Hydraulic Cylinder Sourcing from BCC ,,,,!

Technical support to qualify Hydraulic cylinders

At today’s date ‘Sourcing’ is an important word for every industry. Be it sourcing of human resources or sourcing of material- it is the keyword for all cost reduction procedures. It can help in reducing the cost of manufacturing considerably. Developing countries like India and China at this point of time considered to be the hub for all sourcing initiative and plays an important role in providing support to the different industry in term of sourcing.  Across different product line both engineering and sourcing has played successfully an important role, not only for sourcing of parts/sub assembly but also for providing technical assistance for the same.

Hydraulic cylinders are an important part for most of the products manufactured for earth moving, material handling, mining and other equipment and easy to source due to low complexity. Selecting a vendor for these cylinders and qualifying them is a task by itself. There is a guideline that states what a cylinder should have in order to qualify. Based on the  application and specification a series of bench testing and field testing are carried. The reports are studied properly and are used for reference and selection of cylinders.

 Figure 1.1 illustrates the Process definition for selection of Hydraulic cylinder.

Different tests are planned and performed to build the confidence and to minimize the actual testing time on the field. There are 3 types of testing that are conducted:

·   General test- which is performed 100 % on all the cylinders produced.

·   First Article (Proto) type test (endurance life test) - this type of test depends on the duty cycle. This test will run for few thousands of hours or cycles to qualify the function and performance of the cylinders. Following this test will be the evaluation report for the review and Engineering Sign off.

·   Fit and function test on the machine- this is to check the fitment and function.

Along with these, Testing Protocol matrix is prepared. (Shown in Fig 1.2).

The cylinder suppliers are responsible for the design of the test rig and processes to set up the test.

They need to obtain data relating to the described tests from OEM like pump flow, temp. Speed, contamination so that closer simulation can be performed.

Now the time has come up to go for accelerate test, there are various way to accelerate the test and get the same result in lesser time, like drop test, high speed test, machine simulation etc.

What Global OEM looking for ????

There are 3 basic things what they look for

·         Manufacturing capability

·         Understanding of PPAP requirement

·         Clean room for assembly

As Hydraulic parts are very precise and work under pressure, full range of inspection and testing equipment are mandatory

·         3 - Axis co-ordinate measuring machine

·         Fully automated roundness tester

·         Profile projector

·         Hardness tester

·         Profile and roundness tester

·         Metallurgical microscope

·         Particle counter for fluid contamination

·         Salt spray test chamber

Cost??????

This plays a major role to decide any European/Western OEM to come and get the parts from BCC countries, we sometime over design/ used to refer previous design and end up incurring high BOM cost.

Now the time has come to go for top down approach

 

Generally No manufacturer will not compromise on its profit and margin in first instance as they want to sustain and grown their business on its profitability. So we have major area to play on work cost (Material and manufacturing).it’s time for better cost management (supply chain, inventory, rejection, Manf. OH etc) and efficiency to meet target cost and crack the nuts.

Thanks to my current profile in Terex where I have visited almost all the cylinder suppliers across the globe starting from USA,Canada, China, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Holland, Sweden and India, One thing I learned that the attitudes towards product development in western part of the world is the key to the success.  This is the one thing which makes big difference between us and Western world.

Market Survey:

Have done a survey on global platform to understand the demand of hydraulic cylinders; the figure is really eye opening for us (Indian)

In 2007, Globally 225 Bn USD worth of machines were sold, construction equipment was the biggest (125 Bn), followed with Agriculture (60 Bn USD).

If you look at cylinder values (at 5 % of overall machine cost), the market available is for 11 Bn globally. 2009 and 2010 was bad time and then there was steady growth globally. 2010 cylinder absorption: $4.5 bn, 2011 cylinder absorption: $7.5 bn, 2012 cylinder absorption: $9.2 bn, today it has gone up to $11.0 bn, some data says $15.0 bn

Today India is only feeding 250- 300 Mn USD cylinders to both domestic and global market.  Its time to think, being a low cost countries, why we are not producing and feeding global market when the demand calls for more..! It’s purely our mindset towards product development and “Chalta hai” Attitudes….! Its time to change and put more focus on New product development and best manufacturing practice.

Apart from Hydraulic cylinders, India can be a good potential for gear pump, Filters and hoses.

Mohammad Arif, ME, MIET(UK), CEng

Chartered Engineer & Manager