal.com