Contents

OBJECTIVE

To study the operational activities in Galaxy Pencils Manufacturing Company and relate
the concepts of Operations Management through plant visit.
Introduction about the company
Galaxy Pencils Manufacturing Company has emerged as the prominent Manufacturer,
Exporter & Supplier of Stationery Products. The company is quality certified under CE
certificate (certified to European Countries). Established in 2004 by Mr. Rajendra Dhoka
(CEO), the company has been successfully catering to all the needs of the clients.
Team
The unit is managed by qualified and experienced team which has the extensive knowledge of
the methods and techniques that are required for Manufacturing, Exporting & Supplying of the
Stationery Products. The management takes special care of all the necessities of the team.
Regular workshops and training sessions are given to make them aware of the latest technologies
of production.
The Team includes

Production engineers

Quality controllers

Warehousing personnel

Trade and marketing professionals

Skilled & semi skilled workers

Infrastructure
Our unit is spread over an area of 25000 sq. ft. Advanced machinery such as Extrusion Machine
and Molding Machine are used which help us to produce approx. 3 lacs pencils, 1.5 lacs eraser
and 50000 sharpeners per day. Customized Production Facility of the Stationery Products are
also available as per the requests of the clients.
Plant Location In Pune-

Warehousing & Packaging

We have a spacious warehouse to store our wide variety of Stationery Products securely. The
warehouse is divided into a number of sections, which help in accommodating the Stationery
Products systematically. The properly ventilated warehouse has the following features:

Spacious

Highly automated

Well connected to roads, stations and ports

Fire safety arrangements

Network across the world

The variety of Stationery Products is supplied to the clients all over India. The team of trade and
market professionals personally interacts with the clients and tries to understand their demands
and requests. This helps them to maximize the clients satisfaction to the fullest. The products are
exported in the countries such as:

USA

UK

Dubai

Sri Lanka

Bangladesh

South Africa

Clientele
Stationery Products offered by them are extensively used by various industries. They have been
successfully serving them without any complaints and delay in the delivery procedure. The main
aim is to maximize clients satisfaction and team of trade and market professionals personally
interacts with the clients to understand their demands. For the same they have been delivering the
best quality Stationery Products to the clients. Some of the prestigious clients are:

Wal-mart

Cartoon Network

Mitashi

Kids Animation India Pvt. Ltd.

WHY WE HAVE TAKEN UP THIS COMPANY AND ITS PRODUCTS AS OUR

PROJECT.

Ample range of products

Market leading prices

Experienced and talented team of professionals

Products as per international standards

On- Time deliver

Effectiveness to meet deadlines

Efficient distribution and delivery network

Name of CEO
Establishment Year
Nature of Business
No. of Employees
Market Covered

:
:
:
:
:

Mr. Rajendra Dhoka

2004
Manufacturer, Exporter & Supplier
90
India, USA, UK, Dubai, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh & South Africa

PENCIL-AS A PRODUCT
One of the oldest and most widely used writing utensils, the pencil originated in pre-historic
times when chalky rocks and charred sticks were used to draw on surfaces as varied as animal
hides and cave walls. The Greeks and Romans used flat pieces of lead to draw faint lines on
papyrus, but it was not until the late 1400s that the earliest direct ancestor of today's pencil was
developed. About one hundred years later graphite, a common mineral occurring as soft, lustrous
veins in rocks, was discovered near Borrowdale in northwestern England. The Borrowdale mine
supplied Europe with graphite for several hundred years; however, because people could not then

differentiate between graphite and lead, they referred to the former as "black lead." Cut into rods
or strips, graphite was heavily wrapped in twine to provide strength and a comfortable handle.
The finished product, called a lead pencil, was quite popular. In the late sixteenth century, a
method for gluing strips of wood around graphite was discovered in Germany, and the modern
pencil began to take form. In 1779, scientists determined that the material they had previously
thought was lead was actually a form of microcrystalline carbon that they named graphite (from
the Greek "graphein" meaning "to write"). Graphite is one of the three natural forms of pure
carbonthe others are coal and diamond.
In the late eighteenth century the Borrowdale mine was depleted, and, as graphite was now less
plentiful, other materials had to be mixed with it to create pencils. A Frenchman chemist, Nicolas
Jacques Conte, discovered that when powdered graphite, powdered clay, and water

were mixed, molded, and baked, the finished product wrote as smoothly as pure graphite. Conte
also discovered that a harder or softer writing core could be produced by varying the proportion
of clay and graphitethe more graphite, the blacker and softer the pencil. In 1839, Lothar von
Faber of Germany developed a method of making graphite paste into rods of the same thickness.
He later invented a machine to cut and groove the pencil wood. Following the depletion of the
once-abundant graphite source at Borrowdale, other graphite mines were gradually established
around the world.
A number of these mines were set up in the United States, and the first American pencils were
manufactured in 1812, after the War of 1812 ended English imports. William Monroe, a cabinet
maker in Concord, Massachusetts, invented a machine that cut and grooved wood slats precisely
enough to make pencils. Around that time, American inventor Joseph Dixon developed a method
of cutting single cedar cylinders in half, placing the graphite core in one of the halves, and then
gluing the two halves back together. In 1861, Eberhard Faber built the United States' first pencilmaking factory in New York City.
Today, the hardness of a pencil is designated by numbers or letters. Most manufacturers use the
numbers 1 to 4, with 1 being the softest and making the darkest mark. Number 2 pencils
(medium soft) are used for normal writing. Pencils are also sometimes graded by letters, from
6B, the softest, to 9H, the hardest. The idea of attaching an eraser to a pencil is traced to Hyman
W. Lipman, an American whose 1858 U.S. patent was bought by Joseph Rechendorfer in 1872
for a reported $100,000.

INPUTS REQUIRED FOR PENCIL MASS PRODUCTION

The first step in pencil manufacture involves making the graphite core. One method of doing
this is extrusion, in which the graphite mixture is forced through a die opening of the proper size.
In addition to the conventional wood pencil, a number of other pencils are widely used. In the
early 1880s, the search for a pencil that didn't require sharpening led to the invention of what has
variously been termed the automatic, propelling, or repeating pencil. These instruments have a
metal or plastic case and use leads similar to those found in wood cased pencils. The lead, lodged
in a metal spiral inside the case, is held in place by a rod with a metal stud fastened to it. When
the cap is twisted, the rod and stud move downward in the spiral, forcing the lead toward the
point. The early twentieth century saw the development of colored pencils in which the graphite
core was replaced by a combination of pigments or dyes and a binder. Today, colored pencils are
available in more than 70 colors, with 7 different yellows and 12 different blues. However, the
cedar-casing lead pencilmanufactured at a pace of 6 billion per year in 40 different countries
continues to outsell all of its competitors, including the ballpoint pen.
Raw Materials
The most important ingredient in a pencil is the graphite, which most people continue to call
lead. Cont's method of combining graphite with clay is still used, and wax or other chemicals
are sometimes added as well. Virtually all graphite used today is a manufactured mixture of
natural graphite and chemicals.
The wood used to manufacture pencils must be able to withstand repeated sharpening and cut
easily without splintering. Most pencils are made from cedar (specifically, California cedar), the
choice wood for many years. Cedar has a pleasant odor, does not warp or lose its shape, and is
readily available. Some pencils have erasers, which are held on with a ferrule, a metal case that is
either glued or held on with metal prongs. The erasers themselves consist of pumice and rubber.
The Manufacturing Process
Now that most commercially used graphite is made in factories rather than mined, manufacturers
are able to easily control its density. The graphite is mixed with clay according to the type of

pencil being madethe more graphite used, the softer the pencil, and the darker its line. For
colored pencils, pigments are added to the clay, and virtually no graphite is used.
Processing the graphite
1. Two methods are used to form the graphite into its finished state. The first is an extrusion
method in which the graphite and wax mixture is forced through a mold to create a
spaghetti-like string, which is then cut to precise measurements and dried in ovens. In the
second method, the graphite and clay mixture is poured into a machine called a billet
press. A plug is placed over the top of the press, and a metal ram ascends from the bottom
to squash the mixture into a hard, solid cylinder called a "billet." The billet is then
removed from the top of the machine and placed into an extrusion press that forces it
through a mold, slicing off strips the

To make the wood casings for the pencils, square slats are formed, and then grooves are
cut into the slats. Next, graphite sticks are inserted into the grooves on one slat, and then
a second slat with empty grooves is glued on top of the graphite-filled slot. Correctly
sized pencils are cut out of the sandwich, and the eraser and metal ferrule are attached.
size of the pencil core. After being cut to size, the cores pass along a conveyor belt and
are collected in a trough to await insertion in the pencil wood.

Making the wood casings Facility Layout

2. The cedar usually arrives at the factory already dried, stained, and waxed, to prevent
warping. Logs are then sawed into narrow strips called "slats"; these are about 7.25
inches (18.4 centimeters) long, .25 inch (.635 centimeter) thick, and 2.75 inches (6.98
centimeters) wide. The slats are placed into a feeder and dropped, one-by-one, onto a
conveyor belt which moves them along at a constant rate.
3. The slats are then planed to give them a flat surface. Next, they pass under a cutter head
that makes parallel semicircular groovesone half as deep as the graphite is thick
along the length of one side of each slat. Continuing along the conveyor belt, half of the
slats are coated with a layer of glue, and the cut graphite is laid in the grooves of these
slats.
4. The slats without glueand without graphite in the groovesare placed on another belt
that carries them to a machine that picks them up and turns them over, so they are laying
on the belt with the grooves facing down. The two conveyor belts then meet, and each
unglued slat is placed over a slat with glue and graphite, forming a sandwich. After the
sandwiches have been removed from the conveyor belt, they are placed into a metal
clamp and squeezed by a hydraulic press and left clamped together until the glue is dried.
When the pencils are dried, the ends are trimmed to remove excess glue.
Shaping the pencils
5. The next step is shaping, when the sandwiches actually become pencils. The sandwiches
are placed on a conveyor belt and moved through two sets of cutters, one above and one
below the belt. The cutters above the sandwiches cut around the top half, while the lower
set cuts around the bottom half and separates the finished pencils. The majority of pencils
are hexagonal, so designed to keep the pencils from rolling off surfaces; a single
sandwich yields six to nine hexagonal pencils.
Final steps
6. After the pencils have been cut, their surfaces are smoothed by sanders, and varnish is
applied and dried. This is done with varnishing machines, in which the pencils are
immersed in a vat of varnish and then passed through a felt disk, which removes the
excess varnish. After drying, the pencils are put through the process again and again until
the desired color is achieved. Finally, the pencils receive a finishing coat.
7. The pencils once again are sent on a conveyor belt through shaping machines, which
remove any excess varnish that has accumulated on the ends of the pencils. This step also
ensures that all of the pencils are the same length.
8. Erasers are then attached, held to the pencil by a round, metal case called a "ferrule." The
ferrule first attaches to the pencil either with glue or with small metal prongs, and then

the eraser is inserted and the ferrule clamped around it. In the final step, a heated steel die
presses the company logo onto each pencil.
Colored pencils
Colored pencils are produced in much the same way as black-writing pencils, except that their
cores contain coloring materials such as dyes and pigments instead of graphite. First, clay and
gum are added to pigment as bonding agents, and then the mixture is soaked in wax to give the
pencils smoothness. When the pencils have been formed, the outsides are painted according to
the color of the center mixture.
Quaility Control
Because they travel along a conveyor belt during the manufacturing process, pencils are
thoroughly scrutinized before they are distributed to the public. Workers are trained to discard
pencils that appear dysfunctional, and a select number are sharpened and tested when the process
is complete. A common problem is that the glue of the sandwiches sometimes doesn't adhere, but
this nuisance is usually caught when the sandwiches are being cut.

Grading and classification

A grading chart ranging from 9B to 9H

Many pencils across the world, and almost all in Europe, are graded on the European system
using a continuum from "H" (for hardness) to "B" (for blackness), as well as "F", a letter
arbitrarily chosen to indicate midway between HB and H. (It is a persistent myth that "F" stands
for "Fine"; grade F pencils are no more fine or easily sharpened than any other grade). The
standard writing pencil is graded HB. According to Petroski, this system might have been
developed in the early 20th century by Brookman, an English pencil maker. It used "B" for black
and "H" for hard; a pencil's grade was described by a sequence or successive Hs or Bs such as
BB and BBB for successively softer leads, and HH and HHH for successively harder ones.
As of 2009, a set of pencils ranging from a very hard, light-marking pencil to a very soft, blackmarking pencil usually ranges from hardest to softest as follows:

9H 8H 7H 6H 5H 4H 3H 2H

Hardest

HB

Medium

2B 3B 4B 5B 6B 7B 8B 9B

Softest

Koh-i-noor offers twenty grades from 10H to 8B for its 1500 series;Mitsubishi Pencil offers
twenty-two grades from 10H to 10B for its Hi-uni range;Derwent produces twenty grades from
9H to 9B for its graphic pencils and Staedtler produces sixteen from 6H to 8B for its Mars
Lumograph pencils.
The main market for such wide range of grades are artists who are interested in creating a full
range of tones from light grey to black. Engineers prefer harder pencils which allow for a greater
control in the shape of the lead. This is reflected in the way pencils are packaged and marketed.
For example, for its Graphic pencils Derwent offers three packages of 12 pencils each: Technical
(with hard grades from 9H to B), Sketching (with soft grades H to 9B), and Designer (with
medium grades 4H to 6B).
Pencils graded using this system are used to measure the hardness and resistance of varnishes
and paints. The resistance of a coating (also known as its pencil hardness) is determined as the
grade of the hardest pencil that does not permanently mark the coating when pressed firmly
against it at a 45 degree angle.
Cont/Thoreau
Tone

US
#1

World
B

#2

HB

#21/2 *

#3

#4

2H

* Also seen as 24/8 , 2.5, 25/10

Another method uses numbers to designate the grade of a pencil. It was originally created by
Cont and adopted in the US by John Thoreau, father of Henry Thoreau, in the 19th century.
Although Cont/Thoreau's system is widely accepted, not all manufacturers follow it; for
example, Faber-Castell uses a different equivalence table in its Grip 2001 pencils: 1 = 2B, 2 = B,
21/2 = HB, 3 = H, 4 = 2H.
The various graphite pencil grades are achieved by altering the proportion of graphite to clay: the
more clay the harder the pencil.Two pencils of the same grade but different manufacturers will
not necessarily make a mark of identical tone nor have the same hardness.

Types
By marking material
Coloured pencils
Promotional pencils
Graphite pencils
These are the most common types of pencil, and are encased in wood. They
are made of a mixture of clay and graphite and their darkness varies from
light grey to black. Their composition allows for the smoothest strokes.
Solid graphite pencils
These are solid sticks of graphite and clay composite (as found in a 'graphite
pencil'), about the diameter of a common pencil, which have no casing other
than a wrapper or label. They are often called "woodless" pencils. They are
used primarily for art purposes as the lack of casing allows for covering larger
spaces more easily, creating different effects, and providing greater economy
as the entirety of the pencil is used. They are available in the same darkness
range as wood-encased graphite pencils.

Charcoal pencils
Are made of charcoal and provide fuller blacks than graphite pencils, but tend
to smudge easily and are more abrasive than graphite. Sepia-toned and white
pencils are also available for duotone techniques.
Carbon pencils
They generally are made of a mixture of clay and lamp black, but are
sometimes blended with charcoal or graphite depending on the darkness and
manufacturer. They produce a fuller black than graphite pencils, but are
smoother than charcoal.
Coloured pencils, or pencil crayons
These have wax-like cores with pigment and other fillers. Multiple colours are
often blended together.
Grease pencils
They write on virtually any surface (including glass, plastic, metal and
photographs). The most commonly found grease pencils are encased in paper
(Berol and Sanford Peel-off), but they can also be encased in wood (Staedtler
Omnichrom).
Watercolour pencils
These are designed for use with watercolour techniques. The pencils can be
used by themselves for sharp, bold lines. Strokes made by the pencil can also
be saturated with water and spread with brushes.
By use

Two "woodless" graphite pencils, two charcoal pencils, and two grease pencils
Carpenter's pencils
These are pencils that have two main properties: their shape prevents them
from rolling, and their graphite is strong.The oldest surviving pencil is a
German carpenter's pencil dating from the 17th Century and now in the
Faber-Castell collection.
Copying pencils (or indelible pencils)
Obliteration by indelible pencil to censor mail in 1943

These are graphite pencils with an added dye that creates an indelible mark. They were invented
in the late 19th century for press copying and as a practical substitute for fountain pens. Their
markings are often visually indistinguishable from those of standard graphite pencils, but when
moistened their markings dissolve into a coloured ink, which is then pressed into another piece
of paper. They were widely used until the mid 20th century when ball pens slowly replaced them.
In Italy their use is still mandated by law for voting paper ballots in elections and referenda.
Erasable colour pencils
Unlike wax-based coloured pencils, these can be easily erased. Their main
use is in sketching, where the objective is to create an outline using the same
colour that other media (such as wax pencils, or watercolour paints) would fill
or when the objective is to scan the colour sketch.Some animators prefer
erasable colour pencils as opposed to graphite pencils because they don't
smudge as easily, and the different colours allow for better separation of
objects in the sketch.Copy-editors find them useful too, as their markings
stand out more than graphite but can be erased.
Non-reproducing
or non-photo blue pencils make marks that are not reproduced by
photocopiers[(Sanford's Copy-not or Staedtler's Mars Non-photo) or by
whiteprint copiers (Staedtler's Mars Non-Print).
Stenographer's pencil
Also known as a steno pencil. These pencils are expected to be very
reliable, and their lead is break proof. Nevertheless sometimes steno pencils
are sharpened at both ends to enhance reliability. They are round to avoid
pressure pain during long texts.
Golf pencil
Golf pencils are usually short (a common length is 9 cm) and very cheap.
They are also known as library pencils, as many libraries offer them as
disposable, unspillable writing instruments.
By shape

Triangular (more accurately a Reuleaux triangle)

Hexagonal

Round

Bendable (flexible plastic)

By size
Typical
A standard, hexagonal, "#2 pencil" is cut to a hexagonal height of 14-inch
(6 mm), but the outer diameter is slightly larger (about 932-inch (7 mm))

A standard, #2, hexagonal pencil is 19 cm (7.5 in) long.

Biggest
On 3 September 2007, Ashrita Furman unveiled his giant US$20,000 pencil
76 feet (23 m) long, 18,000 pounds (8,200 kg) (with over 4,500 pounds
(2,000 kg) for the graphite centre) after three weeks of creation in August
2007 as a birthday gift for teacher Sri Chinmoy. It is longer than the 65-foot
(20 m) pencil outside the Malaysia HQ of stationers Faber-Castell.
By manufacture
Mechanical pencils

Lead for mechanical pencils

Flexible pencils

There are also pencils which use mechanical methods to push lead through a hole at the end.
These can be divided into two groups: propelling pencils use an internal mechanism to push the
lead out from an internal compartment, while clutch pencils merely hold the lead in place (the
lead is extended by releasing it and allowing some external force, usually gravity, to pull it out of
the body). The erasers (sometimes replaced by a sharpener on pencils with larger lead sizes) are
also removable (and thus replaceable), and usually cover a place to store replacement leads.
Mechanical pencils are popular for their longevity and the fact that they may never need
sharpening. Lead types are based on grade and size; with standard sizes being 2.00 mm,
1.40 mm, 1.00 mm, 0.70 mm, 0.50 mm, 0.35 mm, 0.25 mm, 0.18 mm, and 0.13 mm (ISO 91751)the 0.9 mm size is available, but is not considered a standard ISO size.
Pop a Point Pencils

Pioneered by Taiwanese stationery manufacturer Bensia Pioneer Industrial Corporation in the

early 1970s, the product is also known as Bensia Pencils, stackable pencils or non-sharpening
pencils. It is a type of pencil where many short pencil tips are housed in a cartridge-style plastic

holder. A blunt tip is removed by pulling it from the writing end of the body and re-inserting it to
the top of the body.
Plastic pencils

Invented by Harold Grossman for Empire Pencil Company in 1967 and subsequently improved
upon by Arthur D. Little for Empire from 1969 through the early 1970s; the plastic pencil was
commercialised by Empire as the "EPCON" Pencil. These pencils were co-extruded, extruding a
plasticised graphite mix within a wood-composite core.
Other types

The Quadrachromic Pencil is a slightly enlarged pencil with four colours

equally partitioned on the tip. The use of each colour while drawing is
accomplished by rotating the pencil between the fingers.

Penny pencil

Recycled newspaper pencil

Technology required for the level of automation

Criteria applied for choosing appropriate factory location.

Logistics and distributions channels required