SEMINAR ON ‘STANDARDIZATION - BIG BENEFIT FOR NUTS, BOLTS & FASTENERS ACCESSORIES INDUSTRIES’HELD ON 22ND MARCH 2007
A seminar on the topic was held on 22nd March 2007 at Ludhiana. The seminar was organized by Bureau of Indian Standards, New Delhi and was held at Apparel Exporters Association of Ludhiana. The purpose of the seminar was to promote BIS Certification Marks Scheme in fasteners and impart awareness to industry about benefit of standardization and standardization activity in the field of Fasteners. This seminar was attended by around 150 persons covering manufacturers, users, Govt. bodies and other stakeholders.
Shri Narinder Bhamra, President, All India Fasteners Manufacturers Association, Ludhiana welcomed the house and said that modernization of fasteners industries is a need of hour to sustain in the market. The customer are aware now about the importance of quality and standards, therefore it becomes necessary for industry that nuts, bolts and other kind of fasteners produced are of standard quality which can be achieved only by application of latest design and technology of manufacturing. He further said that Bureau of Indian Standard has made several standards for fasteners and the best way to improve industry product is to implement Indian Standards and produce fasteners conforming to these standards’ requirements. BIS in its endeavor to improve the up-lift the fasteners industries, has arranged this seminar which is timely and would be extremely helpful in respect to awareness of Indian Standards and procedures for implementation of these standards to get their product ISI marked which is the hallmark of quality. He advised the members of fasteners association and other manufacturers at large to adopt Indian Standards to make their products compatible in International Market as well as for domestic market to build better confidence among users.
Shri S. M. Bhatia, Deputy Director General (Technical), Bureau of Indian Standards in his inaugural address briefly touched on the activities of BIS and said that BIS, as a thrust to its regular activities, is organizing such seminars on various subjects to promote implementation of standards as such and through the ISI mark. Such seminars help in disseminating information & knowledge about the standards available in a particular Industry sector.
BIS had been seen as regulator exercising control in the Quality aspects of the Industrial activity. BIS is not perceived as a Promoter of Industry but as a kind of enforcement agency. The primary aim of these seminars is to put the role of BIS in right perspective. BIS is going to the Industry Clusters to understand their requirements in relation to the specific group of Standards and Quality for meeting the need of Indian and overseas customers. In the process, he said that BIS would also like to educate the stakeholders about the services being provided by BIS. He said that BIS would like you to perceive BIS as a catalyst to promote Industrial activity and making Indian business more competitive in the post WTO scenario as our markets have to be opened to global players. In this regime only a strongly quality conscious industry with robust systems can not only face the onslaught of overseas players but also make in roads into the markets of other countries. So BIS embarked on this exercise of getting the manufacturers of one area together, provide platform to interact and identify what needs to be done so that our Industry achieves a competitive position in the International markets. He said that BIS would also like to disseminate information on international standardization, request you to be part of International Standardization activity so that we could be involved with it right from the beginning and build our expertise and requirements into standards. BIS is entering into MOUs with different countries. BIS would like to know from industries which MOUs would be beneficial to the Industry and which not and how BIS can work together with industries so that such MOUs to benefit industry.
He mentioned that though there were comparatively few BIS certification mark licenses in Fasteners industry, such seminars would encourage industries to obtain the same to develop confidence between users and manufacturers as third party assurance. He also mentioned about the simplification of the process for obtaining an ISI licence paving the way for eliminating delays in awarding of licenses. He, further, mentioned the importance of making available high quality fasteners in today’s scenario of globalization and exhorted the units to make themselves fully equipped to meet the requirements of appropriate quality for domestic and International market. He said that Bureau of Indian Standards has formulated many standards on all types of fasteners and these standards are regularly reviewed, revised and updated based on the developments taking place the world over. He felt that participants at this seminar may look at the available standards and provide feedback for sectional committee to think of preparing comparative guide of Indian standards with other available International/overseas standards on same product. Fasteners have to meet the requirements specified by the standards in various countries to which they are exported and this is facilitated by reviewing and aligning our Indian Standards in the line of latest International Standards. He asked industries to adopt the latest technology and replan their production process to make their product more competitive and saleable.
The inaugural session was followed by technical session, which was chaired by Shri S.M. Bhatia, DDGT, BIS. Seven papers were presented in this session.
Shri P.C. Joshi, Head, Production & General Engineering Department, BIS, presented a detail paper on the subject title of the seminar that is “Standardization – Big benefit for Nuts. Bolts and Fasteners Accessories industries”. He described the standardization and standard formulation process adopted by BIS and explained the various terminology used in standardization process with simple definitions. He highlighted the various benefits aimed at to achieve through standardization such as variety control, interchangeability, reduction of wastage, better utilization of resources, enhancement of productivity, better communication, defining quality parameters, safety of product, environment and personal; compatibility, solution to recurring problems (actual or potential), removal of trade barriers, consumer protection and technology transfer. He explained the various considerations adopted in revolving national standards such as consensus principles, access to International technology, R & D work, review/revision/amendment and coordination with other standardization bodies. He described various types of standards being formulated and the methodology adopted for standard formulations that is committee method which is practiced all over the world. He said that the controlled use of material by technological know how is one of the important steps for maximizing profit. He explained the benefits of standardization, which could be tapped by different stakeholders such as technologists, producer, consumer, traders etc. He touched upon the BIS Certification Marks Scheme, which assures quality, brand equity and saving by elimination of multiple testing and inspection, and can transmit these benefits to the consumer. He said that feedback received from BIS Certification Mark has improved the National Standards by re-engineering through feedback from customer. He briefly described the background of fasteners industries in India and future projection in light of present International scenario of global marketing. He emphasized that standardization of products and services should be promoted to bring better understanding between manufacturers and buyers in present scenario of increased consumer market.
Shri Kumar Animesh, Asst. Director, BIS, briefly described sectional committee’s approach in formulation of national standards on fasteners and important standards published by Committees on almost every type of Fasteners. He presented various charts that described the different aspect of standards available in field of fasteners and its harmonization position with international standards. He particularly described the contents of some standards focusing the need of industrialists who are concerned about the quality product and said that Indian Standards are prepared with prevailing technology available across world and by incorporating them in manufacturing, the product quality is ensured to make a confidence level between manufacturers, users and concerned stake holders. He further gave information on various printed standards on which ISI mark may be obtained after implementation of these standards as third part assurance. Also he briefed the future activity of committee and gave information about the new field of standardization taken up by committee.
Shri B.R.B. Singh, Joint Director, BIS Chandigarh Regional Office, explained the procedure of grant of license for BIS Certification Mark Scheme which has been simplified by removing many stages causing delay in grant of license process and said that this procedure had been simplified and an ISI license can be granted with minimum formalities, however, it was the responsibility of organization to regularly maintain the quality of the product for continuation of license.
Shri R. C. Chopra, Director, Small Industries Service Institute, Ludhiana, said that Fasteners industry is largely concentrated at Ludhiana and government is trying to help them to upgrade themselves but Standardization is the key area, which industries should look upon first. He said that in export market of Fasteners, India’s contribution was still insignificant and this industry has to increase share in International Market. This can be done only by modernizing their production methods and maintaing the quality of Fasteners by implementation of Indian stnadards. He suggested that BIS should be more aggressive for marketing its services and BIS will have to hold Industry’s hand for achieving IS ISO certification.
Shri D. Chakraborty, DGM(QA & I), Power Grid Corporation of India, Gurgaon, in his informative presentation provided data of consumption of fasteners at by Power Grid corporation making them one of the largest consumers of fasteners. Next he detailed the different types of difficulties encountered by a big consumer like Power Grid, which is clearly due to lack of guidelines to manufacturers which making products. He said that, by following standards, these problems are automatically solved at large, and a confidence is built up between users and manufacturers. BIS standards need to be upgraded further to align their standards with ISO and other International standards and standardization activity should be started on new areas of hand tool products. He also mentioned the need of collaboration between BIS, industry and R&D institutions like CIHT so that outcome can be beneficial to Industry.
Shri Darshan Singh, MD, Forex Fasteners (P) Ltd, Ludhiana gave data of world fasteners market and position of Indian fasteners manufacturers in world market. He highlighted the issues regarding modernization and technological up gradation of Fasteners Industries to face the overseas competitors. He signaled that standards guide each technical details of product so minutely like dimension, test, chemical composition etc. that it can be said to be blood in the body of industry. He emphasized raising productivity with highest quality and gave examples currently practiced in European Countries. He also gave various suggestions like financial assistance from government, aggressive marketing of standards from BIS and a short hand book of fasteners comprising relevant standards. He also requested to include weight chart in Indian Standards.
Shri K. Sonderajen, Deputy Director, Directorate of Quality Assurance (Navy), New Delhi delivered technical paper regarding fasteners being used in defense, their material and compared them with Indian products and said although in the last three decades remarkable progress has been made by fasteners Industry in Ludhiana still there was considerable scope for improving the quality through standardization to compete with products of other countries. He informed about the latest type of Fasteners, latest manufacturing procedures and materials, which are being used in the countries like Russia from where they are importing Defence equipments. Compared to this, Indian industries are not following standards, there is lack of R & D and management techniques for high quality fasteners. He asked industries to upgrade themselves in each of above areas. He also asked BIS to make standards on special fasteners used in critical applications.
Conclusion and recommendations made at the seminar: