Declaring Outturn – Turnover

 Declaring Outturn – Turnover 

Recently there was  a message from TN Varadarajan (TNV), that his elder brother Dr TNS Rajan passed away due to cardiac failure at the age of 84. As a Director in MPM Bhadravathi he gave a tough time to MK Sridhar and Chawla. Many in commissioning group of those days knew him.

This brought back memories of my days in Trichy.

I joined BHEL Trichy in 1976 and after initial training was posted to Production Engineering department (PE). Actually I wanted to be a Shop engineer, but Mr Sridhar said I can’t be posted to shops as I didn’t know Tamil. The next best thing was to join PE to get feel of manufacturing.

Production Engineering department was divided into Operation Planning & Control (OP&C) and Production Planning & Control (PP&C). I was given the responsibility of Fuel Firing, Oil Systems,  Recovery system and Training Centre workshops' OP&C.

OP&C used to prepare bay-wise production plans and monitor them. Every month plan for three months used to be given.

PP&C was responsible for coordinating production review meetings with all departments including document release. It was also responsible to rectify the mismatch between DU-master and Pack& Despatch- master. This was necessary as the input to mainframe computer was by punched cards and data validation was not possible at data entry level. At any given time around 8000 DUs used to be floating as the term was used for mismatch. This happened because many times the GMS was not given to EDP by OP&C but Ancillary Development (AD) had completed production and handed over to shipping. During preparation of Loading advice slip also errors used to occur. Mr KMV Veerai was heading PP&C.

Outturn of plant was declared based on the completion reported. Completion was reported based on Inspection report called Finished Part Inspection Report & Storage Order (FPI&SO) issued by QC.

To meet the monthly target, DUs which were in final stage of manufacturing would be declared completed. FPI&SO had a structure of Production area, year, running serial followed by '/' and then a number to indicate whether the completed component would be handed over to Shipping or Component store. To identify the incomplete DU, number 3 was used for monitoring through computer. On actual completion, FPI&SO with /7 would be raised to close earlier transaction.

During that period a decision was taken that Outturn would be reckoned for completed PGMA only. This created hurdles for declaring Outturn as in most PGMAs heavy components would get completed and despatched while smaller DUs would be pending for long periods. To overcome this hurdle, PP&C in consultation with management would declare a PGMA completed where major tonnage was completed without actual completion. Sometimes this logic also not followed to meet the target. Later Mr MK Sridhar as a GM(O)made Engineering to split large PGMAs into area wise smaller PGMAs to achieve PGMA completion.

BHEL after collaboration with Combustion Engineering had bagged many orders for supply of Recovery boilers from various paper mills. Around 1979 there was lots of follow up for completing supply of Recovery systems of these orders. Mysore Paper mills (MPM) was the main customer. 

In DU master the PGMAs were not appearing as they were declared completed years ago. 

K Achyutkumar (later GM in RCpuram) was looking after material planning for recovery system. With his I started looking for the materials and their records. It was noticed that Evaporator assembly was the main pending assembly.

Evaporator tank was offloaded to a vendor near Trichy distillery. It is a huge tank. Mr S Raman, who was QC chief took upon himself to get the tank manufactured and trial assembled at the earliest. He deputed QC inspector specifically for the job to expedite the completion.

The rotor assembly consists of a long shaft on which tube-plates are attached. Tube plates have dia.76 holes for inserting pipes. It’s nearly 4 meter diameter rotor assembly revolving at slow speed. The rotor required 0.1 finish on the journals which means buffing finish. Machine shop did not have the requisite machinery to achieve the finish. Alongwith MA Ragavan, we went to Mr Srirangarayan who was EDM for the product. Our query was why such finish is required for slow speed equipment. EDM showed us CE drawing and said that is the requirement. GM(O) directed Mr T Deivsigamani to locate a vendor who can do the job as loading the job at other BHEL’S units was not possible to meet the schedule. The job was loaded on Utkal machinery. With this rotor issue was resolved.

The tube-plates required radial drilling machine DR10 or higher. For one customer we could get the job done. For other orders we had to locate vendor with radial drilling machine of requisite arm length. Finally it was decided to load them at ancillary having portable drilling machine with required diameter. 

Physical search led to discovery of some bearing housings in intermediate store of Machine Shop (MSTR).

Journal castings were also located in stores.

Purchase department was followed up for getting bearing housings and journals  for all the customers. Wherever defects were found, corrective action by way of replacement or repair was taken.  

Pedestals for bearing housings and motor were heavy structures. These were fabricated inside building 1.

With lots of effort the job was completed.

Later when Mr KL Puri took over as CMD, he announced that Turnover would be reckoned only when the product leaves factory. We were very happy that now only normal FPI&SO would be raised.

Our joy was short-lived. What was inside factory only, now became public activity. To declare Turnover advance LR/ RR and excise invoice were generated. Customers became critical as they received invoices but material didn’t come for months.

Normally BHEL declares flash results by 22nd March. Company declaring shortfall of Rupees 4000 crores shortfall due to lockdown from 24 March is intriguing.