International Journal of Advances in Science and Technology, Vol. 4, No.3, 2012 Productivity Improvement through development of Special Purpose Machine Tool- A Case Study Sayaji B. Patil 1 and Jaydeep S. Bagi 2 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kolhapur Institute of Technology, College of Engineering, Kolhapur, Maharashtra , India sayajister@gmail.com 1 Department of Production Engineering, Kolhapur Institute of Technology, College of Engineering, Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India jaysbagi@gmail.com Abstract The ultimate goal of company is to pursue profit. One approach for achieving this goal is via productivity improvement. . High productivity refers to doing work in shortest possible time without sacrificing quality and with minimum use of resources. Competition and the drive for profits are forcing companies to implement various productivity improvements efforts. There are various strategies used by the companies to overcome the hurdle of improving productivity. One such strategy used by a XYZ company is by design and manufacturing of machine for a component named Midship tube shaft of ABC Company. The XYZ Company is located in Kolhapur region. The problem was raised at XYZ companies’ end of having low production rate, more cycle time, requirement of skilled labor, and not meeting the customer demand for the component monthly. The problem faced resulted in low productivity. The root cause for the problem was studied and analyzed which finally demanded for the designing and manufacturing of special purpose machine which will perform the face milling and counter centering operation with smaller cycle times and achieving the required dimensional accuracy with quality. This paper presents a theory on design and manufacturing aspects of special purpose machine which helped the company to meet the customer’s requirement. Keywords: Productivity, Special Purpose Machine Tool, Process Quality 1. Introduction A Special Purpose Machine can be defined as a “mother machine”, custom designed to do a specific operation or a combination of some operations on a specific job or on a small variety of similar jobs, in a mass scale, at short cycle times. The special purpose machine are designed and manufactured to improve productivity. Productivity is generally defined as the ratio of aggregate output and aggregate input [1]. In any firm or industry, productivity is a concept that measures the efficiency with which inputs are transformed into valuable output in a production process. Similarly, it can be defined as the combination of efficiency and effectiveness of a production process that aims to maximize output while minimizing the use of inputs.[2]Productivity measures the relationship between outputs such as goods and services produced, and inputs that include labor, capital, material and other resources[3] Some major considerations in developing a special purpose machine  Specific operations on the job and produce components at shortest possible time  Work automatically, to the extent possible.  Involve only the barest minimum of operator’s involvement.  Should set up and run machine in the shortest time. Special purpose machine are aimed at reducing the cycle times and control unnecessary costs thus increasing the profits [4]. Special purpose machine should work automatically, to the extend possible. This sentence reveals the study of Burnham [5] that productivity improvement can be accomplished via. People and technology. Special purpose machine are designed and manufactured keeping in focus that it must have barest minimum of operator’s involvement. This sentence supports the sentence of Chiang Kao [6] that “people will agree that significant increase in productivity in long run cannot be March Issue Page 75 of 97 ISSN 2229 5216