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Thursday, August 21, 2008

Success has thousand fathers..err mothers too

President of India Pratibha Patil greeting Abhinav Bindra

The other day while watching telly, I had tuned in to the News channel, when they were covering Abhinav Bindra’s meeting with our Prez. Posing for the photographers, the lady [our honorable (lol!) President] held  up the medal in front of her with a silly grin plastered on the face. My first reaction – “How dare you bitch!” “Ma’am, you haven’t earned the right to hold the sacred medallion. Please do not desecrate it by touching”.

On way to the college, I see many a walls plastered with posters of sundry politicians sharing poster real estate with the country’s toast of the season. Most did not even bother to use a recent, much older looking, picture of the guy. Instead, what we see is a scared looking pre-pubescent kid being towered over by an evil-looking, stupidly grinning criminal-turned-politico on those posters.

The National Rifle Association of India holds press conferences to proudly announce how their protege has done what no other sports association [save Hockey, which is a team sport] has been able to do in 61 years of our independence. This is the same Association which has been unable to ease the import process of bullets needed by our shooters. As a result our shooters, it is known, practice with just one-third the number of bullets, their International counterparts use. It is the same Association that refused to send our shooters for extended training camps to Germany, which undoubtedly posses much better training infrastructure. Yet when it came to basking in the laurels of a victory, the Association is the first one to take credit. They very conveniently  chose to omit mentioning that the victory is a result of largely self-funded efforts. Abhinav comes from an affluent family which enabled him to pour in his own resources for his training [his folks built him his own Olympic standard shooting range for unhindered practice]. This, after the babus made him run pillar to post seeking funds and then refusing to pay anything more than a joke of an amount [SAI paid 15 lakhs, when he needed 2 crores for his new rifle, so said the TV report].

Government of states far and wide are clamoring to shower him with cash prizes for his Olympian efforts. Without grudging him even one bit of the prize money that has been announced, but the question that begs to be asked, is it of any significance to exhibit such monetary appreciation now that he is worth two crores.

This is nothing but a shameless, opportunistic, self-serving maneuver that politicians are resorting to in order to achieve their own populist ends. Where were they when Abhinav was seeking the much needed funds for his training. Why were no glittering ceremonies organized by a state to announce its support for the shooter. The answer is quite simple – no state came forward to support this shooter prior to his victory.

Would the same amount not be better spent ramping up the respective states sporting infrastructure which currently bear close resemblance to a rat hole. Why are they not using that money to fund the training of some very talented but unproven lad/lass who is sure to earn laurels for the country if properly guided. Players who in the distant past had rendered yeomen service to the country are now languishing in abject poverty [blessed are those who have passed through the pearly gates]. How about helping re-train that athlete who misses qualification/winning by 1/100th of the second – an outcome of immense talent practicing with pedestrian facilities.

These vermins care a damn about the people whose responsibility they have been entrusted with. But the moment they achieve something, they rush forward to associate themselves with them & their achievements telling anybody willing to listen how they have created a medal winner. We all like to associate ourselves with a winner – makes us feel like a winner ourselves, efforts notwithstanding.

Success has a thousand fathers…failure is an orphan.

How very true does this statement hold in our country.

 

Godspeed


Tuesday, August 19, 2008

F-35 Joint Strike Fighter: Manufacturing 02 - Lean Manufacturing

F-35 Joint Strike Fighter assembly Fort Worth, Texas

Manufacturing

The Joint Strike Fighter's press paraphernalia describes the aircraft's manufacturing and assembly in the following manner,

“The F-35 team is employing advanced digital design tools, assembly methods and highly accurate manufacturing machines to help the aircraft achieve its goals of affordability, quality and assembly speed. New milling machines, accurate to less than the width of a human hair, ensure that the F-35’s outer shape is exact and meets its advanced, all-aspect stealth requirements. Assembly time for an F-35 is planned to be less than half that of current-generation fighters.”

Any great designs are pretty much insignificant unless you successfully manufacture it according to design and are able to use it in accordance with its stated objective. Taking this view, it would not be hard to imagine that one of the major portions of the JSF program is the actual manufacturing of the aircrafts. Manufacturing these aircrafts would require the implementation of concepts and utilization of technology which till now were either never used or even if used definitely not at the scale it would be used here. Some of the noteworthy features seen in the design and manufacture of the F-35 – The Digital trail, Lean manufacturing, Laser positioning system etc.

Manufacturing these beauties poses additional challenges because of the need to source the assemblies and sub-assemblies from contractors from quite literally different parts of the world – from the companies operating in the respective partner countries. Co-ordinating and ensuring standards and compliance among these companies having disparate work culture is no mean feat and the JSF program will have to succeed in achieving it.

Lean manufacturing

In face of ever increasing pressure towards the optimization of the process chain - maximize productivity and minimize overhead expenditure, one concept that has found approval among planners is that of Lean Manufacturing [also referred to simply as Lean].

It essentially is a philosophy, a concept of manufacturing, that seeks to reduce wasteful practices [muda, muri and mura] in the Manufacturing process and helps improve the quality of the finished product [kaizen]. This concept finds its roots in the Toyota Production System [TPS] conceptualized by Sakichi Toyoda [and later formalized to a concrete set of guidelines by Taiichi Ohno] in the aftermath of World War II when scarcity of resources meant that use of available resources were to be optimized to the maximum extent possible. Thus Lean manufacturing addresses two most important aspects of a product – increased quality of the product at a reduced cost - quite often viewed as contradictory end goals.

The guiding principles of Lean Manufacturing are - Perfect first-time quality, Pull processing, Continuous improvement, Waste minimization, Flexibility, Establishing and maintaining a long term relationship with suppliers, Load leveling, Autonomation [smart automation], Production flow and Visual control.

The overall aim of Lean is to eliminate what it refers to as 8 wastes - overproduction, inventory, motion, waiting, defects, transportation, extra processing and underutilized people. These factors result in reduction of the overall quality associated with a product.

A guideline of Lean is to manufacture a product according to demand [pull] rather than any preset manufacturing targets [push]. This is to ensure prevention of over-production and thus its associated excesses.

Lean manufacturing proposes adoption of the Just-In-Time [JIT] concept of manufacturing. In this practice, the raw material needed to manufacture a certain product is made available at the moment production is to commence. There is no stocking of these raw materials for long period before the start of manufacturing. Buffer stock is made available for no more than two or three batches of production [kanban]. In fact, an ideal setup would see responsibility of raw material remaining with the suppliers right till the moment production begins. As a result, inventory, which accounts for a significant portion of expenditure, reduces greatly and consequently its associated costs.

Proper use of scheduling tools like Heijunka box would help reduce the possibility of unevenness in the production's scheduling and ensure a smooth, predictable production plan that is a lot easier to optimize and streamline.

Lean manufacturing is as much about human behavior, culture and their reactions as it is about methods of productions. For a successful implementation of Lean, it is essential that the human workforce is taken on board, convinced and trained [Senpai, Kohai & Sensai] to accept and adopt Lean as a way to improvement.

The Joint Strike Fighter team describes the manufacturing practices adopted for the F-35 as leaner-than-lean manufacturing. However, for all practical purposes, it would be safe to assume that it is Lean Manufacturing philosophy that they have strongly imbued in the F-35.

In in the 90s, Lockheed Martin had embarked upon a program surreptitiously named LM21 to seek and adopt Best Practice that would enable it to achieve Operating Excellence needed to successfully compete in the cut-throat defense market of the 21st century. One of the philosophies they zeroed in on was that of Lean Manufacturing. Though Lean had been in practice in Lockheed Martin earlier too, it had been restricted to small departmental level implementation, the results of which was therefore not optimum.

F-16 assembly line

The first large-scale implementation of this concept was to the manufacture and assembly of the F-16s, which then had been plagued with issues of quality control and delayed delivery schedules. Applying Lean Manufacturing concepts brought about some dramatic results – manufacturing costs reduced by 38%, inventory by 50%, defect rates fell to just 3.4 per plane and delivery time of an aircraft fell from 42 months to 21.5 months. As the assembly line of the F-16s had matured considerably by then, there were limitation of the extent to which changes could be made to it.

So quite naturally, when they won the contract for the design and manufacture of JSF, it would be expected of them to apply these principles to the best possible extent to leverage its benefits from the conceptual stage itself.

Lean principles that guides Lockheed Martin's JSF project include – Transparency, Process focus, instead of just Operation focus, Design for Manufacture and Assembly, Process control, JIT system and Work standardization.

Applying Lean, Lockheed Martin was able to reduce the floor space occupied by the F-16 assembly line by 60%, thus creating space for the manufacture and assembly of the F-35s without expanding [the F-16 line is expected to cease production by 2015, around the time F-35 production would be in full swing]. By applying Lean to the ALE-50 pylon program, Lockheed Martin was able to reduce product travel distance from 200 feet to 50 feet and time for manufacture from 177 hours to 34 hours.

The program is run by a series of Integrated Product Teams [IPTs]. Each team is made completely responsible for one portion of the aircraft. Think of it like a company setup for that one portion of the aircraft. The team is made up of members from the related partner companies for that portion with the head being selected from one of the principle partner companies – Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and BAE. Thus the members think of the project, not just from the point of view of the parent company, but as their own personal project responsibility. However it must not be forgotten that any benefits derived for the portion will in turn be reflected favorably for the partner companies involved.

Problem resolution is done without any delay and at the lowest level possible. In the event of any problems faced by the process [scheduling, cost or process], that phase of the process is halted completely and not allowed to proceed before it as been resolved – even if it means the involvement of the interaction between two or more different IPTs.

Waste reduction and optimization can be seen in the tooling needed to make different but related products. Instead of using separate tools, use of modular flexible tools to perform the same function and also effect a cost saving of 30% on tooling over the traditional way.

Lockheed Martin continuously works with its suppliers of the F-35 JSF to improve and streamline the supply chain. It is done by means of events, training and planning that are regularly organized by Lockheed Martin. It partners with them to analyze and identify opportunities to eliminate waste and through it reduce time and cost and at the same time help them maintain adherence to set standards of the program.

The three variants of the F-35s would be assembled on a single assembly line, which would be able to manufacture either of the variants depending on the requirement of that variant [demonstrating the pull approach of manufacturing encouraged by Lean]. The switchover time for the manufacture of one variant to another is estimated to be less than a day.

Six Sigma principles ensure that defects and errors are reduced to the bare minimum, thus promoting the best-first-time approach, thus saving on costly reworks or even worse, complete scrapping of expensive hardware. Utilizing the concept called the Digital Thread [discussed later], it is possible to access accurate data and information about any product in an easy and convenient manner. This helps improve productivity and increase accuracy of work done, not to mention prevents the generation of costly waste.

The use of advanced machine tool, like Makino 5-axis Model MC1013-5XA Horizontal Machining Center for the machining components of the aircraft ensures accurate high-speed machining process with extreme precision and accuracy. Thus producing a product that is built within tolerance [use of these machines afford the use of extremely close tolerance] and doing away with wastage and scrap. The 5-axis Henri LinĂ© Vertical Machining center for example, can cut at 25.4 m/min at 20000 rpm. Extensive use of automated drilling machines achieves similar ends. The wing assembly is being held vertically to enable better ergonomic work position for the workers, preventing fatigue. Use of precision tools also ensure that sub-assemblies made by the different partner companies mate without the need of re-work at the assembly plant – yet another cost saving factor that is a result of good quality work. [Machining and assembly will be talked about in greater details later]

F-35 Joint Strike Fighter BAE

BAE Systems is known to have invested in upgrading its modular tooling system to manufacture the aft fuselage and the tail of the F-35. It has adopted the use of Metrix advanced coordinate metrology software to design a tool building and inspection process for JSF manufacturing.

Lockheed Martin is paying special attention towards error-proofing the assembly of the F-35. For example, the body of the F-35 is fitted with many panels that cover access holes cut into the body. These panels have been deigned such that a panel fits perfectly only on its designed access hole [Poka-Yoke]. Similarly ink marker robotic arms mounted on gantry-like system sprays identification marks onto assembly components marking its proper location for the assembly process. This prevents and doubts or dis ambiguity about its end utilization.

Using a combination of process changes and advanced machining systems, the JSF team was able to prevent a lot of wastage of resources, which translted to lowering the cost of production. Thus the team has succeeded in manufacturing a 5th generation aircraft that costs around that of a 4th generation one [and according to certain calculations even less than one].


Sunday, August 17, 2008

F-35 Joint Strike Fighter: Manufacturing 01 - Introduction

F-35 Joint Strike Fighter AA-1

Introduction

One of the most talked about weapons development program ever has been F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, christened Lightning II. A joint multi-national, development program aimed at developing the most advanced 5th generation manned, multi-role combat aircraft, it has attracted both critics and admirers in equal measures. Critics question its utility in the present scenario where the enemy is primarily indulging in irregular warfare operating in small cells from within their target territory. Its admirers on the other hand, quite rightly bring attention to the absolute bleeding edge of technology being used to develop the aircraft, many of which are being developed even as they are being used for the first time. The mind boggling level of precision being followed and the magnitude of co-ordination and co-operation between the different participating entities evokes a sense of awe and admiration among technocrats which can mildly and quite ineffectively be described as orgasmic.

Background

The Joint Strike Fighter [JSF] program is a multi-national development program that aims to develop a multi-role combat aircraft that fulfills the requirements of the participating countries for defending their territorial and strategic interests. The program aims to achieve two seemingly contradictory objectives – to develop the most advanced combat aircraft and also being the most cost-effective aircraft in its class [5th generation aircrafts]. The fulfillment of the second objective is of paramount importance in face of the gradual reduction of the percentage of budgetary allowance being allotted to defense by respective countries. The program is an outcome of collaborative efforts of nine partner countries lead by the United States of America. The other seven countries include – United Kingdom, Netherlands, Canada, Denmark, Italy, Turkey, Australia and Norway. Besides these countries other countries who have evinced interest in acquiring these aircrafts include Israel, Singapore and Japan. The scale of operation of this program is quite simply staggering – 11 partner countries, 1000 suppliers located in 30 countries, 130 development sites situated in 17 time zones where approximately 7000 Engineers and Designers are collaborating to develop the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

The Joint Strike Fighter program was initiated by the United States [US] in the early 90s to replace its present fleet of combat aircrafts and last well beyond 2050, into 2060s. As part of the program, two companies – Lockheed Martin and Boeing, were given the go ahead to build a working prototype of the aircraft that would fulfill its requirements. Lockheed Martin teamed up with the British Aerospace Engineering [BAE] company and Northrop Grumman while Boeing acquired McDonnell Douglas to design and build their prototypes. Both the designs were based on engines supplied by the Pratt & Whitney company. Finally in October 2001, after evaluating and testing both the designs, it was decided to award the contract of the JSF to the Lockheed Martin headed team. The aircraft, which till then was referred to as X-35 ['X' for experimental aircraft], was re-christened as the F-35 Lightning II.

As part of the contract, Lockheed Martin is expected to supply in excess of 4500 aircrafts, each of which, according to various estimates, would cost around $35-50 million USD depending upon the variant of aircraft considered.

Variants

The program seeks to develop a single aircraft platform having different functional variants. Three variants of the F-35 have been designed :-

F-35A

It is the conventional takeoff and landing variant of the aircraft. It will comprise the maximum number of F-35 aircrafts to be build.

F-35A Joint Strike Fighter

Aircraft to replace

It has been designed to take over duties from aircrafts like the F-16 and A-10 Thunderbolt II currently being operated by the U.S Air Force.

F-35B

It is the Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing [STOVL] variant of the aircraft to be built specifically for the U.S and U.K Marine forces.

F-35B Joint Strike Fighter

Aircraft to replace

The STOVL variant is expected to replace the only other operational STOVL combat aircraft – the AV8B Harrier and the conventional take-off F/A 18 Hornet being operated by the Marine forces of US and UK.

F-35C

The Naval variant of the aircraft is designed to takeoff and land from aircraft carriers of the partner countries.

F-35C Joint Strike Fighter

Aircraft to replace

The aircraft has been designed primarily to replace the US Navy operated F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.

Even though each variant has been designed to perform distinctly different tasks, all of them display a high degree of commonality between the designs of the 3 variants – a fact which helps in keeping their production cost down by reducing inventory cost and doing away with the need to set up a dedicated assembly line for each variant. Design commonality would also help reduce the cost of training personals in handling and maintaining these aircrafts. Some estimates show that cost cutting achieved in maintaining these aircrafts would be in the range of $60 billion USD due to commonality of features.


Friday, August 15, 2008

Happy Independence Day

20080815Indianflag01

Wishing you all a very Happy Independence Day. 61 years of joy, sorrow, triumph, apathy, courage, indifference…the whole gamut of reactions we have experienced as the citizen of this country we proudly and lovingly call India.

I take this occasion [and blog] to thank those who are ensuring my continuous Independence. The unknown soldier perched up on the glaciers of Siachen, patrolling through the deserts of Thar, maneuvering through the jungles of the North-East giving up his life so that I may continue my own. Without you, my Independence would be but a dream.


Monday, August 11, 2008

Abhinav Bindra wins Gold at the Olympics

Yes! yes!! yes!!! it has finally happened. India has won its first ever individual Gold medal at the Olympics. Abhinav Bindra has secured the Gold medal in the 10m Air Rifle event at the Beijing Olympics. Boy o’ boy, you have done what no other Indian has ever done. You have made a country of a billion people ecstatic and delirious with joy and a day they are not going to forget for the rest of their lives. Way to go attaboy!!

 20080811abhinavbindra01

Thanks to my stupid cable operator, I received the News through a RSS feed and couldn’t watch it on TV – something I bunked college for today.

Abhinav Bindra’s blog

Wikipedia entry


Sunday, August 10, 2008

You are cordially invited to our wedding

Just found this in my inbox. The card appears not to belong to the sender. None of the names match [or at least the sender’s name did not]

20080810forward01Wedding card thingy

A couple with a phunny bone, kewl!!


Saturday, August 09, 2008

Get a free copy of Windows Home Server from Microsoft

Free 120 days evaluation of Microsoft Home Server

I just ordered my free copy of Windows Home Server from Microsoft.

Okay, it is a 120 day free evaluation copy that they are shipping to anyone who bothers to ask for it. But the important thing is that it is FREE!

You may place an order for your copy here.

Wikipedia entry

Thanks, Manish for the info.


Friday, August 08, 2008

Keep your installed software updated using Personal Software Inspector [PSI]

Installed software in Windows should be kept updated to the latest versions of those software as newer versions not only provide better performance, but also patch any discovered vulnerabilities that could harm your computer. Though most software provide features to look for updates for those software, many don’t. It is also convenient if all the software that are installed can be updated from a single location.

Secunia Personal Software Inspector [PSI]

Secunia’s Personal Software Inspector [PSI], is a Freeware tool, that lets you do just that and quite a lot more. Listing out all the software that have a newer version available, it provides a direct link to most of them for download and update – very useful as you don’t have to bother yourself with trying to figure out which version of the software you need to download based on your computer’s configuration and setup – Secunia does it for you.

Being a software developed by a computer security service provider,  PSI also informs you of the potential vulnerabilities that the installed software posses and the degree of threat posed to your computer by that vulnerability. Based on that information you can take appropriate decision about that installed software, either conclude that the threat posed to your computer isn’t threatening enough or uninstall the software.

Though the number of software for which it informs you of update is vast, there were a few software that I use whose updates are not informed through PSI. They have thoughtfully provided a link using which you may inform them of the need to add that software for monitoring. Still of the around 103 software installed, 7 not being monitored is not that bad a record for this nifty freeware.

One thing that they could also have monitored, would in my opinion, be device drivers. However this may have been a deliberate omission as many choose to install non-official drivers for their hardware.

For keeping my device drivers in Windows updated, I prefer using another freeware – DriverMax.

Godspeed


Sunday, August 03, 2008

Google Sites with your own domain name

Just found out that you can use your own, custom domain names with Google sites. So I went ahead and created one for myself – mysite.shubhspace.co.cc. This feature is currently available for users of Google Apps. You need to get yourself a Google Apps account and create a Google sites through it.

Login as an Admin and activate Google sites for your domain if not done it already. Once activated, you could create a subdomain from where users must login in and create their sites.

original subdomain

By default, it would be site.example.com. I changed the subdomain to s.shubhspace.co.cc. You will then be asked to add a CNAME entry for the same.

20080803googlesites01

Login to your DNS service account and add a CNAME entry for s.shubhspace.co.cc [same as above] pointing to ghs.google.com.

20080803googlesites02

Once this step is completed it could take around 24-48 hours for the sub-domain to be accessible [safe assumption – I found it accessible in a couple of hours].

With the subdomain for Google sites for your domain now accessible, login and create a new site.

create a new site

Play around to learn how you can jazz it up with the features provided. Once done with the site designing you may log out. You now need to associate the site with the desired subdomain. Else, as the picture above shows, the sites homepage address would be http://sites.google.com/shubhspace.co.cc/shubhspace duhh WTF !!!

Log back to your Administrator control panel and access the sites link. Click on the Web address mapping link to map the site to a subdomain.

Map domain name

Add the name of the site which you want to map [green] and select the subdomain you wish to map it to [blue].

Map domain

Once done, click on Add mapping [red]. You will then be asked to add a CNAME record pointing mysite.shubhspace.co.cc to ghs.google.com in the DNS records.

20080803googlesites07

Wait for around 24-48 hours and you will find your newly created Google sites accessible as a proper subdomain. Any page on that site will also have the same subdomain as an address like this.

If you have a number of online entities – a blog, a mico-blog, a tumblog, Flickr stream etc, then it would be a cool idea to have a nicely designed Google sites with www.example.com as your homepage and that page it could contain the links and latest updates from all those other sites on it.

The fact that Google intends to develop Google sites as a full fledged platform of online presence can be guaged from the fact that it also allows you to use Google Analytics and Google Webmaster tools with these sites.

Google sites also allows you to choose the path name for a given page, independent of the page title.

Godspeed


Saturday, August 02, 2008

Send your name into space with the Kepler Mission

Kepler mission

Thanks to NASA, you can now send your name into space. The Kepler mission, scheduled to be launched in February 2009 aims to look for planets similar in size to the Earth in areas beyond the solar system and study their characteristics. This is based on the assumption that a planet similar in size to the Earth will have a higher chance of being able to support life than others.

The space-based photometer that is to be launched for this purpose will also carry with it a DVD containing the names of all those who sign up for this campaign.

All names and messages will also be forwarded to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum for archival.

Fill up the form to add your name to the DVD

Wikipedia entry

Once you fill up and submit the form, a download link will be provided to save the certificate as a jpeg file.

Thanks Shikha964 for posting the info on the forum.

Godspeed


Goosh.org: Google CLI-style!!

goosh.org Some things are so freakingly novel, that you don’t give a damn if its practical application is suspect. Goosh.org would be one such site. Goosh emulates the Command Line Interface of a Unix shell for performing searches. The interface is rendered using AJAX. Results are served up from Google, its specialized searches and Wikipedia. For example, typing Hancock will perform a normal Google search for the term. Type in b Hancock and it will perform a blog search for the term and will produce results accordingly. Typing in l Hancock will emulate the ‘I’m feeling lucky’ button in Google. You can also access your Gmail account with Goosh. It allow you to add searching with Goosh in the Firefox browser.

Type in h and then press enter to get the full list of commands that can be used with Goosh.

Godspeed