RATIONALE AND SUGGESTIONS FOR RESHAPING OF WORKSHOP FACILITIES FOR QUALITY IMPROVEMENT IN TRAINING AND FUNCTIONAL UTILITY
M. L. Puri (1972)
Alarmed at the high rate of unemployment among engineers and technical personnel, the author suggests workshop facilities at BHU should be upgraded with a view to the future. He stresses the need for incorporating the hitherto neglected technical arts and sees them as a means of technical empowerment. He also makes a case for greater interaction between the future BHU workshops and industry.
CASE STUDY: FACILITIES AT BHU FOR "QUALITY IMPROVEMENT" IN TRAINING AND FUNCTIONAL UTILITY
P r e f a c eFuture workshop facilities at BHU would have to cater for training and functional requirements, that would be much more comprehensive and exacting than at present (1972). Gearing up for the purpose would involve reshaping of the present work shop set up ( as in 1972). This document is in the nature of an approach paper in this regard
INTRODUCTION
1. BHU is a complex for education, training, research and development. In the medical field, it also provides a public utility hospital. Workshop facilities at BHU have to cater for the diverse requirements of this complex. Therefore, in considering the future set-up of workshop facilities at BHU, it is necessary to consider the future workshop-linked requirements of the principal user disciplines and services.
2. Workshop-linked requirements of user disciplines would be governed by the changes that are expected to be introduced in the pattern of education and training in pursuance of the Quality Improvement program in institutions for teaching engineering and technology,. This program has been recently announced by the Government, and it would be helpful to examine the same in the first instance.
3. The aforesaid quality improvement program is an integral part of the drive for higher industrial productivity, which is also expected to yield better employment opportunities for properly trained engineers and technologists. The institutions concerned are expected to develop greater liaison with industry and make their curricula more ‘practice’ oriented, so that their graduates and post-graduates are adequately equipped to grasp the basic problems confronting industry and play the ‘lead’ role in tackling them pragmatically. In this context, programmes of theoretical instruction and practical training would have to be re-oriented to provide more ‘real life’ exercises as also to impart more systematic instruction in the fundamentals of technical arts.
In re-orienting the programs of theoretical instruction and practical training on the lines indicated above, the scope of workshop support for the disciplines concerned would have to be substantially enlarged and its standard correspondingly improved.
4. In developing each workshop area, due consideration would have to be given to both functional and training requirements; and it would have to be provided with requisite up-to-date machines and ancillary equipment similar to what the industry is currently using. This is important from the stand points of functional adequacy and training utility, particularly the latter, since training imparted in an environment of obsolete equipment and methods defeats its purpose. In fact. the concepts, methods and equipment embodied in the new workshop areas would be expected to serve as models for extension not only to other training institutions but also to industry proper.
5. In the following paragraphs, the genesis and implications of the quality improvement program have been elaborated and rationale as well practical aspects of the future workshop set-up for BHU considered.
QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMME
6. The term ‘quality improvement’ is used in a broad sense, with a utilitarian bias, in the context of our developing environment. For a particular curriculum of education and training, it would involve deletion of redundant learning load, pragmatic adjustment of weightage for different subjects and topics therein, re-casting of instructional texts/exercises and adoption of rational up-to-date methods for theoretical instruction and practical training, with due regard to the end purpose.
7. The main factor responsible for high level attention being focused on the need for a quality improvement program in the institutions teaching engineering and technology was the growing unemployment amongst qualified engineers and technologists. In this connection, a reference to the report on “Unemployment among technical personnel and other graduates” based on the special census enumeration undertaken in 1971, which appeared in CSIR’s T echnical Manpower Bulleting of April, 1972, would be pertinent.
8. The census referred to above brings out the following status in respect of qualified engineers and technologists, as in April, 1971:
There were 185,400 graduates and post-graduates in engineering and technology of whom 48.8% belonged to mechanical and electrical engineering disciplines. Within the two disciplines, mechanical engineer accounted for 56%. Of the total stock, 33.4% mechanical engineering graduates and post-graduates and 29.8% electrical counter-parts were unemployed.
It would be observed that the status of unemployment among mechanical and electrical engineers is the worst: out of a total of about 50,000 mechanical engineers, 16,800 were unemployed and out of total of about 40,000 electrical engineers, 11,900 were unemployed. This is notwithstanding the fact that the total stock of mechanical and electrical engineers is meager in relation to size and population of the country.
9. Large scale unemployment of mechanical and electrical engineers, whose training is costing the nation around rupees 50,000 each or perhaps more, is no doubt disconcerting, but even more distressing is the fact that such a situation should arise at a juncture when industrial growth and productivity are suffering, to no small extent, for want of ‘appropriate’ technological advance and innovation which these engineers would normally be expected to provide. Areas of ‘mis-match’ responsible for this situation need to be identified and corrective action initiated, as a matter of high priority.
In this context, in implementing the quality improvement programme at BHU, special attention would have to be devoted to the training of mechanical and electrical under-graduates/post-graduates. Such an attention would also have its beneficial impact on other disciplines such as civil engineering, chemical engineering, metallurgical engineering and agro-industrial engineering, which depend on mechanical / electrical equipment and allied practices. What follows is primarily with reference to the requirements of mechanical and electrical (including electronics) disciplines, but the underlying basic principles would apply to other disciplines as well.
10. Mechanical, electrical and electronics engineering provide the hard core of technology for industrial growth and productivity. Amongst the three disciplines themselves, the role of mechanical engineering is predominant because it is primarily through the application of technical arts of this discipline that materials are fashioned into machinery, plant and equipment for both industrial and domestic purposes.
These technical arts have been progressively developed on the foundations of old handicrafts since the time power was applied to the tool. In the industrially advanced countries, the elements constituting these arts have been identified to a great extent and developed with thoroughness. This has been achieved as a result of painstaking study and experimentation, with the aid of basic and engineering sciences. The developed and proved elements are skillfully integrated to provide composite technologies for specific purposes, popularly known as ‘know-how packages’. In practice, the know-how package consists of design, engineering data, manufacturing technology and allied systems/methods, which are all inter-related.
11. In India, as in most developing countries, sufficient attention has not been devoted to development of indigenous know-how. The reasons are historical and social. At the time of the industrial revolution, India was under colonial rule and the rulers discouraged industrial development in the country. Consequently, progress from handicraft to factory manufacture did not take its natural course and the development of technical arts to cater for the needs of the mechanized industry got inhibited. Further, in the Imperial environment, practice of technical arts, which are essentially rooted in manual craft skills, ranked lower in the social scale and the intelligentsia seeking status and prestige tended to keep away from them. To a considerable extent, this social handicap still persists and its eradication is as important as development of the technical arts themselves.
It has to be appreciated that correct attitude towards technical arts and professional competence for their scientific application, adaptation and development constitute the core of any program for technological self-reliance. It was the existence of such a core that enabled Germany and Japan to perform their economic miracles after virtual ruination in the Second World War and it is the lack of such a core that has inhibited our own growth. Experience during the last two and a half decades has proved that efforts for indiscriminate transplantation of foreign technology, which quite often does not match the Indian environment, are generally wasteful and there is no real alternative to building up a sound base in the country itself for appropriate adaptation of foreign technology and development of new technology to cater for the peculiar needs of our developing industry.
At BHU, role of the new workshop set-up would be vital in achieving the dual objectives of inculcating the right attitude towards technical arts and in basically equipping the graduates and post-graduates to practices these arts with discrimination and effect, as also to undertake their need-based adaptation and development.
SCOPE OF THE WORKSHOP SET-UP AT BHU
12. As indicated earlier, future workshop set-up at BHU would have to be geared to cater for the new requirements of training with emphasis on deeper and more comprehensive attention to technical arts. With the aid of adequate and up to date equipment/ practices, basic training would be imparted in the fundamentals of technical arts to under-graduates and others in need of it. At the same time, trainees would be exposed and, where practicable, given the opportunity to participate in the activities of workshop centers for manufacture, repair and maintenance, in order to gain insight of such activities. Thus, apart from functional utility, such centers would have important potential for training in the manner envisaged. For this purpose, the centers would be built up as models of good engineering practices with a strong training bias.
It would be desirable to progressively extend the scope of the aforesaid centers, with maximum diversification, in order that they depict a sufficiently large cross section of basic manufacturing, repair and maintenance activities. Accordingly, as a matter of policy, BHU should switch over from purchase / contracting to ‘self service’ to the greatest extent practicable, so that maximum use may be made of its existing budget to create facilities for utilitarian training in technical arts. This would apply to new construction, modifications to existing facilities, dead stock, laboratory equipment, hospital equipment, demonstration models / mock-ups, systems aggregates workshop equipment as also machinery, plant and ancillary equipment for essential services. After this has been well established, extension to manufacture, repair and development project work for government agencies and other third parties can also be considered.
In this manner, a part of the additional expenditure involved in reshaping the workshop set-up would get reimbursed by its utility output and the net additional expenditure chargeable to training would be correspondingly reduced. However, the primary advantage would lie in the substantial improvement in content and quality of training in technical arts, which would be achieved through the foregoing approach.
13. Provision of workshop facilities for the manufacture of demonstration models / mock-ups, special apparatus, systems aggregates etc. at BHU itself is particularly important. It is envisaged that development of the equipment in question would be taken up in the form of group projects in which there would be active participation of the faculty, post-graduates, senior under-graduates and workshop personnel at BHU. In this manner, development would be in stages under close monitoring by all concerned and with the benefit of inter-stage experiments, tests and performance evaluation, as considered necessary. The process would provide absorbing interest to all the participants and afford concrete opportunities for proper exercise of their constructive faculties. At the same time, availability of such ‘tailored’ instructional equipment, which being non-standard would not be easily procurable from trade, would lead to the desired improvement in the quality of education and training.
BASIC TRAINING - BACKGROUND
14. The purpose of basic training is to initiate and trainee in the domain of technical arts and give him proper grounding in the fundamentals of design, manufacture, repair and maintenance. In the process, the trainee is also expected to acquire elementary skills in the correct use and care of hand-tools, measuring instruments, lay-out implements and simple machine tools. In this manner, he gets basically equipped to proceed with confidence to enlarge his knowledge and capacity for the practice of technical arts, which would enable pragmatic conversion of ideas into designs and designs into hardware, as also efficient repair and maintenance of the hardware that is in service.
15. In India, progress of technical arts has been greatly hampered through prolonged neglect on the part of intelligentsia and the trend has to be positively reversed so that the drive for higher productivity may be given a meaningful direction. In this regard, engineering graduates would be expected to play a pioneering role and their basic training has to be re-oriented with that objective in view, with emphasis on quality.
16. In considering the new set-up for basic training, it is necessary to identify the draw-backs that need rectification. In this regard, a comparison with what exists in a successful country like Germany would be helpful.
In Germany, technical arts are held in great esteem. Dignity of labor and pride of professional excellence are national characteristics. The average person is well educated and machine-minded. Due to high cost of labor and his own interest, he practices a good deal of “do it yourself”. In so doing, he continuously applies his mind, scientific knowledge and skill to improve his tools and methods of work. He strives for perfection in every detail, as a matter of creed.
In India, on the other hand, labor and technical arts rank lower in the social scale. The educated, who usually come from comparatively well-to-do families, are not accustomed to manual work. Some, who can afford, take up prestigious hobbies like photography, radio etc; but very few display real interest and zeal for crafts. Apart from the aforesaid social inhibition, there is also the environmental inhibition in this regard because the tools and methods of working that are prevalent in India do not carry requisite appeal for the educated. Handling methods continue to be primitive. A large proportion of work places are usually congested, disorderly and even unhygienic. Quite often work is done in awkward sitting or standing posture and tools are deficient, inappropriate or not well maintained. There is also considerable resort to make-shift arrangements that, besides affecting efficiency, introduce safety hazards. There are hardly any proper arrangements for systematic instruction in technical arts, on the lines available in Germany and, by and large, one is expected to learn on his own through random exposure to practices indicated in the foregoing, Thus, the educated person is discouraged from taking earnestly to manual work and technical arts and, in consequence, development of technical arts gets further hampered.
This vicious circle has to be broken and re-orientation of basic training for the engineering graduates, who would hold key positions in the industrial hierarchy, has to be designed to induce the process of desired changes.
BASIC TRAINING – RE-ORIENTATION
17. In terms of the foregoing, principal considerations in re-orienting the basic training at BHU would be as under:
17.1 Working environment in the basic training areas should be congenial and conducive to systematic working on up-to-date lines. Special attention should be devoted to lay-out and equipment of such areas.
17.2 The Instructors should be fully conversant with the best known practices in their respective arts. They should be able to properly demonstrate those practices and also lucidly explain the theoretical basis underlying each practice.
17.3 Training program should be carefully planned to meet well- defined objectives. The training sequence should be logical with a judicious blending of theoretical instruction in technical arts, demonstrations and monitored practice by trainees.
17.4 Extended use should be made of audio-visual aids in the form of motion pictures, still projections and tape-recordings. Material of this nature is available with several foreign national and international agencies. Selection should be made from such material for use in original or suitably adapted form. At the same time, for non-covered fields, preparation of similar materials at BHU itself should be taken up.
17.5 The new entrants should be given a course of induction in a separate self-contained centre to familiarize them with materials, processes and methods employed for manufacture, repair and maintenance in the engineering industry. The course would also familiarizes the new entrant with “DOs and DON’T’s” in factory environment with particular reference to workshop clothing, working postures, material handling and safety precautions in the handling of work pieces, tools and machinery. Even after the initial induction course, the trainees would get the benefit of refresher visits to this centre.
The centre would have class-room facilities including those for display of motion pictures and still projections. In an adjacent area, it would be provided with illustrational models, samples, wall-charts and photographs bearing necessary explanations.
17.6 Training should normally be imparted in three successive steps: explanation of the underlying principles, demonstration and monitored practice. Presentation of exercises should be such as to make the trainees method conscious, quality conscious and cost conscious.
The right practices should be demonstrated along with the wrong ones to inculcate a sense of discrimination in the trainee and exercises should be designed with the over-riding consideration of illustrating fundamentals of the art concerned. In each training area, particular attention should be devoted to the use and care of materials, tools and other equipment in that area.
17.7 Practical exercises should be designed for both individual and group execution and adequacy of work places, materials, tools and equipment for the purpose in good working order should be ensured. Suitable exercises for group execution would be those pertaining to assembly, repair and maintenance.
17.8 Basic training should enable the trainee to acquire correct elementary skills in respect of the following:
17.8.1 Care and use of wood / metal working hand and portable powered tools.
17.8.2 Care and use of measuring instruments and gauges.
17.8.3 Simple marking off a rough / finished component.
17.8.4 Assembly and dis-assembly.
17.8.5 Adjustment and repair of machine parts.
17.8.6 Operation of simple machine tools such as drill press, centre-lathe, shaper and floor/surface grinder.In addition, he should have a clear idea of the more advanced workshop practices and what they involve. The trainee would acquire the same through systematic instruction and guided observation.
17.9 In order to make basic training meaningful, sufficient time should be provided for the purpose and intensive training methods should be developed to make optimum use of the time available. If sufficient time during working hours cannot be made available, due consideration should be given to cover induction, theoretical instruction and demonstrations in technical arts in evening classes.
In implementing the foregoing, guidance may be taken from German practices which have proved very effective. An added advantage of those practices is that they have been extensively codified and are, therefore, available for transfer and adaptation. Of particular value would be the basic training exercises developed in Germany.
A major problem would be well-qualified instructors to develop and implement the re-oriented basic training program on the lines envisaged. This aspect is dealt with in a subsequent section.
REPAIR AND MAINTENANCE
18. Repair and maintenance activities at BHU would broadly cover:
18.1 Machinery, plant, tools and ancillary equipment in basic training centers and service areas.
18.2 Laboratory instruments, apparatus and ancillary equipment.
18.3 Surgical instruments and hospital equipment.
18.4 Specialized electronic and other equipment.
18.5 Transport, handling equipment and agro-implements.
18.6 Service installations.
18.7 Dead Stock.
18.8 Miscellaneous.These activities would include servicing, preventive maintenance and over-haul on a programmed basis and ‘out of course’ repairs on an as-required basis.
19. Re-organization of repair and maintenance facilities should be considered from both functional and training stand-points. From the latter stand-point, it is desirable to enlarge the scope of such activities on up to date lines so that under-graduates and post-graduates may be exposed to a sufficiently large cross section of typical good repair and maintenance practices. In each repair and maintenance area, arrangement should be made for imparting systematic instruction, with regard to activities pertaining to that area, with or without student participation as may be considered appropriate.
20. Dispensation of repair and maintenance facilities has to be pragmatic with due regard to physical location of the equipment to be serviced, its weight range and the technologies involved in the process of repair and maintenance.
The overall set-up would be in three tiers:A Central workshop
Area out-posts
and At-Site attention.Facilities for ‘custom’ manufacture, re-conditioning and reclamation of components, heavy repairs and ancillary fabrication work would normally be provided in the central workshop. It would also be desirable to concentrate overhaul of mobile and portable equipment in that workshop. The out-posts would undertake servicing, calibration work, light preventive maintenance and minor out-of-course repairs. At-site attention would be for fixed installations and it would be under- taken by the central workshop or the area out-post concerned, depending upon the type of attention required.
21. The central workshop and area out-posts would maintain necessary inventories of spare parts and consumable stores. They would also maintain systematic technical / cost record for the machinery, plant and other equipment under servicing. They would include:
21.1 Inventory of machinery, plant and equipment.
21.2 Basic technical and cost particulars of important individual items.
21.3 Maker’s technical literature, drawings and spare part catalogues pertaining to important individual items.
21.4 Repair history, including cost of repairs, for individual important items.Item 21.1 would be maintained in master Register form, items 21.2 and 21.4 in cardex form and item 21.3 in the form of folders kept in filing cabinets.
These records are considered essential for properly organized maintenance. They would provide requisite technical information and data for repair and maintenance and enable systematic control being exercised on efficiency and cost of repair and maintenance. An analysis of this record, together with observations / investigations on the shop floor would enable development of a rational repair policy with regard to component replacement, repair and reclamation. The same process would also enable suitable criteria being derived for service life of complete units of machinery, plant and equipment when replacement would be justified.
22. Repair and maintenance work at BHU would provide a good field for exercise of work study, industrial engineering and value analysis techniques. Application of these techniques would enable increasing measures of rationalization being achieved in determination of repair and maintenance policy, lay-out of repair and maintenance facilities, selection of equipment for the purpose and development of corresponding practices. Senior under-graduates and post-graduates should be actively associated in such exercises as part of their seasonal work. In this manner, quality of repair and maintenance work as also that of training in repair and maintenance practice would progressively improve.
MANUFACTURE
23. As indicated earlier, the scope of manufacture at BHU should be progressively enlarged, partly to support new methods of theoretical instruction and training and partly to provide “real life” experience of manufacturing activities for engineering under-graduates and post-graduates.
In the initial stage, the manufacture may be confined to meet selected internal needs such as: requirements of training projects, demonstration mock-ups / models, special apparatus, systems aggregates, test rigs and non-standard equipment for training, repair and maintenance purposes. Facilities for such manufacture would be comparatively simple. They would essentially cater for:23.1 Wood and synthetic board work
23.2 Sheet metal work
23.3 Metal bench work
23.4 Electric wiring and bench work
23.5 Ordinary casting, smithy and heat treatment work.
23.6 Ordinary machining
23.7 Soldering, brazing and welding
23.8 Fabrication with plates, tubes and sections.
23.9 Painting, phosphating and electroplating.As the work involved would be of an original nature and conducted on a ‘custom’ basis, the artisans and supervisors engaged on manufacture would have to be very resourceful and versatile, preferably with multi-trade qualifications.
24. As in the case of repair and maintenance, suitable provision would have to be made in the manufacturing area for systematic instruction in respect of activities of that area, with or without student participation, as may be considered appropriate.
In the next stage, manufacture of selected standard items of instruments, apparatus, machinery and plant spares, tooling and other dead stock required at BHU in sufficiently large numbers may be taken up on up-to-date lines. Such manufacture would be economically viable and it would give the trainees as in-sight of quantity production practices.
THIRD PARTY WORK
25. When re-shaping of workshop facilities for basic training, repair and maintenance and the initial stage of new manufacture get well advanced, BHU can take up third party work in the spheres of manufacture, research and development. In this manner, proper rapport would get established between BHU, Industry and developmental agencies of the State. At the same time, the engineering faculties, post-graduates and under-graduates would be able to directly participate and make contributions in tackling the problems confronting industry and State. Even more valuable would be the experience and confidence that the participants would so acquire and put to use in other similar situations in service or self-employment.
26. With regard to manufacture, a practical course of action for BHU would be to establish an ancillary industry for the DIESEL LOCOMOTIVE WORKS (DLW) which are adjacently situated. An added advantage of this arrangement would be that BHU would be able to draw on the expertise and facilities at DLW to support its ancillary manufacturing program. Manufacture of agro-implements, for which the demand is sizeable, may also be considered for incorporation in the same set-up.
A promising field of research and Development (R & D) would be small scale manufacture, small scale repair and maintenance and selected product technology. The aim would be development of technologies in the respective spheres that are ‘appropriate’ for the Indian environment.
R & D for manufacture could be integrated with the aforesaid manufacturing set-up.
A useful area of R & D in repair and maintenance would be mechanized agro-implements viz. tractors, tube-well pumps and insecticide pumps.
The aim of R&D in this regard would be to develop standard fixed / mobile equipment and corresponding practices for service stations for these items, to serve limited rural areas, which could be run on individual or co-operative basis by self-employed engineering graduates.
In the sphere of product technology, BHU could consider development of powered river-craft for passenger and freight transportation. This would be a comparatively new line of development and, being situated on the banks of Ganges, BHU would have an advantage in this regard. Development of river-craft could also be integrated with other aspects of riverain transportation coming within the purview of the civil engineering discipline.
27. Suggestions for third party work given above are only illustrative and other, perhaps more fruitful, lines of activity can also be considered.
POST-GRADUATE TRAINING
28. In the light of the position explained in the foregoing, post-graduate courses for manufacturing engineering, repair and maintenance engineering and industrial engineering are needs of the hour in India. They would help improve the requisite technological support to the drive for higher industrial productivity.
The courses should incorporate:28.1 Arrangements for rectifying deficiencies in the basic training of engineering graduates, before they commence the post-graduate course. This is important to ensure smooth progress of the post- graduate course.
28.2 Suitably illustrated advanced theoretical instruction in the rationale and practice of the technical arts concerned.
28.3 Properly guided shop floor experience in manufacture, repair and maintenance centers, organized in the manner indicated earlier.
28.4 Competently monitored individual and group project work where the trainee would be called upon to apply his initiative, technical knowledge and skill to design and produce, with due regard to considerations of functional performance, quality and cost. Adequate workshop facilities should be available, where the trainee or group of trainees can undertake manufacture, repair and maintenance or other work relevant to respective project assignments, aided or unaided as the case may be.
The question of imparting training in manufacturing engineering was examined in great depth in U.K. by a “Working Group on Engineering Training and the Requirements of Industry”. This group, which was set-up by the “Committee on Manpower resources for Science and technology”, submitted its first report in 1966 and the second one in 1970. Report of its Sub-Committee on Manufacturing Engineering is very instructive and it is reproduced in Annexure-‘A’. This report gives a clear idea of what would be involved in organizing a course in manufacturing engineering. Similar approach would be necessary in organizing post-graduate courses for repair and maintenance engineering and industrial engineering, as well.
PROGRESSIVE DEVELOPMENT
29. Re-shaping of the workshop set-up at BHU on the lines envisaged would have to be duly integrated with re-orientation of the training curricula, methods of training and methods of assessing trainee performance. This would be a complex process involving basic changes in long-standing conventions and practices and psychological resistance to such changes would be a major hurdle.
In this context, it would be desirable to bring about the changes progressively, with special attention to preparatory work. The effort involved would have to be multi-pronged, but well-coordinated and competently directed. It would need full support from the top administration and willing cooperation of all concerned, particularly personnel in key positions.
In order to ensure a smooth transition and rapid progress, it would be important, in the first instance, to build up a consensus in favor of the new approach so that the task can be undertaken with a sense of commitment by the participants. They should appreciate that the new approach is in their interest, as it would lead to enlarged opportunities for professional advancement, greater job satisfaction and better status and emoluments for them. The needful can be done through the medium of short induction courses suitably illustrated with motion pictures and other demonstration material, guided group discussions and study visits to progressive centers of training in technical arts in the country and abroad.
30. After a favorable climate for the new approach has been created a ‘parent’ workshop centre should be developed to serve as a model for extension. For uninhibited progress, the parent centre should be developed on ‘virgin soil’. At present, post graduate training facilities in technical arts and facilities for properly organized manufacture to serve internal requirements do not exist at BHU. The parent centre could be developed to serve these two requirements. As post-graduate training would include rectification of deficiencies in basic training already given to the post-graduates concerned, the area would also incorporate, on a compact scale, basic training facilities on up-to-date lines. Similarly, it would have repair and maintenance areas to serve its own machinery, plant and equipment, which could be developed as models for extension. Development of optimum repair and maintenance practices, for different types of equipment at BHU, could also be taken up as project work for post-graduates and the practices so developed considered for regular application.
31. The modus operandi for bringing about the requisite re-shaping in existing basic training and maintenance areas would be as under:
31.1 Key personnel already employed in individual areas as also new entrants recruited for such positions would come to the parent centre for being trained and tested for their new responsibilities. In the process, they would also get a first hand experience of what they would be expected to reproduce in their respective areas.
31.2 Under direction of the parent centre, the aforesaid trained personnel would prepare integrated plans for necessary changes in their respective areas and then implement the plans under supervision of the same centre.
At a later stage, the parent centre would also be in position to support BHU’s extension program to cover manufacture, research and development for third parties.
32. Since the parent centre would serve as the nucleus for re-shaping the entire workshop set-up at BHU, with impact on the methods of training in technical arts and BHU’s manufacturing, research and development capabilities, ‘quality’ of development of the parent centre itself would be of paramount importance.
Detailed planning of the parent centre, with regard to its methodology of operation, lay-out and requirements of ‘hard ware’, ‘soft ware’ and man power, would constitute the core subject for the project study envisaged in preface to this paper.
FORMULATION OF A SHORT COURSE IN THE PRINCIPLES OF MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING
The course, which would be an integral part of a larger program of education and training would convey in an organized way how materials can be manipulated into shapes that are needed, and which materials are best suited for a given purpose. As well as instructing in the basic technical principles the course should give the student sufficient practical competence to enable him to participate more effectively in his subsequent training.
Procedure
1. Beginning with considering the aims of the course and the means for attaining them; the first step was to outline of main topics on each of which expert advice was sought. Further authoritative views were sought on this outline.
Scope
2. The course is intended for university graduates entering employment in the mechanical and heavy electrical manufacturing industries. It would be preceded by a short period of induction and introduction, and would be followed by further training and industrial experience e.g. by participation in a design and make group project. Lectures and discussions on company structure and possible employment would continue in parallel with the course. Accordingly the course could be short – 12 weeks or possibly less – to meet only the objectives as stated. It is not intended to provide instruction in design, or to give experience of involvement in team work under constraints of time and money.
Aims
3. The first aim of a course in the principles of manufacturing engineering is to acquaint the student with the problems of turning ideas, as embodied in design, into hardware; with the processes and techniques for doing this – their advantages and limitations; with the materials at his disposal – their properties and performance; and with the way in which the requirements of design, manufacturing and cost interact. The second aim is to give some appreciation of the skills involved in these processes, together with sufficient practical competence required for subsequent training.
4. Together these aims are directed at providing a simple basic framework against which to set manufacturing problems subsequently encountered. There is in this an instinctive as well as a rational element and the course could also help to develop the “feel” that engineers have for the functioning of machines and the potentialities and behavior of materials, as well as providing background knowledge. With careful planning these aims could be achieved more efficiently than by the traditional random exposure to manufacturing processes and practice on the workshop floor. The interest and motivation of the graduate will be retained, while the gains confidence in what may be for him a new milieu.
Course Activities
5. Broadly, the first aim would be met through lectures, seminars, discussions and experimentation; the second through practical work. The aims, although distinguished here, are complementary and the course activities must be closely interwoven to stimulate continual interaction between practical problems and basic technical information. The course will not play its part in the “matching section” between the university world and the industrial situation if it merely combines university lectures with instruction in craft skills.
6. Much of the basic information may be given in lectures, and these might include brief mention of relevant theory to provide a link with the graduate’s prior knowledge and a reasoned basis for practice. It should not be necessary to cover theory with which he should already be conversant; references, and possibly supplementary instruction could meet the needs of minority from other backgrounds or disciplines, or of these wishing to go more deeply into a subject.
7. Discussions and seminars could encourage an open-minded and questioning approach to manufacturing problems and traditional solutions. They might begin from a particular component or device, analyzing the materials of construction and methods by which it might be made, in relation to its functions and the theory underlying its action. These sessions and the lectures could be backed to some extent by experimental work. For example, the effects of major cutting variables on cutting forces, power requirements and surface finish could be compared using dynamometers while working on standard machines on the shop floor. Experimentation could illustrate principles, and could show the relevance of data on manufacturing performance to selection of process or material as well as to design.
8. The second aim would be accomplished through practical work. At least half of the course would be devoted to this, with additional opportunity outside scheduled hours. Starting from a given design of specified dimensions and materials, the students would make articles chosen to give a wide range of experience with techniques, processes and materials. To acquire competence students would work individually and might, at the beginning, make a complete item on their own. They could progress to making, as a group, more complex articles requiring assembly, and introducing ideas of accuracy and finish. The practical work should be cross-linked with the basic instruction as widely as possible e.g. machine work with metrology, and with properties of materials. The bias may naturally be towards metals and metal-removal processes but this should be deliberately countered by using non-metals and other processes wherever possible.
9. These main features may need to be supplemented by some other activities. Practical work will require familiarity with engineering drawing and those lacking this will need instruction. This might be given by programmed instruction, a technique which could be used elsewhere, for example, in learning to set up and operate a machine. In specific instances technical files might be used to show details of methods or processes. Industrial visits, if brief and precisely oriented, with prior discussion of principles, could demonstrate particular processes not generally accessible.
Student, Staff and Location
10. The graduate entering employment in the sectors we are considering will be mainly mechanical and electrical engineers, with some physicists and mathematicians. Courses might also include arts graduates. Advantage might be taken of a variety of background e.g. in seminars and discussions, but these might also require some additional instruction early in the course. Courses, being intense and closely knit, would make considerable demands on staff and facilities, and the number of students per course should probably not be large.
11. The course must, in content and presentation, be at a level appropriate to graduates. Course tutors will be required to provide continuity, while specialist lectures might be engaged for particular topics. Practical work would be supervised by trained instructors – experienced craftsmen whose understanding would enable them to relate practice to the underlying principles. Staffing of the course is the key to its success and requires particular attention – and perhaps even the provision of high level courses to prepare staff.
12. The course should be devised and operated jointly by education and industry, and there is scope for flexibility in location and in the degree of partnership. Classrooms and workshop space must be close together and could be in a college or an industrial unit, or provided jointly, depending on local resources. What is important is to set the course in a context as close as possible to production without interfering unduly with the day-to-day industrial activity. For example practical and experimental work might be done in an area of the shop floor not immediately engaged in manufacturing.
Courses Contents
13. Materials science and technology will become increasingly important for the engineer. There could accordingly be two main types of course, oriented either towards methods and processes or towards materials. Either kind would have to incorporate substantial treatment of the other subjects or the difference would be mainly in approach and emphasis. The sectors we are considering call for emphasis on methods and processes, But a “materials theme” must run throughout and might be given:
(i) At the beginning of the course, by a brief review of materials from the general viewpoint of solid state physics.
(ii) In the main body of the course by considering methods and processes in relation to materials properties, and by using non-metallic examples where possible, for illustration and practice;
(iii) Towards the end of the course, by a section devoted specifically to materials from the viewpoint of manufacturing.
14. In a course oriented towards methods and processes, practical work could be done in these main phases:
i) a simple article for the student to make on his own, giving experience in the basic machining operations;
ii) a small assembly with components made and assembled by two or three students, introducing a wider range of operations and requiring attention to accuracy and finish;
iii) A moderately large assembly that can be tested for functioning and performance when finished, with perhaps a dozen students contributing.
The aim is to give some competence and experience in a range of manufacturing methods and processes. There might be preliminary discussion on the design (and the drawings), materials and methods but decisions on these would not be required; experience in these aspects is to be given in the subsequent program of training.
15. Listed are some subjects and topics for a course oriented towards methods and processes. The student should, however, begin early on practical work, within the first two or three days, and the order shown would allow this. Practical work and technical instruction should be closely interwoven and topics frequently cross-related. It would probably be helpful to begin the course with a brief conspectus of contents and scope; and there might be more general topics such as safety, which should be an integral part of the whole course.
Conclusion
16. The theme of this course is manufacturing, and its success in giving the individual student and appreciation of the principles and problems involve should be judged by his response and against his subsequent experience rather than by more conventional academic means. There can and should be great variety of example and emphasis within the main framework and the subjects suggested for inclusion are given mainly by the way of example. These courses are intended to meet the needs of graduates and their employers and only close and continuing collaboration between education and industry can ensure that these requirements are met both in scale and content.
Appendix I:
Subjects and Topics for consideration in a Course on manufacturing Engineering
