HOW STANDARDISATION AFFECTS

Electrocomponent Science and Technology 1979, Vol. 6, pp. 31-360305-3091/79/0601-0031 $04.50/0

(C) 1979 Gordon and Breach Science Publishers, Inc.Printed in Great Britain

HOW INTERNATIONAL COMPONENT STANDARDISATIONAFFECTS SPECIFICATION AND DESIGN WORK IN INDIA

AMIT P. GOSWAMI

Resistors & Capacitors Divn; Electronics Corporation ofIndia Ltd., Hyderabad 500762, INDIA.f

The specification systems available to the Indian component manufacturers are discussed and the influence thesehave on the markets are examined. Quality control methods used to meet specifications are noted.

The influence of the Indian Government’s pricing policy on the encouragement of indigenous production ofcomponents has an important effect, particularly with regard to the export and import of components. Thedifferences that exist between component groups are outlined and it is shown that there are still important areaswhere overseas collaboration is encouraged.

1 INTRODUCTION

The rapid growth of the electronics industry in Indiahas stemmed from the philosophy of self reliance.The setting up of the Department of Electronics andthe Electronics Commission has resulted inchannelling the development activities in variousresearch institutes into studying commercially viableelectronic products. The production of electronicgoods in the country has increased from Rs 1800million ($240 million) in 1971-72, to Rs 4110million ($541 million) in 1976, and has maintained asteady growth. This also includes exports of $36million to the international market The productionfigures when projected against the world market(Figure 1), show the Indian contributions to be small;but they seem respectable when compared withproduction from some individual countries withinWestern Europe. A special feature of the expansionof the electronics industry in India is a larger growthin the professional market which now has an internalshare of 75% as against 40% a decade ago. Recentdevelopments such as launching of the first Indiansatellite, large scale control instrumentation forprocess controls, power generation and steel plants,developments of sophisticated medical and analyticaltools, computers, etc., bear distinct testimony to themovement towards self reliance and the high degreeof technology achieved in a short period.

The component industries too have not laggedbehind in their efforts towards meeting the aspirationsof the electronic designers and creating confidence in

fpaper written whilst on leave of absence toDepartment of Electronic & Electrical EngineeringUniversity of Technology; Loughborough (UK)

the use of indigenous components. Today, indigenoustechnologies have been developed for manufacturingmetal and carbon film, wirewound resistors; carbontrack and cermet potentiometers; tantalum andaluminium electrolytic, metallised polyester and

ACTUAL. P’IqURF..

70,000_

0000-

50,000-

40, 000-

30,oo0

Z ?..0000_.J

10,000

600_

400

ZOO

Wc’ST [URO,/’

7Z 73 75 7& 7

FIGURE

YEAR

Production of electronic goods.

31

32 A.P. GOSWAMI

ceramic capacitors; Ni-Cd re-chargable batteries;various types of transistors and diodes; relays andconnectors; ferrites etc. Small turnovers have alsobeen achieved in thick film networks and hybrids,some types of I.C’s, electronic grade ceramic sub-strates etc. These have been possible through fruitfulresearches at the Bhaba Atomic Research Centre,Electronics Corporation of India Ltd., BharatElectronics Ltd., Central Electronics Ltd., thedifferent laboratories of the Council of Scientific andIndustrial Research and several leading universities inthe country.

In many instances collaborations with manufac-turers from abroad have been allowed although thishas been played on a low key. Foreign collaborationshave been permitted in those areas requiring a farhigher degree of sophistication than can beimmediately achieved through indigenous technology,when it is essential for the growth of the electronicsindustry. Collaboration has also been encouraged tobridge the gap between indigenous production capaci-ties and internal demands. However, permission forcollaboration would depend primarily on the needs ofthe country, ability to export and earn foreignexchange and also on the condition that sales withinthe country must not seriously affect the existingmanufacturers2 Figure 2 summarises the present

INDIGENOUS FOREIGNCOMPONENTS TECHNOLOGY COLLABORATION

(A) Resistors:

(a) Carbon film(b) Metal film(c) Wire wound(d) Metal Oxide

(B} Potent iometers"

(a) Carbon track(b) WI wound(c) Cermet

(C) Capacitors:(a) Alumlnium electrolytic(b) Tantalum(c) Metalllsed polyester(d) Ceramic

(D) Ni-Cd Batteries

(E) Connectors

(F) Relays and switches

(G) Soft ferrite

(H) Transistors (limited variety)

(i) DiodesJ) Integrated circuits(k) Hybrids

///////,

Ix ,//i//

///// indicates nature of know-how

Source: Reference (2) and (3)

FIGURE 2 Production of some important electroniccomponents in India.

situation, and shows the components that areproduced indigenously and/or with foreigncollaboration.

2 STANDARDS

There are two independent standards organisations inIndia who have drafted specifications for all electroniccomponents. These have been based on internationalstandards such as MIL, BS, DEF and IEC. Combina-tion of these international specifications have resultedin tight and respectable national specificationstandards.

(a) The Indian Standards Institute has drafted theIndian Standards (IS), which covers all componentsused in the consumer, professional and defencemarkets. Unfortunately, at present, this organisationhas no component testing facilities to award approvalcertificates.

(b) The Electronic Components StandardsOrganisation (LCSO) was established to monitor thequality of the components used in defence. Thisorganisation provided a yardstick for assessing thequalities through the Joint Services Specifications(J.S.S. defence), which are again based on inter-national military standards. The J.S.S. is basically theIndian military specifications. Interestingly bothJ.S.S., and Indian Standards for military requirementsare similar. Table shows as an example the typicaltests used in J.S.S., for fixed resistors.

The LCSO has testing facilities in Bangalore andaccords "Qualification Approval" certificates that arevalid for a period of three years. During this timethere should be no major change either in the manu-facturing process or raw materials. Any such changesmust be reported to LCSO for re-evaluation of theproduct. Reports of serious deviation from establishedqualities could lead to nullification of the approval.

Under these circumstances, established manufac-turers prefer to obtain a LCSO approval as this wouldmean that the component.should easily meet therequirements of other less critical markets. Thus inIndia the term "approval" is often loosely referred to"military approval" (J.S.S.).

Not all component manufacturers have been ableto obtain the "Qualification Approval" from LCSO.Only the larger companies and organisations withindigenous know-how and companies with foreigncollaboration agreements have been successful in thisattempt. The larger companies have succeeded in thisventure through in-house research and development.Consequently the production of approved compo-

COMPONENT STANDARDISATION 33

TABLEQualification/Approval Tests for Fixed Resistors (as perJSS 50401)

Group Title of Tests

Visual ExaminationDimensions (outline)WeightResistanceVoltage Proof (one minute)Insulation Resistance

Dimensions (detail) and MaterialsSolderabilityRobustness of TerminationsImpact (bump)VibrationImpact (shock)Acceleration (steady state)Temperature CyclingClimatic

Damp Heat (steady state)

Life (electrical)Flammability

OverloadMould Growth

Resistance to Soldering HeatResistance to Solvents

Voltage CoefficientTemperature Characteristic of ResistanceTemperature RiseCorrosive Atmosphere (salt mist)

nents is at present restricted to limited sources. Inorder to generate greater availability of these com-ponents, technical collaborations from abroad arebeing seriously considered on the lines mentionedearlier2 ,a. Import of components availableindigenously is discouraged, although some relaxationis made with respect to specific qualities and require-ments. Today, within the country, "QualificationApproval" has been accorded to carbon, metal filmand wirewound resistors, some categories of poten-tiometers and trimmers, tantalum electrolytic,metallised polyester and ceramic capacitors, limitedvarieties of active devices, relays, connectors etc.

a) Entertainment/Consumer. This sectorproduces a fourth of the total production of elec-tronic goods in the country. In general, approvals areagreed between the manufacturers and customer,although in certain cases manufacturers are producingto entertainment grade specifications published out-side India, (e.g. IEC). The indigenous componentmanufacturers have been able to meet the demandsadequately.

b) Industrial/Professional. This embraces a widerange of products from simple measuring instrumentsto sophisticated controls and computer systems.Designers in this category are very conscious of thequality of components used in the circuit. Standard-isation of components have helped them to assess theperformance of indigenous products, and wheresuitable these have replaced the imported varieties.The use of approved components being made to fulfilthe desired specifications gives extra confidence tothe user to believe that a better performance will beobtained from the instrument. Designers have alsorealised that indigenous components, approved byLCSO, can adequately meet the needs for instrumentsmeant for export, which are made to internationalspecifications. To limit the manufacturing cost of theinstrument due to the slightly higher prices ofapproved indigenous components, the designer selectscomponents according to needs and instrument speci-fications. Where the requirements are critical onlyapproved components are used.

c) Defence. All defence equipment must usecomponents approved by the LCSO. These could befrom indigenous sources or imported. Already asubstantial number of the requirements are being metby approved indigenous components.

d) Aerospace. This industry has developed onlyrecently and demands not only approved components,but established reliability. Although no indigenousmanufacturer has publicly disclosed the reliabilityfigures for their products, it is learnt that calculationsfor this data is now in progress4. The aerospaceindustry strongly favours the use of approved indige-nous components should the reliability data beavailable. At present all "HI-REL" components arebeing liberally imported into the country.

4 QUALITY CONTROL METHODS

3 MARKETS

As in other western countries and in Japan, theIndian market for components consists of four majorcategories outlined below.

Quality control (QC) plays the most significant rolein monitoring and maintaining standards of compo-nents. Although QC checks are done both by users andmanufacturers of components, it is worthwhile tohighlight the latter’s approach. All leading approved

34 A.P. GOSWAMI

component manufacturers have their own QC depart-ments adequately equipped to carry out the necessarytests, and in most cases this department is indepen-dent of production4 The mulifunctional roles of theQC departments are.

iii)

i) Inward inspection of all raw materialsii) Inspection of all outgoing components as

per J.S.S.Long term evaluation of component param-eters"On Line" inspection at various processingstages

v) Training of shop personnel in qualityawareness

The concepts of statistical sampling techniques havebeen in vogue for many years. These are used bothfor inward as well as outward goods inspection.

Since manufacturers believe that raw materials, toa major extent, determine the quality of the compo-nent, very stringent and tight inspections are carriedout during inward inspections with AQL’s based onexperience and process needs.

All outgoing components are subjected to QCtests for conformity to J.S.S. specifications. Accep-tance levels for AQL’s vary according to needs andfaults can be classified as critical, major or minor Inthe case of major defects (for resistors these would bedimensions, insulation resistance and noise), AQL’s of< 1% for 95% level are used, and for minor defects(which for resistors would be TCR, electrical life upto 168 hrs, solderability, etc.), a level of 4% is normal.Critical defects are not usually defined by Indianmanufacturers, but 100% checking for value, which isoften classified as a critical defect, is a commonpractice and this is followed by the use of AQL’s of<1% at the final inspection stage.

Some processing areas have manual operations and100% inspection becomes necessary, until as suchtime as the operators develop sufficient skill andquality awareness to introduce sampling.

Training of shop personnel in quality awareness isa major policy of reputed Indian manufacturers. Thisis essential in the Indian environment where a largesemi-literate/literate labour force is employed in thecomponent industry. This becomes even moreimportant in areas where manual operations arepredominant. To improve efficiency and quality forthese lines, besides skill, it is necessary to motivateworkers towards quality and cost consciousness. Thishas been found to be very effective through lecturesand discussions at "shop-floor" levels.

Although short term tests are normally conducted

for outgoing products, destructive and long termtests are done on samples selected from regularperiods of production. Most manufacturers adoptidentification codes which make it easy to locatedefects during processing. However, to ensure thevalidity of all parameters, manufacturers undertake"Batch Acceptance Tests" as given in J.S.S. Sincethese tests are cumbersome and time consuming, asurcharge is generally levied over the normal price ofthe component for those that have been throughthese tests. Some component manufacturers alsocarry out special tests on request from customers,although these may not have any relevance to thenormal specifications.

Reliability data on indigenous components are notavailable, but manufacturers undertake special screen-ing techniques like "burn in", "thermal shocks", andother tests based on international specifications toweed out defective components and hopefully give alonger useful life to the component4.

On line stage inspections at critical processingareas are common to ensure both quality and yields.AQL’s at these stages depend on processing param-eters to meet the desired specifications.

Statistical Quality Control (SQC) techniques havebeen recently introduced by most reputed componentmanufacturers. Because of process secrecy, not muchinformation is available on this subject, althoughmanufacturers agree that incorporation of such tech-niques have helped immensely in improving qualityand process yields6-a The Indian StatisticalInstitute has opened several SQC centres to rtelpmanufacturers. These units coupled with R & Dactivities, have been mainly responsible for improve-ments in the quality and manufacturing process ofindigenous components.

Vendor rating has been another recent adoptionby manufacturers and their customers to ensureoptimum satisfaction in terms of quality, cost anddelivery.

5 PRICING POLICY AND EXPORT

As mentioned earlier, import of components availableindigenously is always discouraged and constraints onimports are effected through heavy import dutieswhich may range from 40 to 130% over the actualcosts. These strictures have been levied to encouragethe growth and use of indigenous products. Conse-quently the "landed" price of imported componentsis normally higher than the indigenous product. How-ever, indigenous manufacturers have tried as far as

COMPONENT STANDARDISATION 35

possible to maintain the selling costs dose to theinternational market prices. Because of high costs ofcertain essential raw materials and most manufactur-ing machinery that has to be imported into thecountry, the average production costs of componentswithin the country is higher than those of reputedmanufacturers abroad. In this context one must alsoadmit, with some reservations, that with indigenoustechnologies the process yields are not alwaysoptimum. Mass production by automation is thenormal practice for reducing costs, but this has beenfound to be useful only in those areas where theprocess technology has been proved perfect. As aresult, complete automation has been possible in onlylimited areas of manufacturing. Also the high costs ofimported machines do not always increase profit-ability because the internal demands in the countrymay not be high enough, However, machines havebeen introduced in all areas where quality is a criticalfactor. On the other hand, the large and "fairlycheap" labour force available in the country isassociated with smaller turnovers and less criticaloperations where workmanship would not adverselyaffect the quality of the component. Thus Indianmanufacturers have had to strike a reasonable balancebetween manpower and machines to obtain optimumyields within working and technological constraints.

The effect pricing policy has on the availabilityof components meeting international and J.S.S.specifications, is of importance. It is hoped that allcomponents made indigenously should meet J.S.S.standards and, as has been indicated previously, thisis mandatory for Defence and Aerospace applications.If J.S.S. specifications cannot be met indigenously,then importation of components is allowed and thecomponents carry a reduced import duty for defenceequipments. Foreign collaboration is also encouragedin order to eventually create an indigenous availabilityof J.S.S. approved devices.

Export to international markets has been encour-aged by the government, but only entrepreneurs withforeign technical collaborations have ventured intothis area with creditable achievements. A major draw-back for exporting approved components by manu-facturers with indigenous know-how is the highproduction costs largely due to raw materials. Unlessthese are available indigenously at reasonable costsand good quality, manufacturers find it difficult atpresent to compete with the international market. Inany case, in several spheres the internal demands ofthe country have to be satisfied as a priority.

In a recent survey made among component usersin leading electronic industries in India9 the viewwas expressed that the passive component manufac-

turers may meet the needs for resistors, capacitorsand some grades of potentiometers during the nextfive years, but greater emphasis must be made on theavailability of good quality mechanical componentsand the diversification of active devices. Also theprice of existing approved components must bebrought down to international rates in the nationalinterest. Obviously these suggestions imply greaterand more concentrated efforts in material sciencewith intensive R & D in component technology toconstantly upgrade process capabilities, improvereliability parameters and reduce costs forproduction.

6 CONCLUSION

The growth of the Indian component business hasbeen discussed re!ative to other areas and the methodof setting standards for such manufacturing has beenmentioned. The importance of Quality Controlsystems for the various markets has been examinedand the Indian government policy for encouragingmanufacture of indigenous components has beenconsidered. The importance of indigenous compo-nents in the various market sectors is summarised inFigure 3. The proportion of indigenous componentsused in the different sectors is represented by the

MARKET/COMPONENT

CONSUMER

RES STORS

POTENTIOMETER //

TRANSISTORS,DIODES

,HYIDS

IC’s

INDUSTRIAL/PROFESS ONAL

/,

DEFENCE AEROSPACE

Pertains to limited varieties of production

/////

FIGURE 3market.

Use of component

Use of indigenous components in the Indian

36 A.P. GOSWAMI

amount of hatching in each of the boxes. Such adiagram also gives guidelines into areas where there isconsiderable scope for foreign participation.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author is extremely grateful to Professor D. S. Campbellof the University of Technology, Loughborough, for hisencouragement and suggestions in this work. He also wishesto thank Dr. A. Goswami of N.C.L. Poona, V. Philomin Rajof E.C.I.L., Hyderabad and the Electronics Commission,Delhi, lbr valuable information. Finally he is greatly indebtedto the various leading component users and manufacturers inIndia for their prompt replies to the questionnaires sent tothem by the author.

REFERENCES

Information Planning and Analysis Group-ElectronicsCommission, New Delhi, India 1977.

2. "Guidelines tbr Industrial Licensing 1977-78:Electronic". Electronics-Information & Planning (INDIA)4 No. 8 pp. 767-786 (1977).

3. "Policy Back Ground Report on Passive Components".Electronics-Intbrmation & Planning (INDIA) 3 No. 4pp. 267-333 (1976).

4. Private communications from components manufac-turers in India, August 1978.

5. H. Jackson and D. S. Campbell, Rad and Elec. Eng. 48,pp. 341-348 1978.

6. Proceedings 6th All India Conference on StatisticalQuality Control, Hyderabad, December 1976.

7. A.P. Goswami, L. Satyanaryana, N. V. M. Sivaji,Electrocom. Sci. and Tech. 5, No. 2, pp. 77 (1978).

8. A. P. Goswami, M. Z. Ateeq, L. Satyanarayana andP. K. Basu ibid. 5, No. 3 pp. 141-147 (1978).

9. Private communications from component users in India,August 1978.

1. "An overview of the electronics industry in India",

International Journal of

AerospaceEngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporationhttp://www.hindawi.com Volume 2010

RoboticsJournal of

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttp://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014


Active and Passive Electronic Components

Control Scienceand Engineering

Journal of



RotatingMachinery


Hindawi Publishing Corporation http://www.hindawi.com

Journal ofEngineeringVolume 2014

Submit your manuscripts athttp://www.hindawi.com

VLSI Design



Shock and Vibration


Civil EngineeringAdvances in

Acoustics and VibrationAdvances in



Electrical and Computer Engineering

Journal of

Advances inOptoElectronics

Hindawi Publishing Corporation http://www.hindawi.com

Volume 2014

The Scientific World JournalHindawi Publishing Corporation http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014

SensorsJournal of


Modelling & Simulation in EngineeringHindawi Publishing Corporation http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014


Chemical EngineeringInternational Journal of Antennas and

Propagation




Navigation and Observation



DistributedSensor Networks


HOW STANDARDISATION AFFECTS

Documents

Transcript of HOW STANDARDISATION AFFECTS