Materiala management- key issue for BHEL

Tiruchirapalli, Nov 27 (UNI) The Public Sector Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) needs to focus on innovative methods of buying to speed up procurement, reduce costs and ensure timely supply of raw materials inview of the massive increase in the quantum of inputs required by the company during the 11th five-year plan period, C P Singh, Director (Engineering and Research and Development), BHEL has said.

Inaugurating a two-day conference of BHEL materials management heads at BHEL, here he said the corporation was also giving a major thrust to consolidated procurement of the entire raw materials, including minor items required for each project in a sequential and timely manner, so that project completion is streamlined ad speeded up.

While de-centralisation of the procurement function and the empowerment of officials at various levels had facilitated BHEL's purchase process, materials management (MM) was becoming an increasingly complex function, he added.

Pointing out that one of the options was to develop new low-cost suppliers of raw materials from China, Korea and East European countries, Mr Singh said BHEL was gearing up to pursue such potential sources more aggressively.

He called for a thorough review of BHEL's existing purchase and works policies by the MM heads to arrive at a consolidated policy that incorporated the best practices from all units of BHEL.

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