Quality Fables Competition 2019

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.

King Vikramaditya was given the duty of bringing Betal to a tantric. Each time Vikram tried to capture Betal, it told him a story that ended with a riddle. If Vikram could not answer the question correctly, Betal agreed to remain in captivity. But, if the king knew the answer and kept quiet, his head would burst into a thousand pieces. And if King Vikram spoke, Betal would escape and return to his tree.

King Vikramaditya reached the peepul tree and placed Betal on his shoulder once again. As they walked, Betal began to tell another story.

“One day, a man came into the court of King Akbar, asking to be employed as the King’s advisor. He introduced himself as Birbal and promised to improve the Kingdom. After watching a display of his skills, the King readily agreed to give him the job.

As Birbal was walking in the kingdom along with the King Akbar next day, they heard some massive noises. Suddenly a demon appeared in front of them & said “Ha Ha Ha. I am here to indulge the Kingdom. I can see the improper structure of this kingdom. There is no standardisation and the people are not caring about the information provided on daily basis.”

Birbal was shocked at this news and asked, “Is there anything I can do to save this Kingdom?”

The demon roared, “You must find a suitable alternate way to improve this Kingdom’s information management methods”

Birbal asked for a day to find a substitute and went home. After looking for various options, he came with a solution. The next morning, King Akbar arrived to chauk of the display boards to try and stop demon from taking any erroneous decisions.

Birbal till the time explained the demon his concept of Automation which includes a CFT with members from Operations, business, Excellence & an IT to work upon a solution. It had quick plan to arrive at strategy and implement the feasible solution.

“I am impressed with your concept and giving you 6 months’ time for implementation”, bellowed the demon.

“So, tell me, wise King,” began Betal. “What was the solution? Will Birbal be successful to save his kingdom?

King Vikramaditya laughed and said, “Birbal’s concept of automation with the standardisation was the great solution. The team started working on plan, ironing the technical/ budgetary challenges able to control the stations with visual display on industrial PC. Slowly the plan covered all critical / major information in the kingdom. Several trainings were conducted to educate the subjects for managing this system / interpreting output and taking timely actions. This solution was deployed in the neighbourhood kingdoms as the best practices”

“You are right! But since you have opened your mouth, I must fly away.” With these words, Betal flew away, leaving King Vikramaditya to chase him with his sword.

Cast:
Kingdom - Cummins India
Akbar: Quality Leader
Birbal: Black Belt
Demon: Customer representative

Solution - Implementation of online Statistical Process Control in machine shop.

Once upon a time there lived an emperor by the name of Harsh. Harsh ruled Kingdom of A and was known for his impartiality & for his commitment towards development of his state. Happiness of the people in the state was evident to all the visitors.

King Utkarsh, Emperor of B, was very curious to know the reason for the prosperity of empire A. Since King Utkarsh was busy spending his quality time in resolving the complaints of his people, he sent few of his key members to investigate the reason for prosperity of empire A.

The investigating team came up with a surprising fact that “Prosperity of empire A is due to their good taxation system, which was implemented precisely at all levels without any bias & negative impact on common people”.

Investigating team shared common people feedback on taxation system as:

“Barsat Harsat Sab Lakhai, Karsat Lakhai Na Koi,

Tulsi Praja Subhag Se, Bhoop Bhanu So Hoya”

(Meaning: King should take tax from everyone like sun. Sun takes water from Biological cells to sea and gives in reverse wherever pressure difference occurs in the form of rain. Similarly king should provide for development of state.)

After getting feedback from investigating team, King Utkarsh immediately called his ministry and instructed them to implement good points in his kingdom.

Subsequently, kingdom B prospered. Not only were the people happy but it also witnessed positive growth in sales and increase in buying power of the people, thereby increasing the tax collection. Soon, Empire B became popular for their Quality, Delivery and Cost of their products and acquired significant market percentage of empire A as well.

Worried by the concerns of reduction in sales, minister of empire A met emperor Harsh. He immediately deployed Improvement Ministry on the task to investigate and come up with a sustainable improvement plan to regain customer faith.

During investigation, Improvement Ministry team observed that customer sentiment towards their products had reduced due to defects and multiple follow ups for rework, which in turn increased cost of buying the products & led to customer dissatisfaction. On the other hand, products of Empire B had no defects.  Thus, they quickly gained customers’ confidence.

Improvement Ministry team shared their finding to emperor Harsh & suggested the idea of First time right (FTR). King Harsh instructed & initiative of First Time Right (FTR) was launched in empire A to facilitate all producers to regain their market leadership position.

Soon, their hard work benefitted & manufacturers of empire A implemented all actions that were identified for improving the process of FTR. It also helped them to reduce their operating cost for better profit margins.

Saving in lacs realized through FTR improvements. This benefit was again transferred back to customers by reducing cost as per their legacy in state, led by emperor Harsh.

Empire A regained the position of market leader & became a model empire for all the neighbouring kingdoms.

“Green for future” is associated with corrugated box scrap reduction & Reusing of wooden scrap for packing body parts to save the trees & save the greenery for the future

Once fine morning, went for Operational team meeting, while crossing through, I seen a person packing some parts in Mahindra branded packing, he was throwing the box to Dump bin & when I saw the bin, it was full, surprisingly – I have enquired this to my team members, who told its scrap, but for me it was opportunity to save the trees with potential cost savings 

So I have decided to reduce this scrap to save “trees” which gives us oxygen, explained this concept to my cross functional team members who were very impressed with this theme,

First we have prioritised the parts list which were coming in normal brown non branded corrugated boxes in huge qty, so we have decided to go ahead with bulky parts First , so keeping this in mind, we chosen seats & when we observed wooden scrap we have decided go ahead for recycling woods pieces. 

Seats & Body parts are important parts of Spares business , which has good volume sales, with driving positive change in current process of sourcing of these 2 important commodity parts , it brings good scrap reduction to save nature & to grow business by cost savings

We approached Suppliers and asked them to change the brown corrugated box with Mahindra branded boxes which turned in to Eureka, we have got succeed in this & with WIN – WIN situation with vendor , we implemented prepacking at vendors end,

For body parts we have asked our team to reuse the wooden scrap, which we were getting from suppliers, accordingly our team started using the same & this changed the drastic reduction in wooden pieces scrap reduction across the Mahindra warehouses also it reduced the man hours of packing, as double packing process avoided.

Warehouse team was even having some scrapes in terms of outer cartoons , which our team has advised to go ahead as cushioning material for packing of outgoing parts , with help of BOX SHREDDER MACHINE, we have reused the scrap to reuse these scrapped boxes which have given potential savings.

Project is having potential content  as its include eco-friendly & cost savings with sustainability development , Horizontal deployment from this project is already in process as Farm division parts.

Words From Admin Department of Mahindra - Mahindra is  planting 1.5 LACS of TREES/Year across the India as CSR, 

With this Savings of Rs 32 lakhs/ year is saved & Helped  Avoid transit damage of body shells, Savings 270 trees/ year by recycling scrap wood, 270 trees will generate 70,200 pounds of oxygen/year,

270 tress will absorb 3510 pounds of Co2 /year, Scrap Reduction of 2.6 tones, which helps environmental sustainability for seats  , improvement & process lead time reduction, Parts processing & packing time reduced to 6 hours from 72 hours, Warehouse space utilization.

In 2006, a young nurse, Junie Xaviour freshly passed out from a renowned Nursing college in Kerala came to work in a super-speciality hospital in Kolkata. Motivated by Florence Nightingale, she was eager to be a part of the patient care process.

One month into her duty in CCU, she got a deep needle prick from a hypodermic needle while withdrawing after administering an injection to a patient. Not knowing what to do, she casually approached her supervisor Lily. “Madam, I got a prick from a used needle and its bleeding”, said Junie. “Junie you should not take this casually at all. This prick can act as the entry of deadly organisms and lead to diseases like HIV, Hepatitis B or C”, exclaimed supervisor Lily.

“Madam, I am scared. What should I do now? Said a bit startled Junie. “Listen Junie, Meet the Emergency Medical Officer.” Junie met with the EMO, Dr Jatin. Dr Jatin asked, “You are quite careless? Were you not taught in Nursing school how to give injections? Junie replied nervously “Sir, I have accidentally pricked myself with a used needle”.

Dr Jatin replied quite apathetically, “I will give you first aid. I will take your blood samples.” Go and get the billing done with this prescription. Get me the patient’s sample also.”

Junie ran all the way panic-stricken to her supervisor to get the patient details. Ms Lily mentioned, how can we ask the patient for the sample? Who will bear the cost?” Junie replied in a trembling voice “Madam, I will bear all the cost.” Lily replied “Go and convince the patient and draw the sample.” Junie had a tough time explaining to the patient to get the sample. She bore the cost herself, deposited the samples with the laboratory and went back to Dr Tarak. “Do I need to do anything else”, Junie asked. Dr Jatin mentioned “we will inform you”. Junie waited for a week but no one got back.

She approached a relative of her who was a nurse in the School of Tropical Medicine, Kolkata who guided her through the next course of action.

“That incident totally shook me up. Fortunately for me the follow ups were negative. I decided, I will not let this happen to anyone in the future”’ recalls Junie. She changed her career path and shifted to Nursing administration. She undertook the Infection Control course from TISS and joined Apollo Gleneagles Hospital Limited, Kolkata, a multidisciplinary tertiary care JCI accredited hospital in 2010 in infection control.

Over the years Junie worked hard with support from Hospital management and Quality Cell to build a robust process of Needle stick injury and other sharps related injury preventions. From as high as an average of 6/month NSI has been reduced to “zero” in current months.

According to Junie “Through team efforts, we have achieved what we wanted in our hospital. But, we have miles to go before we sleep. We need to strengthen our National Policies and bring in mandates to protect staffs from Occupational Exposures to Blood borne pathogen like abroad.” Junie’s initiative still continues to touch the lives of many.

I am Tara, a happy house sparrow, living with my family in the city of Bangalore. My parents were born here and grew amongst nature and the friendly people of Bangalore. My childhood was spent entwined with humans, like the rock pigeons brooding in high-rises.

When I was young, my friends and I flitted through the backyards of human dwellings, chirping on the branches of trees. We didn’t fear humans and hopped on the ground near the ladies who cleaned rice on pans hoping to grab some falling grains. We would laze around in the cozy nests built by our parents in between the inner and outer layers of the tiled roofs of houses, watching humans go about their daily lives.

Recently, loss of farmlands, lakes and parks in Bangalore owing to urbanization as well as the excess usage of pesticide has caused our food sources like insects to become scarce. The lack of suitable nesting and roosting sites threatened our very survival. We began searching desperately for a sustainable habitat for our species.     

We flew all across Bangalore in search of a new home and came across a patch of land filled with tress, water bodies, shrubs and lawns adjoining the Veerasandra Lake in Electronic city. My family was delighted to find such a place and grew elated on finding few of our relatives and friends already living there happily feeding on fish and insects available in plenty.

We found a building nestled within this greenery where humans worked amidst nature, having open meetings on terraces  shaped like Balinese rice fields, walking on paths adjoining the bio lake, soaking in the scenic beauty of the natural Veerasandra lake merging with the bio lake  and feeding the fishes. We found the humans here radiated energy and enthusiasm and enjoyed working there. We were inspired by their open office design allowing an abundance of natural light and air. There was no air-conditioning puffing out harmful gases but only an array of solar panels, glittering on the roof. This building is a Platinum LEED certified building with a 5 star GRIHA rating, a phenomenal feat even among humans.

Our entire family felt blessed by our ancestors for finding this wonderful place we now call home. Food is abundant here as the rich landscape is entirely manured (organic insects!!) which we share with a vibrant variety of fauna. This campus, I came to understand is the corporate office of Titan Company. By creating this facility, Titan has not only brought happiness to sparrows and humans alike but has also contributed towards protecting the environment by restoring the ecological balance in this part of Bangalore.

I have already invited my extended family members to shift here and also invite all of you all to visit our new home to get inspired to further the cause of our precious environment.

Humans have always been fascinated with flight. Flying machines such as the “Pushpaka Vimana”, dragons, griffons as well as giant eagles and peacocks were the choice vehicles of transport in legends of yore. Even in the Ramayana, Sita was abducted by Raavana using his flying chariot and Hanuman soars through the skies to rescue her.

Thanks to Wright brothers for inventing the airplane and making our dreams a reality. Just like land and sea, warfare took flight soon and the era of aerial dogfights and bombings began. Helicopters were invented soon after and provided unprecedented manoeuvrability and accessibility which helped in war and peace.

In a multipolar world, almost all countries are upgrading their technologies of making planes and choppers. HAL of India has also started making attack helicopters. Its engine runs efficiently due to a critical component called diffuser and HAL badly needed a partner to produce diffusers without defects and approached us. Here’s what happened.

HAL : We have a big problem…!!

Titan : Well, Congratulations..!!

HAL : Whaaatt???

Titan : I mean… for coming to the right people ..... we are here to solve it…

HAL : You don’t understand …we need diffusers to be produced for our customer SAFRAN to these strict specifications  but are unwilling to share us the knowhow.

Titan : Don’t worry we can do without that.

 HAL : Is this possible?

Titan : Have faith in us. Wait and watch…

There were no apparent solutions initially but the team brainstormed and generated ideas based on their experience and knowledge on other methods of part clamping by fixtures for high accuracy. Even once an idea was finalized, there were no suppliers available as it was a new and complex design. Titan identified a capable supplier and gave him the required technical support to get the fixture done. Prototypes were iterated for accuracy correction and balancing and the component was proved successfully after a week of intense testing.

Titan thus became the only supplier in India to produce the diffuser component to perfection and the only supplier globally to produce the component without rejections.

HAL were delighted that they have achieved this with the contribution of Titan and informed SAFRAN that they have successfully produced the diffuser.

SAFRAN: Is that true…How much is the rejection percentage... Even we are facing 20% rejection rate guys..

HAL: Nooo…There is zero rejection.

SAFRAN: That is impossible.... I don’t believe it.

HAL: Our supplier Titan has done it... You will believe once you see it for yourself.

SAFRAN: There must be some foul play here... We will come with you to Titan to find out..

SAFRAN saw the innovative fixture at Titan that was used to manufacture the diffuser. They were overjoyed and believed more than ever in Titan’s capabilities. They started approaching Titan directly with huge orders for their global requirement, a game changer for Titan’s fortunes.

The Experiment
In olden times there was a noble King who was keen to improve the life of people in his kingdom. One day he decided to check what people think about him and his welfare work. He went around the kingdom in disguise and interacted with people as a common man with a view to understand what the subject thinks of him and his policies. The kind of feedback he received came as a shocker to the king. It seems, people did not have a very good perception of the king. The image that he thought people held of him, was shattered. On further engagement with the people, he could figure out that the problem was implementation and not his schemes.

The Awakening
This was an eye opener for the king. The king concluded that people feedback is extremely critical to effectively manage his welfare work. Also the perception of King among its subject will be good if and only if they are happy and satisfied. Hence he decided to evaluate his ministers’ performances basis what the subject perceives instead of notion of excellence carried by the king and his ministers.

The Action
Next, the King called for a session of his court and asked his ministers to present ideas on how to evaluate if the subject is really happy in his reign.

The wise royal sage to the king said,” O King! I suggest you set up a way to gather direct feedback of your subject. You should set up a two big Bells outside your palace connected to a rope hanging from the terrace and name them as SHUKRIYA and FARIYAD. SHIUKRIA will sound happy and melodious when rung while FARIYAD will sound harsh and unpleasant. Encourage the subject to approach your palace and ring those bells as per their wish. The number of such rings will tell you if your subject is happy or sad.”

King was extremely excited with the idea. He added that each and every FARIYAD will be listened to by himself while all SHUKRIYA bells will be rewarded. The ministers became alert. They knew that if they do a good work this will come back in the form of a SHUKRIYA

The Efforts and the Results
Such a thing was unheard of in those days. The people of the kingdom were very happy with this arrangement. Whenever they were happy / unhappy about any service they would go to the palace and register their SHUKRIYA / FARIYAD with the king himself. This ensured that the ministers were on their toes. They started ensuring that the subject was really happy and getting the benefits of the various welfare schemes launched by the King. This was to enhance the sound of melodies as against the cacophony of FARIYAD bells.

This resulted into more and more SHUKRIYAs as it became imperative to the system to perform and deliver.

The number of Happy Bells soon became 5X that of the Unhappy Bells.

King:MD&CEO|Subject:Customers|Ministers:Employees|Shukriya:Appreciation|Fariyad:Complaint