“We are among leading Surface Condenser suppliers. How dare they could say that our designs are inferior?” yelled Mr. Desai, our Design head. The latest demand by one international customer asking for an improved Condenser design with around 50% lower pressure drop than our existing design was enough to cause stir. “This is the current requirement in international market. Customer signaled to improve our design to meet his requirement and take the order.” clarified Mr. Das, our Marketing head. After becoming segment leader in domestic market, this was our biggest opportunity to gain foothold into international market.
“Let us give them what they want. Mr. Desai, I want you to check our design and find out a way to improve it to meet specifications. Form a team of experts from various departments and come out with the solution” Mr. Mehta, our business head declared.
A multidisciplinary team was formed including experts from design, R&D, manufacturing, quality and marketing. Everyone was thinking how on the Earth can we improve an already refined design? Brainstorming session was conducted to arrive at some way forward, but without any avail. “This is going nowhere. We need to do fluid flow analysis and find out exact areas causing higher pressure drop along steam flow path.” suggested one of our experienced R&D veterans. Everybody liked this suggestion. R&D team carried out fluid flow analysis and found that indeed, there were few areas along the steam flow path which were contributing the most to the pressure drop. In these areas, the structural parts used for internal support and some functional components were obstructing the flow.
Despite knowing exact root cause, our progress had again hit a roadblock. The reason being, those structural components were essential parts of the equipment. “How can we reduce the blockage in the steam path without compromising the strength of structure and function?” a junior design engineer phrased everybody’s concern.
Few days went by and suddenly, one day morning, our Design head called for an urgent meeting. He was looking very excited. “Today morning, I was working in my garden thinking about our peculiar problem. I saw a honeybee hive and it occurred to me that this could be solution to our problem” Mr. Desai told enthusiastically. “I cannot think of any relation between honeybee hive and our Condenser”, Mr. Das echoed exact thought in everybody’s mind. “Relation is there. The hive has a unique character allowing maximum space for bees and yet it’s strong enough. Don’t we want the same in our Condenser?” Mr. Desai explained.
This was an excellent idea and was discussed in depth by team for its merits and demerits and fine-tuned based on the suggestions from manufacturing experts. Design team came out with the modified design of internals for target areas. R&D team carried out fluid flow and structural evaluations.
Results were astonishing. The pressure drop in the steam flow path reduced by around 90% as against targeted 50% compared to the earlier design, at the same time providing better structural integrity. Our international customer analyzed and accepted the modified proposal and we bagged the prestigious order. This development placed us among very few suppliers worldwide, who have capability to provide such designs. It was decided to use modified design in all future Condenser orders.
Lessons Learned
- There is always scope for optimization in products but it needs out of the box approach
- Look at the Nature for solution to complex problems
- Collaboration required between multidisciplinary teams to come out with the innovative solutions