Taking the plan through chaos

No plan survives reality they say... but a good enough execution will well thrive even when the chaos hits. In this blog let me take you through an event occurred during my internship, and for the context I was a SAEINDIA intern and there were many tasks and responsibilities but in short we interns were like the nervous system for the event.

So what is Baja?

Baja is an international student competition and is conducted and organized by SAEINTERNATIONAL which stands for Society of Automotive Engineers and this competition is conducted in various countries like USA, Brazil and India. In India this is organized by SAEINDIA. Around 180-200 teams including all major engineering institutions in India participates which results in around 4500 students on the event site. The goal of the competition is to design and fabricate a 4 wheeled single seater all terrain vehicle (ATV) and the vehicle is tested on various parameters like its build, design and dynamic capabilities.

Something about the Kurukshetra of Baja SAEINDIA

So where does all of this fun takes place? Well its in the heart of India at NATRAX which is located just outside of Indore and now in news for its latest HST (High Speed Track) which is a test track with the highest quality tarmac and the speed limit is virtually unlimited (its 350 Km/hr), and NATRAX is a government facility made with an intent to help and boost the growth of automobile sector in India by providing just the perfect proving ground for both the domestic and foreign automakers. While it is the primary event site for Baja in India there are more event sites like Chitkara University Chandigarh, IIT Ropar and Cambridge Institute in Bangalore which is added in the 2022 event site list.

So what is your role?

As a part of intern team and me being one of the ten interns, our role is to act like a glue to all of the mini events and preparations needed like making the emergency services and planning he endurance (final race) track to successfully organize and conduct the event. While there are many tasks before and after the event my main task during the event was to plan, manage and increase the efficiency of the technical inspection area which is the center of much of the chaos during the event. And to put things in context every team must clear the technical inspection which consists of the build inspection, weigh check, engine check, safety equipment test, emergency safety drill and finally brake test. Managing a team of volunteers (and they have no motivation to work for me whatsoever), giving my inputs to the decision makers (sometimes disagree with theirs), passing instructions and to make sure everyone stays in order was part of my job.

I know everything...

So this was the second event site for Baja SAEINDIA 2020 season at Chitkara University and I was again tasked to manage everything related to the technical inspection and I thought that I have experienced managing the area at NATRAX so I will do it with ease this time and it will be a piece of cake for me. I reached the event site 4 days before the event and started planning everything and made sure that nothing goes wrong during the event.

Day T+1...

It was the first day of the event i,e. day T0 and everything was going great and then it all happened, that night it was thunderstorm and till afternoon next day i,e. T+1 the whole technical inspection area was flooded as it was like a stadium in the university campus and everything started to fall. I was worried that it could be a safety hazard for the participants, volunteers and everyone on the ground, my plans started to fall apart and we had to immediately stop all the activities. I with the help of my fellow team members evacuated the area and told everyone to move to the basement of one of the departments.

Taking the plan through chaos...

3 hours before the area was flooded I approached the head for safety and requested him to transfer all the inspection operation to the basement to any building which is spacious enough to continue our job and first he neglected and I also resumed my work but when things started to get serious we decided to evacuate and transfer all of our operations to a new location.

No plan survives the reality...

So like this all the preparation and all the planning I and everyone did eventually failed and by handling all that chaos I learned that you can not make your plans perfect but what you can do is to calm down when everything goes haywire and focus on what is important and start executing the task which is most important. And they teach you this in the Army that when in doubt

1. Follow orders
2. If there is no one to give you orders then just calm down and prioritize and execute.

Hitesh Out!!