Excerpts from Chapter IX & X Welcome dear consultants! & Everyone aboard

Chapter IX: Witajcie drodzy konsultanci! (Welcome dear consultants)

 The beauty of working with European consultants was that they had mostly seen better and without saying so, they gave a sense that we could only improve from where we were. Consultants are not members of big multi-nationals and they have a direct stake in our delivery on design and build. To begin with, they are not imperious or condescending. They merely seek to first determine our capability and mould their concepts and designs accordingly. Our experience was no different with our Polish friends; while being quite open and upfront, they were also clearly very accommodating. For example, they were not hesitant in looking at all feasible sourcing, including ones involving development, in India.

Hard core design work on Train 18 had started in May 2017 and the consultancy contracts were in place by June 2017. Immediately after that, our interactions were a continuous process and the design work at ICF was in hand in parallel. As expected, a series of iterations in the design and successive rework on drawings, both mechanical & electrical, burst many time lines but it was not unexpected. A new experiment in rolling stock design on Indian Railways was shaping up; all the successive concepts and the final 3-D models and 2-D drawings were not merely the stepping stones towards manufacture of Train 18, but were also adding to the engineering repertoire of ICF.

An interesting feature of the design exercise with the consultants was ordering of components. We realized that if we waited for the drawings to be finalized and frozen before starting the ordering process, we would lose precious months. We had to have orders for key subassemblies and components in place and have the successful vendor as a part of the final design process. Can we order based on conceptual designs and its 3-D models? I thought as long as the final weight did not differ much from the conceptual design, we should be able to do it. Obviously, you would need the target vendors to understand it. 

(content with held but will be a part of the book) 

Meeting with the consultants would frequently be attended by more than 50 design and drafting engineers at a time. There were some meetings within the meeting with one sub-group discussing Brake interaction with propulsion, another discussing interiors with cable layout engineers and some other group discussing mounting of under-slung equipment with various suppliers. Not grandstanding here, but these meetings and on site/off site interactions proved to be the bedrock of Train 18 project, the very pillars on which the edifice of the prototype development was built. The meetings, incidentally, used to run from 9.00 am to 9:00 p.m. without a defined lunch break. Although I was never a part of the main meetings as such, the CDEs would ensure that my weight was used to ensure seamless participation of all cross-functional groups, including Production, with the consultants whenever required.

As the consultancy contracts started in right earnest, a legion of email and Whatspp groups were created by our design heads with participation by ICF officers and supervisors, consultants and identified vendors; the groups were arranged tier-wise. By the way, many of these meetings were virtual meetings, conducted through video conferencing. I was, initially, kept as a member. Within days I left this Armageddon as the traffic was too high with matters getting too technical for me to comprehend or contribute. I knew that if I started getting curious and tried to butt in, my curiosity would kill the cat. I thought it was wise to let the superior intelligence handle such nitty-gritty and not meddle with it. I was, however, always invited and I attended the concluding part of face to face interaction with the consultants and I contributed as well. For example, there was a big debate with the consultants about the sidewall thickness of the car body; they insisted that we must have the standard 2mm thick sidewalls. Our experience, however, was that given the manufacturing capability of ICF, a 3 mm sidewall afforded us a much better exterior finish. It added some weight penalty but it was a preferred compromise. Eventually, I ruled in favour of a 3 mm sidewall with the understanding that as the tooling, processes and workmanship improved, we would switch over to 2 mm sheets.

(content with held but will be a part of the book) 

The inaugural and concluding sessions of a series of design meetings with the consultants and the partner vendors, beginning July 17 till as late as third quarter of 2018, unmasked for me the novelty, effectualness and productivity of the exercise in hand. 

The learning ICF design staff acquired in the process could not have been gained through any training process usually held after the design work is completed by a ToT-provider. They were getting a first-hand know-why and were indeed able to imbibe the nuances of top of the line design concepts and processes. Subsequently, when the designs would be taken to manufacturing, the same staff would get a first lesson in knowhow. The interactions with design consultants were not one-way; many a feature was incorporated based on the inputs given by the ICF design team. 

During an initial meeting, the head of a consultant delegation mentioned that they were acknowledged experts in design, analysis and validation of bogie designs and so many designs made by them were in successful operation in Europe. He added that they combined many years’ hands-on operational experience with deep analytical know-how, that not many consultants could match their expertise, that 75% of their employees were qualified engineers and that 90% of them spoke good English. I smiled and said, “Come work with my team. They have developed many designs over borrowed platforms of Schlieren or LHB. They may not speak very good English but all of them do speak one language uniformly and correctly: their technical audacity now incarnated in Train18. Come and learn this language from them.” 

Once the personnel of the Polish car body design consultants, came to meet me, a bit exasperated. They said. “The culture in ICF is to make a lot, and indeed that you make more coaches here in a month than a mid-sized factory in Europe makes in a year. But no two coaches are truly alike. They are made alike by jugaad. Kindly have your team forget jugaad in respect of Train 18 and we would, with them, make a world-class product.” Jugaad? They had done their homework on Indian engineering; jugaad, is a term often used to refer to a quick-fix makeshift solution of a problem but actually it is a bit more than, it is the handiwork of some exceptional engineering skill. When crises arise, many people come up with innovative yet simple ways to find an easy way out of the situation. I laughed with them and promised that Train 18, would be totally free of any jugaad.

Easier said than done. Jugaad resides firmly in our ethos and our culture. It reflects that we do careless and shoddy work back stream and when the assembly is haywire, the Jugaad god is invoked. He obliges as an atonement for our sins and after some customary ablution, we revert back to where we were. I have modified a humourus creation of poet Amir Amir to catch the essence:

Ye meri aadat se meri fitrat hi ho chala hai

Kya khoobi se diya hai mujhko bigaad aise

Hazaar minnat hazaar jurrat hazaar mehnat 

kucch banane ko hi to hote hain jugaad aise

(From my habit it has now become my nature as it has so nicely spoilt me. A thousand entreaties, so much daring and all this labour of jugaad is employed only to build something)

(content with held but will be a part of the book)

Engineers cannot be creative, in a conventional sense, because they use data to achieve precision mechanically, without any scope of abstraction. In reality, engineers make precise guesswork based on unreliable data provided by people with questionable knowledge. And therefore they are equally creative.

Herbert Hoover, the 31st President of the United States; Hoover Dam is called after him, it was known as Boulder Dam prior to being renamed in his honour....He said," Engineering is a great profession......."

The great liability of the engineer compared to men of other professions is that his works are out in the open where all can see them. His acts, step by step, are in hard substance. He cannot bury his mistakes in the grave like the doctors. He cannot argue them into thin air or blame the judge like the lawyers. He cannot, like the architects, cover his failures with trees and vines. He cannot, like the politicians, screen his shortcomings by blaming his opponents and hope the people will forget. The engineer simply cannot deny he did it. If his works do not work, he is damned… 

To the engineer falls the job of clothing the bare bones of science with life, comfort, and hope. No doubt as years go by the people forget which engineer did it, even if they ever knew. Or some politician puts his name on it. Or they credit it to some promoter who used other people’s money...But the engineer himself looks back at the unending stream of goodness which flows from his successes with satisfactions that few professions may know. And the verdict of his fellow professionals is all the accolade he wants.” 

How true was what Gordon Lindsay Glegg said, 

“A scientist can discover a new star but he cannot make one. He would have to ask an engineer to do it for him.” 

Chapter X : Everyone aboard! 

So, where had we reached as we crossed early days to mid 2017? Our Design, Procurement (called stores on IR) and Finance teams had started working with greater camaraderie and cooperation and this showed results. The consultancy contracts were progressing well, key designs were getting ready and crucial procurement contracts were in various stages of completion. Although I had opted out of the day to day interaction, all the specific-domain as well as cross-functional groups with well-defined responsibilities were functioning well and daily interaction was encouraged strongly. The ICF team and the key vendors were working tirelessly, regardless of the duty hours with a determination not easily seen hitherto in any IR organization. All procurement actions, whether arising out of our consultancy contracts or otherwise, were on high gear. The principle of ordering sub-assemblies and components based on conceptual drawings was extended even for items related purely with the design and development effort of ICF on its own. Whatever time we saved in ordering made the work of the concerned vendor that much easier and we wanted them to work with peace and equanimity as possible in the circumstances. 

(content with held but will be a part of the book) 

A poor manager of time and greedy of trying to chew a lot, I worked till late. One day, when I was leaving office past 8.30 pm, I met Ankur Chauhan, a Dy. Chief Materials Manager going towards his office floor. “Forgot something?” I asked. He smiled and wished me good night. Later Secretary/ICF Babu told me that Ankur had to finalize so many contracts that he was never able to leave office before 9.00 pm. I later joked with him that if he continued to work so late, I would be obliged to ascribe his late hours in office to something mysterious to his wife. He only smiled and continued to work as he did. 

I had earlier talked about the all powerful files of Railway Board. In all government organizations, we have this system of files for all decision-making processes. Much-maligned, not wrongfully, because these files move from table to table at an excruciatingly slow speed. Experts in diverting the issue at hand, some executives send the file in a spin just because they do not want to commit to anything; the infamous jalebi. But the system offers you a cross section of views. Everyone concerned writes his/her views, which may not always be convenient or comfortable. There is, however, an unwritten praxis of getting your underlings, if I may use the term, to put up comfortable notes on file in the direction you want them. You would also find that the system has nurtured many competent officers who would simply ask you, “Sir, aap bolo kya likhna hai. Main note bana ke lata hoon. (tell me, sir, what do you want? I will make a note accordingly.)” But while this may be a safe option for a decision-maker in contrived decision-making, it may backfire too at times. Leaders who become a victim of comfortable notes and proposals from handy tractable officers, whether such officers are competent or not, lose half their strength of leadership. 

On the other hand, if the leaders, or the persons where the buck stops, have the courage of conviction to decide an issue in the manner they feel to be correct, in spite of adverse notes on the file, contra views help; it may well prevent them from taking a wrong decision in the eagerness to seal a decision fast. These views offer an opportunity to think more before deciding. For a confident leader, they are by no means obstacles. I have, therefore, always declared clearly that all are encouraged to record contra views. I never asked anyone to write/propose something which I perceived to be in the interest of the organization. I have tried this all my life; it works as the colleagues working with you feel relaxed to examine issues freely, without fear or favour. Just one caveat: if you delay or send a file in gyration, a plate of jalebis await you, diabetes or not. 

(content with held but will be a part of the book) 

Aggrandizement and hyperbole created for something merely ‘more of the same’ is a fad which, unfortunately, more often than not, works on IR, if presented smartly. In short, baloney and crock is digested as something sterling. We had to guard against that. We were doing great but we were not going to arrogate to ourselves a sense that we were doing something exceptional. 

At the same time, many these cultural revisions were sweeping ICF which benefitted ICF directly, not collaterally, in its all-round efforts towards enhanced production, development of new variants, carbon neutrality, empowerment of women, waste management, revival of greenery, sporting accomplishments and of course, Train 18 and other new innovative and modernistic products and projects. 

From a huge body of work of the bard, some enchanting and powerful lines get stuck with you without having to memorize them. The lines quoted below, spoken by Camillo in The Winter’s Tale, advise Perdita and Prince Florizel to flee with him to a welcoming court, dissuading them to run away by sea to wherever the wind might take them. What the lovers did is immaterial but a glimpse of them setting sails for shores that lay undiscovered is very fascinating. The ICF team had come together, affording me that rare glimpse:

A course more promising,

Than a wild dedication of yourselves

To unpathed waters, undreamed shores…

A strong group of officers and staff which would largely go unsung in this narrative are from the, Civil Engineering and Electrical Services, Machinery Maintenance and Stores Depots. They were the proverbial invisible players in making of the train but their contribution in the ongoing transformation of ICF was of greater importance than others. A dichotomy? I had big plans for every nook and corner of ICF. Let us just see a glimpse of works for the factories, leaving alone the colonies and other parts of the premises. Newly black topped roads. All areas freed of dust by concreting, asphalting, tiling, greening or tree-plantation. All the shops freed of scrap lying for decades. Epoxy pathways all over the shops giving them an orderly look. Greenery alongside paths in the shops. Neatly arranged depots and wards with modern material handling facilities. Comfortable lockers and seating for supervisors and staff. Air-conditioning or Provision of helicopter fans in work areas for Chennai weather is a killer. The list is endless. Only a visitor to ICF today can unravel for himself the edifices built by these men; it would be clear because each and every facility built or renovated by them would have a plaque with the name of the chosen staff member and date of inauguration.

For all these work, these people were always the never say die type. All I needed to do was arrange funding and that was that. There was nary a whimper of demur or cavil but only a pleasant bargain on the date of completion. I pay a sincere tribute to them here, at the cost of committing at the blasphemy of hyper correcting a famous couplet of Ghalib, and move on:

Hazaron khwahishen aisi ke har khwahish pe dam nikle

Bohat sare the mere armaan, lekin phir bhi kam nikle

(I had thousands of desires, and so big that each was would kill you. My yearnings were so large but at the end of the day, they were not that many)

(to be continued...)