A SATIRE ON L&T CHENNAI MLDP : THIS LADDER FOR SUCCESS! CONCLUDING PART (VOL 13) DOWN MEMORY LANE

 

Sample Ladder Software Pic 1

Vaccine Filler Pic 2

Schneider Modicon Quantum PLC 

Seven Men MLDP Army!
L to R ESN,MVG,JER,RSI,DRS,SMU,LS
 

THE AWAKENING:  L&T was doing all big turnkey contracts for cement plants then. RAMCO Cements who had bought MODICON  584 PLC from L&T had an issue at their site near Chennai. I was asked to visit the site. My head started spinning when I saw all their systems as I have never seen anything like that.😟

 I knew I cannot solve the problem. But having come as L&T representative checked I/O Modules status and communication with PLC. All looked good. As a recommendation told RAMCO that their earthing is a suspect and asked them to correct it. I left the same afternoon and started thinking in the cab while returning.😞

What I have learnt in the last 4 years? How can I improve the system in R&D when we don’t know how systems are connected in the field and about the process PLC software? R&D Innovation isn’t it beyond technology transfer and indigenization? That was the rude awakening.😧

L&T AND CEMENT:  L&T was then installing Modicon PLCs at their Awarpur cement plant. Mr Tyagi from the L&T Automation team from the plant came to MLDP to develop PLC Software offline at our lab. He was there for almost a month. I learnt about the cement manufacturing processes and about System Engineering using PLC. The entire sequential logic in the plant running to thousands of pages was built using a simple PLC software a ladder program developed for the technicians in the 70s.Seeing my interest Tyagi offered a position in their automation department. How can my family shift from Chennai Metro to a remote location like Awarpur? We will end up same way like our dear friend VKS from his hometown in Orissa to Chennai!😀

ON SITE LEARNING: Learning is something but implementation at a real site only will give the knowledge. MRF Tyres Chennai then was converting their Relay logic to PLCs and they asked whether our R&D can help in developing a software for their tyre curing process. I grabbed this opportunity and worked for a month shuttling between the MRF plant to understand the user requirement, plant equipment and process and to our Lab to write a PLC Software. The ladder software involved 16 (Sweet 16) steps of curing process. Being my first attempt, it was not a perfect one, but it worked at MRF and was successfully implemented. After 4 years of being in L&T R&D I finally got the real job satisfaction.😂

CONSPIRACY: Meanwhile the Technology transfer to Powai was complete for both 584 (Modicon PLC) and U84(Yaskawa PLC). The antagonist warrior VAR wanted to expand his empire at Powai and started telling management that he is having problem communicating with R&D which is 1000 miles away. He used trunk call booking time costs to MLDP folks as evidence.😠 The Protagonists at MLDP were either silent or their voice was not heard by our parent Switchgear division at Powai HQ.

END OF MLDP: VAR won the war finally. MLDP closure was announced by the management in 1989. We were devastated and felt letdown by the management for no fault of us.😟 It was a hard blow during that period of 80s because companies like L&T were few. Joining an equally good job was not an easy option. Meanwhile VAR made a sales pitch to join his team in Powai under NSB. No one wanted to go there.

L&T CULTURE: L&T culture then was not something like now. The Management did not want to layoff the 15 orphans of this family. They gave three options either move to Mysore where they have started a new plant, or to Powai to continue in PLC operations or move to marketing in 8^th floor or SRO Chennai (As the draftsmen cannot fit into marketing).😌

Breakup of Team

Me and SAR opted for Mysore as that was the only manufacturing site option in the south. TKP the family man moved to marketing 8^th floor.

VS became the R&D and Quality Head at Mysore. He chose his favorite shishyas DRS and MVG    as R&D and Quality Lead. DRS took JER and SMU and built his own R&D Empire at Mysore later. JAT decided to move back to Switchgear Powai where he came from along with SN.

The Draftsmen ESN, PMS and LS moved to SRO Chennai as support members. The frustrated RS and SRB decided to exercise their 4^th option to quit L&T to support their spouses.

WHAT IF

Looking back could MLDP have survived? ABSOLUTELY YES 😇

L&T had huge turnkey contracts for cement plants, petrochemical refinery projects in the south. This team could have developed the process software for PLCs using ladder. If more complex DCS software required for the plants that also can be developed with training. If you develop one software for a cement plant software for other cement plants 80% will be repetitive. With most of the L&T projects in south this MLDP Department could have become the nerve center for turnkey execution. We could have added strength upto 150 employees and used the empty space also.  The department could have been converted to be profit center generating 100 crores revenue or more.

We had only Engineering Professional and Software geeks but no visionaries to take care of   future growth.

Ladder for Success: This ladder software helped me in getting an entry into pharma world 25 years later. How is that pharma automation still using this old PLC software of the 70s? Aren’t better software’s like Sequential Function Chart (SFC) or Functional Block diagram using object-oriented languages available in Pharma? They are used for front end like Servers, HMI Graphics or generating reports. But Backend software still uses Ladder in Pharma for 2 reasons.

1)    Maintenance of Equipment in Pharma is performed by Technicians normally High school grads and Ladder software shows them where the problem is. Ladder is graphical program written to match the skills of the technician (From my experience they have better skills than engineers like me). Using the ladder technician can fix the defective hardware in minutes and plant can resume operations. 

2)     PLC Scan time (in millisecond) which reflects execution speed with ladder is less compared to new software with DCS architecture. They are no match for ladder in certain applications like below.

FILL AND FINISH IN PHARMA:  1) Let us take COVID VACCINES hot topic today. The world needs billions of doses. The Filling Machine fills about 500 vials per minute. Each vial can hold 6 doses. In one minute about 3000 Vaccine shots are produced. While filling is done by Robots the entire washing sterilization and then filling operations is developed with ladder.

2) Let us take Lifesaving PLASMA filling. Special polythene bags will be used like in grocery store and will pass through the conveyor. As it comes near the filler the bag opens and plasma is filled. The bag is closed then, and a knife will separate the filled bag from the bundle and filled bag will drop automatically. All this happens in 6 seconds. Which software can do all this? Only PLC Ladder!

The analogy for IT guys is personal computer with windows can never provide the security of the older mainframes which runs in UNIX environment.

DCS in manufacturing can make the plant fully digital. They collect the data from PLC at the backend and perform analysis and reporting.

Proud of my L&T'ites who have become Managers/Directors/ Vice President now. I am happy to be an engineer even now following the foot- steps of the great Visveswariah. 😊  Next time when I come to Mysore  should buy that turban which will be very useful in this cold Chicago weather!😁

DIVERSIFICATION STRATEGY: The parent cash rich Switchgear division as diversification strategy in emerging technologies gave the first son PLC Business with unlimited money and 5 years to become a profit center. The son started with a bang and got into collaboration to make a new car. But the new car they manufactured was running in the first gear and did not switch gears as expected by the parent.  The focus was on indigenization of that car. L&Tites  get excited with molding and dies. By the time they finished indigenization of Yaskawa U84, Modicon was acquired by Schneider and switched to next generation Quantum PLCs.  Yaskawa is still popular for their ac/dc drives. The customers can directly import future models and all that they needed was engineering and software support. All the competitors meanwhile overtook this car and captured the Process control market. The parent after five years asks the leasing expert Mckenzie what to do? The expert says sell it or put this white elephant inside the garage as this does not add to the value and not worth it.😞

The second son meanwhile has grown up now and the same parent offers him the new diversification L&T Medical at Mysore and 5 years of unlimited cash. How did he perform?😃

Since trunk call  played a role in the demise of MLDP here is a trunk call song from the golden era. Be it music or technology like this ladder I still like the old which is gold standard.

                      Sujatha Talat Mahmood SD Burman Shailendra

CONCLUDED

Reference:   Pic 2  Time magazine https://time.com/5955247/inside-biontech-vaccine-facility/