People see our VP as a levelheaded person. On that day all the staff members were shocked when VP lost patience. At that instance the team got restless and literally on the verge of knocking down the development team. As a team leader I was shrieking “Why the shade matching being done is not OK” .What is happening – Why the shade matching is not getting OK at First Instance. We cannot produce the yarn as per customer requirement and the order will get delayed again. We have to identify the reasons for shade matching not OK, analyze them and work on finding and implementing solutions to help increase Right First Time (RFT)
Continuous delays in delivery of orders attracted for a presentation on various reasons for such delays. Data of shade correction in melange mixing was presented to top management and its figures were consistently lower than standard for quite a few months. Also it was affecting the bottom line of the organization.
Shade correction in Melange Mixing was such a pain, which was leading to loss of potential orders in addition to financial loss .Everyone agrees in Spinning that the Shade correction in Melange Mixing is high as compared to the standard and has direct as well as significant impact on the bottom line of the organization. Also, it was leading to delay in execution of orders and problem of line balancing which directly affects the loss of production and customer dissatisfaction. Optimizing the cost of production was of prime importance to WTIL leadership team and to prove the aspects of growth, customer satisfaction without giving up the excellence in manufacturing by establishing new standards of performance
All the improvements that were done followed the 'Management of change'.
All relevant SOP’s were modified and on - site trainings were given to employees
Knowledge sharing was done through One-Point Lessons.
Do and Don’ts board prepared and displayed on site for better control over the gains.
Project closing survey conducted by the team to understand the fulfillment of the “Voice Of Customer” and share actions taken as per their requirement.
A project is only as successful as the people behind it. The person who felt the most pain in Shade matching Process was nominated as Project Leader (Mr. Sudeep Mondal) and team members were selected from different departments concerning the problem. In all CFT (Cross Functional Team) was formed to solve the problem
The top management reviewed the progress of the project in the Monthly Review meeting. Daily MIS being circulated internally for shade matching.
Project resulted in savings of Rs 32 lacs per annum, recurring.
This project team was awarded as the best TQM Project on the Annual Day by the Top Management.
Lessons Learned
- The status-quo should be challenged as if something is going on since years doesn’t mean that it has to be the done same way ever. There are always options available to do in some other better way ,as Out of box thinking gives result
- Improvement in planning, execution and team management skill
- Improved relationship with stakeholders
- Improved confidence to drive similar projects in the future
- Earlier management was only concerned with average values but now the focus is more on reducing variations observed in the process