Atul Ltd 2011-12

21 The main focus of our Technology Unit is to provide to the customers with world class quality products manufactured with the rigour of continuous improvement in process efficiency and people productivity along with equal commitment to safety and environment. Technology Each Business has dedicated Manufacturing and Technology functions; they share the responsibility of meeting the agreed volume and efficiency budgets on the one hand and achieving consistent improvements in Unit Operations and Unit Processes. In particular, the mandate is to improve yields, obtain maximum recoveries, lower electricity, water and steam consumptions, make the processes robust and thereby reduce off-spec batches, reduce manual work, ensure safety, consistently reduce environment impact, etc and thus significantly contribute in improving the quality and consistency of profit. The combined number of employees in these two functions is 1589. During the year, the output in volume term was higher by 13%. There were in all 130 initiatives taken up to bring about multifarious improvements: 25 for yields, 21 for raw materials, 47 for capacity enhancement, 17 for utilities, 3 for automation and 1 for converting batch process to continuous and 16 for improving Safety, Health & Environment performance. An investment of ` 52 cr was made to enhance the capacity and eliminate a major liquid effluent stream, the full benefit of which will commence in 2012-13.