Mazagon Dock Limited

Introduction
Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited, Mumbai (MDL), an ISO 9001: 2008
Company is one of the leading shipbuilding and offshore fabrication yards
in India. The Yard was established in the 18th century. The company caters
to the needs of the Indian Navy, Coast Guard & ONGC in particular with its
skilled and resourceful service.
MDL has emerged as a major player in the sector of war-shipbuilding after
its takeover by the Government in the 1960s. It has produced a number of
warships, submarines and patrolling vessels for the Indian Navy over the
years. It also provides offshore structures for ONGC. The company
provides a wide range of products to domestic and foreign clients,
Singapore being one such foreign client.

Swot Analysis:
Strengths:

One of the leading shipbuilding and fabrication yards in India

Location both shallow and deep water level are available
ISO 9001:2008 certified
Granted Miniratna status by Government of India
enabling
enhanced powers of capital expenditure, subsidiaries, strategic
alliances and mergers
Provides designing facility to other ship yards
Has shipbuilding experience of more than 150 years

Weaknesses
Unionism: major weakness of the company due to which expected
productivity cannot be achieved
Some technical equipments are not available in india and are to be
imported from outside
Aircraft carriers cant be built due to limited dry dock capacity

Opportunities:
Penetrate the export market for both commercial and defence
vessels
Have joint ventures with leading private companies
Site expansion to get more projects
Threats
competition by private companies L&T started implementing Naval
projects

Problems faced:

has an order book of 1 lakh crores from the Indian Navy and is
lagging behind due to limited capacity and technical expertise
focuses on only Naval ships despite having the capacity of building
cargo carriers of capacity up to 30,000 DWT
competition by private companies like L&T who have started taking
up Naval Projects
tight schedule put up by government to deliver one submarine
every six months for the P-75 project

Steps taken to tackle the problems:

Joint venture with PIPAVA : MDL entered in a JV with Reliance owned
Pipava ship yard which is currently in the process of building the
worlds largest dry dock which can be leveraged to build aircraft
carriers. The JV focuses on taking the load off the MDL for the
construction of submarines and warships that have been lagging
behind in schedule. With this JV MDL can also start capitalizing on
the aircraft carrier building which is currently dominated by cochin
shipyard. An added advantage of this JV could be a shift in the focus
from Naval Ship building to Commercial Cargo carriers
Partnership with DCNS: MDL has entered in a partnership with DCNS
a French Naval Engineering company to accomplish the P-75
project which has been lagging behind by three years
Mazdock Modernisation project: the focus of the project is to
modernize the mechanical and technical operations. Some of the
key features include commissioning of the Modular workshop and
Cradle Assembly Workshop and commissioning of the new Wet
Basin and Heavy Duty Goliath (30 ton crane). The company has also
adopted the paradigm of Integrated Construction to tackle the lag
in shipbuilding and submarine building over the long run.

Research and Development(R&D): the company has a five year plan

for R&D and is progressing as follows:
1. An MoU has been signed with IIT kharagpur and IIT madras
to take up projects as per the R&D plan
2. A dedicated Navigation Channel has been finalised in
liaison with Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT)and Central Water
and Power Research Station (CWPRS). Water and Power
Consulting Services is being roped in to conduct the
Environmental Impact Assessment.
3. MoU with National Institute of Design (NID) to study
ergonomics and human factors engineering in the context
of Warship design.
Outsourcing: The company has been focussing on outsourcing a lot
of its ancillary functions to focus prominently on core competency
and cut costs and reduce the time lag.
E-procurement: The company has started using the e procurement
system to minimise the time and efforts required for procurement.

Future Outlook:
The company plans to continue concentrating on meeting the
demands of the Indian Navy in line with the Maritime Capability
Perspective Plan (MCPP).
MDL has been trying to acquire a 16 acre of land of MbPT at Powder
Bunder for capacity enhancement. It is also trying to acquire 12
acres of land of flotilla workshop of MbPT
The company is planning to appoint a Know-How Provider (KHP) for
technology upgrade and capacity enhancement.
With the upcoming JV and government focussing on indigenous
enhancement of defence sector and Indian Navy looking to augment
its fleet, the prospects of MDL seem strong enough to emerge as a
world class Ship Building company.

References:
1. http://www.mazagondock.gov.in/newsite2010/pdfs/Directors_Report_
2013_14.pdf