Harman’s Pune factory is a manufacturing overachiever, ET Auto
Harman’s Pune factory is a manufacturing overachiever, ET Auto

Harman’s Pune factory is a manufacturing overachiever, ET Auto

February 20, 2024
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<p>A few of the stations that have operators, such as for soldering some parts onto the PCB, are fitted with facial recognition tech to ensure that only trained employees operate the machine.</p>
A few of the stations that have operators, such as for soldering some parts onto the PCB, are fitted with facial recognition tech to ensure that only trained employees operate the machine.

New Delhi: We have written several stories about the cutting-edge R&D work that Harman – best known for audio brands like JBL, Bang & Olufsen and Harman Kardon, and car infotainment products – does out of India. The USD 10-billion company, part of the Samsung Group since 2017, also has an outstanding automotive electronics manufacturing plant in Chakan, Pune.

The 10-year-old factory, which we got an opportunity to visit, has won numerous environmental management and quality awards – and has not had a single safety incident in over seven years. At the same time, it has managed to consistently manufacture millions of complex electronic systems – like infotainment systems found in cars – for the likes of Tata, Maruti and even global automotive brands like Daimler.

In the rapidly emerging new world where companies are desperate to diversify their manufacturing supply chains, notably from China, Harman’s success in Pune could give us a glimpse into how other companies could find similar success manufacturing in India.

Krishna Kumar Gopalakrishnan, MD of Harman India and the automotive country R&D leader, says the plant has achieved zero OEM PPM (parts per million) – which means no defect was found in one million manufac tured parts.
To achieve this level of efficiency, automation is key. The Pune plant has seven surface mount technology (SMT) lines, says Krishna, five catering to domestic needs and two reserved for exports.

SMT is a method used in the assembly of electronic circuits where components are mounted directly onto the surface of printed circuit boards (PCBs). These SMT equipment are sophisticated systems capable of high levels of automation. Think of them as automated production lines for electronic equipment.

To even enter the facility, employees need to go through clean rooms designed to remove any electrostatic charges on their body. Only then are they certified to be electrostatic discharge (ESD) safe.

“It should be ISO clean room 8. No dust should go inside the factory at all because dust particles can interfere in assembly processes. Your body should also be ESD grounded. If it is not grounded, then the PCBs and the components in the PCBs can get damaged,” says Balasubramanian Kothandaraman, senior director of production & operations for manufacturing at Harman India.

A stray charge won’t cause any immediate problem, says Bala, who heads the plant. “But when ESD grounding is not done properly, the product will fail in some later stage (in its lifecycle).”

These stringent processes are a prerequisite to building an automated factory that conforms to industry 4.0 standards, and also give us a glimpse into why such factories are uncommon.

Bala says the plant has a daily monitoring system, preventive maintenance, and even productive maintenance in place. “All of these are done meticulously, without any fail, and any change has to be approved by plant heads and quality heads so that we don’t get into any unwanted situation.”

There’s even a philosophy that guides them, says Bala – it’s called Poka-yoke.

Poka-yoke is a Japanese term that means “mistake-proofing” or “error-prevention.” It refers to any mechanism or process that helps an equipment operator avoid (yokeru) mistakes (poka). Its aim is to eliminate product defects by preventing, correcting, or drawing attention to human errors as they occur. The concept was formalised, and the term adopted by Shigeo Shingo as part of the Toyota production system.

“If your operation is not completed and it is not inspected, not verified, or it does not meet the specifications, then the unit will not pass that station (each SMT line has multiple stations),” says Bala.

A few of the stations that have operators, such as for soldering some parts onto the PCB, are fitted with facial recognition tech to ensure that only trained employees operate the machine.

These processes might seem extreme, but it is the only way to manufacture complex electronic equipment at scale that have zero defects. “In 2022, the plant successfully manufactured 0.9 million infotainment units, 1.4 million telematic control unit (TCU) products, and 0.95 million microphones for OEMs in India,” says Krishna.

  • Published On Feb 14, 2024 at 04:57 PM IST

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