Quality Fables Competition

On a warm sunny summer afternoon, Sabu, our strongest superhero, was sitting in a verandah, extremely depressed. Deeply preoccupied in his thoughts, he didn't notice Chacha Choudhary walking upto him. Sabu was generally known for his jovial, exuberant nature and his love for Chacha Choudhary was paramount. When Sabu didn't exhibit his regular jolly greet to Cha-cha Choudhary on his arrival, a concerned Chacha Choudhary enquired about Sabu's depressed mood.

Chacha Choudhary asked ‘Kya baat hai Sabu? Aaj ukhada ukhada lag raha hai!”

Sabu opened up to him and shared his concern about the sudden and steep rise in the price of the special wheat. Sabu being a Pehelwan consumed 40 Special wheat rotis made by Chachi everyday. He was extremely worried because unless he consumed those 40 wheat rotis made by Chachi, he would lose his strength without which it would be impossible for him to help Chacha Choudhary fight the goons and he didn't have enough money to buy so much wheat.

On hearing the problem, Chacha Choudhary, whose mind worked faster than a computer, immediately made a plan. He went around with Sabu looking for alternatives of wheat but with equivalent nutrients that would suffice Sabu's needs, keep him strong as well as would be affordable enough to satisfy his massive need of food. Chacha and team collected samples of all the crop type he saw and came back home with truck load of crop types and nutrient chart. Seeing this, Chachi struck the head of Sabu saying “Itne tarah ki roti main nahi bana paungi!”

Understanding the condition and time it will take to try all possible roti combination, Chacha started to think for an alternative. He saw a child doing mathematics on abacus where he was struck with an idea. He used abacus theory to successfully create a model using the flour type and amount used for the desired quality of roti. He tried with a combination of barley, wheat and soya bean on the abacus. Then Chachi recreated the same roti using the same proportion of grains. Seeing the uncanny similarity to what the model had predicted, Chacha made some changes to the abacus and was successfully able to find alternative ingredient combination for rotis which was affordable and could feed the furnace of Sabu. Now, Sabu could decide what to add in his flour to fill his appetite without relying on the wheat roti. The alternative grains satisfied Sabu's nutrient requirements in an affordable price.

Once again Chacha Choudhary proved himself to be the smartest man on earth. Accompanied by the strongest Man, Sabu, and the dedicated Chachi they became an unbeatable trio.

In the world of Max Life, is a magnificent dynasty (Agency Channel), led by a powerful king, who possess the “Magical Spell” (AWS), that transforms his soldiers (Agent Advisors), into one of the most superior, and successful armies, that is responsible to secure the financial future of the population through sale of insurance plans.

The magical spell comprises of 3 powerful ingredients; Discipline, Skilling and Technology that lead to higher Productivity and Retention. To receive this spell, the soldiers need to fulfill the ‘Criteria’, which convert them into a ‘Qualifier’, who delivers better results.

Soldiers must ensure to consume regular dosage of the spell given by their leaders and trainers, by visiting the base camps (offices) of the dynasty spread across 203 cities, divided in 6 provinces (zones).

For soldiers, the benefits include; personal grooming, skill enhancement, avenues for long term career in the strongest armies and additional earnings on being a qualifier, while for the dynasty, the benefits include; establishing superior army that aspires to deliver quality advise, and serves the dynasty for a lifetime, to maximize growth and revenue.

At the onset of financial year 2017-18, Rajguru and Pitama called the King and said, “Son, we are relying on your magical spell, which is a key strategic pillar to drive the steep revenue of Rs.700+cr. required from your dynasty this year. Soldiers, who consume the spell and become qualifiers, contribute 50% towards the revenue generated by your dynasty. However, the current productivity of your qualifying soldiers is Rs.79k. Son, time has come to improve the power of the spell, for improved productivity inorder to achieve our goal.

The King called the Mahamantri and Tenali Rama, his trusted men and said, “I am giving you both a critical responsibility of improving the per qualified soldier productivity to 1Lac, go and find the success secret to improve the magical spell”.

Mahamantri and Tenali Rama formed a team of ministers from all six provinces. This team of experts studied various parameters impacting the power of the magical spell like, attendance at the base camps, sales meeting done, soldier demographics. Team also visited base camps to conduct ethnography.

On completion of the study, a detailed report of the impacting causes was prepared, and jointly the team identified ‘Success Secrets’ (solutions) to enhance the magical spell thereby improve productivity. The team led by Tenali Rama, under guidance of Mahamantri worked hard and implemented solutions across the dynasty.

The relentless efforts improved productivity from 79k to 1.12Lac; 32k lift per qualifying soldier. As a result, the dynasty contributed Rs.66.55cr. incremental revenue and 50% growth in productivity of the army.

Control measures helped sustain performance, and productivity touched 1.20Lac, resulting in 118cr. accrued benefit by financial year end.

The phenomenal results achieved by the team were shared with the King, Rajguru and Pitama. They were extremely delighted and rewarded the team with the highest honor, given to those who deliver quality work towards the dynasty growth.

The King felt immense pride on seeing his qualified soldiers’ rise to new heights, keeping alive the glory of the ‘Magnificent Dynasty’ and the ‘Magical Spell’..!!

Cast

• Rajguru and Pitama: Project Selection Committee
• King: Sponsor (Head of Agency)
• Mahamantri: Champion
• Tenali Rama: Blackbelt
• Ministers: Project Team

“We are among leading Surface Condenser suppliers. How dare they could say that our designs are inferior?” yelled Mr. Desai, our Design head. The latest demand by one international customer asking for an improved Condenser design with around 50% lower pressure drop than our existing design was enough to cause stir. “This is the current requirement in international market. Customer signaled to improve our design to meet his requirement and take the order.” clarified Mr. Das, our Marketing head. After becoming segment leader in domestic market, this was our biggest opportunity to gain foothold into international market.

“Let us give them what they want. Mr. Desai, I want you to check our design and find out a way to improve it to meet specifications. Form a team of experts from various departments and come out with the solution” Mr. Mehta, our business head declared.

A multidisciplinary team was formed including experts from design, R&D, manufacturing, quality and marketing. Everyone was thinking how on the Earth can we improve an already refined design? Brainstorming session was conducted to arrive at some way forward, but without any avail. “This is going nowhere. We need to do fluid flow analysis and find out exact areas causing higher pressure drop along steam flow path.” suggested one of our experienced R&D veterans. Everybody liked this suggestion. R&D team carried out fluid flow analysis and found that indeed, there were few areas along the steam flow path which were contributing the most to the pressure drop. In these areas, the structural parts used for internal support and some functional components were obstructing the flow.

Despite knowing exact root cause, our progress had again hit a roadblock. The reason being, those structural components were essential parts of the equipment. “How can we reduce the blockage in the steam path without compromising the strength of structure and function?” a junior design engineer phrased everybody’s concern.

Few days went by and suddenly, one day morning, our Design head called for an urgent meeting. He was looking very excited. “Today morning, I was working in my garden thinking about our peculiar problem. I saw a honeybee hive and it occurred to me that this could be solution to our problem” Mr. Desai told enthusiastically. “I cannot think of any relation between honeybee hive and our Condenser”, Mr. Das echoed exact thought in everybody’s mind. “Relation is there. The hive has a unique character allowing maximum space for bees and yet it’s strong enough. Don’t we want the same in our Condenser?” Mr. Desai explained.

This was an excellent idea and was discussed in depth by team for its merits and demerits and fine-tuned based on the suggestions from manufacturing experts. Design team came out with the modified design of internals for target areas. R&D team carried out fluid flow and structural evaluations.

Results were astonishing. The pressure drop in the steam flow path reduced by around 90% as against targeted 50% compared to the earlier design, at the same time providing better structural integrity. Our international customer analyzed and accepted the modified proposal and we bagged the prestigious order. This development placed us among very few suppliers worldwide, who have capability to provide such designs. It was decided to use modified design in all future Condenser orders.

It was mid-May-2014. Mumbai was burning in the unbearable strong summer. Sustainable growth and greener autofuels were the catch phase of the time. One mega project in Mumbai Refinery(MR) was at its peak.

The Director(Refineries)D(R) & ED(MR) was taking a round of the refinery. Suddenly, while going through the diesel producing units, D(R)asked, “Am sure government would bring in BSIV autofuels into the country anytime in near future. Mr. ED, can you take expeditious steps to ensure we are able to produce greener fuel immediately when required?”. Following the same, the project team lead by GM(Projects), commenced the pre-project activity in Jun-2014. The anticipation was so true, Government of India announced the Autofuel policy in Jan-2015 directing that 100% BSIV autofuel are to be supplied across nation.  

An interdisciplinary taskforce was formed to find answer to the biggest question, where to fit in such a massive 2.6 MMTPA(million-metric-tons-per-day) DHT in space constrained MR?The taskforce identified a tank farm containing five operating hydrocarbontankscatering as product tanks and intermediate buffer tanks, without which operating units would not be able to carry on day to day operations, as the best fit place. Under normal circumstances no one would take the risk of dismantling the same. But DHT was an exception. In a consensus meeting, joint decision was taken and ED exclaimed, “This is just the beginning. We have to do everything in an exceptional way like this to not only succeed in the project but create an industry benchmark”.

Though DHT projects of similar nature took around 36to44 months from zero-date in other Indian refineries, the BPCL Board gave a stringent target of only 25 months.

DHT project apart from installation of Diesel Hydrotreatment unit, also included installation of utilities & offsite facilities, revamp of existing CDU-3, HGU, SRU, SWS etc. units to support DHT operation.

Back at a project meeting, ED said, “We have to complete in much less than 25 months if we want to make some good extra bottomline”. The project team immediately took on the meticulous task and started microplanning and execution hand in hand.

During the start of the activities, GM asked, “Since the new team hails from multidisciplinary streams, it is important that the team efforts are aligned. How do we do it?”

The planning chief suggested “Sir, let’s go for a Visionary & Leadership Program for BPCL project team & consultant’s representatives and let them come out with a shared vision and team operating principles to be followed throughout the project”.

A two day brainstorming session was organized away from the hustle & bustle of refinery at Lonavala. The team came out with many ideas and plans to execute and ensure adherence to stringent timelines. One of the significant non-technical outcomes was installation of reverse clock in all the team-member’s computer to remind of the residual time available.

With meticulous project management & execution, on bright sunny day of 15-March-2017, the project was mechanically completed in just 19 months i.e. 6 months ahead of schedule. The unit was commissioned on 27-June-2017 as against a target of Dec-2017 i.e. 187 days ahead of schedule thus contributing additional benefit of Rs. 561 crore(3cr/day).

After the closeout, the vendors were felicitated for their support and a book capturing the lessons learnt published for the budding project managers of the organization.

Khattackkkkkkkk!! A loud slap landed on my surprised back.

I shouted, “Maa, whats wrong with you? It hurts!”

With equal irritation she replied, “What is wrong with you? Why are you wasting so much food?”

She pointed at the leftover cabbage, chilies and some cardamoms I had kept at the side of my plate.

“Its waste” I said. “Who eats that”.

This time with a patient tone she replied, “Son, food is precious. The food you called waste is completely edible, you just need to change your taste to ensure that you complete your food in the plate.”

To drive her point she told me the story of her workplace Vedanta Limited in Goa.

“Earlier we used to dispose Blast furnace dust which is not usable for them and which is called waste which was having hidden energy in it, we searched alternative to reduce the monthly spend from our pocket , Therefore, we decided to adapt and innovate. We analysed our process, reviewed our customer quality requirements, we brainstormed, we changed the way we operate our machines process thus we were able to use the waste (hidden energy) converted in to useful fuel which was considered ‘bad’ till now.”

I was impressed. I decided to finish the food I had left.

Mom said, “ Son, remember, nothing given by nature is waste. It is for us to find the right process and means to fully utilize it”.

Winner - Quality Fables Competition 2018

As the Lady was full of wisdom, the children used to ask a lot of questions to her, all of them will ask different questions at the same time, every child was keen to know the answer to his question, as a result, the atmosphere used to turn out into a chaos and very few lucky ones will have their answers.

The Grandma was really worried that she was not able to help the children, and share her wisdom with them effectively, a solution was urgently required, otherwise the children were losing out on learning, and there was a strong possibility that, she will also lose out on them. She discussed with Village seniors also, for their support and commitment for funds.

She wanted to increase, the number of questions handled per day, so that the response time comes down and more children can be satisfied by her answers. Next day onwards Grandma started collecting data.

To get more organized, she asked every child, to first write their questions on a piece of paper and put them all in a jar. Then she started taking out one paper at a time, and answer it, which all the children will attentively listen. Then she will ask the children to make a decorative chart paper, on which they will write some of the important questions of the day and their answer, and paste it on the wall of the temple compound for other children to see, who missed to come that day. She found that the number of questions answered per day have now gone up.

Still from the data collected she found that volume of question coming daily was much higher than the time available to answer them, so she identified some children who were hearing to her answers from long time now and had become smart learners. She gave names to these children as “Web_Portal”, “Mobile_app”, “sms_update” and “chat_bot”. She gave them the responsibility to filter out the questions that they can handle. This way, she made her time available for the new questions that were not covered by these four. She asked another two children to collect and allocate the questions, she called these children by the name of “software” and “skill Mapping”.

Further Grandma categorized the questions, subject wise and proactively informed the schools of the locality to make improvements in their curriculum, to address the children needs.

After making these changes, she found that, there is a reduction in the total questions being asked each day and also in the number of questions left unanswered. She started making a list of questions left unanswered, so that she can answer them on the next day. Now she was able to cater to much higher number of children with very few direct question coming to her.

In the spare time that she generated, she started sharpening hew wisdom further, and in order to extend her services in the neighboring villages as well, she started training selected grandma’s there to replicate her success story.

The Name of our Beloved Grandma was GBS_Vendor_Support_Cell

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.

“But out of limitations comes creativity”- Debbie Allen

This journey begins 15 years ago when rapid developments of new  information  and  communication  technologies  have contributed  to  far-reaching  social  changes. ‘Uncertainty ’is cited  as  being  a characteristic of this age: a state in which individuals find it impossible to attribute a  reasonable  definitive  probability  to  the  expected  outcome  of  their  choices.

Education was the Worst Hit by these developments. Yes, Worst Hit because it became merely a money making business leaving behind the focus on learning. This had implications for schools and teachers, because it questions the relevance and effectiveness of ‘traditional methods’ and current means of instruction embracing ‘fill the empty vessel’ type pedagogies.

But there was a man who was looking at this situation from a different lens unlike other people. He knew computers and technology are closing gaps and moving to the future at a rapid pace. So why not we may as well embrace them and divert it to the classroom and bring a revolution in school education which will make his dream come true to transform the so called money making business into learning. A dream of making a Technology driven school for the NextGen full of advance IT system and infrastructure to keep students’ up to the pace that the world is moving.

His disinterest colleagues felt that in expensive city Singapore and time driven it is an unmanageable task. But he followed his instinct and started on his dream project. He identified experts in technology, education and infrastructure as his team members and conceptualised his idea.

In 2017, the students entered the world of a GIIS SMART Campus - where student-centred pedagogy met a digitally powered learning environment to create a whole new education experience. Here, latest teaching tools made learning a fun and interactive affair for the students to help achieve higher educational outcomes. 42 SMART innovation labs, Wi-Fi enabled classrooms, Sports Analytics fields, the digitally-savvy GIIS SMART Campus became an epitome of new age learning.

3 years later, when the covid-19 pandemic shattered lives, disrupted markets and exposed the competence of governments, leading to permanent shifts in all the ways that will become apparent only later. The world was faced with a situation on how to keep the schools working so that student learning does not get affected. On the other hand, GIIS SMART campus was well prepared to deal with this crisis. When all the educational institutes were scrambling and drawing upon plans to conduct virtual classes, GIIS SMART campus had already started its virtual classes for its students. There was no disruption for the teachers and students in all parts of the world to complete their syllabus due to SMART class approach which comprises of a strong IT infrastructure and high speed internet facility.

He always had an attitude of staying ahead in the race with a vision of rapid development in technology needs a similar advancement in education field.  Now when the world has realized that SMART Campus is the next choice in the times to come, he is already a conqueror in this space and looking towards refinement of SMART Campus and further contribute to the society.