Locomotive production becomes ‘lean’ with students’ help

Like many manufacturing businesses, Downer Rail Maryborough are reducing costs by implementing appropriate ‘lean’ manufacturing techniques. These initiatives provided two CEED students with an opportunity to gain some hands-on engineering experience.

Miho May Imaizumi is a final year student in her dual major of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at the University of Queensland (UQ) and Soobin Kang is a Queensland University of Technology (QUT) final year student in Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Management. With the help of CEED, both students have been linked to a project using basic ‘lean’ manufacturing techniques, aimed at reducing costs by 20% in Downer Rail’s production of locomotives.

Over the summer vacation period, both students relocated to Maryborough in order to gain as much data and other information as possible, before returning to Brisbane for the start of Uni in late February.  Miho and Soobin will continue working on their projects right through to June, when their final reports and project results are due.

Soobin and Miho (CEED students) - back in Brisbane after  spending the summer vacation at Downer Rail's  Maryborough site. They will continue their projects  through to June

Miho recently said she has applied a lot of her studies to overcome challenges in the project: “I think the project management course I took at UQ has definitely prepared me with regard to the project management skills required for this project.” What she was not however prepared for, was the challenging task of advising a large company like Downer Rail on locomotive structures she was not familiar with. Miho found she “had to spend the first few weeks of the project trying to understand the general locomotive structure and functions of the major components”.

A locomotive structure, with its 3800 components, made this part of the project no easy task. Soobin remarked that “there are no maps or charts to tell me the production process. Therefore, I needed to learn the steps by asking people or observing the process.” The students managed to identify and understand all of the major components in their initial weeks, so they could also present their project plans to their company and academic supervisors.

After familiarising themselves with all the logistics and literature, the students delved right into the project with an ambition to contribute to Downer Rail’s locomotive improvement plans - aimed at making the company a strong competitor in the global market. The project aligned with the students' theoretical skills, as it was limited to investigation and analysis of the production site. The initial part of the project was research and recommendation planning intensive.  However it required the students to spend time on site in Maryborough to examine the relevant phase of production, involving them quite practically in the manufacturing process. Miho and Soobin focused on the later phase of locomotive production to recommend strategies of optimum performance for the company, using lean manufacturing techniques.

During her time on-site with Downer Rail, Miho felt she gained an insight into real engineering projects. To aid the transition from university to practical engineering work, Miho assembled a six step plan to assist her in her project:

• Investigate the current assembly process and associated subtasks in the 5 stages of locomotive production
• Determine the approximate time required to complete each sub-task
• Construct and integrate the existing Value Stream Maps of the locomotive process
• Review and optimise the production process in each station
• Determine appropriate lean manufacturing technique
• Present the summary and recommendations to Downer Rail

The first three steps incorporate the already mentioned research, review and interpretation of the manufacturing process. In determining the appropriate lean manufacturing technique for the recommendations, the students used the researched improvement philosophies applied by Toyota in the 1990s. Their ability to correctly recognise the categories of waste, lost time, effort, cash flow and opportunity meant they were able to provide achievable recommendations to the company. On a technical side-note, the students also used Value Stream Mapping as a visual tool to show the material and information flow and identify all actions in manufacturing. This assisted the students to compile their implementation plan and follow through to their last of the six objectives. They decided on an inexpensive (5S) system of lean manufacturing, and researched this technique in regards to the timeline available and resources with which they are working.

The students were able to spend practical time on site to achieve their six objectives and felt they obtained practical experience in engineering during this time. They also used real business objectives and tools such as risk assessment and dealt with realistic timelines for implementation. Miho commends CEED to future students, noting her project definitely helped her to obtain good industry experience and make contacts in the engineering industry.

Soobin also commented that “CEED projects are great. They offer real engineering work that requires you to apply your academic theories in the real world. Also, you will achieve a real outcome doing a CEED project because the project goal is well defined and organised by CEED and their clients.”

“I am learning a lot from this project, therefore this experience will boost my future employment prospects,” Soobin added.

Footnote:  ‘Lean’ manufacturing is a manufacturing concept, which includes many techniques to aid manufacturers to redefine their value to customers, map the processes, improve work flow and ultimately eliminate various types of waste.

Downer Rail is a partner/participant in the ‘Workplace Partnership and Productivity Pilot’ and ‘High Performance Workplace’ Programs – being co-ordinated and supported by Qld State Government (DEEDI).  Corporate Partners is the Lead Consultant for this project and the CEED students are working closely with Corporate Partners’ consultants.