"The game of strategy" - Cricket to Manufacturing

by Kansai Nerolac Paints Ltd.
1 781 4.0/5

This is the story of a cricket team named KNPL, leading team in its country. The team is known among other teams for its players, strategies, planning and winning streak. However, the team is still facing difficulty in meeting the required score by maintaining a standard run rate. Captain of the team Mr. RS understood the necessity of changing the strategy which otherwise would lead to a decline in the winning streak of the team.  As per the direction from coach Mr. RT, captain was asked to assess the performance through a SWOT analysis. The captain collected the previous 6 months match performance data, analyzed thoroughly and found that 3 players A, B and C were fluctuating in their performance. Based on the conclusions from this analysis report, the coach and the captain decided to assess all the players on their performance. During this assessment, all players were given a target run rate but players A, B and C were able to achieve only 80% of the target run rate which was pulling down the performance of entire team. The assessment report was reviewed in the board meeting, attended by team sponsors along with the coach. The board members advised the captain to check the possibility of sending the players for professional training and ordered for a reassessment after 6 months. The captain himself being a strong trainer undertook the responsibility of revamping the team up to the benchmark set by the board members.

To identify the week areas of the 3 players, captain identified 4 situational changes in the game which are allowed in the final game as well. Game was scheduled in 5 phases and entire team players were made to play in these 5 phases incorporating all 4 situational changes. The outcome of this test was surprisingly positive. All players including A, B, C could achieve and surpass the desired run rate when all 4 changes are incorporated in the game.       

Resin section of KNPL Hosur is mapped to KNPL cricket team. DMAIC methodology is used in place of SWOT analysis. Three players A, B and C are the three unique resins manufactured in Resin section. Run rate is mapped to batch cycle time. The four situational changes are the four improvement activities implemented to reduce batch cycle time - 1. Installation of automated air controller to run air operated pump with strainer installation in suction line to avoid pump choke, 2. SCADA temperature Logic change to reduce heating time by temperature setting change from 160 to 180 deg C, 3. Replacement of old heat exchanger with new plate heat exchanger to reduce batch cooling time and installation of online carbon filter to prevent heat exchanger from choke in future, 4. Batch unloading temperature change from 70 deg C to 90 deg C and continuing cooling from other resource to reduce reactor occupancy time.

Lessons Learned

  1. Existing customers are the key to sustained profits and are required to be active so as to meet the ultimate goal of organization.
  2. Looking beyond traditional solutions can help in achieving transformational change in the performance of the organization.
  3. DMAIC methodologies gave a structured approach to the problem solving.
  4. Participation from cross functional team members is critical for success of the project.
  5. Always encourage situational benchmarking.
  6. For true organizational progress, innovation and out of the box thinking is inevitable.
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02 November 2019 by Rajesh S
Good learnings and good theme for a technical subject.