PhD Research Work

Ph.D. Thesis Title

Study of Restructuring Decisions and Complexity of Lean Manufacturing Systems  

The fundamental contribution of the thesis is the development of new methods of analysis for more effective quantitative comparison and analysis of restructuring decisions in manufacturing systems. The new methods are proposed based on the physical interpretation of the existing quantitative methods of coefficients of dissimilarity based on the results of graph theoretic models in a multi-dimensional Euclidian space and have a focus on complexity reduction in lean manufacturing systems. The study investigated the case of work flow restructuring in a steel plant and two cases of work flow restructuring in a packaging equipment industry for implementing lean philosophy and it used graph theoretic modeling for analysis. The real performance indicators such as improvement in on-time delivery performance from industrial case studies indicate a strong correlation with the values of proposed indices of complexity based on graph theoretic modeling. 

Sponsored Research

Collaborative Industrial research  project  2017-2020

Defined outlay Rs. 27.435 lakh   

Title of Project: Study of lubricant and application method for enhanced surface finish and reduced draw load on cold drawn steel tubes

Client organization: Tube Investments of India Ltd, Chennai (Murugappa Group) 

http://www.tiindia.com/ 

Brief about the company 

Tube Investments of India is a flagship company of multi billion dollar conglomerate of Murugappa Group. It is a market leader in the area high quality cold drawn welded (CDW) and electric resistance welded (ERW) tube products.

Main Contributions/Achievements (Link to Poster)

Through this project, three major alternative lubrication systems have been investigated for tube drawing process namely

• the use of tin based porous layer on tube surface to better retain lubricant, 
• the use of solid tin layer as lubricant during tube drawing process
• the use of ultrasonic vibration for die and plug during tube drawing process  

Improvements in the surface finish to the order of 40 percent have been achieved through these investigations. 

PI

Dr. Varinder Singh, Dep of Mech Engg, BITS Pilani KK Birla Goa Campus

Co PI's:

Prof. Amit Kumar Gupta, Dep of Mech Engg, BITS Pilani Hyderabad Campus

Prof. Srinivas P Regala Dep of Mech Engg, BITS Pilani Hyderabad Campus

Dr. Tufan Chandra Bera, Dep of Mech Engg, BITS Pilani Pilani Campus
Mr. Mahesh Patil joined the project as JRF on Sep 6, 2017 

Research Guidance

PhD Research work supervision 

Dr Mahesh Patil  2017PHXF0439G (Thesis defended on June 17, 2022 and Degree Awarded) 

Thesis Title: 

Improving the Quality of Cold Drawn Steel Tubes using Alternative Lubrication Systems and Ultrasonics towards Manufacturing Excellence

Mr Ravindra Singh Saluja 2016PHXF0419G (Thesis submitted on Jan 27, 2023 and Degree Awarded)

Thesis Title: Development of a robust MADM Method and Applications in Welding Process Selection

Mr Abhay Kuber Magdum 2020PHXF0076G (Proposal accepted in Sem I 2022:Thesis work Ongoing)

Research Topic: Parametric optimization of the microwave welded Hastelloy X joints

DAC Member for following PhD candidates

Mr. HASAN SHAROOF S (2023PHXP0019U) Dubai Campus

Mr. Mullya Satish Anand 

Mr. Nikhil Rajendra Kadam

Mr. Harugade Mukund Laxman  

Mr. Amal S Siju 

Mr. Rajavamsi Ganjipamula 

M.E. Thesis (BITS G629T) and B.E.(Hons) Thesis (BITS F421T)Supervision

Guided a number of PG as well as UG students for their thesis as well as projects 

Future Research Directions

Investigating possibilities in the following directions

• Addressing challenges related to Bipolar Plate Manufacturing for Anion Exchange Membrane based Hydrogen Production
• Deign of Supply Chain Strategies using Data Analytics
• Robust Multi-attribute decision making techniques for Sustainable Manufacturing Decisions
• Discrete Event Simulation based investigations for innovations in industrial organizations