Industry 2.0 April 2012

The PromiseFulfilling

What restrains Indian companies from getting a bigger share of the global market?

MARKETRobust demand

propels energy efficient lighting products

TECHNOLOGY Employ consumer

devices to drive business advantages

SUPPLY CHAIN Forestall big problems

by effectively dealing with shortages

www.industry20.com APRIL 2012 PRICE 100A 99 MEDIA PUBLICATION VOLUME 11 ISSUE 08

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www.industry20.com 1 industry 2.0 - technology management for decision-makers | april 2012

There is little doubt that technology advances are rapidly changing the way manufacturing compa-nies make and distribute products

today. Advanced equipment and IT solu-tions are helping companies dramatically improve quality, enhance productivity and reduce waste. However, what is less apparent is the fact that technology is also quietly reorganising the way companies are structured, managed and operated.

A recent publication from the Econo-mist Intelligence Unit (EIU) titled, “Agent of change: The future of technology disrup-tion in business”, predicts the impact of technology developments over the next decade on various aspects of business, including organisational structures, jobs, the workplace, customer interactions, and business models. One important finding of the report is that technology disruption is more likely to accelerate in the decade ahead. This will lead to new business models, and will dramatically alter the nature of many jobs.

How else will better connectivity and collaboration change the business envi-ronment? Take the case of machine tools or material handling systems equipped with sensors and embedded processors. Today’s advanced equipment can already generate and transmit lots of data. Firms that have the ability to capture and intel-ligently process this data, and create new services based on advanced analytics

will have the opportunity to offer new and valuable services to customers.

For instance, an equipment supplier could remotely monitor devices in the field or customer location to provide mainte-nance and diagnostic services, or even help the customer use the apparatus bet-ter by analysing and improving operating patterns. This service would enable the customer benefit from higher productivity and efficiency, while the supplier gets a new revenue stream.

Another area that will be impacted by collaborative technologies is R&D. Custom-ers and the channel will play a big role in “co-creating” new product and service ideas—and in driving business process improvements. This implies that many customer-facing physical premises will need to evolve into spaces for networking, meeting and collaboration. And companies will have to be comfortable with flattening and simplifying organisational hierarchies to ensure the flow of information.

The bottom line is that technologies, in themselves, will not result in improve-ments in business models or operations; the business processes also need to un-dergo change. The history of business is replete with examples of businesses that got their technology predictions wrong—and have paid the price. So, how will your organisation keep pace with the change, and retain its competitive edge?

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Forecasting the Future

VOL. 11 | ISSUE 08 | APRIL 2012

www.industry20.com2 april 2012 | industry 2.0 - technology management for decision-makers

contents

departments

Editorial ......................................01Advertiser Index ........................ 02Industry Update ......................... 04Techwatch...................................14Bookshelf .................................. 46Product Update ......................... 52

advertiser index

Schneider .............................. IFC, 5Mitsubishi ..................................... 3Reillo PCI Electrical ....................11Ace Micromatic ..........................19Omron .........................................56Taguetec ....................................IBCGW Precision ..............................BC

20 Fulfilling the Promise Indian manufacturers have the opportunity to capture a larger share of the global market. McKinsey estimates that up to $5 trillion a year will be up for grabs as global companies seek to diversify production and sources of supply beyond China. But, to do this, manufacturing companies must embrace global best practices in operations

cover story

opinion

Cover design: Shigil.N

44

“Encourage disparate opinions, and surround yourself with advisors and team members who think differently. Else, you could stifle creativity and innovation,” advisEs Krishna Kumar of KinEsis sports

“sometimes, it is not necessary to choose between two opposing or conflicting ideas. Look for ways to distil them into a third—and better—alternative,” says EQ ConsuLtant shayamaL vaLLabhjEE

42

information technology26 the rise of Consumer it With a little creativity and a lot of

foresight, you can effectively employ a wide variety of consumer devices for business advantage

supply chain 34 dealing With shortages By handling shortages in a routine and

organised fashion, you can minimise the long-term impact on client relationships and business profitability

sector update36 Lighting While robust economic growth is pushing

sales, favourable governments are help-ing propel demand for energy-efficient technologies and new applications

38 Logistics Growing user sophistication is driving

logistics vendors to make continuous improvements in infrastructure, strengthen supply chain management skills, adopt higher service standards

FA_Water_Industry2.0＿H.280mm × W.210mm

www.MitsubishiElectric.asia/india/

Mitsubishi Electric is improving water treatment efficiency in India. Through technologies such as iQ Plant Suite — which provides flow control and remote monitoring at reservoirs through integrated control of SCADA, inverters and redundant PLCs — and seamless data transmission via CC-Link IE, we are contributing to a stable water supply.

Innovative PLC based DCS flexibly and seamlessly integrates FA componentsfor exceptional cost and energy savings.

Modular PLC Compact PLC Micro PLC

HMI LVSVFD Power Multi Meter

Mitsubishi Electric – Streamlining watertreatment systems.

Mitsubishi Electric India Pvt. Ltd.2nd Floor, Tower A & B, DLF Cyber Greens, DLF Cyber City, DLF Phase-III, Gurgaon - 122002, Haryana, India

Phone: +91 (124) 463-0300 Fax: +91 (124) 463-0399

industry update


Denso Sets Up Research Centre

PTC Improves Mathcad Prime

Vivek to Strengthen Supply Chain

Denso has set up its sixth regional technical centre in Gurgaon. The facility employs about 60 people and represents an approximate

investment of Rs 1.5 billion. It will lead the development of automotive power trains, electric and electronic systems, information and safety systems, small motors,

and motorcycle products for vehicle manufacturers in India.The technical centre is equipped with a variety of testing and evaluation

equipment, including an engine bench and chassis dynamometer that enables vehicle testing in a wide range of environments. It also has materials engineering and evaluation facilities to help the procurement divisions at Denso’s manufacturing companies in the country. Yasushi Nei, Chairman of Denso International India says, “Transferring product development operations from Japan to India will allow us to quickly respond to both the market and customer needs. The technical centre will also support automotive software development for other regions of the world.”

Mathcad Prime 2.0, an engineering calculation software, adds powerful new

calculation features and advanced capabilities to an easy-to-learn, easy-to-use interface. The software’s interface combines live, standard math notation, text and graphs, in a presentable format which enables knowledge capture, reuse and design verification

Vivek, a south-based consumer durables retail chain, has en-gaged Vector Consulting Group to

implement Theory of Constraints (TOC). Commenting on the development, BA Srinivasa, Joint Managing Director of the company explains,” We are looking to increase product availability, while reducing inventory within the network.

Vector has already helped retail chains like Westside, Landmark and Liberty Shoes to redesign their supply chains and store stock management to ensure higher availability with lower inventory levels.

for improved product quality. Mathcad Prime features 3D

graphing, integration with MS Excel, collapsible areas, and symbolic (CAS) capabilities. The software has more than 600 built-in mathematical functions, and integrates with other PTC products like Creo and Windchill to enable increased productivity, improved process efficiency and better collaboration between individuals and teams.

GE Buys Advanced SystekGE is acquiring a majority

stake in Vadodara-based Advanced Systek, a supplier

of terminal automation systems and flow metering solutions. The acquisition will enable GE to offer solutions to customers in regions such as South Asia and the Mid-dle East. Advanced Systek offers its mid-stream and upstream oil and gas industry customers total terminal management and flow metering solutions including design, engineering, supply, installation, commis-sioning and maintenance.

By combining Advanced Systek’s capabilities with GE technology and

product suite of flow metres, control valves, UPS, controllers and instru-mentation, this transaction will enable GE’s Oil & Gas business to broaden its offerings for the industry, and deepen its relationship with customers seeking more efficient energy solutions. John L Flannery, President and Chief Executive Officer of GE India says, “GE and Ad-vanced Systek complement each other very well. Advanced Systek’s capabili-ties and its established track record in the oil and gas industry combined with our expertise and product portfolio in custody transfer will help us expand our

service offerings to our customers. This merging of strengths will help us ad-dress growth opportunities in India and other emerging countries.”

Umed Fifadra and Mukesh Kapadia, Joint Managing Directors of Advanced Systek, said, “Advanced Systek’s elec-tronic flow measurement devices and automation software will be comple-mented by GE Energy’s strength in measurement instrumentation, diag-nostics and performance optimization to create an overall solutions business with strong local capabilities. We look forward to widening Advanced Systek’s position in its core areas of expertise with GE Energy’s broad range of world-class products and global reach.”

Make the most of your energySM

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Our innovative, best-of-breed products, services, and solutions provide the secure

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Products: Our complete catalogue of power solutions, featuring our leading brands such as APC™ by Schneider Electric and Gutor™, offers an unmatched range of single- and three-phase UPS units, rectifiers, inverter systems, active filters, and static transfer switches from 1 kVA to several MVAs.

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Solutions: Choosing the right combination of products and services from Schneider Electric gives you the convenience of a total solution – systems, software, and services from a single source.

©2012 Schneider Electric. All Rights Reserved. All trademarks are owned by Schneider Electric Industries SAS or its affiliated companies. Schneider Electric India Pvt. Ltd., 9th Floor, DLF Building No. 10, Tower C, DLF Cyber City, Phase II, Gurgaon - 122 002, Haryana, India. Tel. 1800-4254-877/272 • 998-4982_IN-GB

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industry update


The CII has requested the govern-ment to consider a reduction in

the customs duty levied on non-coking coal. Imported coking coal, mainly used by steel industry, is exempted from basic customs duty, whereas non-coking coal attracts ba-sic customs duty of five per cent. In the budget 2011-12, the government had imposed a five per cent counter-vailing duty for which CENVAT credit can be availed by the manufacturer if its product attracts excise duty.

The power sector is the main consumer of non-coking coal. Since there is no excise duty on genera-tion of electricity, the power sector cannot avail CENVAT credit for the five per cent countervailing duty. This is resulting in an increase in the production cost of electricity. CII is therefore, asking for reduction of customs duty on non-coking coal to give some relief to users.

The FICCI and IIFT (Indian Institute of Foreign Trade) have jointly authored

a paper that presents a 20-point strat-egy for SMEs to overcome the current bias of banks against lending to them. The report recommends the establish-ment of a strong accounting system to reduce opacity. The report emphasises the development of a comprehensive business plan. “The more detailed the plan, the better is the chance of a loan getting sanctioned. It works in resolving certain amount of information asym-metry,” said the report. Among the other suggestions were outsourcing part of the processes, strong organi-sational structure, use of information communication technology, proper suc-cession planning, debt management and co-creation of products.

The mandatory disclosure of information was also highlighted as an important aspect in the knowledge paper.

Call for reduCed duty on Coal

ImproVIng Sme fInanCe

The government is planning to en-courage domestic manufacturing through public-private partner-

ships to boost solar energy generation, and limit imports, according to the Minister for New and Renewable Energy, Farooq Abdullah. Foreign companies must set up manufacturing facilities, along with research and development centres, if they want to enter India for solar power generation, he said while inaugurating a conference organised by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

About 170 MW of grid solar power generation has already been set up un-der the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission. By the end of the first phase, 1,100 MW of generation capacity is envisaged by 2013. In the second phase, an additional capacity of 10,000 MW for various off-grid applications has been sanctioned. “This scale-up will require a paradigm shift in the approach. We must continue to rely more on the regu-latory framework, development of trans-mission infrastructure and developing

innovative business models. The sector will require an investment of 20 billion dollars by 2017,” said Abdullah.

“The challenge is to introduce newer and efficient technologies which can lead to cost reduction and ultimately help in grid parity,” he said adding “There is need to grab opportunities in developing partnerships in all spheres of research, development, designing and setting up projects.”

Meanwhile, ASSOCHAM President Rajkumar Dhoot said “The country is endowed with vast solar energy potential and 5,000 trillion kWh per year energy is incident over the land area with most parts receiving four to seven kWh per square metre daily.” Hence, both technology routes for conversion of solar radiation into heat and electricity—solar thermal and solar photovoltaic—can be effectively harnessed providing huge scalability. Dhoot also said, “The gov-ernment should allocate a substantial portion of clean energy fund to service capital requirements of solar energy projects at low bank interest rates.”

Curbs Likely on Imports for Solar Energy

Huge Growth in Video SurveillanceGrowing at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 30

per cent, the video surveillance and closed circuit television (CCTV) camera market in India is likely to reach Rs 2,200 crore by 2015

according to a study released by ASSOCHAM. The CCTV camera market is currently worth about Rs 1,000 crore, and accounts for over 40 per cent of the Rs 2,400 crore total electronic security market in India.

“Rapid economic growth and rising industrial activities amid security threats, fear of potential terrorist attacks has fuelled the demand for CCTV cameras. Both government authorities and the private sector are investing in installing CCTVs to secure their offices and public places across the country,” explains DS Rawat, Secretary General of ASSOCHAM.

“Tier II and Tier III cities, currently having a small proportion of security system installations are going to emerge as the real growth drivers of this industry in the long run,” says Rawat. This is expected to drive the growth of the CCTV camera industry.


Vadinar Refinery Adds New Capabilities

“The Vadinar refinery, which is now in the final leg of its expansion programme,

will soon be among the world’s most complex refineries capable of produc-ing fuels that meet the world’s most stringent emission norms. Commis-sioned units like the ISOM (Isomerisa-tion Unit), DHDT (Diesel Hydrotreater) and the SRU give us the capability to process heavier and tougher crudes and produce high-quality products that find acceptance in both domestic and international markets,” says LK Gupta, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Essar Oil (EOL).

EOL recently commissioned a Vacuum Gas Oil Hydrotreating Unit (VGOHDT) and Sulphur Recovery Unit (SRU) at the refinery. The SRU will help the refinery recover 99.9 per cent of sulphur in acid gases generated from the ARU (amine regeneration unit) and the SWS (sour water stripper), two units that have already been commis-sioned. EOL has also commissioned a treatment plant (ETP), with a capacity of 540 cubic metre per hour, as part of the Phase-I expansion project to be completed by the end of March 2012. The treated water will be reused for cooling tower or for the generation of

demineralised water through the RO plant.

The Vadinar project, when completed with commissioning of Delayed Coker Unit (DCU), will expand the capacity of the refinery to 18 million tons per annum (mtpa) or 3.75 lakh barrels per day, and enhance complexity from the existing 6.1 to 11.8, which is amongst the highest in the world, according to C Manoharan, Head of the Vadinar Refinery. “It will help the refinery pro-duce low sulphur, high octane gasoline (petrol). The unit is also capable of producing naphtha, kerosene and gas oil (diesel),” Manoharan adds.

DISA Unveils Foundry Equipment

DISA India, a foundry machinery manufacturer and Wheela-brator, a surface preparation technology manufacturer, have launched two high-end and completely localised machines.

The DISA Match 20/24 is a horizontal flask-less moulding machine, while the MB500 is a metal belt tumble blast machine.

The Match 20/24 is designed to deliver 160 uncored mould per hour with a maximum machine related mismatch guaran-

tee of 0.15 mm. An automatic core setter (CSE) ensures repeatable and automatic core setting, while the

quick match plate changer (QMC) enables easy and rapid pattern change. The MB500 is suitable for operating alongside the match moulding line as it provides the correct volume solution for processing parts. The MB500 facilitates full mechanisation of handling, and almost man-less operation. The MB500 metal belt tumble blast machine complements the existing BB rubber belt tumble blast solutions.

RMS Collaborates With CABR

Readymade Steel (RMS) India has entered into a technical collaboration with CABR

Technology (CABR) of China to facilitate manufacturing of mechanical splicing system and couplers in India.

Anil Agrawal, Managing Director of RMS says, “This collaboration will

enable RMS to take a step closer to attaining its objective of becoming a complete infrastructure solutions provider. We are committed towards bringing world-class construction technologies to cater to the growing needs of the infrastructure sector in India.”

Vybrid Controller Solutions Improve User Interfaces

Freescale Semiconductor has unfurled its new portfolio of Vybrid controller solutions

that are aimed at simplifying the development of applications that need rich human-machine interfaces (HMI) and connectivity, as well as deterministic real-time control and response capabilities.

The Vybrid devices are built around an asymmetrical-multipro-cessing-architecture platform, and employ the ARM 32-bit architecture, along with Kinetis microcontrollers and i.MX applications processors.

Vybrid devices are suitable for building and home automation; industrial automation; point-of-sale systems; medical devices; smart energy equipment, including energy metres and data concentrators; and appliances. They are also well-suited for many low-power and timing-critical wired and wireless network communication protocols.

industry update


The Minister of State for Science & Technology, Dr Ashwani Kumar,

has stressed on the need for ‘frugal innovation’ in products and pro-cesses. “India needs products and services that are affordable by people at low levels of incomes without com-promising the safety, efficiency, and utility of the products. These products and services must also have a ‘frugal’ impact on the earth’s resources,” Dr Ashwani Kumar said.

To support innovation, and increase competitiveness, the government is considering increas-ing the innovation fund to Rs 2,500 crore, from the current Rs 100 crore, according to MSME Secretary, RK Mathur. The corpus is aimed at setting up testing centres for new products, and establishing R&D capabilities to serve MSME units.

GE’s Measurement & Control business has set up a

validation laboratory in Electronics City, Bangalore. With the opening of this lab, GE has expanded its capability to support the calibration of validators, temperature baths, ice point reference pressure sensors, temperature loggers and intelligent RTDs (IRTD) with very high precision and accuracy. The GE lab is the only one in India with the capability to calibrate temperatures to an accuracy of 0.005° C.

The validation lab is expected to meet the critical requirements of the pharmaceutical and life science industries. It is the fourth of its type in the world for GE. “The new lab supports GE’s ‘In Country, for Coun-try’ strategy to build on capabilities and resources within India,” says Ashish Bhandari, Regional General Manager, Measurement & Control India for GE.

mInISter CallS for frugal InnoVatIon

ge InaugurateS InStrumentatIon lab

Scroll Compressors Cut Environmental Impact

Emerson Climate Technologies (India) has introduced scroll technology for the Indian residential air-conditioning market. The Copeland compressors have been specifically designed to improve the energy efficiency and reliability of

air-conditioning systems. The Copeland compressors are already being utilised in the production of air

conditioners from major OEMs in India, such as Blue Star, Carrier, Hitachi and LG. The technology is now being made available for the home and small office markets for the first time, giving Indian users access to a compressor that not only saves energy, but also provides enhanced comfort and value for its low noise output and compact design. Speaking at the launch, Shrikant Bapat, Managing Director, Emerson Climate Technologies (India) said, “ Our endeavour is to continuously innovate, adapt and deliver cutting-edge technologies that help in creating energy-efficient products, which not only reduce energy costs, but also lowers impact on the environment.”

Tatas to Make Helicopters

Indian Rotorcraft, a joint ven-ture company of Tata Sons and AgustaWestland, a Finmeccanica

company, will assemble, customise and flight-test new helicopters at a facility in Hyderabad.

The new helicopter facility will initially start producing the eight-seat AW119Ke light helicopter from mid-2013. The facility is being built on a 10-acre site adjacent to the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Hyderabad, and includes a 9,000 sq mt building incor-porating a main assembly building, flight hangar, office accommodation and outside several helicopter landing pads. The facility will be capable of

producing up to 30 helicopters per year and is designed to be further developed for other helicopter types, right up to the 16-ton AW101.

Ratan Tata, Chairman, Tata Sons says, “The project is integral to our plans in the aerospace sector and we look forward to an enduring and successful partnership with Agus-taWestland for fostering the growth of the Indian aerospace sector.” Bruno Spagnolini, Chief Executive Officer of AgustaWestland adds, “Not only will this new facility build helicopters for the Indian market but it will supply helicopters to AgustaWestland cus-tomers around the world.”

New Hydel Plants on the Anvil

Power major NTPC has announced its intention to implement three hydel projects with a total capacity of 942 MW in Uttarakhand. The three projects are Tapovan Vishnugad (520 MW), Rupsiyabagar-Khasiabara (261 MW), and

Lata Topovan (171 MW) in the hill state.Tapovan Vishnugad and Lata Topovan are situated on river Dhauliganga in

Chamoli district, while Rupsiyabagar-Khasiabara is located on Goriganga in Pithoragarh district. Once the Tapovan Vishnugad project is commissioned in 2014, NTPC’s Regional Executive Director (Hydro), Malvinder S Soin, said that Uttarakhand will get 12 per cent of the capacity as free power.


GHG Standards Now Available

The World Resources Institute (WRI) and World Business Council

for Sustainable Develop-ment (WBCSD) have officially released the Greenhouse Gas Protocol standards in India. The Protocol has introduced two new standards to em-power businesses to better measure, manage, and report their greenhouse gas emis-sions. Developed by the WRI and the WBCSD, the Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) and Product Life Cycle Standards enable companies to save money, reduce risks, and gain competi-tive advantages.

A growing number of Indian compa-nies are already doing corporate green-house gas (GHG) accounting. According to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) 2011 India Report, 57 companies have submitted reports and 89 per cent reported their GHG emissions using the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard or a protocol based on it. Given India’s significant role in the global economy, product and value chain management

resources more effectively across the full value chain.”

Girish Sethi, Director-Industrial Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Technology, TERI opined, “TERI has been working with the GHG Protocol since the first Corporate Standard was released in 2001, and we have worked on a pilot basis with various corporate houses to advise them about GHG emis-sions. These standards can help compa-nies understand, measure, and manage their GHG emissions and work towards reducing their carbon footprints.”

The Corporate Value Chain Standard reveals opportunities for companies to make more sustainable decisions about their activities and the products they produce, buy and sell. Large and small companies can look strategically at greenhouse gas emissions across their value chain, showing them where to focus limited resources to have the biggest impacts.

The Product Life Cycle Standard enables companies to measure the green-house gas emissions of an individual product. Covering materials, manufactur-ing, use and disposal, the product stan-dard will help companies improve and design new products, and provide insights for more informed consumer choices.

are becoming increasingly important, so the new standards bring multiple strategic insights and opportunities for Indian businesses.

Pankaj Bhatia, Director, GHG Protocol, WRI said, “The GHG Protocol standards allow Indian companies to identify and target new market opportu-nities for low carbon business models and products. Businesses will find that the new standards provide state-of-art methods and tools that can be deployed not only to measure and manage GHG emissions, but also to track important co-benefits in the India context, such as reducing energy use and managing

UIC to Make Steel Wires

Kolkata-based UIC Udyog is setting a 180,000 tpa plant to manufacture of steel wires and wire products at Bharuch in Gujarat. The project involves a total investment of Rs 508 crore, and includes galvanising capacity of

100,000 tpa. The company proposes to fund the project with a public issue of Rs 108 crore, and internal accruals of Rs 45 crore.

Honeywell Service Reduces Operating Expenses

Honeywell is now offering a suite of professional services that combines cloud-based tools

and analytics with a global network of operations centres, energy and facility experts, to provide advice and enhancements to reduce utility bills and operating expenses up to 20 per cent.

According to the company, the Attune Advisory Services, will help building and facility owners to gain baseline awareness of building performance, make improvements to reduce energy and operations costs, and define an ongoing strategy to manage and optimise a facility. The services

exceed the capability of typical facility management software which often provides only a steady stream of data, but no insight or recommendations.

Attune offers three levels of assistance—awareness, improvement and optimisation—with programmes focussing on either energy or operational efficiency. Paul Orzeske, President of Honeywell Building

Solutions explains, “The performance of building systems and equipment can degrade by as much as five per cent every year, which translates to energy and operating costs that continually escalate. With Attune, we’re providing the ease and convenience of cloud-based technology with expert advice and actionable guidance so companies can capture and maintain those savings.”

industry update


SunEdison has set up a 100-kW solar plant on the roof of Scope

International’s building in Chennai. Spread over 20,000 sq ft of roof space, the plant employs 875 solar panels. It is expected to produce three million units of electricity over the next 20 years. SunEdison India’s Managing Director, Pasupathy Gopalan said that this was the country’s first commercial rooftop solar project.

Nitco has signed a MoU to acquire 51 per cent of equity

shares in New Vardhman Vitri-fied. The acquired company, New Vardhman Vitrified, is setting up a tile plant with a capacity to annu-ally manufacture 4.95 million sq mt of vitrified tiles and 3.75 million sq mt of wall tiles. The new facility is expected to commence production within six months.

Leading German car maker Audi has selected Steel Strips Wheels

to provide steel wheel rims for it’s A6 platform vehicles. The awarded business has a potential of €20.28 million (equivalent to Rs 137 crore) over a period of four years. Steel Strips expects to commence sup-plies in 2012-13.

Mold-Tek Packaging plans to start another manufacturing

unit with a capacity of 4,000 TPA in Maharashtra. The new unit will main-ly cater to the needs of Asian Paints, and will be equipped with facilities to manufacture Robotic IML (in mould labelling) decorated containers.

Solar plant on buIldIng roof

nItCo aCquIreS new Vardhman VItrIfIed

Steel StrIpS wheelS bagS audI order

mold-tek StartS another unIt

Steelcast to Supply Caterpillar

Steelcast, a Gujarat-based steel castings manufacturer, has signed an agree-ment with US-based Caterpillar to make steel cast products to the specifica-tions of the customer. Chetan Tamboli, Chairman and MD of Steelcast says,

“A long term agreement with Caterpillar gives us an assured off-take capability. We expect sales to Caterpillar to grow from around Rs 40 crore in 2010-11 to about Rs 150 crore in 2015.” Under the terms of the agreement, Steelcast will set up dedi-cated manufacturing facility to service the needs of Caterpillar.

EADS, Creaform Collaborate on 3D MeasurementAeronatics major EADS has signed a technological partnership agreement

with Creaform to enhance 3D optical measurement for aerospace and defence applications. The 5-year agreement provides for the development of

innovative applications in the field of optical 3D measurement for non-destructive testing (NDT), test monitoring and form, and surface measurement.

Yann Barbaux, Head of EADS Innovation Works, commented “EADS has successfully implemented Creaform’s 3D scanning and optical measurement technologies since 2008. The developments planned will enable EADS to reduce its development time cycle, create synergies and reduce the time-to-market of its new products”.

20 Microns Plans Expansion

Rockwell to Build Recycling Plant

20 Microns, a producer of innovative range of products including extenders, func-tional fillers and various special chemicals for paper, plastic and paint indus-tries, has decided to upgrade its existing production infrastructure and facilities

as well as expand production capacity at cost of Rs 88 crores. The company intends to increase its annual production capacity by 61,800 MT for hydrous clay, calcined clay and speciality chemicals. After project completion, the installed capacity of company will be 279,200 MT per annum, and it will have turnover up to Rs 113 crore.

Rockwell Automation has bagged a $11 million contract from Cynar to design and build a new end-of-life, plastic-to-fuel conversion plant in Bristol, UK, for SITA UK, a Cynar customer. Cynar has developed a technology that con-

verts end-of-life plastics into fuel. Michael Murray, Cynar Chief Executive Officer and Chairman says, “Our technol-

ogy represents a unique and profitable way to significantly decrease the amount of end-of-life plastics that are disposed of in landfills and incinerators. Rockwell strengthens our technology by providing complete design, engineering life-cycle maintenance, and local support.”

“This win is significant for us in the waste-to-energy market,” remarks Terry Gebert, Vice President and General Manager for Rockwell Automation Global Solu-tions. “It includes the design and build of process skids, automation architecture, software, power control and engineering/start-up services in one fully integrated solution. Our global resources will help Cynar operate a profitable facility.”

industry update


IngerSoll rand expandS produCtIon

bgr bagS ntpC order

eleCon’S rS 60-Cr plant

Dalal Engineering Upgrades ERP

Ingersoll Rand has expanded produc-tion capacity at its manufacturing

facility in Sahibabad. Oakley Roberts, Director of ARO fluid products at In-gersoll Rand comments, “The positive displacement pump market in India is experiencing above average growth rates driven by investments in indus-trial and process market segments. What we’ve done with the diaphragm pump expansion in Sahibabad is just the first in a series of investments.”

Amar Kaul, Vice President and General Manager for Ingersoll Rand India said, “With increased production capacity, we are able to better meet the needs of our local customers.” The expanded facility will now make Ingersoll’s ARO Pro and EXP series of air-operated diaphragm pumps.

BGR Energy has received an order from National Thermal

Power (NTPC) to supply two 660 MW supercritical boilers for a thermal plant in Solapur. The order is valued at €109.79 million plus Rs 1,121 crore (total order is approximately Rs 1,855 crore), and is to be executed in 48 months. BGR Energy will supply the boilers in collaboration with Hitachi Power. BG Raghupathy, Chairman and Managing Director of BGR Energy says, “This order is of great significance as we enter supercritical power equipment space.”

E lecon Engineering, a materials handling equipment and trans-

mission products manufacturer, has expanded its gear manufacturing divi-sion with a Rs 60 crore plant. The facil-ity will produce internal components for helical gear boxes. The capacity expansion, completed in two years, has doubled Elecon’s gear box manufactur-ing capacity to 1,000 a month.

Dalal Engineering, a manufacturer of stainless production equipment for the pharmaceutical, chemical and textile sectors, has deployed Infor10 ERP Enterprise to optimise its manufacturing capabilities. The company

upgraded from an older version of Infor ERP to utilise the application’s new localisations for the Indian market.

Commenting on the upgrade, Amrish Dalal, Vice President at Dalal Engineer-ing says, “We chose Infor10 ERP for the deep industry functionality available in the software that suits a complex, high-tech metal fabrication business like ours. The new version of the application will help us meet all our information management needs in the areas of sale, purchase, warehousing, manufacturing and finance.”

Saint Gobain to Make Fire Resistant Glass

Cummins Completes 50 Years

Vetrotech Saint-Gobain (a unit of Saint-Gobain Glass) is all set to manufacture its tough, flame

resistant Contraflam glass in Chen-nai. The new production line, situated within Saint-Gobain’s glass complex at Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, was inaugurated by Jean Pierre Floris, President of the Innovative Material Sector, Saint-Gobain. This investment is part of a total investment of Rs 60 crore in the advanced glass solutions facility spanning an area of 90,000 sqft within the Saint Gobian glass complex.

The Contraflam range of fire re-sistant glasses are suitable for use in hotels, refuge terraces of tall buildings, airports, hospitals, education institu-tions, data server rooms, malls and

multiplexes, IT buildings, office spaces, any area that has to be compartmental-ized and fire rated. The Contraflam fire resistant glasses employ specialised inter-layered tempered glass technol-ogy. Since these glasses have to be used as part of a tested system to get the right fire performance, Vetrotech Saint-Gobain has tied up with various system providers to provide a complete ‘system solution’ to customers.

Cummins, a leading manufacturer of engines, generators and related compo-nents has completed 50 years of operations in India. The company’s pres-ence in India stems from a joint venture incorporated in 1962. Ground was

broken for a factory in Pune the same year, and the plant began manufacturing engines at the beginning of 1964. Since then, the company has grown to incorporate eight legal entities that collectively operate 20 manufacturing facilities, and employ nearly 14,000 people in 200 locations across the country. The eight companies include Cummins India, Cummins Generator Technologies India, Cummins Technologies India, Cummins Research & Technology India, Fleetguard Filters, Tata Cummins, Valvoline Cummins and KPIT Cummins Infosystems.

Anant J Talaulicar, Managing Director of Cummins Group says, “With combined sales of Rs 10,500 crore in 2011, our businesses in India continue to grow prof-itably at double digit rates... we are strongly positioned to achieving our future growth targets of becoming a $7B group in five years.”


VAG to Increase Valve Production

Spurred by demand from the infrastructure sector, VAG Valves India is making plans to double

production capacity at its Hyderabad facility within two years. V Seshaiah, Managing Director of VAG Valves India says, “Production at the Hyderabad unit is being ramped up from the current 25,000 units to 50,000 units annually. We plan to reach full capacity utilisation this year. In addition, we are planning to add capacity of another 50,000 units

Latest release of PTC’s flagship MCAD solution introduces a new application for modular

product design, improves concept design and user productivity. Michael Campbell, Divisional General Manager for the MCAD segment at PTC says, “The release of Creo 2.0 solves the chronic challenges customers face with traditional CAD tools. It increases collaboration, and protects data fidelity across user roles and design modes. PTC is also delivering the first technology component in its vision for managing modular product designs driven by the bill of materials.”

To facilitate conceptual design, the new releases of Creo Parametric, Creo Direct, Creo Sketch, and Creo Layout combine to enhance collaboration, innovation and design exploration. Since all the Creo apps share a common data model, 2D geometry and design data can be easily shared by all users and apps and can be reused later in the design process to accelerate the

transition to detailed design.

Creo Layout 2.0 allows users to easily create a layout of complex assemblies, quickly explore design alternatives, import a variety of 2D CAD file types, sketch and modify 2D geometry, organise information with groups, tags and structure as well as dimensions, notes and tables. Once created, a 2D design in Creo Layout can serve as the basis for 3D models, allowing users to create assemblies in 2D or reference 2D geometry to create part features, and any changes made in 2D are reflected in 3D upon regeneration.

According to PTC, the new release delivers more than 490 enhancements to the Creo app family, with Creo Parametric enabling automation of common tasks and featuring better performance for improved design productivity. New capabilities in Creo Direct help accelerate bid-proposals and early concept design.

at the existing facility over the next two years.” With the latest capacity addi-tion, the company expects to double its turnover to Rs 100 crore.

The Hyderabad plant manufactures three products (gate valves, butterfly valves and sluice gates valves), and the company sells 20 additional products made by its parent company. The Ger-man firm now intends to develop the Hyderabad facility for global supplies of air release valves. VAG India also plans

to introduce products for the power and industrial sectors this fiscal year. The current size of the Indian valve market is estimated at Rs 4,500 crore, with more than 600 players mostly in the SME sector. The major players in the sector include Kirloskar Brothers and L&T.

Caterpillar Inaugurates Plant

Caterpillar India has set up a new backhoe loader manufacturing facility in

Thiruvallur, near Chennai. The facility was inaugurated by Robert Droogleever, General Manager for Caterpillar BHL Worldwide who said, ”The demand for backhoe loaders has been gaining traction with the construction equipment industry. With local manufacturing and long-term commitment to our world-class standards, we aim to provide a quality product that meets this growing demand and brings us closer to our aim of attaining a market leadership position”.

Kevin Thieneman, Country Man-ager, India, ASEAN & China added, “This facility, our fourth manufac-turing operation in India, positions us to meet industry growth and enables us to better serve our cus-tomers with the broadest range of products in the industry.”

PTC Upgrades Creo Solution

techwatch


Building Lightweight TrainsI

n their efforts to render cars and trains more economical, manufactur-ers are trying to find lighter materials to replace those currently used. But

there is a problem: Lighter materials tend not to be as tough as steel or aluminum, so they cannot simply be used in place of these metals. Rather, it is a question of manufacturers deciding which com-ponents can really afford to have weight shaved off and how to integrate them into the overall systems. A new material capa-ble of withstanding even extreme stresses has now been developed for diesel engine housings on trains. It makes these compo-nents over 35 per cent lighter than their steel and aluminum counterparts.

Working together with Bombardier, KraussMaffei Kunststofftechnik, Bayer MaterialScience, DECS, the DLR’s Insti-tute for Vehicle Concepts, University of Stuttgart, Karlsruhe Institute for Tech-nology and the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology ICT, have developed a polyurethane-based sandwich material that is extremely resilient.

“To demonstrate the material, we manufactured a component that is subject to significant stresses and which has to fulfil a number of requirements—the diesel engine housing for a train,” says Jan Kuppinger, a scientist at the ICT. This housing is located beneath the passenger compartment, ie, between the car and the tracks. Not only does it shield the engine against flying stones and protect the en-vironment from any oil that might escape, but in the event of a fire, it also stops the flames from spreading, thus meeting the flame retardant and fire safety standards for railway vehicles. Kuppinger adds, “By using this new material, we can reduce the component’s weight by over 35 per cent—and cut costs by 30 per cent.”

The researchers opted for a sandwich construction to ensure component stabil-ity: Glass fibre reinforced polyurethane

layers form the outer facings, while the core is made of paper honeycomb. Poly-urethane is a bulk plastic combining two substances. Since it can be adapted to ful-fil various requirements, the researchers began by incorporating various additives into their polyurethane to ensure it would meet fire-safety standards. Then, the part-ners optimised the standard manufactur-ing process, fibre spraying, by developing a mixing chamber which allows even more complex structures to be produced in any required size. The diesel engine housing they made is approximately 4.5m long and more than 2m wide.

“This is the first time it has proved pos-sible to use this process to manufacture such a large and complex component that also satisfies the structural requirements,”

states Kuppinger. Previously, one problem encountered with fibre spraying was that it was impossible to determine the precise thickness of the polyurethane top layers. But now the researchers have found a way to do this, using computer tomography to inspect the manufactured layers and then applying a specially-adapted evaluation routine to establish their exact thickness. This information helps to simulate the strength of the component, as well as its ability to withstand stresses.

The scientists produced their diesel engine housing demonstrator as part of the PURtrain project, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Educa-tion and Research (BMBF). The demon-strator passed its first strength test, in which the scientists placed it in a test rig and then applied forces to it at vari-ous locations, measuring the extent to which it deformed. In the next stage, the researchers want to trial the component in a proper field test. If that too proves successful, it will then be possible to use the material to make roof segments, side flaps and wind deflectors for the automobile and commercial vehicle in-dustry, and to ramp up the manufactur-ing process to produce medium volumes of between 250 and 30,000 units.

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Greener Nanoparticle Catalyst

A chemistry team at the University of Toronto has discovered environmen-tally-friendly iron-based nanoparticle catalysts that work as well as the expensive, toxic, metal-based catalysts that are currently in used by the

drug, fragrance and food industry. The research, which was directed by Robert Morris, Chair of the Department of Chemistry, involved several steps.

Suspecting the existence of nanoparticles, the team first set out to identify the iron catalysts. They then conducted investigations using an electron microscope to confirm that the iron nanoparticles were actually being formed during catalysis. The next step was to ensure that the iron nanoparticles were the active catalytic agents. This was done with polymer and poisoning experiments which showed that only the iron atoms on the surface of a nanoparticle were active.

But a further challenge remained. “Catalysts, even cheap iron ones developed for these types of reaction, still suffer one major downfall,” explains Sonnenberg. “They require a one-to-one ratio of very expensive organic ligands—the molecule that binds to the central metal atom of a chemical compound—to yield catalytic activity. Our discovery of functional surface nanoparticles opens the door to using much smaller ratios of these expensive compounds relative to the metal centres.”

Although the diesel engine housing is made of a very lightweight material, it can still withstand extreme stresses


Carbon Nanotubes Production is Simplified

A group of researchers from Uni-versiti Sains Malaysia (USM) have successfully developed

a new method for producing carbon nanotubes at low prices—just $15 to $35 US per gram. Carbon nanotubes are widely used in the production of end products such as memory chips, rechargeable batteries, sport equip-ment and composites.

Dr Abdul Rahman Mohamed says that a new rotation of the reactor system enables the continuous production of carbon nanotubes, without compromising the quality and authenticity. “The system is capable of producing up to 1000g of carbon nanotubes a day,” he said. He added that the developed system is also environmentally friendly as it operates at atmospheric condi-tions, is cost effective, and does not require a large space.

Cheaper Catalysts for Chemical Processes

Hydrogenation is a key process in a large number of indus-tries, such as oil refining, where it is used to turn crude

oil into gasoline. The key to hydrogena-tion is the presence of a catalyst—usual-ly a metal, such as nickel or palladium, or an alloy—which allows the hydrogen atoms to bind with other molecules. Typically, metal alloys are mixtures of cheap common metals, such as nickel, and expensive precious metals, such as platinum or palladium. However, it is hard to produce alloys that are selective hydrogenation catalysts, which are able to attach the hydrogen atoms to specific sites on a molecule.

Scientists at Tufts University have found a way to create a selective hydrogenation

A team of researchers at Tufts University has discovered that individual atoms can catalyse industrially important chemical reactions such as the hydrogenation of acetylene. They found that individual atoms of costly palladium (yellow peaks) when placed in the surface of copper metal (pink) help break apart hydrogen molecules (grey circles) into atoms, facilitating important chemical reactions

Picture courtesy: Sykes Laboratory-Tufts University

catalyst by scattering single atoms of pal-ladium onto a copper base. This catalyst requires less of the expensive metal, and the process is greener, too, offering potentially significant economic and envi-ronmental benefits. Led by Charles Sykes, an associate professor of chemistry in the School of Arts and Sciences, the group of researchers heated small amounts of palladium to almost 1,000oC. At that tem-perature, the metal evaporated like a gas, so that single atoms were released. These atoms, less than half a nanometer wide, embedded themselves into a copper metal surface about three inches away. Using a scanning tunnelling microscope, the researchers verified that single palladium atoms had indeed embedded themselves at scattered intervals in the copper.

Picture courtesy: Xuanhe Zhao

Changing Plastic Textures on DemandJust as a chameleon changes its co-

lour to blend in with its environment, Duke University engineers have dem-

onstrated that they can alter the texture of plastics on demand. “By changing the voltage applied to the polymer, we can al-ter the surface from bumpy to smooth and back again,” says Xuanhe Zhao, Assistant Professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering. “There are many instances when you’d want to be able to change at will a surface from one that is rough to slippery and back again.”

Scientists have long been able to create different patterns or textures on plastics through a process known as elec-trostatic lithography, in which patterns are ‘etched’ onto a surface from an electrode

located above the polymer. However, once the patterns have been created by this method, they are set permanently.

“Our new approach can dynamically switch polymer surfaces among various patterns ranging from dots, segments, lines to circles,” explains Qiming Wang, a student in Zhao’s laboratory. “The switch-

Various stages of polymer changes

ing is also very fast, within milliseconds, and the pattern sizes can be tuned from millimetre to sub-micrometre.”

The findings follow Zhao’s earlier studies, which for the first time captured on videotape how polymers react to changing voltages. Those experiments showed that as the voltage increases, polymers tend to start creasing, finally leading to large craters. The new lithography strategy takes useful insights from this failure mechanism.

The technology can be used in applications like microfluidics and camouflage. Other potential usages of the new method include creating surfaces that are self-cleaning and water-repellant, or even as platforms for controlled-release drug-eluting devices.

techwatch


New Thermoelectric Material Identified

In the continual quest for better ther-moelectric materials—materials that convert heat into electricity and vice versa—researchers have identified

a liquid-like compound whose properties give it the potential to be even more ef-ficient than traditional ones.

In identifying this new type of thermoelectric material, the researchers studied a material made from copper and selenium. Although it is physically a solid, it exhibits liquid-like behaviour due to the way its copper atoms flow through the selenium’s crystal lattice. “It’s like a wet sponge,” explains Jeff Snyder, a faculty associate in applied physics and materials science in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and a member of the research team.

“If you have a sponge with very fine pores in it, it looks and acts like a solid. But inside, the water molecules are diffusing just as fast as they would if they were a regular liquid. That’s how I imagine this material works. It has a solid framework of selenium atoms, but the copper atoms are diffusing around as fast as they would in a liquid.”

A thermoelectric material generates electricity when there is a temperature difference between one end of the mate-rial and the other. A good thermoelec-tric material must be good at conduct-ing electricity but bad at conducting heat. If it were good at conducting heat, the heat from the hot end would move to the cool end so fast that the whole material would rapidly reach the same temperature. When that happens, the electrons stop flowing. One way to improve thermoelectric efficiency, then, is to decrease a material’s ability to conduct heat. To that end, researchers have been developing thermoelectric materials with a mix of crystalline and amorphous properties, Snyder says. A crystalline atomic structure allows elec-

trons to flow easily, while an amorphous material, such as glass, has a more irregular atomic structure that hinders heat-carrying vibrations from travelling.

These heat-carrying vibrations travel via two types of waves. The first type is a longitudinal or pressure wave, in which the direction of displacement is the same as the direction of the wave. The second type is a transverse wave, in which the direction of displacement is perpendicular to the direction of the wave. In a solid ma-terial, a transverse wave travels because there is friction between the atoms, mean-ing that when one atom vibrates up and down, an adjacent atom moves with it, and the wave propagates. But in a liquid, there is minimal friction between the atoms, and a vibrating atom just slides up and down next to its neighbour. As a result, trans-verse waves cannot travel inside a liquid.

The team found that because heat-carrying vibrations in a liquid can travel only via longitudinal waves, a mate-rial with liquid-like properties is less thermally conductive. In the case of the copper-selenium material that the re-searchers studied, the crystal structure

of the selenium helps conduct electricity, while the free-flowing copper atoms be-have like a liquid, damping down thermal conductivity. The efficiency of a thermo-electric material is quantified using a number called a ‘thermoelectric figure of merit.’ The copper-selenium material has a thermoelectric figure of merit of 1.5 at 1000o K, one of the highest values in any bulk material, the researchers say.

NASA engineers first used this copper-selenium material roughly 40 years ago for spacecraft design, Snyder says. But its liquid-like properties were not understood at the time. This new research, he says, has identified and explained why this copper-selenium material has such efficient thermoelec-tric properties, potentially opening up a whole new class of liquid-like thermo-electric materials for investigation.

The blue spheres represent selenium atoms forming a crystal lattice. The orange regions in between the atoms represent the copper atoms that flow through the crystal structure like a liquid

Structured Metamaterials Could Boost Wireless Power TransferResearchers from Duke University collaborating with the Mitsubishi Electric

Research Laboratories have proposed a way to enhance the efficiency of wireless power transfer systems by incorporating a lens made from a new class of artificial materials.

When a changing electric current flows through a wire, it generates a magnetic field, which can induce a voltage across a physically separate second wire. This elec-tromagnetic phenomenon is already used commercially to recharge cordless electric toothbrushes, mobile phones etc. The research team hypothesised that a superlens, which can only be made from artificially-structured metamaterials, may do the trick. A superlens has a property called negative permeability. This means it can refocus a magnetic field from a source on one side of the lens to a receiving device on the other side. The team determined that a superlens should increase system performance, even when a fraction of the energy was lost by passing through the lens.

Picture courtesy: Caltech/Jeff Snyder/Lance Hayashida

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Cylinder Makes Contents Invisible to Magnetic Fields

Innovative 3D Designs Double Generation of Solar Power

Intensive research around the world has focussed on improving the performance of solar photovoltaic cells and bringing

down their cost. But little attention has been paid to the best ways of arranging those cells, which are typically placed flat on a rooftop or other surface, or some-times attached to motorised structures that keep the cells pointed toward the sun as it crosses the sky.

A team of MIT researchers has come up with a very different approach: build-ing cubes or towers that extend the solar cells upward in three-dimensional con-figurations. Amazingly, the results from the structures they’ve tested, show power output ranging from double to more than 20 times that of fixed flat panels with the same base area. The biggest boosts in power were seen in the situations where improvements are most needed: in locations far from the equator, in winter months and on cloudier days.

The MIT team initially used a com-puter algorithm to explore an enormous

Picture courtesy: Allegra Boverman

Scientists at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, in collaboration with an experimental group from the

Academy of Sciences of Slovakia, have created a cylinder which hides contents, and makes them invisible to magnetic fields. The device was constructed using superconductor and ferromagnetic materi-als available on the market. The cylinder is invisible to magnetic fields, and represents a step towards the invisibility of light.

Researchers at UAB, led by Àlvar Sánchez, came up with the mathematical formula to design the device. Using an extraordinarily simple equation, scientists described a cylinder which, in theory,

is absolutely undetectable to magnetic fields from the outside, and maintains everything in its interior completely isolated from these fields as well.

Equation in hand and with the aim of building the device, UAB researchers con-tacted the laboratory specialising in the precise measurement of magnetic fields at the Institute of Electrical Engineer-ing of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava. The superconductor layer of the cylinder prevents the magnetic field from reaching the interior, but distorts the external field and thus makes it detect-able. To avoid detection, the ferromag-netic outer layer made of iron, nickel and chrome, produce the opposite effect. It attracts the magnetic field lines and compensates the distortion created by the superconductor, but without allowing the

field to reach the interior. The global effect is a completely non-existent magnetic field inside the cylinder and absolutely no distortions in the magnetic field outside.

Magnetic fields are fundamental for the production of electricity. For this reason controlling this field represents an important achievement in technologi-cal development. Scientists are perfectly familiar with the process of creating magnetism. However, the process of can-celling at will is a scientific and techno-logical challenge, and the device created by UAB scientists opens the way for this possibility. The results of this research project also pave the way for possible medical applications. In the future, simi-lar devices designed by UAB researchers could serve to block a pacemaker or a cochlear implant in a patient needing to undergo a magnetic resonance.

variety of possible configurations, and de-veloped analytic software that can test any given configuration under a whole range of latitudes, seasons and weather. Then, to confirm their model’s predictions, they built and tested three different arrangements of solar cells on the roof of an MIT laboratory building for several weeks.

While the cost of a given amount of energy generated by such 3D modules exceeds that of ordinary flat panels, the expense is partially balanced by a much higher energy output for a given footprint, as well as much more uniform power output over the course of a day, over the seasons of the year, and in the face of blockage from clouds or shadows. These improvements

make power output more predictable and uniform, which could make integra-tion with the power grid easier than with conventional systems, the researchers say. The basic physical reason for the improvement in power output—and for the more uniform output over time—is that the 3D structures’ vertical surfaces can collect much more sunlight during mornings, evenings and winters, when the sun is closer to the horizon.

The algorithms can also be used to optimise and simplify shapes with little loss of energy. It turns out the difference in power output between such optimised shapes and a simpler cube is only about 10 to 15 per cent—a difference that is dwarfed by the greatly improved perfor-mance of 3D shapes in general, he says. The team analysed both simpler cubic and more complex accordion-like shapes in their rooftop experimental tests.

In general, 3D shapes could be an advantage in any location where space is limited, like urban environments.

Two small-scale versions of 3D photovoltaic arrays were among those tested by Jeffrey Grossman and his team on an MIT rooftop to measure their actual electrical output throughout the day

techwatch


Sulfur in Every Pore F

rom smartphones to e-bikes, the number of mobile electronic devices is steadily growing around the world. As

a result, there is an increased need for batteries that are small and light, yet powerful. As the potential for the

New Process Converts Polyethylene Into Carbon Fibre

Polyethylene used in plastic bags can be turned into something far more valuable through a

process being developed at the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. A team led by Amit Naskar of the Materials Science and Technology Division has outlined a method that allows not only for production of carbon fibre, but also the ability to tailor the final product to specific applications.

“Our results represent what we believe will one day provide the industry with a flexible technique for producing technologically innovative fibres in myriad configurations such as fibre bundle or non-woven mat assemblies,” Naskar said.

Using a combination of multi-component fibre spinning and a sulfonation technique, Naskar and colleagues have demonstrated that they can make polyethylene-base fibres with a customised surface contour, and manipulate the filament diameter down to the submicron scale. The patent-pending process also allows them to tune the porosity, making the material potentially useful for filtration, catalysis and electrochemical energy harvesting.

Naskar notes that the sulfonation process allows for great flexibility as the carbon fibres exhibit properties that are dictated by processing conditions. For this project, the researchers produced carbon fibres with unique cross-sectional geometry, from hollow circular to gear-shaped by using a multi-component melt extrusion-based fibre spinning method.

“We dip the fibre bundle into an acid containing a chemical bath where it reacts and forms a black fibre that will no longer melt,” Naskar explains. “It is this sulfonation reaction that transforms the plastic fibre into an infusible form. At this stage, the plastic molecules bond, and with further heating cannot melt or flow. At very high temperatures, this fibre retains mostly carbon and all other elements volatise off in different gas or compound forms.”

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Carbon fibres having unique surface geometries, from circular to hollow gear-shaped, are produced from polyethylene using a versatile fabrication method. The resulting carbon fibre exhibits properties that are dependent on processing conditions, rendering them highly amenable to myriad applications

further improvement of lithium-ion batteries is nearly exhausted, experts are now turning to a new and promising power storage device: lithium-sulfur batteries.

In an important step toward the further development of this type

of battery, a team led by Professor Thomas Bein of LMU Munich and Linda Nazar of Waterloo University in Canada, has developed porous carbon nanoparticles that utilise sulfur molecules to achieve the greatest possible efficiency. In prototypes of the lithium-sulfur battery, lithium ions are exchanged between lithium and sulfur-carbon electrodes. The sulfur plays a special role in this system: Under optimal circumstances, it can absorb two lithium ions per sulfur atom. It is therefore an excellent energy storage material due to its low weight.

However, sulfur is a poor conductor, meaning that electrons can only be transported with great difficulty during charging and discharging. To improve the battery design the scientists at Nanosystems Initiative Munich (NIM) are striving to generate sulfur phases with the greatest possible interface area for electron transfer by coupling them with a nanostructured conductive material. To this end, Thomas Bein and his team at NIM first developed a network of porous carbon nanoparticles. The nanoparticles have 3 to 6-nanometer wide pores, allowing the sulfur to be evenly distributed. In this way, almost all of the sulfur atoms are available to accept lithium ions. At the same time they are also located close to the conductive carbon.

“The sulfur is very accessible electrically in these novel and highly porous carbon nanoparticles and is stabilised so that we can achieve a high initial capacity of 1200 mAh/g and good cycle stability,” explains Bein.

The carbon structure also reduces the so-called polysulfide problem. Polysulfides form as intermediate products of the electrochemical processes and can have a negative impact on the charging and discharging of the battery. The carbon network binds the polysulfides, however, until their conversion to the desired dilithium sulfide is achieved. The scientists were also able to coat the carbon material with a thin layer of silicon oxide which protects against polysulfides without reducing conductivity.

by rajat dhawan, gautam swaroop and adil zainulbhai

A McKinsey analysis discovers that rising demand coupled with the desire of multinationals to diversify their production into low-cost plants located in countries other than China could help India’s manufacturing sector reach $1 trillion, while creating up to 90 million domestic jobs, and help it emerge out of the shadows

The PromiseFulFilling

India’s manufacturers have long performed below their potential. Although the country’s manufacturing exports are growing (particularly in skill-intensive sectors such as auto components, engineered goods, generic pharmaceuticals, and small

cars), the manufacturing sector generates just 16 per cent of India’s GDP. Moreover, a majority of India’s largest manufacturers don’t return their cost of capital, a factor that dampens investment in the sector and makes it less attractive than its


cover story

counterparts in competing economies, such as China and Thailand. Indeed, China’s manufacturers captured nearly 45 per cent of the global growth in manufacturing exports from low-cost countries between 2001 and 2010, whereas India accounted for a paltry five per cent.

India’s rapidly expanding economy, which has grown by seven per cent a year over the past decade, gives the country’s manufacturers a huge opportunity to reverse the tide. History shows that as incomes rise, the demand for consumer goods skyrockets. Many of India’s consumption sectors, including food and beverages, textiles and apparel, and electrical equipment and machinery, have reached this inflection point. Our research shows that these sectors will grow from 12 to 20 per cent annually over the next 15 years.

The global economic growth is poised to create opportunities for low-cost manufacturers everywhere: by 2015 the market for manufactured goods from low-cost countries will more than double, to nearly $8 trillion a year. China will probably capture much of the growth. Still, we estimate that up to $5 trillion a year will be up for grabs as global companies seek to diversify production and sources of supply beyond China, both to address rising factor costs there and to chase domestic demand in other countries.

India has a massive workforce, an emerging supply base, and access to natural resources needed in production—notably, iron ore and aluminum for engineered goods, cotton for textiles, and coal for power generation. The country could become a viable manufacturing alternative to China in industries ranging from apparel to auto components and might even dominate some skill-intensive manufacturing sectors.

If India’s manufacturing sector realised its full potential, it could generate 25 to 30 per cent of GDP by 2025, thus propelling the country into the manufacturing big leagues, along with China, Ger-many, Japan, and the United States. Along the way, we estimate that India could create 60 million to 90 million new manufacturing jobs and become an at-tractive investment destination for its own entrepre-neurs and multinational companies.

India’s product makers must embrace global best practices in operations—while tailoring them to In-dia’s unique environment—to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the country’s manufacturing investments dramatically.

Bolster OperationsIndia’s legacy of industrial protectionism has left many of the country’s manufacturers uncompetitive. To seize the opportunities now available to them, they must dramatically increase the productivity of their labour and capital. The rewards could be significant: a McKinsey benchmarking study of 75 Indian manufac-turers found that for an average company, the poten-tial productivity improvements represented about sev-en percentage points in additional returns on sales.


improve labour ProductivityIndian manufacturers lag behind their global peers in production planning, supply chain management, quality, and maintenance—areas that contribute to their lower productivity. Consequently, workers in In-dia’s manufacturing sector are almost four and five times less productive, on average, than their counter-parts in Thailand and China, respectively. Nonetheless, some Indian companies are making strides. Tata Steel, for instance, improved its output per worker by a factor of eight between 1998 and 2011, largely by adapting its operational and man-agement practices to India’s unique conditions. The company dramatically improved the output of its blast furnaces, for example, by learning to adjust them continually to account for the large variations in the ash content of Indian coal from shipment to shipment. In this way, the steelmaker can burn coal with higher ash content more efficiently than would otherwise be possible.

The company has also made significant organisational changes to support the new ways of working. To make employees more accountable, for example, Tata Steel reduced the number of managerial layers to five, from 13. It also began investing heavily in building analytical and interpersonal skills among frontline managers and staff to ensure access to scarce competencies. Today, the company’s Shavak Nanavati Technical Institute trains more than 2,000 employees a year in

both hard skills as well as soft ones, such as conflict resolution. Together, these moves strengthened the company’s focus on continuous improvement—Tata Steel won the coveted Deming Prize in 2008 for advances in process excellence and quality improvements—and helped it become one of the world’s lowest-cost steel producers.

improve Capital ProductivityIndia’s manufacturers must also improve the produc-tivity of their capital, in some cases by 50 per cent or more. While such improvements are challenging, they are possible if companies set bold targets and adopt an ‘owner–entrepreneur’ mindset when tackling large capital projects or making other big investments.

For example, a global mining and metals company that was setting up aluminum smelter operations in India set a capital cost target 50 per cent lower than the industry’s global average. The company then empowered its project teams to reach the goal—for example, by giving them greater freedom to make decisions about capital specifications and which low-cost equipment suppliers to use. (A technical and commercial audit team of senior managers ensured that the new approach didn’t compromise the quality of capital equipment or backfire in the form of graft).

Moreover, the company did not give the contract out on an EPC (engineering, procurement and consulting) basis. Instead, it brought together a

India could be competitive in a number of industriesBy 2025, India could . . . Sectors

• Aluminium• Apparel• Auto components• Iron and steel

• Jewellery• Leather• Pharmaceuticals

• Power transmission and distribution equipment

• Specialty chemicals

• Basic chemicals• Commercial heating,

ventilation, and air conditioning

• Computer hardware• Consumer electronics• Domestic appliances• Engines and turbines

• Fabricated metal products• Footwear• Industrial- and medical-

electronics equipment• Machinery• Miscellaneous electric

equipment• Motor vehicle assembly• Other basic metals

• Paper and related products

• Petroleum and coal products

• Plastic products• Storage media• Telecom equipment• Textiles

. . . establish leadership in these sectors and become one of the top 2 low-cost-country exporters.

. . . capture significant share in these sectors and become one of the top 3 to 5 low-cost-country exporters.

cover story


mix of Chinese and European companies to finalise the design and supply the equipment, and the integration and commissioning work was done in-house, thus saving much of the margin that would otherwise have been given away. Together, these moves helped the company to launch its Indian smelter operations at a capital cost 50 per cent below industry averages (and 20% less than other players in the same market).

Many Indian companies are also assessing the technical de-sign of their capital equipment to make trade-offs between capital expenditures and lifecycle expec-tations for reliability—essentially ‘Indianising’ the specifications. Tata Power, for example, has lowered its capital expenditures in a drive to identify relatively inexpensive designs and specifica-tions for big projects. During the planning stages of a new 4,000 MW facility, for instance, the com-pany brought together customers, suppliers, and Tata engineers to make a number of Indianised design decisions. These included using cheaper welded tubes instead of seamless ones in feedwater heaters, and redesigning the layout of the turbine-generator building to make it more compact. Together, such trade-offs saved the company more than $100 million in capital outlays while preserving the plant’s core capabilities and meeting standards for safety and reliability.

Meanwhile, some Indian companies are working to raise the productivity of their existing assets—for example, by focussing on the reliability of equip-ment. In our experience, throughput improvements from 40 to 100 per cent are possible when Indian companies apply traditional lean-management techniques to keep machines running longer, and to reduce time wasted during retooling and production line change overs. Tata Steel, for instance, focussed on standardised tasks throughout its mills and trained workers to uncover the root causes of equip-ment problems. One of the company’s melting shops we studied raised its production dramatically over two years by standardising jobs and empowering its operations and maintenance employees to identify potential problems of key machines that had previ-ously been prone to creating production bottlenecks.

Targeted Skill DevelopmentIndia’s manufacturers could learn a lot from the IT sector’s experience in promoting the large-scale development of skills. India’s IT services and business-process-outsourcing sectors together hire nearly a million new recruits a year and bring them up to speed in just months. A key factor in this success was the early recognition among Indian IT companies that the number of engineering graduates in computer sciences wouldn’t meet the needs of the country’s burgeoning IT sector. In response, Infosys, Wipro, and other companies began hiring graduates from all engineering disciplines and using in-house curricula and faculties to build skills among new hires. That approach ultimately led to the formation of a successful network of independent, privately owned computer-training institutes.

India’s manufacturers should follow a similar path by establishing in-house training centres to promote vital manufacturing roles, including those of fitters, machinists, maintenance engineers, and welders. Some Indian companies are already tak-ing matters into their own hands. For example, to impart vocational skills, India’s largest automaker, Maruti Suzuki, has adopted six technical institutes across the country, some in regions with little manu-

More than half of India’s manufacturing companies do not return their cost of capitalRelationship between return on invested capital (ROIC) and weighted average cost of capital (WACC) for top 1,000 manufacturing companies in India,1%

1 Based on India’s 2006–10 median 5-year after-tax ROIC (excluding goodwill) and long-term WACC (estimated at ~12%).

54 46

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ROIC less than WACC ROIC greater than WACC

By SecTor Durables and textiles Utilities Paper products Auto

Food and beverage products Metals and mining Energy Chemicals Pharma

Capital goods Construction materials

n= 1

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who live within a 10-kilometre radius of this Sanand factory make Nanos. Similarly, Tata Steel has agreed with the Orissa state government to train and improve the skills of workers living near a planned steel plant in Kalinganagar. The company has pledged to give local villagers jobs in the project’s execution and operations.

Frontline workers aren’t the only ones whose skills need upgrading; India’s manufacturers must also improve those of managers. Consider the expe-rience of the cement maker Holcim, where execu-tives set—and achieved—such goals as significantly improving the reliability and energy efficiency of the production process, as well as other important op-erating metrics at the company’s Indian subsidiaries.

Imperatives for the Government

facturing presence. By using the company’s own managers as faculty for some classes, Maruti Suzuki inculcates trainees with a strong feel for its culture as well. The automaker is now expanding its training programmes to include employees of key suppliers.

Although training programmes make good busi-ness sense, they are also increasingly necessary to get local populations to accept the establishment of a manufacturing footprint in India. Tata Motors’ partnership with the Gujarat state government to improve the skills of local workers, for example, helped the company to ameliorate concerns about the displacement of residents by the construction of a Tata Nano car factory, while giving the company access to new workers. Today, nearly 1,000 people

India’s central and state governments must eliminate four barriers that

slow down the efforts of the country’s manufacturers to improve their capital and labour productivity.

Product market and ownership barriers: More than half of India’s employees in the organised sector (regulated by labour laws) still work in government-owned institutions—for example, in the base-metals, petroleum, and power generation industries. Product market barriers and government ownership tend to lower productivity and distort markets significantly. Yet receding levels of government ownership have dramatically improved the productivity of labour and capital in other parts of the economy. India’s automotive sector, for example, was among the first to be liberalised in the early 1990s, and the entry of multinational and domestic players sparked a competitive transfor-mation. Subsequently, between 1995 and 2005 the automotive sector’s GDP per manufacturing employee grew by a factor of 15. The Indian government deems some sectors (aerospace and defence, for example) as strategic and limits the extent of foreign participation, yet for a majority of sectors, greater pri-vate and multinational participation can help unlock productivity structurally.

Land market barriers: Distortions in the land market (including high stamp du-ties and cumbersome regulations) are a huge barrier to productivity improve-ments in India. In the steel industry alone, we estimate that more than $60 billion of committed capital currently awaits environmental or land clear-ances. Much of this planned investment has already been delayed by three to five years. Challenges to aggregating land in India also make it tough for sup-pliers and manufacturers to raise their overall productivity by locating facili-ties closely together and thus reaping network effects enabled by streamlined supply chains, the sharing of infrastruc-ture, and mutual learning opportunities.

Labour barriers: Stringent labour laws make it difficult for Indian companies to restructure, and thus to increase their productivity and expand output. Firing underperforming workers is difficult in India, and this ongoing problem translates into high levels of unproductive labour at many compa-nies. Encouragingly, India’s National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) is experimenting with ways to use pub-lic–private partnerships to strengthen vocational training. Coupled with sen-sible labour laws, such moves could begin to make a difference.

Infrastructure: Urgent attention is needed to create more railways, roads, ports, and power-generating capacity across India. Poor infra-structure saps industrial productivity and leaves the country at a huge disadvantage compared with others. Bad road conditions, for example, limit trucks carrying cargo in India to an average distance of only about 250–300 kilometres a day, compared with the developed world’s average of 500 kilometres. Similarly, turnaround times for ships loading and unloading in India’s ports can be up to four days, compared with only 10 to 12 hours in Hong Kong.

Recently, India’s Ministry of Com-merce & Industries called for the development of National Investment and Manufacturing Zones (NIMZs). The encouragement of such industrial clusters is a positive development, since they are a proven way of catalys-ing the efforts of the public and private sectors to address infrastructure challenges. In Jharkhand, for instance, a cluster in the city of Jamshedpur at-tracted dozens of industrial companies that teamed up to improve the local infrastructure. Industrial clusters help spark the kinds of supplier ecosystems that help innovation thrive.

cover story


At the heart of this initiative is an academy the company set up in its Indian plant to help future leaders bolster their skills through a ‘field and forum’ approach that intersperses classwork with hands-on fieldwork in the form of operational-improvement projects. Simi-larly, Holcim trains its managers to focus performance dialogues with frontline employees on the importance of identifying the root causes of problems and of finding potential solutions through cross-functional teams. The company uses operational ‘war rooms’ to serve as a clearinghouse for the best ideas and to uncover the best contributions. In parallel, Holcim created an ambi-tious leadership programme to support the personal development of up-and-coming manufacturing leaders.

Seizing OpportunityThe combination of rocketing domestic demand and the multinationals’ desire to diversify their manufac-turing footprint offers Indian product makers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to emerge from the shad-ow of the country’s services sector. By improving their productivity and bolstering operations, they could be-come an engine of economic prosperity for the whole country. The country’s central and state governments can help by dismantling barriers in markets for land,

Many sectors in India will experience strong domestic market growth driven by increased consumption

Indian manufacturers lag behind their global peers in key operational areas

Compound annual growth rate of per capita consumption,1 2009–25, %

1 Based on consumption per 1,000 people; motor vehicles based on sales of vehicles per 1,000 people.Source: Global Insights; McKinsey analysis

electrical Machinery Food and beverages Motor vehicles Base metals (steel) chemicals electrical Machinery

2312

1517

Technical systemsThe way corporate resources are deployed to meet customer needs at lowest cost

Management infrastructureFormal structures and processes used to manage technical systems and achieve business objectives

Capabilities, mindsets, and behavioursThe way people think and feel about their work and conduct themselves in their workplaces

labour, infrastructure, and some products. But the lion’s share of the improvement must come

from India’s manufacturers themselves. Recognising this, a few leading ones are upgrading their competi-tiveness by bolstering their operations to improve the productivity of labour and capital, while launching targeted programmes to train the plant operators, managers, maintenance engineers, and other profes-sionals the country needs to reach its manufacturing potential. A closer look at the experiences of success-ful companies offers lessons for other Indian manu-facturers, and for global product makers considering opportunities in India.

Rajat Dhawan is a director in McKinsey’s Delhi office, of which Gautam Swaroop is an alumnus; Adil Zainulbhai is a director in the Mumbai office. This article was originally published in McKinsey Quarterly, www.mckinseyquarterly.com. Copyright (c) 2012 McKinsey & Company. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.

Manufacturers should establish in-house training centres to promote vital manufacturing roles


With a little creativity and lot of foresight, consumer devices can be effectively deployed for business advantages by daniel burru

Illus

tratio

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Ant

ony

It used to be that any change in an organisation would flow from the top down. For example, the C-suite would decide that a new computer

system was needed or that a new policy should be enacted, Then the mandate would trickle all the way down to the frontline workers. Sure, it would get resistance along the way, but eventually the change took place just as the leaders wanted.

Today, especially when it comes to the consumerisation of IT, the change process is quite different. What we’re seeing is a 'bottom-up' approach, where the end user (the employee) is pressuring the CIO and other C-suite leaders to change. The consumerisation of IT is extremely disruptive. Not only is the change coming from the opposite direction as what the CIO is used to, but it’s also coming so fast that many CIOs are unsure of what to do.

So, what’s really behind this consumerisation of IT trend? In one word? Mobility. Because of advances in bandwidth, stor-age, and processing power, the

tools an average consumer can purchase are extremely powerful. Even as recent as 10 years ago, technology tools for the consumer weren’t that impressive, and didn’t have much business application. As such, CIOs simply had to pro-nounce mandates like “No video games on your work computer,” or “Don’t bring in outside CD-ROMs,” and “No personal cell phones in the office” and the problem was solved (or so they thought).

Kicking It 'Old School'In the early days of consumerisa-tion, we didn’t have wireless data or cloud computing, much less the bandwidth, storage, and processing power to make things powerful, so the threat was perceived as mini-mal. For example, even the early BlackBerry wasn’t a true smart phone. It didn’t give you video, audio, or a browser. It was simply a phone and email tool—something the CIO could easily control.

But that was then, and this is now. Today, the average person can purchase, understand, and

easily implement an array of new technologies designed to make work and life easier. Consider this: almost half of employees feel that their personal consumer devices and software are more useful than the tools and applications provided by their IT departments; almost half of employees feel comfort-able and capable in making their own purchasing decisions to apply technology tools for work; and almost a third are willing to pay for their own devices and applica-tions to use at work. Now, it’s easy to see why the consumerisation of IT trend is so disruptive.

This trend is not just in the United States, it’s global. In fact, the leaders in the consumerisa-tion trend are China and India, followed by Brazil and Mexico. In other words, it’s spreading and growing rapidly. So if you’re one of the 73 per cent of executives who have not addressed this trend yet, you need to do so now.

The Big BoostWhat really gave the consumeri-

Consumer ITThe Rise of

InformatIon Technology


that the increasing penetration of consumer technology in the enterprise communication, while only 28 per cent of employers believe that to be the case.

Stop Reacting, Start AnticipatingUnfortunately, most IT depart-ments are reactionary. They didn’t anticipate the consumerisation of IT trend even though it was relatively easy to see. And when it hit in full force, they became crisis managers rather than opportunity seekers. They viewed the consum-erisation of IT as a threat and tried to protect and defend the company and the network, never realising that the consumerisation of IT is a hard trend. It’s not here today and gone tomorrow; it’s here forever and it’s only going to accelerate. Why? Because the trifecta of band-width, storage, and processing power is continuing to march on, giving us even more powerful tools in the consumer market in an inexpensive way and very quickly.

Here’s one example of what we see happening in IT departments across the country. The IT help desk that companies provide has little ability to support and help their employees. The help desk and the IT department are de-signed to help with the 'approved' devices and tools. But now they are seeing tools that are not approved and don’t know how to help with them. While this issue may seem small, it quickly slows productivity and causes many em-ployees to think negatively of IT.

If you’re ready to stop reacting and start seeing the opportunity staring at you right now, here are some steps you can take to turn the consumerisation of IT trend into your company’s competitive advantage:

1. Start a dialogueThe benefits of the consumeri-

sation of IT are clear. It provides greater business agility, faster

sation of IT a big push is Apple with their iPhone and iPad. Apple took the concept of a smartphone and raised it to a new level. Ad-ditionally, it launched the apps trend, which also started as a consumer oriented offering rather than a business one. Now, with a small iPhone or iPad, consum-ers could have a true multime-dia computer in their hand. Of course, competitors quickly came and launched even more consum-er-oriented powerful tools, mak-ing the trend grow quickly.

Armed with these new tools and the widespread deployment of 3G and 4G wireless as well as WiFi, employees quickly realised, “I don’t need be tethered or plugged in. I can do my work wirelessly and remotely. And I can use amazingly powerful tools that I like better than the ones IT is providing me.” Remember, apps (even the business productivity ones) are inexpensive, easy to install, powerful, and focussed. If you don’t like one, you can easily uninstall it with the push of a

button. And, from the employee’s perspective, they know their job and what they need to do better than anyone in IT. So, why shouldn’t they decide what tools they use and how they use them?

This is why we often see business professionals with two devices: the one they want to use and the one their IT department is making them use. And while you may think your employees are always keeping the two devices separate, that they are always using their business device for business use and their personal one for personal use, think again. In a Unisys-sponsored research study of 2,660 information workers, researchers found that employees are bringing personal devices into the enterprise at an increasing rate. In fact, 40 per cent of the devices they use to access business applications are personally owned. That’s a 10 percentage point increase from the previous survey year.

Additionally, the survey concurred with my statement


an app, they can go to IT and see which ones IT recommends and why. This approach engenders collaboration, elevates IT to the status of a trusted advisor, and puts IT back in the driver's seat.

4. Help employees stay safeDevelop some tools to help

secure consumer technology, and create secure doorways of entry for your staff. Again, your employ-ees are going to find their own ways around any security features you enact on the network. So why not create a path, a 'doorway', to help them get in and work in a secure and productive way.

Opportunity Favours the BoldFor CIOs, the consumerisation of IT brings change into the organisation from a different direction. But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can become more innovative, more opportunity-focussed, and ultimately more valuable to the organisation when you lead the change by embracing the trend rather than fighting it.

It’s time to stop enforcing the status quo and instead, look at the new consumer-focussed devices and tools from a business perspective. Anticipate what your employees want and need to do their jobs better—and then devise smart and flexible policies for managing and securing those technologies. You will find that the consumerisation of IT can unlock new opportunities and revenue streams for your organisation.

Daniel Burrus is one of the world’s leading technology forecasters and business strategists, and is the Founder and CEO of Burrus Research, a research and consulting firm that monitors global advancements in technology driven trends to help clients better understand how technological, social and business forces are converging to create enormous, untapped opportunities.

This article has been reprinted with permission from CIO Update. To see more articles regarding IT management best practices, please visit www.cioupdate.com.

problem solving and innovation, increased collaboration, increased communication, higher productiv-ity, and overall improved employee satisfaction because people are using the devices they want to use. Additionally, your Gen-Y and Gen-X employees are tech-savvy and need to use the newest devices so they can feel empowered.

Survey the people in your com-pany to find out what’s working and what’s not working for them techno-logically-speaking. As the CIO, you need to know what they are using and trying. Ask them such things as, “How are you using the device or technology when you travel?” “What do you wish you had that we don’t currently provide?” and “What tools do you think are best?” In other words, start the dialogue.

Engage your employees so they see IT as a resource rather than a deterrent to technological innova-tion. Then, after the conversa-tion, test the tools the employees mentioned. Get to know how they work and put them on your com-pany’s approved list.

2. Spur innovationYou and I both know that no mat-

ter what policies you enact to keep outside technologies away from the enterprise, the employees are going to buy them and bring them into work anyway. So, instead of default-ing to 'no' when something new comes out, encourage your people to bring the new item to IT to look at it, track it, and provide sugges-tions for how the company can use it. After all, the next new device may have a huge business use.

Either way, if your people are using it, you want to know how they’re using it so you can replicate their successes with the technology company-wide. So rather than have employees hide their technology tools from you (which makes IT out to be the 'bad guys'), strive to co-create the future with the staff.

3. Make recommendationsHelp employees make an

informed choice. According to the findings, 53 per cent of employees surveyed say that mobile devices such as laptops, smart phones, and tablets are their most critical de-vices for doing work. This is up from 44 per cent in 2010. In addition, 65 per cent of employees say that a mobile device will be their most critical work device in 2012.

Despite this growing awareness, however, the research found that IT departments are falling further behind in the consumerisation race. For example, employees report using their mobile devices for business purposes at twice the rate that IT executives believe to be the case (69% usage reported by employees versus 34% usage reported by IT executives). In addition, 44 per cent of employees report using social media.

After your IT staff analyses the potential tools, create a list of the ones you recommend employees use, even though the company does not supply that particular item. In other words, if someone wants to get a tablet, an ultra-light laptop, a smartphone, or even

“Unfortunately, most IT departments didn't anticipate

the consumerisation of IT trend”

InformatIon Technology


strategy


A public speech or presentation can often make or mar the perception of a leader. A look at common mistakes—and how to avoid them by david lim

Do you fear or welcome the opportunity to make a speech or a presentation? Are you uncomfortable addressing a gathering, or leading a discussion with

a large group of people? If the answer to these questions is yes, then join the large group of senior executives who fear fumbles and failure on the podium. Here is how to avoid common mistakes that even experienced speakers make—and make your presentation a riveting experience for the audience.

1. Have a Focus In the rush of things, too many speakers feel they need to cram in as much information as possible in a presentation. The consequences? Lack of focus, or an information overload. For a typical 30-minute presentation, you should look at making three to four points. The rest of the time should be spent

reinforcing the points with relevant stories, pictures, videos and examples. Remember, not everyone absorbs information the same way. Do you want your audience to squint at a text-dense PowerPoint slide, or listen to your message?

2. Distribute a Handout Remember to shoot yourself the next time you put more than a few lines of text on a PowerPoint slide. If you must include gobs of information, dense graphs, and complex tables then create a separate handout to support your presentation. I see this mistake many times every year as speakers struggle to help an audience make sense of a dense spread sheet slide—when they should be zooming in on only the most relevant information.

3. Move Around the StageDepending on the height of the platform and po-dium, some speakers become ‘talking heads’—with only their heads or upper shoulders visible to an audience. This often because speakers feel ‘safe’ anchored to a podium, when in fact, they could be enhancing their presentation by putting their whole body into it. The other extreme is when they move away from the podium, pace up and down the stage; or move aimlessly on the stage, fretting away ner-vous energy, very much like a caged tiger in a zoo.

As a speaker, plan to step away from the podium and present on stage in a relaxed collegial manner. Use body language, gestures, postures and body ‘shapes’ to drive home the message. Stand still when making a key point, and move only if you need to. Strong positions of influence are right-front or centre-front of the stage.

4. Ditch Useless Jokes I once listened to a speaker sprinkle his message liberally with jokes and one-liners for 20 minutes.

It only served to confuse me about the point of his message, as none of the humour was linked to the message. Choose humour wisely, and ensure it enforces or supports a point you are making.

5. Craft Strong Opens and Closes When I was much younger, I loved to demonstrate magic tricks. A few key things about pulling off a great magic show is: a) grab the audience’s atten-tion, b) add super-attention, c) leave them wanting more. If your opening is weak, you will fail to sustain the audience’s interest. Open with a powerful story, quote or define what you hope to achieve in the pre-sentation. These are less of a cliche than a tired joke. Finish or close with a story, metaphor that honours the content of your presentation, or call for action. This message will be ‘sticky’ with the audience.

ThinkSpeakBefore you

6. Keep it Simple It’s tempting to pack a presentation with lots of content to deliver ‘value’. The real test of value is what the audi-ence remembers and wants to do to help their condition in the next month or so. As such, focussing on just three to four points, supported by evidence, stories, case stud-ies—is a much better than covering too much ground and overwhelming your audience. It also allows you to shorten stories, drop supporting anecdotes if you are running out of time without sacrificing your key points.

7. Don’t Rush If you have rehearsed your presentation, then you will realise that some parts of your presentation will need to be dropped or reduced to have quality (vs quantity ). You choose which bits need to be left out. The key is pacing and rehearsing before the big event, and timing yourself during the presentation. Don’t try to cram it all in.

8. Mind the Real World Acknowledge noises, eg, a phone that goes off, a crash of breaking plates—in your auditorium. To rattle on without doing so makes the audience feel uncomfortable, as well as wondering why the speaker didn’t react to that awful noise from the back. With practice you can also learn how to use such external interference to your advantage and boost the quality of the presentation.

9. Watch the AudienceAt every stage of your presentation, be aware of what the audience is going through—are they engaged? Bored? Are they leaning forward slightly to hear your points, nodding every now and then? A great speaker learns how to tune into the audi-ence and adjust his/her speaking pace, volume, even content, segues and body language.

10. Less is More When preparing for a 30-minute speech, prepare 25 minutes of content. You will invariably find that you want to repeat a statement, or field a question from someone who can’t wait until the Q&A session. You will feel relaxed and professional in your delivery.

11. Enjoy the Effort Refrain feeling that your presentation is a chore or a pain. Take time to share information and interact with the audience. If you think of it as a pain, your emotions will show, and the audience won’t like it. Giving yourself permission to have a bit of fun will make you a better presenter.

David Lim is a leadership and negotiation coach. This article is

an extract from his latest book, How Leaders Lead: 71 lessons

in Leading Yourself and others. He can be contacted at david@

everestmotivation.com

strategy


Should all business reporting, including financial reporting, environmental accounting and CSR reporting be standardised across the globe? If yes, then how?

Setting New

by anindya sengupta

Standards

The motivation behind the standardisation of busi-ness reporting is that it acts as a business enabler

in bringing forth new opportunities and market access for companies, investors, professionals and the economy as a whole. Watchers anticipate that standardisation will improve the benchmarking of organisations, and enable reliable insights on the future direction. However, achieving this utopia is not without its share of woes.

Historically, financial reporting has received a strong emphasis with high-quality standards being developed by national accounting standard bodies and enforced by means of strong governance and firm regulatory frameworks. A sub-stantial body of work has also been carried out in terms of developing and updating a set of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The rate of adoption of IFRS (currently more than 100 countries) continues to increase. The impetus to align with the IFRS is coming from professionals who find merit in the reduced risk and lower cost of capital, as well as the expansion in the scope of account-ing expertise and services offered.

Environmental AccountingEnvironment reporting has had a much lower level of development of standards and harmonisation. Environmental management ac-counting is less standards-orient-ed, and more guidance-driven. The thought process emerging from acclaimed bodies in this field, eg, Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) or International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) are primarily guidance documents, at a ge-neric and sector-specific level for environment and social account-ing/reporting. These documents provide, at minimum, information and some extent of standard set-ting. The guidance puts the onus on national governments as well

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as international authorities for more detailed applicability studies including local contextual issues.

Unlike financial reporting, where ratios and information from statements can, to a large extent, be used as an important indica-tor of financial performance and benchmarking, the environmental context of a country, its resources and national priorities play an important role in formulating stan-dards for accounting and report-ing. For example, in developing countries the waste disposal costs, or for that matter other environ-mental externalities (‘polluter pays principle’) may not be properly accounted for, when compared to other developed countries.

The maturity levels towards environmental governance at national and firm level is also diverse, and thus, an impediment to standardisation of environmen-tal accounting. Environmental accounting is more complex as it involves physical as well as financial information, and it raises issues on proper recognition and valuation of assets and liabili-ties. Moreover, lifecycle thinking towards impact quantification of a company’s operations is still uneven across companies and sec-tors which often see this issue as compliance to regulatory norms.

The natural step forward would be to take guidance from the internationally accepted thought process as well as the ground situ-ation to evolve national standards, and take governance and regula-tory steps simultaneously. While developing standards, one must keep in mind the objectives of meeting the informational needs of the external stakeholders such as investors, all of whom have a strong interest in receiving accu-rate and standardised information.

CSR ReportingCorporate social responsibil-ity (CSR) reporting, which is the

reporting of a company’s voluntary activities in the local community and the initiatives taken to address wider issues in the communities, is the most challenging area for stan-dardisation. While the expenditure on CSR is religiously accounted, be it for the reasons of tax deductions or for the purpose of determining total spend efficiency, the quan-tification of social benefits and indirect business benefits can be hard to standardise.

This is because of the local and national context; the existing rules on social performance (such as the regulations on resettlement and re-habilitation, social rights) may vary and produce different impacts on a company’s performance. The inputs in the form of resources (time and cost) and in-kind contribution (at cost) can be quantified to an extent and standards can be developed. The focus of standardisation should be to achieve some meaning into the diverse ac-tions and focus areas of CSR and help in decision-making, both internally and externally.

The London Benchmarking Group (LBG) has put in place certain policy guidelines and a generic framework for accounting of corporate community invest-ments (CCI). Many organisations (more than 100 member compa-nies) are striving to follow this model of accounting for their CCI. In India, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, in 2011, released a com-prehensive set of guidelines that encompass social, environmental and economical responsibilities of business in the form of National Voluntary Guidelines. SEBI has, through its circular on November 24, 2011, stated that top 100 companies in terms of market capitalisation would be mandated to submit Business Responsibil-ity Reports as a part of annual disclosure in their annual reports, describing measures taken by

them along the key principles of National Voluntary Guidelines.

Heads of organisations should take cognisance of these develop-ments, and steer their reporting agenda to be compliant and have a competitive edge. Responding to these developments, joining the debate, influencing the future would need new skills and better link-age to corporate strategy and key performance indicators.

The Road AheadWhile standardisation of business reporting is welcome, we need to understand the objectives of doing it. In the case of financial reporting it facilitates a host of business enablers and removes inconsistencies. For environmen-tal accounting and reporting, the field is not yet mature. National governments and standard setting bodies need to do more contex-tual research, and formulate a sound governance and regulatory framework. CSR, which delves more into intangibles, may be toughest of all to standardise

Anindya Sengupta works with Pricewater-

houseCooper’s sutainability practice. The

views expressed here are personal.

Points to

Ponder• Standardisation should reduce inconsistent treat-ment and presentation of underlying transactions

• While the expenditure for CSR is accounted for, the quantification of social and indirect business benefits

can be hard to standardise• The focus of standardisation should be to achieve

meaning into the diverse focus areas of CSR• The accounting for CSR delves more into the intan-

gibles and may be a source of debate• CXOs should steer their reporting agenda to be compliant and have

a competitive edge

Increased demand volatility and cash-flow requirements are placing greater pressure on organisations to manage

available inventories. Whether caused by planned, poorly planned or unplanned events, inventory shortages do occur. Customer impact and long-term account relationships depend on a company’s ability to handle these shortages in a routine and organised fashion. Leaders

have created an advantage by formalising a strategic and profitability-based response in times of inventory shortage. Laggards are not prepared to profitably manage available inventory in a way that decreases the negative impact to customers and shareholders.

The unfortunate reality is that inventory shortages of varying degrees occur within a normally operating supply chain.

While part of good planning is planning for times of failure, many companies do not have an established, formal and cross-functional process to manage the allocation of insufficient inventory to mitigate the impact to customers and shareholders.

Effective Inventory Allocation Companies that are able to establish an effective inventory allocation process possess the

Dealingwith ShortagesNo one wants to admit to inventory problems, especially to customers. However, ignoring the problem can only make the situation worse

by michael uskert

supply chain


following characteristics: Network Awareness: Essential to determining when and how much inventory is or will be available for customers, is having a handle on supply chain constraints. This includes not only manufacturing, but supplier, transportation and warehousing constraints. Supply Modelling: The ability to model the appropriate ramp-up of supply based on changing capabilities and demand is para-mount. This can best be achieved through the use of a constraint-based supply planning tool, where constraints and the picture of demand can be adjusted dynami-cally to reflect reality. Demand Insight: Equally impor-tant is an understanding of de-mand and the impact of fulfilling orders to individual customers on your organisation’s profitability. In times of short supply, the al-location process should reinforce filling orders that maximise profit or fulfil a greater strategic goal. This requires an understanding of customers that allows teams responsible for setting up the allocation strategy to easily pri-oritise customers. Cross-functional Collaboration: The unfortunate reality in many companies is that the supply function is on an island as the focal point for resolution. The quickest way out of an allocation situation requires a cross-functional solution.Determining Root Cause: A well-structured sales and operations planning process serves to use the information from network awareness, analysis and demand insight to bring limited supply back into balance with expected demand. In an effective process, it is just as important to control and shape demand as it is to accurately predict supply. This may mean removing or reducing planned promotions for items with limited supply, promoting

items not short of supply as a replacement, forgoing spot sales opportunities or delaying/restrict-ing a product launch.

To keep your business out of the never ending firefighting loop, it is important to address a number of questions and determine the root cause. What caused the shortage? Was it due to manufacturing-line failure, supply failure, poorly executed new product launch, item discontinuation or an unplanned spike in demand, etc? How often do you have to enact your materials allocation process? The following five pillars of the business operating strategy can help determine the root cause:

1.Customers and Demand: Was the shortage of inventory due to an unplanned spike in demand? If so, why didn’t the organisation know about it in advance? Was the aggregate forecast accurate, but the mix incorrect, or did the demand materialise in locations different from what was forecast? If so, is demand forecasting being performed at the right level of granularity? Was there an internal breakdown in communication or a breakdown in communication with the customer(s)? Is there an opportunity to create joint-value relationships with these customers to better sense sudden shifts in demand? 2. Innovation and Products: Was the issue caused by a new

product launch or item discon-tinuation? Which part of the launch or discontinuation process failed and why? Is there too much complexity involved in managing this process? Is there a lack of in-ternal or external coordination? Is supply chain involved early in the new product introduction (NPI) process for a smooth launch? 3. Profitable and Reliable Sup-ply esponse: Was there a supply disruption? Was this due to a supplier failure? Line failure? Was there failure to properly plan around manufacturing capacities? 4. Organisation Structure and Systems: Does company culture discourage root cause analysis by rewarding firefighting over problem solving and planning? Is there an issue in organisational alignment preventing critical information from passing to or from critical functions of the organisation? Has the talent of the organisation kept up with the changing requirements of the position? Have the systems evolved with increasing need for business information? 5. Collaborative Joint-value Creation: Have the flexibility re-quirements of your business been communicated to your supply base? Do you know about shifts in demand, but your key suppliers are just expected to react? The best thing to do is create a road map that continuously alleviates the root causes. 6.Coping with Shortages: What-ever the root cause, inventory shortages will occur. Leaders recognise that the health of their long-term account relationships and the business’s profitability depends on their ability to handle these shortages in a routine and organised fashion.

Michael Uskert is a research director in Gartner’s AMR Supply Chain Research group. He helps consumer product or-ganisations with strategy definition, best practices and insights from leaders.

“To keep your business out of never-ending firefighting loop, it is important to determine the root cause”


sector update


All Lit UpLighting industry registers robust growth, and embraces eco-friendly technologies by nirmal jain

There are reasons for the Indian lighting industry to cheer. Economic growth is pushing sales, while

favourable government initia-tives are boosting demand for energy-efficient lighting technolo-gies. Overall, the lamp sector is growing at 12 per cent, while luminaires are growing at 22 per cent. “The lighting sector has been growing at 10 to 15 per cent since 2000,” confirms Sunil Sikka, President, Havells India. While the major brands in the market include Bajaj, Crompton Greaves, GE, Havells Sylvania, Osram, Philips, Thorn and Wipro, the low entry barrier into the in-dustry is intensifying competition.

According to Kumar Ramesh, Industry Manager, Environment and Building Technologies Prac-tice of consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, “Multinational corpora-tions that strike the right price points, introduce value innovative solutions and energy-efficient products, and create a wide distribution network to penetrate the maturing market, will fare better.” Already, major firms have started offering value innovation

solutions to sustain sales, instead of focussing on product sales.

Driving Growth The development of infrastructure and real estate is opening up a plethora of opportunities for light-ing companies. A new trend is the emergence of lighting specialists who are spurring demand for luxury lighting products. “Greater awareness about the effect of light on moods and the role of lighting fixtures in enhancing interiors, is furthering prospects of light de-signers. Now, light designers join hands with architects to design interiors,” observes Ashutosh Kumar, deputy general manager, marketing for K-Lite Industries. According to him, the major tak-ers for aesthetically designed fix-tures are group housing societies and commercial spaces like ban-quet halls, hotels. According to Shyam Sujan, Secretary General of the Electric Lamp and Compo-nent Manufacturers’ Association of India (ELCOMA), “Greater awareness about aesthetics and the need for products to translate ideas and designs into interiors is boosting the industry.” Illustration: Charu Dwivedi


Demand from both home and commercial consumers is rap-idly veering towards innovative lighting solutions and manufac-turers have risen to this chal-lenge. Philips Electronics India Limited, a leading provider of lighting solutions, has launched its Home Decorative and Ambi-ance accessories and solutions range, offering light-based home décor accessories. Philips is also investing in setting up experi-ential Light Lounges and Light Shoppes (shop-in-shops) in cities across the country. So far, it has set up 55 Light Lounges and 430 Light Shoppes nationwide. Recent product launches from Wipro include the urban architectural Vola streetlights and floodlights, a new line of energy efficient multi-utility lighting solutions called Play and MyLED.

Emerging Trends“Energy-efficiency targets and environmental concerns are huge drivers for the industry,” says Sujan. Globally, LED technol-ogy is recognised as far more efficient and eco-friendly than the technology used in incandescent, fluorescent and compact fluo-rescent lamps (CFLs). Greater adoption of LED lighting in India would significantly reduce lighting load, peak demand and overall energy consumption. It’s hap-pening, albeit gradually, as cost economics push demand across segments. “The LED lighting busi-ness grossed Rs 500 crore last year. This year, sales can exceed Rs 616 crore,” adds Sujan.

Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting has made inroads into lighting systems for green build-ings. Today, 75 of the country’s 130 green buildings use Wipro’s LED-based lighting products, many of them compatible with solar-based systems. Now, the company is focussing on infra-structure projects such as ports

and airports. LED-based lighting systems also find application in niche areas like automotive, com-munications, signage, signalling and entertainment applications. The Indian Railways is another niche market for LED lighting. Last year, it celebrated the Year of Clean Energy by distributing 1.4 million CFLs to its employees.

Energy-efficient LightingThe government’s energy efficiency roadmap is also boosting the lighting sector. The roadmap sets out an ambitious target–to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by one-fourth by 2020. To achieve this, the government has initiated the National Mission on Climate Change, of which the National Mission on Enhanced Energy Efficiency (NMEEE) is a part. This mission has drawn a plan to promote LED lighting at the state level, framed policies to facilitate manufacturing, and is establishing testing standards and technical specifications for LED lighting. The mission is also insisting on the retrofitting of energy-efficient lighting in industrial and commercial buildings. Frost & Sullivan estimates that this will significantly raise penetration for energy efficient fluorescent, CFL and LED lights over the next seven years.

Also, as Energy Conservation Building Codes are implemented more stringently, demand for more efficient lighting will rise. These codes outline the minimum energy performance standards for new commercial buildings. Ra-mesh says that lighting systems account for about one-fifth of the power consumption in India, as against one-tenth in North America and Europe. The govern-ment has also exempted LED bulbs from the special counter-vailing duty of four per cent, and has reduced excise duty on such

bulbs from 10 to five per cent. This has paved the way for prices of LED lights to fall by about one-tenth since the bulb is the main component of the unit.

Overall, reduced import duties are helping the globalisation drive in the sector. “Two years ago, the government de-reserved the luminaire manufacturing segment. This opened up major opportunities for lighting com-panies,” says Sikka. Havells is the first company in India to take advantage of this change in policy by making a substantial invest-ment in a manufacturing plant in Neemrana, Rajasthan. A plant in Noida, near Delhi, has also been established to produce ballasts and drivers, an essential part of lighting electronics. “Havells has introduced cutting-edge technol-ogy here, bridging the technology gap in the segment,” adds Sikka.

Another favourable govern-ment initiative is to provide subsidies for the use of energy efficient lamps under the Bachat Lamp scheme. Formulated by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), it promotes the replace-ment of incandescent lamps with CFLs by leveraging the sales of Certified Emission Rights under the clean development mecha-nism of the UN’s Kyoto Protocol on climate change and global warming. In Kerala, 12 million CFLs were distributed, bringing down peak electricity demand by 250 MW. BEE is also encouraging municipalities to switch to LED street lighting.

BEE has formulated a national standard for LED lighting, making India the first country to accept a national standard for LED lighting. Major players in India are also conducting India-specific research on lighting products. Analysts expect LED lighting to comprise nearly 60 per cent of the market by 2021, and 80 per cent by 2031.

The gov-ernment’s ambitious en-ergy efficiency roadmap has set up the target to reduce carbon dioxide by one-fourth by 2020

sector update

RightMaking the

ConneCtion

Logistics and transportation sector upgrades itself to deliver better services

A steady stream of multinational companies setting up shop in India and burgeoning consumer demand is creating an un-precedented wave of opportunity for the

logistics sector. According to a report by Cushman & Wakefield titled ‘Logistics Industry-Real Estate’s New Powerhouse’, the sector is projected to grow 15 to 20 per cent annually, and reach Rs 19,00,000 crore ($385 billion) by 2015. “Greater economic ac-tivity, that is, domestic and international trade, will drive freight movement on roads and rails,” confirms Sridhar Chandrasekhar, Head, Crisil Research.

A new trend is the demand for integrated logistics solutions and 3PL (third party logistics), on the back of higher industrial production and the globalisa-tion of manufacturing systems. 3PL is a sound value proposition. Chandrasekhar says, “Cost-savings to companies opting for 3PL instead of arranging their logistics in-house are of the order of 5 to 10 per cent.” This trend is driving logistics vendors to make continuous improvements in infrastructure, strength-en their supply chain management skills, adopt higher service standards and deliver allied services such as packaging and inventory management.

Investments GaloreMahindra Logistics, one of the top five players in the logistics industry, recorded a turnover of Rs 100 crore last year. The company attributes its success to its ability to customise solutions while using the right technology. It has invested nearly Rs 10 crore in technology solutions. Gati Limited, another logistics major is preparing for the future by restructuring its business. The company has created three strategic business units, small parcel and warehousing (express distribution and supply chain management), coastal shipping, and cold-chain services. Recently, Gati entered into an agreement with Kintetsu World Express Inc to set up a joint venture (JV), to which it will transfer its express distribution and supply chain business. Kitetsu has invested Rs 272 crore for a 30 per cent stake in the JV. Another logistics company that has raised funds in the last one year is Aegis Logistics Limited. Kaup Capital’s Infrastructure India Holdings Fund has invested Rs 65 crore in the venture.

Such investments are helping the sector blossom. The 3PL market has been expanding by a hearten-ing 25 per cent, says RNCOS, a research firm. This growth pattern is likely to continue until 2014, considering the huge scope for 3PL. In Europe, half of the logistics business is outsourced, while in India it accounts for just 6 per cent of the market. According to an RNCOS report, 3PL Market in India, domestic companies are experiencing the benefits of outsourcing basic logistics functions, including transportation and warehousing. Now, 3PL vendors

by charu bahri


Initiatives like indirect tax system reforms, facili-tating public participation, allowing 100 per cent FDI in transport are being introduced to boost industry efficiencies

are rolling out the next level of value-added service offerings centred on transportation and warehous-ing. Multinational users are ahead of the curve. In addition to outsourcing merely basic logistics func-tions, they are contracting value-added advanced services, such as supply chain management. This is allowing them to focus on market penetration while bringing down the cost of product distribution.

Topping the user list of 3PL services are the automotive and information technology (IT) hard-ware industries, followed by manufacturing, retail and real estate. The fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), consumer durables and textile sectors are among the other end-user verticals with significant growth potential. The emergence of the retail sector is also helping the prospects of 3PL providers.

Logistics providers are also expected to play a major role in facilitating e-commerce, which is on a good growth trajectory. As the market evolves, the share of organised logistics players is anticipated to double to 12 per cent. In addition, India may soon see the emergence of the 4PL segment, constituted of knowledge partners offering operational capabili-ties, technology and process management capabili-ties. Providers of 4PL services manage different 3PL vendor services and work on getting the best logistics solutions for their clients, thus facilitating cost savings from lower inventory and transaction costs, greater access to resources, the sharing of risk and better fund management.

Government InitiativesThe government is continuously introducing mea-sures to boost industry efficiencies. According to Kumar, “These initiatives include indirect tax system reforms; facilitating private participation, especially in the port sector, and; allowing 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in transport.” In place of differential state-level taxes causing higher unit and inventory carrying costs, the government is plan-ning to introduce a uniform Goods and Services Tax (GST). “This move is expected to encourage signifi-cant re-organisation in the country’s warehousing system as well as increase the demand for integrat-ed logistics solutions,” says Chandrasekhar. For eg, Mahindra Logistics plans to establish three massive warehouses, each sized 500,000 sq ft, in north, south and west India once GST is introduced.

The government also allows 100 per cent FDI for

all logistics services, except courier services. FDI is also permissible up to 49 per cent for air transport services, including air cargo. This percentage may soon rise. The government has created a task-force on Transaction Costs of Exports. According to RS Subramanian, Country Manager, India, DHL Express, “The taskforce worked with the industry to gauge procedural and regulatory bottlenecks affecting the competitiveness of the Indian export processes, and implemented reforms in them. This is the most promising government-industry partner-ship on facilitating trade across borders.”

Infrastructure DevelopmentInvestment in logistics infrastructure has increased dramatically in the last decade. The budgetary allocation was more than Rs 24,00,000 crore during the 11th Five Year Plan. “Government initiatives to modernise the sector, develop air cargo infrastructure, dedicated freight corridor, and logistics parks, are steps in the right direction, and will help the logistics sector grow. DHL is looking forward to the speedy implementation of such projects,” adds Subramanian.

India already has the second largest road network in the world (3.83 million km). This is projected to increase with the implementation of a slew of highway improvement projects. Plenty of airport and port development projects are also unfolding. Better connectivity is enhancing the reach, efficiency and productivity of the transport system, resulting in lower transit times and penetration to hitherto underserved areas. This in turn is boosting the logistics sector. The government is also bringing in private sector participation in lengthening the pipeline network. Pipelines are more cost-effective than road and rail means for oil and gas transport. “At present, this mode accounts for a mere two per cent of the Indian logistics industry. The share is set to grow,” says Chandrasekhar.

Government initiatives are also expected to lower logistics costs, including inventory holding, transportation, warehousing, packaging, losses and related administration costs. Since logistics costs have a multiplier effect on the economy, a reduction would have a far reaching impact. A half per cent fall in logistics costs is expected to result in an ad-ditional two per cent growth in trade, and a 40 per cent increase in the range of products exported.


Imaging: Charu Dwivedi

In January 2008, Emami Ltd, the Kolkata-based FMCG firm, took a momentous busi-ness decision. With an annual

turnover of just Rs 600 crore (at that point) and a market capitali-sation of Rs 1,500 crore, the man-agement decided to make a bid for the century-old Zandu for its “strong brand potential”. “At that point Zandu had a turnover of just

Doing the DealThe Rs 730-crore acquisition of Zandu Pharmaceutical was replete with dramatic twists and nail-biting suspense. Naresh Bhansali, CEO-Finance, Strategy & Business Development at Emami recounts how the deal was done

by dhiman chattopadhyay

Rs150 crore, with a PAT of Rs 15 crore. We valued it far higher,” says Naresh Bhansali, President & CEO, Finance, Strategy & Busi-ness Development at Emami Ltd.

“Initially, we acquired a 24 per cent stake from the Vaidya family, one of the co-promoters of Zandu. However, the Parikh family which held an 18 per stake in Zandu, were unwilling to sell. This put us in a difficult situation,” confesses. Bhansali. “Even acquisition of the initial stake of 24 per cent was difficult. Because of the diametrically opposite stands of the Vaidya family members, the share purchase agreement had to be drafted several times,” recalls Bhansali.

The biggest challenge, says Bhansali, was convincing the Parikh family to sell their stake. “Soon after we acquired the 24 per cent from the Vaidya family, the Parikhs went to court arguing that they had the first right of refusal, and sought suspension of voting rights on these shares. They even refused to register the transfer of shares acquired by Emami,” he recalls.

This put Emami in a tight corner. By acquiring a significant stake in Zandu they were legally obligated to make an open offer to all shareholders. “We had already put in about Rs 150 crore, and could not back out. Yet, with just 28 per cent of sharehold-ing we did not have controlling power, nor could we enter the management,” explains Bhansali.

The case dragged on for a few months. Then, in June, Emami made an announcement for the open offer. The offer price was initially fixed at Rs 6,315 per share. In September 2008, the open offer was cleared by SEBI. Finally, the Parikhs agreed to sell their stake at Rs 15,000 per share. We also raised our open offer price to Rs 16,500,” recalls Bhansali.

At this point, almost as if to test Emami’s determination, the global meltdown happened. Luck-ily, loan sanctions from banks had already been taken and the com-pany was also able to mobilise internal resources.

Doing the deal required a lot, since getting the Parikh patri-archs together was a challenge. “After several rounds of discus-sions and negotiations, we finally convinced them that the deal would be great for them.” Finally in November 2008, the Emami-Zandu deal was sealed.

“This was a very hush-hush deal. Even within the company, only a few knew what was going on. A core three-member team was on it for 12 months. And yes, there were several moments dur-ing the challenge when I felt the deal would just not go through,” admits Bhansali.

Immediately after the acquisition, a number of strategic, operational and financial structuring steps were implemented. In the first full year of operation after the takeover, the Zandu business grew rapidly and its profits almost trebled. Today, Emami is a Rs 1,500 crore company under the Rs 4,500 crore Emami Group. “Our market capitalisation is close to Rs 6,500 crore. Thanks to some great financial management we became debt-free within two years of the Zandu deal,” Bansali says.

Bhansali says entire acquisi-tion process taught him the value of sincerity and integrity. “You need to be sincere, and at the same time ensure fairness in the deal, to make all stakehold-ers happy,” he asserts. “It was because we ensured fair play that we finally managed to make all stakeholders happy while ensur-ing we got great value out of the deal,” he adds. The other lesson: “Do your homework before any deal,” he smiles.

management & strategy


opinion


Sometimes, it is not necessary to choose between two opposing or conflicting ideas. Look for ways to distill them into a third--and better—alternative M

eet Isadore Sharp—the hotelier who opened the first Four Season motor hotel

(or, motel) in 1961, with 125 rooms in downtown Toronto, Canada. Would-be hoteliers at that time had two choices. They could build a small hotel with fewer than 200 rooms and offer guests modest amenities, sometimes nothing more than a television set or an ice machine in the hall. The other alter-native was the ‘few frills’ option—a large hotel of 700-plus rooms that catered to business travellers and had extensive amenities, much like the second Four Seasons hotel Sharp opened just outside Toronto.

Each option had its own unique advantages. By early 1970s, Isadore Sharp had opened three Four Seasons motels. On the brink of opening his fourth motel, he found himself at a crossroad. He loved cozy motels, but they could not generate the revenue required to maintain the amenities that his target market of business execu-tives expected. His guests loved the amenities at his second hotel, but its sheer scale could never provide the homely feel that was unique to the motel.

With three properties in opera- Illus

tratio

n: S

higi

l N

The Art of

CreativeThinkingby shayamal vallabhjee


“Creativity is an application of imagination by which we push our limits and overcome adversity”

tion, Sharp already had two con-trasting models. Instead of choosing between one of the models, Isadore Sharp used his ‘opposable’ mind to hold both models in his head, roll them together and create a new model that incorporated the benefits of each. He combined the best of the small hotel with the best of the large hotel—a medium size hotel offered amenities with a sense of intimacy and personalised service.

Conventional economics didn’t allow for this model to be success-ful, because costs were spread over fewer rooms. But, Sharp reasoned that if Four Seasons of-fered distinctly better service than its competitors then it could charge a substantially higher premium. That’s how the exclusive Four Seasons chain was born. And, it revolutionised the hotel industry.

Isadore Sharp is an example of brilliant integrative thinking—the ability to hold two opposing ideas and merge those ideas into a third idea that encompasses the benefits of each individual idea. Integrative thinking and emotional intelligence (EI) are two of the most important skills in business. They single-hand-edly separate the best from the rest, because they allow an individual to be creative and innovative within the realm of his business. And cre-ativity is the key to staying ahead.

Creative thinking isn’t problem solving. It’s the ability to gener-ate new ideas or alternatives from nothing, or by integrating two exist-ing models or theories. If there is one particular thing that stands out about geniuses, it is their ability to make juxtapositions between simi-lar subjects—a facility to connect the unconnected, which enables them to see things to which others are blind. If we look at some of the greatest minds, what they did best was to force relationships:

* Leonardo da Vinci forced a relationship between the sound of a bell, and the ripples a pebble makes when hitting water, to make

the connection that sound travels in waves; Nikola Tesla forced a connection between a setting sun and a motor. That resulted in the modern day AC motor and Albert Einstein did not invent the concepts of mass, energy or speed of light but forced them together to come up with the equation, E=mc2.

Creativity is nothing but an application of imagination. In business terms, it’s how we come up with perfect strategies, brilliant innovations, world-class market-ing ideas and unbeatable formulae for success. But first, one needs to unlock the power of possibility by removing the imaginary limitations we have created. I was once told that, “imagination is our greatest renewable resource and one that cannot be outsourced”. There can be no truer statement. Our imagi-nation allows us to remove every conceivable boundary and ask the most powerful question: What if?

The examples cited earlier dem-onstrate how geniuses managed to ‘innovate’ two opposing ideas into one. Needless to say, this is easier said than done. That’s often be-cause our emotions might cloud our judgment and prevent us from actu-ally determining the salient points critical to the development of the idea and choosing the best ideas to pursue. This is where EI (emotional intelligence) comes in. Essentially, EI is the capacity to recognise our own feelings and those of others, manage those feelings, and learn to motivate ourselves.

To me, EI is the foundation of all learning. Everything we do stems from a thought, which invokes a feeling, that in turn, triggers off a sequence of events. Emotional triggers always set off

a sequence of events—the end result of which is the same.

Our world is overflowing with ideas. Grasping them is a faculty of our conscious mind but the ability to synergise them into something new and creative is a faculty of the subconscious mind. EI is the key to transporting the mind to a place where our conscious thoughts and deliberations can merge. Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb, had a brilliant method of transitioning between conscious-ness and sub-consciousness. He would sit in his ‘thinking chair’ with a metal ball in his hand. On the floor directly beneath his hand, he would place a metal pan. Edison would then allow his body and mind to completely relax. At some point between consciousness and subconsciousness, his hand muscles would relax involuntarily, allowing the metal ball to fall onto the metal pan. He would then wake up and note down whatever he was thinking. This process allowed him to activate and create thoughts unhindered by the conscious mind.

Creativity is the future of busi-ness. Being able to understand the demands of your environment and to successfully compensate for them in your industry will ulti-mately steer your business to the pinnacle of your industry. You can be a market leader through the process of integrative thinking and emotional intelligence, be-cause the next big thing in busi-ness is going to be a combination of these two existing ideas.

Shayamal Vallabhjee is an EQ consultant who has worked with the world’s best athletes and businessmen. He’s also authored several books. He uses the Emotional Quotient to unlock creativity and productivity in business

opinion


Surround yourself with advisors and team members who think differently. Else, you could stifle creativity and innovation

Walter Lippmann, the Pulitzer Prize-winning American publicist and political commentator who coined the term ‘Cold War’ once said, “When all think alike, no

one is thinking.” Nearly four decades after his death, we continue to see the ill-effects of ‘structured’ think-ing, most so in the world of business where creativity and innovation are critical to success.

Over the years, honchos of small, medium and large businesses have confided in me about feeling rudderless in their corporate journey. “My business is not going anywhere in particular,” is a refrain I’ve heard several times in interactions with CEOs and

other decision-makers across the country. At a re-cent conference, for example, the CEO of a mid-sized company sidled up to me during a coffee break and asked if we could discuss a problem he was facing.

He began by telling me that though his business was booming across traditional product lines, he knew his company was unable to cash in on all the opportunities available. He gave his diagnosis of where the problem began—in team meetings his managers were high on enthusiasm when it came to implementing ideas, especially if they came from him. “But they rarely contribute ideas of their own and seldom contradict my words during team discussions,” he added. He had a talented and experienced team at work, he said. So, he was finding it difficult to understand this palpable lack of creativity and innovation within his teams.

I curbed my instinct to dish out advice, and instead asked my friend if he had heard the story of the ‘Naked Emperor’. As the story goes, there was once an emperor who was known to be deeply narcissistic, and cared only about showing off and indulging in his preference for expensive clothes. Two conmen who visited the kingdom, heard of the king’s penchant and decided to exploit his weakness. They went to the palace and offered to stitch the king the finest outfit in the world. They told him they used a cloth so special that only a few people with a very high intellect and refined taste could see it.

Not confident about his own ability to judge this fabric, the king decided to try out the new outfit in the presence of his trusted lieutenants. The costume was nothing at all—the conmen had convinced Pi

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EncourageDisparate Opinionsby krishna kumar


the king that an invisible outfit was a special one. So, the king was basically in the buff. The king’s trusted lieutenants were shocked to see their master naked, but were scared to admit it. They not only praised the king’s costume, but also invited other courtiers to take a glimpse of the amazing cloth that was invisible to those who did not deserve to see it. Soon, the entire kingdom turned out to witness a grand procession where the emperor would showcase his new dress.

The crowd praised the magnificent clothes of the emperor, each more afraid than the other to admit that they weren’t ‘good enough’ to see the dress material. At this juncture, a small child, who did not understand shame or fear, shouted out naively, “The king isn’t wearing anything.” The crowd caught on, and people started discussing the king’s nude procession, first in hushed tones that got louder as the truth dawned on more people. Undeterred, the emperor continued his procession with his head held high but without a shred of clothing on his body.

After patiently hearing the story, my CEO friend asked whether I thought he was behaving like this emperor. Well, maybe not. It would be more appropriate to say that the company’s core philosophy was to implement one person’s desire, while putting the lid on new ideas and innovation. They were functioning in an environment where the management team preferred to demonstrate collective ignorance. Individual opinion never came out during discussions, and nobody thought it fit to critique the leader’s opinions and ideas. In all fairness, I believe that my CEO friend had sensed this situation but was unable to pinpoint where the fault was. It lay in his style of leadership.

Most first-generation entrepreneurs face similar situations in their journeys, especially those that have built their business from scratch. During this period, they transfer the core values and ethics to the busi-ness, and often unconsciously, handpick a manage-ment team that mirrors these beliefs and values. The team, on its part, slides into a comfort zone—which is a major constraint to creative thinking.

But my CEO friend was not ready to give up without a fight. It wasn’t just his leadership style, he claimed. He told me in no uncertain terms that his frustration stemmed from the knowledge that his business growth demands frequent doses of innovation. He thought he was in the classic “What got you here, won’t get you there” phase, to borrow from executive coach Marshall Goldsmith’s bestselling book of the same phrase. That was his problem, he asserted, and he needed to figure out the steps he should take to overcome this entrepreneurial ennui.

I wasn’t about to get sidetracked from my diagnosis though. I harked back to Star Trek, the super hit television serial of the 1970s. James T Kirk, the iconic commander of the Space Ship Enterprise, once told his close confidante and friend Dr Leonard McCoy that the advantage of being a captain is being able to ask for advice without necessarily having to use it. I also reminded my CEO friend of another of Captain Kirk’s close confidants—Mr Spock, a Vulcan married to a life in logic and Dr McCoy, who was driven solely by compassion and scientific curiosity. Both these characters are frequently at odds and suggest different courses of action based on their subjective view of the situation. The captain hears both his advisors and often comes up with a third option, built entirely from his own perspective.

The fact that the leader has advisors around him with a world view vastly different from each others’ and from himself, provides a clear insight into the captain’s confidence as a leader. A weak leader always sur-rounds himself with people who are loath to express their opinions. Any organisation that fosters such be-haviour ends up stifling creativity and innovation. This eventually results in a situation where decision-making and problem solving are centralised and the company is seldom able to change course mid-stream.

On the other hand, enterprises that allow diverse opinions to be aired, facilitate innovation and prove to be better at solving problems. They avoid groupthink. Team meetings and discussion forums become genuine platforms for sharing ideas. This is where a Mr Spock or Dr McCoy can be of help—they fuel creativity and innovation by airing their views and forcing the leadership to think.

As noted American educationist and philosopher George F Kneller said: “Creativity, as has been said, consists largely of rearranging what we know, in order to find out what we do not know. Hence, to think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted.”

Krishna Kumar is the Founder of Kinesis Sports, a Bengaluru-based

tennis training institute. He is also a professional coach specialis-

ing in transformational leadership. He likes a difference of opinion

“A weak leader always surrounds himself with people who are loath to express their opinions”

bookshelf


The Googlisation of Everythingby Siva VaidhyanathanPrice: $21.95Paperback: 280 pagesPublisher: University of California Press

In the beginning, the World Wide Web was exciting to the point of anarchy—a

vast and intimidating repository of unindexed confusion. Into this creative chaos came Google with its dazzling mission—‘to organise the world’s information and make it universally acces-sible’. In this provocative book, Siva Vaidhyanathan examines the ways we have used and embraced Google—and the growing resistance to its expansion across the globe.

He exposes the dark side of our Google fantasies, raising red flags about issues of intellectual property and the much-touted Google Book Search. He assesses Google’s global impact, particularly in China, and explains the insidious effect of Googlisation on the way we think. Finally, Vaidhyanathan proposes the construction of an internet ecosystem designed to benefit the whole world and keep one brilliant and powerful company from falling into the ‘evil’ it pledged to avoid.

Seeing the Big Pictureby Kevin CopePrice: $21.95Hardcover: 176 pagesPublisher: Greenleaf Book Group

All companies are driven to success or failure by the same five simple drivers: cash, profit, assets, growth, and people. Kevin Cope helps you appreciate how day-to-day decisions can balance these

drivers and contribute to the big picture of your organisation’s success. You’ll discover the acumen you need to bring real value and passion to your work.

Whether you’re on the manufacturing floor or sitting in the corner office, you can learn how to follow the drivers through to measurable results—conquering your fear of numbers.

The Wide Lensby Ron AdnerPrice: $29.95Hardcover: 288 pagesPublisher: Penguin Group (USA)

How can great companies do everything right—and still fail? Many companies fail because they focus too intensely

on their own innovations, and then neglect the innovation ecosystems on which their success depends. In our increasingly interdependent world, winning requires more than just delivering on your own promises. It means ensuring that a host of part-ners—some visible, some hidden—deliver on their promises, too.

In The Wide Lens, innovation expert Ron Adner draws on over a decade of research and field testing to reveal the hidden structure of success in a world of interdependence. The book offers a powerful new set of frameworks and tools to multiply the odds of innovation success.

The Meshby Lisa GanskyPrice: $15.00Paperback: 272 pagesPublisher: Penguin Group (USA)

Traditional businesses follow a simple formula: create a product or service, sell it, collect money. But in the last few

years a fundamentally different model has taken root—one in which consumers have more choices, tools, information, and more peer-to-peer power. Pioneering entrepreneur Lisa Gansky calls it “The Mesh”, and reveals why it will dominate the future of business.

Mesh companies use social media, wireless networks, and data crunched from every available source to provide people with goods and services at the exact moment they need them, without the burden and expense of owning them outright. Gansky reveals how there is real money to be made and trusted brands and strong communities to be built in helping your customers buy less—but use more.

Real Leaders Don’t Bossby Ritch EichPrice: $15.99Paperback: 256 pagesPublisher: Career Press

This book is an easy-to-understand, practical guide to leadership in the workplace and in life that can help anyone grasp what it takes to inspire, motivate and lead. With the help of real-life stories and advice from top leaders,


it teaches how, with the right direction and guidance, real leaders quietly stand back and observe as others achieve suc-cess—to create their own successes. Dr Eich has identified as the seven principles of effective leadership that are applicable from executive suite to the assembly line.

UnMarketingby Scott StrattenPrice: $18.95Paperback: 272 pagesPublisher: John Wiley & Sons

For generations, marketing has been hypocritical. We’ve been taught to market to others the way we hate being marketed to; yet we’re all aware that no one likes to be marketed to. This book demonstrates how to

create a mindset and systems that perpetually attract the right customers. Instead of teaching the tired ‘push & pray’ method (pushing out marketing messages, and praying people buy), UnMarketing focusses on the ‘pull & stay’ technique (pulling your market towards you and staying/engaging with them, so when they have the need for your product/service, you’re the logical choice).

Need, Speed, and Greedby Vijay V. VaitheeswaranPrice: $27.99Hardcover: 304 pagesPublisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Over the past few decades, globalisation and Googlisation have kicked off the first phase of an innovation revolution more profound and more powerful than any economic force since the arrival of Europeans on North American shores half a millennium ago. But the benefits of all this progress have not been shared fairly among all.

All this leads to the central political and economic question of our age: How can the extraordinary benefits of the innovation revolution be shared more equitably among all of society? Vaitheeswaran answers that question, and offers the essential insider’s guide to this new world of innovation. Drawing on the best of the academic and

field work in this emerging area, Need, Speed, and Greed inspires and empowers readers to improve their lives, work, and perhaps even the world.

The Definitive Guide to Project Managementby Sebastian Nokes & Sean KellyPrice: $33.90Paperback: 448 pagesPublisher: FT Press

If you want your projects to deliver what you want, every time, you need to master the techniques of effec-tive project management. The Definitive Guide shows you, step by step, how to do everything from scoping the project through to risk management, quality control and prioritisa-tion. It emphasises throughout the importance of interper-sonal skills in project management.

Now in its third edition, this bestselling book is ideal for project managers to use as a ready reference and problem solver while actively managing projects. Because it follows the world’s most popular and reliable methodology for project management from the Project Management Institute (PMI), it is an ideal companion for anyone preparing for the PMBOK exam.

Good Idea. Now What?by Charles T. LeePrice: $24.95Hardcover: 224 pagesPublisher: John Wiley & Sons

We all have ideas—things we want to do or create—but only some of us will do what it takes to see those ideas come to pass. In this book, readers will discover some of the essential values and principles that guide successful idea-makers, including the le-veraging of mixed environments for creativity, working through resistance and setbacks, developing a practical plan for imple-mentation that works, navigating collaborative opportunities, and communicating your idea to make it truly remarkable.

Whether you’re just a creative type, or the leader of an or-ganisation, you must figure out a creative process and develop an infrastructure for implementing your ideas. This book offers systematic advice for moving your ideas to execution.

bookshelf

Reverse Innovationby Vijay Govindarajan & Chris TrimblePrice: $30.00 Publisher: Harvard Business Review PressHardcover: 256 pages

The global dynamics of innovation are chang-ing. No longer will innovations traverse the globe in only one direction, from developed

nations to developing ones. They will also flow in reverse. Au-thors Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble of the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth explain where, when, and why reverse innovation is on the rise, and why the implications are so pro-found—for nations, companies and individuals.

The authors focus in particular on a traditional pillar of rich-world economic vitality: successful and long-established multinational corporations. All are now seeking explosive growth in emerging economies, and all must learn new tricks in order to succeed. Reverse Innovation shows leaders and senior managers how to make innovation in emerging markets happen, and how such innovations can unlock opportunities throughout the world. The book highlights the tribulations and triumphs of some of the world’s leading companies, illustrating exactly what works and what does not.

The End of Cheap Chinaby Shaun ReinPrice: $24.95 Publisher: Wiley, John & SonsHardcover: 240 pages

Many people know China for manufac-turing cheap products, thanks largely to the country’s vast supply of low-cost workers. But China is changing, and the glut of cheap labour that has made everyday low prices possible is drying up as the Chinese people seek not to make iPhones, but to buy them. Shaun Rein, Founder of the China Market Research Group, puts China’s continuing transformation from producer to large-scale consumer under the microscope—examining eight megatrends that are catalysing change in the country.

Rein takes an engaging and informative approach to examining the extraordinary changes taking place across all levels of Chinese society, talking to everyone from Chinese billionaires and senior government officials, to poor migrant workers and even prostitutes. He draws on personal stories and experiences from living in China since the 1990s as well as hard economic data. Each chapter focusses on a dif-ferent aspect of China’s transformation, from fast-improving Chinese companies to confident, optimistic Chinese women to the role of China’s government, and at the end breaks down key lessons for readers to take away.

Breakout Nationsby Ruchir SharmaPrice: $26.95 Publisher: W. W. Norton & CompanyHardcover: 304 pages

To identify the economic stars of the future, should we abandon the habit of extrapolating from the recent past and lumping wildly diverse countries

together? As an era of easy money and easy growth comes to a close, China in particular will cool down. Other major players including Brazil, Russia, and India face their own daunting challenges and inflated expectations. The new “breakout nations” will probably spring from the margins, even from the shadows. Ruchir Sharma, one of the world’s largest investors in emerging markets for Morgan Stanley, here identifies which are most likely to leap ahead and why.

Sharma has produced a book full of surprises: why the overpriced cocktails in Rio are a sign of revival in Detroit; how an industrial revolution in Asia is redefining what manufacturing can do for a modern economy; and how the coming shakeout in the big emerging markets could shift the spotlight back to the West.

Sharma reveals his rules on how to spot economic suc-cess stories. Breakout Nations is a rollicking education for anyone looking to understand where the future will happen.

1501 Ways to Reward Employeesby Bob NelsonPrice: $15.95Publisher: Workman Publishing Company Inc.Paperback: 576 pages

Today more than ever, organisa-tions need fresh ideas to nurture talent and retain employees. This revised and updated book is

chockablock with ideas for rewarding employees. The book has been adapted to meet the needs of an evolving work-place—especially to deal creatively with virtual employees, freelancers and permalancers, international colleagues, and the rule-bending expectations of millennials.

The 1,501 low-and no-cost rewards and strategies are drawn from thousands of companies across the globe. Ideas range from the informal (Wells Fargo’s thank-you e-cards) and the offbeat (JS Communications two free “I Don’t Want to Get Out of Bed” Days) to the formal (JC Penney “affirms” new managers in a moving ceremony) to the totally nutty (the legendary honour of having your office “sodded”—literally, grassed over—at Microsoft). For bosses, managers, entrepreneurs, small-business owners, consultants—anyone who’s responsible for working successfully in an ever-tougher economy—this is the rewards bible.


bookshelf

All Inby Adrian Gostick & Chester EltonPrice: $25.00 Publisher: Free PressHardcover: 256 pages

Whether you manage the smallest of teams or a multi-continent organisation, you are the owner of a work culture. And few things will have a bigger impact on

your performance than getting your people to buy into your ideas and your cause, and to believe what they do matters.

The authors of The Carrot Principle and The Orange Revolu-tion, Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton, return to answer the most overlooked leadership questions of our day: Why are some managers able to get their employees to commit wholeheart-edly to their culture and give that extra push that leads to out-standing results? And how can managers at any level build and sustain a profitable, vibrant work-group culture of their own?

The two experts teamed up with Towers Watson to anal-yse an unprecedented 300,000-person study—and made a groundbreaking finding: managers of the highest-performing work groups create a “culture of belief”. In these distinctive workplaces, people believe in their leaders, the company’s values, and goals. Employees are not only engaged but also enabled and energised, which leads to astonishing results.

Based on their extensive consulting experience and in-depth interviews with leaders and employees, the authors present a simple seven-step road map for creating a culture of belief: define a burning platform; create a customer focus; develop agility; share everything; partner with your talent; root for each other; and establish clear accountabil-ity. They share eye-opening stories of exceptional leaders in action, vividly depicting how these methods can be imple-mented by any manager.

Worth Every Pennyby Erin Verbeck and Sarah PettyPrice: $24.95 Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group PressHardcover: 180 pages

Many small businesses feel pressure to discount their prod-ucts and services, especially when times are tough. After all, how else will they keep up with the low prices offered by their discounting competitors? What they don’t realise is that discounting is the last thing they should be doing if they want to win big.

Sarah Petty and Erin Verbeck demonstrate that there’s a radically different way to run a small business—one in which the owners focus on creating specialised offerings and an over-the-top customer experience, not on matching the prices of their competition. Worth Every Penny encour-ages you to explore and use this model, which is designed to maximise your advantages over bigger competitors. The au-thors’ strategies are enhanced by real-life business experi-ences and vivid anecdotes from all types of business owners.

The End of Leadershipby Barbara KellermanPrice: $27.99Publisher: HarperCollins PublishersHardcover: 233 pages

Becoming a leader has become a mantra. The explosive growth of the “leadership industry” is based on the belief that leading is a path to power and money, a medium for achievement, and a mechanism for

creating change. But there are other, parallel truths: that leaders of every stripe are in disrepute; that the tireless and often superficial teaching of leadership has brought us no closer to nirvana; and that followers nearly everywhere have become, on the one hand, disappointed and disillu-sioned, and, on the other, entitled and emboldened.

The End of Leadership tells two tales. The first is about change—how and why leadership has changed over time. As a result of cultural evolution and technological revolution, the balance of power between leaders and followers has shifted—with leaders becoming weaker and followers stronger.

The second narrative is about the leadership industry it-self. In this critical volume, Barbara Kellerman raises ques-tions about leadership as both a scholarly pursuit and a set of practical skills: Does the industry do what it claims to do—grow leaders? Are leaders as all-important as we think they are? Finally, she asks: Given the precipitous decline of leaders in the estimation of their followers, are there alter-natives to the existing models? The End of Leadership takes on all these questions and then some—making it necessary reading for business, political, and community leaders.

Making Ideas Happenby Scott BelskyPrice: $16.00 Publisher: Portfolio TradePaperback: 256 pages

According to productivity expert Scott Belsky, no one is born with the ability to drive creative projects to completion. Ex-ecution is a skill that must be developed by building your organisational habits

and harnessing the support of your colleagues.Belsky shows why it’s better to develop the capacity to

make ideas happen—a capacity that endures over time. He has studied the habits of productive individuals and teams across industries, and has compiled the principles and techniques they share. In this book he presents a systematic approach to creative organisation and productivity.


advts.indd 58 3/23/2010 2:32:15 PM

product update


Caster Wheels

The Genesis series, cast-

ers is suitable for applica-tions requiring debris-free operation and

quiet, effortless mobility such as medical carts, IV poles, elec-tronic equipment, seating, computer carts, laboratory equip-ment, and audio/video carts. The casters feature a dual seale precision bearing swivel and wheel to provide efficient rolling with effortless mobility. The soft (65A), non-marking wheels reject debris and offer added shock absorption for optimum performance on carpet as well as hard floors. Full thread guards keep wheels from entangling hair and debris, promot-ing long caster life. The strong, protective body is non-corrosive and conceals all components, allowing for easy cleaning.

W.T. Hight Co.Tel: +1- 781-6827976Website: www.weroll.com

Sealing Conveyor

The SS1500T-SSC545 sealer conveyor system is optimised for seal and trim applications in filling and bag-packing assembly lines. The system offers

variable speeds to 1,100 ipm, as well as variable and tamperproof, laboratory quality temperature control. Along with PTFE and fibreglass sealing bands, 5 ft-long x 4.5-inch wide conveyor features 115V, 50/60 Hz single-phase operation; stainless steel and anodised aluminium construction; and ability to handle virtually all heat sealable materials.

Steelnor SystemsTel: +1- 705-5277887Website: www.steelnor.com

Inline Scale

The Thermo Scientific Versa Warehouse inline scale is

suitable for demanding dis-tribution warehouse environ-ments. The system is able to weigh each package 100 plus times as it travels across scale, and deliver accurate data with-out compromising line speed. Algorithms for variable pack-age dimensions and weight promote additional accuracy with diverse packages. The product is suitable for line speeds of up to 100 packages/min, supports packages up to 110 lb, and has overload protection up to 1,000 lb.

Thermo Fisher ScientificTel: +1- 763-7832500Website: www.thermoscientific.com

Rachet Tool

Del City has introduced a series of unique ratchet tools with single and

double joints for maximum versatility and flexibility. The heads can flex up to 180°, and feature a smooth, 72-tooth design that minimises ratchet lash while also optimising torque. Ratchets with

telescoping handles are also available. A twist and pull motion lets users extend the handle to desired length. This feature, available in all styles except double jointed ratchet, helps limit number of ratchets required in a tool box.

Del CityTel: +1- 414-2475531Website: www.delcity.net

Punch Station

Azco’s servo motor-driven punch assembly allows for high-speed operation, precise control and low mainte-

nance. Full control of the drive permits the punch to operate at 400 cycles per minute. Punched slugs fall into a waste bin below. Precision servo driven nip rollers pull the material through the punch station. From the nip rollers, a motorised rewind winds the material onto a cardboard core.

The station is mounted onto a base plate, and all functions are controlled through a touch screen.

AZCO CorpTel: +1- 973-4391428Website: www.azcocorp.com

Refrigeration Compressor

The Copeland Scroll K5 refrigeration compressor

can help reduce refrigeration-related energy expenses by up to 10 per cent. Serving stand-alone and parallel systems with large (7.5 to 15 HP) refrigeration requirements for low to medium-temperature applications, the compressor incorporates two features that promote system efficiency. Variable volume ratio technology optimises low-condensing performance, while vapour injection capability maximises capacity at low set points without adding more/larger compressors. Built-in CoreSense technology allows on-site or remote diagnostics to help reduce downtime.

Emerson Climate Technologies IncTel: +1- 937-4983011Website: www.emersonclimate.com


Spray System

Binks has unveiled an air assisted airless package for spray finishing. Available as tripod or wall mounted mod-

el, the MX Lite 12:1 features the stainless steel MX412 Pump with AA1600M air assisted airless spray gun. A magnetic de-tent design creates quick stroke changeover, with no pulse or surge. The self-adjusting spring loaded packings have a large sight glass for visual packing inspection. The package delivers

soft, fine spray. Flat, fine, and twist tips are available in wide range of sizes.

Binks ITW Industrial FinishingTel: +1- 630-2375000 Website: www.binks.com

Stand

Meissner has introduced a stainless steel FlexCes-sory stand to secure and support single-use fluid

transfer assemblies and enabling one-handed liquid transfers. To facilitate aseptic fluid transfer, the stand interfaces with the assembly inside of a laminar flow hood. The fully adjustable stand accommodates bio-container assemblies from 500 ml to 6L, and can also store excess fluid for future dispensing.

Meissner Filtration Products IncTel: +1- 800-2065856www.meissner.com

Flowmeter

Available in either ¼ or ½ inches, NPT connec-tions with ranges up to 100 scfm, the DTFA

variable-area flowmeter for gases offer ±5 per cent FS measurement accuracy, and ±1 per cent FS repeatability. The flowmeter is equipped with a 2.5-inch diameter dial face, and is constructed with an aluminium body to withstand system pressures up to 3,000 psig. Reliability is enhanced through a PTFE-coated spring and magnet, 302 SS range spring, acetal metering cone, and Buna seals. Pre-calibrated for horizontal inline mounting, the product has -40 to +200°F temperature limit.

Dwyer Instruments IncTel: +1- 219-8798000Website: www.dwyer-inst.com

Pressure Sensor

The 6215 quartz-based, high-precision pressure sensor is suitable for high-pressure measurement. The device incorporates a quartz crystal

sensing element and a front sealed diaphragm in a stainless steel hous-ing. The design ensures low mechanical and thermal stresses on sensor, no mounting gap and minimised surface pressure within the sealing part.

Offered with a measurement range from 0 to 87,000 psi, the product features a high-impedance output and sensitivity of -0.1 pC/psi, with a natural frequency of >240 kHz.

Kistler Instrument CorpTel: +91-44-52132089 Website: www.kistler.com

Steam Valve

To improve system stability and reduce the operating costs of

steam applications, Danfoss has introduced a new range of steam valves with interchangeable coils. Designed to meet a range of steam process needs, the versatile range combines flexibility with high performance.

Made from dezincification resistant brass with floating polymer disc and stainless steel seat, Models EV215B and EV225B operate with choice of three interchangeable clip-on coils for temperatures up to 140, 160, or 185°C. With IP65 rating, the coils are resistant to aggressive technical steam and impurities. The dirt-resistant EV225B is suited for heating water in laundry machines and dishwashers, while high-pressure-resistant EV215B is suited for steam injection applications, such as flat irons.

Danfoss Inc Tel: +1- 410-9318250Website: www.danfoss.us

Sealant

Developed primarily to bond pleated glass or paper media

to frames of air intake panel filters, the FilterFAB 150 sealant blends high viscosity and high solids into

thick formula that sets instantly and remains flexible over time. The fibre-filled, vinyl acrylic copolymer sealant is safe to use, non-flammable, produces no harmful fumes, and contains no added formaldehyde. With added antimicrobial agents, product stays bacteria-free long after it has cured.

Franklin Adhesives & PolymersTel: +1- 614-4451337Website: www.franklinadhesives.com

Hydraulic Ram

The Porter-Ferguson SM0014T mini ram delivers power in

remote or confined spaces. As a two-stage device, it provides auto body repair shops versatility when tackling jobs such as straighten-ing frame rails and motor mounts. The height of the unit is 25/16 inches with piston fully retracted, and 45/16 inches when fully extended. Built for rough duty, the product has max capacity of four ton for stage one extension, and one ton for stage two. The drop-forged base gives the ram a stable footing, and the angled port minimises hydraulic connection problems.

Lowell CorpTel: +1- 508-8352900Website: www.lowellcorp.com

product update


LED Lamp

LED electronics has developed a family of sunlight-visible, bayonet-base 6/7 LED clus-

ter lamps as replacement for incandescent T3¼ miniature bulbs. The lamps feature a 90 per cent reduction in power consumption (very low power draw of 0.8 to 0.91W, depending on the LED light colour) and directly replace incandes-cent bulbs. The solid-state design of the lamps renders them impervious to electrical and me-

chanical shock, vibration, frequent switching and environmental extremes. They have faster turn-on and reaction time compared to filament lamps, yet provide comparable luminous intensity and pure wavelength light for a more uniform illumination.

These miniature bayonet base bulbs are suitable for industrial control panels, lighted switch gear found in water treatment plants, nuclear, coal or gas-generated power plants, aircraft instrumentation, elevator panels, automobile dash lighting, audio and intercom panels, broadcast equipment and medical instrumentation.

LEDtronics Inc.Tel: +1- 800-5794879Website: www.ledtronics.com

Grommet

A new series of anti-vibration grommets, specifically engineered for electrical insulation, mechanical damping and noise suppression in office or lab equip-

ment has been introduced by Keystone Electronics.Engineered to isolate sensitive instrumentation from unpredictable

vibration and shock, these grommets feature ‘fingers’ which flex as needed to dampen unwanted noise or vibration. Special shoulder screws provide correct spacing to enable screws to be fully tightened down.

Designed to accommodate panels from .031” to .125” thick, these insulating anti-vibration grommets are manufactured from durable EPDM rubber in black or blue colour. The mating, custom fitted shoulder screws are made of nickel-plated steel in 6-32 and M3 threads.

Keystone Electronics CorpTel: +1- 800-3945778Website: www.keyelco.com

Dust Removal System

The Nilfisk CFM 118/50EXP collects dry dust and debris that accumulates on

floors and overhead areas in manufacturing facilities. This single-phase, electric vacuum cleaner is CSA-certified explosion-proof/dust ignition-proof for use in Class I, Group D, and Class II, Groups E, F, and G environ-ments. The product is completely grounded, made of non-sparking 304 stainless steel, and equipped with conductive hose and ac-cessories to eliminate percussion arcing and static charge.

Nilfisk Industrial VacuumsTel: +1- 610-6476420Website: www.nilfiskindustrialvacuums.com

Inverter

The Sinamics G120C is a compact invert-er designed for industrial applications

such as pumps, compressors and fans, as well as mixers, extruders, conveyor belts

and materials handling machines. With a rated power range of 0.75 to 25 hp (0.55 to 18.5 kW), the unit has compact dimensions, fast commissioning times, simple operation, ease-of-servicing and highly-integrated functionality. Quick-connecting plug-in terminals enable fast installation.

Siemens Energy & Automation IncTel: +1- 847-6401595Website: www.sea.siemens.com/machine

Metering Pump

Fluid Metering has unveiled a low volume, valveless metering

pump for precision dispensing of air sensitive, crystal forming fluids. Fitted with an isolation gland to provide a fluid barrier between

pumped process fluid and the atmosphere, the miniature H series valveless pump heads enable maintenance-free dispensing of saline-based reagents, buffers and wash fluids, slurries, abrasive fluids, inks, and anaerobic fluids. The isolation gland is connected to a barrier liquid or gas source via barbed fittings. Pumps can be configured with AC, DC, hazardous duty, pneumatic, and stepper drive options, as well as programmable dispensing systems.

Fluid Metering IncTel: +1- 800-7475858Website: www.fmipump.com

Auger Screen

JWC Environmental has launched the vertical Auger Monster screening

system to fit inside cramped pump stations, and provide complete pump protection from clogging by rags and debris. Attached to wall of pump station next to inlet pipeline, the 90° Auger Monster AGV screens, cleans, and conveys rags and debris up and out of sewer system. A screening basket with ¼-inch circular openings stops debris and small trash, while a rotating auger lifts it to ground level. A compaction zone compresses and dewaters material before depositing it into plastic bag or bin ready for landfill disposal. Custom-built for each site, the system can screen up to one million gallons per day.

JWC EnvironmentalTel: +1- 800-3312277Website: www.jwce.com


Linear Actuator

Haydon Kerk Motion Solutions has unveiled a microslide linear actuator capable of a resolution

of 15 microns/step (0.0006-in/step) and a maximum load of 13N. This device is suitable for applications requiring precision motion in a small footprint, and is optimised for applications such as microfluidics and optical positioning. The system is approximately 22 mm (0.87-in) wide by 25.2 mm (1.0-in) high and is capable of up to a 64 mm (2.5-in) maximum stroke length.

The slide load carriage is made from self-lubricating polyacetal, and features a built-in clearance take-up mechanism for load rigidity during motion. The carriage is supported by stainless steel guide rods coated with Black Ice TFE coating. The Kerk leadscrew is 303 stainless steel and is available in five different leads including 0.3 mm (0.012-in), 0.4 mm (0.016-in), 0.5 mm 0.020-in), 1.0 mm 0.039-in) and 2.0 mm (0.079-in).

Haydon Kerk Motion SolutionsTel: +1- 203-7567441Website: www.haydonkerk.com

Welding Inverter

Miller Electric has unveiled new Invision 450 MPa MIG or Pulsed MIG welding inverter. Optimised

for use on thicker materials and larger diameter wires, the welder features dual wire feed capabil-ity, and 450A of pulsed MIG welding power at 100 per cent duty cycle. Pulsed MIG programmes are included for steel, metal-cored, aluminium, stainless

steel, nickel, silicon bronze, and copper nickel .052 and 1/16 in. wires. One-knob controls automatically adjust pulse parameters to match wire feed speed, and con-trols provide robust, stable pulsed MIG arc at very low arc length.

Miller Electric Mfg CoTel: +1- 920-7349821 Website: www.millerwelds.com

Pressure Transducer

Honeywell has announced its heavy duty, highly configurable, stainless steel pressure measurement solutions--the PX2 series pressure transducer. These

sensors are engineered to be resistant to moderately harsh media such as refrigerants, brake and hy-draulic fluids, engine oil, tap water, and compressed air.

The PX2 Series use piezoresis-tive sensing technology with ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) signal conditioning. Their compatibility with varied media, combined with up to IP69K protec-tion and CE compliance, allow for reliable performance in tough environments.

Honeywell Advanced CircuitsTel: +1- 952-9311300Website: www.honeywellnow.com

Endmill

The Supermill Tomcat 5 flute car-

bide endmill line designed to run at high RPM and high feed rates to deliver rapid stock removal. Offered in sizes from ¼ to one inch diameter, the endmills feature tool geometry that enables feed rates of 200 ipm on steels, alloy steels, and stainless steels. Sharp corner, corner radius, regular length, long length, and stub length endmills are available for applications including aerospace, automotive, medical, ordinance and more.

Primary CutterTel: +1- 860-8289703Website: www.supermill.com

Lab Blender

Ross has unfurled a new rib-bon blender, Model 42NSD-

1S, equipped with interchange-able double ribbon and paddle agitators. With a maximum working capacity of one cubic foot, the model is suitable for most laboratory and pilot-scale

blending requirements. This vacuum-rated blender also comes with a discharge extruder assembly installed along the bottom of the trough to enhance mixing, eliminate dead zones and enable complete discharge. The ribbon blenders can be used for blending dry powders, granules, pellets and other solid forms. The agitator’s inner and outer helical ribbons are pitched to move material axially, in opposing directions, as well as radially.

Ross, Charles & Son CoTel: +1- 800-2437677Website: www.mixers.com

Pressure Sensor

With a one ms response time, the PXM309 series pressure transducer is a high performance industrial

pressure sensor suitable for most hydraulic and pneumatic systems. The wetted parts are fully welded stainless steel for good compatibility with industrial fluids or gases. The pro-cess connection is a G1/4A (1/4”BSPP male) stainless steel fitting. There are three electrical terminations: a 2-metre fly-ing lead, mini DIN or M12 connectors. The electrical outputs

available are either 0-10 Vdc or 4-20 mA, suitable for most PLC and control applications. The transduc-

ers are avialable in 25 pressure ranges, from 0-70 mbar up to 0-700 bar.

Omega Engineering LtdTel: +44 -161-7776611

Website: www.omega.co.uk

Industry 2.0 April 2012

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