International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 4, Issue 1, January-2013 ISSN 2229-5518 IJSER © 2013 http://www.ijser.org Study of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Products in Bangladesh: Performance and Quality Improvement of a Selected Product Moksadur Rahman, Mohammad Nazmul Huda Aslam, Jakia Sultana, Md Abdus Salam Abstract— Small and medium Enterprises (SME) plays a vital role in the economic development of country especially in the developing countries like Bangladesh. Keeping this concept an attempt has been made to survey the SME products of Bangladesh, study and improve the qualitative performance of a selected mechanical Engineering related SME product. The most difficult part of the project was the survey portion as related project/ research paper in this field is not relatively available. With almost effort lot of information has been gathered related to different range of SME products and related factors. For study and improvement of qualitative performance of cylinder and piston used in Conchi-4 R170 engine has been selected. On study it is formed that the local product quality effort was made for qualitative improvement but due to time constraint that could not be done. In subsequent projects steps may be taken for qualitative improvement using this analysis. Index Terms— Chemical composition, Cylinder and Piston , Heat treatment, Microstructure test, Rockwell and Brinell hardness number, SME, Sample. ——————————  —————————— 1 INTRODUCTION angladesh is an agricultural country so economy is mainly depending upon it. If it wants to be a developed country from developing country, it needs Industrialization. Be- cause around the world one country is called developed when it is developed in Industrialization and the development of any country is mainly depends on its industrialization. For this reason, despite of being an agricultural country Bangla- desh has different small, medium and large industries which need mechanical engineering related products. In Bangladesh the demand of mechanical engineering related products is quite large. To fulfill the demand every year a lot of foreign currency is spent due to import purposes of the mechanical engineering related products. Bangladeshi products cannot compete the market due to lack of technological knowledge, proper financial support to the producer and some other factors. To overcome the prob-lem strong SME may be a better solution. In Bangladesh SMEs have special significance for poverty re- duction programmes and potential contribution to the overall industrial and economic growth. The contribution of SME's to the GDP is increasing due to smooth release of public loans to this sector, according to sources. If the present industrial poli- cy of Government is implemented properly then the contribu- tion of industrial sector especially SME's to the national econ- omy would reach to 30 to 35 per cent and could create new 35 per cent of new employment. Considering the prospect of SME an attempt is made in this project to survey the present situation of mechanical related SME products. By this project it was tried to find the present situation of SME, its prospect, obstacles, and contribution of SME to the national economy of Bangladesh. Now-a -days SME is a very popular term in Bangladesh. Bang- ladesh Bank and every local bank are giving SME loan to the enterprises. By using the loan they are trying to improve their financial positions as well as they are contributing in national economy. There are different sectors where SME are used. Such as Electronics and electrical, Software Development, Light Engineering and metal working, Agro processing/ agro business/ plantation agriculture/ specialist farming/ tissue culture, Leather making and leather goods, Knitwear and readymade garments, Plastic and other synthetics, Automo- tive parts and components , Machinery and equipment etc. In this project it was tried to find the demand for mechanical engineering related products in Bangladesh. By surveying the small and medium organization that is producing mechanical related parts in Bangladesh and make a short list of them. By analyzing the market demand from different mechanical engineering related products one sample is chosen and it was tried to analyze their different properties & compare their quality with the foreign one and make improvement of the sample product. From a statistics it is shown that around 34% of imported products are mechanical parts for which a large amount of foreign exchange is used. If it can reduce it will be very good for Bangladesh. After realizing the problem some institutions have come forward for the development of this sector. Gov- ernment and many other organizations are working together for the betterment of this sector. For this they can take help from the educational institutions where technological knowledge available. By their theoretical knowledge they can help the producers who have practical knowledge but do not have technological knowledge. It will also helpful for the be- ginning engineer to work in the later life. Realizing the prob- lem this project has been taken. B ————————————————  Moksadur Rahman is currently pursuing masters degree program in Power Engineering in Brandenburg Technical University, Germany, Ph- 4915215250697. E-mail: musa_me4@yahoo.com  Mohammad Nazmul Huda Aslam is currently pursuing masters degree program in Mechatronics in Hoschule Ravensburg-Weingarten, Germany, Ph-4915213565519. E-mail: aslam.mist@gmail.com  Jakia Sultana is currently pursuing MBA in Dhaka Universi- ty,Bangladesh, Ph-01979000099, E-mail: js_janki@yahoo.com