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Shanghai General Motors Focuses on Quality Containment
Automaker using new solution from Apriso to improve manufacturing flexibility, support continuous improvement and reduce the total cost of quality
Long Beach, CA — November 17, 2009 — Shanghai General Motors Co., Ltd. (SGM) has implemented a quality solution from manufacturing solutions provider Apriso as part of initiatives to improve tracking of materials across production, reduce the cost of quality and increase manufacturing efficiency.
Established in 1997, SGM is a 50-50 joint venture partnership between General Motors and the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (Group), or SAIC. To date SGM has three major manufacturing bases, Jinqiao in Pudong, Dongyue in Yantai, and Norsom Motors in Shenyang, as well as four vehicle production plants and two powertrain plants.
SGM faced several challenges in maintaining its high quality standards. Prior to Apriso, limited visibility and control over third party logistics provider shipments led to possible production delays when out-of-spec parts were delivered. Because of this, it was difficult to quickly and efficiently identify and isolate any work-in-process impacted by the out-of-spec part or process. If a production line change was needed at the machine level, the time and resources to complete was cumbersome, with 100-plus machines involved in a single product line.
With Apriso's FlexNet for Quality Containment solution in place, SGM has seamlessly integrated quality containment across manufacturing operations, helping to provide global visibility and control over production and logistics processes to complement other SGM Powertrain systems while integrating with their SAP ERP system.
The quality containment system accurately identifies and contains product in the event of a quality problem — from production through work-in-process — to minimize associated costs and prevent out-of-spec products from being sent to customers. Order information is retrieved from SAP and then automatically updated in SAP as materials, product count or order status changes, resulting in avoidance of manual data entry errors and the related delays.
"FlexNet Containment Manager easily allows us to identify and quarantine an engine or parts by multiple criterion, such as operation time, operator, work center, child or parent parts," explained SGM Project Manager Han Pengjun at Shanghai General Motors Co. "Out-of-spec work-in-process can now be held and not shipped to our customers, helping to improve customer satisfaction."
Apriso said its FlexNet Machine Integrator has also been leveraged to centrally manage SGM's production machines through a Web-based user interface that is much more efficient, accurate and faster than the prior manual process performed at the machine layer. Adjustments can be performed from remote locations, helping to improve SGM's manufacturing responsiveness and agility.
"Apriso has helped Shanghai General Motors achieve significant cost reductions by transforming their manufacturing operations into a collaborative, responsive set of processes and interlocking systems," explained Jim Henderson, president and CEO of Apriso. "When facing considerable demand fluctuation and unknown supplier quality for work-in-process, manufacturers need to respond by building in considerable flexibility in their production systems to contain potential quality issues and ensure customers receive the highest level of service and finished goods."
The annual production capacity of SGM is expected to be more than 600,000 units, 870,000 engines and 380,000 automatic transmissions. SGM has ranked first in the domestic passenger car market in 2005, 2006 and 2007 in terms of sales volume. SGM is also the only automaker that received the title of "China's Most Respected Enterprise" for seven consecutive years, and is an important player in the automotive industry of China.
Established in 1997, SGM is a 50-50 joint venture partnership between General Motors and the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (Group), or SAIC. To date SGM has three major manufacturing bases, Jinqiao in Pudong, Dongyue in Yantai, and Norsom Motors in Shenyang, as well as four vehicle production plants and two powertrain plants.
SGM faced several challenges in maintaining its high quality standards. Prior to Apriso, limited visibility and control over third party logistics provider shipments led to possible production delays when out-of-spec parts were delivered. Because of this, it was difficult to quickly and efficiently identify and isolate any work-in-process impacted by the out-of-spec part or process. If a production line change was needed at the machine level, the time and resources to complete was cumbersome, with 100-plus machines involved in a single product line.
With Apriso's FlexNet for Quality Containment solution in place, SGM has seamlessly integrated quality containment across manufacturing operations, helping to provide global visibility and control over production and logistics processes to complement other SGM Powertrain systems while integrating with their SAP ERP system.
The quality containment system accurately identifies and contains product in the event of a quality problem — from production through work-in-process — to minimize associated costs and prevent out-of-spec products from being sent to customers. Order information is retrieved from SAP and then automatically updated in SAP as materials, product count or order status changes, resulting in avoidance of manual data entry errors and the related delays.
"FlexNet Containment Manager easily allows us to identify and quarantine an engine or parts by multiple criterion, such as operation time, operator, work center, child or parent parts," explained SGM Project Manager Han Pengjun at Shanghai General Motors Co. "Out-of-spec work-in-process can now be held and not shipped to our customers, helping to improve customer satisfaction."
Apriso said its FlexNet Machine Integrator has also been leveraged to centrally manage SGM's production machines through a Web-based user interface that is much more efficient, accurate and faster than the prior manual process performed at the machine layer. Adjustments can be performed from remote locations, helping to improve SGM's manufacturing responsiveness and agility.
"Apriso has helped Shanghai General Motors achieve significant cost reductions by transforming their manufacturing operations into a collaborative, responsive set of processes and interlocking systems," explained Jim Henderson, president and CEO of Apriso. "When facing considerable demand fluctuation and unknown supplier quality for work-in-process, manufacturers need to respond by building in considerable flexibility in their production systems to contain potential quality issues and ensure customers receive the highest level of service and finished goods."
The annual production capacity of SGM is expected to be more than 600,000 units, 870,000 engines and 380,000 automatic transmissions. SGM has ranked first in the domestic passenger car market in 2005, 2006 and 2007 in terms of sales volume. SGM is also the only automaker that received the title of "China's Most Respected Enterprise" for seven consecutive years, and is an important player in the automotive industry of China.
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