Incorporating Flexibility in Manufacturing and Operations - A Case Study in the Indian Context

Sharma, O P

Abstract

The electronics-enabled revolution has brought about rapid changes in not only the corporate and business world but has also resulted in changing the social and cultural patterns globally. The manufacturing industry is no exception and has seen much advancement in manufacturing technology during the last few decades. The advent of Flexible Manufacturing Technology (FMT) is one such revolution. Although the diffusion of FMT is fairly substantial in Japan and other developed nations, especially in the USA, UK, Germany, Sweden, Italy, and France; in India, the technology is in a nascent stage of take off. The paper presents a case study of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), which is one of the largest engineering companies in the public sector, in the context of FMT. This study is a part of an exhaustive survey covering aspects related to the current and likely future state of adoption and operation of FMT in the Indian context. Various aspects covered include the company profile, its FMT environment, the strategic factors contributing to the choice of FMT equipment, impacts of FMT on the technical and organizational systems of the company, and so on. A Situation-Actor-Process (SAP) analysis is carried out leading to the identification of learning issues and conclusions.

Keywords: automation, computerization, flexible manufacturing systems, flexible manufacturing technology, organization, production, strategic factors

Introduction

The current business environment is becoming increasingly uncertain, unpredictable, complex and therefore, more and more competitive, not only in India but throughout the world. The rules of the game are changing much faster than one could imagine even about a decade ago and apart from Japan, several other Asian countries surging ahead on the path of economic progress are on the way to be counted and taken notice of. However, much of these global upheavals are dependant upon rapid technological strides made during the last few decades, especially in the electronics-enabled sectors like information technology (IT), communications, and allied areas. These developments are altering not only the modes of business, but also the societal and cultural patterns in several nations, as their influence seems to be all-pervasive. The result is a perceptible paradigm shift in the entire economic and business hues, such as from conventional to the unconventional; from the nearly certain to the veritable uncertain; from the static to the dynamic; from the stochastic to the fuzzy; from the closed to the liberalized; from the protected to the open; from the local/regional to the global, and so on. But whereas economic prosperity and progress have been concomitant with this paradigm shift, its management has proved to be a daunting task as it has thrown several challenges to the industry and business leaders and managers.

The researchers and practitioners throughout the world realise that though there may be diverse and situation specific solutions to the problems posed by these challenges, flexibility has to be an essential feature of the tools to handle these changes. Sushil (2000), while deliberating upon the concept of systemic flexibility, has essentially stressed the multiplicity of connotations of flexibility in response to diversity of situations.

The manufacturing sector, which is-and is likely to remain-the core of any economic activity, is no exception and changes have taken place in this sector also, characterized by the concept and evolution of advancements in manufacturing technologies. The flexible manufacturing technology (FMT), incorporating the flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs) as its major constituents, is one of these. Other elements constituting the FMT are: CNC machine tools, robots, transfer mechanisms, automated guided vehicles (AGVs), automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRSs), computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) systems, flexible manufacturing cells (FMCs), and general flexible manufacturing systems (GFMSs). When these physical elements of FMT are completely integrated using computers and different networks, they result in computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) systems, which are considered to be quite complex and highly advanced manufacturing facilities. The state of diffusion and level of operations of the elements of these advanced manufacturing systems in various countries have been reported by different authors (Margirier 1986, De Meyer et al 1987, Ranta and Tchijov 1990, Roller and Tombak 1991, Carlsson 1992, Hill 1995, Upton 1995, Sharma and Sharma 1997). In India, the earliest recorded adoption of flexibility in manufacturing is credited to the Rail Coach Factory (RCF), Kapurthala, Punjab in 1987 and the first unit of FMS was installed at the Heavy Alloy Penetrator Project (HAPP) at Tiruchirappalli in South India, around 1989. A part of the supply and installation of equipment for this project was undertaken by the CIM Division of Hindustan Machine Tools Limited (HMT), a Government of India undertaking. However, both these units were set up by the Government of India, meaning thereby that Indian manufacturers in the private sector did not evince much interest in FMSs around this point of time. This was due not only to the high capital investment incumbent upon these systems, but also because they did not feel threatened. But after the advent of globalization of the Indian economy in 1991, a number of flexible manufacturing cells have been set up by manufacturers in different parts of the country. The author has attempted to study the current and the likely future pattern and mode of diffusion of FMT in Indian industry (with a focus on the automobile and the engineering sectors) and the paper is a part of this exhaustive study. The research effort covered several aspects and employed the methodologies of the Empirical Study or the Questionnaire Method (to explore the current state and practices); the Delphi Methodology (to generate the likely future scenario); the System Dynamics (SD) Modelling (to construct a mathematical model to predict the future behaviour of the static and dynamic systems involved); and the case Studies (to explore in-depth the actual operating modes and experiences of the users of FMT in varying degrees, i.e. from those utilising bare essentials to those incorporating fully operative FMSs in their manufacturing units).

According to Willenborg and Karbbendam (1987), the case studies method is appropriate for new and poorly structured problems like the introduction of advanced technologies. This is true of FMT also because flexibility is a relative term and there is a need to understand just what the word flexibility means and does not mean (Hartley, 1984).

The focus of this exercise has been to find out:

* The difference between the situation before and after the introduction of FMT, wherever applicable.

* The extent to which the FMT elements have been developed and used in India.

* The economic considerations and factors which propelled the user organizations to go for FMT.

* The technical and functional performance and production characteristics of the installed equipment.

* What have been the impacts of FMT environment of the user company on its technical, work and organizational systems?

* What are the strategic factors, and means and objectives leading to the choice of FMT equipment installed?

* Benefits actually realized after installation of flexible automated machining systems.

The four companies studied for the purpose were: New Holland Tractors, located at Greater Noida, U.P. in Northern India; Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company Limited (TELCO), located at Pune, Maharashtra in Western India; Rail Coach Factory (RCF), Kapurthala, Punjab, in Northern India; and Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited Limited (BHEL), having its manufacturing plants at 14 locations in different parts of India. But due to the space limitations, only the case of BHEL is presented in this paper. This organization, which is the largest heavy engineering company under the public sector operating in India, was selected for conducting a case study because it incorporates features which are unique in many ways.

Methodology Used

The method of gathering relevant information and details was to use a structured questionnaire-cum-information/data tables. Suffused with and supplemented by personal interviews wherever deemed necessary, data was also collected from individuals, available records and reports. The situation-actorprocess and learning-action-performance (SAP-LAP) analysis (Sushil, 1997) was carried out and learning issues synthesized.

Historical Background of BHEL

Incorporated as Heavy Electricals (Pvt.) Limited in August 1956, the first unit was established at Bhopal, in Central India, to manufacture electrical equipment required for generation, transmission and utilization of electrical power. The Bhopal unit was inaugurated by the then Prime Minister of India, Late Pandit Jawahar LaI Nehru on 6th November, 1960 and the name of the company was changed to Heavy Electricals (India) Limited during 1961. Subsequently three more plants, one each at Hardwar (North India), Hyderabad (South India) and Tiruchirapalli (South India), were set up under the control of another company, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL). The plant at Hardwar is known as Heavy Electrical Equipment Plant, which was built in technical collaboration with erstwhile USSR (now called the Confederation of Independent Soviet States or the CIS states). The plant at Hyderabad is known as Heavy Power Equipment Plant and was built in the collaboration with Czechoslovakia (now called the Czech states). The plant at Trichy is called High Pressure Boiler Plant and was also built in collaboration with Czechoslovakia.

The operation of all these four plants was integrated from July 1972 and Heavy Electricals (India) Limited formally merged with Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) in 1974, thus consolidating the activities of the two companies into a single corporate entity.

The Company Profile

Today, BHEL is one of the largest engineering and manufacturing enterprises in India and is one of the leading international companies in the field of power. With a gross annual turnover (1998-99) of INR 70 billion and a work force of 62,500, out of which over 11,000 are highly qualified engineers, BHEL has 14 manufacturing units located all over India. Bangalore has three units, Hardwar and Trichy two units each, and Bhopal, Goindwal, Hyderabad, Jagdishpur, Jhansi, Ranipet and Rudrapur have one unit each of these manufacturing facilities. The company has four power sector regional centers located at New Delhi (Northern Region), Kolkata (Eastern Region), Nagpur (Western Region) and Chennai (Southern Region). It also has nine service centres, located one each at Bangalore, Baroda, Kolkata, Chandigarh, secunderabad, New Delhi, Nagpur, Patna, and Varanasi.

The Product Range

BHEL offers a wide range of 180 products, under 30 major groups, for core sectors like power transmission, industry, transportation, oil and gas, and telecommunications. It also provides non-conventional energy systems and has diversified into defence and civil aviation as described below.

In the power generation sector, BHEL manufactures a wide range of products and systems for thermal, nuclear, gas and hydro based power plants. In the thermal sector, the company supplied generation sets up to 500 MW capacity, with over 245 sets already in operation. In the nuclear sector, it has supplied sets up to 235 MW with 500 MW sets under manufacture and in the gas sector, it has supplied up to 150 MW capacity. Its maximum contribution is in the hydro sector where the maximum size supplied by it is 165 MW and over 370 sets are already in operation. In this category, 250 MW units are under construction.

In the power transmission sector, high voltage direct current (HVDC) technology has been pioneered in India by BHEL. It also manufactures a vast range of transformers, instrument transformers, thyristor valves, and associated control equipment.

In the industrial equipment sector, BHEL has supplied a wide variety of electrical, electronic and mechanical equipment to a host of industries, viz. fertilisers, petrochemicals, refineries, coal, steel, aluminium, paper, sugar, rubber, cement and mining.

In the transportation sector, the company has made rapid strides. Today, over 66% of the Indian Railways, one of the largest railways networks in the world, is equipped with traction equipment by BHEL. India's first underground metro at Kolkata is equipped with BHEL drives and controls. Other products in the sector include traction generators/ alternators, transformers, sub-station equipment, vacuum circuit breakers, locomotive bogies, smoothing tractors, exciters, converters, inverters, choppers, brake and door equipment and electronic controls. BHEL has manufactured and supplied AC and AC-DC locomotives ranging from 3900 HP to 4700 HP to the Indian Railways and diesel electric locomotives ranging from 350 HP to 2600 HP to cement, steel and fertilizer plants, coal fields, ports and other medium and large industries. The BHEL is, thus, a leading locomotive manufacturer in the country.

In the area of oil and gas, BHEL has designed, manufactured and serviced various types of on-shore deep drilling rigs, super-deep drilling rigs, heli rigs, work-over rigs, mobile rigs and desert rigs with matching draw works and hoisting equipment. Christmas tree valves and well-head assemblies (up to 10,000 psi) are other vital products supplied.

Telecommunication is another area where BHEL has made significant contributions by way of manufacturing electronic private automatic branch exchanges (PABXs) and rural automatic exchanges (RAXs) for India.

In non-conventional energy, BHEL has contributed by way of manufacturing equipment like solar water heating systems, solar photo-voltaic systems and wind electric generators.

Technology Source for Major BHEL Products

BHEL acquires technology for its products from companies based in Canada, the Confederation of Independent States (CIS) countries, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, and USA.

BHEL has two pronged technology strategy: one is acquiring technology and making products out of it through licensing; secondly, to develop its own technology also. Both these are done simultaneously with a thrust on the former through transfer of technology. Since the products are highly sophisticated, reverse engineering is not feasible.

Table 1 shows other details of the products for which technologies are acquired, and the countries from which acquired

Research and Development

BHEL is amongst the highest investors in Research and Development in the country with a highly talented and experienced team of engineers and scientists engaged in R&D activities as well at all its manufacturing units. The R&D efforts have made significant contributions to almost all areas of operation of BHEL; a few among them are: atmospheric bubbling fluidized bed combustion (FBC) boiler up to 100 tonne/hr, direct ignition of pulverized coal (DIPC), ceramic liners for abrasion resistance application in thermal power plants, wear resistant castings for hydro turbines and many more accomplishments in the field of non-conventional energy, AC-DC locomotives, microprocessor-based controls, switch-gears, and superconductors.

Core Competence

Design and manufacturing of heavy electrical machinery and high grade and highly accurate machining capabilities constitute the core competence of BHEL. Accuracy levels of 5 to 10 microns are being achieved at BHEL, which no one else in the industry is achieving currently. Further, the components and products made by the company are truly of a world-class quality and standards, with the focus on generators and turbines and a niche strategy in the segments of motors and switch gears.

Competitive Edge and Technological Leadership

The company's competitive edge lies in its capacity to produce heavy electrical machinery, generators, turbines and turbine blades conforming to the highest international standards at globally competitive prices. The company is a leader in the area of providing technology for these and other products, which include non-conventional energy systems, traction equipment, electric locomotive engines and bogies for railways and seamless pipes.

Integration

BHEL is more of a vertically integrated company with a captive foundry and forge plant, seamless steel type plant, and specialized facilities for 800 kV transformers are also being established. As almost all products are customized, horizontal integration is practically non-existent and is not envisaged in the near future.

Corporate Vision, Mission and Values

The vision is to be, and remain, a world-class, innovative, competitive and profitable engineering enterprise providing total business solutions. The mission is to be the leading Indian engineering enterprise providing quality products, systems and services in the field of energy, transportation, industry, infrastructure and other potential areas.

The values are: meeting commitments made to external and internal customers; foster learning, creativity and speed of response; respect for dignity and potential of individuals; loyalty and pride in the company; team playing; zeal to excel, and integrity and fairness in all matters.

Work-Culture and Philosophy

The BHEL philosophy of professional excellence through continuous striving for state-of-the-art technology is embodied by a strong team of 62,500 employees, including over 11,000 highly qualified engineers. Continuous training and retraining, a positive work culture and participative style of management have resulted in the development of a committed and motivated work force, ready to meet the challenges of tomorrow.

Workers' participation at all levels (even at the Board); encouragement to all employees to participate in cultural, sports, educational and other activities; and dedication to excel, coupled with safety habits, are other hallmarks of the BHEL culture.

The BHEL units are decentralized, independent and bureaucratic structure of work organization is almost non-existent. Flexibility, rather than red-tapism is the norm in day-to-day working.

Quality Strategy

The quality strategy at BHEL is to achieve highest international standards of quality at every stage of operation through implementation of quality management systems and procedures in consonance with international standards and practices. This is evidenced through state-of-the-art design and technology adapted from world- renowned collaborators.

BHEL has an independent corporate quality department at its corporate office in New Delhi and all its 14 plants are ISO-rated (ISO 9002 and ISO 9004). The first ISO certification for a few of its plants was acquired in 1989 and now even some of its offices are ISO-rated.

Global Presence and ]oint Ventures

The presence of BHEL products and services extends to over 50 countries spread over all the five continents. Export orders range from individual products to complete power stations on turnkey basis, operation and maintenance, retrofitting and refurbishing, including life expectancy studies as well as training of manpower. This also includes consultancy services for establishing manufacturing units. BHEL has joint ventures with General Electric and Siemens for renovation and modernization of power plants.

Vendor Development

As already stated, vertical integration is practically non-existent in BHEL at present, but they have ancillary units in non-core areas of machining and welding of non-critical components. However, the company does have programs to develop vendors and recently a global meeting of about 200 vendors was held at Hardwar.

Manufacturing Strategy and Technologies being Used Currently

The Technology Development laboratory in the corporate research and development centre contributes to the development and application of new manufacturing technologies and processes which chiefly include flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs), automated guided vehicles (AGVs), robotics, automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRSs), computer aided design (CAD), and computer aided manufacturing (CAM). A majority of these are already in operation at several of BHEL's plants.

The manufacturing strategy of BHEL is to acquire more and more advanced machines whereby the productivity can be improved, cycle time reduced, cost of production lowered and the rate of stock removal is enhanced. Spindle speeds of up to 16,000 RPM are being achieved at BHEL. Almost all types of technologies are being used currently with a whole gamut of CNC, general purpose, and special purpose machines.

Integration of IJ Elements into the System

With the thrust in the use of computers in the area of materials management, day-to-day working and financial management is also computerized. On the shop floor environment, distributed numerical control (DNC) is extensively used along with the use of computers on individual machines for data collection and integration with the system. Analysis and decision-making is getting more and more computerized with increasing utilization of the Internet. In fact, the company has its own BHEL net and all its manufacturing units and many cells are inter linked through a network of communication on this unit.

Reasons for Adopting FMT

As the company operates in a multi-project system mode, time is a critical factor in its operations. International competition, shorter delivery times, targets and commitments and other internal and external factors propelled adoption of FMT. Flexible manufacturing cells (FMCs) and flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs) were set up to enhance tool cutting and engagement time of the set-up. As a consequence of this, it was experienced that the machines are in the cutting mode for longer time, leading to higher productivity and reduced lead-time. Although the reduction in lead-time is possible by other means also, but the company managers feel that main advantage of FMT is that the idle time is reduced. For example, as the company automated tool changing, tool loading, job changing and job loading, the cutting time increased proportionately because idle time was reduced. A reduction in delivery time and levels of inventory and work in progress (WIP) was also experienced.

Technology-based Future Plans of the Company

BHEL's future plans include upgrading its product engineering and manufacturing technology base by induction of state-of-the-art technologies, upgrading equipment and facilities to maintain quality leadership, absorption of know-how from its international collaborators and integrating them with indigenous developments in its R&D facilities. The company relentlessly pursues higher levels of productivity and exemplary customer service.

Major areas of research and technology development identified for the future are: fluidized bed combustion (FBC) boilers up to 120 MW, sub-critical and super-critical once-through type boilers for ratings of 500 MW and above, 800 kV AC transmission equipment and super conductivity.

In the area of manufacturing, the future plans are to look for ways and means to perform maximum number of operations on a machine using a single set-up. Technology induction will be more in this area and this means more of FMT and other advanced manufacturing technologies, especially those incorporating high to very high cutting speeds and the appropriate tools to withstand these speeds and incumbent forces.

FMT Environment of the Company

BHEL has not only installed almost all major elements of FMT as shown in Table 2, but also is a pioneer in developing in-house, the flexible machining cells (FMCs) and flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs) by integrating its existing fleet of CNC machines and other elements. In this respect, the company is unique among the four companies studied in this work.

Other notable features of the FMT environment are:

With a total stock of installed machine tools in all its 14 manufacturing units numbering 5000 and costing around INR 13,000 million, the company has practically no conventional machining centres.

The company is engaged in jobbing type of production of heavy engineering products and, as such, the conveyor systems are not much in evidence. Exceptions are its 16 FMCs and one FMS and also its electro-porecilin plants at Jagdishpur and Bangalore, having continuous process lines.

The company is going for inducting more and more ASRSs of height up to 9 meters in a big way. These are chiefly used for storing steel plates. But the company has experienced that while location and storage of these plates is not a problem, their retrieval has the disadvantage of the whole bin coming out because the stored parts/plates cannot be retrieved individually. The capability of the stacker crates is organic, that is, it can be added, as the structure is built-up and developed in-house.

Just-in-time (JIT) systems are non-existent at BHEL because their critical components come from abroad. Moreover, feels the company, in areas of heavy engineering where raw materials are quite critical, the JIT systems are quite impractical. However, the company has succeeded in reducing its inventory levels from 200 days to 100 days in just 2 to 3 years. This has been achieved by developing ancillaries and doing ABC analysis and improving controls systems.

There are more than twenty-five manipulators robots, supplied by Japan, with three or four axes. But real human like robots are four in number, two of which are working at its Hyderabad plant and one each at Bangalore and Hardwar works. These four robots are used chiefly for material handling. A welding robot was acquired in 1991 at a cost of INR 9 million and installed at its Tiruchirapally plant. Another robot is being developed in-house at the corporate R&D centre at Hyderabad, at an estimated cost of INR 6.5 million.

Normally, the automated guided vehicles (AGVs) are used only where the route is well defined and/or where the component has to move from one machine to another. But at BHEL, the operations are not sequential because being heavy to very heavy, the machines are not laid out in sequence. Out of the two AGVs, one is working in the blade shop at Hardwar while the other is installed at the company's corporate R&D centre at Hyderabad for training and demonstration.

One fully operative flexible manufacturing system (FMS) having multi-machining centers and automated movement of materials is installed at its corporate R&D centre at Hyderabad since 1991. This was developed in-house by integrating CNC machines. The software used is interactive and developed in-house.

In addition, there are 16 flexible manufacturing cells (FMCs), which are flexible manufacturing facilities with single station, where the material is moved from the buffer to the machines through pallets. Once the component to be machined is loaded, all other operations are automated, except unloading of the component.

Out of these 16 FMCs, 4 are installed at Tiruchirapalli, 5 at Hyderabad, 3 at Bhopal and 4 at Hardwar plants. The earliest FMC station was of Mitsubishi, Japan, acquired in 1984.

Almost all the manufacturing units have computer-aided design (CAD) facilities and attempts are underway to make them updated with the latest versions of Auto-CAD.

Computer-aided manufacturing per se is not in operation at BHEL, but programs from central computer can be transferred directly to the individual machines through a distributed numerical control (DNC) network. The programs can be downloaded from one workstation to the other.

But on an aggregate level, not all production functions and not every shop is automated. In the next section, other details of this aspect are discussed.

The company is still importing its machinery mainly from Germany, Japan, Switzerland and Italy because no company (not even the Hindustan Machine Tools Ltd., which is one of the few Indian companies manufacturing FMSs) in India manufactures the machines of the size BHEL needs.

The chief consideration in acquiring FMT was to reduce time on the shop floor and reduce work in progress (WlP). Lesser and lesser dependency on human beings is another consideration. Although, the company has no problems on the labour front on this account, but the accuracy level is still a problem. In nutshell, economies of scope are the guiding principle at BHEL.

The company did not face much difficulty in the installation of FMT elements but the maintenance remains a problem. However, re-training of workers, altering the work culture and laying more stress on maintenance and preventive maintenance, were the changes effected after installing FMT equipment.

Since the company inducted FMT only in those areas where the worker fatigue was a problem, the step was rather welcomed by the labour unions, although resistance to change on account of attitudinal aspects was experienced.

The company's FMT system managers have not attempted to measure flexibility of the systems installed because they felt no need to do so. But they have suggested that a system permitting more frequent changes can be rated as more flexible.

The components machined on the FMT set ups are turbine blades, compressors and impellers, which are critical to the company's product range.

Automation/Computerization of Production Functions

The discussions in this section relate to the extent of performing some production functions through automated facilities or modes and non-automated or conventional means on an aggregate basis.

It may be seen from Table 3 that transportation, management of production (including data base management), and transferring parts from conveyance facilities to the machines, are the least automated or computerized. Management information reporting (MlR), and monitoring and management of stock, inventory and wear and tear of the tools, are the most computerized production functions.

Division of Task Performance

Table 4 shows the level of operators or technical specialists performing a given task in the FMT and conventional technology environment.

However, it may be mentioned here that at BHEL, by and large, the tasks listed in Table 4 are performed by the same groups because even in the conventional technology environment, the required levels of accuracy and productivity are so high that the demarcation between FMT and conventional technology gets blurred.

Strategic Factors, Objectives and Means Contributing to the Choice of FMT Elements Installed

The numerals appearing in the matrix squares of Table 5 denote the extent of contribution made by the means to achieve the listed objectives under defined strategies on a ten point scale as reported by the company.

The motivating factor behind inducting FMT equipment by the company is to increase the productivity with an underlying strategy of maximising profits through lowering unit costs. This is followed by the objective of globalization with the underpinning strategy of creating world-class facilities to meet the export targets.

It may be noted from Table 5 that enhancing machine utilization time more extensively, improvement in the engineering aspects of the production process, and quickly tuning to the input variations, have been significant means to achieve these objectives. The level of significance of other means is also shown in Table 5, indicated by the row total of their contributions.

Benefits Actually Realized after Installation of FMT Equipment

Table 7 shows the benefits actually experienced after installing the FMT equipment at BHEL. The percentage changes appearing in the last column of this table were not calculated by us but were given by the company respondents themselves based on their own calculations and experiences. It may be observed that hallmarks of these benefits are improved machine utilization, improvement in quality of the products, reduction in unit costs, rapid response to the market changes and improvement in the controls of the manufacturing process.

In the next sections the impacts of FMT on the technological and the work and organizational systems of the company are investigated.

Impacts of FMT on the Technical System

According to Willenborg and Krabbendams (1987), six features as given in Table 8 characterize the Technical System. Introduction of FMT alters these features, which in turn, sets in changes in the work and organizational structures.

Table 8, reproduced from Willenborg and Krabbendams (1987) was not shown to the respondents of the company; only their responses were collected through interviews and questionnaires.

The impacts of FMT operative at BHEL on its technological system as actually experienced by the company were compared against the expected ones and the reported results are shown in Table 9. It may be clarified here that although at BHEL the dominant elements of FMT are CNC machines, the company is far ahead of many others in its usage of almost all other essential components of FMT, like AGVs, ASRSs, FMCs and FMSs. Yet, it is not entirely dependent upon full FMSs and computer integrated manufacturing is only in its primitive state. Hence, in the column of expected scores (impacts) the figures have been modified to lie between those of CNC and FMS as shown in Table 9.

The experienced levels of impacts have been recorded verbatim as reported by the company and actual score have been interpreted. For example, average and medium have been interpreted to be more than low but less than high and an average score (average of 2 and 3) of 2.5 assigned to it.

It has been discovered that the reported impacts on capital intensity have been on the expected lines but those for complexity, level of automation, product flexibility, process flexibility, and production flexibility fall short of the expected ones. Given the size and scale of operations of BHEL, the level of automation, if it is intended to make it at par with those of the developed countries, is still way behind. But the extent of automation should be attempted judiciously taking into account socio-economic and other factors specific to a country.

Another factor responsible for levels of automation remaining lower than expected could be that the company is not a consumer product organization and therefore, frequent changes are not needed much, although batch sizes do vary.

Impacts of FMT on the Work and Organizational Structure

In Table 10 are recorded and reproduced verbatim the experiences of the company under the column entitled 'the company responses'. Other details and parametric considerations while conducting this part of the study were the same as for other three case studies.

There are two notable deviations, marked by asterisk (*). The first is regarding the costs of training. In the company's opinion, the training costs are low, mainly due to the fact that it conducts its own in-house courses and practical training sessions, mainly at its corporate R&D Centre at Hyderabad as it has a substantial number of facilities there. In case it does not have a particular facility, it sends its team of engineers or specialists to other companies. For example, recently a team of BHEL engineers was sent to another public sector company, the Hindustan Machine Tools Ltd. (HMT) for training on Mechatronics.

The second deviation was that not much of restructuring of the organizational structure was experienced at BHEL. This may be due to the fact that much earlier, the company went for de-centralization, making its units almost independent. Lack of red-tapism, lack of a bureaucratic/hierarchical structure and a lot of in-built flexibility in its work and organization culture helped it to absorb the induction of FMT without much difficulties.

Other impacts of FMT on the aspects listed in this section are :

The company is considering replacing the manual mode of changing the process plans by computer-aided process planning (CAPP).

With increase in the induction of FMT and enhanced sophistication, more qualified engineers are replacing supervisors. In some cases, even CNC machines and FMCs are being operated by qualified engineers.

Preventive maintenance has assumed significance to such an extent that teams of electronics engineers, with each member carrying a pager/cell-phone/walkie-talkie, are deployed to ensure that in case of a problem, there is someone to attend within a matter of minutes.

In conclusion, it may be stated that long standing exposure (even before the on-set of liberalization in India) to world markets and international competition, where very high quality products at very competitive prices only can sustain, have shaped this largest engineering company of India in the public sector.

The Situation-Actor-Process (SAP) Analysis

The Situation

* In the early years of independent India (around mid fifties), there were colossal efforts by the Government of India to build industrial base of the country. Attention was focussed on petroleum, power and cement. In fact, power generation was very high on priority which manifested in the construction of first world-class hydro power plant at Nangal in the northern state of Punjab.

* It was felt that without facilities for indigenous production of equipment for generation, transmission and utilization of electrical power, these massive programs would not succeed.

* The country, at that time, had not much of an industrial base to speak about, more so in the core industries.

* This led to setting up of the first unit in August, 1956 when Heavy Electricals (Pvt.) Limited was incorporated at Bhopal, in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, in technical collaboration with the Associated Electrical Industries (AEI), now known as General Electric (GE), of UK.

The Actors

* It was the vision of the first Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, who is aptly remembered as the architect of modern India.

* The political leaders under the guidance of the then Prime Minister of India, the secretaries and technical specialists of the Government of India, and the top, middle and lower levels of technicians of the first plant set-up. Other functionaries of the state of Madhya Pradesh provided land and other basic infrastructure facilities.

* The management, engineers and technical specialists of Associated Electrical Industries (now known as General Electric) of United Kingdom (Britain). Technology providers for the first plant, erstwhile USSR (now known as the CIS Countries) and erstwhile Czechoslovakia (now known as the Czech States).

* Team of highly qualified engineers, R&D scientists and professionals, managers, technicians, and skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers and labourers, who helped built the subsequent plants.

* Subsequent technology providers for different products and processes are the countries of Canada, the CIS countries, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden Switzerland, UK., and USA.

The Process

* The technical know-how, design and initial support system for creation and commissioning of the first plant was acquired from Associated Electrical Industries (AEI) of the UK.

* Initial machinery and plant was imported not only from the UK as well as from Germany and the USA.

* Indian engineers and technicians were initially trained by the collaborators but eventually they became capable of coming on their own.

* Initially, the first plant was set up to cater to the domestic needs but setting of subsequent plants enabled the company to initially export to neighbouring countries like Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Thailand.

* Gradually, the company was able to bag prestigious contracts in the European countries, including Germany, against tough international players.

* The global exposure thus acquired helped it to become highly competitive and quality conscious through induction of advanced manufacturing technologies, including FMT, in substantial measures, leading to its present state and status.

The Learning Issues

* Acquiring technology and making products through licensing and developing indigenous technology base simultaneously, is the strategy to acquire competitive edge, especially for heavy engineering industries engaged in manufacturing highly sophisticated and also where reverse engineering may not be possible.

* Ploughing back money in R&D pays rich dividends by way of enhancing competitive edge which results in higher profits and other gains.

* For a company situated in a developing nation but engaged in the production of highly sophisticated and customized products, vertical integration may still remain the norm till the surrounding ambience becomes developed enough to sustain horizontal integration.

* Decentralized, autonomous units with flexibility in decision-making should be encouraged by an organization aspiring to become truly world-class.

* Separate teams of well-qualified professionals and engineers in a high technology-oriented company should handle management of quality and preventive maintenance.

* The Indian companies engaged in manufacturing should strive hard to increase productivity of the production organs by enhancing the rate of stock removal and machine engagement time. Advanced technologies and machines can help achieve this objective.

* Integration of IT elements into the operations of a company will assume even greater significance in future.

* Developing an organizational structure conducive to fostering a climate of learning, creativity, quick response, respect for dignity and capability of each individual, a sense of loyalty and pride in the organization, team spirit, zeal to excel, transparency and fairness is central to survive and grow in a highly competitive environment.

* One way to combat resistance to adoption of FMT by labour unions is to induct FMT initially only in those areas where worker fatigue is a problem.

Concluding Remarks

As demonstrated, if there is a champion for a cause, including that of incorporating FMT, the chances of success are enhanced. It has also been adequately proved that even a government-controlled organization can achieve excellence and compete globally by incorporating FMT in its production facilities, training and re-training its personnel, giving a thrust to innovation, integrating elements of IT into almost all of its functions, and integrating activities such as data management, production, finance, accounting, and human resources management systems through local area networks (LANs).

The BHEL has amply demonstrated how a heavy engineering company in the public sector of a developing nation can achieve international standards by acquiring competitive edge. A judicious mix of acquisition of advanced technologies through technology transfer, strong thrust to in-house R&D, designing a flexible organizational structure, inducting training and retraining programmes to constantly train personnel on advanced technologies, and using FMT substantially but appropriately, can really help in acquiring this competitive edge.

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Acknowledgements : The author sincerely thanks Mr. S. M .Mahajan, Mr. Ashok Puri, several other professionals, experts and officers of BHEL, who co-operated in more than one ways to provide all the help needed for this exhaustive study.

O.P. Sharma

Assistant Professor

Department of Mechanical Engineering,

Delhi College of Engineering,

Bawana Road, Delhi 110042

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