Alright, HAL bashers here. I apologise for the long rant.
Lets address a few things I noted in the past few posts.
1> Quality is earned not managed:
@Ankit Kumar, mate I respect and enjoy most of your post, but I have to admit this is the most cringe-worthy comment coming from a member of your repute. Quality Management is the most crucial element of any manufacturing ecosystem, right from process development, design development right up to lanch containment and PLM. Quality management is embedded in every aspect of manufacturing and even every phase of service industry today. Without Failure mode effect analysis for design and process, not a single commercial off the shelf equipment that you use in your life would exist in its form that you see it.
2> HAL quality,
@Deathstar @Jaymax @mastaan There are three metrics to look at the quality that an organisation uses to measure its quality, viz FPY, ICQDPPM, COPQ
FPY: First Pass Yield is a percentage of failure at various stages of the line, and the Final Run test yield which is completed by CTP's commissioned from the IAF. FPY is measured for EOL tester of Final Assembly, Engines, Hydraulics, and Runtest.
ICQ : which refers to Initial Customer Quality, depending on product line it refers to the number of hrs used and the number of part numbers that need to replaced within that time by the manufacturer, let's assume this number is for x hrs how many failures were registered as claims vs the units manufactured.
COPQ: This stands for Cost of Poor Quality, i.e cost incurred by the company as a result of poor quality which includes Warranty costs (replacing components that fail within warranty), Concession (Cost eaten by the company for failures outside warranty), Scrap (parts and components scrapped during production) This is a currency amount that is tabulated for each product line.
The reason for mentioning this because, SU30MKI FPY for Run test, is between 100% - 93% i.e 0-1 aircraft out 15 doesn't clear the Flight test in the first go. In addition, IAF has 100% testing of aircraft it commissions so every MKI IAF commission is put through the standard test plan that clears the aircraft.
Next is the ICQ, there has not been a single report by IAF/MoD/CAG, that points towards failures in systems that are HAL caused failure in both serviceability as well as a catastrophic failure. As a matter of fact, If you look ar crash investigation reports Manufacturing defects that are barely in single digits actually most of the time points toward SEP instead of HAL caused defect.
Finally, towards COPQ, HAL's COPQ reduction goals for Nashik Division was the best among all of it's plants (Where incidentally MKI's are built) back when I worked for HAL. I can't comment on what it is now, as I have been away, but Scrap and concession costs on MKI remain extremely low.
Finally reading and perceiving quality is a tricky thing. It is extremely easy to pass blanket statements about quality when we have a catastrophic failure, as we tend to find a target to apportion blame, and who better than a fat, slow remnant of the socialist days like a HAL. I would plead to have some consideration for the Engineers and Managers who put in all their heart to ensure that these machines protect the sky, these are not some aliens who don't give a shit about the country or pilots who fly them. These are people who are exactly like you and me, who know the implications of poor quality and what it could lead to. Take it from me, no engineer in HAL will ever compromise quality over anything else.
Regards
Milspec.