The visit to Honda Atlas’s plant has provided significant managerial insight with regards to

multiple aspects. The personnel present at the plant floor seemed to work in coordination and
motivation level of managers was quite high. They took a lot of pride in the import substitution
done by their local tool shops - the main driver in bringing the overall costs down. The plant was
assessed on various KPIs and the findings are as follows:

Safety, Cleanliness, Environment and Order:

The plant rated high in terms of safety, cleanliness, environment and order. The plant was
clean, the inventory was stocked systematically and moved across different stages in an orderly
fashion. There were maps and other visual aids present to guide the flow of products and
processes. In the casting department, a high level of noise was observed. There were danger
signs placed in order to ensure safety of walk-in visitors.

Visual Management System:

The plant had maintained productivity charts that helped in understanding division of labor and
seeked to minimize repetition of task or confusion. There was a color coded system to ensure
quality control checks, along with a kanban board that tracked the quality control processes.

A significant chunk of signage, especially maps and general instructions regarding product flow,
were written in English language. Workers on the plant set-up had to be well versed with the
language to make sense of the postings.

Levels of Inventory and Work-in-Progress:

The visit revealed a high work-in-progress inventory. The assembly line flow of production
necessitates the availability of inventory. That being said, the processes could be smoothened
out to minimize the time the inventory has to wait before reaching the assembly point, it would
help ease the bottleneck that gets created due to capacity misalignment.

Management of Complexity and Variability:

The plant was solely focused on the more popular motorbikes such as CD-70, CD-70 Dream
and CG 125, due to which their processes were designed to cater to higher volumes and lower
variety.

The plant was not visibly customer or visitor friendly. While there was a lot of focus on customer
satisfaction and there were quality checks at the end of assembly line to ensure the best
possible experience for the Honda biker, the average visitor would not walk away with that
enthusiasm. While the process and product flow ensured customer satisfaction at its end point,
whether or not all employees on the plant were equally concerned remains a question.