Words Manish Kumar
NEW DELHI (India CSR): Sakthivel Rasu has carved a place for himself in the engineering domain with his expertise in valve train design and new product development. As an engineer, he has tried to change innovative ideas into production-ready solutions, leading five new product development programs from concept design to final production. His focus on end-to-end part validation for successful production part release, implementing cost-saving ideas and improving current product design to reduce parts warranty claims had an influence when he worked in engineering and product delivery solutions for underground mining, motor graders, and off-highway truck engine products.
Throughout his career, Sakthivel has prioritized quality, and reliability. By identifying issues in current product designs and using them as baselines for new product development, he has made a detailed study of new products with various validation, which can lead to not only enhancing the quality of a product but also to the improvement of customer trust and satisfaction. Apart from regular validation, he has also reached out to suppliers to understand their failure mode data and completed the additional validation required to verify the product life cycle.
He also actively engages with the supplier to understand their risk assessment, to avoid product risk. To ensure further risk avoidance he also maintains a live “Design Failure Mode and Effects Analysis” document, ensuring long-term reliability. Further, his mentorship of junior team members has amplified his impact, fostering a culture of reliability within his organization.
Sakthivel has also been instrumental in introducing dual sourcing to new products, reducing supply chain risks and ensuring uninterrupted production. Further, he completed 10+ current product issues to minimize part warranty claims and carry over the same techniques to new product implementation to avoid any future failure. Another significant achievement of his has been the successful conversion of over 500+ parts to current branding that increased the aftermarket annual revenue of ~3M to 4M.
While ensuring the quality to avoid future delays, he had to take care of certain considerations such as communication difficulties in gathering failure data for underground mining products, branding supplier negotiations, navigating dual sourcing technical discussions, and identifying the new supplier in dual sourcing to develop the product part. However, given the considerations, he was able to maintain the reliability of the products via validation checks, quality and risk assessments.
Sakthivel also shared his experiences via published works in journals and research papers, such as studies on cost reduction (Cost Reduction Strategies in New Product Design to Minimize Part Costs and Reduce Supply Chain Risks, published in European Journal of Advances in Engineering and Technology, 2020), the importance of branding (Branding Importance in Current & New Product Development and its Impact on the Aftermarket, European Journal of Advances in Engineering and Technology, 2020) and the critical role of solenoid valves in modern engine design (Critical Role of Solenoid Valves in Modern Engine Design, International Journal of Scientific research in Engineering and management) which provides valuable insights into the details of product development.
When asked about his insights on the field, given his experience in manufacturing, he told us that the key to success in engineering lies in a detailed understanding of product requirements, an understanding of the previous failures so as to not repeat them, well-documented pathways for achieving success, and an unwavering focus on validation both internally and externally. Sakthivel also advocates for thinking outside the box to achieve optimal results and consistently improving product quality to reduce warranty claims and ensure customer satisfaction.
Sakthivel Rasu’s contributions to the B6.7L valve train design and new product manufacturing represent engineering excellence. His approaches, combined with a commitment to quality and efficiency, have not only resulted in successful product launches but his insights and leadership will continue to shape the industry and the enterprises looking to create reliable and quality products.
About Us
Manish Kumar is a news editor at India CSR.
(Copyright@IndiaCSR)
