Abstract—This report illustrates the application of Theory of Constraints thinking process to a manufacturing organization. It discusses topic of theory of constraints and applies it to a manufacturing organization, International Tractors Limited. Here I take up one line of gear division for my analysis of productivity improvement. This department is making more than 76,000 parts but it is still short of nearly 20,000 parts required to meet the production capacity. So, company needs to outsource this much number of components. Gear division has seven lines making different components. Now, one line for which the outsourcing of components is maximum is taken up for productivity improvement. Here I apply Theory of constraints step by step. The first step is to identify the constraint. Constraint is a resource which has capacity less than or equal to the demand placed on it. Then after identifying the constraint try to exploit the time available on it. This is done by giving the breaks for workers in each shift on rotation basis; one for person working on capacity constrained resource and one for persons working on non critical machines. Other option could be installation of UPS (uninterrupted power supply), which could increase the actual time available. In manufacturing organization the time available is split in two head, actual processing time and time involved in making set up. So if the set up time could be reduced we can increase the processing time. This is done by changing the production schedule and doing the set up in a well co-ordinated manner like using SMED (single minute exchange die) system for set up. Next step is to subordinate everything else to the capacity constraint resource. By this we mean that the operations performed on constraint should be given the top priority. Last step is to elevate the constraint.

Index Terms—Theory of constraints, Manufacturing, Gear division, SMED

Cite:Himanshu Kaushal and Ashish Saran, "Productivity Improvement in International Tractors Limited Using Theory of Constraints: A Case Study," International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, Special Issue, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 227-233, January 2014.