Industry 2.0 August 2010

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2.0AUG 2010 PRICE RS 100A 99 MEDIA PUBLICATION VOLUME 09 ISSUE 12

TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT FOR DECISION-MAKERS

MATERIALSAdhesives are replacing

conventional joining systems

ENERGY Smart meters offer

more reliabilityand flexibility

dESIGN3D CAD system

improves communicationprocess too

Infusion Of TechnologyEnhances Efficiency

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UGUST 2010 V

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www.industry20.com 1 industry 2.0 - technology management for decision-makers | august 2010

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editorial

Recent projections suggest that the us economy could grow by 2 to 3 per cent over the next two years, while many emerg-

ing economies will do much better. this makes large developing countries like India and China even more attractive for overseas manufacturing companies that are struggling to find markets for their large capacities and sophisticated products. this increase in interest from overseas compa-nies is evidenced through growing number of mid-sized companies entering the Indian market through new ventures, marketing and distribution tie-ups, and even mergers and buyouts. over the next few months, the pace will accelerate.

the motivations of these new entrants into the Indian market are not limited to selling their output to the Indian consumer market (which is admittedly large, but high-ly competitive). they also want to benefit from the low-cost engineering, design and manufacturing skills. More multinational companies are hoping to use India as a manufacturing and design hub to reduce their manufacturing costs, and service both global and Indian markets. Cost efficiency is on the top of the agenda for every Ceo today, as is the need to generate revenue—while keeping debt low and maintaining ample liquidity.

What do these trends imply for Indian manufacturers? the entry of more inter-national players into the Indian market will undoubtedly boost competition, as well as customer expectations of product and ser-

vice quality. local companies will need to quickly upgrade, revamp and improve their product offerings—and embark on continu-ous product improvements to retain the customer base. Manufacturers will also need to ensure that their products are com-plaint with international certifications and standards—or risk losing valued buyers.

While Indian manufacturing companies have often been good at controlling costs, they will need to sharpen their focus on delivering more value to customers. this implies that they will need to quickly invest in new tools, technologies and solutions to improve customer interactions, speed product development cycles and improve supply chain management. they will need to become more agile and flexible to cope with rapidly changing circumstances. Com-panies that have benefited from a tax and regulatory exemptions will need to carefully examine their manufacturing and distribu-tion strategies in the light of the imminent implementation of the gst regime.

smaller Indian companies are already benefiting from the entry of international companies into India. some are offering their plant capacities for outsourced or private label production, or are taking up sub-contracts. others are providing design, engineering, procurement, and consulting services to global manufacturing firms. these tactics have enabled them enhance their capabilities, learn and apply best practices, and become ready to compete with the best. What are you doing? Write in and let us know.

BuildinG a CoMPetItIVe advantaGe

contents

www.industry20.comaugust 2010 | industry 2.0 - technology management for decision-makers2

materials & processes34 Bonding with innovative technologyAdhesives help in bonding of different types of materials and also provide various benefits.

facilities & operations38 Smart Meters: A win-win solutionSmart meters play a key role in helping companies measure their energy efficiency efforts.

supply chain & logistics40 Building a smart supply chainA recent IBM Global Chief Supply Chain Officer Study states that today there is an increasing need to build a supply chain that is instrumented, interconnected and intelligent.

information technology50 Designing a lighter aircraft landing gear systemA case study of the design of a lower weight aircraft landing gear system by Altair.

54 Into the worlds of 2D & 3D CAD Design3D CAD, due to its numerous advantages, is fast gaining popularity than its predecessor, 2D CAD.

management & strategy60 Aligning closer with business needsAs new challenges rise in product development, a robust testing is becoming a must today.

infrastructure62 Creating a strong economic baseThe upgradation of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor is part of the Government’s strategy to boost the infrastructure sector.

cover storyCover design:

Binesh Sreedharan

Picture courtesy: www.photos.com

22 Building Next Generation Supply ChainsThe Indian logistics and supply chain sector needs to focus on infrastructure, skilled workforce and embrace IT as an enabler to be more competent.

departments01 Editorial

04 Industry Update

12 Technology Update

14 Market Dynamics

16 Event Report

36 Advertiser Index

65 Product Update

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RENARD KLUBNIKAPPLICATIONS ENGINEERWILCOXON RESEARCH

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industry update


Finland-based maker of abrasives KWH Mirka has an-nounced its plans to set up a

fully-owned subsidiary in India.The new subsidiary, Mirka India,

will be based in New Delhi and will

provide abrasive net products such as Autonet, Abranet, Abralon and a range of tools and accessories.

Tom Nordstrom, Vice-President and Executive Director, KWH Mirka, said, “India is a key market for us. With its large automotive aftermar-

ket and a growing global presence in wind energy and wood sectors, it would contribute significantly to our growth plans.”

The company has tied up with 10 distributors and appointed about

100 distributors across the country.

It has also obtained approvals from automo-tive OEMs such as Maruti Suzuki, Honda, Toyota, Nis-san, Mahindra & Mahindra and Swaraj Mazda.

KWH Mirka manufac-tures and sells coated

abrasives. Abrasives are materials used for sanding operations in order to shape, polish or finish a product through rubbing. It also of-fers flexible abrasives and products that facilitate dust-free surface finishing processes.

The six core infrastructure in-dustries, viz., coal, electricity, finished steel, cement, crude

oil and petroleum refinery products, have registered a 5 per cent year-on-year growth in May as compared with 3.2 per cent in the same month of the last fiscal.

Cement sector saw a growth of 8.6 per cent in May, electricity - 6.4 per cent, refined petro products - 7.7 per cent, crude petroleum - 5.8

per cent, finished steel - 2.5 per cent and coal - 0.1 per cent growth.

For the April-May 2010 period, cement production went up by 8.7 per cent year-on-year, electricity by 6.6 per cent, refined petro-products by 6.5 per cent, crude oil witnessed 5.5 per cent and finished steel by 3.6 per cent. However it was a mi-nus 1.4 per cent for coal sector.

During the first two months of the current fiscal, production of ce-ment stood at 37.55 million tonnes (mt) as against 34.56 mt in April-May 2009. Output of steel rose from 9.248 mt to 9.58 mt, while crude petroleum grew from 5.513 mt to 5.816 mt. Refined petro-products witnessed a growth from 23.471 mt to 25.007 mt and coal declined from 80.10 mt to 78.99 mt.

Electricity generation saw a rise to 135.0846 billion units from 126.6776 billion units during the period under review.

Date: 30 September to 3 October 2010

automation 2010The event will

showcase industrial automation, robotics, drives and controls, logistics, hydraulics and pneumatics, building automation, pumps and valves and software solutions.Venue: Bombay Exhibition Centre, Goregaon, MumbaiTel: +91-22-22079567E-mail: [email protected]: www.automation2010.in

Date: 21 September to

24 September 2010

5th Southern asia Ports, Logistics and Shipping 2010This annual container ports

and terminal operations exhibition and conference trade event will showcase latest container handling technology and services.Venue: The Leela Kempsinki hotel, MumbaiTel: +60-87-426022E-mail: [email protected]: www.transportevents.com


17 September 2010

eventupdateIntec 2010 The event will display latest tech-nologies, products, accessories and

other related services for the manufacturing industry.Venue: Codissia Trade Fair Complex, CoimbatoreTel: +91-422-2221582E-mail: [email protected]: www.intec.codissia.com


5 September 2010


11 September 2010

International Foodtec India 2010 The event will showcase the latest products and services in the food processing and packaging industry.Venue: Bombay Exhibition Centre, Goregaon, Mumbai

Tel: +91-40-65594411E-mail: [email protected]: www.foodtecindia.com

International Industrial expo & Conference 2010The event will display industrial ma-chinery, raw material of engineering

and technology, machine tools, automation, fire and safety, automobiles and auto components, etc. Venue: Manesar, GurgaonTel: +91-172-2274801E-mail: [email protected]: www.industrialexpos.com

Core Industries Witness Rise In Growth

KWH Mirka Plans Indian Subsidiary

The Indian subsidiary of KWH Mirka will manufacture products such as Autonet and Abranet (R).

Cement production went up by 8.7 per cent year-on-year for the April-May 2010 period.

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industry update


Demag Cranes recently inaugu-rated its new production plant at Chakan in Pune. The new

plant will initially manufacture stan-dard cranes and crane components. The company, is however, planning to manufacture the technically more

complex process cranes in the long run. The plant, set up in eight months, involved a total cost of Euro 8 million. It has a production capacity of up to 600 standard cranes and 100 process cranes per year.

Besides standard cranes, parts for the KBK crane construction kit, are also being manufactured at the plant. The unit has a capacity of producing up to 24 kilometres of KBK rails per year.

The spare parts logistics has com-menced operations from Chakan since March, along with production of compo-nents such as rope-hoist and open-winch crabs as well as KBK.

The company aims to depend on lo-cal suppliers for components, which it doesn’t manufacture. Demag Cranes has been operational in India since 1997.

The annual conference, organized by the Supply Chain Leadership Council, in Mumbai on retail

sourcing, supply chain and operation - ‘India Retail Sourcing, Supply Chain & Operation Summit ’10’ - focused on real-life challenges related to sourcing, operational and distributional aspects of retailing products in India.

Speaking at the event, N Sukumar, Senior VP, Reliance Industries, said that for organised retail to truly realise

its potential, supply chains will have to shorten with the ultimate goal of retail-ers picking up goods from a manufactur-er’s facility. He added that India is still several years away from this situation.

The discussions during the event, highlighted the fact that strengthening of supply chain and sourcing channels as well as effective point-of-sale opera-tion have been topping board meeting agendas and replaced front end expan-sion as the number 1 priority.

Kuka Robots Bag Red Dot awards

Manufacturer of industrial robots, Kuka, has bagged the coveted ‘red dot’ award for three of its

robots. The award winning robots include the KR 5 arc HW and KR 700 PA robots and the KR 5 arc. The latter won the ‘red dot: best of the best’ award for outstand-ing design quality.

The KR 5 Arc, primarily used for arc welding tasks, won the award for its

reduced and clearly

defined design, creating a powerful and

athletic impression.Since 1995, the Design

Zentrum Nordrhein-Westfalen has been awarding its ‘red

dot’ to outstanding ex-amples of international product design.

Stone India to Focus On Solar Power

Stone India has announced its plans to make a foray into solar power projects through its recently

created special purpose vehicle, Stone Solar. The company has acquired clear-ance to venture into solar power projects during its board meeting.

The company plans to set up a number of solar farms at rooftop loca-tions and vacant lands. It has submit-ted its initial proposal of 1 MW plant at West Bengal for pre-registration under Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission scheme.

Besides setting up solar projects, the company is also planning to manufacture photovoltaic modules, grid connected converters and also undertake consulting and execution of turnkey projects. Based in Kolkata, Stone India is a manufacturer of locomotive brake systems.

Demag cranes in a storage unit for steel coils

Demag Cranes Sets Up New Plant

In Pursuit Of A Strong Retail Chain

Essar Power Limited (EPL), a subsidiary of Essar Energy, has signed binding agreements

to acquire 100 per cent interest in Navabharat Power. EPL will initially ac-quire 76 per cent of the existing equity, while the balance 24 per cent will be acquired following completion of certain project milestones.

Navabharat Power is a 2,250 MW coal-fuelled power plant (project) being set up at Dhenkanal in Orissa. The

project, involving a total cost of $2 bil-lion, will be implemented in two phases The first phase will include 1,050 MW, while phase two will comprise 1,200 MW. The project work includes alloca-tion of Rampia coal block of 112 million metric tonnes and a 4.7 million metric tonnes per annum tapering coal linkage with Coal India.

The work for phase 1 is scheduled to achieve financial closure by end of 2010.

essar energy to acquire Navabharat Power

Kuka KR 5 arc robot

industry update


Tata Power is planning to acquire 20.95 MW operating wind assets from Niskalp Energy Limited in

Maharashtra. The company is in the pro-cess of shortly placing an order for 150 MW wind capacity to be set up in Ma-harashtra and Tamil Nadu. The project is expected to be commissioned during the course of this year and next year.

The company produces about 20 per cent of its power from clean sources, which it plans to increase to 25 per cent in 3 to 4 years. Prasad Menon, Manag-ing Director, Tata Power, said, “Today our wind portfolio is 200 MW.”

The company is also planning to ensure that about 8,000 MW to 10,000 MW of its power generation is from low carbon or zero emission technolo-gies such as hydro, solar, wind or from hot gases.

The company also recently com-missioned 2 MW-class wind turbines designed by Germany-based Kenersys and manufactured and installed by Kenersys India. Kenersys is a venture of Kalyani Group.

The Kenersys turbines were commis-sioned in September 2009 and have been operating successfully.

Tata Power To Buy Niskalp Wind Assets

Circor Flow Technologies India (Circor India) has acquired the valves division of Ahmedabad-

based Mazda Limited. The cash details of the deal were not disclosed.

Mazda is a manufacturer of severe service control valves and vacuum systems.

Circor will integrate the new division into its flow technologies segment. The acquisition is expected to further strengthen the company’s product line for power generation industry and emerging markets presence.

Established in 2009, Circor India is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Circor International Inc.

Circor International designs, manu-factures and markets valves and other highly-engineered products and sub-systems that control the flow of fluids safely in the aerospace, energy and industrial markets.

Circor acquires Mazda Valves Unit

Photon to Develop Solar Desalination Plant

emtelle, Parixit Form alliance

Dutch-based Emtelle Holdings has entered into a strategic alliance with Parixit Industries India to

manufacture and market a comprehensive range of micro irrigation systems, PE pressure pipes and ducted network solu-tions for telecom, power and infrastruc-ture, in the Indian and overseas markets.

Emtelle provides ducted network and blown fibre solutions and end-to-end passive infrastructure solutions in the FttX domain.

The alliance between the two compa-nies is expected to offer its entire spec-trum of products and offerings in India.

Sanjeev Kumar, Group Chief Executive, Emtelle, said, “This (alliance) establishes the entry of Emtelle in India and expands our product portfolio into drip and micro irrigation systems.”

Subros, Denso Plan Product Design JV

Subros Limited and Denso Cor-poration have decided to form a joint venture to design automobile

air conditioning systems and other de-vices. The two companies are planning to set up a new JV company, tentatively named, Denso Subros Thermal Engi-neering Centre India, to be located in Noida. Subros will hold 26 per cent mar-ket share in the JV, while the remaining 74 per cent will be held by Denso.

The company is expected to further enhance design and development capabilities of Subros to provide com-plete technical solutions in thermal business and also to enhance technical capability to support new product / busi-ness development.

The JV will be supported by Denso to provide application design services. It will design automobile air conditioners and other systems for Subros and Denso group companies. Hyderabad-based Photon Energy

Systems has bagged an order to install and commission the

first solar desalination plant at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai. The desalination plant will produce fresh drinking water from salty sea water. The plant, believed to be the first-of-its-kind, will combine solar thermal technology with the Multi Effect Humidification (MEH) process

of water purification. The plant can use any type of raw water as input and achieve a high degree of conversion to fresh drinking water ensuring no ground water depletion. The process uses low temperature heat of 85 degree C for evaporation with no moving parts within the distillation chamber.

The process does not require pre-treatment of raw water and is insensi-tive to high salt contents.

Mazda vacuum system. The company manufactures service control valves and vacuum systems.

industry update


Autodesk has launched Plant Design Suite 2011, a new software suite for plant design-

ers who need powerful plant design and whole-project review capabilities in a single integrated package. The new product combines AutoCAD 2011, AutoCAD P&ID 2011, AutoCAD Plant 3D 2011 and Autodesk Navisworks 2011 software.

The components of Autodesk Plant Design Suite 2011 comprise AutoCAD 2011 for general design, layout, plot plans and document generation; Auto-

CAD P&ID 2011 for P&ID creation and editing; AutoCAD Plant 3D 2011 for 3D modeling, orthographics and isomet-rics and Autodesk Navisworks 2011 for cross-platform model aggregation, clash detection and 3D project review.

The components of the software share common data structures and file formats to provide smoother user expe-rience and data exchange.

The product is available in two edi-tions, viz., Autodesk Plant Design Suite 2011 Premium and Autodesk Plant Design Suite 2011 Advanced.

autodesk Launches Plant Design Suite 2011

SolidaCe Releases v1.2 Of BuiltWorks 2010

Rolta has entered into a definitive agreement with Canada-based PCI Geomatics Enterprises, to

acquire licenses with perpetual rights of PCI’s geo-imaging technologies. The solutions comprise source code, design and software architecture for India and non-exclusively throughout the rest of the world.

Rolta will now offer solutions for processing stereo and mono satellite imagery in areas such as environmental modeling, forestry and natural resourc-es, emergency planning and manage-

ment, agriculture, security and defense. Besides, the agreement will also provide Rolta with access to ongoing and future PCI research and develop-ment, as well as new products and technology innovations.

Rolta has also purchased all as-sets of PCI Geomatics India and has acquired exclusive perpetual rights for these technologies and its customers in the Indian subcontinent.

PCI Geomatics is a developer of software and systems for geo-imaging solutions.

Rolta, PCI Geomatics Sign Agreement

Oracle Unveils New Module

Oracle has unveiled a new offer-ing, viz., ‘Agile Customer Needs Management’, which automates

front-end innovation process across product value chain.

The new product is part of Oracle’s Product Value Chain suite.

Agile Customer Needs Management enables customers to capture and pri-oritize product ideas, customer feedback and product requirements from internal sources including product managers, engineers, sales and executives and external sources such as customers, design partners and suppliers.

The new module helps product teams to manage and optimize the ideation processes via a collaborative environ-ment designed to facilitate the capture, collaboration, conceptualization, design validation and prioritization of customer needs, product ideas, customer feedback and product requirements.

Hexagon to acquire Intergraph

Global measurement technology company Hexagon AB will acquire Intergraph Corporation, provider

of engineering and geospatial software.Hexagon has signed a definitive agree-

ment with Intergraph for the acquisition valued at approximately $2.125 billion.

Following closure of the transaction, Intergraph will operate as a separate Hexagon division under the Intergraph name and branding.

Intergraph will become Hexagon’s core software platform and will continue to provide differentiated and vertically-focused software solutions to its core industries.

Besides, Intergraph software will be integrated into Hexagon’s existing measurement and precision technology system markets to provide a visual pre-sentation layer.

SolidACE has announced the release of the new version (1.2) of BuiltWorks 2010, a computer-

aided structural design and engineering software suite, for use in the Solid-Works environment.

Version 1.2 of BuiltWorks 2010 provides cardinally redesigned Drawing Generator, which allows using drawing styles and predefined views in Solid-Works drawing templates.

The improvements in BuiltWorks interoperability tools, such as SDNF and DSTV-NC import and export, are ex-pected to make SolidWorks a more open platform for integration with CAD/CAM/

CAE vertical applications in the market. The new version 1.2 of BuiltWorks 2010 will be available for download through SolidACE website.

v1.2 of BuiltWorks 2010 allows use of drawing styles in SolidWorks drawing templates.

Register Your Company

technology update


Wireless sensor nodes that can chemi-cally detect gaseous compounds are

rapidly gaining interest from mar-kets—such as food monitoring, healthcare and safety. One of the main gas sensing approaches in uncontrolled environments is the identification of vapours (smells) using multiple sensing elements (receptors), in a system that is often referred to as an ‘electronic nose’ or ‘e-nose’. An accurate e-nose requires small, integrated,

low-power detectors with indi-vidually tuned chemical coatings. Current solutions, like chemi-resistors or quartz crystals are however not scalable or power-ef-ficient enough to build low-power small form factor e-noses.

Imec—a firm conducting research in nano-electronics and Holst Centre—an independent open-innovation R&D centre that develops generic technologies for Wireless Autonomous Transducer Solutions and for Systems-in-Foil—have developed a new

generation of microbridges with embedded individual piezoelec-tric ‘shakers’ in a high-density array with very high fabrication yield. The design allows for rapid coating of a range of absorbents on individual microbridges using commercial inkjet printing tech-nology. The suspended structures vibrate individually, and changes in their modes of vibration (resonances) are monitored as an indication of vapour absorption in their coatings. Due to the very high length-to-thickness ratio of the microbridges, the gas sensor chip has a high sensitivity to low-concentration vapours.

Also, by implementing inte-grated piezoelectric read-out schemes, ultra-low power opera-tion is possible with them.

Current work is ongoing to integrate the structures with low-

power analog read-out circuits and to demonstrate simultane-ous measurements from mul-tiple structures. This low-power miniaturized implementation of an e-nose technology can be used in current applications—such as wine and cheese monitoring.

A new generation of polymer-coated microbridges in high-density arrays can detect ppm-level concentrations of vapours using on-chip integrated read-out techniques. The technology is suitable for miniaturization of electronic nose devices. The low power devices consume less than one mW/bridge and have small form factors.

Closely-packed array

of individually vibrated

microbridge resonators

can be used for separation of gases upon

application of specific coatings.

Paving The Way To Autonomous E-nose

The scanning electron microscope image of a complete sensor chip (9mm x 9mm) consisting of 160 unique indi-vidually addressable micromechanical resonators, with aspect ratios (length/thickness) ranging from 140-1,500.

market dynamics


Manufacturing PMI Slips In June

After hitting a 27-month peak of 59.0 in May, the seasonally ad-justed HSBC Purchasing

Managers’ Index (PMI)—slipped to 57.3 in June. The reading, how-ever, remained above the series average to signal another marked improvement in the health of the industry. The PMI has now signalled expansion for fifteen successive months.

Increased productionIndian manufacturers sharply raised production during June, primarily in order to accom-modate a similarly consider-able increase in new business. Reports suggested that favour-able economic conditions and good company reputations had supported demand. Although new export order growth accelerated since May, the expansion of total new work remained much more pronounced.

As workloads increased in June, so did volumes of outstand-ing business. Backlogs of work

accumulated markedly, which panel members also linked to delays caused by power cuts. Despite a faster build up of unfinished work, manufacturers did not add to payrolls during the latest survey period.

Overall employment levels were unchanged, with the vast majority of companies (approxi-mately 96 per cent) maintaining staffing numbers on the month.

Input acquisitionsInput acquisitions made by Indian manufacturers rose for the fifteenth month running in June, and at a substantial rate. Respondents stated that higher buying activity reflected greater workloads and efforts to rebuild pre-production inventories. Con-sequently, stocks of purchases grew markedly, albeit more slowly than in May.

Stronger demand for inputs led to another deterioration in aver-age vendor performance at the end of Q2. Lead times on input deliveries to Indian manufactur-ers lengthened modestly, but to a lesser degree than in the previ-ous month.

Purchasing costsInflationary pressures moderated

in June—sharply in the case of input prices (the respective index dropped by over ten points since May). As a result, purchasing costs rose at the mildest pace for a year. In 15 per cent of cases where input prices increased, panelists mentioned higher raw material and fuel costs. The slow-down in charge inflation, which reflected the more subdued rise in input costs, was less pro-nounced. Factory gate prices rose modestly and at the weakest rate since February.

Commenting on the India Manufacturing PMI survey, Fred-eric Neumann, Co-Head of Asian Economics Research at HSBC, said, “India’s economy is stepping back a little, with output growth easing into June. Notably, the pace of hiring has slowed among manufacturing firms as the total new order flow begins to cool. This, too, reduces price pressures a little, with both the input and the output components signalling decelerating inflation.”

“Overall, however, both activ-ity and price components are easing from very elevated levels, suggesting that it is too early to worry about growth and let down our guard on underlying price trends,” Neumann added.

Key points►Output and total new or-ders increased considerably, but at slightly weaker rates.

►New export business rose at accelerated pace.

►Employment stagnated.

The HSBC Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), designed to measure the overall health of the manufacturing sector, witnessed a decline in June.

HsBC india Manufacturing pMi

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event report


Today there is an in-creasing demand for service providers who can provide integrated

logistics solutions (for inbound and outbound supply chain activi-ties) that are tailored to specific market conditions—while meeting corporate operational norms. This was the view of many delegates at a recent event held in Mumbai jointly organized by DIESL and Industry 2.0, themed ‘Adopting & Adapting Ideas for Logistics Performance Outsourcing’.

In today’s scenario, when the Indian manufacturing sector is growing rapidly, the expectations from logistics service providers is growing. In a brief interactive speech, Ajay Chopra, Chief Execu-

tive Officer of DIESL, explained the benefits of partnering with integrated logistics service providers, and how they can help create tailor-made services. He highlighted how companies can reduce, and even eliminate, the complexity of managing big sup-ply chains and focus more on their core business activi-ties by outsourcing to integrated service providers.

Shammi Bhardwaj, Additional VP—Operations, DIESL, talked about the growing need for effi-cient freight forwarding services. Referring to the 11 SCM challeng-es (identified by a recent research study), viz., visibility, customer demand, cost, risk, globalization, collaboration, optimization, sus-tainability, talent, robust process and intelligent systems, Shammi explained how DIESL is posi-tioned to address them by com-bining advanced technology and processes. He also emphasised the importance of information exchange between various players in the supply chain—and the need to streamline the process.

The event also featured a panel discussion with members from various manufacturing indus-tries. They discussed the need and importance of aggregation of services, IT-enabled real-time information exchange, decision support tools and integrated track and trace tools.

In the Q&A sessions, DIESL experts fielded questions from supply chain experts from orga-nizations like Ambuja Cements, United Phosphorus, Essar Steel, Voltas, Anchor, BASF, Ceat Tyres, Pidilite Industries, Elder Health Care, Getz Pharma, Enercon (India) and Eureka Forbes. Points that were actively deliberated included: How to reduce tran-sit time? How to manage the problems originating from lack of knowledge of documentation? How to get a proper supply chain optimization service? How to ensure seamless import services? How to get aid during emergency situations on roads, and how to overcome the shortfalls of load-ing and unloading facilities in the railways?

Ajay Chopra,Chief Executive

Officer of DIESL, explains

the benefits of partnering

with integrated logistics service

providers.

Developing Smart Strategies For SuccessAt a recent logistics and supply chain event organized jointly by Industry 2.0 and Drive India Enterprise Solutions Limited (DIESL) in Mumbai, experts deliberated on ways to create and manage supply chains better in the Indian context.

event report


The executive strategy workshop by Frost & Sul-livan (F&S), titled ‘Future Supply Chain Strategies’,

held in Bengaluru, was designed to chalk out the future supply chain strategies of different sec-tors of the Indian industry.

The workshop successfully brought under one roof a network of thought leaders and industry experts from across key industry sectors such as automotive, IT hardware and telecom equipment, retail and pharmaceuticals in India, for a specific and definite purpose of developing future sup-ply chain strategies.

In the day one, Anand Ran-gachary, Managing Director, South Asia, Middle East and

North Africa—F&S, inaugurated the workshop with his welcome address. Anand said that the supply chain for healthcare indus-try will be a good revenue genera-tor soon. “We are about to enter the era of customised delivery, thus we need to build efficient supply chains in the country,” he pointed out.

VG Ramakrishnan, Senior Director, South Asia, Middle East & North Africa, Automotive & Transportation—F&S, discussed the present challenges of the Indian supply chain and logistics industry. He gave insights on the current status of the Indian logis-tics industry, logistics outsourc-ing trends within the key end-user industries, important criteria for end users in logistics service provider’s selection and expected changes in supply chain practices of the key end user industries. Dimple Parikh, Head of Logistics,

Lupin Pharmaceuticals, delivered his presentation titled, ‘Logistic Outlook—Pharma Way’. He drew attention on how the logistics cost is increasing for the pharma industries operating in India. He informed, “Logistics contributes 40 per cent of the total cost of production in pharma companies. Half of these goods are transport-ed by road and an average of 32 hours is wasted on check posts with stoppages at every 100 km. Thus, change in the system is very essential.”

Meanwhile, Amit Mukher-jee, Vice President SCM and IT, Spencer Retail, spoke about the outlook for industry and sup-ply chain trends from the retail perspective. He focused on the current retail industry status, organized retail—growth drivers and challenges, supply chain strategy, retailers inventory and replenishment model and supply chain and IT interplay—way for-ward 2015. He also highlighted the significance of visibility and collaboration in supply chain, effect of regulatory framework viz. GST, FDI and other points in his presentation.

Howard James Scott, Chief Supply Chain Management Of-ficer, Gati Limited, spoke on the logistics status quo in the country and the potential areas for growth. He opined, “Domes-tic market will see increasing dominance of air freight and VAS while road express will continue to grow strongly.” James further stressed on the need for a thrust in improving logistics operations.

The event also included workshops, breakout sessions and panel discussions, which helped the participants to ide-ate and evaluate best possible methods and practices to develop practical, feasible and sustain-able supply chain models essen-tial for organizations.

V G Ramakrishnan, Senior Director -

South Asia, Middle East & North Africa,

Automotive & Transportation -

F&S, is explaining the present

scenario in the Indian logistics

and supply chain sector.

Creating Future Supply Chain StrategiesKeeping in perspective the challenges faced by logistics service providers and end users, Frost & Sullivan’s Transportation and Logistics Practice recently organized an exclusive two-day strategy workshop titled, ‘Future Supply Chain Strategies’ in Bengaluru. A report.

Amit Mukherjee, Vice President SCM and IT, Spencer Retail, spoke about the outlook for industry and supply chain trends from the retail perspective.

august 2010 | industry 2.0 - technology management for decision-makers

Indian logistics and supply chain sector has been growing at a rapid pace to cope up with the users’ demands. However, a major chunk of the sector is operating in an unorganized manner, which lacks transparency and visibility. The sector has to be much more efficient to cope up with the load in the coming days. Besides infrastructure, to be competent it has to develop skilled workforce and embrace information technology (IT) as an enabler.

by p. k. chatterjee

cover story

Pict

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Cour

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: www.photos.com

SuPPly ChainS

NextGeNeratioN

Building

industry 2.0 - technology management for decision-makers | august 2010

A recent news has shaken all the sen-sible citizens of the country—as they shockingly noted that 17.8 mil-lion tonnes of food grains are being stored under tarpaulin across In-dia. Out of that, around 10 million tonnes have undergone at least one

monsoon, at risk of rotting. Also, 49, 000 tonnes of this is ready to be destroyed in Punjab as that have not been utilised for three monsoons. The finance and food ministries are reluctant to spend an estimated Rs. 5,000 crore on distribution. Although, critics may call it an example of inefficiency of the administrative machinery, it definitely pinpoints the pathetic condi-tion of our supply chain.

The Indian logistics sector reached US$75.19 bil-lion in 2009. Last year, ASSOCHAM predicted – this would become a $125 billion industry by the current year 2010. Also, a recent media report communicates that it has grown to an estimated size of $130 billion at present. All these put together suggest that the growth

wheel of the sector is on top gear. But are we truly in a position to sustain this growth momentum? How is the scenario at present? Where are we leading to?

The scenario described above is a completely de-mand-driven growth. If we look at the supply side, the structure of the sector is totally fragmented. Many service providers operate with limited capability (of-ten with even less than five trucks), mostly on thumb rule with limited visibility of operations and within a regional patch as their functional area. When it comes to the question of warehousing—we are still far off from adequate space capacity with all-round modern facilities.

This leads to delay, causes escalation of trans-portation charges, increases loss in transit, hinders seamless cross-country operations, and most impor-tantly lacks service accountability. In its true sense, today the Indian Logistics and Supply Chain sector is in a state of total mess, although often it is communi-cated in a nicely wrapped way saying the sector is in its nascent stage.

www.industry20.com 23

Q: What are the present trends that you are finding in the Indian SC & Logistics industry? a: increasing shift towards rail transporta-tion by both service providers and end-users is noticeable these days. Then there is growing share of international logistics solutions due to increasing EXiM activ-ity of india. also, consignment tracking feature has become a default expectation from end-users.

Q: What are the areas that need to be addressed very urgently?a: Transport infrastructure congestion is the most significant concern for both ser-vice providers and end-users, especially at major ports and the poor hinterland connectivity of ports.

affordable ‘climate controlled ware-housing facilities’ in town and rural areas are an urgent need from perspective of agriculture sector and food industry—to reduce or eliminate the massive losses in the form of food grains wastage.

lack of ‘recognized industry status’ is the primary concern for organized trans-

port service providers, and is a deterrent for full fledged entry of MnCs and large industrial groups into logistics sector.

Q: What volume of investment is re-quired to improve the situation? a: Estimates for investments needed to improve the situation are not available from any credible sources, but budgeted figures of ongoing development plans for various parts of the infrastructure sector such as ports, highways, dedicated freight corridors of railways, etc., indicate that the requirement would be almost or over a hundred thousand crores of rupees.

Q: What kind of steps are necessary to change the fragmented structure of the industry? How is the move in that direction? a: logistics industry (especially the road transportation segment) needs to be awarded a ‘formal recognized and regu-lated industry status’, however, there is no notable move in this direction yet.

in the infrastructure sector, regulations need to be eased to facilitate greater par-

ticipation of private sector in development and management of the operations. There is some notable progress in this area with permitting private ports development, and the recent announcement indicating permission for development of private sector ‘built and operated’ railway lines in the country.

Tax inconsistency across states had been a concern for most industries impacting the logistics practices, however the upcoming gST implementation is ex-pected to address this to a large extent.

InclInIng towards more utIlIzatIon of raIlwaysQ

&A

aNaNd raNGacharyManaging Director Frost & sullivan, inDia


www.industry20.com24

cover story

Q: What are the steps being taken by the progressive Indian logistics compa-nies to develop efficient manpower?a: logistics is a manpower intensive sec-tor and sustained availability of trained and skilled manpower is the key to the overall growth and efficiency of this sector. logistics companies now are also focusing on improving specific skill sets of employ-ees through regular training sessions—which include in-depth training on dg for instance and on soft skills.

deployment of technology does help addressing the challenges of manpower in many ways. Technology adoption in the logistics industry has been of a very high order and continues to be so. logistics companies are investing in handle Scanners, PdF Scanners and Wearable Computers with Wireless lan enabled hubs and warehouses. gPRS-based mobil-ity solutions, gPS location based tracking and Remote or iP surveillance are also widely deployed.

in essence, by leveraging these technologies, which are helping minimize errors, reduce time and costs through real time updation for better visibility

and transparency, companies are able to develop efficient manpower.

Q: How can the 3PL users contribute to the development of the Indian logistics sector?a: My view is that changes in the supply chain are driven by business demands—i.e., supply chain does not drive the busi-ness but the businesses drive the supply chain. Businesses will adapt to changing global and country environment—whether it is related to demand-supply or regula-tory. We have seen that during the reces-sion phase last year, many companies started to tweak their supply chain models to address the dramatic see-saw changes in business needs. The impending gST change would certainly once again fuel the way business is managed in india and supply chain will also need to adapt to these changing requirements.

Manufacturing organizations are focusing on being nimble—able to adapt

treatIng logIstIcs and sc as a key strategIc Input for plannIng

SaNjiv Kathuria country-sales & Marketing Director, tnt inDia

It is true that in the last six decades, we have not been able to develop our road infrastructure to the adequate extent, even today inaccessibility, poor accessibility and seasonal isolation are the very common features in the Indian roadmap, however, is that all?

Obviously, road infrastructure shortcoming is one of the major issues; several measures are being tak-en to overcome those. The time has come when we need to put a deep thought on the other issues along with the road infrastructure. And it is a good sign that already many of the field experts have started thinking over those seriously.

existing challengesThe fragmented structure of the Indian logistics sector has kept it far from uniformly delivering the optimized service. When a manufacturer or distribu-tor looks for a logistics service provider, so far his priority was cost saving, however, at the nonce the paradigm is shifting towards partnering with the organization that can seamlessly deliver his goods to the point nearest to the consumer. So that he can better concentrate on his core business. In fact,

many a company has been making efforts to reach the end-user directly. While in this competitive situ-ation, maintaining brand name is a tough task, every manufacturer is looking for a supply chain partner who can serve him beyond just delivering his goods to the final destination. Need for product servicing, replacement, spare parts supply etc., are growing fast, which are calling for high efficiency in reverse logistics and strategic warehousing too. Thus, each supply chain needs to be reoriented in a customer-centric, value-added fashion.

Wherein comes up the question of capability. On the top of the list of the emerging challenges in this field there is tremendous shortage of skill at all levels. A recent FICCI study report has pointed out, “Considering the strong policy measures taken by the Government, to promote investments in the entire value chain, demands for logistics & supply chain managers, retail managers will go up signifi-cantly, and meeting this demand would be challeng-ing for the industry.” According to FICCI estimate, as reported in the study entitled—Rising Skill Demand: A Major Challenge for Indian Food Industry, “A huge demand for supply chain and logistics professionals

Q&

A



is also expected in the sector, which will be around 8, 28, 366 in 2010 and approx 9, 03, 672 profession-als by 2015 (50 per cent increase in demand in 2010 and 63.50 per cent by 2015).

To provide a seamless service, multi-modal trans-port capability is absolutely essential. However, in the Indian scenario, very few service providers have been so far successfully able to establish such ca-pability. Our waterways and railways are yet under utilized. As far as railways are concerned, loading and unloading facilities, especially for containers are still absent in many points of strategic impor-tance. Similar problems are existing in many sea-ports and airports.

Coming back to road infrastructure, absence of dedicated freight corridors is posing a big challenge, as moving goods from ports take a longer time. Longer the transportation time, more is the prod-uct cost. Also, it increases dilatory damage of goods along with other risks.

Indian food and pharmaceutical industries are growing at a huge pace, but the industry is facing tremendous problem because of inadequate cold chain service, and this is going to increase fast.

Also, we need to build at least 25-30 million sq.ft of additional warehousing space every year, in ad-dition to our 1,800 million sq feet of warehousing space today. However, it is a pity that our focus is too little in this direction. Optimization of the existing warehouses can create a huge space, how-ever, that needs deployment of right technologies in right ways.

In the existing scenario of fragmented structure, although we often talk about complete visibility of the supply chains, those who are still depending on below optimum fleet sizes can never achieve that—as the cost structure does not make it beneficial. Also, the comparatively large fleet operators or con-tractors are often hesitant to accept IT as an enabler and not just as a cost burden.

Moreover, we are not in a position to implement Green logistics in its true sense, till we integrate and optimize all the moves of carriers, operations of warehouses and ease the formalities. Return of empty or partially loaded vehicles is a common oc-currence in India.

A truck often needs to waste four/five days to cross a state border. Unless there is a procedural

to changes quicker, open to outsourc-ing, willing to tweak their existing supply chains and most importantly treat logistics and supply chain as a key strategic input in their planning process. Even today most users tend to focus on the transporta-tion cost as the key KPi. There is a need for a paradigm shift in thinking amongst manufacturing organizations—to start thinking beyond transportation to other aspects like inventory carrying cost, speed to market and opportunity cost analysis.

Q: How are the 3PL service providers gearing up to serve reverse logistics (RL)? a: Reverse logistics is an integral part of product’s life cycle. Supply chain manag-ers are using reverse logistics to better manage inventory. 3Pls and companies like TnT offer a single window solution for product companies. With integrated network of CS- Call centre operation and logistics network, TnT and 3Pl are providing seamless solution of product exchange, swap and defective return to bench. For the customer, it is a dream solution to be in touch with the client and also have full control of defective inven-tory without inventory loss or shrinkage.

With effective Rl and defective manage-ment, companies save significant capital towards purchase of new inventory. TnT has been one of the few pioneers in india in Reverse logistics management and offers express and consolidation reverse logistics model.

Q: Do you feel that GST will be a game changer for the Indian logistics sector? a: gST will have a significant impact on the indian industry with many implica-tions for their supply chain and logistics strategy. For instance, the abolishment of area based advantages will trigger the emergence of new routes and new hubs. lesser storage locations will result in in-creased transportation in perhaps bigger sized trucks with consequential effect on the logistics industry.

gST will largely reduce a lot of paper work and enable seamless movement of material across the country. There is also likely to be consolidation in the industry with large MnC players aggressively in-vesting in india. advent of gST will ensure seamless movement without hassles of elaborate paperwork enabling the global players to bring in best practices—which

will result in the faster growth of pan-india players rather than regional/ niche service providers. The demand for reliable logis-tics solutions would see a big increase.

Q: How will the integrated network help the companies? a: integrated networks offer seamless domestic and international transporta-tion and distribution networks coupled with a choice of transit times i.e Express, Economy and Time definite. This along with value added services at point of consolidation and point of break bulk enable companies to work with large supplier base across large geogra-phy and distribution to large customers base / point of use across any other international geography.

Companies like TnT offer in-built value adds like technology for single and master consignment, single platform for product visibility irrespective of domestic or inter-national movements, first and last mile visibility, MiT, kiting and de-kiting, labeling and faster destination customs clearance. With availability of integrated networks, companies conduct business engagement across the globe seamlessly.


www.industry20.com26 august 2010 | industry 2.0 - technology management for decision-makers

cover story

change towards simplification, how can we think of optimizing the overall supply chain, based on which the manufacturers can confidently run their just-in-time production systems?

There are many other problems too. However, of late a big shift in paradigm among the drivers and thought leaders of the industry is quite noticeable. The Indian logistics honchos are now attempting to overcome the existing shortcomings through innova-tions and application of technologies. They are also seriously considering the possibilities of collabora-tive approaches.

future courseSome of the Government’s efforts and new plans, if executed properly, will solve the problems to a great extent, however, project completion has to happen within the scheduled time frame, which is very rare in India as far as such projects are concerned. It has now been well understood that there is no alterna-tive to public-private participation in developing in-frastructure fast. However, both the logistics users and service providers are supposed to pressurize the Government for finishing the infrastructure projects in hand.

Q: What kind of action is essential to at-tract people in our logistics sector?a: Truck drivers and even traditional transporters are not given due respect in our industry and the society as a whole. They should get their due respect like in the uS and Europe—where a truck driver is not merely a driver but a traffic coor-dinator and cargo manager from loading till the delivery point(s). To raise the living standards of people in this sector, we des-perately need a joint-initiative of govern-ment and industry to support the cause. We require specific institutions in place for imparting basic apprentice training and higher education, and to develop custom-ized multi-skills related to logistic fields. This will surely help the industry and the people in achieving desired professional-ism and expertise, thus enable them earn their due share of respect. To initiate with, a system, similar to the way other indus-tries take apprentices under 1961 act, can be devised and implemented.

Further, ‘faith in field staff’ which is the most important emotional enabler and intangible motivator is lacking in logistics trade, this needs to be resurrected.

Q: How can innovations help in improv-ing our supply chains?a: i strongly feel Kaizens and out of box initiatives are the best possible inspira-tional bets in a slow developing and less supportive infrastructural base. despite constraints and limitations, there is lot

of scope for improvement in this area. Kaizen is a very effective tool.

let me narrate a case related to our organization. during nineties, the gPRS was not so prevalent in india due to the fact that it was expensive and its hard-ware was not so reliable as of today. after experimenting with gPRS, we introduced a system—which we named ‘En route Card deposition incentive Scheme for drivers’. Thereby, we set three en route transit PCO points between JnPT and gurgaon located at Vapi, ahmedabad and Jaipur. Our JnPT office was advised to issue a set of three coloured cards—Red, yellow and green for respective locations to each driver

with instructions to deposit the same at designated PCOs.

an advance cash account arrange-ment was made with respective PCO’s incharge—who in turn were instructed to pay Rs.50/- each to the drivers against receipt of cards in stipulated time. PCOs in-charge in turn would timely inform us the transit status. This direct incentive Scheme worked well for us till 2007, thereby ensuring timely deliveries of our raw materials and parts in containers.

Q: How can the service users influence the efficiency of the service providers?a: Since end-user is interested in second-ary and related logistics consolidation or integration outsourcing end-to-end solution, he or she can clearly set the performance parameters. While fram-ing the contract, these clauses can be incorporated in the agreement with the service providers. Further being cash rich, more organized and customised OEMs can give assured business—enabling lSPs to have efficient business models mutually beneficial for both.

Q: How should we initiate changes in the logistics and SC field in our country?a: We have to follow a collaborative ap-proach. OEMs and lSPs have to jointly push the government to introduce favour-able policies and systems in order to improve infrastructure and facilitate pro-fessional institutions. Further, they have to come together and duly support each other with cost effective, efficient and mutually beneficial business models. This will enable win-win for both, and ultimately benefit the economy as a whole.

r hariKumargeneral Manager (supply chain Division) Maruti suzuki inDia

achIevIng desIred professIonalIsm


Q&

A


www.industry20.com 27 industry 2.0 - technology management for decision-makers | august 2010

Q: What are the primary risks to sustainability of the Indian logistics sector?a: Traditionally logistics in india has been considered as basic transportation of goods. The prime concern was to achieve low costs and this was achieved by using low level technologies, overloading trucks, under paying workers etc. The evolving logistics sector is more service oriented and includes value addition. The way industries perceive these value added services and their willingness to pay for them is questionable and poses a risk for the sustainability of the logistics sector.

Road transportation accounts for more than 60 per cent of inland transportation of goods, and highways that constitute 1.4 per cent of the total road network, carry 40 per cent of the freight movement by roadways. Slow movement of cargo due to bad road conditions, multiple check posts and documentation requirements, congestion at seaports due to inadequate infrastructure, bureaucracy, red-tape and delay in government clearances, make it difficult for domestic exporters to meet the deadlines. The rail network is congest-ed as freight is moved on the same line as

the passenger line. This factor will have a serious impact on the sustainability of the logistics sector.

ninety five per cent of the logistics sector is accounted for by the unorga-nized sector (such as owners of less than 5 trucks, affiliated to a broker or a transport company, small warehouse operators, customs brokers, freight forwarders, etc.), and slightly more than five per cent, (approximately) is contrib-uted by the organized sector. Majority of the warehouses are small, outdated with only basic material handling systems and are typically godowns. The transporter’s fleet is typically small, old, and inefficient resulting in higher cost of transportation. This poses a threat to the sustainability of the logistics industry.

Currently we have a separate agency for each of the major logistics infrastruc-ture including rail, road, air, ports and numerous agencies. The coordination across all these ministries and agencies is often poor, and hence results in low levels of competitiveness for the logistics sector as a whole. hence, it is not surprising that india is ranked 47th in the world in terms of logistics performance by a world bank study. We need an ‘integrated na-tional supply chain and logistics strategy and policy’.

Q: What are the steps being taken or need to be taken to combat these problems?a: Companies must recognize supply chain and logistics as part of an inte-grated corporate strategy and a source of strategic advantage to drive both growth and operational excellence. government needs to recognize SCM and logistics as an industry and ensure coordination across all the key ministries and agencies (roads, rail, air, port etc.).

The government needs to institute and implement a fast-track policy to enable approving of plans, sanctioning of funds, acquiring of lands or resources, coordi-nating across the key nodal agencies, bringing in the global expertise etc. Rapid

implementation of dedicated Freight Corridors(dFCs), capacity expansion of non-major ports, hinterland connectivity, multimodal logistics parks, industry hubs and warehouses are the critical areas.

There is a need to encourage organized sector and recognize the 3Pl industry. This will enhance the service levels, profit levels and better logistics management for user industries, and allow them to focus on their core competencies.

Q: What are the sensitive areas still unfocused and need urgent attention?a: There are of course some other areas that need urgent attention. Regulatory and taxation should be in such a way to ensure setting up of optimal supply chain for industries. Rapid implementation of gST is necessary.

developing skills of the workforce in lo-gistics industry is critical to enhance over-all service levels and efficiency. number of truck drivers has to increase from current three to six or seven million by 2015. Similarly, number of loading supervisors has to go up from current 0.3 to 1 million by 2020. Requirement for warehouse managers, which is just 14000 currently, will be 40,000 by 2020.

Our logistics and supply chain industry should focus on how to reduce the carbon footprint of the logistics industry, and hence drive towards green and clean sup-ply chains.

workIng towards ensurIng sustaInable practIces

SaNjay upeNdramFounDer & ceo aMarthi consulting


Q&

A

Majority of the warehouses are small, outdated

with only basic material handling systems and are typically godowns. the transporter’s fleet is typically small, old, and inefficient resulting in higher cost of transportation.”


As per a recent study by Amarthi, in India the average freight revenue per tonne-km was Rs 3.50 against about 90 paise in the US and less than Rs 2 in China and Japan. The scenario has to change. And absorption of IT is the only way to bring in complete visibility of supply chain—that has to be undoubtedly accepted. Also, it is not only embracing IT, effective utilization of the technology also has to be ensured at all stages.

The proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST) will obviously ease the transportation and distribution process, however, properly and timely implementa-tion of the proposal is very essential.

Innovation at every stage of each supply chain is very essential. Every system has a scope for further improvement, supply chain leaders have to believe that, and work accordingly.

Effective utilization of the existing resources is very essential. Railways have to be used more ex-tensively. Efforts must be taken up for utilization of under-utilized and not-yet-explored waterways.

Logistics and supply chain service providers have to collaborate among themselves, wherever neces-sary, to ensure optimization of the chain.

In India, we have a huge scope of sharing of warehouses, which opportunities have to be ex-ploited. Many such steps will create win-win situ-ations among the sharers. Also, consolidation of

small warehouses in the GST regime (expected from April 1, 2011!) will be very essential to ensure ware-house optimization.

parting noteIndian manufacturing sector is growing at a very rapid pace. Companies from different parts of the world are now either directly or indirectly setting up their complete manufacturing or components manufacturing factories here. Many domestic man-ufacturers are also looking out for expanding their businesses internationally.

Sustenance of these emerging trends require competent logistics and supply chain support. Thus, mere dependence on Government supported projects will not solve the problems. Although, Indian supply chain and logistics industry is yet to get recognition as a separate industry at Government level, the in-dustry’s existence is well known among all. Thus, the manufacturing sector and the supply chain and lo-gistics sector have to work together to explore ways for better, safer and economic means of delivering goods not only across the country but also around the world.

Several experts opine that consolidation of small operating firms through acquisition or partnership will help the sector a lot, whereby deployment of IT will be feasible, and real time visibility will help in-stant decision making and enhanced control.

As with passage of time, Indian logistics and supply chain sector is experiencing ever increasing demand from users for all kinds of services under one roof, for LSPs there is no alternative but to gear up to offer integrated services. As a prepara-tory step, this will lead to several events of merger & acquisition and partnering on special terms in the coming days.


cover story

status quo of gst“as a matter of fact, the principal opposition parties in their manifesto had promised that if voted to power, they will bring in gST. implementation of gST depends on the cooperation and support of all political parties as constitutional amendments have to be made. i do hope all the political parties who have expressed grave concern on the price rise and plight of ‘aam admi’ will convert this concern into real action by whole heartedly supporting gST. it’s a win-win situa-tion for every one.”

“after careful consideration of the issues raised by the Empowered

Committee of State Finance Ministers, we have revised our position to accommodate the concerns of the State governments. The Central government is willing to consider a phased approach for the introduc-tion of gST. in a departure from its earlier stand, the Central govern-ment is also willing to accept a dual rate structure in the transitory phase leading eventually to a ‘model gST’.”

praNab muKherjee uniOn FinanCE MiniSTER

Effective utilization of the existing resources is very essential. Efforts must be taken up for utilization of our under-utilized and not-yet-explored waterways.


manufacturing technology


Why is predictive maintenance of rotating machinery using vibra-tion analysis so important?Predictive maintenance of rotat-ing machinery using vibration analysis remains the cornerstone of an effective maintenance and reliability programme. The impor-tance of the vibration spectrum cannot be overemphasized. It contains information that can be neither heard nor felt. By the time a fault becomes large enough to be felt, or worse, heard, the machine is probably well on its way to failure.

Using vibration sensors on plant machinery is like an extra set of hands out in the field. If fitted with permanent mount sen-sors, the vibration signal can be monitored 24/7 providing the best leading edge indicator of impend-ing machine failure. As the cost of failure for a machine or process goes up, so should the impor-tance of having that equipment outfitted with vibration sensors. The small incremental cost of having even a single accelerom-eter on an expensive piece of equipment is quickly returned—if it prevents even a single unex-pected fault.

How frequently should the vibration measurements be taken in a predictive maintenance programme?Ideally, vibration monitoring is continuous with measure-ments taken 24/7, however, this is not necessary to reap the benefits of vibration monitoring. It is possible to take vibration measurements routinely using walk-around data collection.

With walk-around data collec-tion, vibration measurements are taken on each piece of equip-ment every one to three months. Utilizing FFT analysis, vibration measurements can sometimes indicate a developing fault 6-18 months in advance. In other in-stances, a failure can result with less than one month of notice, which is why walk around data collection is good, but not 100 per cent effective in detecting a developing fault. This is why 24/7 monitoring is preferred—it leaves no gap between measurements during which an undetected fault can turn result in a failure. The downside of continuous monitor-ing is that the proprietary online systems can be outside the avail-able budget.

A good alternative to expensive online systems and walk-around data collection is 4-20 mA vibra-tion sensors. These sensors, which output a calculated ‘over-all’ vibration, are compatible with PLC, DCS, and SCADA systems—process control equipment found in most plants (not expensive or proprietary). The use of 4-20 mA vibration sensors can enable 24/7 continuous monitoring of im-portant assets at a substantially reduced price.

It is important to note that 4-20 mA sensors that also output raw spectral data are preferred. While a 4-20 mA sensor can indi-cate the presence of a developing fault, the overall vibration data cannot be analyzed to determine the nature of the fault. Some-times, spectral data must be ana-lyzed to pinpoint the cause of the increased vibrations. Other times,

“The importance of the vibration spectrum cannot be overemphasized”

Piezoelectric sensors make excellent hazardous area tools in situations

where immediate notification is essential. Latest accelerometers

and vibration sensors are designed to provide high level of accuracy in

vibration measurement, which helps in reducing plant downtime, improves safety and reduces cost of operation.

Wilcoxon Research is one of the well- known suppliers of vibration

sensors and related equipment. Renard Klubnik, Applications

Engineer of the firm, in an exclusive interview with P. K. Chatterjee,

focuses on different techno-managerial aspects of vibration

sensing instrumentation. Excerpts...

Renard Klubnik Applications Engineer, Wilcoxon Research

www.industry20.com industry 2.0 - technology management for decision-makers | august 2010 31

a maintenance professional can examine a machine with a higher overall vibration level and deter-mine the source of the problem at the machine.

How does a good sensor contrib-ute to the accuracy of parametric measurements? The good news is that well-manufactured accelerometers are very stable over time. A good manufacturing process includes piezo-crystal stabilization; if the crystal is stabilized, sub-stantial changes are rare after calibration. If the sensor is not mishandled, operated outside manufacturer-specified environ-mental ranges, or incorrectly wired, then chances are high that an accelerometer will perform as expected during its entire life-time, which can be many years. It is important to have a sensor with a tight sensitivity tolerance (a small per cent variation from the stated sensitivity, such as 5 per cent). This helps ensure that when comparing a piece of equipment’s vibration levels with that of published standards, or comparing vibrations among equipment in your own plant, you are reasonably assured that the reported levels is representative of the actual vibration. A wider sensitivity tolerance (such as 15 per cent) can be a cost-effective alternative when a portable data collection unit allows you to program in the exact tolerance.

Similarly, a well constructed accelerometer will exhibit a flat frequency response from its low end limit to its high end limit. Resonance will be represented by a single resonance peak and will not vary once a unit is mounted. Having a flat frequency response also helps in ensuring that when comparisons of vibration levels are done, and those comparisons are from vibrations at differ-ent frequencies, then the values

being used are truly representa-tive and not unduly influenced by peaks and valleys in the sensor’s frequency response curve.

What are the most common causes behind sensors delivering wrong output signals?All sensors are affected by fluc-tuations in temperature. Different materials used for the sensing element will result in different fluctuations. Poorly constructed accelerometers can result in changes in sensitivity over even small temperature variations, meaning that it is necessary to record the temperature when a vibration reading is taken. Quality sensors will use ceramic crystals that react minimally and predictably with shifts in temperature. In addition, many designs include compensating circuitry that work to counteract any changes in the output due to changing temperature.

Hermeticity is also a charac-teristic of a quality sensor – be-cause the electronics are isolated from the surrounding atmosphere. A true hermetic seal, verified by

helium leak testing, slows the aging process by protecting the components from contamination, moisture and humidity problems.

What are the latest improve-ments being found in vibration measuring instruments?Accelerometers are constantly be-ing improved upon through R&D. Newer sensing elements and designs (shear vs compression vs variable capacitance) are being introduced. Improvements in the internal electronics are resulting in lower noise floors. Improved frequency response and low frequency performance are being achieved. Also, they are now of-fering better signal to noise ratio. Components are getting smaller and better, and pushing tempera-ture barriers to improve perfor-mance capability and allow better

Accelerometers are constantly being improved upon through R&D. Newer

sensing elements and designs are being introduced.”

Field view of a vibration sensing instrument

manufacturing technology


temperature range and response.Another growing trend and influence is MEMS (Microelec-tromechanical Systems) acceler-ometers, which are shaping the future market. Where traditional accelerometers have improved in-crementally over the last several years, MEMS units are constantly pushing the envelope. While their performance does not yet match that of traditional piezoelectric accelerometers, improvements have been made in their frequency response (10 kHz) and noise floor. MEMS has the advantage of being low power, having a DC response and a small size. Because of their small size and low cost, many MEMS accelerometers are being packaged inside other items.

What is the general frequency (broadband) of predictive mainte-nance measurements?Broadband measurements using traditional accelerometers span from low speed measurements below 0.5 Hz to greater than 10 kHz. A dichotomy exist because some vibration users focus on the high end response in order to look for modulated frequencies representative of metal to metal contact, as exhibited by early bearing wear, gearbox failures and high speed machinery like microturbines.

Other vibration users moni-tor speeds as low as 10 and 20 rpm—common measurements on wind turbines and cooling towers. While these are the extremes, a majority of the measurements focus on the range from 1 Hz to 1 kHz, as suggested in ISO 10816: measurements. The advantage of this limited frequency range is that it focuses on impending ma-chine failures. By having an accu-rate idea of how much useful life is left in a machine before failure, plans can be put into motion to ready maintenance personnel for the repair before shutdown oc-curs. This helps speed the length of the outage and the overall cost of the repair.

What are the common difficulties faced in interfacing the digital sensors?While the topology exists to transmit digital data to and from sensors (Ethernet, modbus, field bus etc.), vibration sensors in particular offer a few additional challenges. Accelerometers can output two types of data, name-ly—high speed, frequency laden sensors, and low speed, already processed data. No standards exist concerning the format of the data stream coming out of the sensor. For instance, in the high speed case, it is a simple matter to convert the analog signal com-ing from the sensor into a digital data stream, however, unless an end user is versed in data acquisition routines and familiar with collecting, storing and pro-cessing data, he must rely on the sensor company to provide the

software to read the data coming from the sensor.

This is a job normally left for signal processing experts, not the vibration analyst. The sen-sor companies can simplify the data handling requirements by processing the data in the sen-sor, storing time waveform data and generating FFT data, but the format of this data, although capable of being transmitted at slower speeds, is still specified by individual vendors.

In the low speed case, the processed data coming from the sensor could be as complete as to include overall levels in accel-eration, velocity, displacement, temperature, time wave form, FFT, or other calculated values—however, the same challenges are faced by manufacturers and end users.

How are those challenges being treated these days?Individual companies are devel-oping their own solutions using standard industrial protocols such as Modbus, Ethernet and other proprietary interfaces. Until a clear leader emerges, or a stan-dard is in place, digital sensor manufacturers will continue to utilize a variety of protocols. With no down side to using their own data structures, manufacturers will forge ahead with their own ideas looking for the best circum-stances to highlight the use of their products.

This is a potentially hazardous path—as it could lead to mul-tiple interfaces using a variety of schemes that ultimately leads to fewer other vendors. The end user suffers in this case since he loos-es the ability to choose the best possible digital output format of the sensor. Time will tell – if any one manufacturer influences the market to any great degree. It is still too early to see any cohesive pathway right now.

Vibration sensing

instrument in a plant

MEMS has the advantage of being

low power, having a DC response and a small size.”

1 September, 2010 l The Leela Palace, Bangalore, India

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materials & processes


The discovery of joining techniques or adhesives is not a recent innova-tion, but dates back to 4000 B.C. Archaeologists studying burial sites

of prehistoric tribes found foodstuffs buried with the deceased in broken pottery vessels that had been repaired with sticky resins from tree sap. The materials used to bond different materials then were of natural origin or its modifications. Materials like ce-ments, gums, glues, mortars, resins, pastes etc., were used interchangeably.

Some experts trace the roots of mod-ern adhesive technology in the discovery of vulcanization. The industrial revolution in 1900s also played its part in technical breakthroughs that resulted in new materials becoming available for use in formulating ad-hesives. The 1920s, 30s and 40s saw many

new plastics and rubbers synthetically pro-duced. Although, adhesives have been known for about 6,000 years, most of the technology of adhesives has been developed during the last 100 years. Polymer technology led to the invention of various engineering plastics to replace metals and alloys and necessitated the need for different types of adhesives in place of conventional joining systems.

Bonding technologies and its applicationsAdhesive technology ranges from glue that is used in simple post-it notes to highly en-gineered structural adhesives that are used in automotive, military, aerospace and space applications. There are single and double coated tape products that meet very specific and critical needs of customers from various

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Today, adhesives have the capability

to bond different types of materials

and have advantages like uniform stress distribution, better fatigue resistance,

higher specific strength, better surface

appearance etc.

by raja krishnamurthy

Bondingtechnology


InnovatIve


industries. There are several patented chemistries of adhesives available for various engineer-ing plastics, glasses, metals and alloys for different industry requirements.

Structural adhesives: Structural adhesives are defined as adhe-sives that can give durable and chemically resistant bonds which will have minimum 1000 psi over lap shear strength. These are available in epoxy, acrylic and urethane chemistry with work-life ranging from few minutes to hours. There are different vari-ants available to suit customer requirements from different indus-tries, with a range of peel and shear properties. The 2-part ad-hesives are packed in duo-packs and conveniently applied through a mixing nozzle with an applica-tor gun. It helps precise dispens-ing of perfectly mixed adhesive in right proportions ensuring the optimum curing and desired properties for the joint. In general these adhesives find use in many critical engineering applications and replaces welding/ riveting/ ultrasonic joining etc. There are specifically synthesized chemis-

tries that can structurally bond very low surface energy plastic materials like poly olefins without any special surface treatment.

Highly engineered structural adhesive films with modified epoxy and nitrile-phenolic formu-lations are very popular in aero-space and space applications. There are also specific primer formulations available to assist the bonding process and also to protect the bonding surface from any corrosion.

PUR adhesives: Polyurethane reactive (PUR) adhesives give structural strength with applica-tion convenience of a hot melt adhesive. These are heated and applied as molten adhesive, fast setting, available as 1-part formu-lations, give structural strength and is very popular in ‘welding’ wooden joints. In wood working applications high strength is ob-tained with a very thin film of PUR adhesive, which makes the bond almost invisible.

Non-structural adhesives: There are a wide range of non-structural adhesives like hot melts, contact, rubber and plastic and spray adhesives. Hot melt adhesives are

fast setting, very convenient in assembly line, can replace plastic welding, and major applications are in appliances, electronics, wood and packaging industries. These adhesives are again avail-able in different chemistries and with low/medium/ high melt prop-erties. Specific polyolefin and poly amide formulations find applica-tions where joining of substrates like PP & nylon are involved.

Contact rubber and plastic adhesive formulations are made specific to different synthetic rubbers and plastics, and include nitrile, neoprene, hydrocarbon rubbers along with different block co-polymer formulations. Adhesives in a spray bottle is very handy and non messy, yet can give strength like contact adhesives. They also come in formulations that are used for temporary and repositionable bonding.

Sealants: The sealants are very popular in automotive, transpor-tation and marine industry for its strong, resilient & vibration

An indicator lamp is being repaired with gap-filling bonding agents.

The use of indus-trial adhesives is fast becoming the joining and bonding method

of choice in place of traditional methods such as rivets, welding and bolting. This trend is in line with the development of new substrates, which use these adhe-sives. There has not been a signifi-cant shift away from solvent-based industrial adhesives. However, with more industries becoming envi-ronmentally friendly, there is likely to be an increased demand for water-based adhesives. Suppliers need to align their production tech-nologies to those in the developed countries to be able to position themselves for the movement away from chemical solvents.”

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damping joints. Today’s hi-tech buses and rail coaches use these sealants for a variety of panel bonding and sealing applications.

Double coated tapes and adhesive transfer tapes: There are

also a wide range of DC tapes and adhesive transfer tapes for de-manding bonding and laminating application. These tapes are made with different types of acrylic/ modified acrylic/rubber/ silicone pressure sensitive adhesives for different types of substrates for different joint strengths and expo-sure conditions.

The double coated tape is prov-en for very strong and durable bonds, convenience of applica-tion, increased productivity and aesthetics. These tapes are widely used for ship building, aircraft and space vehicles, transit buses, trucks and trailer assembly, and to support very large amount of vibrational stresses, bridge dampeners and suspension joints. And in commercial construc-tion from Australia to Brazil, the United States to Switzerland, ap-plications for these double-sided acrylic foam tapes have continued to expand indoors and outdoors for glass or metal panels to frame

bonding and stiffener attachment. These tapes can perform in any climatic conditions and is highly resistant to weathering effects. The tapes are available with different varieties of foam and adhesives and in variable thickness to suit specific applica-tion requirements.

Double coated tapes and ad-hesive transfer tapes are used in critical highly demanding lamina-tions to many general purpose applications. The backing used in double coated tapes can be select-ed from different types of foams, PET, vinyl, non-woven, tissue etc., as per the process and end use re-quirements. Double coated tapes and adhesive transfer tape find many applications in converting applications and are compatible with different substrates used, and also with different types of converting processes.

Raja Krishnamurthy is General Manager,

Technical—Industrial Business, 3M India.

Double coated foam tapes

for industrial applications

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uk

cheP .................................................19

consumermate ..................................59

Dhl .....................................................5

everest chem Pharma ........................13

exxon Mobile .............................. iFc, 57

Faro Business technologies ...............15

Frost & Sullivan ...........................29, 33

haas Automation .................................7

indiamart ..........................................11

lG..................................................... Bc

Mitsubishi ...........................................3

Premium transmission .......................17

Siemens ..............................................9

Suppy chain Focus.......................20, 21

tague tech ....................................... iBc

think Digit .........................................63

Advertiser index


facilities & operations

Energy conservation is critical for the economy, especially if one consid-ers that 25,000 mega-

watt of capacity will be created through energy efficiency in the electricity sector alone, according to the Ministry of Power.

The potential for conserving energy in the economy stands at an astounding 23 per cent with industrial and agricultural sectors contributing the most. Almost a decade ago, the Government of India recognized the critical nature of energy conservation, with the result being the Energy Conserva-tion Act 2001, and the setting up of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency under the Ministry of Power.

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency has for some time been awarding ‘Star Ratings’ for electrical appli-ances like refrigerators and air conditioners. It has taken an initia-tive to extend the Star Ratings to

buildings too, launching the Energy Conservation Building Code for commercial buildings and an an-nual examination to certify energy auditors and energy managers.

How effective would these ini-tiatives be without users adopting them and without the widespread awareness of energy saving oppor-tunities? How can energy utilities (electricity or gas) innovate? How can buildings, residences, offices or industrial premises, be made more energy-efficient?

Smart metersA smart metering solution, as part of the Smart Grid, is considered to be one such way! Smart meter deployment has already begun in various countries. In March this year, British Gas, UK’s leading energy supplier, announced the first commercial-scale smart meter deployment. The deployment is expected to save consumers

more than $300 million in their power bills.

What is in it for manufacturers?According to Pike Research, “ma-jor utilities worldwide, enticed by savings and prodded by govern-ments, are embarking on whole-sale replacement of over 45 per cent of the North American and European installed base by 2015, breaking the traditional 15-20 year meter replacement cycle. This represents an unprecedented—and time limited—opportunity for meter and communications suppli-ers as a projected $19.5 billion of smart meters are deployed world-wide between 2010 and 2015.”

The research agency forecasts that the worldwide smart meter market will grow an aggressive 19 per cent CAGR through 2015.

Apart from the actual meters, such a deployment will lead to a

A Win-win SolutionWith energy conservation playing a significant role in the future economy, smart meters are here to stay to help companies measure their energy efficiency efforts.

by sanjeet banerji

Smart meterS:


market for ‘smart’ household appli-ances, from self-regulating air con-ditioners to smart refrigerators.

A smart air conditioner or i-AC, for instance, can save approxi-mately 20 per cent of energy as compared to a regular AC. The i-AC uses infrared sensors to detect individuals in a room and directs cool air accordingly for automatic control of the room’s temperature. Embedding further intelligence, this feature can be extended to a ceiling fan. Depending on the peak load information sent by the smart meter and the room temperature, the air conditioner and the fan operate alternatively.

How smart is smart?Smart meters measure the power consumed, store all relevant con-sumption data allowing consumers real-time access and communi-cates this data to the utilities. The meters can be integrated into the existing management and ac-counting systems of measurement service providers and suppliers. The end user having direct and real-time access to electric-ity consumption data, creates transparency and an incentive to save energy.

An end-to-end smart meter system includes features such as smart meter reading, meter data management, consumption data aggregation, pricing based on existing tariffs, transmission to partner systems, real-time

processing and a web portal for current customers (similar to the consignment tracking feature provided by courier companies on their websites).

Effective workFor smart meters to work effec-tively, they need to communicate smoothly with the utility’s systems. The data need to be error-free and easily integrated into the business applications to aid in analytics, for instance, Business Support Sys-tems (BSS) for customer manage-ment, tariff determination and the payroll, online customer portals and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems.

The best smart meters are intelligent, open solutions that are modular, multi-client that covers all the commercial applications of the smart metering processing chain for homes like meter reading (automatic meter reading), counter remote control (automatic meter management) and customer man-agement and billing (BSS).

The meters are characterized by reliability, high throughput and maximum flexibility based on configurable rules. These support a variety of protocols and data formats, including the popular formats in the smart metering field count.

When sent a query, the smart meter reading solution reads and transmits the data to the related business applications where it

is converted and processed. This helps in customer relationship management, particularly in customer billing, which supports a wide range of tariff rules as variable over time, and are event-based, like ‘critical peak pricing’ or dynamically in the form of 15-min-ute interval-based price curves.

In the final bargain, smart meters, smart grids and smart devices are a win-win for all stake-holders: the consumers, utilities, providers of services like informa-tion technology integration and embedded engineering, manufac-turers, the government and, not the least, the environment.

Sanjeet Banerji is Senior Vice President,

Telecommunications & Embedded Engineer-

ing, Datamatics Global Services.

The total meter installation in India is 142 million while the replacement market

potential is estimated to be 100 million meters. The SEM (Smart Energy Meter) market in India is still in its nascent stage and therefore, devoid of any tough competition.”

G. Bala REddy Managing Director, icSa (inDia)

Facts Figures&► Smart meters hold great promise for energy and cost savings, but utilities need to improve customer education to reap the rewards.—Boston Consulting Group

► Global deployments of smart meters are expected to exceed 212 million units or $46B by 2014.—Infrax Systems

► There is optimism in the utilities sector about implementing new technologies to support the ‘smart grid,’ but that the business processes to sup-port them are just beginning to take shape.—CSC

► The two major issues facing utilities implementing Smart Grid AMI (advanced metering infrastructure) solutions have been vulnerability to cyber attacks and the lack of cost effective, robust two way com-munications to transmit information between the meter and the utility’s Energy Management Center.—Infrax Systems

► ICSA (India) has recently launched its Smart Energy Meter (SEM) manufacturing facility at Pashmailaram, Patancheru, Medak in Andhra Pradesh. The first SEM manufacturing plant in AP is expected to manufacture 1, 50,000 meters annually.


supply chain & logistics

Supply chains are becoming more complex, costly and

vulnerable and the executives charged with managing them—are under severe pressure—this

was concluded in a recent study conducted by IBM as

part of its Global Chief Supply Chain Officer Study. The report

observed that it is no longer enough to build supply chains

that are efficient, demand-driven or even transparent,

instead it is high time to build a smart supply chain that is

instrumented, interconnected and intelligent.

Building a

SmartSupply Chain


Businesses and supply chains have become substantially more global over the last

decade. Between 1995 and 2007, the number of transnational com-panies more than doubled, from 38,000 to 79,000, and foreign subsidiaries nearly tripled, from 265,000 to 790,000.

In addition to spreading geographically, supply chains now involve more companies. Nearly 80 per cent of executives say they expect the number of collaborative relationships with third parties to increase. And an ever-broader range of activities is being outsourced: between 2007 and 2010, research and development (R&D) outsourcing is forecast to increase by 65 per cent, and engineering services and product-design projects by more than 80 per cent.

Supply chains must also con-tend with rapidly expanding and contracting product portfolios. In the consumer products industry, for example, product introduc-tions increased by 17 per cent in 2006—more than double the 2005 rate. Portfolio rationaliza-tion is eliminating SKUs almost as fast. Together, these shifts are creating constant turmoil.

Confronted with such daunting complexity, supply chain execu-tives told us they face five major challenges—cost containment, supply chain visibility, risk man-agement, increasing customer demands and globalization. All are critically important, and must

be addressed simultaneously. Together, they comprise what we call the Chief Supply Chain Of-ficer agenda.

Cost containmentSupply chain executives rank cost containment as their number one responsibility to the business—far ahead of enterprise growth and product/service innovation. This intense focus on controlling costs is also quite evident in their activities and programs; two out of the top three types of initiatives are aimed at improving efficiency. These are also the areas where executives have realized the most past success.

However, what used to be a methodical, continuous improve-ment process has turned frenetic. Shocks to integral costs—rapid wage inflation in cost labour mar-kets, spikes in commodity prices, or even sudden credit freezes are becoming more common.

Supply chain executives find themselves reacting to whatever the cost issue of the day happens to be. Escalating fuel prices, for example, send executives scrambling to reevaluate distribu-tion strategies, engage third-party logistics providers more exten-sively or even share loads with competitors. When fuel prices fall, distribution and transporta-tion methods become more lax as companies emphasize service over cost—reverting back to smaller, more frequent shipments and faster modes. Shifts in costs and other operational fundamen-

tals are happening so quickly that conventional supply chain strategies and design techniques can’t keep up. New designs are outdated before executives can implement them.

When it comes to managing costs, companies with top supply chains—those recognized in AMR Research’s Top Supply Chains for 2008—take a longer-term view. They are moving more quickly toward agile supply chains that allow rapid response to changing market conditions and variable cost structures that ramp up and down with revenues. Flexibility is their antidote for cost volatility.

VisibilityAt a time when, generally speak-ing, information is abundant and connectivity is more feasible than ever, supply chain executives still rank visibility as their greatest management challenge. Although more information is available, proportionally less is being ef-fectively captured, managed, analyzed and made available to people who need it.

Despite its top billing on the issue list, visibility—and the collaboration required to get information and make decisions with it—is not attracting much attention in terms of activities and programmes. Supply chain executives are focused more on strategy alignment, continuous process improvement and cost reduction. Driving integration and visibility of information inside

Supply chain leaders wrestle with five major challenges.Percentage who report this challenge impacts their supply chains to a significant or very significantextent.



their organizations ranks fourth on their priority list, and exter-nal visibility falls even lower—in seventh place. Making matters worse, the majority of those who have tried to improve external visibility describe their efforts as largely ineffective, making exter-nal visibility projects the least ef-fective of all initiatives executives are undertaking.

Though it may seem logical to blame poor visibility and collabo-ration on inadequate IT, supply chain executives point elsewhere. Not surprisingly, organizational silos are the biggest barrier. But we were shocked so many executives reported that their organizations are too busy to share information or simply do not believe collaborative decision making is that important.

More than half of all supply chain executives have implement-ed practices aimed at improving visibility, such as continuous replenishment and inventory man-agement with customers. But less than 20 per cent are pursuing

these practices extensively. In contrast, leaders of top supply chains are much more focused on improving visibility. Twice as many report extensive implementations of collabora-tive planning with suppliers and vendor-managed inventory (VMI). And more than 60 per cent of the top supply chains have imple-mented all the practices dis-cussed in our interviews.

RiskRisk management emerged as supply chain executives’ second largest challenge—a surprisingly high ranking that at first glance seems more likely to be found on the Chief Financial Officer agen-da. But mounting supply chain risk—even more than increasing customer demands and higher costs—has leaders on edge.

Although it may be exacerbat-ing concerns, the current econom-ic environment was not the im-petus for this response. Instead, this sentiment was built from thousands of recall headlines

and a deepening realization that globalization and greater supply chain interdependence have not only elevated risk, but also made it more difficult to manage.

Among our respondents, 69 per cent formally monitor risk, but only 31 per cent manage performance and risk together. Executives cite the lack of standardized processes, insuffi-cient data and inadequate technologies as the chief stum-bling blocks preventing effective risk management.

More than two-thirds of supply chain executives have programmes in place to monitor compliance. But top supply chains are taking risk management a step further incorporating it into their plans and using IT to moni-tor and act on disruptive events.

Customer intimacyRising customer demands ranks as the third highest supply chain challenge, and two out of every three companies struggle to ac-curately identify customer needs.

Top supply chains’ largest leads

are in the areas of customer

collaboration.Percentage who

have implemented these practices.


However, despite the obvious need for customer interaction, companies tend to focus more on their suppliers than their custom-ers. Eighty per cent design prod-ucts jointly with their suppliers, but only 68 per cent do so with customers. Even in supply chain planning, with all the demand-driven hype, only 53 per cent of companies include customer input, while 63 per cent invite supplier participation.

Although technology has made it more feasible than ever to incorporate customer input, working directly with customers remains the least common supply chain planning practice. In fact, demand planning at one out of every five companies ignores customers entirely.

Because customer interac-tion seems costly and time-consuming, some companies just don’t bother. But as the pressure to be more profitable grows, supply chains won’t be able to afford the excess inventory, lost sales and missed innovation opportunities caused by inad-equate customer collaboration.

Synchronization planningTop supply chains take greater advantage of opportunities to syn-chronize plans both internally (15 per cent lead over rest of sample) and with supply chain partners (10 per cent lead). But perhaps most importantly, they are more likely than their less-effective peers to plan with customers.

GlobalizationGiven the growing interdepen-dence among economies world-wide, it is no surprise that globalization ranks as a top sup-ply chain challenge. Many compa-nies are encountering issues with global sourcing, including unreli-able delivery (65 per cent), longer lead times (61 per cent) and poor quality (61 per cent), with an

additional 14 per cent of respon-dents anticipating such problems within the next three years.

So far, however, the financial advantages of globalization of their markets and operations out-weigh these negatives. Nearly 40 per cent of supply chain execu-tives report improved margins. Yet this bump in profits is not necessarily tied to lower costs. In fact, more than one-third of executives are experiencing increased costs, likely because of the global sourcing challenges previously mentioned.

Instead, these higher profits seem linked to sales increases, as reported by 43 per cent of execu-tives. These findings suggest glo-balization has contributed more to revenue growth than efficiency.

Although higher costs are af-fecting both high-performing and less-effective supply chains, they are less prevalent among top supply chains. And on the positive side, far more leaders report increased sales and im-proved performance.

Smarter supply chainThe digital and physical in-frastructure of our world are converging. Thanks to the falling

price and rising reliability of sen-sor technologies, practically any activity or process can now be measured. Objects can commu-nicate and collaborate directly, without human intervention. Entire systems can be connect-ed—not just supply chains with other supply chains, but also with transportation systems, financial markets, electric power grids and even natural systems like rivers and weather patterns.

Every insight derived from a world of smart objects can lead to action—and more value. With so much embedded intelligence, supply chain management can progress from decision support to decision delegation and, ulti-mately, to a predictive capabil-ity. As the world begins to work differently, we see a different kind of supply chain emerging—a smarter supply chain with three core characteristics:InstrumentedSupply chain information that was previously created by people will increasingly be generated by sensors, RFID tags, meters, actuators, GPS and other devices and systems. In terms of visibil-ity, supply chains not only will be able to ‘see’ more events, but

In all areas of risk management, leading supply chains are pulling away from the pack.Gap between top supply chains and the rest of our sample in terms of current and plannedimplementations.



also witness them as they occur. They will rely less on labour-based tracking and monitoring, as objects like shipping containers, trucks, products and parts report on themselves. Dashboards on devices perhaps not yet invented will display the real time status of plans, commitments, sources of supply, pipeline inventories and consumer requirements.InterconnectedSmarter supply chains will take advantage of unprecedented levels of interaction—not only with customers, suppliers and IT systems in general, but also among objects that are monitor-ing or even flowing through the supply chain. Besides creating a more holistic view of the supply chain, this extensive interconnec-tivity will also facilitate collabora-tion on a massive scale. World-wide networks of supply chains will be able to plan and make decisions collectively.IntelligentTo assist executives in evaluating trade-offs, intelligent systems will assess myriad constraints and al-ternatives, allowing decision mak-ers to simulate various courses of action. A smarter supply chain will also be capable of learning and making some decisions by it-self, without human involvement. For example, it might reconfigure supply chain networks when dis-ruptions occur. It could acquire rights to use physical assets like production capacity, distribu-

tion facilities and transportation fleets on demand through virtual exchanges. This intelligence will be used not only to make real time decisions, but also to predict the future. Equipped with sophis-ticated modeling and simulation capabilities, the smarter supply chain will move past sense-and-respond to predict-and-act.

Clearly, supply chains have the potential to become much smart-er. But this will not happen simply because they can. Smarter supply chains will emerge because they must. The challenges that sit at the top of the Chief Supply Chain Officer agenda demand it.

FlexibilitySmarter supply chains will be inherently flexible. They will be composed of an interconnected network of suppliers, contract manufacturers and service provid-ers that can be tapped on demand as conditions change. To leverage resources optimally, the supply chain of the future employs intel-ligent modeling capabilities.

Simulations allow supply chain managers to see the cost, service level, time and quality impacts of the alternatives being considered.

Smarter cost containmentInstrumented:• Sensor-based solutions to reduce inventory costs with in-creased visibility.• Production and distribution process detectors to monitor and

control energy usage and waste.• Physical transportation, distri-bution and facility asset manage-ment, controlled and monitored with smart devices for efficiency and utilization.Interconnected:• Agile, on demand network of suppliers, contract manufactur-ers, service providers and other (financial and regulatory) con-stituents.• Outsourcing non-differentiating functions to share risks across the global network.• Variable cost structures that fluctuate with market demand.• Shared decision making with partners at source (local, re-gional, global strategies).• Integrated, networked asset utilization and management.Intelligent:• Network and distribution strat-egy analysis and modeling with event simulations.• Scenario-based operational analysis.• Simulation models and analyz-ers to evaluate flexibility fac-tors—service levels, costs, time, quality—with inventory synchro-nization.• Sustainability models to ana-lyze and monitor usage impact (carbon, energy, water, waste).• Integrated demand and supply management with advanced deci-sion support.

Visibility is vitalExecutives want to know ev-

Supply chain planning largely

remains an internally driven

effort.Percentage

who plan with customers—as

compared to suppliers

and their own organizations—to a moderate,

significant or very significant

extent.


erything about their supply chains—each shipment leaving a supplier’s dock, each unit sitting on a contract manufacturer’s assembly line, each pallet being unloaded at a distribution centre or customer’s storeroom.

But this pervasive visibility cannot require any extra effort from supply chain partners. Sim-ply put, it must be easier to share than not to do so.

This means that in a smarter supply chain, objects—not people—must do more of the reporting and sharing of infor-mation. Critical data will come from trucks, docks, store shelves and parts and products moving through the supply chain.

This visibility won’t just be used for better planning—it will be fundamental to real-time execution.

Visibility will also extend to the world in which the supply chain operates. Smarter supply chains will track soil conditions and rainfall to optimize irrigation, monitor traffic status to alter de-livery routes or shipping methods, and follow financial markets and economic indicators to predict shifts in labour, energy and con-sumer buying.

Increasingly, visibility issues will not be about having too little information, but rather too much. Smarter supply chains, however, will use intelligent modeling, ana-lytic and simulation capabilities to make sense of it all.

Smarter visibilityInstrumented:• Shelf-level replenishment.• Event-driven monitors and

alert detection based upon thresholds and tolerances.• Smart devices and sensors (RFID) to capture realtime visibil-ity: forecasts/orders, schedules/commitments, pipeline inventory, shipment lifecycle status.• Sense-and-respond demand and supply signal notification.Interconnected:• ERP to ERP to ERP integration.• Multipartner collaborative platform for suppliers, customers and service providers, with data synthesis and decision support.• Integrated forecasting, orders and point-of-sale.• Dynamic supply-demand balancing with just-in-time and demand-driven replenishment.• Integrated performance man-agement.Intelligent:• Pipeline inventory forecasting and analytics.• Service-level analysis with inventory optimization.• Optimized buy recommenda-tions.• Price-protection analysis.• Advanced decision-support analytics and optimization to automate and self-actuate supply chain transactions.• Predictive buy-sell decision support.

Managing risk systematicallyRisk comes in many forms. The last decade has been peppered with wake-up calls: tainted food and toys, random acts of terror-ism and, most recently, the world-wide economic crisis. As supply chains become more complex and interdependent, risk management must become more comprehen-

sive—extending far beyond what any one enterprise can control.

The smarter supply chain recognizes risk as a systemic is-sue. Its mitigation strategies take advantage of millions of smart ob-jects that can report threats like temperature fluctuations, theft or tampering. It also collaborates with supply chain partners on joint mitigation strategies and tactics. And if (or when) prob-lems do occur, it capitalizes on real time connectivity across the extended supply chain to respond in a rapid, coordinated fashion. Arguably, the smarter supply chain’s greatest advantage is its ability to model and simulate risk across the entire network.

This intelligence also helps develop a sustainable supply chain that uses natural resources wisely and positively impacts the communities in which it operates. For example, smart systems en-able the supply chain to conserve energy and resources by operat-ing more efficiently and reliably. The same connectedness that allows social and environmental activists to find out about and pounce on the slightest com-pany failing is used to detect potential problems, collaborate on risk mitigation activities and demonstrate the high degree of transparency that customers and supply chain partners have come to demand. Sophisticated analyt-ics help executives evaluate a full spectrum of social and environ-mental considerations.

Smarter risk managementInstrumented:• Monitors and sensors for prod- Top supply

chains plan with their customers more extensively.Percentage who plan collaboratively with customers to a moderate, significant or very significant extent.


supply chain & logisticsuct traceability from ingredients to final customer consumption.• Sensor solutions for monitor-ing product condition through the supply chain to help ensure product quality.• Weather intelligence and sen-sors for predictive analysis for supply planning, shipment rout-ing and allocations.Interconnected:• Resilient supply chain network design at strategic level.• Network integration with variable contingency plans and policies.• Integration of financial and operational analysis.• Compliance strategies and pol-icies with suppliers, service pro-viders, contract manufacturers.• Networked sustainability poli-

cies for entire product lifecycle from design through consumption to afterlife.Intelligent:• Probability-based risk assess-ment and predictive analysis: like-lihood, severity, ease of detection for key risk factors with mitiga-tion policies and procedures.• Risk-based financial impact analysis: decision tree, sensitivity analysis.• Risk-adjusted inventory optimi-zation.• Disaster response simulation models.• Bayesian supply chain risk analysis and mitigation models.

Customer inputMost supply chains excel at meet-ing customer needs once they’re

known. It’s the ‘knowing’ part that is difficult.

While other supply chains connect with customers primar-ily to provide timely, accurate delivery, smarter supply chains interact with customers through-out the product lifecycle—from research and development, to everyday usage, to product end-of-life. Pervasive instrumentation allows smarter supply chains to intercept demand signals at their source—items lifted from shelves, products leaving stores or critical parts showing signs of wear. In effect, every interaction becomes an opportunity for effortless cus-tomer collaboration.

Smarter supply chains also use their intelligence to see beyond the masses. Through advanced


as supply chains become more global, the organizations that manage them require new skills

and capabilities. Supply chain executives’ most urgent need is leadership talent. This talent vacuum is most acutely felt in the asia pacific region, with nearly nine out of ten executives citing it as a top challenge.

This shortage of leaders is not con-fined to the supply chain function. in the iBM Global human Capital Study 2008, 75 per cent of the more than 400 senior hR executives surveyed across 34 coun-tries indicated that building leadership talent was a significant challenge.

To strengthen their management pipelines, many of these hR executives said their companies are using action learning programmes, mentoring and job rotation. in fact, nearly 50 per cent cited job rotation among business units as a key development technique. however, putting this into practice is difficult. More than one-third of both hR and supply chain executives indicate that rotating leaders is a significant challenge.

Often, operating divisions are reluc-tant to surrender their top performers.

although companies invest in leader-ship development and succession plan-ning, they typically pursue these activities on a regional basis, which makes it difficult to maintain a global view of the leadership pipeline and resolve conflict-ing priorities among business units.

Our research suggests that compa-nies should consider factors such as the number, location, transferability and proficiency of leaders from around the globe as part of their strategic planning processes. Talent management at a global level helps companies make better decisions about the types of leadership development programmes required, the speed with which those programmes

need to be implemented and the busi-ness risks associated with insufficient leadership talent.

While growing leaders within their own ranks, supply chains must also com-pete for new recruits, particularly in markets where talent pools are shrinking due to demographic shifts. Most supply chain executives are using traditional motivators—namely challenging respon-sibilities, career growth and better com-pensation—to attract and retain staff. But leaders of top supply chains are using a different approach. They are leveraging their corporate reputations and strong values to connect with likeminded em-ployee populations.

leadership talent

No other HR issue comes close to the overwhelming need for global leaders.Percentage who report these issues as one of their top three capability-building challenges.


analytics, they can identify ever-finer customer segments and tailor their offerings accordingly.

Smarter customer interactionInstrumented:• Sensor solutions to signal retail shelf requirements.• On-site services such as auto-mated sensor-based checkout.• Product authentication and consumer loyalty programme ac-cess with customer cell phones.• Embedded software and analyt-ics for automated product defect and service alerts.Interconnected:• Global versus regional versus local strategies and tactics.• Networked S&OP with opti-mized forecast, buy/sell decision support.• Sustainable, ‘green’ consider-ations and co-branding:- Product design and packaging- Co-branding with customer initiatives - Compliance programmes• Customer collaboration throughout all SC processes.Intelligent:• Customer segmentation of product/service portfolio: profit-ability; geography/market; prod-uct/service mix.• Simulation models of customer behaviour, buying patterns and market penetration applied to planning and operations volumes.• Optimized inventory pipeline planning and execution by cus-tomer segment.• Cost-to-serve models and analysis.

Integration & optimizationTo date, globalization has resulted in higher profits mainly because of rapid revenue growth. But as supply chains get smarter, companies will be able to address efficiency issues as well. For example, increased visibility from highly instrumented and intercon-

nected supply chains will help companies identify and eradicate global delivery bottlenecks and quality problems.

In addition, decisions about manufacturing locations and suppliers will no longer be domi-nated by a single cost element like labour. Smarter supply chains will have the analytic capability to evaluate myriad alternatives in terms of supply, manufacturing and distribution—and the flexibility to reconfigure as conditions change. This will allow executives to plan for contingencies and execute amid economic and political volatility without reverting to protectionism or reverse globalization.

Smarter global integrationInstrumented: • Sense-and-respond event man-agement for end-to-end supply chain activities.• Sensors and actuators: manu-facturing, logistics, and process control.• Real time interconnection with sensors to detect product and shipment locations worldwide.

• Sensor solutions connecting the expanding global trading part-ner infrastructure for increased supply chain visibility.Interconnected: • Global ‘centres of excellence’ to optimize capability and delivery.• Right-sourced global logistics network.• SOA-based integration of het-erogeneous systems.• Collaboration tools embedded into performance management system.• End-to-end supply chain col-laboration tools and methods.Intelligent:• Integrated dashboards for KPIs and event alerts, driven by busi-ness rules.• Demand, supply and distribu-tion network planning and execu-tion:- Simulation models and scenar-io-based strategies for planning- Optimization of inventory throughout all phases of pipeline activity- Integration of risk manage-ment and mitigation approaches- Integrated production planning and execution

Leading supply chains report less pain and more extreme gains from globalization over the past three years.Percentage who have experienced these outcomes.


supply chain & logisticsBuilding the smarter SC As executives chart the future course of their supply chains, they will have several simultane-ous objectives: They must align their supply chain strategies with rapidly changing business strategies. Then, to execute those strategies, they will need to innovate and make the supply chain more sustainable, flexible and responsive through increased instrumentation, interconnection and intelligence. This transition to the smarter supply chain of the future must be seamless, without operational interruptions or per-formance slips. It is a strategic balancing act—one that requires a C-level leader.

Emerging role of the chief supply chain officer The role of Chief Supply Chain Of-

ficer is emerging as a cross-line-of-business position reporting di-rectly to the CEO. This testifies to the pivotal role SC executives play in the success of their companies. But as supply chains evolve and become much smarter, what does that imply for the executives who manage them? What kind of capa-bilities will be required?

Right now, most senior supply chain leaders are overseeing traditional functions like distribu-tion and logistics (77 per cent), demand/supply planning (72 per cent), and sourcing and procure-ment (63 per cent). But some are beginning to play a role in strat-egy development (38 per cent) and risk management (26 per cent). We believe this involvement at a strategic level will grow.

The Chief Supply Chain Officer will be responsible for positioning

the supply chain to make these critical contributions. Since sup-ply chain networks are rarely the responsibility of a single entity or decision maker, the Chief Supply Chain Officer will also need to be chief collaborator. He or she will need to be an expert at bring-ing together stakeholders (even those outside the extended supply chain, like regulators, activist organizations and governments) and facilitating joint planning and risk mitigation. Negotiation and stake holder management skills will be important complements to market knowledge and supply chain expertise.

Chief supply chain officers must also be diligent optimizers. Smarter supply chains will pres-ent decision makers with more choices and alternatives and high-er-precision controls and levers to

The ‘Smart map’ to the Supply Chain of the FutureSCM competency areasStrategy Planning Lifecycle management Sourcing and procurement Operations Asset management Logistics Enterprise applications

Instrumented Visibility and performance mgmtSC optimization andtransparencySensors and simulators ofcustomer demand

Realtime demand mgmtand inventory optimizationRealtime inventory pipelinevisibilityEarly warning detection:supply and demandsynchronization

predictive analysisand simulation designtechniquesEmbedded systemsSensors for preventativemaintenance

Risk and compliance sensorsand modelingproactive and realtime supplynetwork event monitoringGlobal sourcing and importlogistics Kpis and detection

Optimized inventorycontrols and eventdetectionSensors and actuatorsin production for carbon,water, waste monitoringVisibility for operational riskmanagement and control

Total cost mgmtdashboardsEnvironmentally sustainableasset monitoringintegrated probability basedrisk assessment

Event-driven logisticsalertsRealtime sensors foroptimized networkEase of network onboardingand automated data feeds from logistics partners

Monitoring and realtimedetection and alertsinventory optimizationERp to MES integration

Interconnected alignment of business andSC strategies with partnersintegrated sustainabilitystrategiesVariable cost structuresthat fluctuate with marketdemand

Collaborative planning andexecutionintegration of financial andoperational analysisintegrated S&Op withexternal metrics

Collaborative development and engineering withcustomers and partnersCustomer insight drivingbrand brillianceKnowledge sharing forcontinuous improvement

Realtime visibility ofmultitiered supplyContract management andstrategic sourcingOutsourcing to share risksacross the global networkand create variable structures

networked design formanufacture, supply, useand reuseTrade terms mgmt linked topartner KpisDemand-driven productionand postponement

integrated asset andresource managementGeographic informationsystemsDynamic and variable assetcost structures

Realtime visibility tologistics providersnetwork integration withvariable contingency plansand policiesagile, on demand logisticsnetwork

Collaboration platforms:customer, provider,supplierERp to ERp integrationEnterprise and networkperformance management

Intelligent Segmented cost-to-serveanalyticsSustained SC costreduction via advancedanalyticsRisk-based impact analysis

S&OE (where ‘e’ isexecution)Risk-adjusted inventoryoptimizationnetworked S&Op withoptimized decision support

new product developmentinnovation and analyticsSustainable, “green”considerations throughoutlifecycleModel-driven systemsengineering

predictive buy-sell analyticsSustainable procurementpracticesintelligent spend analysis

SC models to managecapital expenditureDisaster response modelsSimulation model toevaluate flexibility factors:service levels, costs, time,quality

Cost-of-ownership analysisTax and compliancemodelingproactive redeployment/reconfiguration/ divestingof assets

Carbon footprintmanagementData-driven reverselogisticsnetwork and distributionstrategy analysis andmodeling

Business intelligence andintegrated analyticspredictive analysis andadvanced analytics appliedto eventsKpi trends linked totraining and change mgmtprogramme


achieve desired outcomes. Supply chain leaders must be capable of optimizing global networks of as-sets and talent—their own as well as those of partners and custom-ers. These responsibilities also extend to environmental steward-ship—maintaining the balance necessary to protect the earth’s natural resources. Perhaps more than any other C-suite role, the top supply chain executive must have an end-to-end understand-ing of the business, a broad view of external risks and the ability to manage holistically to produce optimal outcomes.

Why build a smarter supply chain now?Why are we so convinced that supply chains are about to become much smarter? After all, the underlying technologies that

enable this sort of intelligence have been around for some time. Why such a dramatic change now—especially with so much uncertainty ahead?

Actually, that is precisely the point. Globalization and growing supply chain interdependence have introduced a heightened level of volatility and vulnerability that is unlikely to subside. Un-certainty has become the norm. This new environment demands a different kind of supply chain—a much smarter one.

With such a clear mandate for change, supply chain executives owe it to their organizations to reevaluate current strategies and initiatives. Which investments are simply making processes faster or more efficient? And which go a step further—making the supply chain decidedly more intelligent

and resilient in times of unprec-edented instability and risk?

Often, when massive shifts are predicted, ‘change or perish’ pronouncements pile up. But we do not see things in such a harsh light; the future we see is much brighter. Here’s why: Execu-tives have at their disposal the necessary ingredients to make their supply chains substantially smarter. But perhaps more impor-tant—from our interviews with 400 of them worldwide—we also know executives are determined to make their supply chains stra-tegic enablers. They understand how critical their function is to their companies’ success, and they relish the opportunity to cre-ate change that matters.

Reprinted with permission from IBM Global

Services, Institute for Business Value.

The ‘Smart map’ to the Supply Chain of the FutureSCM competency areasStrategy Planning Lifecycle management Sourcing and procurement Operations Asset management Logistics Enterprise applications

Instrumented Visibility and performance mgmtSC optimization andtransparencySensors and simulators ofcustomer demand

Realtime demand mgmtand inventory optimizationRealtime inventory pipelinevisibilityEarly warning detection:supply and demandsynchronization

predictive analysisand simulation designtechniquesEmbedded systemsSensors for preventativemaintenance

Risk and compliance sensorsand modelingproactive and realtime supplynetwork event monitoringGlobal sourcing and importlogistics Kpis and detection

Optimized inventorycontrols and eventdetectionSensors and actuatorsin production for carbon,water, waste monitoringVisibility for operational riskmanagement and control

Total cost mgmtdashboardsEnvironmentally sustainableasset monitoringintegrated probability basedrisk assessment

Event-driven logisticsalertsRealtime sensors foroptimized networkEase of network onboardingand automated data feeds from logistics partners

Monitoring and realtimedetection and alertsinventory optimizationERp to MES integration

Interconnected alignment of business andSC strategies with partnersintegrated sustainabilitystrategiesVariable cost structuresthat fluctuate with marketdemand

Collaborative planning andexecutionintegration of financial andoperational analysisintegrated S&Op withexternal metrics

Collaborative development and engineering withcustomers and partnersCustomer insight drivingbrand brillianceKnowledge sharing forcontinuous improvement

Realtime visibility ofmultitiered supplyContract management andstrategic sourcingOutsourcing to share risksacross the global networkand create variable structures

networked design formanufacture, supply, useand reuseTrade terms mgmt linked topartner KpisDemand-driven productionand postponement

integrated asset andresource managementGeographic informationsystemsDynamic and variable assetcost structures

Realtime visibility tologistics providersnetwork integration withvariable contingency plansand policiesagile, on demand logisticsnetwork

Collaboration platforms:customer, provider,supplierERp to ERp integrationEnterprise and networkperformance management

Intelligent Segmented cost-to-serveanalyticsSustained SC costreduction via advancedanalyticsRisk-based impact analysis

S&OE (where ‘e’ isexecution)Risk-adjusted inventoryoptimizationnetworked S&Op withoptimized decision support

new product developmentinnovation and analyticsSustainable, “green”considerations throughoutlifecycleModel-driven systemsengineering

predictive buy-sell analyticsSustainable procurementpracticesintelligent spend analysis

SC models to managecapital expenditureDisaster response modelsSimulation model toevaluate flexibility factors:service levels, costs, time,quality

Cost-of-ownership analysisTax and compliancemodelingproactive redeployment/reconfiguration/ divestingof assets

Carbon footprintmanagementData-driven reverselogisticsnetwork and distributionstrategy analysis andmodeling

Business intelligence andintegrated analyticspredictive analysis andadvanced analytics appliedto eventsKpi trends linked totraining and change mgmtprogramme

Which capabilities are most critical to your organization?

information technology


The two main consider-ations in a landing gear design are the landing and taxiing events. In

the landing event, energy of the descending aircraft must be absorbed by the landing gear without generating reaction loads that exceed the design limit loads. This reaction load, as a function of landing gear stroke, is referred to as the Dynamic Load-Stroke Curve. The taxiing event is simulated as two discrete static events: braking and turn-ing. These events generate high stresses in the torsion links

and lugs. The objectives of the landing gear design for these two events can be grouped into three categories:

Determination of damping profile: The damping profile is to be designed to ensure that the Dynamic Load/Stroke Curve always stays within the Dynamic Loads Envelope during the land-ing simulation.

Concept design and optimization of torsion links: Design the tor-sion links, which are critical for fatigue as a result of braking and turning while taxiing, such that they meet the stress and manu-facturing requirements.

Shape optimization of lugs: Evolve the design of the integrat-ed lug on the lower outer cylinder, which is also critical for fatigue as a result of the taxiing event.

Optimization of damping curveOptimization of damping curve is a system level multi-body dynamics optimization prob-lem. Steps taken to solve this optimization problem are as follows:

A multi-body dynamics model is built by importing the CATIA model into HyperMesh/MotionView. The deformable components are modeled as flexible bodies and the IMPACT type of contact is used to model the contact between the tires and the ground. MotionSolve is used to solve the problem.

Ten coefficients on the damping curve are used as design variables in Hyper-Study. All these variables are

real, continuous variables. The objective function is to maximize the stroke and the dynamic load corresponding to six different strokes are constrained with the values from the envelope. In addition, the maximum dynamic load is constrained to be below 200 kips.

Adaptive response surface method (ARSM) is used to solve the optimization problem. ARSM is a response surface-based (global approximation) algorithm and is the suggested method in HyperStudy because of its supe-rior efficiency. In ARSM, the sys-tem responses are approximated by a quadratic polynomial that is determined at each iteration step from the results of the current and previous iterations. A least-squares method is used to define the polynomial.

The optimization run con-verged in 19 iterations, and the damping characteristics are opti-mized to have vertical load values

Pict

ure

Cour

tesy

: ww

w.photos.com

Engineers at Altair, using CAE-driven design process, successfully designed a lower weight aircraft landing gear system. A report.

Designing A Lighter Aircraft Landing Gear System

A reliable optimum is found after 360 multi-body dynamics simulations.

Landing gear of an

aircraft



within the dynamic load envelope.Next, the search for a reliable optimum is performed for the damping curve such that the constraints are 95 per cent reli-able given the variations in the design variable values. Normal distribution with 0.1 per cent standard deviation is used for all the design variables. Safety mar-gin approach (SMA) is used as the reliability-based optimization method. Within the SMA, Krigging response surface is utilized. SMA converts the initial probabilistic problem of:

min f(x) ...[1]such that (probability of (g(x) ≤ 0.0) ≥ 0.95

to a new deterministic problem of min f(x) ...[2]g’(x) = g(x) + safety_margin_

on_g ≤ 0.0The safety margins on con-

straints are initially evaluated by doing a scatter analysis on them considering the variations in the design variables.

A reliable optimum is found after 360 multi-body dynamics simulations.

Concept design and optimization of torsion linksConcept design and optimization of torsion links is a component level topology and shape optimi-

zation problem. Steps taken to solve this optimization problem include—

The landing gear is mod-eled with tetrahedral elements. Nonlinear gap elements are used to model the contact and load transfer between interfacing com-ponents. Landing events do not create high stresses in the torsion links and therefore only the brak-ing and turning conditions are considered in this process.

Design space is defined for topology optimization. Topology optimization is a concept level design method that determines the optimal material distribu-tion for a given optimization problem within the identified design space. The density of each element is a design vari-able. The problem is solved using several problem formulations to have a better understanding of the underlying physics. Mass or weighted compliance is used as the objective along with stress and volume fraction constraints. Manufacturing constraints (draw direction and extrusion) are used to guarantee a manufacturable and interpretable design pro-posal. From the interpretations of several topology optimization runs, two designs are proposed, one a heavier more conservative

design, another a lighter more less conservative design.

To further reduce weight in the conservative proposal or to meet the stress requirements in the lighter proposal, shape optimi-zation is used to fine tune the design. In shape optimization, the outer boundary of the structure is modified to solve the optimiza-tion problem. Shape variables are created using morphing technol-ogy that is available in Hyper-Mesh. Morphing is a mesh-based parameterization technique and therefore does not require CAD data. Several shape changes are defined as design variables. The link proposals are optimized to minimize the mass and meet the stress constraint. The total mass of the upper and lower links without the pins is reduced from 240 lbs to 176 lbs, a 25 per cent reduction while satisfying the stress requirements.

Lug redesign using shape optimizationRedesign of lugs using shape optimization is a component level shape problem. The lugs are under high-stresses only for the static turning and braking events. The dynamic event of landing does not cause high stress and is therefore not critical for lug rede-sign. However, in order to demon-strate a new method for designing for dynamic loads, this problem is solved separately for the static and dynamic events. Steps taken to solve this optimization problem are as follows:

Designing for static loading: Sev-eral shape changes are defined as design variables. Free-shape optimization is also used to change some contours. Free-shape optimization uses a pro-prietary optimization technique developed by Altair Engineering Inc., wherein the outer boundary of a structure is altered to meet with pre-defined objectives and

Topology optimization

interpretations


constraints. The essential idea of free-shape optimization, and where it differs from other shape optimization techniques, is that the allowable movement of the outer boundary is automatically determined, thus relieving users of the burden of defining shape perturbations. In addition, the op-timization problem becomes truly unbiased as it does not have to fit into any predetermined shapes and their combinations.

The lug is optimized to mini-mize the lug mass and to satisfy the allowable stress constraint. Optimization reduced the stress from 294 ksi to the allowable stress level of 120 ksi with a small penalty on the lug mass; lug mass increased by 5.2 lbs.

Designing for dynamic loading with Equivalent Static Load (ESL) method: In most practices, one of two processes is used for optimi-zation of structures under tran-sient loading. The first process involves running the transient analysis and picking peak loads to apply as static loads. How-ever, the design changes during optimization leading to changes in where the peak occurs, its magnitude and more importantly in a system, the configuration in which it occurs. To guarantee a feasible design, the optimum design should be analyzed again under transient loading. If a fea-sible design is not obtained and/or if further improvements in the objective function is needed, the user needs to repeat the optimi-zation process and verification analysis. This entire process is cumbersome and not guaranteed to converge to a feasible and/or better design. Alternatively one can couple the transient analysis with a solver neutral optimizer such as HyperStudy. This however will be limited to design fine-tuning with size and shape-opti-mization and will be computation-ally expensive. ESL method is an

accurate and efficient alternative to the two processes explained above. This method converts dy-namic loading to a series of static loads calculated at each time step such that the displacement fields are the same. Equivalent static loads are calculated from defor-mations from an MBD analysis or transient analysis.

As there are no stress viola-tions in the baseline design under the dynamic loading, optimization reduced the lug mass by 4.6 lbs.

ConclusionA CAE-driven design process helps design a high-performance, low-weight aircraft landing gear system. The process, led by concept design and optimi-zation techniques, along with advanced innovative analysis methods, results in meeting multi-disciplinary design re-quirements of the landing gear. Besides, it also helps reduce the landing gear weight. This effective CAE-driven design process is ap-plicable to all practical engineer-ing problems.

The three tasks in this design problem involved a system level deterministic and reliability-based optimization and component level concept design and optimization.

Including requirements on reliability and robustness is critical especially where large variations are expected in the design parameters and/or design operating conditions. However, including targets on reliability and/or robustness increases the number of simulations needed. As such, it is strongly suggested to study the design problem using exploration techniques and reduce the problem size for stochastic studies.

Using concept design and optimization techniques, the weight of the torsion links were reduced by 27 per cent, which is a significant weight savings which in turn reduces the material cost and improves the fuel efficiency. In addition, this process was completed in less than two weeks which is a significant reduction in design and engineering time.

For lug redesign under transient loading, ESLM is used, which is an innovative, accurate and computationally efficient method for transient optimiza-tion of flexible bodies. ESLM can be used with topography, shape, free-shape, size and free-size optimization.

Courtesy: Altair Engineering

Concept design and optimization process for torsion links



As manufacturers rapidly make the transition from 2D to 3D CAD in today’s digital world, design-

ers are demanding 3D to enhance their designs and improve com-munication. From websites to rapid prototyping, customers, designers and engineers now depend on the latest 3D modeling tools.

3D CAD3D enhances not only the design process, but also communication with your customers and design team. CAD is all about communi-cating ideas. We live in a 3D world, so we visualize objects in the same way. In the 2D world, designers must be able to look at three or four views of a design and mentally combine them in order to visual-ize what that design will look like

in 3D. In 2D, you have to manu-ally update every drawing view whenever a change occurs. Change one part and you not only have to include that change in each of the three drawing views for the part, you must also change every view of every assembly in which that part is used.

Consider how many views need to be updated manually in 2D each time a simple change is made to your design. A minor change to a dimension on a part triggers a series of updates. First consider the drawing of the part—all the views, usually at least three, must be modified. Then, drawings of the assemblies that contain that part—again, most likely three views, must be updated. And what happens if that part exists multiple times in an assembly? Also, how can you be

sure you updated all the drawings in which that part is used?

Luckily in a comprehensive 3D CAD programme, you don’t have to worry about any of this. Enter the concept of associativity. In 3D CAD, when you change a part model, such as the length of the part or hole diameter, or even add a new feature to a part, the change is au-tomatically rippled through to every drawing view, every assembly and anywhere else that part is used. And when you want to know what other files will be affected by the change, 3D CAD also provides the ability to automatically track and identify where the part is used—what subassembly, what higher level assembly and what drawings, so that you can make sure you are modifying only files and designs that you really want to modify.

Into the Worlds of


In comparison with 2D CAD, 3D CAD is far superior and provides more advantages, ranging from design for effective manufacturing to acting as a sales and marketing tool. In today’s digital work, 3D is therefore fast climbing the steps of popularity among customers.

by manoj mehta

CAd desIgn


Reduce errors On a 2D drawing, part interferenc-es are difficult to find, especially when the design becomes large and complicated. In addition, because updates to 2D take so much time, many users often take shortcuts, like changing a dimension on a part without updating the actual size of the model. How many times have you heard that “the drawing is not up to scale”?

Add to this the fact that multiple designers will be sharing the assembly design duties, and the po-tential for interfering parts almost becomes a certainty. Checking 2D drawings to identify possible interference issues is extremely time-consuming and interferences inevitably fall through the cracks, even with the most diligent check-ers. In 3D CAD, you can eliminate

interference between parts. Interference checking is automatic, and every part can be checked to see if it interferes with any other part. Interference prob-lems are highlighted and even the amount of the interference is reported. With 3D CAD you can also automate the process of hole alignment checking.

Checking interference in an assembly that is static is difficult enough in 2D, but it becomes almost impossible when you are dealing with a design that moves, like a packaging machine or a piece of automation equipment. There is virtually an infinite num-ber of possibilities for a collision to occur in designs that move. In 2D there is really no practical way to check for a collision. Fortunately, 3D CAD has a solution for col-

lisions also. In 3D CAD you can ‘move’ your design through its full range of motion while continuously checking for collisions between parts. When a collision is detected, the motion will automatically stop and the interference will be highlighted. 3D CAD provides an audible sound to let you know when parts interfere. If you make designs with internal moving components, collision detection is an invaluable tool to check the function of your design.

Interferences also result from tolerancing problems. 3D CAD provides the ability to automati-cally check maximum and mini-mum tolerance conditions with its tolerance analyst functionality so you can ensure that you are apply-ing appropriate tolerances to your product parts.

In 3d CAd, you can eliminate interference between parts. Interference checking is automatic, and every part can be checked to see if it interferes with any other part.



It even identifies which toler-ances are the largest contributors to the tolerance stack-up problem, thereby saving your time in trying to figure out which tolerances to tighten or which dimension-ing schemes to change. When fit and function errors go down, efficiency goes up, and you reduce time, labour and material costs.

Reuse of existing designs Two unique aspects of 3D CAD allow you to make easy and exten-sive reuse of existing designs: as-sociativity and modifiability. Asso-ciativity means when you change a design model, the change auto-

matically ripples through to all the other places where that model is used in the drawings, higher level assemblies and more.

By ‘modifiability’, we mean you can change a part by clicking and changing a dimension, and all oth-er geometry on that part resizes appropriately and automatically. For example, if you have modeled a five-inch-long plate with holes dimensioned one inch from either end, and then click on the five inch dimension and change it to 10 inches, the hole location would update, but the holes would still be one inch from either end of the part. As you can see from this ex-ample, 3D CAD allows you to cap-

ture your design intent. The design ‘intent’ in this example is that you always want the holes to be one inch from the ends of the part no matter how long the part is.

Associativity and modifiability let you reuse existing designs to create new versions or configura-tions easily. You can readily create multiple new configurations of a single part by varying particular dimensions and features. As an example, you could make one socket head cap screw and then make every length and diameter variation from that one design just by changing dimensions. Likewise, you could make an entire catalog

of screws from one part by also varying thread pitch, head type and material as well as length and diameter.

Some of the best 3D CAD pro-grams provide 3D parts catalogs containing supplier-certified 3D models both in the software and online at centralised locations.

Accelerate development cycles Another major benefit with 3D modeling is the insight it offers through virtual testing, analysis and optimization, which take many forms.

3D CAD motion simulation capability allows you to evaluate

the effects of different motor per-formance curves, friction, springs, gravity and other physical char-acteristics of a design. So rather than just running an animation of the machine in motion, you can simulate what really is happening in your design. The motion simula-tion automatically calculates forces on critical components like bearings, bushings and linkages.

This information is then used to calculate part strengths, deflection, fatigue and safety fac-tors. Thermal, vibration and flow analysis are also provided directly inside 3D CAD so that your design can be optimized. In this way, 3D CAD can be used to solve typical design problems, such as: How much weight can I remove from this part yet still have it function within a certain factor of safety? Will the part bend too much if it is made from a different material? In an electronic enclosure, will a specific component overheat from lack of airflow?

Design for manufacturing Many of the new manufacturing technologies rely on the availabili-ty of a 3D CAD model as a starting point. For example, three-axis and up NC programming, rapid prototyping, mould design and even sheet-metal manufacturing now require 3D models that can be referenced to create NC toolpaths, SLA models and sheet-metal flat patterns with proper bend allowances.

More companies are turning to rapid prototyping and manufac-turing to reduce the turnaround time for both prototype parts and customized final parts such as hearing aid shells. These rapid systems operate from 3D modeling input generated in standard template library (STL) format—a file format that you can output from your 3D CAD model by simply saving your model in that format.

Photorealistic models and

animation capabilities as

well as rapid prototyping

also allow marketing to

perform product market research

at much lower costs

than actually designing and

producing prototypes

in the conventional

manner.


If a manufacturer has to rebuild 2D design in 3D, two problems arise. First, the remodeling is add-ing an extra step to the manufac-turing process, which takes extra time. Many shops that require 3D CAD models will put 2D jobs at the back of the queue because of the work required to convert your 2D design to 3D. To most manu-facturers this is just additional prep work before getting to the manufacturing process. Manufac-turers want their shops running at capacity, prep work costs them machining time and they will charge you, the customer, for that time lost to prep.

The second problem that arises is that the person making the 3D model can make a mistake in converting your 2D design to 3D; this means the part delivered to you may not meet your design re-quirements, which can ultimately affect the delivery of your product. By working in 3D from the start, you can generate files that are ready to go directly to manufac-turing operations that require 3D CAD models.

In many cases, 2D drawings are not even required for manu-facturing. For example, a com-prehensive 3D CAD program can output the 3D model complete with detailed dimensioning and tolerancing information as well as notes. In this way, all the data and notes needed to manufacture the part are included directly in the 3D CAD model.

Inbuilt dimensioning capabili-ties automatically create dimen-sions and enable tolerancing of

the 3D model so that it is ready for manufacturing. The inbuilt intelligence in the dimensioning tools allow users to automatically dimension models as per the ASMEY14.5M- 1994 stan-dard for ‘Dimensioning and Tolerancing,’ as well as display the dimensions in 3D per AS-MEY14.41-2003, ‘Digital Product Definition Data Practices.’

Built-in manufacturing intel-ligence directs the software to check for features that are expen-sive or impossible to manufacture. These features are highlighted and the user is provided an interactive list of the problems uncovered. Communication between manu-facturing and engineering is also greatly improved through the use of 3D.

There is a wide range of 3D digitizing and inspection equip-ment that also requires 3D CAD models. With the complete details at hand in the 3D CAD model, one can more easily verify moulded, forged, stamped and cast parts, including the details of undercuts, draft, thickness and surface topology.

With 3D CAD, machinists can measure and section 3D parts live, at the touch of a button. As-semblers and fabricators can ex-plode assemblies and zoom in and hide parts from view to see details they could never see before in 2D drawings. The benefit of improved communications possible with 3D images and exploded animations makes training a new employee or instructing a seasoned assem-bler easier.

Create bills of materials Working with an associative 3D CAD system also guarantees an accurate and current bill of mate-rials (BOM). The BOM is always accurate because it automatically updates with changes you make to parts and assemblies.

Data management is always critical to the product develop-ment process. Designs often go through several stages of develop-ment such as concept, detailed engineering design, assembly and test and final release to produc-tion. Controlling data is especially important when you consider all the personnel that are required to develop and manufacture a prod-uct - engineering, manufacturing, purchasing, sales, marketing, vendors and even customers need to know that they are looking at the correct, most current data.

Most 3D CAD programmes offer product data management software to control access to and revision tracking of design data―even if the design work is being done in multiple locations. Allied product data management software ensures that the proper release procedures and approvals for your designs are executed from stage to stage.

Sales and marketing tool Sales and marketing team can also reap the benefits of 3D CAD data. Publication tools fully sup-port the use of 3D CAD data to al-low the creation of photorealistic 2D images, 3D models and anima-tions that appeal more to custom-ers and consumers. Just look at



any major automobile manufac-turer’s website and you will see the demand to present products in a more complete, colorful and photorealistic way.

Photorealistic models and animation capabilities as well as rapid prototyping also allow marketing to perform product market research at much lower costs than actually designing and producing prototypes in the conventional manner.

Existing 2D CAD dataSo what happens to all the 2D CAD data that you have been developing for years when you decide to switch to 3D and what

do you do about all the custom-ers that you need to communicate with in 2D? Let us take a look at these questions in detail.

Communicating with 2D usersEven though you may be design-ing in 3D, your system can output drawings and images in multiple 2D formats. In this way, you can still output documentation that is compatible with all the common 2D formats, such as DWG, DXF, PDF and JPEG.

Converting 2D data to 3DIn one sense, 3D design is just an extension of what you are already doing in 2D. You start with a simple 2D sketch, which is similar

to the cross-section of the 3D fea-ture that you want to create. Then simply take that sketch and pull it out, revolve it or drag (or sweep) it along a path. That is the basic technique to 3D geometry cre-ation—just one more step beyond the sketching of the section.

If existing 2D designs will be the basis for creating your next-generation products, it makes sense to take the time to remodel them in 3D. Besides supporting the export of data to several 2D formats, 3D CAD software sup-ports the import of data in the DXF and DWG formats as well as AutoCAD blocks, allowing the creation of 3D models directly from 2D data.

Most comprehensive 3D CAD programs have unique tools for accelerating the design of 3D models including design clipart capabilities that allow you to drag and drop drawing views from DWG files into 3D CAD models, and another functionality can help au-tomate the creation of a 3D model by manipulating the views of an imported 2D drawing. Also, most 3D CAD programs support the import of 2D blocks as the basis for sketching.

In addition to using these help-ful conversion tools, you can find contract services that specialize in the conversion of 2D drawings to 3D models.

3D CAD design has many inherent benefits over working in 2D. Product visualization and pre-sentation are improved, parts and drawing views update automati-cally and accurately and inter-ference and collision checking provides an automated, error-free way to check for interferences and collisions before manufacturing the product.

In addition, 3D does not have to be an all-or-nothing process. You can keep existing designs in 2D, and then transition them as needed into the 3D system.

However, two facts are clear: First, the world of design and manufacturing is definitely transitioning to 3D; and second, customers and designers are all demanding 3D to enhance design and communication.

Organic shapes, so prevalent in the design of consumer prod-ucts, from cars to cell phones, are much easier to model and manufacture in 3D. And with the tolerances expected from today’s consumer product and automo-tive designs, 2D sections are now unacceptable for defining these organic shapes because 2D does not provide enough surface con-trol between sections.

Fortunately, colleges, techni-cal schools and high schools are responding to the need for engi-neers and designers trained in 3D CAD. For more than 15 years, requests for 3D CAD training have been outpacing requests for 2D CAD training. This has resulted in a large pool of new and experi-enced designers and engineers familiar with 3D CAD, who can be found anywhere in the world. For your existing employees, training options are available in all forms, from book-to web-based to class-room training. You can pick the time, format and length of training you want, and a course is always be available to fit your schedule and budget.

3D modeling breathes new life into your current design process, attracts and retains designers and engineers eager to use the latest design tools, and even improves your company image to customers and vendors. It is a rare business today that can function produc-tively without email and websites. 3D design is another big step to operating fully in this increasingly digital world.

Manoj Mehta is Country Manager - India

and SAARC Operations, Dassault Systèmes

SolidWorks Corporation.

If existing 2d designs

will be the basis for creating your next-generation products,

it makes sense to take the time to remodel

them in 3d.


Pict

ure

Cour

tesy

: www.photos.com

Testing is an inevitable event

developing a quality product.

As new challenges arise in product development, a

robust testing is increasingly gaining

importance.

by joachim herschmann

Aligning Closer With Business needs

In the present challenging economic times, there is a dramatic increase among qual-ity assurance (QA) profession-

als to understand better where the software testing industry as a whole is heading. They are also curious to know how testing processes and the technologies involved will most likely change.

In the coming years, the test and quality professionals and develop-ment organizations as a whole will be under tremendous pressure to test better and faster. It will require software leaders to change the way they think about the quality profes-sionals’ role, test technologies and

processes. Fundamentally, testing needs to be closer aligned with busi-ness needs.

Quality consciousnessToday, there is high visibility of quality, with a much higher need for alignment with business and engi-neering needs. This indirectly has an impact on the testing approach.

Business begins to drive quality requirements more directly through a stronger connectivity and traceability between requirements, developed features and required tests. This gives rise to a strong demand to deliver increasing value in highly specialist skill areas such as test

management & strategy


automation, performance and secu-rity testing. It further drives the need for more skilled QA profes-sionals, who would collaborate and build more advanced and larger test sets.

Tester skill sets There are other drivers, as well. Anyone who has been involved in agile projects will quickly realize that traditional testing approaches will not work particularly well here. One of the first things agile teams will recognize is that test automation will be indispensable in environments where short sprint cycles are becoming a key ele-ment of the development strategy. This means there will not only be a much stronger demand for test tools that can provide a higher de-gree of automation, but also a need for highly skilled and technically more competent testers.

The days of purely manual test-ing or simple click testing tools that required little or no technical knowledge from a tester are defi-nitely over. Even accomplished tes-ters must expand their skill set to include virtues such as strong col-laboration capabilities. As cultural aspects become much more impor-tant, it will be necessary to adapt to agile development practices and become a member of ‘the team’ as the development/test barrier gets removed. Most importantly—and many a tester will not like this per-spective—it will become important to develop programming skills and get involved in test conception from the beginning.

Robust test automationTools for test automation have been around for quite some time, mostly in the areas of performance, func-tional and regression testing. How-ever, overall, test automation has not yet fully lived up to its promise.

Earlier test tools were not particularly mature and required a substantial amount of effort to

build robust test automation sets. Skilled test automation experts were rare and inadequate usage of tools didn’t help either. Addition-ally, technologies evolved quickly and tool vendors sometimes had a hard time keeping up with technol-ogy trends.

However, tool vendors have learned their lessons and tool sets are maturing. Today as well as in the future, all types of testing will require a higher degree of automa-tion if carried out as part of a rapid development scenario where test-ing is highly integrated. This will be a strong driver for tool vendors to improve the maturity of their testing tools.

Automation tools and technologies Test automation tools comprise specialized tools for specific technologies and versatile tools covering multiple technologies. The specialized tools includes tools that allow for testing more or less just one type of technology, e.g. Java. While these tools usually do a pretty good job of testing that particular technology, they are use-less for everything else.

However, applications often use different technologies. For example, a Web application might have Flex technology embedded or a Java application might contain an embedded IE control. In such cases testing requires either multiple (potentially incompatible) tools or a mixed approach of manual and automated testing, both of which is far from desirable. Also, the replacement of technology will leave test sets useless. Neverthe-less such tools will continue to be around and they will be useful in certain cases.

Testing tools that support multiple technologies on the other hand allow for testing of mixed technology applications. They pro-vide a seamless testing experience and allow for much more holistic,

realistic and robust testing. There is a much higher chance that less or no manual testing is required and, more importantly, technology change usually does not turn test sets unusable. Of course, for single technology applications they pro-vide all of the above and they can usually be re-applied to other tech-nologies quickly. As a consequence, these tools will become more so-phisticated and will become much better integrated with other tools to support collaboration.

Trends at a glanceTesting is finally becoming more aligned with business needs. Strategies like test-driven develop-ment are a manifestation of this, but there is still plenty of room for

improvement. There is a growing understanding that quality will become everybody’s responsibility in the future, as more and more organizations start to look at quality more holistically. However, again, we are just seeing the very beginning of this right now. With agile development strategies and faster development cycles that come with it, test automation will become much more important. Without good, robust test automa-tion it will be impossible to keep quality up, let alone improve it in such environments.

Joachim Herschmann is Product Director

Test Automation, Micro Focus.

All types of testing will require a higher degree of automation if carried out as part of a rapid development scenario where testing is highly integrated.

infrastructure


The Delhi-Mumbai Indus-trial Corridor (DMIC) is conceived to be devel-oped as a Global Manu-

facturing and Trading Hub with emphasis on expanding manu-facturing and service hub. DMIC is a state-sponsored Industrial Development Project aimed at developing an Industrial Zone and eco-cities spanning across six states in India. The project will see major expansion of Infra-structure and Industry—including industrial clusters and rail, road, port, air connectivity—in the states along the route of the cor-

ridor, covering an overall length of 1500 km.

DMIC project is expected to double employment potential, triple industrial output and qua-druple exports from the region in five years. The total employment to be generated from the project is three million, and the bulk of which will be in the manufac-turing/processing sectors. The project will be funded through private-public partnership (PPP) and foreign investment. Japan is a major investor for this project. It will include a 4000 MW power plant, three sea ports and six airports, in addition to connectiv-ity with the existing ports. The industrial corridor project will be implemented by the Delhi-Mum-bai Industrial Corridor Develop-ment Corporation, an autonomous body comprising government and private sector.

The ambitious Rs.3,60,000 crore DMIC project crossed an important milestone with the signing of two agreements between India and Japan. The

agreement was signed in the presence of Anand Sharma, Minister of Commerce & Industry. There is a proposal to develop Eco-cities (Smart Communities) in and around the dedicated corridor. The smart cities will be built on the principles of environ-mental and ecological sustain-ability. The new eco-friendly townships and industrial zones in the DMIC region will adopt global best practices in sustain-able development of future cities, not only in India but in the entire world.

Following an integrated ap-proach to development, DMIC envisaged the establishment of 24 high impact / market driven nodes—Integrated Investment Re-gions (IRs) and Industrial Areas (IAs), spanning across six states within the corridors to provide transparent and investment-friendly facility regimes. These regions are proposed to be self- sustained industrial townships with world class infrastructure. It is proposed that six IRs and six

Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor is a major step by the government to boost the potential of Indian economy—by improving the infrastructure sector. Today, India aims at sustained GDP of 9 to 10 per cent, which necessitates the growth of the manufacturing sector to be at least 13 to 14 per cent per annum consistently. To achieve this, the government has planned to promote integrated development of industry and infrastructure in a band of 150 to 200 km on either side of the Dedicated Railway Freight Corridor (DFC) between Delhi and Mumbai.

by sameer pushp

Economic StrongcrEating a

Through An Integrated Approach

BaSE

infrastructure


IAs would be taken up for imple-mentation in the first phase.

Government of Japan has already sanctioned long-term financial assistance for funding the western DFC. Extending the spirit of partnership and eco-nomic cooperation between India and Japan, the following joint initiatives are being taken for implementing the project:• Collaboration in the Devel-opment of Eco- cities (Smart Communities) at various places at DMIC region.• Setting up of a Project Devel-opment Fund (PDF) to undertake project development activities like master planning and feasibility studies, preparation of detailed project reports, obtaining neces-sary approvals and bid process management for projects to be taken up in DMIC region.

The DMIC Project Development Fund is envisaged to be set up with equal contribution from the governments of India and Japan. The government has already approved grant of Rs.330 crore in the XI Five Year plan as the Indian contribution. The Japanese component of US $ 75 million is being provided in the form of a united loan from Japan Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC) and the government of India is extending a guarantee to JBIC for this loan.

The project region of DMIC covers parts of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Ma-

harashtra and Madhya Pradesh. DMICDC will have a revolving Project Development Fund for financing project specific SPVs to undertake activities like initial approvals etc., before they are bid out to private sector. The initial size of DMIC Project Development Fund will be Rs.1000 crore (US $ 250 million). The Government of Japan is willing to contribute US $125 million (Rs.500 crore) for DMIC-PDF, as untied loan of Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) while Rs.330 crore has been approved for the project under the 11th Five Year Plan.

The DMICDC has signed MoU with the state government of Gujarat on 25th July 2008, and with Madhya Pradesh on 26th August 2008 for preparation of perspective and development plan for each node jointly. It is also proposed to initiate work on readily available but strategically important three to four early bird infrastructure projects identified by the states. The government of Madhya Pradesh has identified the following early bird projects for initiating action immediately:

Development of economic cor-ridor along link road connecting Indore airport to Pithampur along with the development of inte-grated multimodal logistics hub near Maksi.

The DMIC seeks to create a strong economic base with glob-ally competitive environment and state-of-the-art infrastructure to activate local commerce, enhance foreign investments and attain sustainable development. DMIC is also a glowing symbol of Indo-Japanese collaboration. While India will get truly world-class infrastructure and experience rapid economic growth, Japanese investors will have unlimited opportunities for expanding their business base.

It is a well understood fact that commercial leveraging of a vibrant regional economic centre in an underutilized and under-in-vested area—can usher a new era of economic prosperity leading to industrial development, employ-ment generation, preserving the environment as well as boosting the services sector in India.

Courtesy: Press Information Bureau of India.

Source: Press Information Bureau

The proposed Delhi-Mumbai

Industrial Corridor (DMIC)

construction Work for Viratnagar Airport to Start Soon

As part of the Early Bird Projects under Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), prepared in consultation with respective state governments, it was envisaged to develop an international air-

port between Ahmedavad and Dholera in Gujarat; an aerotropolis near Jaipur in Rajasthan; and an international airport in Uttar Pradesh.

The union government has received proposals from the state governments of Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh for setting up of new greenfield airports at Dholera, Gujarat and Jewar/Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh respectively. Further, the union government has accorded ‘in-principle’ approval for setting up of a new greenfield airport at Viratnagar, Jaipur in Rajasthan to Rajasthan Aviation Infrastructure—under public use category for domestic operations. The promoter has informed that the construction of airport at Viratnagar will be started on completion of the necessary formalities with the state government of Rajasthan.


Hoffer Flow Controls has launched Transi-Flo I, a new

AC-powered ultrasonic flow meter design for conductive, non-con-ductive and aggressive liquids. The new product uses transit time technology to measure the differ-ence in the waves traveling in and against the fluid flow direction.

The product is available in single and dual beam configura-tions with a rate and total display. Display can be integrally mounted on the flow meter or remote.

The device is suitable for applications in pure water, sea water, wash water, sewage, process liquids, oils, chemicals or any homogeneous liquids, which

are capable of ultrasonic wave propagation. The unit is capable of providing system accuracy of +/- 1 per cent using single beam or +/- 0.5 per cent using dual beam.

Hoffer Flow ControlsTel: +1-252-3311997E-mail: [email protected]: www.hofferflow.com

Low Harmonic Drive

Danfoss Industries has launched a new VLT low harmonic drive in India. The new product minimises the harmonic disturbances on

the supply grid by actively imposing currents into the grid. This helps to restore high quality sine wave of the grid current.

The product is built on a modular technology platform. The unit is expected to provide a product efficiency of 97 per cent and helps

secure the low harmonic drive pole position for active harmonic filtration. It also helps ensure 99 per cent energy utilization in the full load range. The machine meets applications of increasing clean power supply networks includ-ing advanced passive filters and software tools for simulation.

Danfoss IndustriesTel: +91-44-66501550Website: www.danfoss.com/india

ExxonMobil Industrial Lubricants has launched SHC synthetic

lubricants and greases for wind turbines. The product is capable of performing in demanding condi-tions such as high heat, heavy load and water contamination.

The lubricant helps lower maintenance costs and extend oil life. The SHC XMP series is a syn-thetic wind turbine gear oil, which provides wear protection.

The other features of the product include extended gear and bearing life, lower oil and oil filter costs, lower power genera-tion costs, smooth operation and

capability to function in high and low temperature water-contami-nated applications.

ExxonMobilTel: +1-972-4441000Website: www.mobilindustrial.com

Synthetic Lubricant

FlexPower System

Banner Engineering has launched FlexPower System, which sup-ports reliable monitoring and control functions in difficult-to-wire

situations. The no-wire solution is designed for applications where wired power is either not available or impractical. Power is generated by lithium D cell batteries or a solar collector and rechargeable battery combination that requires an average of about two hours of sunlight per day to power a 4-20 ma loop.

The various applications for wireless sensing and control comprise agriculture—irrigation control, monitoring temperature of motor bear-ings and steam power plant valve and pump and flow control. The device is also suitable for perimeter guarding, tank level monitoring, rotating machinery for auto and other industries.

Banner EngineeringTel: +1-800-8097043Website: www.bannerengineering.com

Everest Blowers has launched vertical

tri-lobe roots blowers, designed for continu-ous duty service. The product comes with in-built safety and moni-toring equipment such as safety relief valve and pressure gauge.

Tri-lobe technology means blowers have lobe tips exposed to 120 degrees around the rotor. This helps provide a stiff rotor set, meaning less

deflection at any load. The unit provides 100 per cent oil free air and is suitable for water and effluent treatment plants, aquaculture, chemical, electroplating and paper plants, yarn drying, bag filters,

pneumatic conveying and regeneration of dryer and molecu-lar sieves.

Tri-lobe Roots Blower

Everest BlowersTel: +91-22-45457777E-mail: [email protected]: www.everestblowers.com

Turning Centre

Haas Automation has launched a new turning centre, viz.,

Haas ST-20. The new product has a spindle head, which features a compact and symmetric design for thermal stability and rigidity. The

unit has a 45-degree wedge design, which helps increase the tool-mounting envelope and improves chip flow.

The product is equipped with a 12-station BOT turret that indexes tools in 0.5 second. The machine provides a maximum cutting

capacity of 15 x 20.5-inch, with maximum swings of 31.75-inch over the front apron and 20.75-inch over the cross slide.

The unit includes a A2-6 spindle nose, which has a 3.0-inch spindle bore and a bar capacity

of 2-inch. The product also includes a 8.3-inch hydraulic 3-jaw chuck and a 20 hp

vector dual-drive spindle, which spins to 4,000 rpm.

The other equipment include a belt-type chip conveyor, hy-draulic tailstock, automatic tool probe, live tooling with C-axis, an automatic parts catcher and high-pressure coolant systems.

Haas Automation IndiaTel: +91-22-66098830 E-mail: [email protected]: www.haascnc.com

Ultrasonic Flow Meter

product update

product update


Air Bearing Stage

Newport Corporation has launched the new SinguLYS family of single-axis air bearing stages. The new stage and bridge

configurations make the unit suitable for single axis, split XY and gantry applications. The new product, viz., SinguLYS S-370 stage is manufactured from silicon carbide (SiC) ceramic components.

The body of the unit is rigid with a compact footprint with 3-point mounting, which allows it to be used in tight spaces typically re-served for mechanical bearing designs. The high precision

stage is suitable for tasks that require low angular deviation, tight velocity regulation and high cleanli-ness standards.

Newport Tel: +1-949-8633144E-mail: [email protected]: www.newport.com

Dry Pump

Edwards has launched a new range of dry pumps, viz., GXS pump, which features screw technology and enables users to optimize

their processes.The product is robust and has a long pump service life of up to

five years. The pump mechanism can be cleaned using the high flow purge and solvent flush accessory, which removes the need to par-tially strip the pump. The product is useful in applications including crystal pulling, lamination, coating, metallurgy, pharmaceutical and food process freeze drying, packaging, plasma sterilization, vacuum

chamber evacuation and high purity gas cylinder filling.

EdwardsTel: +1-65-65468408E-mail: [email protected]: www.edwardsvacuum.com

Drill Press

Carlo Gavazzi has launched a new energy management

product, viz., the WM30-96 smart modular power analyzer. The new three-phase power analyzer provides an upgraded LCD display, capable of showing four electrical variables, an energy counter and a power demand indicator at the same time.

The device is useful for utility metering for both imported and exported energy. The unit provides electrical parameter measure-ments with 0.2 per cent accuracy (current/voltage) and basic power quality analysis, up to the 32nd harmonic.

The analyzer can be provided with digital outputs that can be utilized for pulse and/or alarm outputs.

Carlo GavazziTel: +1-847-4656100 E-mail: [email protected]: www.gavazzionline.com

Power Analyzer SNK America has launched a new hard metal 5-axis

machine, viz., the FSP-80V vertical spindle 5-axis profiler, which machines hard metals, including titanium, inconel, stainless steel and more.

The machine includes a 22/18.5 kW (30/22HP) gear-driven high torque spindle (1/6 [HP/rpm ratio]) with 1185 Nm of continuous spindle torque.

The unit utilizes the Big Plus spindle adaption system to provide heavy cutting capability. Speed and accuracy are achieved with the FSP-80V’s components.

The X, Y and Z axes of the product feature large travels. The A-axis offers ± 30 de-

grees swivel saddle rotation and the B-axis ± 30 degrees head rotation. Each axes of the machine is lined with turcite to reduce vi-bration. The product also features a highly rigid double pinion-driven A/B axis rotation.

SNK AmericaTel: +1-847-3640801E-mail: [email protected]: www.snkamerica.com

Grabner Instru-ments has

introduced the new Minidis ADXpert, an automatic, portable and fast mini-distil-lation analyzer. The product helps yield results that are well within ASTM D86 r/R requirements.

The fully automat-ic unit allows for precise testing of various gasoline, jet fuel and diesel products (groups 0-4), biofuels, solvents, aromatics, organic liquids, chemical and con-taminated or blended samples.

The device performs atmo-spheric distillation on a small

scale. It requires 6 mL of sample. The analyzer incorporates automatic rinsing, sample introduc-tion and fully automatic

cleaning programs.The portable unit

is suitable for labo-ratories with little or limited space. The product has a rugged housing, and a sealed metal distil-lation cycle. The unit

helps eliminate the need for a fire protection system.

Grabner InstrumentTel: +43-1-2821627Website: www.grabner-instruments.com

Knuth Machine Tools has launched KSB series of

universal box-column drill presses for drilling, reaming and tapping.

The new product is available in six models and couples high torque and a rigid design to handle a wide variety of heavy-duty applications.

The unit is built with a cast-iron box-column design and heavy ribbing. It features a dovetail table guide mounted to its cast-iron body to deliver torque proof (no column) results.

The product is avail-able in up to 12 speeds with a left-hand single-lever control for quick handling and up to nine feeds with a right-hand single lever for definite control.

The presses are able to handle high torque and maintain high intrinsic machine weight.

Knuth Machine Tools Tel: +1-866-6656884E-mail: [email protected]: www.knuth-usa.com

Mini Distillation Analyzer

Vertical Spindle Profiler


Rex-Cut Products has launched a new line of cut-off wheels de-signed with a thin-profile, abrasive grit and resin bonding system

that cuts aluminium fast without loading.The new product, viz., Aluminator Cut-Off Wheels features a

0.045-inch thin-profile. The product is formulated with a 46 grit abra-sive and resin bonding system for cutting aluminium products.

The machine is available in Type 1 straight-sided and Type 27 depressed-centre styles. The unit is suit-able for die- and angle-grinders.

The product is suitable for applica-tions such as cutting tube, pipe, rails, bar stock, sheet and trimming castings.

Rex-Cut ProductsTel: +1-800-2258182E-mail: [email protected]: www.rex-cut.com

Tapco has launched a new bronze non-sparking belt

splice, viz., Tapco-Splice NS. The new product is manufactured to accompany the existing zinc-plat-ed Dura-Splice.

The style of the clamp splice holds belts in a vice-like grip. The product includes unique teeth at the top of the clamp, which helps provide extra gripping power.

The unit fits all pulley diameters and is recommended for belts rated up to 800 PIW. The product is supplied with a 4-1/2-inch Grade 5 hex head bolt, accompanied by a Grade 8 hex

compression nut, along with a self-adhesive template for creating the bolt holes in the belt.

Tapco Tel: +1-314-7399191E-mail: [email protected]: www.tapcoinc.com

Finishing Machine

Almco has launched a new model in the line of spiral-bottom round-bowl finishing machines. The new product offers a full-circle

baffle that keeps parts in the media mass constantly for faster, more precise processing and a 24-cubic-foot tub that can accommodate large as well as small parts.

The unit has an energy-efficient SBB design, which features auto-matic separation of parts from the abrasive media, at pre-determined intervals according to finishing requirements. The product includes a

long separating screen surface, which allows faster separation of parts and machine unloading. The SBB-24 can lift and move many different parts over the separating dam without jamming or hitting each other on the screen.

AlmcoTel: +1-507-3772102Website: www.almco.com

Cut-off Wheels

Cartridge Arbor

Misumi USA has launched a newly designed family of

cylinders with twin guides.The design of the new product

incorporates two strong guide rods along with the cylinder, result-ing in improved rigidity, greater resistance to lateral load and increased unrotative and positioning accuracy.

For the guide rod bearings, users can specify either a sliding bearing or linear bushing bear-ings. The unit offers three ways of mounting to the cylinder body, viz., from the front, back or bottom face.

The product is available in the following two versions, viz., Fixed Stroke - MGCLF (sliding bearing) and MGCLB (linear bushing bear-ings) and Spacer Fitted - MGCLFN (sliding bearing) MGCLBN (linear bushing bearings).

Misumi USATel: +1-847-8439105E-mail: [email protected]: www.us.misumi-ec.com

Positrol has introduced a new cartridge arbor with interior

swing clamps, which is designed to increase part rigidity during machining operations without interfering with tool paths.

The design of the new product allows the cartridge arbor to locate on the ID.

The product is primarily engi-neered to simplify fixture designs used in the automotive industry where high production, low cost manufacturing is deemed critical.

An example of a part suitable for this workholding application could be a steering knuckle. Parts are gripped and held securely to withstand the cutting forces gener-

ated in production machining. The added rigidity of the workhold-ing allows for a boost in speeds and feeds to increase overall throughput.

Positrol WorkholdingTel: +1-513-2720500E-mail: [email protected]: www.positrol.com

Air Cylinders

Fooke has launched the Endura 700 linear gantry milling

machine. The new machine is suit-able for the efficient machining of five sides of parts made from plas-tic, composite materials, ureol and aluminium, as well as for finishing cast and steel materials.

The product meets the need for high-speed milling machines by aerospace, rail transportation, automotive industry and their subcontractors, as well as model-making, prototype construction, tool-making and mould-making.

The machine includes the 2-axis fork milling head with high frequency milling spindle. There are two milling heads available, both using HSK63 tools, to pro-vide spindle power and speed for their applications: 20-45 kW and 18,000-30,000 rpm.

Fooke GmbHTel: +49-0-28618009Website: www.fooke.eu

Belt Splice

Gantry Milling Machine

product update


Magnetic Encoder Ring

ASM Sensors has introduced new magnetic encoder rings, viz., PMIR7 series, to the POSIROT family. The new product is avail-

able in three sizes to accommodate different shaft sizes and yield up to 184,320 pulses per revolution in conjunction with the quadra-ture encoder read head, PMIS4 series.

The new system consists of a magnetoresistive read head, PMIS4, and a dual channel magnetic ring, PMIR7. The PMIR7 mag-

netic rings come in three sizes that can be press-fitted onto 27, 35 or 50 mm shaft diameters.

The unit can generate up to 184,320 pulses per revolution. The side tracking tolerance of the encoder is +/- 1 mm.

ASM SensorsTel: +49-0-8123986-0E-mail: [email protected]: www.asm-sensor.com

Bulk Container

Meese Orbitron Dunne Co has launched the P-433 Ship Shape bulk container. The new product is available with an optional

hinged panel that opens to invite visual and ergonomic access to goods.The container with the hinged panel allows the high volume containers to replace smaller containers, bins and totes in order picking, assembly and other operations.

The unit can be opened while the container is either uncovered or covered and sealed shut without tools when readying for lifting and transportation.

The product is suitable for handling loose, granular and pow-dered dry products. It is rotationally moulded in a single piece of

weatherproof polyethylene to safely unitize payloads of up to 700 lbs. on a standard 44-inch x 44-inch footprint with four-way lift access.

Meese Orbitron Dunne CoTel: +1-800-7727659Website: www.meeseinc.com

Wand Holder

Wet Scrubber Fipa has launched a pneu-matic expansion gripper, viz.,

expander, for secure gripping of the smallest components / within all hollow shapes.

The new product is par-ticularly suitable for compo-nents having hollow openings and those difficult to grip.

The unit is available in a mini design for handling particularly small work-pieces having an inter-nal diameter of 4.5 to 8.7 mm.

The product is suitable for a round borehole, rectangular recess or a slot hole. The unit penetrates into the part to be

moved, expands uniformly once it is

inside by axial compression of the elastomer and holds the work-piece tight as a result of the force directed outwards.

FIPA GmbHTel: +49-89-962489-0E-mail: [email protected]: www.fipa.com

TecHarmonic has launched a new

‘Monsoon’ wet scrub-ber. The new product has a small footprint (1.7 W x 2 D x 3 H feet) and an exhaust scrubbing capacity (400 LPM for etchers or 12,000 LPM for fume hoods).

The unit con-sumes 2 GPH, an up to 90 times reduction in water usage. Besides, the product is capable of solving

the tough challenge of exhaust clogging at the scrubber inlet with a custom, large 4-inch inlet, optionally heated up to 300°C.

The product can also easily remove the HCl and thereby eliminate the maintenance.

Coxreels has introduced a wand holder for the 1125 series

hand crank and motorized reels. The new accessory is constructed of light weight aluminium, with a black powder coating finish for cor-rosion resistance.

The unit is 24-inch long with a 1.6-inch diameter. It is suitable to store pressure washing guns and other spraying devices directly on the reel.

The design of the product allows for easy mounting on all four reel locations including the left, right, front and rear sides of the ‘A’ frame base of the 1125 series reels. Options in-

clude rust-inhibiting stainless steel mounting hardware.

CoxreelsE-mail: [email protected]: +1-480-8206396Website: www.coxreels.com

Ultem Resin

Sabic Innovative Plastics has created a new high-perfor-

mance compound based on aerospace carbon fibre tech-nology coupled with Ultem polyetherim-ide (PEI) resin. The new product helps replace heavier airline-grade die-cast and machined aluminium for aircraft interior components. Vaupell, a global contract manufacturer of custom injection-molded components and assemblies, is working with Sabic to validate the new Ultem resin materials in aircraft tray table arm components.

The new product complies with FAA flammability FAR 25.853,

smoke density and heat release requirements for

OSU 65/65. In ad-dition to tray table

arms, potential ap-plications for the new

carbon-fibre-filled Ultem grades include armrests,

footrests and galley items such as coffee maker chassis.

Sabic has developed a family of carbon-fibre-filled Ultem resin technologies to address specific demands for top-end performance properties.

Sabic Innovative PlasticsTel: +1-413-4487110Website: www.sabic-ip.com

TecHarmonicTel: +1-408-3608780Website: www.techarmonic.com

Expansion Gripper

R.N.I. No. MAH ENG/2001/4796 Tech/MH/MR/SOUTH-127/2006-08

Industry 2.0 August 2010

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Transcript of Industry 2.0 August 2010