Tuesday, May 22, 2007

LTA Part VII - Jugads

In our 6th Semester, we had a manufacturing processes project involving all processes involved in manufacturing a basic tool. Unfortunately, even if one wanted to do something, there were some internal problems always in workshops. We faced the same thing. Chunnu, Thakur and me were together and decided to make a Screw Jack (the one used in heavy vehicles – trucks, jeeps and all). The steps involved making a pattern - outer structure of wood and then use it to cast a metal structure out of it and so on.. (I won’t get into the details).


There was a lot of wood rotting away in the workshop but to get a small amount of it we had to get forms sign from n places, plead to workshop people who had their own inside politics on who owned the wood. None wanted the responsibility. At last we went to the market and bought wood on our at a pocket burning Rs 600 for a small quantity. We brought it back to the workshops and started making a pattern of the screw jack out of it. After successfully doing it, again the struggle started to get the molten iron and other things to cast the jack into a metallic form. After weeks of this struggle, few days before the evaluation, we decided we had enough. We stopped “Engineering” and started the process of “Reverse Engineering”. A ready made Screw Jack was bought (at 1/3rd the price of the wood!!). By roaming a whole day in the industrial area, we found out some private workshop. We asked the person to machine it and remove the paint on it and do the machining like some naïve person has done it – you know a bit scratch here and there, roughness and irregular cuttings made by the tool etc. In the meantime we worked upon the things we had to say in the viva so that we all have the same version and not bungle up. The machinist had done a good job – literally so we had to roughen up it a bit more in our workshop. At the end what we had was quite exclusive. The wooden pattern which we had reached from normal engineering processes, the screw jack which we had reached through what we called reverse engineering and a story to tell the prof how we had made it. (Though I believe the prof would have known that it was readymade. That kind of stuff was impossible to produce in the age old workshops of the college). But There was a lot of hard work involved in our project, roaming whole days to find wood from some furniture shop, finding shops to get a screw jack and searching for workshops in the industrial area (which we realized is 1 hell of a big place with hundreds of small units). I guess the college was the place where more than fundas of Mech Engineering we learnt how to do jugads… Well, ‘I Guess’ would be the wrong choice of words. If I also consider how we did our Major Project (and in fact a lot of other projects and assignments), I can say for sure that we did learn to do Jugads in college. And if you think Jugad is a negative word, a bad thing – May be you are wrong. It is another way of saying “Nothing is Impossible”. It's a word signifying that there are many ways to reach your destination. You need not take the normal, regular one everytime. ;)


7 comments:

Cuckoo said...

Enjoyed reading this post and agree with you.

You don't have to take a normal path to reach the destination.
Raaste alag ho chaahe, Manzil to ek hai.

Amey said...

Sirji, project mein bhi jugad?

We used to finish our projects in "sincere" fashion, though regular practicals were full of jugad. So were practical timings, for that mater, if you know what I mean ;)

SiD said...

@cuckoo: Thanks..
To add to what you said, enjoying the path is also important... and moreover, you need to give your full energy on whatever path you are on..
i guess i am trying to justify the shorcuts we took to make projects :)

@fleiger: you haven't heard my Major Project Tale.. guess after being placed in a Software company at start of 4th year also had a role to play in the non seriousness abt core subjects!!

practical timings????

NehaPandey said...

Hi,
Good one again. Final sem projects have always been an issue.
I did my final sem proj in BMC pune and at the end of which but obvious company did not give the source code as it was a go live system for them. And ofcoz our director didnt agree to take submision without source code as it was final sem proj.
Finally, ended up getting a GOOD NICE proj with full source code and documentation and no knowledge few days back before submission.
Ofcoz it was a fundoo proj - too fundoo to ammend code - working s/w isnt tht easy to make simple - n viva supervisor realized its fake. All in all it didnt matter till now - good degree, good job, lotsa smile, n good marks as well !! :) prof had his share of smiles tooo .. it was indeed a proj to be appreciated!!

SiD said...

@Neha: Nice One :)
well realtively easier for comp sci people to jugado the projects... just google it..
we guys had to sweat it out for it... :)

Amey said...

Well, of course placement does something to people ;) I for one was working alone on a project, so had to see it to finish "properly". It being a fun project didn't hurt either.

Practical timings: it was a rare practical (in our department of course) which was done in official practical time, and rarer still which took us whole of the hour. ;)

SiD said...

@fleiger: there were only 2 cases for us.. either meet at prac lab(and wait max 5 minutes for teacher) or meet at parking - to pick up your vehicle to go home/hostel/cricket grnd