Delphi TVS Diesel Systems has been practicing environment-friendly production even before the concept gained currency in India. Venkatachari Jagannathan reports.

 Chennai: In India, a factory denuding a forest is nothing new. Similarly, a factory with Korean grass lawns and some crotons is also a familiar sight.

But raising a forest around a factory is certainly new. That is exactly what has happened at Mannur near Chennai where Delphi TVS Diesel Systems Limited's plant is located.

Way back in '90s when the factory was being built there was just one banyan tree. Though others were in favour of chopping it down to make way for the upcoming plant, Chopra insisted that the tree would not be felled and had the plant redesigned accordingly. Besides, a conscious decision was taken to plant trees around the factory.

With more than 2,000 trees - including coconut and mango trees attracting monkeys and birds - and three lily ponds, a virtual oxygen factory has been created along with a diesel fuel injection systems factory.

According to officials, the coconuts are used in the factory canteen, and the mangos are distributed amongst the employees.

Says president J S Chopra, "Our philosophy is to have harmony between man and machine, man and nature and man and god." While the first has been achieved inside the shop floor in the form of worker-friendly machines, and the last has been accomplished by having a temple inside the factory premises, the second one is what actually interesting. The corporate philosophy is `what is good for the environment is good for the company.'

The company has received ISO 14001 certification that recognises the safety, health and environment safe guard systems in a factory.

Delphi TVS environmental journey of this ISO 14001 company starts at the gate; vehicles without pollution certificates are not allowed inside the plants warns notice at the gate.

Incidentally solar lights light the pathways inside the compound. Inside the plant, the high transparent roof with huge motor-less wind ventilators not only save power but also bring in fresh air and natural light.

What is noticeable to a new visitor is the absence of the strong machine and grease smell that is generally common to many factories. Since odour, mist, heat and noise affect a worker's health, Delphi TVS addresses these issues continuously.

According to a plant official, the company got rid of the plant smells and odours by replacing chlorinated solvent washing machines with aqueous washing.

Similarly studying the cause for the coolant oil odour, the company installed a centrifuge oil separator. This not only extends the life of the coolant oil from three to six months, but also prevents generation of bad smell from the oil containers. Oil mist collectors are installed in the machines to collect the oil.

In addition Delphi TVS has installed a waste coolant treatment plant to crack oil and water and recover around 3-lakh litres of coolant oil. This results in an annual saving of $15,000.

It is not only oil that is recovered and reused. The waste heat, water and even the wood in the packing pallets are recovered and recycled. The heat generated in the fluidised bed is piped to the surface treatment plant where some components have to be heat-treated, again saving power cost.

The production engineering department aggressively pitches for environment-friendly process options. The selection of fluidised bed instead of cyaniding for nitro carborising, introduction of thermal deburring instead of electro chemical machining of components are couple of examples.

Worker comfort is the other area that gets good attention in Delphi TVS. Making filters involves curing at 200 degrees in an oven. Earlier a worker would be seated near the oven to place the element on the plate that takes the component inside the oven. When the oven door was opened the temperature near the operator would shoot up to 45 degrees.

In order to put the workers in a comfort zone, the oven was shifted to a distant and a conveyor belt installed. Now workers load the conveyor belt with the components to be treated and the belt takes it inside the oven automatically.

Similarly, wherever possible custom-made special covers are installed in machines so that worker safety and comfort is increased.

As the noise levels in some operations go to 90 decibels all the high noise rooms are padded with acoustic materials to absorb noise.

The plant effluents are treated at the company's effluent treatment plant (ETP) are further purified through ultra filtration, reverse osmosis processes for reuse in the production process and also to water the trees and garden.

The Ph level in the treated water is around 8 and fish are reared in the treated water tank.

The reuse of wooden packing pallets results in saving around 15 tonne of wood per year. Even the solid food waste from the canteen and the dining room are collected automatically and given to nearby pig farm. The water consumption inside the canteen is optimised using shower systems instead of conventional taps in the washing areas including the hand washbasin.

Even before when rainwater-harvesting systems were made mandatory in Tamil Nadu, Delphi TVS had installed 14 such systems in 2001 to direct the rainwater to its three lily ponds.