The Balancing Pieces Incident

This is a real life incident, which happened in the year 2000.

After a rather tumultuous start, I was shifted to Production Planning & Control and headed a grand massive team of one colleague. Our luxurious office was a rundown table with a broken down PC Terminal, which my colleague would be constantly complaining about, due to its not sharp, out of focus screen.

Be that as it may, a few days into the job, I had started to get a grip over my tasks. It entailed collating the previous day’s production figures, conducting the Operations Review meeting of the First circle of Management, which meant CEO, CFO, All Heads of Departments, and prepare Production Plan for the month etc. One major task, which I had to take care of, was order parts from TMC, Japan. ?This entailed reviewing the following months plan and accordingly placing orders of CKD (Completely Knocked Down) parts at the exact time interval.

One fine day, I was grazing around our Raw Material stores and found many pallets stacked at one corner. A layer of dust and cobweb suggested it was unused material. Curiosity beckoned and I checked them, found that they were Balancing Pieces for Propeller Shafts. I accosted the storekeeper, a good friend of mine, and on being asked about these pallets, he launched into a diatribe of how it had been piling up for months, how he had highlighted the same but no one took care of it etc etc. One learns to work with such types, and further inquiring I came to know that these were balancing pieces, which were unused.

Let me give you some flavor here. There were totally some 18 types of balancing pieces used in a Propeller Shaft, during balancing, ?of which only around 8 – 10 types were regularly used. The rest 8 types were just stored without knowing what else to do. I rechecked the situation and then presented the case to the then CEO, by laying down the facts that so many unused parts would cost around 700.000 USD as dead inventory. We would stand to gain the amount if the parts could be returned to Japan.

The very mention of such a huge amount made him spill the coffee from the mug he had, perused through my presentation paper in detail, shared it with the CFO and gave me a benevolent look, which normally one gets when about to be pushed from a cliff!!

Incidentally Mr. Vikram Kirloskar sir, whom we fondly called Vikram sir, visited us on that day. There was a room at the far end of the plant which had been christened ‘ Japanese Room’ and the meeting was held there. Vikram sir was briefed about my findings and I was summoned. He stressed about the need to return those parts and get the money back. ‘This is very good, just get the money back’ were the words he uttered as far as I clearly remember. To add a Hollywood touch to this scene, the CEO grandiosely stated that he would pour the costliest scotch on my head if I retrieved the amount.

Then began an arduous and fastidious journey of close to 4 months of hard negotiations with TMC, Motomachi Plant, Japan. I initiated contact with a colleague there and used the charm of my Japanese Language speaking skills. At first I was told all the 18 varieties would be sent as it was mandatory. But then I pointed out that it was a waste and we had enough stocks for the next 100 years if we needed. She agreed and from the next shipment, only 8 varieties of parts were sent.

The first salvo had been fired and we tasted the first round of success.

The communication papers now started piling up and it bloated into a big File bulging on the seams. Now the theme was escalated by my partner to her boss, who started off belligerently but mellowed down later when he saw he could not pull wool over my eyes. A few more weeks passed with matters of logic and argument and one day, I was pleasantly surprised to see that TMC agreed to our point and were willing to settle the matter. I almost fell off from my chair.

Then started discussions on how this was to be done. Finally it was agreed that the parts which were not used since 2 years, would be destroyed by burning them off in a furnace. This was to prevent the parts from finding its way to illegal spare parts market. The task was handed over to TTC and they did a great job of carting off the parts to a group Foundry in our city, poured them into a furnace and submitted photographic evidence.

The entire episode had to come to an end and the promised amount was transferred. I was on cloud nine but also saw a lot of things in life. While failure is shunned and not touched with a long pole, success has many fathers and a few were vying to take credit for my work. I saw how people shamelessly went to the CEO claiming that they had brought things to culmination. I always remember my father and my mentor, who assured me that whatever I am supposed to get in life would come to me, no matter how many stood in the way!!

Finally, on the day the amount was transferred, Vikram sir shook my hands very warmly and put his hands on my shoulder. It was a coincidence he was there in the plant that day too. I felt humbled. And for the CEO, he never poured the costliest scotch on my head and instead offered me some lousy pale coffee!!

It was my privilege and honor that I knew Mr. Vikram Kirloskar, who was a wonderful human being, simple, treated everyone with respect, and was a brilliant engineer. Miss you sir.

The views expressed in the article are that of the author only and not of AGCO GmbH.