Machine-Design - Indias blind spot

Article published in the March 2000 issue of the Industrial type of) gun be made in such a way (with exactly

Product Finder, page 228. same size and shape) that they could be

interchanged by the soldier in the battlefield. This

"concept of interchangeable parts worked so well

Machine-Design - India's blind spot that its use spread like wildfire to all gun-making

companies, then to other industries, and then

By Harshwardhan Gupta snowballed into what we today call the industrial

revolution. This aspect has usually been

underrated or ignored by most historians and

India is marching towards the twenty-first century economists. Today we simply take it for granted

with a reviving economy, software skills, marketing that when a part of some machine or gadget

and media skills, but without any significant culture becomes unserviceable, a new part to replace it

or skill-pool of machine-designers. Ignoring the will fit perfectly in place of the old. This concept of

crucial role machine-design skills play in our interchangeable parts changed the fate of the

industrialising economy is a dangerous trend for craftsman forever. Slowly, the importance of the

our country, which is potentially a global player. craftsman declined, and that of the machine-

Generally, Indian industrialists, investors, designer increased with advancing centuries - to

policymakers, academia, and research scientists the extent that today in the First World, virtually no

either do not recognise this blind spot, or recognise machine or equipment is ever made without being

it and do not care much. This could be because first conceived and detailed on the drawing board.

they can take a short-cut to buying equipment and Similarly, the researcher has replaced the

machines from abroad, or are unwilling to do inventor's role.

something about it because they believe they

The Indian Machine-Design Scenario; Rather,

cannot afford it. Technological advances in every

The Lack Of It:

field invariably need machine designers

somewhere down the line. Even an emerging non- We in India have not realised the deep significance

engineering field like biomedical research or tissue of this shifting of focus from the craftsman to the

culture needs equipment and machinery, which machine-designer. India has always prided itself

again has to be designed by someone. Every on its long tradition of craftsmanship and on its

aspect of the modem economy research, craftsmen, but today even in India, the industrial

production, transport, communication, health - craftsmen (usually called 'skilled workers') produce

needs machines; and machines need to be goods according to designs -given to them by the

designed. Despite having the World's second machine designers - not by their own sense of

largest pool of engineers and scientists, we as a design. Small countries like Taiwan and Korea

nation are ever increasingly depending on have quietly been encouraging their machine-

imported equipment and imported designs. design efforts; and today Taiwanese and Korean

machinery is giving tough competition to the Indian

A Historical Perspective:

machine manufacturers in the domestic its well is

When the various battles were being fought in the in export market. In Europe and North America,

Americas in the seventeenth and eighteenth many engineering companies have been started

centuries, the guns and other weapons for them by design engineers, and have become veritable

were being made by craftsman in Europe. As the giants today. Even today, machine-design

guns wore out or broke down in far away lands, the professionals are at the helm of many great

soldiers could not cannibalise them (use parts from engineering companies in the West. On the other

one gun to repair another of the same type). This hand, not many Indian companies employ a good,

was because each gun was handcrafted and strong machine-design team; nor does such a

assembled by an artisan, and parts from one team, if it exists, form the basis of their growth

would not fit another of the same type. To counter plans for the future. The English, in their typically

this problem, some of the gunsmiths in England British way of speaking, always called their

got a brilliant idea, that all the parts of a (particular machine-designers (besides their theoreticians and



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researchers), the 'back-room boys', but they never prevented from making cost-reducing design

belittled their importance. We seem to have taken changes because their collaborators have legally

that phrase literally, and actually been treating our tied their hands. Or they are so overawed by the

machine-designers as such - boys to be put in a "superiority" of the foreign designs that they refrain

dingy back room and forgotten about. to make any changes in them to suit the Indian

environment.

The result is that large number of machines that

are developed indigenously very often turn out to Do we then have enough machine-designers to

be clumsy and poorly designed, to say nothing of carry out the enormous amount of necessary

being ugly looking. A fair amount of these engineering design work this whole situation

machines are proudly sold at 'internationally cheap' needs? In one word, NO! Our engineering colleges

prices to undeveloped countries, as those poor have not been educating machine-designers at all!

blokes cannot afford anything else. Many such They have always been teaching machine-

designs are 'developed' in the assembly shop by a element-design in the name of machine-design -

'good mistry', not on the drawing board! One does how to design a spring, how to design a gear, how

find in India a handful of good machines created by to design a shaft for bending strength, etc., and no

good machine-designers, but these are extremely one has woken up to this lapse. Of all engineering

few and far between - too insignificant for the textbooks, the machine-design textbooks are

health of the industry-based economy of a huge usually the oldest, many having been written in the

country like India. In the days when our doors were thirties and forties. The other casualty has been

closed to imports, our machine-builders put engineering drawing, which is the basic tool of

craftsmen to work to copy foreign designs, instead communication between design engineers and

of machine-designers; then put junior draftsmen to others. In each and every Indian engineering

'make drawings' from the handiwork of the college the author has known, engineering drawing

artisans. They were very happy with the resulting is considered a necessary nuisance at best, or

financial successes, as they were selling in a treated with utter and total contempt by the faculty

seller's market. When the business was good, and students alike, at worst. The resulting lack of

many such manufacturing companies did not machine-design competence is evident

plough their profits into design and development. everywhere. It is a weakness many industrial

Instead, they put it into opulent interiors, real houses try to hide most carefully from outsiders.

estate, financing companies, or into the share Many do not even recognise this as their

market. Now that our economy has become open organisation's weakness. Many machine-

and global, and global competitors have started manufacturing industries have been priced out of

selling vastly superior machines in India at prices the market, but what is not evident is that many

cheaper than these manufacturers' outgoing costs, more have been 'designed' out of the market, by

these same successful businesspersons are today better designs from the First World, and many

struggling for survival. more are following suit.

What will happen when India signs the intellectual Computer-aided design (CAD) software is often

property protection bill and the WTO agreements, proudly painted by many as a panacea for this ill.

and the ongoing opportunistic and short-sighted But very few realise that all CAD software is a

copying of (usually badly outdated) foreign designs nothing but a tool. CAD software is as useless in-

becomes illegal? In reality, many of the thus the hands of a person who does not know where to

copied machines made in India by our indigenous begin to design a machine, as a pen is useless in

machine-makers are already outdated, the hands of a person who doesn't know how to

uneconomical to produce, and difficult to sell in a write. We as a country are proud of our IT and

competitive market, as the original designs were software skills and the media - being a direct

appropriate for a different industrial environment beneficiary - is going overboard about it. There are

that of a heavily industrialised country. At the same countless training institutions springing up to cater

time, those industries, which have officially to this mad rush. Every parent today dreams of his

imported designs from abroad, are either child becoming a software prodigy. People do not



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seem to recognise the obvious fact that a room full glued to this channel, to the almost total exclusion

of electronic hardware and gigabytes of software of the multitudes of lion-stop entertainment,

driving that hardware cannot move even a paper “enfotainment” (sic) and political-news channels.

clip from point A to point B, without having a This channel has single-handedly demonstrated

mechanical device or equipment connected to it. that there is fascinating drama in technology itself'.

Obviously then, someone his to design that There has always been, and no technology is

machine too. possible without machine and equipment-

designers.

One increasingly hears this ludicrous opinion;

"There is no future in mechanical engineering!" One not-so-obvious reason for the phenomenal

Ironically, the term 'mechanical engineering' itself success of IT companies is that the success of

is a misnomer. 'Physical engineering' would their product is completely development-

describe it more accurately. We live in a physical dependent. The rest of their activities are

world of ever increasing number of manufactured peripheral to their success. Their owners recognize

things. If this is true, then who is going to design this fact as such, and their central effort is to

and manufacture these things, and who is going to develop a good product. This mindset is almost

design the machines which would make these nonexistent in Indian manufacturing industries,

manufactured things, if everyone chooses to where the running of the company from day to day

become an IT specialist? A few years ago, it was is of cardinal importance to the owners. Design

the MBA degree. Before the MBA, it was chemical and development are given a back seat, or no

engineering. In a few years, when the Y2K bug is place at all.

finally exterminated, it will probably be Manufacturing companies often hire professionals

biotechnology. in fields like advertising, business management

It has been argued by some that machine-design and nowadays IT, etc., and willingly pay inflated

skills cannot be taught in a classroom, as machine- amounts of money for their services, even when,

design is an art. Machine-design is indeed an art. usually, there is no way of evaluating the returns or

Though, unlike the fine arts and applied arts - efficacy of' the services rendered. Yet, when it

where the creativity and imagination of the artist is comes to something basic like engineering or

the only boundary - machine-design is an art with machine-design, they usually balk at employing a

twofold external boundaries, within which it has to competent professional. They sincerely believe

be practised. The first are the absolute boundaries that they themselves can somehow get the

of physical and engineering principles and the necessary work done - because they are dealing

second are the flexible boundaries of economics, with a tangible entity like machinery. Very few

producibility, availability, need, etc. The quality, people realise that a good design is a simple (not

simplicity, elegance, 'appropriateness', and simplistic) design, and a simple design is the most

aesthetics of the resulting machine or equipment is difficult to create. A good design's simplicity is

the result of the machine-designer's artistic obvious only after it has been produced. Ironically,

qualities. Yet, just like the fine arts and applied such good results often reinforce the

arts, it can certainly be taught. manufacturers' false belief that they themselves

could have done it, or can do it the next time round

Our folly has been further compounded by our print

without professional help - "It's so obvious!"

media and the electronic media as well. They have

always firmly believed that the educated middle- To compound this, in today's opened economy,

class - their prime target audience - is not marketing moguls believe that they can shop

interested in things technical. To see the fallacy of around anywhere in the world for products, so

this, one only has to look it the enormous where is the need for design? In reality, a good

popularity of the Discovery channel, though this design makes the marketing professional's job

fact has been completely overlooked by the media! easier, as it sells by its own virtues. We in India

I personally know of many educated middle-class always seem to wait to act till the future is upon us.

homes where the parents and children alike are Then it's always a case of doing too little and too



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late. It's time our industries and policymakers wake The author hopes and prays that this trend will

up to this situation and take corrective steps, grow and accelerate in the near future.

otherwise our dreams of becoming a powerful (In this article, I have avoided shortening 'machine-

nation will remain just that. As a nation, we have design' and ‘machine-designers' to 'design' and

shaken off the tyranny of colonial rule. However, 'designers' as, unfortunately in India, the latter

without becoming self-reliant in designing words usually connote an artistic designer, like a

machines and equipment, we will never be able to graphic or a fashion designer, or an industrial

shake off the yoke of foreign domination in designer. A machine-designer designs the whole

technology. Because all technology, at one stage machine, from its nuts-and-bolts and working parts

or the other, MUST pass through the designer's to its external appearance.)

drawing board.

The only silver lining is those tiny handful of

industries that have the good vision (and good The author is a graduate of IIT Bombay in Mechanical Engineering. He has

been designing machines since 1976. He founded Neubauplan Machine

fortune) of having capable and well-motivated Design Studio, an independent consulting machine-design firm in 1981 in

designers engaged in working on new machines. Pune. He can be reached at harsh@neubauplan.com or through his website

at www.neubauplan.com









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Article published in the Annual 2001 issue of the Industrial part in 3D in any of the popular CAD

Product Finder, page 660. packages, and do a finite-element stress-strain

analysis to arrive at the optimum. Today, this

analysis is commonly available as a service by

Common Shortcomings of Indian various consultants and agencies.

Machine Design Practice • Keeping more space between parts when

less will do. Very often, designers will keep

By Harshwardhan Gupta 20-30 mm space between parts, where even 1

mm is sufficient. This is just lack of confidence

in their own detailing.

Why does Indian Machine Design practice so

utterly lag behind the present World standards? In • Keeping everything adjustable. This makes

our machine designs, why can’t we Indians adjusting the machine a work of art and needs

achieve the German detailing and long, trouble- a super-skilled fitter to set it just right. This is

free machine life; the Japanese compactness; the wasteful and not necessary. It is a hangover

American clarity; the English engineering sense; from the days of grossly coarse manufacturing,

the Korean finish, the Taiwanese low-price? This where nothing came out within 3 mm of the

article is appropriate to machines as a product, as given dimensions. Designing out all but

well as machines as SPMs. necessary adjustments is necessary, and once

this bold step is taken, the resulting comfort

It is NOT impossible. Nor is it very difficult! To level all around is obvious.

borrow the words of a great American Red Indian

Chief, “If the Palefaces (the White men) can do it, • Continuing to use gears and roller chains,

the Injuns (Indians) can do it too!” where timing belts could do the job much more

cheaply and elegantly. Manufacturers’

The reasons for our repeated failures to do so are catalogues are available easily and much

twofold – one side of the reasons is technical, the information is available on the net. The

other is psychological. Some overlap. I will advantages of timing belts are: Low cost

elaborate on both. compared to gears. No lubrication required. No

Technical shortcomings of Indian idlers or tightening arrangement are required

Designs: as the drive can easily be designed with fixed

center-distances, as unlike V-belts, timing belts

One of the major reasons for our awkward efforts do not stretch during their lifetime. Noiseless

at machine designs is the designers’ lack of and clean in operation. Shrouds required only

knowledge of the recent developments in on the smaller pulley. Backlash-free, so ideal

technology, materials, off-the-shelf items, etc. for motions that go back and forth.

Instead of lamenting about why this is so, I will give • Using bush bearings. Rolling bearings are as

you numerous instances of what is clumsy and old- cheap, or often cheaper than bronze / brass /

fashioned and what are the new solutions (and the gun metal / steel bearings. And they are faster

new stuff is not all that expensive either). The to assemble.

order is random, and the list can go on and on –

these are some of the most glaring: • Using heavy external covers and seals,

when off-the-shelf sealed rolling bearings

• Gross over-design, resulting in unnecessarily could directly be used.

heavy and unwieldy, and sometimes slow-

because-of-heavy-inertia machines. Indian • Using excessive greasy lubricants in roller

designers often misjudge the strength and chains. Roller chains ONLY need a few drops

modulus of materials, and over design of high-penetration lubricating oil (similar to the

everything as a routine, because the old one commonly available for sewing machines).

textbook says so. Today, one can model the This oil penetrates the small gap between the

leaves of the chain and gets between the



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rollers, bushes and pins, where it is really tension. For a 50 mm shaft, a 55-58 mm wide

needed. Grease never reaches these areas clamp (in mild steel) is right. Make that 65mm

and only gives psychological comfort. and above, and you will almost break the bolt

before you get sufficient grip on the shaft.

• Using excessive lubricants in rolling

Make it 53 mm and it will yield plastically and

bearings. Contrary to the popular belief, rolling

the slit will clamp shut before enough grip can

bearings do not need lubrication for their

be achieved.

operation. The lubricant serves only two

purposes – to prevent corrosion by maintaining • Individually matching mating parts, thus

an oily film, and to lubricate the cage, which destroying the parts’ interchangeability, and

always rubs lightly against the shoulders or the making subsequent service / replacement

rolling elements. extremely expensive.

• Designing oversized round flanges. Few • Specifying incorrect bearing fits. Not

designers realize that in most cases, any knowing which race of a rolling bearing should

flange material outside the PCD is useless, so be made tight and which should be kept loose.

they may as well reduce the PCD to the Refer to a proper bearing handbook and

minimum, then reduce the OD to the minimum, understand the principle before applying the

and have an equally strong but better looking fits.

design.

• Using steel parts without surface treatment.

• Using open rolling bearings without sealing So either the machine is smeared with rust-

them. This is absolutely criminal. All rolling preventive, or kept bathed in oil at all times. All

elements must be sealed from the atmosphere mild steel and alloy construction steel parts

as they rust very quickly. must be blackodised, zinc plated or painted.

This includes all threaded fasteners.

• Designing half-rounded ends in machined

Blackodising has the advantage of not

parts. This shape is difficult to machine, or

depositing a measurable layer, but if once

finish by hand, and looks ugly. Two chamfers

cleaned with a strong solvent, the part will start

can very well replace the half-round end of a,

rusting immediately. Wrapping blackodised

say, machined lever.

parts in old newspapers (a very widespread

• Using hand-made machine covers. habit) is a direct invitation to rusting.

Nowadays job work on turret punch presses, Blackodising is porous and adsorbs oil, thus

CNC laser cutting machines and CNC press preventing rusting. Once the oil is removed, or

brakes can be done very economically. The is soaked out by the paper, the part is very

finish is excellent and worth the money spent. vulnerable to rust. This can be taken to the

other extreme if springs and circlips are also

• Using heavy sections for press- or shrink-

plated. These will become brittle and crack due

fitting where modern industrial adhesives

to plating, unless they are dehydrogenated

could be used easily and safely. Most

after plating.

designers have a mental block against using

industrial adhesives. If the torques are light • Painting the machine after assembly. This is

compared to the shaft section, even keys can the single most obvious factor that makes

be avoided in many cases. Indian machines look so pathetic. Today, all

over the World, machine parts are first finish-

• Designing disproportionate split-clamps.

painted / plated / surface-finished, and then

The split clamp is a very useful feature and

assembled. If parts are cared for and assembly

designing it needs understanding its principle.

is done cleanly and systematically right from

Two points to be kept in mind are: firstly, keep

the beginning, there is no reason why any

the clamping screw as near the shaft as

assembly should first look like something

possible – within 2 to 5 mm at the most.

salvaged from a junkyard, then cleaned and

Secondly, properly proportion the section in

painted to “look new”.



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• Using adjustable wrenches, and damaged • I cannot use good makes of bought-out items

Allen keys. Adjustable spanners are meant for as my boss will not allow it, or my customer will

an emergency, like a vehicle breakdown on the not pay for it.

highway. They have no place on the assembly

• Any new technology is too expensive and the

floor, as with the slightest carelessness, they

old-fashioned way is sure and cheap.

can damage bolt heads, and the paint around

them. Same goes for damaged socket • We have got very good sales people, they will

wrenches. sell anything we produce.

• Using unmatched pairs of V-belts, and using • I have diligently made part drawings after

improperly dimensioned and shaped pulley opening up an imported machine, so my

groves. Also, using flat belts on pulleys without copied machine will work equally nicely, or,

crowning. The remedy is obvious. well, at least 60% nicely, so that’s okay.

• Not knowing how to design silent • I will just design the basic machine. The

machines. Only a few machines are inherently covers, wiring, piping jobs will be done by the

noisy – like stone crushers, pneumatic respective departments on the assembled

hammers, or circular wood-saws. Most machine.

machines can be designed to run with very low

• Anyway, the assembly people will sort out any

noise levels. In today’s World, non-inherent

problems.

noise is considered a nuisance and a sure sign

of poor quality. Conversely, a silent machine is

considered a good-quality machine. Now that much has been said about the poor

Investigate the source of the noise and fix it in Indian machine designer, a few words about the

the design itself. Very often, a cheap electric silent majority of Indian machine sellers and

motor is the source. buyers are also due.

• Leaving sharp edges, burrs and flashes The seller is so often an untrained salesman who

unfinished. Specify proper chamfers, and de- was an engineering graduate once upon a time,

burring on your drawings. Study other well- and now concentrates only on his sales pitch and

designed machines to see how this is done. interpersonal relationships. His product knowledge

Psychological roadblocks with Indian is often very sketchy, and technical details are

often glossed over by glib, uninformed chatter.

Designers:

The buyer of Indian machinery is so often a

Indian machine designers (and their employers /

purchase executive, who must demonstrate to his

bosses) often see their profession as just another

boss that he has obtained a sizable discount

job, and usually do not get much exposure to

against all odds, and buy the cheapest by playing

international design practice. This often produces a

one against the other.

frog-in-the-well kind of mental state. The common

traps they fall into are: To an extent, this is how the whole World works.

But this can very easily be carried to extremes

• Making a good-quality machine is very

without realizing the damage that is done to both

expensive, and nobody will buy it at that price.

their respective organizations. The machine builder

• Our workers are incapable of producing is forced to cut corners to survive, and the buyer

international quality. gets a sub-standard machine and lives with it. It is

patently harmful for the buyer to think that he will

• We have started using CAD instead of manual

only use the cheap machine for a short time till its

drafting, so now our quality will improve.

cost is written off, and then dispose it off and buy a

• ISO-9000/1/2 will solve all our quality better machine. This is just wishful thinking. The

problems, and improve our design quality. machine would still be around after 20 years,

patched up every now and then and still producing.



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Would the same person buy an equally low-quality all these observations with engineering theory and

car and dispose it off after the investment has paid a sense of appropriateness; and most importantly,

off? to be in love with well-designed machinery, and

develop a sense of rightness of design. The

Machine designers will do well to remember that in

following story will illustrate this point –

our World, doctors are routinely trained by senior

Michelangelo was busy meticulously carving the

doctors, surgeons by surgeons, lawyers by

back of a statue of a Roman God, which was to be

lawyers, managers by managers, cooks by cooks,

installed in an alcove (a recessed niche) in a wall.

and fitters by fitters, and so on, but poor machine

Someone pointed out that as the sculpture would

designers have to learn their trade the hard way.

be installed in an alcove, no one would ever see

Design being the greatest trade secret, no one is

the back of the statue, so why was Michelangelo

usually around to teach how to design a specific

wasting his time carving it in such meticulous

machine, especially an SPM. However, much can

detail? He replied that he himself would see it, and

be learnt by opening up, studying and re-

it wouldn’t look right to him till he detailed it out to

assembling all sorts of machinery with one’s own

his own standards of correctness.

hands.

The way to learn how to design a machine is to

The author is a graduate of IIT Bombay in Mechanical Engineering. He has

observe good machines a lot, then think – think been designing machines since 1976. He founded Neubauplan Machine

why and how the great machine is designed the Design Studio, an independent consulting machine-design firm in 1981 in

Pune. He can be reached at harsh@neubauplan.com or through his website

way it is, then to absorb, assimilate and integrate at www.neubauplan.com









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Article published in the November 2001 issue of the Industrial You are a frail old person trying to open a

Product Finder, page 132. can or a tin of food with the usual tools.

You are an average petite Indian woman

How NOT to design Packages! trying to open a twist-lock cap of a jam jar.

You are trying to open the heat-sealed foil of

By Harshwardhan Gupta

a coffee jar – it resists opening with your

fingers and if you use a knife, the glass

around chips off into fine flakes – you hear

I have avoided writing this article in the usual the noise of the glass crumbling but cross

technical writing style in the hope that the sleeping your fingers and use the expensive coffee.

manufacturing majority will wake up and take You are a young girl trying to open the metal

notice. Though I am a mechanical engineer and a can of a body-talc.

machine- and product designer, I am writing this

piece as an average Indian user-consumer. You are a small kid trying to open a flow-

wrapped pack of biscuits, or a gas-filled pack

Today the urban Indian consumer buys more of expanded snacks, or a BOPP pack of

packaged goods than he or she makes loose popcorn.

purchases from the market. To simply open a

great majority of packages, one has to bring all You are one of the millions of traditional

of one’s creativity, ingenuity and dexterity to Indian housewives trying to open a milk bag

bear, because virtually no manufacturer ever without scissors, as in your household it is

gives a thought to how his consumer will open taboo to bring a pair scissors into the

his package. “Oh, isn’t it obvious!” No, it’s not kitchen. Ditto for an edible oil flexi-pouch

always obvious how the package is to be without a spout.

opened, nor is it realistic or desirable to assume You are an ordinary citizen, trying to open a

that the consumer will have the right tools for the mass-mailing envelope from a big company,

right package-opening job at the right place at which has been closed by glue but before

the right time. that the letter has been stapled to the

The following list of such situations could fill this envelope.

whole magazine, but just let me give you a few You are trying to open a 100s wad of

everyday instances: banknotes heavily stapled at multiple places

You are inside a bathroom, all wet and trying by your friendly neighborhood bank.

to open a shampoo sachet. You are trying to open a small flimsy carton

You are travelling in a rickshaw, trying to that has been sealed by a small length of

open a mineral water bottle with a shrink- absolutely unbreakable BOPP tape.

wrapped seal. You are trying to open the water sachets the

You are with your sick child, trying to open a Railways give you alongside their meal

cough syrup bottle (with an ROPP cap) and trays.

the cap goes round and round without the You are trying to open a tightly shrink-

seal breaking. wrapped toy pack for your child as he or she

You are opening a glass beer bottle with a is excitedly trying to climb all over you.

crown cap and the glass breaks instead of You have dressed up for the evening, got

the cap coming out. guests in the house, trying to open a double-

You are sitting with guests trying to open a walled pickle pouch and the pickle oil goes

pack of snacks packed in stretchy LDPE or all over your dress.

unbreakable BOPP. You get a family or party pack of an ice-

cream and try to tear it along those fancy

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opening cuts the right way, and instead of In all fairness, there are a few, very very few,

opening the pack you just get a strip of exceptions. Some packs do have sensible and

cardboard in your hand, because the glue lucid opening instructions, some chocolate and

holding the carton together is stronger than ice-cream bar packs are made to tear open very

the cardboard itself, and has spread below easily, and some manufacturers do demonstrate

the tear strip also. how to open and use the product through

television ads. But what about the rest?

You are trying to open an adhesive tube and

follow the instructions to pierce the seal with So much for opening the package! What about

the cap, and it immediately leaks all over the information on the pack and condition of the

your fingers. products inside? A list again?

You are a young mother trying to open a A flow-wrapped biscuit pack has several

metal can of baby food as your hungry little biscuits already broken and chipped inside.

baby is howling away. A toothpaste tube says – “for best results

This, and more, has happened to you, hasn’t it? start squeezing from top”. Now which is the

How did you feel then? Annoyed? Angry? top, the end from where the toothpaste

Frustrated? Helpless? Or just used your teeth as comes out or the end from where the

that is one package-opening tool everyone has! manufacturer fills it (from the crimp side)?

Ironically, one of the few packs that open most A mineral water bottle is filed to the brim to

easily with bare hands are the cigarette packs, save packaging material so it drenches you

injurious to your health anyway! as you open it.

We Indians take so much pride in our A gas-filled pack of potato wafers contains a

intelligence and ingenuity! For all the garish good percentage of broken and crushed

package graphics, the Indian ingenuity is chips – the gas filling is supposed to prevent

certainly not evident in our package designs. this but the processing and packaging

What is achieved by saying wryly now, that machines have already done the damage.

commonsense is not so common? And what is

the point of saying, “Our customers must be A blister pack breaks the tablets as you try to

knowing how to open our packs because we take them out.

have never received any complaints! What are A pack of mosquito coils reveals a good

YOU complaining about? Don’t you know we number of broken coils, and the sharp stand

have enough problems handling the government draws blood from your fingers as you try to

paperwork and managing our dealers? And look erect it.

at the cut-throat competition?”

The batch number and manufacturing date is

These are spurious arguments. Such mindset is absolutely illegible.

a product of the ignorance as well as the

arrogance of the Indian manufacturers. But, how Sitting with your medicine box, you are trying

will the consumers complain? Except a few who to figure out which is the right medicine as

have been to Europe or USA, the vast majority the earlier opening of a few blisters has

has never seen better, easily openable ripped off the name of the medicine from the

packages, or even packages with clear opening pack.

instructions. The consumers in India have no You are trying to open a sachet that says,

choice, when it comes to choosing between easy “tear here” and it has no notch to tear from,

and not-so-easy to open packages. Not to or the notch exists but the material just

mention the total lack of any regulations in this stretches as you try to open it.

regard. Being Indians, we are used to suffering

in silence, blaming it all on our “taqdeer”. I think I have made my point. Most Indian

manufacturers design and make packages with a

mindlessness they will never exhibit when



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managing the cash flow of the company. To the package, rarely ever on the easy openability

those manufacturers who have taken serious of the pack. As consumer awareness increases,

note of this writing, I have this advice – study the easy-to-open packages will slowly take over the

packages from developed countries and adopt market. Please remember that by providing the

the materials and closure techniques, rather than consumer with an easy to open package, you

just adopting the attractive graphics, and most are not doing a favour to him, you are just giving

importantly, get some scientific and thorough him his money’s worth, which is his due.

market research done by an independent and

qualified agency, not by people who will tell you

The author is a graduate of IIT Bombay in Mechanical Engineering. He has

what you want to hear! This is what the been designing machines since 1976. He founded Neubauplan Machine

multinationals do, and for good reason. So often, Design Studio, an independent consulting machine-design firm in 1981 in

Pune. He can be reached at harsh@neubauplan.com or through his website

the Indian market research is done only on the at www.neubauplan.com

product and sometimes on the attractiveness of









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Article published in the August 2002 issue of the Industrial but not give up (The ludicrous part is not the

Product Finder, page 198. language, but the self-destructive attitude. Italics

are mine):

So how much discount you are • “And it must be very cheap, okay? We don’t

want posh, safe, silent, good-looking and all

offering on SPM? Final Bolo Abhi! that, okay? Ekdum simple (read Absolute junk),

but it has to work day and night, okay?”

By Harshwardhan Gupta

• “Make it cheap and simple? Nothing fancy!”

(Not realizing that making something simple

A Special Purpose Machine (SPM), or an and cheap for the first time is difficult and time-

automation device is not quite a color TV, or a consuming, and therefore a relatively more

washing machine, or a bag of Basmati rice. I am expensive exercise.)

amazed at the sheer number of qualified, • “I have feeling your idea will not work. Explain

experienced people who think that a specific SPM your idea to me how it will work?” (So the

is a commodity just like any other. Quite to the concept can be stolen and given to a “cheaper”

contrary, an SPM is something that you guy to execute. Slowly, the good SPM maker

commission an expert engineer to conceive, leaves the profession in sheer frustration.)

design and make, either to expand your

capabilities, productivity, or to reduce your own • “You don’t trust us or what? You are not giving

costs. idea only? Without getting idea how we will

decide?” (Not realizing that ideas once given

One so often hears the catch phrase – win-win are gone forever.)

situation, but selling SPMs and automation in India

is so very often a TOTAL lose-lose situation. Just • “Explain your costing to me why it is so high?

like in Alice’s Wonderland, in the World of Indian Nobody is making profits today, so why should

automators and special-purpose machinery you? You know today’s market condition no?”

builders, one has to run very fast to stand in the (So the high but absolutely normal overheads of

same spot. an SPM maker are then ripped apart, and his

profits reduced to negative numbers.)

The purchase chief, or even the owner, first drives

the really competent guys out of the race, and then • “Why you are using such high-quality bought-

pits one “SPM Fitter” against another to get the outs from big-big names? We are using

“best” bargain. The automation or the SPM may be “commercial” grade only!” (Now the quality and

desperately needed by the buyer to survive by reliability takes a beating, but money has been

reducing costs, but the Purchase Chief has to saved!)

show the Boss how he has tamed the SPM lion • “We want delivery in 2 weeks only ok? We

and has taken out 22.35% of its teeth! Effect? The cannot wait for your 4 months. If you can give it

“winner” cuts costs by cutting corners and stealing in 2 weeks take advance otherwise forget it.”

ideas from others. This Fitter finally delivers a (Talking about it back and forth, mainly on the

watered down SPM after repeated delays. Now the price and specifications has taken more than 6

poor toothless lion cannot perform well, so it soon months, incidentally. And quotation was

becomes a White Elephant. Then the export orders required within 2 days.) “Then if you are

suffer. The investor pulls out and loses all faith in delivering in 2 weeks, why you want advance?

these “newfangled” ideas. “Our old method only Our payment processing itself takes 6-8 weeks

was better.” Who is the winner here? The “smart” because we are big organization. Then credit

buyer? period starts.”

The following situations recounts some of the • “See I don’t want Mercedes, I am ordinary

tactics Indian SPM buyers employ, and some of person. I want cheap machine only” (At the

the self-defeating attitudes they have, and will die



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same time his wife would actually be shopping • “Who is this? Who? From? Regarding? What

in the city in a Mercedes.) SPM? Achchha, that quotation you sent about 4

months ago? No we have not decided anything

• “12 Lakhs? No no no no, this is absolutely

so far. Our MD is on foreign trip, so when he

exorbient (read “exorbitant”). Our budget is 3

comes you give a call. Okay? No his return is

lakhs only. Above that it is totally

not sure when. Thankyou, ya ok ok, bye, bye,

uneconomical!” (If the machine builder had said

ya bye!”

3 lakhs, the buyer would have countered with

0.5. The buyers often have no idea of a • “Design does not cost so much! Why you are

“budget” but this is just a tried and tested way to telling like this? Just you make few drawings

bargain, just the way you haggle in a fish that too draftsman makes, you don’t make no,

market. In reality it may be so that even the raw you just give idea. So why you are charging so

material cost is above 5 lakhs. And the buyer much? So design part of cost should not be so

doesn’t even know how to properly calculate much, should be zero only, design you make

Return on Investment.) from profit.”

• “Imported machine is 8 lakhs; so Indian • “In our line labour is very very cheap, I can get

machine should be not more than maximum-to- worker at 14 rupees per day for 10 hours, such

maximum 2 lakhs.” (The “imported” machine is expensive machine we cannot afford.” Knowing

an off-the-shelf product so it is relatively cheap, fully well that the consequences of employing

a one-off Indian prototype would at least cost such cheap labour are already proving to be

the same, if not more.) very expensive in many other ways.

• “We will give him wrong idea first, then he will • “What high quotations you are giving! We also

explain how it will not work and then he will know the costs okay? We also have machine

reveal his good idea. Best way to take out idea building facility only it is overloaded. If we make,

from these big big consultants. Then who wants it will cost your one-third! Overheads? No here

to employ them? Our Rajesh will get it done in we calculate by direct cost only. Machine

half of half price“ building overheads are added to general

overheads only. Why you cannot do like that?”

• “Lets get quotation for atomization (read

automation) machine no? Just for idea only! • “Oh that atomization guy is on the line? Tell him

Our manual system is actually working quite ok, I have gone out of country and will come back

only Munnabhai Mistry is remaining too much end of next month only. Once we give inquiry

absent nowadays.” (So the poor SPM maker how much they are following up. Should not

spends sleepless nights over this “challenging” have given inquiry only.”

problem, all for nothing.)

• “Don’t waste money in covers and guards and

• “What, our Indian engineering, design and fancy all that. That we will do.”

manufacturing costs are just 10% of cost in

• “You are getting entry in our organization no?

foreign. There everything is so costly! I had

So this time you do in loss next time we will

gone in summer. Just drinking water costing

adjust you. What is there you will make little

185 rupees one liter. I don’t understand why

loss but you will get entry no?” (As if one is

you are giving such high quotations?”

getting an entry in some Bollywood superstar’s

• “No, no, you immediately make visit to our home. The next time then never comes, or one

Ahmedabad factory and study and give us of the above lines is used to bargain all over

quotation on the spot only, as our MD has said again.)

this atomization project is top priority. So when

• “If you cannot make machine work in 2 days we

you are coming? Day after tomorrow you come

will take it and ask our fitter to adjust and take

because tomorrow I am not there. Take night

trial. You may be IIT graduate but he is expert.”

train from Bombay. Rush is there I know so you

give 4-500 to TT.”



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(The short and sweet path to ruin a new if you push him into a corner, you will finally find

concept completely.) that you have painted yourself into another corner.

Would you deal in the same ways with your doctor

• “Don’t even talk about advance, our MD ji has

or your lawyer?

issued circular last year only. And against 80%

payment on delivery you have to give bank Now all the sellers will say, “Wow, he has hit the

guarantee, and last 20% after one year only. nail on the head.“ But if this writing causes even a

These are terms for everybody not only you.” small awareness of his follies in even one buyer,

the author would be the happiest person.

In these and more ways, just how so many SPM

buyers harm their own business interests so

casually, is beyond this author’s comprehension. The author is a graduate of IIT Bombay in Mechanical Engineering. He has

been designing machines since 1976. He founded Neubauplan Machine

As I said, an SPM is something that you Design Studio, an independent consulting machine-design firm in 1981 in

commission a professional engineer to make, and Pune. He can be reached at harsh@neubauplan.com or through his website

at www.neubauplan.com









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via e-mail by writing to him at harsh@neubauplan.com, and you must publish them without changing the contents or name of the author.

Article published in the Annual 2002 issue of the Industrial interests, which is normal and natural. And these

Product Finder, page 653. people have customers, not clients. I am appalled

at the mindless interchangeability with which the

words “customer” and “client” are used. Doctors

Consultants, Consultants have patients; lawyers, architects, chartered

Everywhere! accountants, and consultants have clients;

educators have students; advertising agencies

have accounts; and almost everyone else has

By Harshwardhan Gupta

customers! And no Sir, it does not sound more

upmarket to talk about your “clients” when you just

In my last article, (“So how much discount you are have good old customers.

offering on SPM? Final bolo abhi! ” IPF August Another confusion is created when people, after

2002) I had written about how clients / customers regular, voluntary or not-so-voluntary retirement,

give a rough time to SPM makers / designers / become “consultants” and then tend to work like

consultants, etc. I received a lot of fan mail and a employees-turned-businessmen. Let me say

few brickbats too, and very genuine ones at that. unequivocally, that X years of experience, as a

So I decided to write about the other side of the department head in organization Y, does not

story too. guarantee any success with client Z’s problems.

Let me say in the beginning that there are many Most such people have no financial common

unsung heroes among consultants who, despite sense and come a cropper after trying their hand

many handicaps and often for poor returns, have at consultancy, or they believe that consultancy is

turned in good work and have cause to be proud of a sort of temporary employment, or they try to act

their calling. But there are many more, who as some business house’s agents.

blemish the name of consultancy as a profession, Another curious breed is the Liaison Consultants of

and this article is about the latter kind. Consultancy various “departments”. These are essentially

(giving advice to others for a consideration) in my agents simply cashing in on the institutionalized

opinion is World’s second oldest profession, and corruption in our bureaucracies, and they think the

sometimes it falls to such low levels that it is but word Consultant is more “respectable” than Agent.

one step away from the World’s oldest profession. Various kinds of “consultants” or “consultancy

Recent years have seen an explosive sprouting of firms” exclusively work for the Government

consultants of every hue and cry. Their complete essentially as contractors, or as some company’s

lack of any collective or general code of conduct agents, or brokers, or as “experts”, and operate on

has brought ill repute right across the profession. lines that would not take them an inch ahead if

The first major cause of misunderstandings with they operated in the public domain. Also riding on

clients arises, when individuals who are essentially the consultants’ bandwagon are soothsayers of

agents start calling themselves consultants. A few various kinds too: Vaastu Consultants, Astro-

examples will suffice: Estate agents calling Palmistry Consultants, Feng-Shui Consultants, etc.

themselves Property Consultants, used car dealers Many people, who are essentially educators or

calling themselves Auto Consultants, share trainers, call themselves consultants too. This too

brokers calling themselves Investment is absurd, though sometimes some educators also

Consultants, beauticians calling themselves play the role of a consultant, and vice-versa. The

Makeover Consultants, trading firms holding an student-teacher relationship is quite different from

agency of, say, pneumatic components calling a client-consultant relationship. Then there are

themselves Pneumatics System Design those who “do consultancy” as a part time job. This

Consultants, and so on. This is absurd! Lets have often leads to conflicts of interests and paucity of

some clarity on this. An entrepreneur, or a trader, time, and the task in hand comes a cropper.

or a manufacturer, or a service-provider like an Talking of conflicts of interests, there are those

advertiser, or a supplier, or an agent (including the who “specialize” in a given line, first work for A,

above exampled kinds), all work for their own

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maybe as an employee, then resign and play may put his client to losses, or withholds

consultant for A’s direct competitor B, and so on, information he knows the client needs and then

passing industrial secrets around for a handsome tries to cash-in on it later, then he has failed; and

fee. The worst are the “undercover” consultants this brings a bad name to consultants in general.

(read industrial spies); I need not elaborate on A few more aspects should be clear in the mind of

these breeds’ shenanigans any further. the consultant. Is he purely an adviser? Like a

Many consultants think nothing of pushing their management consultant? Or is he supposed to

clients into a corner when it comes to selection of deliver measurable results? And are parts of his

vendors or suppliers, as they have some kind of a fees tied up with these measurable results – and

tie-up with these businesses. They happily take a what parts, quantitatively? Clarity on these issues

percentage when they recommend a particular is best achieved right in the beginning. Another

brand of bought-outs, and vice versa. I have often point is – does he solicit business? If no, fine, but if

ended up flatly refusing kickbacks from various yes, there are ethical guidelines to be followed

vendors and traders. I simply tell them that I do not here – you should not make promises you cannot

expect any sort of “cut” or any other favour from keep (we Indians seem to excel in doing just that).

them, except that they should give a good price You have to outline the risks, probabilities of

and good service to my clients. From their failure, and other external factors (quality of client’s

response it is usually obvious that they think of me vendors, for example) that can adversely affect the

as a nut case. outcome – in the beginning, not after the damage

has been done. Let me warn you that it is a very

It must be realized here that consultancy is neither

fine line that divides delivering results and taking

employment, nor a business, nor an agency. It is a

advantage of the client’s naïveté. Transparency is

practice, like a doctor’s clinical practice, or a

essential – as they say about justice, that not only

lawyer’s practice. One does not think of doctors or

justice must be done, but justice must also be seen

lawyers running a business! They run a practice,

to be done. Payment terms must be outlined right

and so it should be with consultants too. This

at the beginning and not left to the benevolence of

change of perspective would clarify a lot of

the client or the consultant. If an exact proposal

confusion that floats around the profession of

cannot be worked out in the beginning without

consultancy. And when in doubt, thinking about

considerable spending of time, effort and money,

what a good doctor would do in an equivalent

then a quick budgetary proposal often is a good

situation could often provide good insights! Never

way to begin. If this itself falls through, then no

be afraid of telling a client what is wrong with

more time and effort need be spent. In simple

things in question; just as a doctor, though in his

words, tell the client as soon as possible how

best bedside manner, has to tell you that you have,

much it would cost in fees plus costs to achieve his

say, diabetes, or cancer.

aim.

A consultant is commissioned by a client to act in

A consultant advertising his services should not go

the client’s interest by advising, designing,

overboard in praising himself or making

examining, analyzing… whatever! Therefore a

pretentious claims, as many product sellers do as

consultant necessarily has to work in the clients’

a matter of right. He would do well to remember

interest, keeping his own interests aside for the

that almost all of his professional brethren –

time being, as he has been engaged by the client

doctors, lawyers, architects and chartered

to provide impartial opinions, inputs, analyses,

accountants are completely prohibited from

designs, solutions, etc. to the best of his ability. A

advertising in any form.

good consultant must essentially be professionally

neutral, and for him developing a cosy relationship One should also not indulge in the practice of

with a client must not take precedence over good bargaining (that is done between suppliers and

professional work. If the consultant starts working purchasers) – as it is the first step towards losing

in his own interest as an agent does, or takes one’s credibility. So rampant has this insidious

short-cuts to save his own time and efforts which practice become, that I now hear of doctors,



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surgeons, lawyers, architects and chartered soothsayer, or a fixer. This is easier said than

accountants (the “original” consultants, if you wish) done, but it does pay well in the long run. To this

regularly indulging in bargaining with their clients. end, if asked for, consultants should also present a

written reference list of past and present clients

Unless one very clearly wants to shift to a different

with names and telephone numbers, and not just

vocation altogether, one should also resist the

casually indulge in name-dropping as is done in

temptation of becoming a real or virtual “partner”

cocktail parties. If they wish to play one more role,

with a client. It is a perilous practice to agree to

a trainer, for example, this should be well insulated

accept part of profits or percentage of turnover as

from their consulting practice. However, a

part (or whole) of the fees. Many clients try this

manufacturer or an agent or a trader trying on the

tack with consultants, thinking that this is a good

consultant’s cap is a case of hunting with the

way to ensure his diligence and allegiance. In my

wolves and running with the sheep!

opinion, a consultant needing a carrot and / or a

stick to work well is not worth his fees in the first This brings me to the final point. A much tossed

place, and a client insisting on this arrangement is around, maligned and misunderstood word is

often a case of once bitten twice shy – such is the “Professionalism”. It’s like “Love” – everybody

havoc wreaked by some consultants. In my obviously knows what Love is, but no two persons

observations over last 3 decades, this is a well- will ever agree on a definition. Here are a few of

travelled road to perdition. I am very clear in my my truisms (and I invite comments and examples

mind that the client risks his money, and the from readers). First, as an eminent professor of

consultant risks his reputation, and one should not mine used to say, “Two things are important –

try and reverse these roles. Inventors selling their clarity of mind, and clarity of expression! ” Second,

patents for a royalty are not consultants at all. the old adage, “Do unto others as you expect

others to do unto yourself. ” Third, you must try

Although often there is no well-established

your best to ensure that the client actually benefits

precedence for a consultant to know how to

from your advise / work / design, etc. as this is the

structure and conduct his practice, as I said,

core of the reason why he has engaged you, and

drawing a parallel with a good doctor’s practice

this is why he will come back to you, and spread

often provides clarity, as a doctor’s profession is

good word around about you. Fourth, you must

the closest to that of a consultant’s, especially to

also be open about your mistakes / shortcomings /

that of a consulting engineer’s. By corollary, the

errors of judgement, and admit these frankly,

client also must see to it that the consultant’s fees,

instead of giving excuses for failures. Fifth, like a

etc. are paid promptly, and the consultant is not

doctor-patient relationship, the information you

treated at par with suppliers and agents, as he is

gain about the client or his organization is

ethically prevented from acting with selfish

sacrosanct, and must never be shared with others.

interests. In my personal opinion, it is a better

Finally, please remember that if you stick to your

professional practice to be paid by work-content

principles, you may lose a client, but you will never

rather than by time. Although I know of a few who

lose a client’s respect.

run a good time-based practice, the Indian

scenario is unsuitable for it, and the global trends

are also changing towards work-based payments.

If consultants wish to be known as highly regarded The author is a graduate of IIT Bombay in Mechanical Engineering. He has

professionals, they must consciously guard against been designing machines since 1976. He founded Neubauplan Machine

Design Studio, an independent consulting machine-design firm in 1981 in

putting themselves in the shoes of an agent, a Pune. He can be reached at harsh@neubauplan.com or through his website

service provider, a businessperson, a partner, a at www.neubauplan.com









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harsh@neubauplan.com, and you must publish them without changing the contents or name of the author.

Article published in the April 2003 issue of the Industrial killer actually works better, yet allethrin based

Product Finder, page 160. repellents do a multi-billion Rupee business in

India. More the various mosquito species become

resistant, more these businesses grow. Not a

Multi-National Corporations and single MNC-made car user’s manual tells the user

India: Kabhi Khushi, Kabhi Gham to lock ALL doors while driving, which can actually

save your life in a collision. The doors, when

locked, are designed not to fly open upon impact,

By Harshwardhan Gupta

so the passenger space resists collapsing. Yet no

one tells the consumer, not even the private

Various MNCs’ contribution to India’s industrial insurance MNCs, the direct losers in this case. On

development has been a very mixed blessing. The the contrary, practically every ad for cars and two-

entries of all hues of MNCs have made the wheelers spurs you on to drive even more

industrial development scene even more uneven recklessly.

and patchy. However, the scene is changing faster The industrial consumer is in a flux too. Excellent

than ever, and I suppose it is just a short time high-tech machines, parts, sub-systems and

before even this picture changes significantly. consumables used by the industry are coming in,

In this articles, besides MNCs assembling or but no appropriate information system is in place to

manufacturing industrial as well as consumer quickly bring the industrial consumer and supplier

goods in India, I have counted in small foreign together – the way it can be done in developed

companies manufacturing or only collaborating in countries. Those who are into distributing this

India; and MNCs and small foreign companies who information frequently have the data organized in

have only set up marketing, sales and service such a higgledy-piggledy way that it is not at all

networks in India. Let us examine this from various easy to use. For all our IT and telecom explosion,

aspects. we still are exceedingly poor at disseminating

essential information to the buyer. This is putting a

THE CONSUMER is having a gala time, so says wet blanket on everyone’s progress. One of the

everyone. The open-door policies and the entry of bad cases of communication gap is between

MNCs have totally transformed India from a mechanical engineer buyers/users and MNC

seller’s borough into a buyer’s market. Washing makers/sellers of electro-mechanical products like

machines which really wash whitest, detergents servo-valves, PLCs, stepper motors. Their product

which work, computer monitors that are easy on manuals are one of the most user-unfriendly.

the eye, energy-saving light-bulbs, capability-

packed servomotors, excellent pneumatic On the other side, the standard Indian reaction to

hardware, and the most noticeable of them all: so anything new and better is to denounce it first,

many swanky, fuel-efficient and much safer cars. It giving very technical-sounding “knowledgeable”

did begin with some dumping of outdated designs explanations. When maruti made its appearance, it

in India, but the competition among the MNCs was dubbed “absolutely flimsy”! When radial tyres

themselves soon corrected the picture in the came in, they were “totally unsuited for Indian

consumers’ favour. Nevertheless, the Indian roads and damaged the suspension.” When

consumer is demanding and ignorant at the same ELCBs came, the electricians (who otherwise use

time, and he often pays dearly for his ignorance. copper wires as fuse) would not trust them. When

washing machines came, they “tore up the

There are pockets where the MNCs have left the clothes.” People still put a screen in front of today’s

consumer out of the loop. Take the case of low-radiation monitors, and keep the brightness so

toothpastes. The best way to clean your teeth is low that they constantly strain their eyes.

not with toothpaste at all, but with a water pick, or Engineers still can’t believe that pneumatics run

a water jet. No one has yet brought personal water better on dry air. Many companies still courier or

jet dental care to India. An electrocuting mosquito post a printout of every e-mail they send.



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This attitude of the “educated” middle class has cutting corner after corner, blindly copying,

killed (or seriously delayed the success of) many a slashing prices, undermining competitors, never

good products from abroad. And the market is innovating, and still dying. This is a serious state of

flooded with junk food and trashy “Designer” stuff affairs, and will destroy many in its wake.

from competing MNCs, who know that the quickest THE PURCHASERS: Parallely, many MNCs have

way to the Indian consumer’s wallet is either latched on to the typically Indian affliction of pulling

through his stomach, or through his vanity. It is appalling extents of credit out of the suppliers after

easy to sell trash to new gullible buyers, but unless mercilessly hammering them down on prices. 120

you offer real value for money, you do not survive days’ and 150 days’ credit is unheard-of in the

for long in a buyers’ market. Generally, we will see MNCs’ parent countries, yet they do it here with

better designs from abroad only after we buy the impunity. This is slowly emptying the working-

bad stuff for some time. Cynical, but true! In reality, capital base of the economy, but again, no one is

if the MNCs do some in-depth, cool-headed, bothered.

objective consumer research, they AND the

consumer will both benefit. The purchase guys, usually picked up from older

domestic industries; bring all sorts of dubious

THE EMPLOYEES are having a nice time too, if practices into the purchase office, and though they

truth be told. The slogan-shouting crowds have got can show quick gains, they actually harm their

it all wrong. The workers in the developed world employer in the long run. The foreign-born (also

are out of jobs, because their jobs have shifted to Indian) CEOs of these MNCs often fail to keep a

India and other developing countries. Yes, watch over employees harming the interests of the

inefficiency, overstaffing, time-pass at company’s company, because “everybody is new and learning

expense has stopped. But what is wrong with that? on the job!”

We want a comfortable life, and we do not want to

work hard for it? The world does not work that way THE FACTORIES: Nice-looking structures are

any more (just look at communist China), and the coming up and all sorts of new technology is being

MNCs have nothing to do with this change. We brought in, but it is sad to watch the older domestic

ourselves have brought the Genie of job insecurity industry now bitterly pay the price of not investing

out of its bottle because we did not learn our in R&D during the post-imperial socialistic License-

lessons in time. Permit Raj. Today, in just a decade of

liberalization, the contrast between the factories of

As our scriptures tell us, when one avenues an old domestic and a new MNC manufacturing

closes, others open. A Railway clerk’s son works the same product has become horrendous. We

with a call center that services an MNC. A VRS- wonder how such sordid junkyards passed as top-

after-30-years employee’s daughter works with a of-the-line factories just a few years ago, when we

software MNC. Sure, it is hard to find work today actually assumed that any factory necessarily had

because our population is bursting at the seams. to be nauseatingly filthy!

However, if one re-trains for a new job and is

willing to work hard, one need not remain A very curious phenomenon is under way in very

unemployed. The MNCs are fast changing the many MNCs’ factories: I see breathtakingly

lethargic work culture of India, and that is good for beautiful state-of-the-art imported production

everyone. machinery married to roadside-welder quality (say)

conveying equipment bought from the proud local

THE SUPPLIERS: A few are laughing all the way “atomization” guy. This conveyor has cost just

to the bank, others are crying. The good suppliers (say) 4 lakhs against a landed price of 65 lakhs for

have to work harder and shed fat to remain viable an imported conveyor. It often breaks down. The

–that’s good again – and the bad ones are being VP Global Operations comes to India for a visit

driven out very quickly. They in turn are trying to and disapproves of the monstrosity, then

pull down the good ones by under-quoting, even grudgingly acquiesces that it’s too late now. The

taking a loss. Many vendor industries are busy CEO was influenced by the huge price-difference.



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A good, comparable-quality Indian conveyor would the car cool (with the engine off) when it is

have cost, say, 12 lakhs – still a fraction – but its standing in the scorching Indian sun with all

maker has long been pushed out of the market by windows up? The solution is quite simple, actually,

the cheap welder. He has closed down his decent but our innovativeness has become an NRI.

factory and started a fast-food joint. The foreign-designed kitchen appliances, tools and

MNCs try and keep the initial investment accessories do not quite suit the Indian kitchen

abnormally low usually because of fickle and cooking ethos, but no one is bothered yet. No

Government policies. Also, foreign decision- MNC has yet brought out a dishwasher that works

makers usually know nothing of our industrial in India. Again, solutions already exist, but their

culture, and often make snap choices on Global Strategies Team cannot see the woods for

inadequate information, then pay the price slowly. the trees. No MNC has yet offered a cockroach-

In stark contrast, try as you might in Europe, you proof easy-to-clean modular kitchen cabinetry

simply cannot buy such trashy machinery! Soon a system. No such system is designed for the daily

foreign conveyor manufacturer will walk in and our swabbing and weekly washing of the Indian

cheapo welder will “take” his agency! kitchen floor. The same with the bathroom! Very

few of the pseudo-aristocratic “Designer” fittings

Another folly is going on too. MNCs who close their

and sanitaryware are ergonomically designed.

factories abroad and transplant the machines here

They endlessly cater to the Indian buyers’

try and play another self-defeating game. The

hankering for ornamental value above everything

original operators could diddle and run the aged

else. Ironically, the quickest learners on the block

machines somehow, and produce goods. The

are the junk food and toiletries makers – gulab-

green Indian operators can’t get the hang of them.

jamun ice cream, methi-mutter-malai pizzas, curry-

So the CEOs either try to foist the old machines

patta deodorants and jal-jeera mouthwash are just

onto even greener vendors, “You want business?

round the corner!

Get this machine running at your cost!” Or they

invite a few Indian “experts” to offer solutions, pit THE SALES FORCE: It’s time the management

them against one another, and try and rip them off, institutes brought their curriculum in line with the

so they can hog all the credit. door-to-door / counter salesmen’s needs; as that is

where most MBAs are landing up. For all their well-

This is Free Market at work in India! It’s not the

rehearsed sales hype, almost all MNC’s “sales-

MNCs who are destroying our entrepreneurship; it

executives” have a very poor knowledge of their

is our own guys who are merrily “taking the supari”

products’ limitations, working principles or

for them. This is where we have failed as an

construction, and get very awkward with a

emerging industrial nation, and very sadly, this

knowledgeable customer – I have actually heard

scene shows no sign of changing.

this line, “Sir, actually I’m not a technically savvy

THE DESIGN BOYS: Many MNC products have person!” No problem! In their minds they are totally

never been designed for the Indian weather, convinced, “If it’s an MNC product, the Indian

habits, body dimensions, lifestyles, education customer ought to believe it’s good for him!” Same

levels, cultural predispositions, blazing sun, and attitude obtains in the insurance and financial

the omnipresent dust – they have simply been put product market.

in a 40-foot container and transplanted here. The

THE MARKETEERS: Jeeto, India, Jeeto! “One

available luxury cars’ rear seats are too deep for

NoKleena washing machine free* with the latest

the Indian body type. The average Indian driver,

MachMobile SUV (Sports Utility Vehicle –

driving in the congested city, must be able to see

politically correct word for a heavy car with macho

the road 5 feet ahead of the car, but the dashboard

grills and fat tyres)! One 17 ¼” HazyBuzzy color

is too high for him / her! Sadly, no scientific

TV free with the washing machine! One SuperKool

ergonomic data on the “average” Indian male and

steam iron free with the color TV! One

female is publicly available yet. Besides, has any

BlackBeauty fairness cream Super-Saver twin-

automaker in India ever tried to find a way to keep



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pack free with the steam iron! One JellyBelly Unlike European media, Indian media does not

Basmati rice sample pack (with sach-much 25% encourage strictly non-sponsored evaluation of

extraaa free) absolutely free with the fairness new products by users and specialists. Nor is

cream! Pack kholo, coupon pao, scratch karo, enough space / time given to genuinely dissatisfied

paagal ho jao! First 3 Winners get a Lucky Gold consumers of MNCs, as is devoted to the victims

Coin and a one-way ticket to the next World Cup, of Government-run services. The US has an Equal

plus a Surprise Gift Hamper presented by Miss Opportunity Law for their media; we do not.

Anti-Dandruff 2003! Free 0% interest loan in 5¾ THE GOVERNMENT: MNCs ko gussa kyoon aata

minutes – just bring your grandmother’s school- hai? Things change, but as always, too little and

leaving certificate and 2 latest doodhwale-ka-bills too late! No further comments – this horse has

in original. You save Rs. 13,974.56! Offer been beaten to death.

extended by popular demand to 5.47 pm today or

till stocks last (whichever is earlier). Added Bonus I suppose that pollution-free electric mass-transit

Only Today – Rs. 2,193 off if you bring in your old systems will be installed only after portable little

car’s driver’s seat (any make / model but in personal oxygen cylinders start selling like hot

working condition)! Lucky Winners will be cakes! With lights out at enron, we Indians are now

announced on Friday the 13th on “World’s Scariest eternally condemned to powerlessness.

Car Crashes” on K-channel. H-u-r-r-y-y-y!!! THE “ABSENTEES”: Now that the “roadblocks”

(*Conditions apply)” have been removed, the total Indian industrial

Yippee! Total chaos FREE with everything! scene, instead on being on a steady road to

Foreign Company ka scheme hai! development, has become awfully uneven and full

of nasty potholes. A few instances: Some years

Does any Government agency or consumer group ago, an excellent range of German bathroom

ever monitor these zillion weirdo “schemes”? And fittings, sanitaryware, etc., were brought to India by

how come no one gives spare fuses, or spark a builder. Neither he nor his principals had any

plugs, or rear seat belts free with a car? Does any clue how to market such products in India, and the

refrigerator manufacturer ever think of offering whole operation collapsed in a few months. About

modular rectangular storage containers free, so a decade ago, a big Indian name imported a truly

the space could be utilized better? Did you ever miraculous water-repellent coating for car

get a set of appropriate plastic heating containers windshields. You could actually drive for hours in a

with a microwave oven? The customers would be drizzle, even in torrential rain, with the wipers off!

far more appreciative if useful stuff is given free (or This useful product soon disappeared, and now

even at a price) instead of wacky gifts. Or the their wonderful car-body polish has vanished too!

prices could be lowered if this madness were Both were products of breakthrough technology by

turned off. MNCs, and excellent value for money.

THE MEDIA, in one word, has gone absolutely Many products that are really needed, and will do

berserk! So many advertisers, so little space! So good business too, are not coming in yet:

many sponsors, so little prime time! Brassy Machines for laying pipes and cables without

mindlessness has steamrolled everything in its digging; compact paper shredders; Energy-efficient

path. If the media takes a breather from the in-line water heaters which switch on and off as the

ongoing Dhamaka, we could have some peace on tap is opened and closed; Power-steering retrofit-

the idiot box! (Keep wishing!) Thankfully, kits for heavy vehicles; Radial tyres for trucks, etc.

newspapers cannot talk, yet! Such gross Laissez Very safe and comfortable integral-shell buses are

Faire is going on in advertising and marketing that just about beginning to appear on the roads.

the Government is ready to impose pre-censorship Unfortunately, many decades will pass before they

on TV ads. And MNCs are in the forefront of it all. become the norm.

The latest shooting star is “sponsored news!”

Today, you get good blister-packing machines

made under collaborations with MNCs, but no

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tabletting or wet labeling machines. We have been Many MNCs take advantage of our flaccid, vague

making world-class 3-phase AC motors in 63- laws – as was evident in the recent discovery of

frame size onwards for ages, but try as you might, dangerous levels of pesticides in bottled water.

you just can’t get a similar motor smaller than 63- Lots of medicines, drugs, toxic colors and

frame, and these are often needed. You cannot pesticides banned in developed countries are

buy safe child-carriers for any car. Though you get merrily being made / used / imported. Some ice

excellent L-shaped Allen keys, you cannot buy cream brands carry the green veg dot; others carry

Allen-drivers with a screwdriver-type handle – an the brown non-veg dot. Diabetes is endemic in

unbelievably handy tool! Absolutely no one makes India, yet no MNC takes it upon itself to declare the

or markets good-quality circlip pliers in India. Ditto calorie-content of its products. Other MNCs

for hook spanners. You cannot buy the excellent doggedly carry on with an utterly callous policy of

German kopp domestic switches any more. selling a product very cheap, then pricing the

Nonetheless, the market is flooded with many spares and consumables sky-high. If the product

poorly designed global brands. You do not get fails two days out of warranty, they first charge an

child-safe Mylar toy balloons in India. You do not obscene amount just for giving you a repair quote.

get childproof household containers either. After paying that, you are patiently told that it is

cheaper to buy a new machine than to get it

You get a dazzling array of halogen display

repaired. And this really goes against our ingrained

spotlights, but no waterproof bright halogen

Indian culture of not letting anything go waste. It is

machine lamps are available to make the

this kind of policies that create disgust for MNCs in

operator’s life easier, which will reduce rejections.

the average middle-class consumers’ minds. But

You get an exploding variety of fancy factory-made

no one is listening.

wooden furniture from various MNCs but do not

get non-slip abrasive stick-on tape for staircase Other MNCs set shop in India and import all sorts

steps. You cannot buy realistically priced of products in, but not get enough good

aluminium structural sections and fittings for do-it- manufacturing technology in, nor develop it locally

yourself machine-guards and frames – nor and integrate it with Indian production machines.

sensibly priced ink-jet batch-coders for packaging The result? Despite a lot of “below-par” loss-

machines. No shipping-case fillers are on the making pricing, many directly imported MNC

market, so a typical mass-producing MNC factory products are still too expensive, or are not

has just 3 persons watching the fully automatic marketed right. Thus many excellent products lose

production and primary packaging line zip at full their initial foothold in the extremely price-sensitive

speed, followed by 24 poorly paid contract laborers Indian market, and their manufacturing and

working frantically to pack the product into shipping assembly technology never comes to India. Then

cartons manually. the “bad” word spreads, and puts India at a further

unfair disadvantage.

SO WHERE IS IT GOING WRONG? Many

multinational industrial product makers either get Parallely, despite all our excellence in (and

together with the wrong kind of Indian partners, or contribution to) CAD software, the Indian

unknowingly appoint the wrong kinds of CEOs. innovativeness is getting drowned in the deluge of

Others get the right product in and kill it with designs from abroad. India kept itself insulated

unsuitable marketing. Several have their own rigid from industrial progress and research from 1947 to

ways and policies, and will not change to suit. the late 80s. We ridicule the Iron and the Bamboo

Many impose their original marketing methods, Curtains; but industrially, they progressed far

which fall flat in India. Countless others believe beyond us in those years, as we lived like a pariah

Indian labour is cheap, so why mechanize or behind a tattered jute curtain. It is only now,

automate? Soon they pay the price for the basking in the glory of “our” NRIs, we are

expensive consequences of employing such cheap beginning to shed our begging-bowl image and be

labour. Almost all don’t know how to market a new noticed in the developed world, that we too exist.

concept in India.



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“Made in India” can’t even begin to dream to

compete with “Made in Germany.”

I do hope that our domestic industry will learn

quickly from the MNCs, and then offer them real

tough competition, as the tata indica has done of

late. This is happening sporadically in a few other

areas too. Nevertheless, it is high time that we

stopped looking at ourselves through the eyes of

others, and got busy achieving, building, and

raising our own standards.

“But why unnecessary you are taking so much

tension yaar? Jaane de naa!"





The author is a graduate of IIT Bombay in Mechanical Engineering. He has

been designing machines since 1976. He founded Neubauplan Machine

Design Studio, an independent consulting machine-design firm in 1981 in

Pune. He can be reached at harsh@neubauplan.com or through his website

at www.neubauplan.com









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Article published in the Annual 2003 issue of the Industrial 2. You must begin with a clean slate. Pre-

Product Finder, page 546. conceived notions will cause you grief later. In

automation, if the concept is wrong, then

everything spins out of control, and then

Automation Concepts usually it is too late to come back and start on

the right track. A person can’t get on the train

By Harshwardhan Gupta to Mumbai if he is already half-way through a

mountain trek in the Sahyadris.

3. A special word of caution to machine-tool

Atomization, Atomation, Aatomesan,

designers who attempt to design non-machine-

Automatization, Otomassion, Odomattig,

tool SPMs: First come completely out of the

Atometick, Automission, Yes-pee-yum, Rabot,

machine-tool mindset (V-flat guide ways, pre-

Robut… Automation tere anek naam! Each

loaded bearings, 40mm thick GG25 cast-iron

different different idea making all confusion and

framework, pressurized lubrication systems,

quotation also become all ockward no? Somebody

ground and lapped spacers, ultra-rigid dovetail

is quoting 10 Lakhs; somebody is quoting 50

clamps, 10KW spindle motors, heat-treated

Thousand. Very difficult taking proper decision!

spindles, ground ball screws with pre-loaded

(This Design Tips fellow is not serious only,

nuts, ground / lapped / shaved helical gears,

anything he is writing nowadays and this IPF also

backlash-controlled worm shafts,

just going on printing! See? He is nowadays just

perpendicularity in 10µ over 300mm, 300+

making fun only, and but where are the design tips

bars hydraulic pressures…) then get to work. If

then?)

you are required to design a deer, don’t design

Well, here they are: Every Indian engineer has his a rhinoceros, just because you have always

own automation god he prays to. Just what is designed rhinos of various types, and you

automation? It covers the whole range from a think rhinos are great animals.

simple mechanical crank-driven strip-feeder in a

4. First decide how much can sensibly be

power press, to the most sophisticated multi-axis

automated, how much is best left to manual

robot in automobile body shops; from simple,

working, how much should be mechanized…

rugged mango-juicers to intricate high-speed tea-

Consider options, costs, feasibilities, and your

bag making machines. Automation has various

own capabilities – this is the automator’s art!

degrees, and it is impossible to draw boundaries

between mechanization, automation and robotics – 5. Debate every feasible concept thoroughly in

one man’s automatic machine is another man’s your mind. Think it through to the end many

robot! times, being very critical of yourself. Don’t

bring politics of any kind into the concept at

It is also impossible to draw a line between where

any level. And don’t leave loose ends

the basic processing machine ends, and where its

anywhere in the concept, and later in detailing

automation begins. Therefore, this article is

too. I have seen machines where you have to

relevant even to the basic machine designer of any

gas-cut a 45mm thick welded bracket every

kind.

single time you dismantle a clamping plate for

1. Firstly, there is no need to be afraid of re-surfacing, and re-weld it afterwards.

automation. If properly conceptualized and

6. And NEVER ever assume, take for granted,

executed, automation can be fairly simple,

suppose, presume, presuppose, guess,

reliable, inexpensive, and can save a lot of

believe, take a chance, accept unqualified

money and headaches even in the short run.

‘experience’ or ‘explanation’ as the truth (even

But this is easier said than done – Indian

from the customer), or have faith in God, if you

factories’ backyards are full of junk that various

are attempting some fairly original automation!

SPM and automation makers very proudly

Materials don’t behave the way you predicted

created.

or imagined, what works at low speeds doesn’t



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work at 20% higher speeds, clamps don’t problem, in its totality. It is up to you to drag

clamp, machine crushes the job, machine ruins them back into first describing the problem in

itself, shaft keeps breaking into two, cylinders detail, asking more and more questions till you

jam, motors trip, gears strip their teeth… Sir, discover all the ghosts lurking underground –

working fully now Sir but Sir only 18% output What would happen to the input paper roll if it

coming Sir I don’t know why Sir yes Sir is thrown down from the lorry instead of being

Gurdeep Singh Sir measured himself Sir! Now, rolled down gently? Will the machine run in

pray as much as you want, have synchronization if the line frequency in that

Satyanarayana Puja, break coconuts, ask for area keeps varying? Does the coating on the

special blessings from the Father, ask for film react with the aluminium forming die?

asirwaadam from swamiji, offer chaadars on What would happen if after punching the part

fakir-ki-mazaar, keep jaagaran, rozaa, fell a little crooked on the conveyor below?

upawasam, akhand paath, distribute sweets What would happen if your special chuck

among the destitute… But if you screwed up clamped on a forging that has not been

your thinking process, no God of any kind can properly fettled? What would happen if

save your machine. Automation is the express- vibrations loosened the flimsy sensor

highway to atheism. mounting? What would happen to the cutter

blades if the material were slightly

7. Study the problem deeply, very deeply in the

contaminated with sand (a grain of sand meets

beginning. Do not, I repeat thrice, do not start

the blade only once, but the blade meets a

your thinking in terms of possible solutions.

grain of sand many times a second, and sand

You do not start building a house without

is harder than high-speed steel, by the way)? –

digging an appropriately deep foundation, do

And then and only then, attempt a solution.

you? This is the reason for many an

automation attempts’ failure: that alternate 9. Don’t ever believe that sexy electronics can

roads were never even thought of, in the achieve what the physical machine fails to do.

beginning! How do you feed this job? Vibratory For example, if two drives at some distance

feeders, what else? When that doesn’t perform must forever run in synchronization, just

well in final testing, it is too late. Other couple them mechanically with a universal

solutions like magazine feeders, center-board shaft or a chain or a timing belt, or gears, even

feeders, pin feeders, ladder feeders, disk electrical clutch-brakes, whatever – even if that

feeders, walking beams, centrifugal feeders becomes a bit clumsy, instead of putting two

were never even given a passing thought. This fancy servo drives and permanently

is a very serious and very widespread programming them as rapid-response absolute

shortcoming among Indian engineers, that zero-slip dynamic-RAM 551MHz incremental

when it comes to automation and SPMs, they backup master-slave arrangement with

directly jump at ONE ‘obvious’ solution, without battery-backup and fail-safe double-

closely looking at all aspects of the problem, redundancy with high-frequency ultra-stable

and start running at full speed from that one transience sensors for detecting any phase-

solution onwards. They will even give you very shift in real time with a ring-counter type in-

convincing (to themselves) reasoning as to synch electronic-cam with phase modulation

why that concept is correct and no other, through a CE certified 997XN3-processor with

obstinately digging their heels in and taking a backlash-compensated interlock with the

offense at your pointing out their folly. This drive, (supplied in IP-55 housing at 33% extra

reasoning is invented after the concept, not cost)! Get the message?

before, by the way. A plain case of putting the 10. Don’t marry state-of-the-art electronics to

cart before the horse! mechanical junk. A half-micron digital scale is

8. A great majority of automation buyers / users not going to compensate a worn-out guide-

will invariably put a concept or a solution in way. And vice versa is true also!

front of you to flesh out, and quote; not the



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11. You will do well to remember that, which can directly be fed into a CNC machine

unfortunately in India, most mechanical for manufacture.)

engineers are extremely, astonishingly and 14. Leave your ego at home. If you made a

extraordinarily poor communicators, and most mistake, your machine will make you eat crow

electrical / electronic engineers do not have in public. Be ready for taking failure, frustration

any mechanical sense of any kind whatsoever and humiliation in your stride, as nobody is

– I meet these gems everyday! perfect. And the designer of a perfect-SPM-in-

12. Don’t try to copy other automation systems one-shot is yet to be born among humans.

without full, deep understanding of the This, however, does not mean that you accept

underlying principles. “Sir This is same to – or yourself do – shoddy workmanship,

same as Kettler machine Sir same to same Sir drafting mistakes, or engineering blunders

performance may be little less but price is very within known theory, and create a scrap heap

very economical compare to Kettler Sir Kettler bigger than the machine itself, or make a

landed is 3-4 times our price Sir world-best Sir machine which itself looks like junk before it is

but Indian customers say we use 2-3 years gaudily painted, or just blunder along and do

then scrap Sir yes Sir little 2-3 problems are shoddy patchwork with tacked-on weldments

there Sir you are very sharp-eyed Sir very to cover up your mistakes.

sharp-eyed Sir your points we will take full 15. Leave your vanity also at home. Don’t use AC

100% seriously Sir our engineer is making now servos just so you can boast about them to

all new Sir earlier was heavy problem we faced your drinking buddies. Pneumatic servos have

Sir now 80% is in control only 20-30% now left severe performance limitations. Hydraulic

Sir it is almost perfect now today Sir by servos are very sensitive to contamination in

delivery time you will get 110% OK Sir I assure the oil. Brushes and commutators of DC

you 110% Sir 200% Sir I am confident Sir we servomotors are maintenance headaches. For

are trying level best Sir we made same to a given torque, stepper motors are bulkier than

same as Kettler Sir Kettler original in Deccan other types. And AC servo-drives are

Star is there you know Sir we fully total opened expensive. See if a cheaper vector drive can

and copied that one Sir we even done material do the job of your servo-drive, or a cheaper still

hardness micro everything Sir you can yourself variable-frequency control can do the job of

check part to part Sir their Thakur is working your vector drive.

with us now Sir best man in this line Sir!” This

is “duplicate” entrepreneurship in action, in the 16. If you are continuously running motors

name of “reverse engineering”! Nobody wants variable-frequency drives on a speed less than

to be the first to develop (and buy) a particular 2/3rd of rated, then don’t forget to check the

machine, and nobody wants to be the third motor for overheating, as the cooling fan is

either! running slower too!

13. Often, complex interrelated motions at high 17. Continuous Vs. Cycle-automatic: If you are

speeds – as in a cartoning machine or a tea- evaluating between a system which is driven

bag machine for example – are often possible by a continuously running motor, with

only with continuous-motion mechanical drives continuously moving (e.g. cam) mechanisms, a

with a train of gears and cams. Pneumatics system where each action is driven by an air

have their limitations, hydraulics are even cylinder, or a start-stop driver like a stepper

slower. Start-stop systems have their upper motor or a servomotor, and a system which is

limits. Complex groups of repetitive high-speed a combination of these two, then comprehend

motions are best done with cams. Don’t put an the following: Each physical task (say,

expensive servo-drive because (secretly) you clamping, indexing, punching, forming, filling,

don’t know how to design a sophisticated cam. screw-tightening…) takes a certain optimum

(If you have the data, the author can generate time, and this time will vary with voltage, line

optimal jerk-free profiles for you for a small fee, frequency, air pressure, ambient temperature,



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incoming material variations, tooling change, before grinding for 48 hours at 200°C. The

etc. In a continuously driven system, you will solution is not increasing the diameter and

have to provide for the worst-case timing for using a more expensive base material. So, if

each task. After trials, if one task needs more your practical observation goes against your

time, the whole cycle has to be slowed down. theory, then you can be 100% sure you don’t

In independently driven tasks, individual tasks know your theory well enough. By theory, I

can be slowed or speeded up independently, mean the sum total of mechanics, metallurgy,

thus saving cycle-time. Make your initial design physics, chemistry, geometry, material

choices accordingly. properties, statics, dynamics, heat-transfer,

18. As you do the detailed design, imagine, thermodynamics, aerodynamics, control

understand and analyze how forces, reaction theory, structural stability theory, vibration

forces, torques, torque-reactions, vibrations, mechanics, electro-deposition

mechanical energy, heat, etc. generate, characteristics… Read up on the theory,

interact, store and flow throughout the friend, instead of watching Saas-Bahu! You

machine and its structure. Don’t go by can never learn enough theory. I am still

simplistic notions. Failing to analyze this flow learning new things every single day, after 28

and interaction is one of the most common years of designing automatic machines.

pitfalls in your road to success. 22. One of the cardinal rules of automation is:

19. Don’t work by trial-and-error, hit-and-miss Once you have got an object in the right

methods. You may succeed once, but may orientation, don’t let it get disoriented and then

very well not be able to repeat the first try to re-orient it again. This is true

machine’s performance in the next. Work everywhere, from chocolate bars to

systematically with a mind clear on theory and crankshafts and light bulbs to labels.

design. 23. Another cardinal rule is: Don’t try to reproduce

20. If your machine is going to be set up to handle motions of human hands. You are designing a

various kinds of jobs, make the prototype with machine, not a humanoid robot in ‘Terminator

arguably the most complex job the machine IV’. In other words, if the original manual task

will encounter, not the simplest or the average requires great dexterity, or well-trained hand-

job or the job most urgent for the customer. eye coordination, or skilled finger movements,

Vehicles are tested on frightening test-tracks, it will be difficult and / or expensive to

not on smooth highways. automate. Think in terms of easy mechanical

motions, not easy human motions.

21. Never, ever, believe that, “Theoretical you may

be right but practical it will not work!” This is 24. A third cardinal rule is: Don’t just solve

the excuse of an uneducated engineer. Theory problems linearly: “Pull-rod is breaking?

and practice are NOT two different entities – Increase the diameter!” “Part is interfering? Cut

they are two sides of the very same coin. If the it off!” “Bearing is tight? Take one cut on the

theory is right, it MUST work in practice. If it shaft!” “Vacuum cup not holding that

doesn’t work in practice, then you are either cardboard sheet? Put bigger diameter! Still not

applying the right theory wrongly, or applying holding? Put bigger vacuum pump! Still not

wrong type of theory, or do not know enough holding or what? Joglekar, inform bank to stop

theory to analyze the failure, or cannot see the that vacuum pump party’s cheque! Let him

one theory interfering with another. come and solve the problem all lies he is

telling.”

For example, if a hard-chromed shaft or roller

is fracturing under normal stress, the typical SPM naram hai, Patchwork ke liye hum

cause is not insufficient sectional strength, it is besharam hain! What’s there! The problem

hydrogen embrittlement – and the solution is to here lies in the high porosity of the cardboard,

heat the part after hard-chrome plating and not in the vacuum system at all. The moral is –

investigate the problem itself. Don’t jump to



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obvious, linear, ‘logical’ solutions, and then do time running out. The bitter truth for such people is

a proper modification, not a shoddy, patchwork that, in the end (if they recover their money, that is)

job. there is only a sense of relief, not a sense of

reward! Most SPM manufacturers’ factories look

25. Another cardinal rule is: Don’t have pre-

exactly like junkyards. Most traditional factories in

conceived notions about the basic concept.

India look like junkyards anyway!

Right in the beginning, think of various ways of

doing the job. Don’t just start with things like, Chalti ka naam SPM? No Sir, do a good job that

“Oh, we only have to visually inspect the items stands the test of time, and makes you, and the

by automatic machine no? We’ll put a user, and India proud, and richer. We are just

conveyor and a camera on top to inspect the beginning to win, so this is not the time for

items on the belt. Camera software will take continuing with old shameful habits.

care of everything!” It won’t! SPMs are increasingly needed all over the World,

26. And lastly, just like you should get a and we Indians are best equipped to tap that

cardiogram done BEFORE you get a heart market, better than the Chinese, Koreans, and

attack, please get an evaluation of your Taiwanese too, but we are pitted against the West

concept (or better, of the problem itself) done Europeans. To be able to design, make and export

from well-qualified engineer before your SPMs against European competitors, we will have

automation SPM develops a cardiac problem. to completely discard our “Chalta Hai!” and “What

If you want to do this and still be commercially to do!” attitude, be very professional and deliver

safe, sign a mutual non-disclosure agreement international quality and workmanship.

with your adviser. Happy automating!

All my friends love the prime-time program

“Junkyard Wars” on the Discovery Channel, but it

depresses me. Because in most places I go, I see The author is a graduate of IIT Bombay in Mechanical Engineering. He has

been designing machines since 1976. He founded Neubauplan Machine

real junkyards engaged in a real war producing Design Studio, an independent consulting machine-design firm in 1981 in

real junk SPMs and automation devices with real Pune. He can be reached at harsh@neubauplan.com or through his website

at www.neubauplan.com









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via e-mail by writing to him at harsh@neubauplan.com, and you must publish them without changing the contents or name of the author.

So, What Makes a Machine Look Good?

By Harshwardhan Gupta





“A hhh, the million dollar question!

This one I am going to read!

Hello, Veronica, please don’t disturb me

to various reasons? This is now increas-

ingly happening everywhere.

So, what makes a machine look

hard-drive and see the marvellous

jewellery-like insides. Each part is a

thing of beauty in itself! Open any of

for an hour. Say I am in an important good? First of all, machine aesthetics is these to the last part; their ‘industrial’

meeting. Thank you.” not ‘outlook’, in the sense that it is not beauty is all pervading!

Now I feel like a hungry mosquito just the external appearance. Aesthetics How come? I will illustrate this with

that has landed in a nudist colony. I (or the lack of it) exists absolutely ev- another story: The great artist

know what I have to do (rather, what I erywhere in the machine – in every de- Michelangelo was carving a human

have to say), but I am not sure where to tail, in every corner. Open the hood of statue that was to be installed in an al-

begin! So please bear with me, as this is any modern ‘foreign-designed, Indian- cove (a deep, narrow niche in a wall).

a complex issue. made’ car: the whole engine, transmis- He was carefully chiselling out the in-

I think I will begin with a real-life sion, suspension and peripherals, are all tricate folds in the clothes on the figure’s

incident: I was going around IMTEX works of art. Every detail looks good. back, when someone asked him why he

’04, when I walked into a small stall, To see the contrast, also open the hood was taking so much pains over a part

and the rather obvious owner stepped of, say, a new Tempo Trax. Open your that wasn’t important, as no one would

forward and asked for my visiting card, ever see it (after the statue was installed

and I gave him one. He had one look at in the alcove). Michelangelo simply

it and immediately pointed to his main said, “But I am seeing it just now, and it

product, a dull-looking yet a precision is important to me!” For him, the figure

machine-tool, and asked me point- had to be finished in every detail before

blank, “You are designer no? How much his aesthetic sense was satisfied with his

you will charge for outlook improve- own work.

ment of this machine?” When the mean- This is as true today as in Rome dur-

ing of this odd turn of phrase dawned ing the Renaissance. Beauty always lies

on me, I was flabbergasted with this Figure 1: A German Festo rod-less first in the eye of the designer, before it

brusque approach. As I mumbled some- pneumatic cylinder is seen by the eye of the beholder/buyer/

thing about having to go into some de- mobile. Even the battery and the chip user. Likewise, a machine, which has an

tail before I could commit anything, he and the chip-holder look neat! Same aesthetically pleasing exterior and yet

cut me short, “No, first tell me how with a Nikon camera or a BMW motor- its innards are indifferently detailed,

much, then we will talk.” I was just too cycle! See their innards too! The same carelessly made, cheaply bought, dis-

stunned to do anything else but some- goes with a Diebold ATM machine, if proportionate, shabbily finished… is a

how excuse myself and walk away. you can get to see its insides. Same with phony, and therefore repulsive. Some

What’s the moral of the story? This purely ‘industrial things’ like a Siemens very pithy lyrics come to mind: “Parde

is not about civility or good business motor or a Festo cylinder (Figure 1) or mein rehne do, parda na uthaao! Parda

manners, nor is it an ego thing. I was an NTN bearing unit, or a Caterpillar jo uth gaya to bhed khul jayega!”

dumbfounded by the fact that this ex- earthmover (Figure 2), or a Machine aesthetics cannot be im-

perienced machine-builder actually be- Mannesmann rolling mill, or a Multivac posed from outside, nor is it limited to

lieved that he could buy machine aes- blister-machine (Figure 3), or a Heidel- the exteriors. Out of sight does not mean

thetics just like any other retail commod- berg printing press! Same with the Intel out of mind. By the same token, the

ity like ball bearings! And glue it on, I processor or the Seagate hard drive in- machine designer must have aesthetic

suppose? side your computer! Do open a useless sense in his or her character, in his or

Buying ‘machine aesthetics’ like a her soul, as much as the industrial-aes-

commodity simply cannot be done! The thetic designer must possess/develop a

easy way out so far in India has been ‘machine’ sense too. You cannot – and

shameless copying. But what do you do should not try to – separate the aesthetic

when there is nothing to copy from, or from the functional.

copying is infeasible or undesirable due Industrial aesthetic sense is culture-

dependent, and is learned very early in

The author is a Bachelor of Technology from the life. Each industrial society has slowly

1976 batch of I.I.T. Mumbai in mechanical engi- evolved its own industrial aesthetic lan-

neering. He is the founder of Neubauplan Machine

Design Studio, an independent machine-design

guage – German machines have that

firm in Pune. Comments, criticism, questions and typical German look – very mechani-

suggestions are welcome at neubauplan@eth.net. Figure 2: An American Caterpillar cal, very well-detailed and proportioned,

Website www.neubauplan.com. off-road truck very well-finished, rugged, hiding



0 : Industrial Products Finder, Annual 2005

20

Japanese spikking, gozaimaste, dee-sai-

na San!”) would keenly watch them

work, listen to them, try to understand

them, ask well-planned questions

through their own ‘inta-pita’ (interpret-

ers), furiously take notes, and tape and

film every minute of the whole mission,

then intensely study their methods and

quietly try doing it themselves the next

time round… Just look at today’s Tai-

wanese machines, and 12-15 year-old

Taiwanese machines – you will imme-

diately see what I am talking about!

These guys learn very fast.

And we individualistic Indians only

Figure 3: A Swiss Multivac blister-packing machine learn the hardest way. We are yet to learn

nothing; castings plainly look like cast- Quietly, the Japanese, then the Ko- to pull those sorts of capers on a national

ings, sheet-metal doesn’t pretend to be reans, and now the Taiwanese have scale, so busy we are politicking, find-

something else, everything is built to caught on fast, and are catching up fast. ing scapegoats, excuses; so blind we are

last. The Swedish are in the same league. In the seventies and eighties, they would to our shortcomings; and so short-

The Swiss go ten steps further and their repeatedly invite the likes of Signore sighted a view we have of the future.

machines are absolute epitomes of per- Carlucci di Bologna and Herr Messner Should we keep waiting till the average

fection in every detail. The English put native machines from Mainland China,

good engineering above good aesthet- then Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam…

ics, yet do an excellent job, like the also start looking and performing better

Royal Enfield Bullet in its time. The than our average native machines? Re-

French have their own way of marrying member the days when we used to

good engineering with their industrial equate Taiwanese and before than Japa-

aesthetic style, which many find rather nese stuff with junk? Korea was not

peculiar – like their Citroens (Figure 4). even on the horizon! Look where they

The Italians make very well propor- have reached today, and how we lap up

tioned and coherent designs with a much their truly well designed products, cel-

lighter hand than neighboring Germans. ebrate our democracy, open our doors

The Americans celebrate their indepen- Figure 4: A French Citroen Ami car to them, and learn nothing!

dence and make things look big, self- von Stuttgart, and Mr Black of “Hey don’t talk like this all negative-

important, decorative, visually complex Liverpool to their country by dozens to negative yaar, you were telling us about

and flashy – look at their trucks ‘advise’ them on styling their new car machine outlook no?”

(Figure 5). or bike or TV, their huge, disciplined Okay, first lets get back to the main

The Russians make machines in their ‘trainee’ design teams (“Sorry onry question: what makes a machine look

own image: heavy and stocky. The Japa-

nese – masters of miniaturization – do

the same: make everything small and

delicate-looking! Everywhere, engi-

neering designers create art for their own

society, and evolve their own style. Now

of course everything is getting more glo-

bal, and more uniform – cars, even print-

ers from everywhere look so similar

nowadays.

This is the reason that unlike many

other skills and qualifications, industrial

aesthetic sense, which is culturally

formed early in life, doesn’t come so

easily to immigrants. And we Indians

(including our diaspora of NRIs and

PIOs) still haven’t started bridging this

yawning divide between the aesthetic

and the technological, let alone

evolving an ‘Indian’ industrial style.

Exceptions can be counted on one’s

fingers in us billion-plus Indians. Figure 5: An American Mack truck





Industrial Products Finder, Annual 2005 : 0

21

good? Then we will come back to this ics is like many executive chairs now in

problem of how-to. Let’s start with an the market. Each looks more sensuous

obvious point: than the other but most will positively

Is good machine aesthetics same as give you a backache within a day of use.

good workmanship and finish? Good ergonomics without good aesthet-

ics is like Mumbai’s BEST (municipal)

No, though aesthetics and finish-&-

buses. Their simple seats, steps, stand-

workmanship always go hand in hand,

ees’ stirrups, etc, even the driver’s place,

they are two completely different enti-

are carefully dimensioned (I know this

ties. You can actually have one without

for a fact), and are exceptionally com-

the other. Aesthetics without workman-

fortable to an average commuter,

ship is like the old Standard Herald car

but don’t have much in the looks

(Figure 6). Older readers will recall that

department.

one! Workmanship without aesthetics is

like that boxy range of Kirloskar Enter- Is it same as pleasing colours?

prise lathes, a jumble of sheer rectangles Well, a good colour scheme is part Figure 8: A Cinni table fan

and parallelepipeds (Figure 7). of the aesthetics. However, this is very

often the obvious Quick Fix: just change of aesthetics, I will try to answer that in

Is it same as good proportions? simple language. We were talking of

the colours and make it look better!

Good proportions are a fundamen- detailing, so there are parts, and there is

Change that dirty blue hammer-tone

tal part of aesthetics, but nowhere near a Whole, and the Whole is much more

paint to a nice semi-matt grey-brown,

the whole. One can often see a total lack than the parts – just as a woman is a great

and hey presto, you have ‘improved’ the

of sense of proportions in many Indian- deal more than an assembly of body

looks! Add a white stripe with a sweep-

designed SPMs. In one machine, I saw parts, hair, skin, clothes, makeup, acces-

ing curve, and you have made a ‘magi-

sturdily built, heavily ribbed brackets sories, accent and mannerisms!

cal transformation’! This is fine as a stu-

(fairly well-designed in themselves) ca- Now what is the Whole of this WAP-

pable of supporting a few tonnes sup- 4 locomotive? “Aggregate of assemblies

ported a pneumatic cylinder weighing plus 25 kV AC power yaar, bore mat

about 10 kg (whose forces were com- kar!” Not at all, the Whole is the emo-

pletely contained within that assembly), tional message it conveys to the ob-

which in turn moved (not very rapidly) server, and that message is then its char-

something weighing less than a kilo- acter, its spirit! And in this case, the char-

gram. This is where it becomes gro- acter should be: “I am powerful, very

tesque – like a Preity Zinta with the legs fast, stable, technologically sophisti-

of Arnold Schwarzenegger! cated, safe, clean, dependable, reassur-

Is it same as good quality? ing… as I am the top-of-the-line, fast-

Good quality compliments good aes- est passenger-express locomotive of my

thetics, but you can easily have one

Figure 7: A Kirloskar Enterprise lathe country”. Now see the WAP-1’s and -

without the other. Good quality without dent exercise, and is a favourite of the 4’s picture again. Does this message

good aesthetics is like the Cinni table penny-pinching brigade. No further come through? Well… not to me at least.

fans (Figure 8). Good aesthetics with- comments, except that beauty, even in- Now compare this with the Inter City

out good quality is like many of the new dustrial beauty, is not skin-deep. Express (ICE) locomotive of the Ger-

super-cheap ink-jet printers from global man Railways (Figure 11)! Does that

Is it same as good detailing? same message come through from this

brands, whose average life is one month

more than the guarantee period. Good detailing goes a long way to- German locomotive? Ja? Loud and

wards good aesthetics, but it still is not clear? Written all over it? Alles Klar?

Is it same as good ergonomics? the whole picture. Many Indian ma- Gut!

No. These are two different attributes chines’ lack of aesthetics falls in this This is what machine aesthetics is

– a good designer should achieve both. category. Everything is right – detail- all about – the message the Whole con-

Good aesthetics without good ergonom- ing, materials, finishes, engineering, veys! That is the spirit of the machine.

even concepts – but still the sum total All its parts and elements and features

goes so obviously wrong! You can have add to, or detract from, this ‘aesthetic’

good detailing, good engineering all message. Lets go a bit deeper in this case

over, yet the whole machine can look of WAP-4 (some of these observations

grossly ugly because it is all wrong, like are over-simplifications). Its shape is a

the WAP-1 (Figure 9) to WAP-4 (Fig- confused bunch of forms. There is ab-

ure 10) series electric locomotives which solutely no streamlining, so the impres-

pull some of our prestigious Shatabdi sion of ‘fast’ goes out of the window.

Expresses. The headlight mounting looks like an

But what on earth do I mean by say- afterthought – didn’t they know a loco

ing that this locomotive’s aesthetics is would need a headlight? So, ‘depend-

Figure 6: A Standard Herald car all wrong? Without going into the theory ability’ is shaken. The obviously poor



0 : Industrial Products Finder, Annual 2005

22

designer…) as 2D sketches, then as vir- dustrial machines. Or they don’t know

tual 3D mock-ups, and often as real how to brief the stylist, as he often

mock-ups too. Then the machine de- speaks a kind of language they don’t

signer – who has been watching from understand. Or he shows them too slick

the sidelines – comes in, and working a portfolio, replete with rich visuals of

hand-in-glove with the aesthetic de- kiosks, corporate identities, toys, school

signer, puts in bones, muscles, brains, furniture, communication graphics, per-

nerves, organs… so to speak… into that sonal electronic gadgets, even photog-

attractive shell, thus creating a living raphy and film assignments… All quite

design. relevant, but it confuses and scares off

Very nice! So, what’s the problem? many industrial clients, as they pigeon-

Figure 9: A WAP-1 locomotive The problem is that the same does not hole him as an advertising/marketing-

quality of the body fabrication takes out happen with many other consumer ma- type designer, “What he will know about

the ‘technologically sophisticated’ and chines and almost all industrial machines machinery?”

‘safe’ bit. The weird front shape wipes in India. Why? Lets go over the last para- If all this goes well so far, then the

out the ‘stable’ and ‘powerful’ bit. Lay- graph again. We are making a series of industrial client (understandably) ex-

ers and layers of accumulated filth mur- assumptions here. The first is that the pects the industrial designer to do a com-

der the ‘clean’ bit (strangely, our coaches design job is indeed given to a stylist to prehensive design/redesign job, and the

are designed to withstand washing but begin with. Most often, for a majority of designer firmly draws a line at external

our locomotives are not! They could Indian-designed industrial machines or aesthetic styling, refusing to go into the

very easily be designed to be washed.) products, it isn’t. Reasons are many. guts, saying that is the job of a machine

The sloppily painted assortment of mot- designer! Amen!

ley add-ons, weld-ons, tack-ons, bolt- Now again, too often either the cli-

ons kill the ‘reassuring’ bit! ents also don’t know where to find a

On the whole, it is the sum total, competent machine designer, or they

which does not add up for the WAP-4. realise that they now have to pay for two

The engineering may be good in piece- consultants, when even one seems too

meal, but the overall looks grotesque. expensive to them – and additionally,

One may argue that this is subjective there could be ‘Double Trouble’! Some-

(yes, it is!), but you cannot convince times they do have a machine designer

ordinary people that a hippopotamus is in their employ, but can see right away

actually a cheetah, because perception that these two will not understand each

is after all subjective. other’s language at all… “Ok sir, thank

“But yaar in foreign everything is Figure 10: A WAP-4 locomotive you for taking so much time and trouble

beautiful looking! They are very rich Many machine-builders don’t even visiting our humble factory. Very nice

peoples. We are after all poor peoples, know that there exists a professional presentation, very impressive! We will

no?” Now why do we always hide be- called an industrial designer. Those who discuss and definitely come back to

hind that mask? Are we really a poor know do not know where and how to you!” – our favourite euphemism for

country? I don’t think so – we actually find one. Those who can find one are saying ‘no’. After this poor guy leaves,

are the fourth largest economy in the often not very sure whether he will take “Hey Bhagwan! Yeh toh tragedy ho gai,

world in terms of GDP calculated on the up their work, because very few indus- Kishorbhai! Now what to do?”

basis of true purchasing power of the trial designers have ever styled real in- So, willy-nilly, some machine de-

Indian Rupee – and that’s without count-

ing the colossal invisible economy of the

paan-walla, the dhobi, the hawker, the

nukkad-ki-dukaan…

Back to square one: So, machine

aesthetics is an obvious yet indefinable

set of attributes, and for creating that,

one must develop a feel and capability.

I do wish India’s famous aesthetic de-

sign institutions would run specific

training courses for engineering design-

ers – I would be the first to enrol.

Today, many consumer machines

like cars, motorcycles, mobile phones,

telephones, etc, are first conceived and

externally styled by a trained aesthetic

designer (also called an industrial de-

signer – a queer term coined by the Brit-

ish – or a product stylist or a product Figure 11: A German ICE locomotive





Industrial Products Finder, Annual 2005 : 0

23

signer ends up doing the job of an in- fessionally, living in an industrialized

dustrial designer too, for which he has world from birth implies that you are

never received any formal training what- surrounded by, and familiar with, ma-

soever, and therefore more often than chinery of all sorts from a very young

not he botches it up. Nobody has gotten age. As with modern art, if you see a lot

anywhere. of machinery all your life, you develop

To make matters worse, there is a a sense of good and bad for judging the

class of aesthetic designers gaining aesthetics of those machines. Thus, in

ground in India, who merely come in their heavily industrialised world, indus-

and redesign the uninteresting metal trial and machine designers mesh very

covers of your machine into interest- well with each other.

ingly-styled fiberglass covers with at- So why can’t we otherwise-brilliant

tractive colours and graphics, make a Figure 12: A Maini Stacker Indians do that too?

few more utterly cosmetic changes, then such a successful profession there, and Toh Bhaiyon aur Beheno, after hav-

merrily trumpet this whole exercise in how it has contributed so much towards ing seen the Indian engineering scene

the media as a great design achievement, bettering the life and the environs of the for the last 30 years as a professional

thus making you feel great, and leave average citizen in just a few decades? engineer, and for 23 years as an inde-

you fully convinced that you now have How come everything around is so well pendent generalist consulting machine

a great product from a great designer, designed? Well, with few exceptions, designer, I humbly submit the bitter truth

and have received excellent value for their engineering designers generally to you, that we Indians are not a techni-

fat money. Immediate rise in inquiries have an excellent aesthetic sense, and cal nation at all, even today! We may

and sales lulls you into a false sense of their stylists understand the engineer’s make great researchers, remarkable

confidence, detracting you from mak- world quite well too! Socially and pro- mathematicians, renowned surgeons,

ing badly needed improvements in your

basic product by research and redesign.

One stylist told me very proudly, “I do

only the aesthetics; I don’t touch the

machine!” Personally, I think these are

perfect examples of ‘Emperor’s new

clothes’.

Then there are those machine-build-

ers who insist that because competition

forces them to keep the costs down, they

cannot ‘afford’ good aesthetics. But

good aesthetics is not always very ex-

pensive. And in my experience, a good-

looking yet reasonably priced machine

sells much more easily than a cheaper

machine that looks cheap.

Let us start from a different direction:

If you compare the curricula, teaching

methods and even the basic philosophies

of an Indian engineering college and

those of an Indian industrial design

school, you will find that they have ut-

terly and absolutely nothing in common!

It’s no wonder then, that an average de-

sign engineer can’t communicate with an

average industrial designer, except per-

haps chatting about what drafting pack-

age they each use. Even those are not

common between them. Unfortunately in

India, these two kinds learn and work

(even teach) in two mutually exclusive

worlds! Rarely, some engineer-stylist

team clicks well, and handsome products

are indeed born (eg, products from the

Maini Group of Bangalore; Figure 12);

but as a rule, it is a dreary scene.

How is it different in the US or in

Europe? How come industrial design is Figure 13: A German Heidelberg GTO offset press





0 : Industrial Products Finder, Annual 2005

24

celebrated software designers, all in “Such a good-looking AS-RS (Auto- nation are incapable of writing world-

piecemeal, but a great majority of our matic Storage-Retrieval System)!” I class science-fiction, also are incapable

mechanical engineer-designers have a don’t mean a reaction of awe or bewil- of making Discovery- or National Geo-

far inferior design sense, let alone an derment, but of aesthetic pleasure. In graphic-type scientific- and technical

aesthetic sense – than an average Ameri- other words, just a teensy-weensy frac- documentary films. We can’t even make

can high-school-dropout biker-crafts- tion of us can stand in front of a beauti- world-class machine manuals.

man, or an average Swiss dyed-in-the- fully designed and made, furiously run- “But why unnecessary you are again

wool assembly fitter. ning sheet-fed Heidelberg printing press getting agitated, Gupta-ji? In a few years

Lets be open about this! Through- (Figure 13) and happily admire it for aesthetics will also start coming to In-

out our glorious history, we have always hours (even the sounds it produces are dia, just like BPOs are coming!”

separated physical work and intellectual like music – experience this for your- Even if it could (hey, how about a

work, and have considered the latter self. Every city has quite a few around), “Milan Aesthetic Technologies and Ser-

superior to the former. Historically, our just the way one can stand in front of vices (India) Pvt Ltd”, wholly owned

workers and artisans were not encour- the Taj Mahal and admire it for hours. subsidiary of “Studio Estetici Milanese

aged to think, and our thinkers did not And only an infinitesimal fraction of S.p.A”) it simply can’t! Far more alarm-

work with their hands. We invented the even that minority knows how to create ingly for us, in the Western industrial

zero, wrote the Vedas and Upanishads, that (press’s) kind of beauty – inside out world, these high-quality design skills

and did so much research in medicine – from scratch without copying. are now slowly beginning to disappear,

(a purely intellectual endeavour), but for You see, aesthetic design is not ex- as their elder designers have perforce

thousands of years we could not dis- actly like analytical chemistry, which become too expensive, also these are

cover electricity, or steam power, or in- can be learned and practiced without any now edging towards professional retire-

vent paper or the screw or the water

wheel… Except in medicine and math-

ematics, we in fact did not discover or

invent anything physical of any serious

importance before the British came in

and dominated us. This trend quietly

continues even today.

Now, at least to my mind, a good

designer should always be a good arti-

san/mechanic/machinist/assembly fitter

too. This is quite true in the industrial

world, equally false in India. And this

is our curse, our bane. This state of af-

fairs is showing no signs of changing

for the better! We still have a very long,

dreary journey ahead of us.

The media is not helping this any! A

vast majority of our powerful media-

persons routinely choose to remain ut-

terly non-technical, and chose not to

understand anything about machinery –

machines for them being absolute no-

Figure 14: Detail of a modular PLC

no’s, completely alien things. Thus, no

informed public debate about engineer- emotional involvement and aesthetic ment by the thousands, and their

ing design or machine aesthetics can sense. Our engineering education sys- younger generation doesn’t quite want

take place seriously and continually in tem drills into us: “Remember, you are to be engineering designers in sufficient

any Indian media. an engineer, not an artist! Art has no numbers. In their greying, ageing,

For these same reasons, the way well place in your professional life! Art is the shrinking world, there simply aren’t

designed machinery quietly excites de- domain of lowly beings who couldn’t enough committed young people to fill

signers and engineers in the developed score enough to get admission into sci- all the new, needed professional

world, it does not excite us! We don’t ence!” This is where lasting damage is engineer-designers’ slots. So, if and

love machines; we just tolerate them! done. And this is not true either! Engi- when we wake up, whom are we going

We love our films, actors, cricket, food, neering design is very much an art. to learn industrial aesthetics from, since

clothes, marriages, ornaments, politics, “What? This is sacrilege! Blasphemy!” we seem to be quite incapable of devel-

TV serials… but industrial machines are And any art practiced without an asso- oping a style of our own?

things that we don’t emotionally relate ciated aesthetic sense invariably pro- “All that is fine, bhai-sahab, but can

to! Very few of us are capable of say- duces monstrosities! you tell me how I can make my ma-

ing, “What a lovely tram!” “Beautiful This typically Indian attitude of chines better looking now?”

lathe!” “That forklift looks so sexy!” comprehensively disconnecting art and Ok sir, I will try ‘level best’ but this

“That earthmover is magnificent!” science is also the reason why we as a can only be awfully basic and general!



Industrial Products Finder, Annual 2005 : 0

25

Back to Design Tips format, I suppose… inherent aesthetics. Design with what good welding and keep it naked. If you

1. As I said in the beginning – do that material demands. To illustrate, you think I am crazy, see German machines.

good detailing throughout the machine, see many designs of large water-carry- If that still looks bad to you, then rede-

inside and out. Plan out even the wir- ing/storage utensils made in thermoplas- sign it to avoid that welding altogether.

ing, conduits, piping, connectors, too; tics by blow-moulding, which exactly Don’t design parts in such a way that

even more thoroughly, else they will imitate the shape of corresponding metal you first machine pieces, then weld, then

thoroughly clutter up your otherwise or earthen articles made by drawing or machine again, then mount them with

well-made design, and reduce its aes- spinning, and that is why they look ugly. all their burn wounds on display. Sand-

thetics to a naught. Their makers have not done a rethink , shot- or bead-blast and remove the

2. Machine design and aesthetic about marrying the real needs to possi- burn-marks, or make it in one piece.

design are inseparable. Anything super- bilities of the new materials. 9. Don’t have a variety of finishes/

imposed later from outside is a compro- details on various similar parts of the

mise and a third-rate way of doing machine, like plating some screws and

things. This holds true even for a re- not plating others, plating some with

vamp/redesign also. If a single person chrome, some with zinc; hex bolts in one

cannot do it, then the two designers must place, socket screws in counterbores in

work in concert, not one after the other. another place, socket screws without

See the example (Figure 14) of a modu- counterbores in a third place, slotted

lar PLC – Messung Nexgen-5000 – screws in yet another place, Philips

done by a single designer, where the top screws in another…

of each module integrates structural sup- 10. Don’t marry beauty queens to

port, prevent ingress of objects more scruffy beggars. I have seen beautiful

than 2 mm in size, houses and retains servomotors mounted on most shabbily

the mounting screw, supports the PCBs fabricated brackets. I have also seen

inside, allows a very high degree of handsome pneumatic cylinders mounted

natural ventilation, and is part of the on raw plates gas-cut from pitted steel.

overall aesthetics of the product. 11. Don’t design machined parts

3. Keep a uniform detailed engi- like levers, plates, etc, with male radii

neering style throughout – this itself will unless you intend to machine them on

make a huge difference. For example, Figure 15: Detail of a blister-packing machine CNC – otherwise straight portions of the

if there are eight different flange 6. For the same reason, don’t finish profile would be machined, and the male

mountings on the machine’s front plate, flat surfaces of a rectangular job on a radius will have to be hand finished –

don’t have some mounted with hex lathe. It immediately conveys that you creating ugliness where an ordinary

bolts, some with socket screws; some are a cheapskate, as everyone knows that chamfer would be easier to make, and

with eight screws, some with six; some turning rate per hour is less than mill- look more consistent, therefore better.

flanges round, some square… Or, make ing rate. Concentric machining marks 12. Don’t put poor-quality hand-

some levers with rounded ends, some from facing on a lathe where one would made sheet-metal covers on an otherwise

with square ends, some with chamfers, rationally expect milling marks makes quality-made machine. I have come

some straight, some taper… unless you it unaesthetic, as it is inappropriate. Parts across many machines that look much

have rational necessity to do so. like end-caps on overhanging rollers and better when they are bare than when all

4. Try and reduce visual clutter in visible ends of thumbwheels are often the covers are put on. I have seen covers

the machine. Try and put screws from buffed, where a turning finish would be on high precision machines that look like

behind if you can, thus making them more rational and therefore look more as if they were borrowed from a country-

invisible, or substitute them with differ- attractive, so finish these on lathes. In made thresher. The sheet metal, even its

ent type fasteners that are invisible or other words, make a part by the most hinges, deserves as much care and impor-

look better. If the machine has, say, lots logical process. That in itself makes it tance as a jig-bored part – this is where

of thumbscrews or levers, like a print- attractive. See the example (Figure 15) the ‘made-in-foreign’ wins, and we lose.

ing or a bindery machine, make them of a low-cost blister-packing machine. How can one learn all this? By lots

all look the same, or make them look 7. Avoid hand finishing as much as and lots of observation, thinking, look-

separate, grouped by their purpose – yet possible – as it does not come out con- ing, watching, seeing, correlating, com-

part of a set. Use high-tensile fasteners, sistently well. Similarly, avoid a lot of paring… Creativity comes later. This is

thus avoiding cheap, ugly-looking bright-chrome plating and buffing, as the essence of having ‘design in your

washers, even spring washers. that does not come out uniformly either. blood’! Nobody is born a machine- and

5. Very importantly, don’t make 8. Don’t try to hide shabby work- aesthetic-designer, but one can learn that

something look like something else, like manship, like poor welding, under gen- if one loves machines and admits that

making fibreglass look like castings, or erous dollops of putty. For visible weld- he is essentially an artist with a degree

making sheet metal look like heavy fab- ing, either use a spatter-free welding in applied science.

rication, or making a PLC’s modules technique, or remove spatter carefully Paagal insaan hai bechaara!

look like a row of hard-bound law-books with a small chisel. And please ban disk Masheenon se mohabbat karta hai, aur

on a shelf. Every industrial material, sanders, buffing wheels, and the gas- masheenon mein hi husn dekhna chaahta

every manufacturing process has its own cutter from your assembly shop. Do hai. Ya Allah, iss per raham kar! n



0 : Industrial Products Finder, Annual 2005

26

Article published in the April 2006 issue of Auto India, page Rule 04. You can turn without giving any signal. (As it

89. is other people’s responsibility to get out of

your way.)

The Peoples’ Traffic Rules for Mera Rule 05. If somebody is asking for ‘side’ from right

(wants to overtake you from the right), flash

Bharat Mahaan - 1 your right indicator. If you want to turn right,

you can flash your right indicator if you feel

By Harshwardhan Gupta like signalling; otherwise you have the

inalienable right to take a sudden turn

without signalling. (It is up to the intelligence

(India has the highest rate of casualties per of the driver behind you to figure out what

vehicle-km in the World. Today it far surpasses our you have in mind.)

industrial casualty figures. Much ink been spilled

on the condition of Indian traffic, but absolutely Rule 06. Use the horn as much as you can.

nothing has changed. So I have decided to write (Otherwise no one will pay any attention to

this in an utterly vicarious and negative style. I you.)

have played the Devil’s Advocate and drawn up Rule 07. If someone honks behind you, first turn

this set of ‘Public’ Rules already followed in letter around and see if he is an acquaintance.

and spirit by every citizen of our great democracy, Keep on looking behind at him till you are

and have explained the “logical and rational” sure you don’t know him. Then make up

reasoning behind each of them. In the true your mind whether he is insulting you or

democratic spirit, I invite all readers to contribute getting angry at you. If yes, first give him a

their own rules by sending them to me at few choice abuses, and then continue doing

harsh@neubauplan.com and these will be so, depending on his reaction. If however,

compiled into Part-2 with your name.) you finally come to the unfortunate

~ Preamble ~ conclusion that he merely wants to pass

you, decide next if you really want to let him

We are the largest democracy in the world, and pass, and let him pass only if you are sure

therefore we have a birthright to device and make that that will not hurt your self-esteem. (High

our own rules, including those for public roads, as self-esteem is your fundamental right, and

we are The Public. The Rules don’t follow any you can and should go to any length to

order or pattern, just like the traffic they are meant preserve it.)

for. So we hereby give these rules to ourselves.

Rule 08. When in a traffic jam, or at a closed railway

~ Our Rules ~ crossing, inch forward as much and as

Rule 01. Drive on any convenient side of the road. quickly as is physically possible. Freely cut

When not inconvenient, drive on the left lanes for this purpose – even if you have to

side, or in the middle of the road. (This veer right onto the extreme right shoulder of

saves time and fuel, plus, ‘Praja’ in a the road. (It may or may not save time and

democracy is ‘Raaja’.) fuel, but it is exciting and entertaining, and

gives you a healthy sense of power and

Rule 02. When taking a right turn, take the shortest achievement. This is necessary and very

possible path. (Saves time and fuel.) important for your well-being.)

Rule 03. If you are driving a heavy vehicle, drive them Rule 09. Don’t lock your car doors when you drive. (It

in the perfect middle of an open road; or in may save your life in a crash, but it will do

the right-most lane in a divided road. (This is severe damage to your sense of power and

easy on you as it produces less side-pull on manliness.)

the steering. Plus it makes you feel

important, which is necessary for your well- Rule 10. Don’t ever use the seat belt. (Your comfort

being.) and a sense of freedom are much more



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via e-mail by writing to him at harsh@neubauplan.com, and you must publish them without changing the contents or name of the author.

important. Our Constitution guarantees Rule 18. Swerve suddenly and avoid even the

individual freedom as our fundamental right! smallest of potholes. (This will increase the

Only cowards use seat belts, that too only life of your suspension, plus you remain

when their insecure wives nag them into it, more comfortable too. Khadde mein kaun

or they are NRIs.) jaana chaahta hai!)

Rule 11. Don’t ever use a helmet. (Same reasoning Rule 19. As a pedestrian, you can cross the roads

as above.) any time, any place. (You must be given

maximum freedom as our democracy must

Rule 12. Always answer your cell phones. Even make

work for the ‘less fortunate’ too!)

calls, and learn the art of SMSing while

driving. (It is crucial that you remain Rule 20. Take the flashy, creative auto and bike ads

connected at all times in today’s world. Plus seriously, as all of them tell you the same

it improves your image in the eyes of other thing in different ways: Ride ever more

more unfortunate road users. Driving after rashly with your sexy machine! Go faster,

all makes use of only a small isolated Faster, overtake now, NOW! Enjoy the

portion of your brain – rest can be put to adrenalin rush, the unbridled power, the

better use.) roaring speed! Unleash the ferocious beast

inside your vehicle! Go, go, go, shine before

Rule 13. Offer suitable bribes at all opportunities.

the girls! Girls, you are expected to

Learn the easy art early from your friends,

immediately fall in love with the rashest,

parents and relatives – you will master it

most macho, most reckless of male drivers!

soon. (You save money and trouble by

Guys; brake hard at the last moment and put

bribing, and after all, the poorly paid

the rear wheels in a controlled skid!

‘bribees’ have children to support too!)

Rule 21. Take the tyre, fuel and lube companies’ ads

Rule 14. If you are a salaried / contractual driver and

seriously too: Fit their tyre and race a fighter

will not face any serious trouble if you bump

jet! Fill their fuel and ride the wild buffalo! Do

the vehicle, then drive as recklessly as you

a wheelie with your motorbike at the

can. (Owner-drivers will always yield to you

smallest of opportunity.

as they value their own vehicle more than

you value yours.) Rule 22. Don’t believe that crap about defensive

driving. The advertising media – the

Rule 15. If you like your drinks, or are into drugs, then

responsible and mature guardian of our

continue with your habit on the road.

democracy – is continuously taking pains to

(Driving is one occupation where nobody will

guide you to do exactly the opposite. (Those

know and object that you are high, and you

who don’t emulate the advertisements are

will enjoy life more fully than the poor

cowards, frightened old men, flaccid nerds,

wretched non-addicts on the miserable road)

nobodies!)

Rule 16. Don’t spend too much money on vehicle

Rule 23. At every opportunity, you should push your

maintenance. Cut corners and haggle with

vehicle to its limit to keep them fit. (If

the mechanic. (As he is essentially a robber.

engines are not regularly pushed to their

Spend that money on various luxuries of life

limit, they become dull!)

instead.)

Rule 24. If you hit somebody, run away before you

Rule 17. Don’t switch on your parking lights till you

are caught. (The police will trouble you.

can barely see the road ahead; or your

Worse, bystanders might lynch you.)

headlights till you actually cannot see

without them. If others can’t see you, that is Rule 25. If you see an injured person on the road,

their problem. (This saves valuable fuel, stop and watch the fun but do not, repeat,

even if the saving is never more than 0.1 %. do not help (Great misfortune will befall you

Boond-boond bachao!) if you help somebody. Everybody, especially





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the police, will assume you must have had a traffic jam, you are only trying to get out and

hand in causing the injuries.) reach your destination in the fastest possible

ways. This is also very, very important for

Rule 26. Break rules but always believe that you

your satisfaction level, feel-good factor, self-

always observe all rules; it is others who

esteem, self-importance and pride.

break them and thus force you to break

them. (If you don’t break rules, you will Rule 30. If your girlfriend is your pillion rider, you gain

remain standing in one spot the whole day.) an extra right to drive absolutely rashly.

People understand that ‘everything is fair in

Rule 27. It is your duty to always try and inch ahead

love and war’.

as much as possible in the traffic. It does not

matter if you get into traffic jams, or cause Rule 31. Generally, follow the above rules designed

them, or simply delay the vehicle in front of to enhance your well-being and self-esteem.

you. Push ahead as quickly as possible as Rule 32. It is your right to try and extract as much

soon as you find even one inch of space sensual, carnal, power-giving, self-

ahead of you. importance-providing, self-esteem-

Rule 28. If somebody is crossing your path and he enhancing, adrenalin pumping, emotionally

would reach the crossing point before you, thrilling, pleasure out of driving fast, because

race forward to close the gap as much as life otherwise is so dull. Enjoy every moment

you can. If you can’t block him, then while it lasts. Maut se kya darna? Marna toh

definitely keep moving ahead as much as hai sub ko ek bar!

you can, as that will force the other driver to After reading the above, don’t feel ashamed at all.

slow down. As he is slowing down, surge Instead, be creative and find innovative faults with

ahead. If you still cannot pass before him, the author’s mentality. Deeply reflect on our traffic

then at least don’t let him pass without problems while you are driving, and propound your

getting considerably delayed and own original take on the state of traffic in India, as

inconvenienced because of you. Best would you party with friends and relatives in your leisure

be to inch ahead so much that he is forced time. Curse this magazine also for publishing such

to come to a complete halt. He delayed you, crap.

so you must delay him too. In this process,

you might also get delayed, but you have at Ae *@#&%, gaadi chalaana nahin aata kya?

least given yourself a fighting chance, and it

is extremely beneficial for your ego, well-

being, self-importance, and to take revenge

on him for coming in your way. The author is a graduate of IIT Bombay in Mechanical Engineering. He has

been designing machines since 1976. He founded Neubauplan Machine

Design Studio, an independent consulting machine-design firm in 1981 in

Rule 29. It does not matter if your driving / riding Pune. He can be reached at harsh@neubauplan.com or through his website

causes more chaos and delays, slows down at www.neubauplan.com.

or blocks others. They have caused the









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