Student and Industry

The dictionary meaning of student is : "A person who is engaged in or addicted to study" or "A person who is undergoing a course of study and instruction at a University or other place of higher education or technical training". For today's meet, the second meaning is more relevant. There can be no doubt that the output of the educational institutions is the most important single input to industry. Today's students are tomorrow's leaders in industry. It would therefore, follow that there has to be a very close relationship between the student and industry. The leaders of the industry are always on the look out for young, knowledgeable and skilled personnel for manning and managing industry and to sustain its operations. To enable the students to satisfy the requirements of the industry, they must be made aware of its needs. The specific skills and knowledge requirements differ from industry to industry, though there are some basic needs common to all. I will attempt to portray the situation in the iron and steel industry and try to broadly indicate what may be expected of the students aspiring to enter industry after their graduation.
Changing Economic Scenario
As you are well aware, the Indian economy is being liberalised and globalised. The major impact of the new economic policies on the iron and steel industry may be summed up as follows :

The integrated steel industry which in the post independence era was hitherto reserved for public sector, is now "open" to all.
The protection enjoyed by the industry in the form of duties and levies on imported steel products is being gradually withdrawn and the import of steel is no longer restricted.
The steel prices of major producers were administratively controlled in the past, but now the plants can fix their own prices.
Import of technology and equipment is no longer controlled.

As a result of these changes, quite a number of new integrated steel projects are being planned in the private sector also and some of them are already in operation and some others under implementation.
Accelerating Changes
The steel industry is undergoing rapid change in all its aspects and not merely in process technology. I intend to briefly touch upon some selected aspects which perhaps pose greater challenge.
Market Issues
The market is really going global. price movements in any region is having world wide impact particularly because of ready access to market information on a global network. Marketing executives can, therefore, no longer afford to confine themselves to information on local or regional markets.
Technological changes
The continuing technological change is also associated with a structural change. The innovations are becoming more incremental and evolutionary. Of course, there have been some break-throughs as well.
For instance the development of continuous casting has replaced ingot casting along with slabbing/blooming/billet mills. The new near-net-shape casting is necessarily an incremental development of continuous casting and has resulted in replacement of further break-down rolling operations. For example, thin slab casting is followed by the finishing strip rolling thus doing away with roughing operations. Recent developments in thin slab casting are aimed at removing the limitations in strip quality which were hitherto considered inherent to the process. Efforts are now being made to perfect strip casting further to produce from liquid steel a feed stock for cold rolling, thus eliminating hot strip rolling.
In the field of iron smelting, COREX process is now industrially practised. It was found feasible to utilise the proven shaft reduction furnace and operate it in conjunction with a melter gassifier vessel, rather than developing a totally new reactor.
Until recently, blast furnace/basic oxygen furnace and DRI/electric arc furnace were considered as two separate routes. The use of hot metal and large scale oxygen injection in twin-shell electric arc furnaces is a new hybrid on the scene. Under certain specific local conditions, the use of DRI in blast furnace is found advantageous. New metallics like iron carbide will also influence the process technology in future.
With economic liberalisation, in India also, plants using various routes of iron and steelmaking are being established.
New technological innovations are being brought to commercial practice more speedily to improve competitiveness. The selection of process and equipment, is, therefore, becoming more complex.
This is continuing in a big way in Japan, where the steel producers are trying to reduce the number of the grades and qualities of flat steel products.
Cost Competitiveness
During the era of protected economy, the secondary steel producers in India enjoyed higher sales price due to the prevailing suppliers market resulting from regulated imports and administrative price control for the products from large integrated steel plants. With these protection mechanisms withdrawn, the secondary producers are now facing a new challenge. Even the main producers have to face competition from overseas suppliers and new entrants. This situation is resulting in several developments, including.

improved equipment productivity,
increasing labour productivity,
consistent efforts in cost reduction,
elimination of non-competitive facilities.

Gone are the days, when one could take shelter under the so called "Under Indian conditions". The new situation is also catching up in respect of product quality.
Corporate Strategies
To face this changing economic scenario, the steel companies are pursuing several initiatives, mostly in anticipation of developments. Organisational restructuring, aggressive cost reduction, rationalisation in use of production units, renewed commitment to total quality - are the tools being deployed. The objective is to lower the break-even point and to increase the profit margin.
The last two decades have witnessed massive rationalisation of multi-plant/multi-product steel companies elsewhere in the world particularly to reduce the scope and complexity of their operations and to increase competitiveness in their chosen product line. This is continuing in a big way in Japan, where the steel producers are trying to reduce the number of the grades and qualities of flat steel products. On the other hand, some other companies are broadening their products range. Nucor and Lukens in USA, for instance, have already entered into the production of stainless steel along with carbon steel. Some of these issues are relevant to Indian steel plants as well.
The Needs of The Industry
Given the above scenario and the intensification of competition, the steel business is getting increasingly complex. It is becoming dependant on larger volume of more complex information for management and the time available for processing is decreasing. Therefore, the decision making cannot be restricted to only the high echelons of the management. It has to embrace the entire organisation at all levels. The steel companies have to become skilled in acquiring, creating, improving and disseminating knowledge, through out the organisation. Only this can lead to improved performance. An organisation versed in these capabilities has been called the "Learning Organisation".
Student Focus
With the current situation in the country, it is not expected of graduates to become specialists in any particular field, let alone industry during undergraduate studies. But the students will have to prepare themselves to face these far reaching changes in the economy and industrial operations. They would be the new breed of professional managers, technologists and scientists to effectively manage the ever changing conditions. They will have to shoulder responsibilities of decision-making much earlier in their professional career, than what
has happened in the past. It is clear that mere academic achievement is not enough to become a leader in the industry. They must develop capabilities of communication, team work, interpersonal relationship and to lead "Learning Organisations". It is essential, therefore, that they have to be trained to acquire, assimilate and analyse information. This may be called "Learn to learn". It must be understood that the ability to learn faster than the competitor is perhaps the only way to sustain the competitive advantage.