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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION TO THE TRAINING ESTABLISHMENT


1.1. Introduction to Loadstar (Private) Limited

Loadstar (Private) Limited is a company which supplies mobility systems throughout the productive world. It mainly manufactures solid tires, pneumatic tires, rubberized tracks and steel wheels. The company was founded in 1984 as a joint venture between the Jinesena Group of Sri Lanka (JGC) and Solideal of Belgium (SB). This joint venture brought together the proven Engineering and management capabilities of JGC and the Technical knowledge on production and global marketing expertise of SB. Loadstar is now one of the largest foreign exchange earners for our country.

1.1.1. Vision of Loadstar To be the premier manufacturer of mobility systems for the productive world by harnessing and nurturing peoples abilities 1.1.2. Mission of Loadstar We will manufacture quality and cost effective tires, tracks and wheel systems effectively and efficiently for our worldwide customers through empowered and self-driven teams, working together to improve our people, company, society and environment 1.1.3. Main functions of Plants and Offices

The newly constructed Casting Production Division (CPD) located at Kotugoda, is engaged in manufacturing metal pieces & wheels.

The Solid Tire Division (STD) located at the original Ekala Site, is engaged in manufacturing Solid Tires. The Metal Product Division (MPD) located at the same site is engaged in manufacturing rim and split wheels for exports as well as steel bands and rims used in the tire manufacturing.

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The Engineering and Maintenance Division (EMD) is responsible for the manufacturing of production of machinery. It has machine fabrication facilities at the Jinesena Industrial Park (JIP) at Ekala. The company has maintenance units at each of the sites. The central raw material warehouse is located at JIP.

1.1.4. Organizational Structure & Hierarchical levels Refer the Annex A

1.1.5. Strengths and Weaknesses Mr. C. Jinasena is the pioneer of the Jinasena Company. He started his carrier by opening a workshop for repairing sawing machines and bicycles at Chatham Street, Colombo in 1905. This was the first step to this large group of companies. Now Loadstar has 16 companies and thousands of Sri Lankans are working there. Since its inception; the company has been setting pioneer standards in technology. It has been able to fabricate locally, using the expertise of a dedicated band of Sri Lankan engineers, modern and complex machines for the tire manufacturing process. The reliability and quality of Loadstar products have helped the company earn a significant market share in a tough and competitive global environment. Loadstar exports its products to a large number of countries including USA, Europe, Japan, Australia Middle East and Africa.

Loadstar provides excellent welfare facilities to the all employees. In Loadstar there are many opportunities for employees to maintain their physical wellbeing doing a sport. There are complete gymnasiums in every sites of Loadstar. But maintaining the mental wellbeing of their employees is not given much priority in this company. Every one of us is a human being, and being that we have necessities. Even though Loadstar provides its workers with excellent welfare facilities and numerous other benefits, the prime and most overlooked weakness is the fact that employees do not have enough time-off. People get tired of working around the clock and not having enough time to spend with their families. Even within the establishment there is no time for a rest.

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1.1.6. Profitability Loadstar is a unique Sri Lankan company that has achieved world leadership in highly specialized markets. At present Loadstar products are sold in over 60 countries throughout the world through a network comprising over 120 dealers. Around 45% of total exports are made to United States while a further 45% is exported to Europe. The balance is exported to countries like South Africa, South America, Australia and Japan.

With the introduction of assembled tires to the market, the company has been able to penetrate into the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) market. Nissan, Komatsu, CASE, John Deer and New Holland are some of the OEMs that use tires produced by Loadstar. The foreign income brought into the country by Loadstar is around 3% of the Sri Lankas total export earnings. Loadstar could probably be the largest exporter in the country among the export-oriented companies.

1.1.7. Usefulness to Sri Lankan Society The main raw material needed for production of tires is natural rubber. Approximately 60% of RSS grade rubber produced in the country is consumed by loadstar, creating a constant well stabilized rubber market for Sri Lankas natural raw rubber producers and rubber plantations.

Loadstar is one of the largest foreign exchange earners for the country, contributing to 1.5% of Sri Lanka's export earnings annually. Along with that, loadstar provides over 6000 working opportunities to Sri Lankans. Not only to the employees but for other people Loadstar helps as a real Sri Lankan organization. Loadstar has built 300 houses to the people who faced the Tsunami disaster.

Mr. C. Jinasena as the founder of the Jinasena Company has set an invaluable example for the citizens of Sri Lanka. Starting out repairing bicycles and sewing machines he soared high to be a leading manufacturer in the world. He has proven to the people of Sri Lanka that through hard work, determination and pure talent people can even rise to compete with the world and more important, achieve their lifes goals.

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1.2.

Introduction to Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB)

Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) is the main organization responsible for Generation, Transmission and Distribution (major part) of electrical power in Sri Lanka. The Ceylon Electricity Board was established under an Act of Parliament No.17 of 1969 and was amended by Act Nos. 31 of 1969, 29 of 1979 and 32 of 1988. Now the CEB is controlled by the Ministry of Power and Energy.

1.2.1 Vision of CEB Be an internationally recognized efficient utility providing high quality service to all its stakeholders.

1.2.2. Mission of CEB To provide reliable quality electricity to the entire nation at internationally competitive prices effectively and efficiently through a meaningful partnership with skilled and motivated employees using appropriate state-of-the art technology for the socio economic developments of the country in an economically sustainable manner while meeting acceptable environmental standards and a satisfactory rate of return on investments.

1.2.3. Main functions of CEB

Generating electricity according to the system demand, transmitting and distributing it in an efficient way are the main services of CEB. 1.2.3.1. Generation The power requirement in Sri Lanka is mainly fulfilled by thermal power plants and hydro power plants. Also there are some wind power plants and lots of mini hydro plants exist. Now coal power plant is constructed to join to the national grid.

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1.2.3.2 Transmission Transmission voltages are 220 kV and 132 kV generated voltages are stepped up to the transmission voltages. All power stations and grid substations are interconnected through the National Grid. The transmission voltages of 220 kV & 132 kV are stepped down to the distribution voltages at grid substations. 1.2.3.3 Distribution The distribution voltages are 33 kV, 11 kV and 400 kV. The most of power distribution in Sri Lanka is handled by the CEB. The most of the parts in distribution system are formed with overhead lines. Colombo city is an underground distribution system.

1.2.4. Organizational structure and Hierarchy of CEB

Ceylon Electricity Board is a government organization. It has a good hierarchy depend on the Experience and seniority. There are about 14000 officers in the CEB. Chairman and board of directors are appointed by the Minister of Power and Energy. The General Manager is responsible for the Board of Directors. Then the structure consists of Generation, Transmission, four Distribution Divisions, Projects and Centralized Services and Finance. Each section has an Additional General Manager (AGM). Deputy General Managers (DGM), Chief Engineers (CE), Electrical Engineers (EE). All the above mentioned posts are executive posts. Also there are many of other officials.

Refer Annex B 1.2.5. Present Performance, Weaknesses & Problems

During my training at Kelanitissa power station, I observed large amounts (possibly thousands of tons) of Iron and copper sold at a very cheap price. Then buyers sell those valuable materials to other countries at cheap prices. I think it is a huge disaster. We must try to fulfill our own needs with our own hands. Raw materials are there, the technical knowledge is there. So we need to produce what is needed for our country with our own hands. Every Sri Lankan citizen has a sole responsibility in building our own nation. Engineers should initiate and lead our country into sustainable development.
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Today CEB is a not a profit making organization. Their loss per day is more than 40 million. CEB was a profit making entity before 1994. Mainly due to the late implementation of its Long Term Generation Expansion Plan, CEB had to purchase power from the private sector to supply the increasing demand of its customers. By now CEB has signed contracts to purchase power from independent power producers for longer periods. As private power is generated using petroleum fuels its price also increases with the increasing price of those fuels. Ceylon Petroleum Co-operation offered petroleum fuels to CEB at a lower cost, but now it has stopped that offer and this caused the recent tariff change. The price of electricity is controlled by the government and therefore it is not possible to increase the price further up to set off against the losses of the organization.

1.2.6. Future of CEB I observed a very sad situation during my training at CEB. There are thousands of brilliant minds in Sri Lanka and sufficient materials, but most of the projects in Sri Lanka are outsourcing. In my opinion this affects the inflation in Sri Lanka and the unemployment. The government and minister should establish a company with private act to make all the equipment needs to Sri Lanka.

CEB is a very large company with more than 14000 officers. Therefore there are lots of inefficiencies and losses in CEB. An act is introduced to the parliament by the minister of power and energy. It is proposed to divide generation, transmission and distribution into different companies. Also renewable energy plants are implemented in all over the country.

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1.3. Introduction to Lanka Electricity Company (Private) Limited


1.3.1. Introduction

Lanka Electricity Company (Pvt) Limited was established in 1983 for electricity distribution in coastal Areas. The main functionality in LECO is distribution. Nowadays LECO has got some contracts to locate and to maintain transformers.

LECO was the company which introduced bundle conductors. Lanka Electricity Company (Private) Limited commenced Business

operations on 1st June 1984 and services about 500,000 customers in the Western and

Southern coastal belt townships between Negombo and Galle.

Head office of the company is situated in Kollupitiya and the seven branches governed by it are at Kotte, Nugegoda, Moratuwa, Kalutara, Figure 1.1 Areas governed by leco Kelaniya, Negombo and Galle respectively. Two warehouses are located at Ekala and Waskaduwa.

1.3.2. Vision of LECO Enjoy being the light for lives of people through innovative eco-friendly business

1.3.3. Mission of LECO To provide the best energy solutions to the society through continuous innovation Main Functions of LECO

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1.3.4.

Organizational structure and Hierarchy of LECO

LECO is a company registered in the private act. But all the shares are owned by the CEB and treasury. It has a good hierarchy depending on the experience and seniority. Chairman and board of directors are appointed by the Minister of Power and Energy. The General Manager is responsible for the Board of Directors. All the other officers come under the General Manager.

Refer Annex C for a diagram.

1.3.5 Present Performance and New trends

LECO has been able to increase its profitability through decreasing energy loss of the system. This has certainly been a positive trend for the company.

Also LECO got some contracts to locate and to maintain transformers, and some other sub works of the CEB. The most recent area of concentration has been net metering.

LECO carries out their work keeping the customers at the driving seat. This has led the company to gain a good image from the consumers and ultimately the company has been able to get a good feedback from the customers.

All the officers of the company is being treated well with various types of facilities such as loans, insurance, transport facilities, etc. This has been like an incentive for the members of the staff and the company has been able to take the best out of its human resources. There is training at the training school at Ekala. This enables the staff to get a good practice on work carried out at the field.

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1.3.6. Weaknesses

All the officers in LECO have a full work on the head. All expenditure of the company such as capital expenditure, debt servicing, employee costs, distribution losses have to be covered through the profit made via the above process. In order to make high profits the company has to utilize its assets both human and equipments in the most efficient manner. All workers are busy throughout the day, they dont have any freedom of the mind. The Job satisfaction is less. This has been a big weakness to the development of the company.

1.3.7. Profitability & Usefulness to the society

LECO is company registered under the private act. Therefore the company runs more efficiently. The company has managed to bring down the power loss up to 6% which is a huge achievement compared to the 22% loss at the time of establishment. Using of bundled conductors in Sri Lanka was first put in to practice by LECO. And it helped a lot in increasing safety of both the consumers and the system. Besides electricity distribution now LECO has kept a step forward to meter manufacturing.

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