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Introduction: Electrical Fittings and accessories are the necessary components of every household, office and other commercial buildings. Plastic material called Bakelite, Polycarbonate (PC) and (ABS) are normally used to prepare the electric fittings and accessories. The major portion of electric fitting industry was concentrated in unorganized sector, with large presence of small and medium enterprises. Sargodha, Karachi and Lahore were major cluster of production in the country. Bush Pakistan (Pvt.) Ltd. Brothers and Hero electrical and Crescent International dominate the organized market in this industry. History: Before partition there was a factory with the name of PPI in Karachi. The government of Pakistan also purchased electrical accessories from this factory. Crescent International factory (Pvt.) Ltd. was set up in Sargodha in 1979. Rana Abdul Hameed the owner of the company started with the single product of switch and socket and with the passage of time the company grew to its present stage where about more than 15 types of products are produced with the inventions of new design that change according to the demand trend. Crescent international is one of the leading companies of Pakistan for the manufacturing of electrical products. They use the high quality processes and use the quality function deployment tool for their products. It is also ISO 9001-2008 certified. Product Range There are varieties of products which can be included in the product range of Bakelite electrical fitting products. The main products are as follows: Holders (Button Holders, Special Holders, Angle Holders, Etc) Switches (All types of switches) Pin Shoe (2 Pin & 3 Pin) Multi Plugs Adapter Power Plugs Sockets

 Extension Box Junction Box Dimmer Range For viewing different series of the products in detail, broacher is attached. Raw Materials As mentioned earlier that they use three types of plastic for production. The company uses only brass in the fittings which is economically and quality wise best for passage of current. It is an alloy of zinc and copper which do not melt easily, have low resistance and high level of efficiency. Most of the products are made from PC which is expensive superior in quality and the factory contains three Japanese based technological machines for production. The Raw material can be divided under these heads as follows. i. Direct material a) Bakelite powder or phenol formaldehyde resin. b) Polycarbonate c) ABS d) Brass e) Metal inserts such as sleeves, pins, screws etc. f) Paint ii. Indirect material g) Packaging material h) Machine Oil i) Iron for die making etc Purchase of raw Material: PC, ABS and Bakelite Powder, the major component in Electrical fittings manufacturing are being imported from China, Italy and Korea by some independent dealers in Karachi. Purchase order is given by telephone and raw material is provided by dealers throughout the month, the account is settled every month by payments. They usually maintain the credit of no more than one month.

Production Operation (Process flow) The operations involved in this manufacturing can be divided into following heads: a) Molding and finishing of the plastic body, b) Fixing of metallic inserts, and c) Assembly and packing.

Process Flow Diagram:

The manufacturing process starts with the mold making. A measured quantity of raw plastic is poured into the mold/dye fixed on a hydraulic press. Once the raw plastic is poured into the mold, burners are switched on and the press is locked

manually. Each product takes specific amount of time to take the desired shape and strength. Once the products take its final shape, the press is lifted and the finished product is taken out manually. Then the finished parts are sent to the paint department for coloring of products. After that these parts are sent to assembly department where different metal parts including pipes and pins are attached to the main body of the products manually. Moreover, most electrical fitting products are composed of more than two components. Therefore different parts are also attached at this stage with the help of screws and nuts. These products are then sent for testing, each and every product is test manually to avoid external cost. The defective products are recycled for the production. Then the products are sent to packaging department for packaging. After that they are sent to finished goods inventory for dispatching.

Capacity Utilization Crescent International is one of the biggest players in Pakistan for electrical accessories and its capacity is 1200 dozens of products in a day. They reach this level by operating 16 hours a day. Of these hours 7 hours are overtime hours from 5pm to 12am. They are operating efficiently according to the demand of the market. Costing Recording of Raw Material Inventory They usually maintain the low level of inventory only for one month. All the inventory records are maintained manually. The accountant himself receives the material and records in the books of accounts. The costing is decided on the basis of the products produced by one bag of raw plastic i.e. The total number of products produced by one bag (Grams) Cost of one bag. And the costing of other materials is recorded in alignment with this rule. Recording of Labor

The total labor consists of 150 to 170 people, of this 50 are permanent and remaining is contractual for pacing the production. The contract labor is paid on the piece work basis. The contractual labor is paid every Thursday of the week and permanent labor is paid every month. Neither permanent nor contractual (Variable labor) are provided with amenities like pension, insurance etc. Recording of FOH The FOH mainly consists of electricity bill and fuel. As there is shortage of electricity so in order to meet the demand of production they use their self-unit of energy production (high capacity generator), this increases the cost of production. The building and land is self-owned and no rent is paid. Only the repair and maintenance expenses are included in FOH. Finally packaging material expense is included in FOH, this material is ordered to the printing press. Die making Department Die is the part of machinery which is used to mold the plastic according to the design. Crescent international have established its own die making department to meet the needs of the dynamic demand. Firstly these dies were imported from China but by establishment of this department their import of dies declined. New dies are made frequently due to the saturation of old designs in the market to cope with the declining trend in demand. These dies are made with the cooperation of top management and a full time specialized designer.

Technology Status There is no testing facility for checking mold hardness, metallographic and material testing of molds etc. The machines are adoptive to new designs production due to the changing in dies. There are four machines which use PC and ABS as raw material and only one machine for Bakelite products due to less demand and inferior quality of Bakelite material.

The machines are being used for 15 years and they are not purchasing the new machines as their old machines are maintained properly and working effectively. These machines are maintained by the electrical engineer who is in the top management. If some serious problem in machinery is produced a specialized mechanic is hired from Lahore. Market Mechanism Crescent International has recently exported some of its products to other countries but this couldnt happen continually. They are covering all the cities of Pakistan but they are still progressing to reach Quetta, the only market they are not serving due to instable circumstances. The company has a network of selling agents which are 8 to 10 in number, who capture order and place with the company. The company fulfills the order, dispatch the product to agent and receive the payment after one month from the agents. The agents are independent for the profit margin they want to receive. The company does not limit the price of the product to agents. Financing The company is using only equity financing no debt has been taken from any of the financial institutions. They mostly work on the cash basis with maximum one month credit. Human Resources The education level of workers/labor working in this company is very low which is a major hindrance in learning and accepting new tools and techniques. There are no vocational training facilities for the training of workers. The machine operators are very experienced having experience of more than 15 years. All the top management consists of joint family. The company is managed by Mr. Ibrahim who is nephew of the founder.