I took over the mill from a General Manager who was proud of his pull at the Head office of our Group of mills but had no experience in commissioning such equipment in any mills.
The Technical Director knowing his weakness and my strength maneuvered to see that I was there to take the reins to complete the expansion.
The mill which had undergone a sea change in it's size as the capacity was doubled with a separate building for the mill being constructed to house the plant and all the machinery including the giant humidification plant and everything in half way at all stages.
The mills expansion was planed expecting sufficient water supply, power standby taken for granted, source of supply of power point forgotten, supply of uninterrupted power assumed,and training of workers yet to begin when new machines were on production. Standards for quality not fixed. Machinery manuals kept out of reach of technicians, planed movement and storage of in process and processed goods left to go at workers will, and manuals for process ignored, testing of semi processed and finished material laboratory under equipped and no new equipment for emergency testing being absent and the most important factor being the market acceptance of product at expected selling prices.
This was an Everest climb for a technocrat of my abilities and experience, however I was able to archive everything:
New source of water supply sufficient to meet the needs of all the requirements of the mills and the mill quarters including the workers quarters.
The mill was having two Gen Sets and this was upgraded from 750 to 1000 KVA by making use of the spares of a an idle Gen set of a mill of our unit.
The mill was getting power from the Sub Station of the city through a route going at five places and the power would stop if anything went wrong at any of the five places.
A separate direct line from sub station was drawn and this prevented power shut
downs daily.
Training of workers was taken up with the help of a Textile Research Institute.
Quality of finished products were with the seal of ISI.
Testing of material was done on daily basis.
Raw materials were tested and batch wise production given.
Statistical Quality Control methods used
Flow of material path from machine to machine made vertical.
Records of machine maintenance made on the basis of working.
All records kept open for checks.
Copies of Machine manuals circulated to all technicians.
First aid and fire fighting training given.
Quality circles in all departments were set up.
Co-operative bank started.
Death relief to workmen instituted.
Co-operative provision stores on credit started.
Wrestling Club for young workers started.
Health Clinic for local people made with qualified doctor.
Name badges given to workmen in charge of department.
Yarn market approved our quality and price.
Yarn of highest price and super fine quality not made by any mill was made.
Synthetic yarn production and blends with cotton started.
Surat welcomed our product.
Synthetic woolen yarn started.
Synthetic yarn blend with silk experimented.
Activities of the mill published quarterly as House Magazine.
I was awarded Asia Hong Kong Medal and asked to go over to Hong Kong.
This Mill was one of the Best Mills of NTC as informed to me by The Technical Director of Madura Coats Group of Mills.
