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Cost of Quality (COQ) in the Journey of Excellence for an Organization 📈
We always find people looking for quality in the products and services they acquire. Professionals define ‘quality’ as something which meets or better still, exceeds the specification originally envisaged. Any organization would aspire to be known as a provider of such offerings for its stakeholders – the people, the government or regulatory bodies, the customers, the suppliers, and the society, at large.
There are various measures of organizational improvement and many methodologies and tools are employed to assess and work upon the areas to move up in the journey toward excellence by any organization. Taking up transformational initiatives help companies become fit for the future by implementing effective and efficient processes by overcoming the blind spots in their functioning.
Executives are cautious in opting for Quality measures in their operations as there is cost involved in anything not understood properly. Therefore, it is important to understand the Cost of quality (COQ), which is defined as a method to assess the cost of ensuring offerings meet quality standards, as well as the cost of creating goods or services that fail to meet such standards. The COQ can be categorized into four (4) major types:
📍Preventive: Associated cost for reducing the potential for defective products/ services. (Re)Skilling and Training, Knowledge sharing, etc.
📍Assurance: Inspection of products, parts, processes would need a quality assurance plan. Costs associated with the evaluation and assessment of offerings like laboratories, inspecting personnel, testing, etc. are examples of such costs.
📍Internal failure: Producing defective components or services (before delivery to intended clients) would need corrective measures such as rework, rejection, resultant downtime of production processes, and add to the cost to quality.
📍External failure: Returned or rejected equipments, loss of goodwill, loss of brand name, etc. (no repeat order or punitive action by client, etc.) are some of the cost aspects which come to light after delivery of the goods or services to the clients.
The costs associated with external failure are difficult to assess and many times, have worse intangible impact than the tangible one. Professionals have to deal with the factors affecting the Cost of Quality in more than one way, so as to deliver value to Customers in their journey to excellence.
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Engineering Drawing – A Quintessential Discipline 💯
Engineering Drawing, essentially a Mechanical Engineering subject, is probably the most talked about subject in any engineering institution. Maiden experience with Drafter & instruments, A1 sheet, First/ Third angle, Levels, Elevation/ Plan/ Side views, Scale/NTS and many more we encountered in the very first year of college. It is the language engineers and technicians use to interact with one another and deliver the desired product.
The technical drawings, conveying information about an object, can be categorized into various types, and a few are listed as:
1. Assembly: Popularly known as General Arrangement Drawing (GAD), It specifies the final product in a completely assembled condition. The drawing can have a Bill of Material (BOM) on the same/ separate sheet, as per the practice and extent of information shown in the drawing. Part drawings show the sub-assemblies, components etc. to be used in an assembly.
2. Layout: It depicts the placement of various facilities and equipments in a plant.
3. Piping & Instrumentation: Popularly known as ‘P&ID’, it shows the process piping, valves and instrumentations arranged in a sequence/ schematic. It, however, does not explain the arrangement/ dimensions of these components. Single-line diagram is its electrical equivalent.
4. Fabrication: A fabrication drawing provides information suitable for fabricating the component from raw materials like plates etc. Even, casting/ forgings can be kept in this category.
5. Machining: Information pertaining to converting a fabricated component into the machined component of the required dimensions in a machine shop is provided in this type of drawing. It also shows the surface conditions of the components.
6. Erection: Also, termed as Installation drawing, it is used by Site engineers to erect the components at a project site.
7. Architectural: It provides the detailing of any facility/ building and/or its elements from architectural aspects, such as how it will function and look, like type of materials used, doors/ windows/ shutters/ stairs/ elevators etc., when constructed.
8. Isometrics: It is a 3D representation of the piping routes across the equipments and interconnections. A 2D representation of an object is termed as Orthographic drawing.
9. Foundation: It specifies the requirements of casting a foundation of equipment/ facility and is a ‘Civil’ engineering domain. “Released for Construction (RFC)’ drawing is a final deliverable by the project team for use at site.
Sometimes, we use sketches or outlines for references. Companies employ 2D or 3D platforms to work on engineering drawings, as applicable. There is a set of standard Drawing Office Practices (DOP), integral to their winning strategy, being followed by every engineering organization.
This post is to disseminate the learning gathered over a period and any suggestion for improvement is most welcome.
Machinability – An Important Aspect in the Manufacturing Industry ⚙
An engineering student meets the shock of her life while entering the workshop in the very first year of college. Story continues & most engineering students, irrespective of their discipline, become aware of various mechanical operations like carpentry, foundry, machining, etc. by the end of their first year. Let us refresh our learnings of machining operation and its significance in the industry. Machining has been categorized as ‘Dividing’, one of the seven core techniques used extensively in the manufacturing industry, as per a comprehensive taxonomy created by McKinsey & Co, as per an article published a while ago.
Have you ever wondered what a symbol indicated on the right top corner in a manufacturing drawing means? A manufacturing engineer and the operator working in the workshop decide their sequence of operations on a given job/ workpiece based on a similar symbol and other details specified in the drawing.
This indicated that the surface finish of the component is to be obtained by removing the material by any machining process. If the horizontal bar is not indicated and it is left as just a tick mark (✔) consisting of two legs of unequal length. If the surface finish does not call for the removal of material, a circle is drawn in the basic tick mark symbol. This is important to note that many times designers decide to procure castings or forgings or fabricated components in either rough machined or finish machined depending on the job requirement and or the shop loading.
The surface preparation is critical from various points and depends on the requirement, availability of machine tools, skill of the operator, type of metal, painting requirement, cost sensitivity of the use, et al. Further, the property which majorly governs the surface finish is the ‘machinability’ which can be understood in such a way that the most machinable metal permits the material removal with the required finish at the lowest cost. It depends on the machine tool variables such as cutting speed, feed/ depth of cut, tool material/ form, cutting fluid, shape/ size of the job, etc. Further, the ease of machining is affected by the properties of the job material such as hardness, tensile properties, chemical composition, microstructure, strain hardenability, and degree of cold work, given other conditions remain the same. Generally, the order of machinability is – Magnesium alloys & Bearing Bronze being excellent and Wrought Iron & Stainless Steel as the poorest – in terms of relative machinability.
In the era of artificial intelligence & and machine learning, we explore & deploy systems for predictive analytics of the machine tools for proper planning & maintenance, for optimum use of resources and reduced downtime.
For further learning, students may refer to any standard book or journal on manufacturing technology and advancements therein.
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Nuclear Energy – A Journey of 78 Years!
For 78 years, nuclear energy has been one of the most discussed and argued issues in the world. It is both a boon and a bane, depending on how we use it. Let us explore the journey.
On 16 July 1945, the world witnessed the successful testing of the first-ever nuclear fission in a remote desert location near Alamogordo, New Mexico. The first successfully detonated atomic bomb – the Trinity Test – created an enormous mushroom cloud some 40,000’ high ushering the world in the Atomic Age.
It was the culmination of the efforts referred to as the ‘Manhattan Project’ by the allies led by the USA. The project was started in 1939 by the USA after intelligence agencies suspected that scientists working for Adolf Hitler had already working on a nuclear weapon since the 1930s.
Scientists Enrico Fermi, Leo Szilard, Robert J Oppenheimer et al were an integral part of the program, making possible the radioactive isotope separation (uranium enrichment) and nuclear chain reactions. Project Y was the establishment of Los Alamos Laboratory on January 1, 1943. It is here the first Manhattan Project bombs were built and tested.
Two distinct types of bombs were developed: a uranium-based design called “the Little Boy” and a plutonium-based weapon called “the Fat Man.” The history witnessed the deadliest explosion on August 6, 1945, with the dropping of the as-yet untested “Little Boy” bomb over Hiroshima, causing unprecedented destruction and death. Three days later, on August 9, 1945, the “Fat Man” bomb was dropped over Nagasaki with similar devastation. More than 100,000 people were killed and two Japanese cities were leveled to the ground affecting generations.
In 2023, the world is again staring at conflicts having the potential of escalating into nuclear detonation. It is important for mankind to work toward a peaceful resolution of conflicts and ensure that nuclear technology remains for peaceful use only.
It is incidental to mention that India’s first indigenous 700 MWe Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR), Nuclear Power Plant Unit-3, supplied by the BHEL-GE consortium, at Kakrapar in Gujarat, has become commercial on June 30, 2023. The Government of India has approved the construction of 10 indigenously developed PHWRs of 700 MW each in June 2017 to be built at a cost of Rs 1.05 lakh crore.
Just to glance back, the first commercial nuclear power stations started operation in the 1950s. Nuclear energy now provides about 10% of the world’s electricity from about 440 reactors. It is the world’s second-largest source of low-carbon power (26% of the total in 2020). Over decades, mankind has improvised every aspect of nuclear power plant- design, construction, operation & maintenance. The evidence shows that nuclear power is a safe means of generating electricity & the risk is low & declining. It is our bounden duty to ensure safer & cleaner energy and nuclear power fits into the pursuit of the same.
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HGI of Coal – A Throughput Determinant of Pulverisers
The grindability index signifies the ease with which the coal can be pulverized to the desired size. Coal with a higher index will be softer one to be ground and vice versa. If the coal used is of low grindability, the mill output would also reduce correspondingly.
In many ways, mill designers negotiate with the HGI value to specify mill capacity. Let us understand the behavior of a coal pulverizer in this context.
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Some of the best practices to be adopted in Thermal Power Plant Design
Let us talk about some of the best practices to be adopted in a Thermal Power Plant Design. We need more efficient and relatively cleaner coal-based thermal power plants, when we cannot avoid them altogether.
It is becoming difficult to talk about ‘coal’ as a fuel in thermal power plants when we are increasingly getting aware of the pollution and other harmful effects it has, and a major cause of concern for adverse climatic conditions. However, for various reasons, we still see some countries including India looking to build more coal-based power plants to steer the development of the country and its people.
The Central Electricity Authority (CEA), under the Ministry of Power, Government of India, has notified the National Electricity Plan (NEP) for the duration of 2022-32. The plan includes the review of the period 2017-22, requirements of capacity addition for the duration 2022-27, and projections for the period 2027-2032. It is important to note that about 2.1 GW of Coal plants are likely to be retired during 2022-32. However, 27 GW capacity is under construction and in operation during the same timeframe. Around 31 GW capacity thermal plants are being conceptualized/ envisaged to be set up as per the plan till 2032.
Considering the ‘necessary evil’ that these coal-based power plants are here to stay for a while, we also must ensure some of the best design features these plants are equipped with. A few aspects can be enumerated:
- Improved heat rate: It is a common measure of system efficiency in a steam power plant. Designers are looking to better the heat rate (targeting a level of 1800 Kcal/kWhr) in supercritical or ultra-supercritical cycles.
- Pollution Control Equipments: New environment emission norms stipulated by MoEF&CC, Govt. of India have mandated the installation of environment protection equipments in coal-based thermal power plants. Sulphur (SOx) emission control through Flue Gas Desulphurization (FGD) system has become a must for TPPs. Suitable steps for the containment of NOx emissions, Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM), Mercury, and Specific Water Consumption are also getting due attention in the fight against pollution.
- Specific water consumption: Designers are looking to leave no stone unturned to use every possible way of reduce, reuse & recycle the wastewater/liquid generated in the thermal power plant. The zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) concept is being employed.
- Civil aspects: Opting for the best combination of RCC & Steel. The utilization of high-strength concrete grades to optimize the design is an important aspect of civil design.
- Predictive maintenance: Designers are looking to have smart tools for better operation and maintenance (real-time monitoring) of the plants.
Carbon capture, Utilization and storage (CCUS), Co-firing with Biomass, Rooftop solar plant, Green buildings, energy efficient drives, Suitability for Flexible operations for integration with renewable energy, etc. are some other aspects also to be considered while designing the upcoming coal-fired power plants.
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