OREANDA-NEWS. September 09, 2009. The top managers of the company’s departments met at the KAMAZ automobile plant. The meeting was organized by the KAMAZ Production System Development Committee.

Five shops received the KAMAZ top managers’ most serious study. All of them received the status of model shops almost after the beginning of the global economic crisis: one of housing shop sections, an axle shop, a cab assembly shop and two lines of the mother conveyor (the 1st mother conveyor line and the 2nd mother conveyor line). Now in production organization and execution of requirements of the KAMAZ Production System they correspond with the aim of the company’s management which was announced in 2008: “The Automobile Plant is a finishing production and the face of KAMAZ, it must be the best!” To achieve this aim the whole plant should consist only of model sections.

When checking up, much attention was given to the results of the carried out technical and organizational events and, first of all, to the human part of the Continuous Improvement Process (CIP) – the personnel’s involvement, the work of KVP-groups, presentation and realization of kaizen-ideas. All that was seen and local managers’ explanations allowed drawing a conclusion about their rather high level. Attention was also paid to production and economic effects of the implemented measures.

The major result is output cycle time which determines productivity of labour in the end. For instance, it forms 242 seconds on the lines of the German company KUKA. The objective is set to achieve output cycle time of 144 seconds.

The rates gained in the cab assembly shop – the best department of the automobile plant – allow facing the future confidently: it takes 220 seconds to assemble one cab. This result was got by the shop already in May. The management of the shop set the staff a new task: to “save” 10 seconds more in July, that is to start producing 17 cabs per hour instead of 16 cabs, naturally increasing their number for one shift from 125 to 132 units. The workers of the shop are also interested in this result. The scheme of payment stimulates the increase in labour productivity, so long as the basis of payroll accounting is not the spent time, but the quantum and quality of output. You can work by one or two shifts fewer in a month drawing the same salary.

With the current vehicle assembly volumes there is still no need to ensure the maximum production rhythm on the lines of the mother gathering conveyor; the rhythm which will enable KAMAZ to completely satisfy the demand if the number of orders grow sharply and guarantee the company’s presence and competitiveness on all markets in the post-crisis period. Some time or other the recession will end, and the KAMAZ automobile plant is currently preparing for this. They will gradually pursue the planned aim at the very finish of the KAMAZ production cycle, as necessary. And the goals are the following: 425 seconds at the first mother gathering conveyor and 325 seconds at the second one. By a double-shift working system it means the total output of over 300 vehicles a day.

To learn more about the preproduction of new “post-crisis” truck models the managers of the plants asked Irek Gumerov, Deputy Director General of KAMAZ Inc. (Development), many questions. It was specified when KAMAZ R&D Center will issue the documents for vehicle components and when everything will be ready for the launch of their production.