Mahindra & Mahindra: A Field Visit

The Opera club at SJMSOM successfully conducted a visit to M&M, Kandiwali plant. The main objective of the visit was to get an experience of lean operations in practice.

The visit was preceded by an insightful lecture on Lean Management conducted by the Opera Club, SJMSOM IIT Bombay. This helped the students understand lean concepts better and observe the practical application on the shop floor. The session was taken by Nisanpreet Bal and Arun Chand. Both of them have valuable work experience in Operations and Lean Management.

The whole visit was a three hour affair and was attended by 26 students. The visit started with an address by personnel of the administrative section, who briefed us about the company and its operations at various locations. Subsequently, he shared some interesting insights into the operations of the Kandiwali plant. The engineers guided us through the plant and explained the various concepts of operations being implemented in the assembly line of Bolero, Maxx Pick up and their 47 variants. It was a rare opportunity for students to observe concepts like 5s, Level scheduling, Poka yoke, Kaizen, Kanban etc. being successfully implemented in a practical setup. The visit was concluded with a stopover at the body shop.  At each step of the visit engineers addressed all the doubts of students with great interest to help them get a better grasp of operation concepts. Many students, who had no prior experience in a manufacturing industry, were enthralled by the assembly operations.

The field visit was followed by a Question & Answer session by the plant head, Mr Sunil Kulkarni. He offered remarkable insights into the various problems faced in the implementation of lean operations, and the current challenges faced by the automotive industry. To conclude the visit, a feedback was given by everyone and students departed with a better understanding of the classroom learning.

Mahak Garg

Opera Club

M.Mgmt, Batch of 2011-2013

SJMSOM