Kabini in all its glory

KABINI!!!! That was an amazing get away, and the pictures speak for themselves.

What a day!! Never will I see so much of one city!

Today, we got to go see the city, and it was one long ride, but totally worth every second! My favorite part was seeing the palace all lit up in its beauty, and let me tell you, it was breathtaking! Never have I seen a palace lit up with 96,000 lights (although they could have added the extra 4,000 light bulbs to make it an even 100K), and it must have taken some patience to put those up, or let alone find a light bulb that’s blown out! In the morning we went to Chamundi Hills, and saw the temple up there, and I actually got to do some praying after 2 weeks of not going at all! Also, Srirangapatna was a really fun historical city to go to, and the bird sanctuary was even better! We got to see real crocodiles, and I’ve never been so scared out of my pants to be so close! Here are some pictures from that day! Enjoy!

A Monkey and AT&S

This evening we got to visit AT&S, a circuit board manufacturer. It was interesting to see this plant, and especially the machines that they use to make the circuit boards. Technology today is booming everywhere, and it’s about time that everyone realizes this. Friedman defines it as the triple convergence, and from that he wants us to understand that technology is what is going to level the paying field, and as Carly Fiorina says “technology will literally transform every aspect of business, every aspect of life and every aspect of society.” Now seeing these really cool machines at AT&S was amazing to see how one can manipulate a language of technology to do what it wants, and for it to produce something like circuit boards with little human involvement is simply amazing! I just could not believe how clean this place was too… all the factories we have visited have been awfully clean to my surprise. I thought that conditions would be much worse, but I was very wrong about that. As far as AT&S, many of their systems are computerized and there is no requirement for much manual human labor except to run the machine and make sure the circuit boards are made correctly. Because of this technology, their error rates are kept low, and it reminds me of Six Sigma practices. The best part at AT&S besides all the machines was of course, the random monkey in the yard!

Two Wheelin

TVS Motor Company is India’s number 3 two-wheeler manufacturer that has set up their base in both India and Indonesia while using Japanese technology. With their company being one of the first Indo-Japanese company making two-wheelers, TVS faces much competition from China and Japan as those two countries are the key players in this market. From this visit it was easy to understand how Friedman’s flattener #10 (steroids) connects to the company. With the readily available internet, TVS and other companies are able to easily find information and use it to their advantage. This is where the issue comes up. TVS was recently sued by its major competitor, Bajaj Auto, who claimed that TVS had stolen its technology in using twin spark plugs. With the use of the internet from computers and PDA’s (today’s steroids), TVS is able to claim that the use of twin spark plugs is old and was in existence long before Bajaj had introduced the technology. With this information, TVS will hopefully be able to resolve the issue showing that the information is already available, and is not a new concept.

Even though we weren’t able to take pictures inside the factory, I can tell you that it was one of the cleanest factories I have ever seen. I thought that because it is here in India that it would be in terrible condition, but it appears to me to be just as clean as a factory would be in the US.

Supply Chain Management

As India continues to grow and is one of the top choices for outsourcing and offshoring, they need to realize they are beginning to play an important role in global supply chains. Today’s lecture focused on the challenges faced in India as they need to focus on issues of supply chain management in order to succeed internationally and for multinationals to understand cultural differences as they pursue efficiency, growth, and higher profits through outsourcing and offshoring. Both India and other countries worldwide need to accept and learn the strengths and weaknesses of each other in pursuance of innovation, information technology, and technological advances to produce high efficiency and profit.

In India, there is a growing trend for IT professionals and this gives India a competitive advantage as many multinational companies come to India and its institutes to recruit new hires. Today, there are more IT professionals in Bangalore than there are in Silicon Valley, and there are more than 50 multinational companies that get their chip designed in Bangalore! Most of these multinationals that have outsourced to India are saving money because India has a special capability to supply products in smaller volumes. For that matter, the world is becoming flat. Friedman discusses the challenges faced by companies that outsource and offshore. He says that outsourcing may not guarantee someone a job no matter how intelligent or knowledgeable they are in their field; what matters is if the person can add value to the company because of the extensive knowledge they have in their field. Because of that, many recruiters from the IT field come to India to find new employees because they know Indians have the entrepreneurial skills and knowledge of IT in order to add value to the company, and also the companies are benefiting financially because they can pay at lower rates. As for offshoring, it reduces costs for the company, but the economy of the country may stagger because all the jobs in that field are being moved to a different place. Like with IT, many of the jobs are moving to India and China and now multinationals do not only compete within the US, but also with the other companies in large countries like India and China.

Furthermore, Friedman discusses the triple convergence. With the opening of societies of China, India, Russia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Central Asia, the triple convergence is what really shapes global economics and politics. With the web-enabled playing field, information to anything is available at anytime. With technological advances, communication between different countries has become easier and allowed for collaboration amongst the countries to become horizontal. For India and the US to collaborate in the IT field has become very simple today because of the triple convergence, and that was seen from our visit to Automotive Axles Limited (AAL). They are a joint venture with the USA Arvin Meritor, Inc., and they manufacture rear drive axles. They export parts to the US and also provide for domestic companies. With the use of technology and their advanced IT systems, AAL is able to maintain their relationships both domestically and internationally. They must maintain their management in supply chain especially with the US as that plays an important role in the success of the Indian company, and for the multinational corporation. Here I have posted some pictures of the factory… it was pretty clean for a factory considering it was in India. It almost looked like it could be a factory in the US… the only strange part was that many workers didn’t have protective gear such as gloves and face masks, and many did not wear ear plugs.