The Helac plant is in Faridabad, a city to the west of Gurgaon. It is an industrial town. That means it is even smellier, dirtier, and uglier than other places. Driving through, you see few women, few trees, and much garbage. They hired a guy to paint this sign on the fence, but even though they gave him a logo business card to copy from, he still spelled 2 words wrong (including the name of the state, Haryana) and had to repaint it. Looks pretty good now, though, eh?
This is just inside the main door to the right - it is the Quality Manager's office and parts checking area. The things to notice in these photos are all the shavings from the planes. They do all this work with hand tools. The boards come in looking very rough, and from the looks of all the shavings, it is a wonder there is any board left!
This is an Indian table saw. Draw a line and use a hand saw. The finished product looks amazingly good when you consider the tools.
These photos are of the main offices - Sumit took the one on the end and Randy the one farther in. The room at the end of the hall on the right is the conference room, and on the left is the bathroom. On the left side of the aisle are these cubicles. The two offices are pretty nice, other than the floors which are just rough cement. The cubicles have windows except for the part where there is no glass in them.
This is the main plant area. It has lots of natural light from the roof, which is good since the power is off half the time. The men working there are the electricians pulling wire through those conduit on the wall. This next photo shows how the guy got the wire wrapped around the ladder, and they had to pull it all back out and unwind it and start again. Notice also the quality, OSHA-approved ladder, made from 2x4s that used to be a crate full of stuff from the US.
Bob and Ken came from Enumclaw to set up the first machines and help wire them up. We had them over for spaghetti the night they caught their plane home.
Then Phay came to train the gear cutters. We did not subject him to dinner with our kids
This is the big giant generator they brought in to compensate for the fact that the power is off half the time. It is bad in Gurgaon and Delhi but I think worse in Faridabad.
This is the view from the far end of the factory, once all the machines were set, the power was wired up, etc. The floor looks even from here, but it really isn't. Where I am standing to take this photo there is a roll-up door to another area of the building. This next photo is of a crew of people tearing up the brick floor. I don't know why, but they pried it up and broke all the bricks into smallish chunks. This is how many roads are here, too, the busted up bricks get pressed into the dirt and make bumpy roads that aren't much better than plain dust!
Randy showing the kids how the machines work. In India, they are all old enough to get a job in a factory of some kind. It isn't legal until 14 years, but there is alot of child labor here, even in dangerous jobs.
The Helac factory has two parts - two large rooms. These next photos are of the other room, which until recently has been occupied by several massive looms belonging to the previous tenant. They were supposed to be removed long ago, but things move slowly here in India!
I thought the looms were pretty cool - they were weaving rugs and it looks like a very complicated process. What the top photo shows is the end of the loom which had hundreds of wires that the wool is threaded between. The back has the partially finished rug. Set-up must take forever.This is a chunk of floor that came up with the removal of a loom. Quality work. Notice the many layers of cement (or whatever) you can see.
This is Randy's executive bathroom. Hahaha. Actually the factory bathroom. Nice, eh? I wouldn't use it!
This is the inside of the office bathroom. Again, no glass in the windows. Sometimes there is some filthy plexiglass. The wires strung across the room and out the window are a nice touch.
This shows how these buildings are put together. There used to be a door there, but we don't need it so we brick it up. And when we need a door somewhere else, we just bash a hole where we want it. Simple! They bricked it, plastered over and painted it and you had to look to find it.
This is the other part of the factory after the looms were removed and it was cleaned up a bit. Again, the floor looks smooth but isn't.
This is how I know.... we took our rollerblades one Saturday when Randy had to check in at work, and while he worked, we rolled! I think Isaac was the only one who actually fell, but the floor is pretty uneven and it was close a few times for me!
The factory is very close to being ready to actually make something. And it has only been four months! It isn't Randy's fault - you would simply NOT believe the amount of government paperwork and hassle it is to open a business here. It has been very frustrating for him. Maybe someday I will blog about the corruption and extortion and bribes expected.
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