INDUSTRIAL VISIT II - BHILAI STEEL PLANT

On 17th February 2014 a group of 28 students started their journey on what was the second industrial visit this season and this time around the destination was the Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP - the flagship plant of SAIL). 

Located in Bhilai, Chhattisgarh, BSP is India's first and foremost producer of steel rails (It is the sole supplier of the country's longest rail tracks, which measure 260 metres), as well as a major producer of wide steel plates, wire rods and other steel products.

Upon arrival the group was taken to a training room where a brief video describing the various processes involved in the manufacturing of steel was shown. After the session, safety instructions were given and the students were sent off to the plant. The first stop, the blast furnace shop, gave a feel of what it is like to be in a steel plant. See pic below.

The instructor explained the processes that happen inside the furnace which reduces iron ore, coke and limestone into hot metal. Liquid iron is separated from slag when it settles down at the bottom of the furnace and is sent to the Steel Melting Shop (SMS). At the Steel melting shop the impurities are removed and the students were explained and shown how the homogenization of steel takes place. The next stop was to one of the 21 batteries at BSP. A battery is a set of ovens lined up together which heat coal in order to remove unwanted gases from it and transform it to coke, the process lasts for about 16-18 hours after which it is transported to the blast furnace. The final stop was the plate mill rolling shop. The students witnessed the automated process wherein molten billets of steel were rolled into the desired shapes and cut as per the specification.

Performance Measurement of Supply Chain and its Strategic Implications

Introduction

In today’s world technical and competitive factors are changing at an alarming rate. In order to survive these radical changes organizations also need to learn to respond to them. The survival of an organization in today’s ever changing environment depends on its ability to respond to changes. This aspect of being dynamic becomes even more difficult for smaller firms. Over the years companies have also acknowledged that it is not economically viable to develop every part of the final product in-house and therefore outsourcing has become increasingly common. Also, with globalisation logistics have become vital part of any organisation and hence supply chain management has become the key to survival.

Supply chain management is the process of planning, implementing and controlling the operations of the supply chain with a purpose to satisfy customer’s requirements as efficiently as possible. SCM spans all movement and storage of raw materials, work-in- progress and finished goods from point-of-origin to point-of-consumption.

On the other hand performance management is also very important. It should be understood that all businesses need performance management, because without it nobody can actually comment on how well or poor any business is doing. There should be some benchmarks, targets etc. to compare so that performance of an organization can be measured. Supply chains constitute substantial costs to organizations. Hence cost and performance effectiveness become vital. Strength and performance of any process are only as good as its weakest link. Therefore performance measures specific to a firm are needed to enable improvements and to compare it with industry standards and competitors.

This brings us to the very important point that if anything cannot be measured, it cannot be controlled and thereby cannot be managed; finally if we cannot manage something, we cannot improve it.

Need of Metrics and Performance Management

Supply Chain Risk Management should become one of the top concerns of companies and supply chain executives, as the industry gains a greater conceptual understanding of the real costs of supply chain disruptions, combined with recent incidents such as the Mattel toy recall disaster and Boeing’s massive Dreamliner delays have reinforced the point.

Companies have also realised that in order to survive they need to change according to the market. The strength that they can boast of today may become a weakness tomorrow. This point can be made clearer by the example of State Bank of India which at one point in time boasted of its large amount of branches, but with the advent of internet banking these same branches have now become liability. In today’s business change is the only constant.

Some of the issues due to which organizations are not able to successfully integrate and monitor their supply chains are:

COGITATE - Crossword Key

INDUSTRIAL VISIT - JSPL

Industrial visits provide a welcome opportunity for us management students away from the gruelling academic sessions and rushing deadlines to gain a hands on experience of a plant functioning.

Continuing the tradition, the OPEP club organized the industrial visit for the current academic sessions for the whole 2013-15 PGP and 2013 FPM Batch at Jindal Steel & Power Limited Raipur Plant. The visit was scheduled from 9th Dec to 11th Dec 2013. Due to the large number of participants this year, the visit was conducted in three batches to facilitate the smooth conduct of the visit.

JSPL Raipur Plant is located 13 km from Raipur and operates as the machinery division. The plant is spread over an area of around 162000 m2 and manufactures critical equipment such as cranes, pressure vessels, ladles, and other steel castings used in steel, power, cement, and mining industries. The facilities available at the plant are steel foundry, centrifugal casting, machine shop with latest CNC machines, fabrication & assembly shops, shot-blasting, paint booth, heat treatment furnaces, etc.

The visiting batches of the students were given a brief introduction about JSPL and the machinery division by a panel of marketing, operations and safety managers of the plant. This was followed by a guided tour of the facility in small groups. The plant is divided in four units based on the processes such as casting, forging, machining and assembly. 

TRENDS IN THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

The Journey of Automotive Industry with Information Technology

In the Indian context, while computers made their mark in operations as much as half a century ago, there has been a profound shift in their role in business. Earlier they were confined largely to processing data in commercial areas such as payroll and purchase where their utility was seen in number crunching operations. On the other hand, today they are integrated to such an extent into the operation that the line separating business and Information Technology, is fast disappearing.

If we were to broadly analyze the impact of Information Technology on business in the automotive industry, we would see the following phases. In the opening phase, the role of IT was almost exclusively to save clerical effort. This was marked by applications such as payroll and billing in large organisations, where large mainframe systems could compress the time for such documentation and bring high levels of accuracy in mass scale work. The style of doing business was however, completely unaffected. Next, with the advent of desktop systems in the eighties, the emphasis shifted to empowering individual users to create their own local applications, which would bring relief to the user. This was based more on individual creativity and hence users developed applications more from the viewpoints of their interest and ability. Typical applications revolved around information that had to be submitted periodically to some authority such as daily material receipt or cash collection data. Some relief was available to individual users but again, these were in pockets and did not materially alter the business scenario or the overall working environment in any significant way.

"Information Technology is a very powerful tool and the ultimate benefit can be extracted only when the application directly impacts business"

In the nineties, the emphasis shifted to the use of IT over a wider horizon, marked by the introduction of larger applications such as Enterprise Resource Planning and the use of advanced software in technical areas such as planning, design, quality and manufacturing. These helped to tackle some of the chronic issues such as, suboptimal decision through the use of inappropriate local applications, or, difficulty in churning out drawings and developments expeditiously, with changing customer requirements. In addition, with the shift to larger servers with wide area connectivity, it became possible to give access to large number of users at different locations and all could share information from the same database. Real time systems became the norm and across the organization, the integrity and consistency of information were enhanced substantially. 

EQUINOX 4.0 Presents E-Compete

OPEP –The Operations and Supply Chain Club of IIM Raipur proudly presents E-Compete, a simulation game that touches reality.

The game is based on the e-tailing business model wherein the objective is to maximize profit by managing the virtual retail environment. The contestants will unlock orders by solving Operations related problems and get the orders delivered to their respective destinations.

A simulation game of this magnitude that test your theoretical know how and applies it to real life scenarios where demand and supply forecast fluctuate, transportation goes hand in hand with cost management, minimizing inventory is key and time is of the essence. Use your gadgets, solve problems on your laptops, get excel to work your gray cells.

Having your fundamentals clear and being technically sound is great. Furthermore, being able to come up with concrete solutions, alternatives and quick assessments of the situation under pressure and time constraints makes you invaluable. If you think you fit the category, prove it!

The primary motive of any business is to reduce cost and maximize profit!!!

EQUINOX 4.0 Presents Cogitate

Cogitate is a case study event. The competition will be conducted online where the contestants apply their knowledge to provide practical solution to tackle Industrial problems. It will provide a platform to experience real time industry situations involving operations and supply chain. 

The event will be conducted in two stages.

Prelims: Online crossword competition (20*20) Duration 30 minutes

Finals: Case study, Cases will be mailed to the contestants who clear the prelims

Rules of the Game

1. The event is open to B – school students only
2. A team should comprise of two members from the same B-School
3. No changes in the team will be allowed after the registration
4. A participant can be a part of one team only
5. If any conflict arises, the decision of the organizing committee shall remain final and binding
6. In case of any query please contact the event coordinators.

Deadline for Registration - 8th December 2013

Cogitate - Register here
Contact
Vana - +91 8349501058