“Impact of IT infrastructure on organization’s performance”

For the performance of the human resources in an organization, Efficient working of other resources play an important role.

It was 2010-11. While working for a renowned blue-chip company, in its EPC division Head Quarters at Noida, I was transferred to Core Engineering – Electrical group and was assigned the role of Engineering Coordinator (Electrical) for 4000 MW Ultra Thermal Power Project by Head Engineering (Electrical).

I observed that most of my colleagues in engineering office were working on desktops. They were all core designers.

Whenever, I used to visit their workstations for discussions and for one to one reviews, I observed that opening of auto CAD drawings on their desktops used to take a lot of time and any command given, take much time in implementation. MS documents opening was also slow. Sometimes it used to be time consuming, irritating and had an impact on decision making.

I thought that it may be because of lag response from the IT servers. But one fine day, it clicked to my mind that the delays may be because of RAM size of individual desktop computers.

I, immediately, checked each and every Desktop of my team and collected the data. Surprisingly, RAM were either 256 MB or 512 MB. Only Auto CAD draftsman had the RAM of 1 GB.

Immediately I had drafted an email and sent it to my Head Engineering (Electrical) who was at Mumbai Head Quarters that day. I had recommended that all desktops of core design team shall have RAM of 2GB for operational efficiency.

By the evening IT department was geared up and they had taken, given observation, seriously. Mapping of all the desktops in Core Engineering group was done and in few days’ time RAMs were purchased and replaced in systems.

It was observed that there was mass induction of GETs in the organization in 2008 and whatever desktops were assigned to them, at that point of time, they were carrying the same from one department to another. It was obvious, as they had to carry their data till date to the new assignment.

It was a small observation on my part, but had a greater impact on the working of the team and their efficiency and decision making.

Though IT department in every organization used to do the physical audit of IT assets on periodical basis but I hope they keep track on the RAM / memory etc. also.

I conclude that It’s important to be equipped with the right tools to work.

Subject matter expert i.e. IT support team is the best to judge the needs of the organization and finalize the systems to be procured and installed / implemented. Periodic assessment, with respect to new developments in product line, may help as, now-a-days, technology changes at a very faster pace.

Source of the pic: https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/tech-takes/specifications-personal-computers-over-time

#Efficiency #HumanResurces #Desktop #PCs #Engineering #IT Audit #RAM #IT Infrastructure #Organisation’sPerformance #IT support

“Changing with the Time”

Flexibility is about the ability to adapt or change.

I experienced the following while working in cement industry that too in Public Sector.

In late 80s, Indian government did de-licensing of Cement and 100% foreign investment was allowed in Cement Industry. So many private companies had installed new plants of very high capacity at a single location wherein their cost of production was quite less in comparison to already existing plants especially in public sector. With signing of WTO in 1991, open market to other countries, had deteriorated the situation further for Public Sector Cement plants. (E.g. coal from South Africa was cheaper and of better quality than the coal from the collieries in India. It had impact on variable cost.)

With old technology and no further willingness to modernize the plants on regular intervals, to improve the capacity and productivity, caused closing of Public Sector plants. They were referred to BIFR (Board of Industrial & Financial Restructuring) and then to AIFR (Appellate Authority for Industrial & Financial Restructuring). Later, as cement sector in the country had gained self-sufficiency in cement production, government was not at all interested to support the modernization of its plants. Finally after a long process they were either closed or sold to private sector who had built up these plants once again from scratch and with latest technologies.

Some concerns, related to the Public Sector Cement plants with respect to Private Sector, were observed:

·       Order winner was the low cost cement produced from new very high capacity Cement plants.

·       New technology changes and high automation was essential for old plants which required high Capital cost for modernization.

·       To bring continuous orders from consumers, government made it mandatory for all government departments to consume cement from Public Sector plants only. It helped only in survival of these plants for some more years.

·       Public Sector plants tried to achieve 100% capacity utilization but running cost was high enough to compete with new upcoming private plants.

·       Private plants had high profit margins and so they were playing smartly with price while selling cement. Sales officers of Public Sector were not having flexibility of price while selling. Their profit margins were almost zero or they had to sell the produce on loss. Due to competition, slowly and slowly, private sector had captured the market.

Timely interventions even in Public Sector organization may make them competitive and survival is possible. They have to run the organization, professionally.

Government had generated the cement industry infrastructure in the country after independence and by the time de-licensing was done, country had enough technical knowhow and skilled manpower to serve in private sector and achieve self-sufficiency.

#Cement #UPCement #CementIndustry #ManagingChange #FlexibleOrganisations #PublicSector #PrivateSector #CaseStudy #OrderWinner

Digitalization of Activities of Support Functions is a MUST for timely delivery of Projects

Every Activity at Construction site need to be systematically mapped and reviewed for effective and efficient working and better results.

In past, I was executing a 2x600 MW thermal power project in West Bengal for Central Government. I was representing a EPC contractor, a blue chip company.

I was Head of Electrical and was inducted from HQ, mid-stream of the project.

Erection activities were on peak and testing had started. I got stuck-up on some issues with a leading electrical package provider (a MNC). They were not sending the testing & rectification support at site. I had taken up the issue with their project manager at Bangalore who apprised me that Payments have not been released for more than one and half years. He had submitted the whole list of pending bills.

I had taken stock of the pending bills with Accounts department and found some outstanding amount in books. I had taken up the matter with higher ups and ensured that such payments are in priority list and were released.

Some more bills were already cleared by Electrical department in past and were pending for a long period for SAP posting after careful scrutiny by Accounts department. When the issue was raised, Bills were cleared by them after constant chase and persuasion. Again I ensured that such payments are in priority list of top management and were released.

Then, I asked the project manager at MNCs Bangalore office for providing field support. Satisfied with some flow of funds from my end, he had arranged the visit of testing engineers to site and I achieved some work in progress. Some systems were commissioned.

But, in such big projects, issues keep on arising. Again, I approached the project manager at MNCs Bangalore office and this time he informed me that he will support when all the pending payments are released.

I observed that a supply bill was pending for the last 3 years and was not traceable in accounts department. We were presuming that its pending for posting on SAP somewhere in pile of bills in accounts department.

Contrary to that, I traced the material in Store’s receipt section at site and found that material is lying in their shelf for the last 3 years and papers either not prepared or not cleared. That’s why material was not sent to stores and was not being reflected in their ledger even.

This material was also required for completion of erection of one the electrical equipment but at a later date.

Immediately, store’s material receipt section had prepared the documents. Material was inspected and cleared and in few days accounts clearance, SAP posting and disbursement were arranged.

MNC had supported the field testing and rectification works, there on and equipment and systems were commissioned.

This small episode, reflects the lack of MIS of different departments/sections and its day to day chase by Project Management team / Construction Management team especially at construction site.

People are mostly busy in identifying bigger issues and their resolve.

Construction support activities are not properly mapped and most of the construction site work is done on manual mode.

Its possible that Construction schedules may change time to time with different paths and approach, but support functions like accounts, material receipt, stores etc., shall be digitized for each and every activity and must be updated on day to day basis with MIS of even pending issues.

Some MNCs have their effective system in force but they also bulged at the peak of site activities. However, Indian companies need a lot of improvement in their working.

Organizations need to strengthen their Organogram and implement them religiously. Especially peak time manpower resources shall be there in place well before the time. Just in time (JIT) concepts are not workable / productive, most of the time, in construction field.

There must be three tier reviews of MIS so that most of the routine type issues are sorted out at tier#1 level and then some at Tier#2 level which may be resolved with senior management level intervention and typical issues are reflected at Tier#3 at top management level.

#casestudy #constructionmanagement #projectmanagement