Quality Fables Competition 2020

Winner - Quality Fables Competition 2020 for Individuals

Brahmadatta, the Prime Minister of Suvarnapura kingdom approached King Suvarna, “Maharaj, we have a shortage of 10,000 gold coins in our revenues this year due to the famine in the Central province of the kingdom.” King Suvarna was worried and called for his trusted Guru and Advisor, Yogi Gunavan.

Upon his arrival, the King received him with reverence and led him to the palace for a discussion with his trusted ministers. After perusing the reports of receipt of taxes and accumulation of grains Gunavan asked,” Accumulating grains is costing us 10 gold coins per mound of grain. It is higher compared to earlier periods.” King Suvarna replied, “Guruji, earlier we used to cultivate grains in the East and West provinces. However, we were successful in cultivating grains in the hilly terrain of the North provinces increasing output by 25% from the previous year.”

Gunavan perused the reports again and asked, “Given that the cost of transport and storage has remained the same, why is it that our costs have increased by 34%?”. Brahmadatta replied, “Guruji, the cost of transporting grains from the hilly terrain is higher because our carts can only take smaller loads and hence, we need to hire more carts to transport the grains to our central granary in the Southern province.”

Gunavan said, “Do we still store all the grain in the central granary inside the Southern Fort?”. “Yes Guruji. We have increased the capacity for storage by moving some of the soldier barracks to the rear of the Fort.”, replied Brahmadatta.

Gunavan further asked,” Why do we store all the grains in the Southern Fort? Don’t we have Forts in the North, East and West now?”. King Suvarna replied,” We have been doing this since the time of my father and it was you who initiated this practice when you were the Prime Minister.” “That is right. Grains are precious and will be protected inside the Fort. But we only had one Fort during that period. Now we have 4 Forts. Can’t we store grains from these provinces in their respective Forts?”, Gunavan asked.

Everyone said in unison,” Guruji, that is a good idea! This way every Fort will have enough provisions and we need not transport grains from central granary to all Forts. This will bring down transportation costs both during accumulation and distribution.”

Brahmadatta conferred with his Revenue secretary and announced, “Maharaj, this should save us about 35,000 gold coins in transport and we would require 15,000 gold coins to set up 3 granaries. Net saving 20,000 gold coins!”

Gunavan then addressed everybody, “Noblemen, always remember our fixed costs are based on our practices and practices are based on assumptions. So always question your assumptions for the fixed costs and then fixed costs will no longer be fixed.”

“I think we’ve tolerated this enough” , said Mr. Kirodimal the CEO of Arthik Production Private Limited . The discussion was about one of the employees who was very sincere and honest , but had a very bad track record of attendance . He would invariably exhaust his leaves for the year by the end of October , and then would be charged with ‘Leave Without Pay’ for he rest of the Calendar year .

All his colleagues liked this affable employee and his impeccable work , but now the CEO was looking to terminate his employment because of his ‘misdemeanours’ . This was brought to the notice of the Quality Director of the company – Mr. Gunavatta in whose department he worked . “Aftab is a good man . Why does he have such a bad track record otherwise ? I believe in blaming the process and not the person . There must be an underlying problem we’re not able to see . Let’s look at the data .”

His absenteeism records showed that he remained absent either a day before despatch to a major customer – or a day after . It was always the same customer ! “Now that’s a coincidence ! Why the same customer every time ?” asked Mr. Gunavatta . “Well we despatch material to them every other week as per their requirement” , said Aftab’s immediate Supervisor Mr. Khadoos .

So , in effect , Aftab was inspecting a fortnight worth of despatch in a matter of two days every single time . If some other requirement from any other Customer came in the interim , it meant that much more work and tension .

Upon digging deeper , it came to light that Aftab would be stuck at his table the whole day inspecting sampling lots of the material which was quite cumbersome . If there were multiple despatches , it would lead to boredom and fatigue , and Khadoos would not want anything to slip through – he would come down on Aftab like a ton of bricks upsetting him no end . It was then that they discovered that Aftab had a hypertension problem . It had nothing to do with his age (he was in his mid thirties) – it was hereditary . So that was it !

“Why did you not tell me of his frail health before ? People with hypertension need to be on the move and need a ‘change in scene’ regularly” , said Mr. Gunavatta . “I’ll talk to the Manager in charge of Provider-Network Design and get Aftab to visit the Providers’ premises and carry out checks at the Providers’ end . He can also improve their processes consequently . I think this is going to work” .

Aftab was given this responsibility to improve Provider Quality at source . What a transformation that precipitated ! He loved going to Providers’ end and carrying out checks there . He also trained them and improved their processes . Arthik Production no longer had to rely on incoming inspection now . The most beneficial outcome was that his attendance soared . He loved his work ! He felt important now . His family said that his attitude and self worth improved too .

Idea Pursuing
Last Sunday it was pleasant weather and my family was excited to enjoy weather by visiting the Zoo near to my home.
We visited the Zoo, My daughter exclaimed! Wow, a beautiful lake in which some water-birds like ducks were swimming. Enclosure in which flying birds were kept. They ranged from sparrows, parrots to pigeons of various colors. The birds were chirping, In the next enclosure lions, leopards and tigers, whose roaring’s were deafening, Impala’s were enjoying in their Boundary. It was seemed that every living creature was enjoying the weather.
We enjoyed a lots of fun and took high tea together after returning from zoo. Daughter was narrating the visit in her own words. She questioned PAPA, I had read that Impala can jump up to 12 feet but I noticed that Impala was walking inside the boundary height of 3 feet only. I replied- , the Impala will not jump if they cannot see where their feet will fall.
It was time to sleep and I gone through received message on mobile. In mean while watching video clip of Ramayana serial in which Mantri Sumant was saying that King should plan the event time to time for his Praja to creating the Excitement and keeping Moral high.
Idea from Impala behavior and Ramayna scene was whispering that why it cannot be implementing in the company to take bold step to go beyond and incremental improvement can be left behind by breakthrough improvement by taking leap jump over barriers.

Idea Alteration in Deed
Next Day, I went to company and idea discussed to core Committees and consensus made to create the positive wave in the company . Now Question was How??
Lots of Idea Generated with if and but’s but finally management decided to hire external agency as change agent in perception to get new Problem solving approach for his employee
Agency hired and communicated to all employee that he along with us problem will be identified from your work place KPI and will guide to solve the issue.

Deep Dive and Harmony
To make team blend, Team and Project named “Uday” and now from Top to Bottom each one is part of Uday. Team created harmony in the organization and started journey in funny way for involving the all by asking the question like Tare Jamme pe (Think- Trees udsakte hai , do brain storm and tell how it can be)
Lots of idea generated that were not expected from process experts and many trial conducted and implemented as feasible.
Trainings supported to develop the capability of Plant employee to behave a change Agent for way forward.

Opportunity Realization
Incremental result jumped to Breakthrough result and Knowledge bank respiratory made with recognition of change agent in the plant team. Deploying the learning horizontally in other process area is ongoing.

Our tale unfolds in the mighty Vijayanagara empire ruled by the incomparable King Krishnadevaraya.

The King was taking stock of the readiness of his armed forces to wage war against his chief rival Adil Shah, the Sultan of Bijapur, who had provoked him for several months with guerilla attacks on the frontier settlements. The Sultanate would conduct raids with lightning speed and retreat before the army could be mobilized.

Krishnadevaraya knew that the enemy was not just motivated, but also cunning. They hadn’t openly declared war yet against Vijayanagara, but resorted to proxy war with mercenaries to deny their involvement. He took the counsel of the wise Tenalirama to buttress the ponderous army of heavy swordsmen and spearmen with faster cavalry archers, who could rapidly gain ground and rain arrows upon the fleeing enemies.

The Chief Armourer Gaurava, who was in charge of supplying armour, spears and swords for the soldiers, needed to ramp up production of iron arrowheads to provide for the newly enlisted cavalry archers. The enemy was growing bolder each day and Vijayanagara needed to give them a fitting reply soon.

The traditional method of open sand casting which required a lot of hammering to finish the arrowhead profile wasn’t suitable for use now. Hence, Gaurava opted for the quicker method of investment casting with which he could make wax profiles of the arrow heads, cover them in a plaster mould and then pour iron into it to get the arrow heads.

While Gaurava got this process in place, the results were not very encouraging. His problem was that the arrows had a lot of chipping and other defects owing to improper sealing of mould which caused molten metal to ooze out, resulting in a lot of rework and rejections.

Gaurava tried different methods of sealing but to no avail. The wise Tenalirama who happened to visit the despondent Gaurava, patiently listened to his problems and suggested that he try the fine river clay in place of the ordinary clay being used by him. Tenali proposed that the fine clay would provide an airtight seal to all his travails.

Gaurava, took up this idea and within a few trials, was able to successfully seal the moulds with river clay. With this new process, he could produce perfect arrowheads through casting in the first attempt without any rejections or rework required, thus meeting the requirement well within the stipulated time.

Adil Shah, confident over the muted response from Krishnadevaraya, had mobilized his main army to attack Vijayanagara. They were in for a rude shock as King Krishnadevaraya was fully prepared with a big contingent of cavalry archers. The battle was a massacre of the Sultanate forces, who had no answer to the hail of arrows. King Krishnadevaraya secured yet another victory, thanks to the creative thinking of Tenalirama and the effective execution by Gaurava.

King Krishnadevaraya recognized the contribution of Gaurava to the victory by awarding him a hundred gold coins and appointed him the Chief Engineer. Gaurava was also made in charge of training a team of workers to make arrowheads using the new process, ensuring that Vijayanagara will be ready for even more formidable adversaries.

Once upon a time in a very beautiful forest lived an independent inventive lion. He was very honest and generous. The royal lead used to sit with his team, took their views to unravel any trouble. Everything was running fine until one day a serious problem arose. There was a huge fish pond in their kingdom. Everyday ten fishes were found missing. It was un-natural. “Where are our fishes going?” said the small squirrel. The worried lion called all the animals for a summit. Everyone came nervous. What will we do? What is the lion thinking? Will all our fishes get vanished like this? Many questions they had in mind. “The kingdom needs our help, we need to save all. We need to find a solution together. We will fight, we will win“, asserted the king. Everyone applauded and felt a new ray of hope. “Yes! Together we can,” they cheered. The lion now made a small team of the best specially dedicated to fight for this new challenge. They worked day and night to find out every small root of their problem. One day while working they saw that a huge murder of black crows rushed to the pond picked up few small fishes and flew away like the wind. This continued to happen every day. The number of fishes were getting reduced. It was very challenging for them to curb this. They went to meet the fish queen. She said that every day these big ugly crows fly away with the fishes. The baby fishes are so scared that they even stopped playing. That night everyone slept anxious in the forest. “Can’t we fight with the ugly crow gang? What can we do?” Said the deer in the meeting next day. The smart deer exclaimed, “Why don’t we scare them off?” .The squirrel replied, “That’s a great idea! But, how? They are so huge. ” The sparrow team gave an excellent impression, they planned to build a small statue made of twigs and placed it on the shore and waited for the next day. Everyone was nervous to see if it would work. Finally, the wait was over and the D day arrived. The gang of crows arrived. Their leader came near the statue, he didn’t look at it at first. He looked around and suddenly when he saw the gigantic twig headed monster placed by the lion team, he screamed all his life out. The group of horrified black beasts flew away like a storm. The animals were very happy to see their plan succeed. The lion king was very pleased by his team. The emperor applauded the king and his team and the news of victory spread all over the dynasty. The emperor helped to make an even bigger twig head and it was kept placed permanently. The fishes danced in joy. The crows never came back. Everyone was happy as the most difficult problem was solved by the lion team. They lived happily ever after.

The enthusiastic project team have their eyes on the white board and once the project review is over, he smiles. Mr. Avinash Ray, Founder Chairman of the Global School Foundation is very clear about his vision to set up the first-of-its-kind Green Campus complemented with world class technology in Bengaluru, India. The objective is to facilitate seamless education with SMART technology in a pollution-free, calm and peaceful ambience away from the city limits.

All the 4 members exchange a sigh of relief because Mr. Ray’s smile means that he has finalized the location for the proposed new GIIS SMART Green Campus, the very first-of-its-kind International School for delivering global learning in the midst of a sprawling greenery. Mr. Ray says,’ The trees are the most trusted guardians of Nature and nurturing them along with our students creates a healthy and mindful sanctuary of knowledge, giving them access to world-class learning tools and free lifelong friendship with Nature.’

Mr. Vinoth and Mr. Navneet, from this project fly to Bangalore to supervise and get the plan into action. The plot survey helps them a lot to understand that the place boasts of more than 50 special herbs and shrubs with natural medicinal benefits as such. With the project plan already approved, the whole concept of the project was based on one big aspect – to retain flora and fauna as it appears. In fact, when the objective is to build a magnificent eco-friendly educational institution, Mr. Ray is very particular that no tree be crucified, and to make use of 100% of the green area in harnessing the most beautiful learning experience for every student.

The GIIS Smart Campus is ideally located away from the hustle and bustle of the city in a calm and serene address of Bannerghatta. Mr. Navneet and Mr. Vinoth - the team in Bangalore monitor the progress closely with the expert advice from the Principal – Dr. Ashima Mohan. She says, ‘The green breakthrough here emphasizes on fresh oxygen inflow gives way to developing very good ventilation facilities and the need for natural skylight inside the school has redefined the creative ideas in architecture in the corridors and the classrooms. The use of SMART technology in administration and teaching complements with the earthy colours of the interiors’.

Mr. Avinash Ray, the Chairman takes a tour of the campus on the day of inauguration, with immense joy of satisfaction. He stops by the medicinal garden, and feels that this and the huge trees guarding the campus definitely has a majestic role to complement the SMART journey of GIIS as an ace education enabler. Call it a good sign, it starts raining. He smiles to his team, ‘A green breakthrough in global learning at GIIS Bannerghatta is ready to nurture the perception of schooling with Nature’.

Once upon a time, there was a kingdom Raghupur ruled by king Harshvardhana. When Harshvardhana was child, famine stuck Raghupur and hundreds of people died. When Harshvardhana was crowned, he initiated slew of activities for emergency preparedness and response. Agriculture and trade was given high priority. New palace was constructed with huge cellars, silos and armory. He issued a decree to store 25% of grains produced in a year in these cellars and silos, along with thousands of water and oil drums. A deep water channel was constructed around palace as defense and for storing water.

Ravindra, neighboring ruler, envious of Raghupur’s growing prosperity, attacked and besieged the palace. Harshvardhana gave shelter to common people and directed his chief minister to survey cellars, silos and armory to draw retrieval plan for consumption.

Chief Minister reported back in a gloomy tone - “An army of rodents and pest, along with seepage from water channel, have destroyed an estimated 70% stored grains. Gunny bags are stacked vertically up to 10 meters. Unfortunately, some bags fell on soldiers during survey and 2 of them died. Weapons and ammunition kept in armory have either rusted or become water-soaked. Some Oil drums have leaked and oil has find its way to water channel. I fear we may not survive for even 3 months”.

Harshvardhana was dismayed. He tried to keep it secret, however, it spread like wildfire. Soldiers got demotivated, ready to accept defeat. Sheltered people panicked.

But, the Almighty had different plans. Ravindra died after falling from horse and his leaderless army retreated. Harshvardhana thanked his stars and invited suggestions from his court.

A Japanese traveler, Isaaki, stood up and spoke - “In my country, housekeeping and safety are paramount. All the soldiers and courtiers are trained and engaged in problem-solving. Today, we have a huge problem bogging us down – an unsustainable defense mechanism. We must all come together as a team and solve it. I advice following logical sequence of 5 steps – it is nothing new, Just a Common Sense Approach.

1) Removing unwanted items/lost grains/rusted armory/broken drums
2) Allocating designed place for every item and keeping that item in that place only
3) Cleaning through inspection for any rodents, seepages, leakages, etc.
These 3 steps are nothing but housekeeping – we use muscle power. But, Can we use brain power to eliminate or reduce the need for housekeeping through problem solving?. It leads to Step 4.
4) Identifying projects, forming teams, analyzing issues, finding causes and implementing remedial actions

5) Finally, Maintaining discipline for sustaining remedial actions".

Harshvardhana readily accepted the wisdom of Isaaki and appointed him the facilitator. Harshvadhana himself led weekly reviews and provided all the financial and human resources.

Within few months, many problems were resolved – no more rodents, seepages, leakages and rusting. One of the teams innovated safe vertical stacking structure. Other initiatives taken were labelling, traceability, FIFO system, obsolescence and preservation system, etc. All teams were rewarded. The palace regained its true defense mechanism. 

Winner - Quality Fables Competition 2020 for Individuals

Once upon a time there was a district named Sansanipur with 30 villages,which had sizeable population of farmers.Major source of income used to come through supplying vegetables.The villagers use to carry the supply to district markets every 15 days using bullock carts.The distances between villages and the district market was approximately 60kms.Before sending it to district market the vegetable stock had to be examined by competent authority named Sukhilala.This also lead to delay in starting their journey to market.Sukhilala used to take Lagaan for the rejected lot from the village farmers as he used to enjoy monopoly and was appointed by District Collector for this work.The saddest part was one had to travel 15 Kms to reach Sukhilala and get their vegetables inspected.

In one of the Village Panchayat Samiti meeting of Vistarpur,all the village farmers went to the Chacha Chaudhary,who was the mukhiya of Village and voiced out their dastaan.Mukhiya’s Daughter Ratna,who was a Final year student in Agricultural College in Buddhisthan,had just returned to Village,on a vacation break.Out of curiosity she came to observe this panchayat.Mukhiyaji also gestured Ratna that she can also participate in this panchayat.The discussions progressed into arguments and protest.Looking her father being cornered Ratna jumped into the discussion and came out with million dollar worth suggestions.

No one needs to go to Sukhilala henceforth.Each village will install Lalameters,provided by Agricultural Research Institutes.Lalameters will help examine the vegetables in terms of Quality.Most important,we farmers will directly go to Retailers instead of reaching the District market. Suddenly villagers started agitating and said,how will that be possible?We don’t even know how to read electricity meters,how do we understand this new animal?Do we have any kind of Support?

Ratna addressed to villagers that we are born farmers and we are the best people who know their Crop better and there was no need to be dependent on Sukhilala’s of the world.She also gave confidence to the villagers that Agricultural institutes will provide training to the farmers who will be nominated by the panchayat.These meters will be authorized by Senior Farmer before sending the supply to market.The rejected lot will be used for feeding animals.

Soon there was a proposal submitted to district collector.This idea seemed to be in alignment with the broader agenda of'Atma Nirbhar Bharat' and was named as Project Ratnadoot.It was decided to experiment this idea in 3 villages.

Due to implementation,the villagers got quick access to examine their vegetables with no cost.This also eliminated entire transportation efforts to district market and the delay in receipt of information on rejected vegetables.This resulted in increase of cash flows due to which the farmers were also able to procure more Lalameters for quick inspection of vegetables.The success story was soon replicated in other district villages.

Farmers: Sales Staff | Sukhilala: Branches| Lalameter: YES, AIM (Digital Platform) | Vegetables: A/C Opening Forms| Senior Farmers:  Authorizer |Agricultural Institutes: Start Ups