My aerospace exposure three decades ago

I started with Aerospace and intend to make Aerospace my focus again after 35 years. I joined Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station way back in 1969. I was interviewed by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and given an opportunity to work in his division, the Range Engineering Division.

I worked directly under V Sudhakar. Sudhakar amazed me with his ability to visualize characteristics of whatever he designed through graphic linkages and correlations. He was a master trouble shooter who can think in a wide range of technology frameworks and derive relationships between parameters from first principles in a jiffy.

Madhavan Nair was our Electronics leader. Sudhakar (Mechanical) and Madhavan Nair (Electronics) worked closely together with so much understanding and mutual respect. This behaviour influenced me in my own future relationships with colleagues from another subject domain.

At TERLS we built and integrated Sounding Rocket Payloads. We also tested them in various environmental conditions.

The infrastructure at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center at Trivandrum was excellent. Whatever the technology / test facility one needed seemed to be there. We used light weight alloys of Aluminum, and Magnesium, as well as composites in our structural parts. We also built aerospace mechanisms to eject a nose cone or separate a payload.

I have spent days experimenting with the vacuum chamber, spin table, shock table, vibration testing facility. I used pyrotechnic devices, gas bottles, hydrogen balloons and parachutes. It was fun dabbling with such variety.

My colleagues and I had the habit of walking around with a notepad, two carbon papers, a scale and ball point pen. The pace of most projects was such that we had no time to get a formal drawing made. We made up the part geometry and dimensions on the go, made out the sketches and issued job orders. We also spent a lot of time in the model shop observing the way our parts took shape. This gave us a great ability to appreciate the manufacturing process constraints and capabilities. It also helped us to understand dimensional tolerancing much better.

Outsourcing

For the past few years India has been the focus of outsourcing. Much of the current outsourcing to India has been related to services - Software, Business process, CAD/CAE, GIS etc. Manufacturing related outsourcing has gone to China to a very large extent. However, India is a good destination for manufacturing outsourcing too. I have been associated with companies that manufactured electronics and electro-mechanical products in volumes of the order of 100,000 per annum. It is my conviction that manufacturing in this volume range or lower is certainly a area where India will not be behind China.

While low labor cost is often a consideration for manufacturing, India can contribute through a higher level of technical sophistication. Traditionally manufacturing has been successful in India to cater to the local market. Export oriented manufacturing has come under focus in the last 10 years. Thanks to a decade of Japanese collaborations, the quality systems related awareness and learning preceded the export orientation.

To a new international company based in US or Europe, looking for outsourcing partners in India, there can be many problems. The biggest difficulty may be in the cultural differences. On time delivery, acceptance criteria, payment terms are often areas where the customer has to be clear and understand the local points of view.

I invite comments from readers on their experiences of successful deals or disappointment.