A simply classic area of operation for MTM is the automobile supply industry.
The industry’s importance has constantly grown. Today about 80 percent of all auto parts come from supply companies. However, pressure on the industry has also grown. More than ever, companies are forced to provide high-quality, yet inexpensive products. The MTM process shows the industry how this is possible.
One business which fulfils these demands is the gear factory Friedrichshafen AG, the worldwide largest independent specialist for transmission and chassis engineering and supplier for about 40 automobile manufacturers. Here the use of MTM has recently improved the work area and layout design as well as the processes for gear assembly and repair. Additionally, extensive training was undergone and the TiCon® software was installed. The Robert Bosch Ltd., a founding member of the organization, also puts their money on MTM with consistent intensity. This way the organization also contributes to the Bosch Group’s pole position in the supplier and electrical industry. Another example for the successful cooperation between the MTM Organization and businesses is found in the Harman International OEM Group Becker Ltd.. At this manufacturer of car audio technology, construction solutions for navigation systems were evaluated and improved – and its economizing potential mobilized up to 30 percent with the MTM analysis systems.
The MTM Organization has been contributing to the success of the automobile industry for decades. Used well into the 1970s to design the final assembly with its work area environment, MTM has also been increasingly implemented since the 1990s in product design and within the framework of continuous improvement processes. At the beginning of the 1990s, the productivity deficit of European automobile manufacturers had become all too obvious. It had also become clear that technical innovation alone would not determine the competitive situation, but also efficient production. It was recognized as well that automation and production processes have their limits too. People are still needed, especially in final assembly; production remained labour-intensive. With the global production system (GPS), the MTM Organization is seizing the initiative of the auto industry to optimize the products, production processes and work organization in a coordinated way.
A large number of such projects have been – and are being – realized at DaimlerChrysler. Moreover, the MTM Organization shares a special relationship with the Stuttgart auto builder – as Daimler Benz AG, the company belonged to the founding members of the German MTM Organization. Today it is among the most successful businesses in the world. The brand Mercedes Benz (plus Smart) alone sells over a million per year. This ensures jobs. In this way DaimlerChrysler can employ 380,000 people worldwide, 145,000 of them in Germany. The MTM Organization has also contributed to DaimlerChrysler’s success – whether in auto assembly, optimization in motor assembly, service or tool manufacturing. In the auto repair and maintenance branch, the MTM Organization, together with DaimlerChrysler, was able to develop repair data based on the MTM-MEK.
Among the newest projects are personnel assessment and material organization for assembling the A, C and E models – implemented at the factories in Bremen and Stuttgart. At the same locations MTM experts were also involved in planning the SLK Roadster. All developed measures dramatically improved productivity.
Pioneering successes were also achieved in the assembly-suitable design of the new E class. Using MTM time elements, MTM project engineers analyzed and improved assembly of the E line – limousine and wagon production along with an extensive special production. It was then possible to reduce production time and work costs considerably. Unlike with the previous model which took 15 months, the streamlined series production of the new E class was finished after only three-and-a-half months. Only five months after the Europe-wide introduction of the new E class, the DaimlerChrysler factory in Sindelfingen turned out more than 70,000 vehicles. This allows the company to react more quickly to customer wishes. Even half a year after introduction there were over 140,000 orders.
MTM considers the central role of the staff for the success of the business. That’s why employees are also involved early on into the optimization strategies. In this way the measures remain transparent, the decisions understandable and the staff motivated to use its own potential for innovation. This process has also proved itself at DaimlerChrysler – and has paid off for all employees. In 2001 alone, the employees handed in 69,000 suggestions for improvement, which saved the company a total of 62 million euros and won the staff a total of 16 million euros in bonuses.
The cooperation between MTM and Volkswagen also has a tradition. Along with the product spectrum which now breaks into the upper echelon with the “Phaeton”, productivity and sales numbers also reveal the performance of VW. Almost every fifth vehicle on the streets of Western Europe comes from Volkswagen’s factories. This makes the company from Wolfsburg one of the largest automobile companies in Europe – with positive results worldwide. VW is the leading European automobile name in the US and in the Asian-Pacific region. As a global business, Volkswagen has over 45 production locations worldwide. Creating production standards that are valid at all locations is a part of the company’s philosophy. The MTM Organization supports the company along the way: It is active at international VW locations to create these standards using MTM. The GPS optimization strategies have long been a part of the company’s business culture. The automobile manufacturer itself has a large share in the development of GPS. The three-step MTM planning concept was created together with VW developers and designers, making possible to plan production optimization as early as in the design phase. Using this, MTM specialists were able to optimize the assembly for most Volkswagen models.
The MTM Organization has also realized numerous projects for the automobile manufacturer Audi. The Volkswagen subsidiary is among those companies that are recording outstanding dynamic growth rates. In the first half of 2003, Audi reached the highest value in the company’s history with a 3.8 percent market share in Western Europe. Audi is also growing in Germany, despite the rather restrained economic situation, where the market share has increased to 7.5 percent. Audi follows a company policy that plans for the expansion of the model spectrum while reducing costs at the same time. With this backdrop, the car builder introduced the Audi production system in 1995. MTM technicians linked the company’s system to GPS to further optimize the design and production processes. The MTM tools are used, for example, for construction and assembly of the A8 series.
Flexible organization structures and intelligent processes are the company goals of the BMW Group. MTM products also support the strategy there. The goal of the quality brand company is to offer each customer his own dream car – and at his desired deadline. For this reason a sales and production system was developed and customized for the BMW Group.
The BMW Group produces at 14 locations worldwide. The efficiency and quality of the German factories are above all undisputed. Because of this, the location in Munich was chosen as best European auto factory by J.D. Power Associates in 2001. Third and fifth places also went to BMW, selected for the factories in Dingolfing and Regensburg – recognition to which contributed the many MTM-trained BMW employees in their daily work with planning, design and implementation.
The first response to the challenge from the Japanese automobile industry came in 1992 from Eisenach. Here the Adam Opel AG set up the most productive auto factory in Europe. It even amazed Japanese auto builders. The assembly of personal vehicles was reduced to 17 hours; each Opel worker achieved 72 vehicles that year – for the European standards a productivity revolution. It was not only started through equipping the most modern production plants; Opel had introduced much more with its own production system as the first European auto company with the “Quality Network”. Whether optimized production design, staff training or delivery of accessory parts just-in-time, all improvement strategies were consistently implemented. The MTM Organization contributed its part: In extensive training sessions, the staff at Opel was qualified in the use of the MTM data systems linked with the “Quality Network”. Today as well, extensive training is one of the main jobs assigned to the organization by businesses. Now Opel has highly qualified MTM technicians within its own ranks. And, as was already the case in the1990s, the company owns one of most modern production plants worldwide, thanks to a 780 million euro investment in the Rüsselheim factory.
The Torslanda plant of Volvo was inaugurated in 1964, and MTM formed the base of the C-shop activities from the beginning. Initially the plant used MTM-1, replaced during the 70's by MTM-2. Initially, when a strong central leadership was missing in the company, unofficial systems were used in other locations: in the Kalmar plant MOST, in the Gent plant LCW and within product development, a mixture of them all put together in blocks (i.e.: "fit small bracket with three screws). During late 80's and the 90's, work organization changed radically, production groups were formed, responsibilities and resources were transferred from support functions to production, including industrial engineers, experts of productivity. Due to these changes the role of the production engineer became unclear, leading eventually to the loss of basic competence in well proven analysis tools like MTM. This in turn meant starting to lose control of manufacturing costs.
The Swedish MTM association was reorganised in year 2000, this time as an organisation covering not only Sweden, but all the Nordic countries and therefore named Nordic MTM Association. Its chairman nowadays is Lennart Rasmusson, manager of the engineering department of the final assembly shop at VCT. In 1997, the current system was replaced in the C-shop by SAM, a derivative of MTM2. A year later SAM was introduced within product development and the Uddevalla and Gent plants followed shortly after, allowing Volvo to have a unique and standardized work measurement system in all plants. This means that the same tool for analyzing manufacturing costs is used since the early product development phases, through planning, start of production and during running production. Because of this, target setting and follow-up routines regarding manufacturing costs have been greatly enhanced, boosting productivity. During the same period, the role of the production engineer has regained status and the responsibility for driving the day to day productivity work has returned to the engineering department.
Efficient and ergonomic workplaces are one of the most important requirements within the Volvo manufacturing vision. That’s why Volvo at the end of the nineties took part in a research project, named ErgoSAM, at Lindholmen Development and Chalmers University of Technology, in cooperation with the National Institute of Working Life (Arbetslivsininstitutet) and ITT Flyft, aiming at developing an ergonomic risk assessment tool.