BUIlDINGS & FACTORIES IC
C Prasad,
Head – Formwork Competence Cell, B&F IC
“At the start of any project, it is imperative for the key project team to sit with the Formwork and Construction Method Planning Cell (CMPC) teams to discuss, decide and agree upon the construction strategy that will eliminate a lot of the issues and delays that we are facing across projects,” advises C Prasad, Head – Formwork Competency Cell, stationed at the Chennai HQ. One can understand his concern as he has the advantage of having seen the situation from another angle having headed CMPC till 2009. Thereafter, he headed the Formwork Research Centre till 2015 before taking up his current responsibility.
“We have to deal with the complexity of elements, floating workmen and the many design changes that customers make but the trick is to still succeed,” he laughs. The several initiatives to improve efficiency that Prasad and his team have put in play shows that they have mastered the trick. “We indigenously developed and implemented the Gallow ACS system, for the first time in the history of Indian construction at the ICC Towers project to optimise resource requirement and achieved a continuous cycle time of just 6 days. We have successfully worked at heights of up to 280 m with the Safety Screen system we introduced to protect perimeters with an automatic climbing system that improved both labour productivity as workmen felt safe even at great heights. Our unique Travelling Formwork system using existing material for service galleries, retaining walls and tunnels has been a hit.”
Prasad’s grasp of his subject is obvious as he holds forth on two more formwork initiatives they have deployed. “The Large Area Table formwork system is used the world over for the flat slab format whereas in India we use the slab & beam combination in structural design, so we successfully modified the LAT system to suit our specific requirements,” he smiles “We also designed the Column Hung system to create large tables without vertical supports like the slab shoring formwork system that was perfect for multi-use horizontal plate areas or high-rise buildings with regular floor plans and bay sizes with large spans between columns. It avoided the need to re-prop too.” Prasad shares that BIM “has transformed our construction methodologies and formwork schemes for special ‘I’ structures while the Constzon platform has vastly improved formwork material management.”
Prasad’s connection with infrastructure continues at home too as his wife, A Savathri Devi is a DGM with NHAI. Prasad loves to play chess and watch TV and of course, spend quality time with his wife and children, son, Vignesh and daughter, Varsha.
He seeks greater management support for R&D “to create more innovative solutions, more resources and exposure to new technologies and learning and a process and systems driven environment.”
J Raveendran,
Head – P&M, (CB&A), B&F IC
A key to the continued success of any organization, according to J Raveendran (JR), Head – P&M, is to enhance the sense of ownership at all levels “to drive results as a team. Secondly, it is important to set goals with the required authority and accountability.” Presently driving P&M Life Cycle management and digitalization, JR has tasted success by setting up the P&M Central Monitoring Cell to, as he shares, “ensure 100% digital implementation, continuously track data derived from IoT and analyse it to improve overall P&M performance. All the involved stakeholders connect every week to crunch the data to optimise performance and this initiative has already yielded us cost savings to the tune of INR 10 Crores by improving P&M productivity at sites, demobilizing hired equipment, reducing fuel and energy consumption.” JR is understandably exultant but realizes that these are only the first steps in a long journey.
Beginning his own journey with L&T as a Senior Engineer P&M, JR has since crossed several personal milestones across various projects, holding various positions. Returning to his favourite subject, he says, “P&M erection and dismantling is a high-risk job requiring in-depth equipment knowledge and considering its safety and criticality, we have established Technical Service Centres at major clusters with hand-picked, P&M experts who undergo regular training on safety and methodology, to ensure ZERO deviations.” He adds that during the current FY, the team has safely and successfully executed 1400+ critical activities. One of his issues has been the lack of competency in front line supervisors for which a structured ‘Competency Development Programme’ has been rolled out “with measurable metrics to evaluate improvement,” informs JR, “and it is helping FLPs to deliver better.”
His digital drive has earned him a slew of awards including the Innovative Digital Solution Award (from across L&T Construction) for the SMART Meter solution, the Process Improvement (PI) Award (from across L&T Group) and the Innovative Digital Solution Award (within B&F) both for P&M CMC.
JR mentions that 100% migration to LED floods lights in place of halogen and sodium vapour lights have brought in almost 66% savings on electrical costs and improvement in carbon footprint and concrete sharing zones set up at Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Lucknow have optimized the deployment of batching plants and transit mixers with huge savings. “Our QMS complying to ISO 9001:2015 standard continuously improve our processes and operational efficiency and our preventive and reliability centred P&M maintenance is bearing fruit.”
From Salem, Tamil Nadu, JR’s better half, R Vijayalakshmi, is a homemaker and their daughter, R Rakshika is studying M Sc (Research). The Statue of Unity project was a memorable one for many as also for JR who recalls the push and pressure of the final days to delivery.
V Swaminathan,
DGM – Strategy & Planning, B&F IC
“I have completed almost 24 years in this esteemed organisation and have enjoyed my job rotation across business functions, the various roles I have played and responsibilities I have shouldered over all these years,” beams a proud V Swaminathan (VSy) who in his present role with B&F’s Corporate Centre is seeking ways to reduce bulk material wastage of aggregates, concrete and reinforcement steel.
“I enjoy knowledge sharing, being a faculty support for various training & development initiatives on planning skills to groom planning and project engineers and play a key role to develop Business Intelligence (BI) dash boards on inventory management, conduct monthly CSR unit rate analysis and on site JCR & risk reviews,” he shares. “I developed an e-leaning module on ‘Accepted Cost Estimate’ for Planning Engineers and within a short span of time, 350 of them have successfully completed the course.”
VSy fondly recalls his first assignment as Planning Engineer at the RCL project site where he was instrumental in timely completion with high profit margin. At the DHDS – HPCL project, he received a merit certificate from KV (ex MD, L&T) for timely completion and thereafter his tenure has been a kaleidoscope of many projects and demanding roles. At the PPN power plant, he received the ‘Best Project Award’ from (Ex DMD, L&T). “My journey continued at CPCL, TPL and Indoor Stadia at Doha, Qatar.” Later VSy headed the ‘Mauritius Cell’ at HQ for the Swami Vivekananda Exhibition Centre in Mauritius, funded by the Indian Govt – EXIM Bank and monitored by an Apex Committee. “A highly challenging contract, it was signed with the inauguration date fixed for opening and 100% mobilisation of resources from India. It was a great opportunity to be empowered to take decisions with direct interaction with the top management MVS & VBG Sir. My efforts were well appreciated internally and by the Client for timely completion with high margin.”
Later, as a QA/QC Manager – B&F, he played a lead role to secure the ISO 9001 certification. “Subsequently, I helped identify 46 best practices across projects from ECCD, for L&T’s first corporate sustainability report. I cherish my role as a Contracts Manager at CBA too where we secured several prestigious projects including Gift City, CTS – Bantala, Apollo OMR, etc.” As Lead – Technical in Internal Controls Audit department, he implemented various control measures in cost and time management that have enhanced profit margins.
VSy emphasizes that “we need a robust mechanism for cost monitoring and control to groom engineers on digital and operational efficiency initiatives for effective project management with motivation and encouragement from the top management to implement innovative ideas.”
“My native place is Sirkazhi,” he shares, “my wife, Meenakshi, is a computer professional but presently a homemaker and we are blessed with a son and daughter, Srinivasan and Shriranchini. My hobbies are playing cricket and playing and chanting veda parayanam.”
S Lakshmi Narayanan,
Senior Manager – P&M, B&F IC
A highpoint in S Lakshmi Narayanan (SLN)’s career was being part of the team that recently 3D printed a single story, 240 sq. ft building for the first time in India in 40 hours at the Kanchipuram depot. “We have developed innovative ideas to 3D print concrete with rebar with plans to deploy this technology at projects to multiply productivity,” he says excitedly. “We are pioneers in embracing new technology and the huge quantum of data streaming in through our digital initiatives are helping us take faster and more effective decisions.”
Starting off as a P&M trainee at the Khandala-Lonavala Bypass project, SLN has had the opportunity to work on the Aurangabad Partur OFC project, Satara-Kohlapur road project, the APDRP Rural Electrification project in Indore, Madhya Pradesh and the Infotech Project, at Mahape Mumbai. After stints at the Mumbai RO as Cluster P&M Co-ordinator and in M V Satish’s office as Executive Assistant, SLN now handles P&M and Automation. “One of my goals is P&M digitalization,” and promptly seizes the chance to share some of his ‘digital’ triumphs.“At B&F, we have digitized 1,800+ assets that are constantly streaming us valuable data to enhance productivity and reduce idle time.” Smart energy metres are tracking energy consumption and power that “has helped us optimise electrical energy cost by timely surrendering the EB contract demand. Our savings are in the region of INR 2 Crores in this financial year.”
He reels off several other digital solutions deployed including ‘Asset Insight,’ IoT Alchemy, Power BI dashboards to track P&M performance, EDMS, iB4U and WISA. “I am currently heading the P&M Central Monitoring Cell (CMC) that is closely tracking DG sets utilisation to reduce the deployment of DG sets at sites to the extent of 7,000 KVA. This has not only saved us fuel costs to the tune of INR 2.5 Crores but has also hugely reduced the carbon footprint – a big plus to sustain our environment,” he quips.
Apart from the pride of having worked in MVS’s office, SLN has other moments to cherish like receiving the Silver Medal (for Management Education Program through IIM – Ahmedabad) from KV, erstwhile CEO & MD, L&T and an award from Anantha Sayana, Chief Digital Officer, for digitalising 10,000+ Assets across L&T Construction. “Of course, the birth of my son, Shravan Narayan, was a great moment on my personal front,” he adds with a smile. His wife, Nivetha Sridhar is a software programmer with WIPRO Technologies.
SLN wishes, “I would like to create a dedicated centre for technology incubation, where youngsters can pursue their innovations/new ideas related to construction, prototype them under the guidance of mentors and suitably scale them up.”
Ankit Mahajan,
Manager – Planning, B&F IC
The orderliness of Ankit Mahajan, Planning In-charge at the NATRAX project at Pithampur, Indore, Madya Pradesh, is so handy as he and his project team build a high speed track that will be Asia’s largest proving ground spread over some 3,000 acres. “Our organization has excellent systems and my efforts are to keep them intact. If we succeed in that, it will automatically take care of our efficiency,” he says, with a positive air around him. He then reels off his list of time-bound activities: timely submission of the client’s bill by the last week of the month; complete all reconciliations by the 10th of every month; JCR preparation by the 25th of every month; preparation of construction schedules on a month basis that are to be reviewed daily against asking rates.
“One thing I have observed over time is that since there are so many levels of hierarchy at site, there are instances when client requirements and management instructions do not effectively reach down to the last person and vice versa,” observes Ankit, “so my efforts are to communicate regularly at all levels with transparency on risks involved, financial implications, timeliness as per the client’s requirement, minutes discussed at meetings, specific technical requirement for any particular activity and so on.” He is full of praise for his 3-member team of Shweta, Vishalendra and Mandeep. “I have clearly earmarked their individual roles because I believe people are more productive when their roles are well defined.” A big fan of L&T’s EIP systems, Ankit yet seeks “less documentation and more userfriendly interfaces and although I understand that for such a big organization likes ours there will be certain protocols for approval, I still hope the time taken for these system protocols were leaner and faster!”
A native of Jalandhar, Punjab, Ankit loves to cook with his better half, Kartika who according to him is a “wonderful home maker who supports me in every way to attain my professional and personal requirements.” The joy of his life is his daughter, Anishka; “I love to see my daughter grow and I just find her so adorable,” he shares with obvious thrill.
“These days there is a lot of emphasis on mechanising activities and it’s amazing the extent of efforts we are putting in for them,” he shares, “and although not all our efforts are fruitful, the positive attitude of our management to any new proposal is praise worthy!”
