LMW Machine Tool Division (MTD)-New Product Development

LMW Machine Tool Division (MTD) is one of India’s largest manufacturers of CNC Turning centres (Lathe) & Machining Centres. LMW's customers are primarily component manufacturers in industries like automobile, aerospace, oil & gas, medical equipment, pump & valves, engineering and machinery manufacturing. Though the company has advanced research and development capabilities, earlier, the contribution of the New Product Development (NPD) division to the business was minimal.

This was because upcoming NPD projects were often caught in a vicious loop of delays and rework with the stressed engineering teams trying to multitask between addressing validation issues of newly launched machines, current NPD activities and the support of customised orders. Consequently, the number of machines showcased at Machine tool Expos would not be as per expectation and the company would miss out on sales opportunities. Moreover, often, the validation, process would have been rushed, giving rise to customer complaints later.

After deploying TOC based flow process, the NPD teams could reduce lead time taken for development and commercialization; and increase output. As the machines are now properly validated prior to commercialization, the number of complaints faced also came down. The company could also improve their response time for customized orders while simultaneously managing other engineering requirements. The results observed after a year are as follows: