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Address to the Engineers, Executives and Staff of
Heavy Engineering Corporation Limited
Ranchi
24 June 2009
Competitiveness through integrated design, development, production and marketing
When you wish upon a star,
Makes no difference who you are.
I am delighted to meet the Engineers, Executives and Staff of
Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC), Ranchi. My greetings to all
of you. I would like to congratulate the members of HEC for
turning around and making the company profitable. It is a good
signal. I am sure, engineers, managers and staff will work
together to bring a great name for HEC for its work on turnkey
products from design to manufacturing and marketing. Here, I
would like to give my visualization of distinctive profile of
India by the year 2020 which will enable you to decide where you
can become a partner in national development.
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To achieve the distinctive profile of India, we have the
mission of transforming India into a developed nation. We have
identified five areas where India has a core competence for
integrated action: (1) Agriculture and food processing (2)
Education and Healthcare (3) Information and Communication
Technology (4) Reliable and Quality Electric power, Surface
transport and Infrastructure for all parts of the country. (5)
Self-reliance in critical technologies. These five areas are
closely inter-related and if progressed in a coordinated way,
will lead to food, economic and national security.
We need to accelerate and maintain growth rates in all three
service sectors viz agriculture, manufacturing and service.
Strategic vision of heavy engineering as applied to all the
relevant segments through an integrated
design/development/production and marketing employing the best
practices in management and partnership will lead to this.
Competitiveness will be powered only through our Research,
innovations and design. I remember my early days in ISRO when we
created a capability in fibre glass technology by developing in
all aspects including design and development of winding machine.
Today we are world leaders in the technology of composite motor
cases for rockets.
Vision for HEC
Time has come for HEC to take up the challenges in realizing the
distinctive profile of India by 2020. Towards this, HEC may like
to work with strategic sectors such as Atomic Energy. Based on
my visualization of 2020, in the Atomic energy area; we have to
increase the nuclear power generating capacity from 7,000 MWe to
nearly 20,000 MWe within the next decade. This will need large
number of forgings, calandrias and magnets. HEC professionals
may like to equip themselves with the knowledge of design to
fabrication for such products which will enable them to deliver
the end product in the specified quality, in quantities and
in-time to meet the needs of atomic energy projects. For this
purpose, HEC may even consider becoming a captive production
agency for atomic energy establishment through a long term MOU.
Similarly, HEC can also become partners with Dept of Space and
Dept of Defence Research and Development. The core-competence of
HEC is in providing heavy engineering systems for steel plants.
As you are aware, all the integrated steel plants in the public
sector are being progressively modernized. HEC may like to take
this opportunity to train its engineers and staff in such a way
that they can take up turnkey modernization tasks starting from
concept to completion at the most economic cost. For this
purpose, HEC may also like to enter into collaboration with a
foreign partner who has a unique experience in modernization of
steel plants. With this approach, I am sure, HEC will become the
most sought after heavy engineering industry of the country by
multiple institutions.
From the annual report of HEC, I find that with a equity capital of over rupees 450 crore and with an employ base of around 3,000 people, HEC has a turnover of around rupees 370 crores. The whole management system of HEC may like to change this situation and increase the annual turnover of HEC to over rupees 3,000 crore, progressively within the next five years. I am sure, all of you have the capability to realize this goal. You have to only create a spirit within yourself “I can do it”, “we can do it” and “HEC will do it”.
While executing various national programmes, my team and myself have gone through certain experiences in project management which I would like to share with you, when HEC is in the process of re-engineering itself into a vibrant manufacturer of heavy engineering systems needed for national development missions. The topic for discussion would be "Competitiveness through integrated design, development, production and marketing".
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SLV-3, IGMDP and the LCA programmes have taught me certain
critical features of programme management which I would like
to discuss. They are:
All programmes based on national priority must have a clear
vision., Three Light Combat Aircrafts - Tejas designed developed
and produced by Aeronautic Development Agency, Bangalore in
partnership with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, flew as a part
of air show demonstration of Aero India in 2005, 2007 and 2009
and has undergone 1135 test flights. This incident made me
recall the experience and thoughts; I had while witnessing the
Paris Air show along with Dr. V.S. Arunachalam the then
scientific advisor to Raksha manthri and Dr. Kota Harinarayana,
the then Programme Director, ADA and Dr. K. G. Narayanan,
Director ADE in the year 1990. It was a beautiful morning, when
we were seeing many of the European, American and Russian
fighters crossing the sonic barrier and entering supersonic
flight speed.
That time, I wrote a verse
At that time the Indian Light Combat Aircraft programme was
in the drawing board and in the computer aided design stage with
many technological options and managerial conflicts. On 9th
February 2005, part of the vision has been realized by flying
the three LCAs in the Indian Air Show. Our scientists are
working towards the target of flying our aircrafts along with
the European, American and Russian fighters in the Paris and
other air shows being conducted in different parts of the world.
I am sure it will definitely take place. We are very close to
such an event. Most important thing is LCA is being inducted
into squadrons service.
Evolution of management system
Whenever any team undertakes a project it becomes responsible
for executing the task to the stated specifications, within the
prescribed time and within the prescribed cost. This is true of
all projects. To fulfil the responsibility the project has to be
provided with adequate resource and the authority to use the
resource for meeting the end goals of the Projects. Preferably
the project report with time required and cost of the project
should come from the people who are responsible to execute the
project. Thus, while the missile programme was proposed for
around Rs.400 crore in 1983 along with the programme, a
three-tier management structure was sought with delegated
financial, administrative and technical powers for each tier of
management. In addition the additional manpower needed by
various work centres numbering thousand two hundred including
campus recruitment methodology was sought. The program was
approved with budget, PERT, additional manpower and management
structure after lot of discussion at various levels.
Simultaneously, a total management plan was worked out by a
internal DRDL team so that a well structured management
philosophy and procedure is available for meeting all the
eventualities envisaged during the different phases of the
programme. This management plan was evolved based on the
experience of the management plan derived for SLV-3 and approved
by Dr. Brahm Prakash. Sanction of the programme with the funds,
the management structure, special delegation of powers and
special recruitment process was the unique feature of the
missile programme.
I am discussing now, this successful management structure so
that it can be used for other projects in the country and
elsewhere. The management structure of the missile programme
consisted of Guided missile board, Programme management board
and the Project management board.
An important tool of project programme management was the dynamic PERT chart and not the Bar chart. At every project or programme management board meeting, we insisted on the presentation of the latest PERT, based on the present state of progress and asked for the critical path. It should be noted that the critical path becomes different during different phases of the project and also different based on the level at which project is reviewed whether it is Project Management Board, Programme Management Board or the Guided Missile Board.
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In June 1983 the Integrated Guided Missile Development
Programme was about to be sanctioned. That was the time we had
to select the Project Directors for Prithvi, Agni, Akash,
Trishul and Nag. In DRDL, at that time many experienced
Scientists in Development were competing candidates for this
task. Many of them were over fifty. To enable the selection of
the most suitable candidate for heading these projects we
followed a novel procedure. I called for the meeting of the
Management Council of DRDL and the agenda for the meeting was to
finalize the criteria required for the selection of the Project
Directors. I asked each member of the Management Council to go
to the Board and write one characteristics, which he considered
essential for the selected Project Director. The characteristics
mentioned by the members for an effective Project Director were
as follows:
a) Should be a post-graduate or a doctorate in rocket technology
or system engineering.
b) Should have achieved excellence in any one of the technology
in missile area or in management.
c) Should preferably be a good missile system designer.
d) Should be a team person.
e) Should be a good leader.
f) Should be able to get along well with the team, and other
agencies contributing to the programme.
g) Should have minimum ten years of service left so that the
Project Director can see that the missiles are developed and
successfully led to production.
h) Should be a person of unimpeachable integrity.
When we discussed all the characteristics together, there was
convergence among members that the following are the most
essential characteristics of the Project Directors: credibility
of the person in achieving excellence in one of the technologies
or management is the first essential quality. Secondly, Project
Director should be young enough to design and develop the
missile and lead it to production. Thirdly, the selected
candidate should be a person of unimpeachable integrity. With
these criteria Scientists of the age group below 40 became the
obvious choice for becoming the Project Directors of the
Programme. Simultaneously, I nominated the other experienced
Senior Scientists as Technology Directors with the
responsibility of developing the technologies required by the
projects. This created a technological link between the Project
and Technology Directors. Project Directors had the sanctioning
power, which created a healthy relationship between the Project
Directors and the Technology Directors.
As an anecdote to this, I would like to mention how we decided
on the name of the projects. In a special meeting we invited all
the Project Directors and Technology Directors to decide on the
names. We put the criteria that the name should be indicative of
the performance of the missile systems; it should be simple,
there should be an Indian-ness about the name and should be
familiar to every one. On this basis the names Agni, Prithvi,
Trishul, Akash and Nag were chosen and today these names have
become household names in many places. People at large, common
man and even high school students are aware of these names and
know what type of missiles these names indicate.
Organizational Dynamics
The unique feature of the Integrated Guided Missile
Development Programme was that it included the funds required
for limited series production of the missile systems. The
programme, thus, had four different phases viz., the design
phase, development of sub-system and systems, trial and
evaluation including flight trials and productionisation of the
systems. The laboratories executing the programme had to be
appropriately organized for managing the load of the different
phases of the programme. Realizing this feature initially in
1983, DRDL was reorganized to undertake the complex Integrated
Missile Development Programme and execute the first phase viz.
the design phase. The activity level was being continuously
monitored to see the result of this reorganization. Initially,
the activity index was around 40% which rose to nearly 60%
during the period 1983-86. By this time, the laboratory has
entered into the second phase, development of sub systems and
systems and conduct of flight tests in some cases. Since, the
activity index showed saturation characteristics and started
slightly drooping, we had to carry out the second reorganization
in 1986 to improve the activity index for that period. With this
reorganization the activity index rose to nearly 70% by the year
1998 when flight test of Trishul, Prithvi and Agni were all
carried out. Then there was again a tendency for the activity
index curve to droop which led to the third reorganization in
late 1989 while the programme entered the production phase and
orders for two missiles systems had been placed on the
production agency and Nag and Akash system were ready for flight
tests. The message which I would like to convey is that the
projects, the programme managers and the work centers must be
sensitive to the organizational dynamics and organizational
output of the different phases of the programme and plan
reorganization well in advance so that the organization
maximizes its output.
Review Mechanism
With the sanction of the missile programme in 1983, we had
created an institutional mechanism of robust review of all
stages of the projects. These reviews included preliminary
design review, critical design review, sub-system review, system
review, static test readiness review, flight test readiness
review and post-flight analysis. The important feature of the
review mechanism was the review experts were drawn from
different specialization working in different laboratories and
universities spread in different parts of the country. Any
expert available in the field was sought by the project as a
review member, which enabled them to get the collective wisdom
of specialists on technical issues. Review recommendations were
executed faithfully by the project team in a time bound manner.
In addition to this, failure analysis board, waiver board were
also created for undertaking the review and corrective action
for certain classes of failure and authorizing waivers in
marginal cases. The quality and reliability team was asked to
work out a reliability model of the system under test and
present it before flight test readiness review so that the
flight test authorization board can take a considered view on
the desirability of proceeding for the test in case the
reliability margin is low. The reliability model was constantly
updated based on the predicted reliability and the performance
of the system during the flight test. I always found that the
confidence of the scientists and the team became very high if
the review was carried out objectively. Also hidden problems
were invariably brought out during the review, which became a
valuable input to the programme.
Importance of acknowledging the contribution made by the Team
Members
I would like to recall an event, which took place in 1995. We
were having the LCA roll out in the HAL Bangalore campus. To my
surprise I found that the most important person who was the
lifeline of the programme was sitting in the first row. I did
not know why he was sitting there. At that stage during my
welcome address I started describing about Dr. Kota
Harinarayana’s contribution in the development of the LCA. I
called him to the dais and gave my chair. Immediately they
brought another chair for him for being seated in the dais.
There was a big cheer from the crowd since all of them
acknowledged the contribution of Dr. Kota Harinarayana for the
programme.
I would like to narrate an incident which took place during a
function conferring Nobel Laureate Prof. Norman E Borlaug, a
well known agricultural scientist and a partner in India’s first
Green revolution, with Dr. M S Swaminathan Award, at Vigyan
Bhavan, New Delhi on the 15th of March 2005. Prof. Borlaug, at
the age of 91, was in the midst of all the praise showered on
him from everybody gathered there.
When his turn came, he got up and highlighted India’s
advancement in the agricultural science and production and said
that the political visionary Shri C. Subramaniam and Dr. M S
Swaminathan, pioneer in agricultural science were the prime
architects of First Green Revolution in India. Even though Prof
Norman Borlaug was himself a partner in the first green
revolution, he did not make a point on this. He recalled with
pride, Dr. Verghese Kurien who ushered White Revolution in
India. Then the surprise came. He turned to scientists sitting
in the third row, fifth row and eighth row of the audience. He
identified Dr. Raja Ram, a wheat specialist, Dr S K Vasal, a
maize specialist, Dr. B. R. Barwale, a seed specialist. He said,
all these scientists had contributed for India’s and Asia’s
agricultural science. Dr. Borlaug introduced them to the
audience by asking them to stand and ensured that the audience
cheered and greeted the scientists with great enthusiasm. This
action of Dr. Norman Borlaug, I call it as Scientific
Magnanimity.
Friends, if we aspire to achieve great things in life, we need
Scientific Magnanimity to focus the young achievers. It is my
experience that great mind and great heart go together. This
Scientific Magnanimity will motivate the scientific community
and nurture team spirit.
Technology denial management
In the year 1992, LCA team decided to go for
Digital-Fly-by-Wire Control System (FCS) for the Combat Aircraft
as it is an unstable aircraft. At that time, the country did not
have the experience in developing FCS. The only two countries
who had the experience were France and US. The French company (Dassaut
System) had expertise in Hybrid systems whereas our need was an
all Digital-Fly-by-Wire. Hence, it was thought appropriate to
have a US partner who has the capability in design, development
and integration of FCS on fighter aircraft. There were three
candidates, General Electric Control that later became LMCS (now
called BAe systems), Lear Astronics and Bendix. Finally, we
chose LMCS for the contract since they had the experience in
designing FCS for F-16 Aircraft. Joint Team for design and
development of the FCS was formed with ADE (DRDO Labs) and LMCS.
The work share between Indian team and LMCS team was identified.
Evolution of the SRS was the joint effort. The prototype flight
control computer was to be done by ADE. Total system integration
was the joint responsibility. Flight certification was to be
provided by LMCS.
The contract progressed though a bit slowly between 1992-98.
Then, as you all are aware, India carried out its nuclear test
on 11th May 1998. As soon as this event occurred the American
Government imposed technological sanction. Due to the sanction,
LMCS broke the contract and retained all the Indian equipment,
software and the technical information which were in their
premises.
This was definitely a shock for the Indian team. Immediately, I
called for a meeting of Directors of ADA, NAL, ADE, CAIR, HAL,
National Flight Test Centre, Prof I.G. Sharma, a renowned
control system specialist, Prof Goshal, a noted digital control
system expert and guidance and control specialists from DRDL and
ISRO. The FCS team explained to these members the situation
arising out of the unilateral termination of contract by LMCS.
We had a full day discussion on the methodology, which now needs
to be followed, by which we can successfully complete the
development of digital fly wire system and fly the LCA. The team
after prolonged deliberations gave a structured method by which
the development can be completed and the system can be certified
for flight trials. They also mentioned that they will support
the programme in whatever capacity they have to work with the
ADE and ADA teams.
Based on the recommendations of the specialists we immediately
strengthened the ADE software team with additional ten
experienced software engineers from ADA. ADA was given the
responsibility of verification and validation of software.
Integrated flight control system review committee was
constituted with Director (ADE) as Chairman and PGD (ADA) as
Co-chair to support development and resolve all the conflicts
arising between Control Law Team, Iron Bird, Software, Hardware
and simulation. This team met once in a week and brought out all
the issues arising in different work centres and solutions were
found. In addition, an Iron Bird review team was formed with
Project Director Flight Control System as Chairman with members
from HAL, ADA, ADE, certification agency (CEMILAC) and Test
Pilots from National Flight Test Centre as Members. This team
also met every week and resolved all the problems arising in the
development and Test on Iron Bird. We also introduced
participation of certification agency (CEMILAC) and inspection
agency (CRI) in all these reviews. The aim was to see that any
problem in any system is brought into focus at the earliest so
that the solution can be found. In addition, we made it a point
to have a special agenda in the monthly technical committee
meeting on the development of integrated flight control system
wherein Director (ADE), Director (NAL), Director (National
Flight Test Centre), General Manager (HAL) presented the
progress and problems. The confidence building took place by
intensifying the tests. For example informal Iron Bird test was
carried out over thousand hours and the formal Iron Bird test
was conducted over hundred and fifty hours. Similarly, Pilot
flew the simulator for more than two thousand hours. Thus, what
we missed from the foreign partner, we compensated by enhancing
the critical design review and increasing the test time to
ensure safe man rated design of the integrated flight control
system.
The entire team took the denial as a national challenge. They
said if it were going to take three years we would do it in two
years. If it is going to take twenty million dollars we will do
it in ten million dollars. Our working hours was not eight
hours. We will work twenty-four hours a day and complete the
task. That is the time I realized the power of Indian Scientific
Community, and the power of our country. I realized that no
country could dominate us by imposing technological sanction or
economic sanction. Power of scientific team will defeat the
petty designs of any nation. Today I can proudly say that our
scientists have designed, developed, tested, evaluated, and
integrated the integrated flight control system in the LCA,
which has logged more than 388 trouble free flight sorties in
three different aircrafts. The challenge of the development is
that the aircraft of this class is being designed for the first
time; we introduced the state-of-the-art digital fly by wire
technology in the very first prototype, which is unstable. We on
our own developed the final hardware and software required for
testing and evaluation of the control system in the aircraft,
after the foreign partner leaves the scene and our own
certification team which had no experience in certifying fly by
wire aircraft, gains confidence and certifies the aircraft as
flight worthy. Above all, the pilots who have never flown a
prototype, which is unstable with a fly by wire system
confidently, flew the aircrafts based on their flying experience
in the simulator and the Iron Bird. Honest self-assessment,
identification of area of uncertainty and all out effort to
solve the problem were an important aspect of this programme.
Integrating strength of industry, R&D Labs, Academic and Air
force helped to achieve, what was perceived to be an impossible
task. This is a demonstration of the Indian will that 'we will
win'.
Failure Management
Three decades ago while I was working at ISRO, I had the best
of education, which won't come from any university. I will
narrate that incident. I was given a task by Prof. Satish Dhawan
the then Chairman, ISRO to develop the first satellite launch
vehicle SLV-3, to put ROHINI Satellite in orbit. This was one of
the largest high technology space programmes undertaken in 1973.
The whole space technology community, men and women, were geared
up for this task. Thousands of scientists, engineers and
technicians worked resulting in the realization of the first
SLV-3 launch on 10th August 1979. SLV-3 took off in the early
hours and the first stage worked beautifully. But the mission
could not achieve its objectives, as the control system in 2nd
stage malfunctioned. There was a press conference at Sriharikota,
after the event. Prof. Dhawan took me to the press conference.
And there he announced that he takes responsibility for not
achieving the mission, even though I was the project director
and the mission director. When we launched SLV-3 on 18th July
1980, successfully injecting the Rohini Satellite in to the
orbit, again there was a press conference and Prof. Dhawan put
me in the front to share the success story with the press. What
we learn from this event is that the leader gives the credit for
success to those who worked for it, and leader absorbs and owns
the responsibility for the failure. This is the leadership. The
scientific community in India has the fortune to work with such
leaders, which resulted in many accomplishments. This success
generated great happiness among all my team members. This is an
important lesson for all project managers.
Economic development and prosperity
Since I am in the midst of engineers, executive and staff of
HEC, I would like to talk to you about the relationship between
management leadership and economic development.
§ Nations Economic development is powered by competitiveness.
§ The competitiveness is powered by knowledge power.
§ The knowledge power is powered by Technology and innovation.
§ The Technology and innovation is powered by resource
investment.
§ The Resource investment is powered by revenue and return on
Investment.
§ The Revenue is powered by Volume and repeat sales through
customer loyalty.
§ The customer loyalty is powered by Quality and value of
products.
§ Quality and value of products is powered by Employee
Productivity and innovation.
§ The Employee Productivity is powered by Employee Loyalty,
employee satisfaction and working environment.
§ The Working Environment is powered by management leadership.
§ Management leadership is powered by Creative leadership.
Conclusion
For success in all projects we need creative leaders. Creative
leadership means exercising the vision to change the traditional
role from the commander to the coach, manager to mentor, from
director to delegator and from one who demands respect to one
who facilitates self-respect. I am sure creative leadership
spearheads all the institutions and the future aspiring
institutions. For a vibrant HEC, the important thrust will be on
the growth in the number of creative leaders who will take HEC
to become a rupees 3000 crore turn over company within the next
three years.
My best wishes to all the members of HEC family success in their
mission.
May God bless you !