

Fleetguard Filters Pvt. Ltd. (NPD)


Fleetguard Filters is a tier 1 component supplier to key OEMs in the country. The company has a large design, development and testing set-up for engineering filtration solutions and products. They also have to depend on relatively unorganized tier 2 and 3 suppliers to support them in new product design efforts. Their products have to fulfill several conflicting requirements – these should be able to meet new filtration targets, keep vibration low, adhere to pollution norms, and be compact. Before overhauling began, at any point of time, the company would have about 150 projects being executed simultaneously by independent teams. The environment was chaotic; resources were stressed. Going home late and working on holidays was the norm. Things changed dramatically after the company implemented flow principles of TOC (Theory of Constraints with the help of Vector Consulting Group).
Productivity improved three times and iterations were reduced by more than half. Consequently there was a dramatic improvement in reaction time to OEMs. Apart from the great advancement in numbers, what the company best appreciated was the decline in stress levels of people, and improvement in overall harmony.