Computer and IT Department People In this department we saw how the work allocation among the employees was

done for implementing IT at SAIL was being done. The computer and IT department os divided into 4 divisions vis--vis: 1)Software Development and Maintenance : also known as a software development life cycle, is a structure imposed on the development of a software product. Similar terms includesoftware life cycle and software process. It is often considered a subset of systems development life cycle. There are several models for such processes, each describing approaches to a variety of tasks or activities that take place during the process. Some people consider a lifecycle model a more general term and a software development process a more specific term. For example, there are many specific software development processes that 'fit' the spiral lifecycle model. ISO 12207 is an ISO standard for software lifecycle processes. It aims to be the standard that defines all the tasks required for developing and maintaining software. 2)Hardware Procurement and Maintenance : includes the maintenance of hardware systems required for maintaing the network system like routers,hubs,wires,etc and maintaining the same for proper and efficient functioning 3)Network Infrastructure Maintenance : Network management refers to the activities, methods, procedures, and tools that pertain and provisioning of networked systems.[1]

to

the operation, administration,

maintenance,

Operation deals with keeping the network (and the services that the network provides) up and running smoothly. It includes monitoring the network to spot problems as soon as possible, ideally before users are affected.

Administration deals with keeping track of resources in the network and how they are assigned. It includes all the "housekeeping" that is necessary to keep the network under control. Maintenance is concerned with performing repairs and upgradesfor example, when equipment must be replaced, when a router needs a patch for an operating system image, when a new switch is added to a network. Maintenance also involves corrective and preventive measures to make the managed network run "better", such as adjusting device configuration parameters.

Provisioning is concerned with configuring resources in the network to support a given service. For example, this might include setting up the network so that a new customer can receive voice service.

4)Corporate IT (Implemeting ERP) : Enterprise resource planning (ERP) integrates internal and external management information across an entire organization, embracing finance accounting , manufacturing, sales and service, customer relationship management, etc. ERP systems automate this activity with an integrated software application. Its purpose is to facilitate the flow of information between all business functions inside the boundaries of the organization and manage the connections to outside stakeholders IT is a partner in the progress of the Bhilai Steel Plant. From IBM to EDP and now to C&IT the department has led the charge of IT intervention in the plant. Unit Record Machines (IBM 402) yielded their place to auto coders followed by mainframes and servers of different hues along with evolving databases. The process of metamorphosis commenced decades ago and reached a crescendo with the commencement of a SAP ERP project in April 2009 preceded by the roll out of two state-of-theart data centers in 2008, all designed to catapult the plant to a higher trajectory of growth. The human resource used in the process of implementing IT is as follows:

Approximately 300 man years of effort were invested in the project About 2,500 end users were trained in SAP Six business areas of BSP were covered through seventeen different modules of SAP 200 as-is processes mapped to 140 to-be processes in ERP after rationalization More than 650 unit tests were carried out to ensure working of the software 174 scenarios were tested during integration testing of the software 647 developments were carried out in the system to suit the plants specific needs Interface with CMO, HRIS, Pay Roll, HMMS, OPEX, TRAMS Involvement of sister plants in detailed designing

Major Challenges The standard ERP solution offered by SAP including the IS Mill option fails to map the characteristic features of a plant manufacturing iron and steel in a comprehensive manner. In BSP, a fair degree of customization and development had to be made on the standard solution offered by the vendor. Some innovations that may appeal to the iron and steel fraternity globally are:

Raw material handling and reconciliation matching with the movement of railway rakes wherein the flow of documents invariably lags the materials Extensive use of variant configurations for defining steel products with their multitude of quality and other characteristics and complex pricing schema Innovative application of continuous and discrete production processes to match the production planning systems for iron zone, steel zone, rolling and finishing mills Reconciliation of theoretical and actual weights of production and dispatch statistics through a mechanism of allowing the generation of negative inventory balances on a limited scale Innovative handling of generation of scrap, production deviating from standards and reconciliation of the system stocks with the physical inventories Integrated production and dispatch planning consistent with the constraints of the rake movement imposed by the transportation agencies such as the Railways Extensive mapping of production processes in terms of make-to-order or make-to-stock scenarios matching with the production planning and order execution systems of different shops and mills Integrated planning and execution of engineering shops production processes in terms of maintenance, refurbishment and fabrication of orders Purchase procurement system consisting of two or more stages of bidding. Invoice verification and bill registration systems involving Bonus & Reward provisions, LD & Discount clauses Costing details down to the equipment level with innovative costing structure E-logbook for recording delays/breakdowns in maintenance of shops and mills Integrated e-payment and automatic bank reconciliation processes