A senior SAIL official said the heterogenity of machinery and equipment at the Bhilai, Bokaro, Rourkela and Durgapur plants set up under Soviet, German and British collaborations had resulted in the use of diverse materials, high costs per unit and longer lead time of procurement. Standardisation will negate these effects to a great extent and reduce costs.

SAIL's steel plants have formulated their own inhouse standards. Its collaborators are the Tata Iron & Steel Company, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd and consultants Mecon and DasturCo who will also benefit from the standardisation.

One of the most tangible benefits accruing from standardisation will be "variety reduction". This will help to reduce inventory and consequently capital investment in inventory and storage. For example, wire ropes for cranes are bulk purchase items required byshopfloors in every steel plant. A limited number of sizes and types are selected from a wide spectrum laid down according to Indian standards. Standardisation helps in inventory control and ensures bulk purchase at a competitive price by limiting the choice set.

Standardisation is also extended to design, operation, maintenance, material management, packaging and safety. Standardisation of lubricants such as oil film bearing oil, antiwear hydraulic oil and multi-purpose grease has led to an annual average saving of Rs 2.65 crore at Bokaro and Rs 86.6 lakh at the Durgapur steel plant.

Efforts to standardise other items such as electric motors, wire ropes, sinter plant pallets and carbon brushes for motors will help SAIL save Rs 5.8 crore a year. The benefits obtained by all the 250-and-odd subjects for which standards exist would add up to a minimum of Rs 80 crore, the official said.

According to him, standards are also being set for packaging of products such as sheets, plates, coils and merchant millitems. Attempts are being made to ensure that the products reach the customer in absolutely damage-free condition.

The freight capacities of rail wagons and trucks are being reduced to the minimum by designing the system in a manner that will ensure easy handling in the shortest possible time. The recent formulation of two standards on high density polyethylene (HDPE) bags and sheets used for coke oven by products and finished flat products respectively has the potential of saving around Rs 62 lakh per annum.

SAIL's current maintenance cost is around Rs 2,900 crore per annum. Even a modest one per cent saving by streamlining practices in line with the existing standards would help to save Rs 29 crore.