7.5 The Ordnance Factories
organisation is the largest and oldest departmentally run production
organisation in the country and is primarily engaged in the
manufacture of Defence hardware for the Armed forces. The Ordnance Factories were established with a mandate to ensure self-reliance in manufacturing of Defence hardware- a role that has been successfully
fulfilled over the years by continuous expansion of manufacturing base and upgradation of technology.
7.6 The Ordnance Factories organisation is a fine blend of some old and some state-of-the-art
factories. There are 39 Ordnance Factories, geographically distributed all over the country at 24 different locations. The pre-independence factories had capacities for
production of not only finished stores but also basic and intermediate materials. The factories set up after independence, however, have been outsourcing their requirements from small and medium industries.
7.7 Organisational Structure:The Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) has a Chairman and 9 functional Members.
Out of these, five Members are heading operating divisions and four Members are responsible for Staff functions. The operating divisions, based on the main products or group of products, are:
§ Ammunition and Explosives (A&E)
§ Armoured Vehicles (AV)
§ Materials and Components (M&C)
§ Ordnance Equipment Group of Factories (OEF)
§ Weapons, Vehicles and Equipment (WV&E)
The staff functions are as under:
§ Finance
§ Planning and Material Management
§ Personnel
§ Projects & Engineering and Technical Services.
7.8 In addition, the Government has constituted a Special Board, with representation from the Ministry of Defence, Army and Defence Research & Development Organisation for providing appropriate inputs on resource planning, upgrading technology of products & process and on various other critical issues, necessary for the efficient functioning of OFB.
7.9 Human Resources: Ordnance Factories have a large pool of
qualified and experienced personnel.
Total strength of ordnance factories as on July 2005 was 1,18,643. This includes 31,812 SC/ST employees and 7,665 women employees. There is a sharp focus on enhancing productivity and meeting the challenge of modernisation by re- orienting the existing skills of workmen envisaged through multi- skilling. Ordnance Factories have three-tier structure for addressing the training needs of the personnel.
National Academy of Defence Production (NADP) Nagpur, a premier training institute, caters to
the training need of Group A
officers; 8 Ordnance Factories Institutes of Learning (OF, IOL) take care of the training need of Group B
officers and staff. All the 39 Ordnance Factories have training institutes for training industrial employees and trade apprentices.
7.10 Product Profile: Ordnance Factories continuously upgrade products and the manufacturing technologies, to meet the emerging needs of Defence Forces. The
product range of Ordnance Factories is as under:
Weapon Items - Small Arms (Rifles, Pistols, Carbines, Machine Guns), Tank Guns, Anti-Tank Guns, Field Howitzers, Artillery Guns, Mortars, Air Defence Guns and Rocket
Launchers.
Ammunition Items - Ammunition for all the above weapon systems, Rockets, Missile Warheads, Mortar Bombs, Pyro Technique (Smoke, Illuminating, Signal), Grenades and Bombs for Air force, Naval
ammunition, propellant and fuzes.
Armoured & Transport Vehicles - Tanks, Infantry Combat Vehicles, Armoured Ambulance, Bullet Proof &
Mine Proof Vehicles, Special Transport Vehicles and Variants.
Troop Comfort Items - Parachute for Army & Air Force, high altitude &
combat clothing, tents of various
types, uniforms & clothing items, floats for light assault bridges.
Opto Electronics - Optical
instruments, Opto-electronic devices, fire control instruments for armoured vehicles, infantry and artillery
systems.
Others - Special aluminium alloys for aviation and space industry, field cables.
7.11 Performance: The issues of Ordnance Factories have grown steadily over the years and recorded Rs. 6186.65 crore during 2004-05. In 2005-06, the issues of Ordnance Factories are expected to touch about Rs. 7355 crore.
7.12 Diversification into Civil Trade and Exports: Major thrust is being given to achieve optimum capacity utilization not only by securing additional workload from the Armed Forces but also by making sustained efforts through diversification to non- defence customers and exports.
7.13 Ordnance Factories produce a large variety of chemicals for
industries in the civil sector. They also manufacture a wide range of textiles, leather goods and sporting arms and ammunition for the civil sector. During 2004-2005, items worth Rs 977.82 crore (15.8% of the total issues) were sold to non- defence customers.
T-90 (Bishma)
7.14 Ordnance Factories are making vigorous marketing efforts to boost exports.
These efforts include participation in
International Exhibitions like Latin American Aero Space and Defence Exhibition, Brazil; DESI Exhibition, London;
product promotion through advertisements in the Janes Defence Weekly, Military Technology and interaction with visiting delegations from target countries, agents and customers representatives, both in India and abroad. OFB has been able to retain its foothold in traditional markets like Nepal, Thailand, Malaysia, Germany, Belgium and Botswana. New avenues have opened in countries like Turkey, Swaziland, Switzerland, USA, Chile, Colombia, Surinam and Egypt. Some of the notable products exported during the year are 105 mm LFG ammunition, 84 mm ammunition, Brake parachute for Su 30 and 40 mm gun barrel assembly.
7.15 Highlights: The more important achievements of Ordnance Factories in the current financial year are:
(i) Ordnance Factory Project, Medak (OFPM) OFPM has improved the effectiveness of Mine Protected Vehicle by
mounting Remote Controlled Weapon Station (RCWS).
(ii) Ordnance Factory, Badmal (OFBL) O.F. Badmal has successfully manufactured Cap Conducting Composition (Filled) for Primer Electric 1A. It has also productionised
Detonating Fuze NR-3 for Schilka Ammunition.
(iii) Small Arms Factory, Kanpur (SAF) During Commanders Conference held at Infantry School Mhow, Ordnance Factories had demonstrated indigenously developed products.
(iv) Metal & Steel Factory, Ishapore (MSF) MSF has completed a glorious century of service towards self-reliance of Defence Production on July 11, 2005. State-of-the-art Radial Forging machine was inaugurated at MSF by the Raksha Mantri.
(v) Ordnance Factory, Ambajhari (OFAJ) OFAJ has optimised the aging cycle of 84 mm Cartridge Case that may result in estimated saving of Rs. 1.58 crore during 2005-2006.
(vi) Cost Reduction at Ordnance Factories Process re-
Engineering is practiced in Ordnance Factories on a continual basis to improve Ordnance Factories
have grown steadily over the years and recorded issues worth Rs. 6186.65 crore during 2004- 05. In 2005-06, the issues of Ordnance Factories are
expected to touch about Rs. 7355 crore.
productivity and reduce cost of production.
7.16 Quality Management : Implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) concept has been given a major thrust in all the Ordnance Factories. All the 39 Ordnance Factories have switched over to Quality Management System conforming to ISO-9001: 2000 standards. Information Technology Division at Ordnance Factory Board, National Academy of Defence
Production (NADP), Ambajhari, Nagpur and two hospitals at Kanpur and Ambajhari have also obtained ISO-9000 certification. All the 52 laboratories in 29 Ordnance
Factories are accredited to National Accreditation Board for Laboratories (NABL) and conform to ISO/IEC 17025 new standards. The quality of product in Ordnance Factories is monitored through various mechanisms. These include adherence to pre-determined
process schedule and quality plans, use of Statistical Process Control, Statistical Quality Control techniques, internal quality audits at regular interval and monthly interaction meetings at unit level.
7.17 OFB has introduced three-tier quality audit to assess the
performance of various factories and identify the areas requiring
performance enhancements against predetermined parameters.
7.18 With the intention to move towards self-certification, the
responsibility of vendor development and inspection of input materials has been transferred to OFB from DGQA.
7.19 Self Certification in Ordnance Factories : The introduction of self- certification in Ordnance Factories not only eliminates the need for a third party intervention but also integrates three distinct roles i.e.
responsibility, accountability and authority and, then Ordnance Factories themselves guarantee quality for their products. Presently, self-certification extends to seven fast moving clothing and general store items accounting for about 20% of the turnover of the Ordnance Equipment Group of factories. In addition, nine items each issued to Air Force and Navy are under self- certification.
7.20In-House Research and Development Activities: In-house Research and Development
activities towards product and process improvements are
receiving great thrust in Ordnance Factories. Latest solid modeling techniques and sensitivity
analysis are being used to meet the design needs of defence
stores. Extensive use of CAD/CAM has significantly reduced the time from the stage of
conceptualisation to the development of prototype.
7.21 Modernisation:
Modernisation of infrastructure is a continuous process in Ordnance Factories adopted to update the plants and machinery with the following objectives in view:
§ Technology Upgradation
§ Improved productivity and greater flexibility
§ Improved Quality Standards
§ Reduction in cost
§ Manpower optimisation
§ Minimising response time for changing over of product mix.
7.22 A capital investment of Rs.
1062 crore for procurement of plant and machinery with updated
technology was made during IXth plan period. Further, investment of Rs.875 crore during the Xth plan period upto 2004-05 has been made and investment of Rs.346 crore is planned in 2005-06.
7.23 The Ordnance Factories are open to strategic alliances with major Defence Companies worldwide for co-production and co-development of high technology defence
7.24 Customer satisfaction: Teams from Ordnance Factories regularly visit depots and forward areas to understand the problems being faced by the users, understand their expectations from the product and to attend to customer complaints. Joint teams comprising of officers from OFB and DGQA also visit forward areas to get user feedback with a view to improve quality of products.
User Interaction Meet held once a year has been institutionalized.
7.25 Safety: The safety policy was structured to make safety standards more stringent and to inculcate safety consciousness among
employees specially those working in accident prone and hazardous
areas. The safety manuals and standing instructions are updated to supplement safety policies. A
Disaster Management Plan has been formulated for contingency
measures. Safety is paramount in the factories engaged in manufacturing and filling of explosives. A detailed drill and stipulations are in place to ensure a safe working environment.
Safety committees functioning at factory, regional and corporate levels carry out safety audits of various factories on monthly, six monthly and yearly basis. The Regional
Controllers of Safety and Controller of Safety closely monitor
implementation of corrective actions on the deviations observed during these audit.
A capital investment of Rs. 1062 crore for procurement of plant and machinery with updated technology was made for
Ordnance Factories in IXth plan. Further, investment of Rs.875 crore during the Xth plan period upto 2004-05 has been made and
investment of Rs.346 crore is planned in 2005-06.