Winners - 29th QualTech Prize

Introduction:
One of the major CTQ for copper rod is Surface oxide (SOD). Since inception of the Piparia plant, SOD value in rods is high. So, project is taken up to reduce SOD of Piparia rods to improve its performance and reduce high cost impact on business.

Challenge:
To reduce the SOD in Piparia rods, OEM recommended to install roughing mill and pickling line. Which means a long shutdown time, huge capital expenditure of Rs 90 crores and threat of losing existing customers. So, its' really a challenging task for the team to reduce the SOD in Piparia rods without any shutdown, CAPEX and in 6 months’ time frame !

Solution:
Team adopted DMAIC methodolgy. After verifying MSA for SOD and other process factors effecting SOD values, through correlation & regression analysis, team analyzed past 6 years data to find out best process conditions when SOD values were in desired range. These factors were validated by conducting simulation trials (OFAT). Team also established significant causes through data analysis and action plans were made. Team implemented two significant kaizens : 1) Flushing system inside rolling mill to remove carry forwarded Copper dust from the cast bar surface - a substitute to roughing mill constraint and 2) modification in quenching line to improve the reduction process – substitute to pickling line constraint .

Result:

• SOD reduced from 325 ± 120 A to 253 ± 69 A
• % Allocation of rods increased from 1.7% to 33% to MWD high speed customers.
• Total Savings of Rs 4.45 crs/annum.
• Reduced frequent plant stoppages due to SOD issues from 4.2 times/day to 0.45 times/day.
• Winner of CIP award in-house competition.
• Got team of the month Award in Apr ’17.
• Best Kaizens award.

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Introduction:
In stainless steel production added Chromium is oxidized during process of Stainless steel making at Steel Melt Shop and it goes into the slag. This significantly increases the Raw Material cost and the overall contribution.

Challenge:
The Chromium oxidation is dependent upon the amount of oxygen blown in the EAF. We could have reduced our amount of oxygen to reduce Chromium oxidation but this would have caused another problem of lower productivity and higher Power consumption at EAF. So we had to find a way to reduce Chromium oxidation without significantly affecting our other costs and productivity.

Solution:
To find a solution to the problem The Team started working on two fronts. One was to brainstorm within the team to find probable causes of higher Chromium oxidation. On another front the Team tried to find literature for best practices available for Stainless steel making at EAF. Theories emerging after Brainstorming were validated using Data and Cause and Effect relationship was established. It emerged that within the given set of conditions Chromium oxidation could be prevented if we could increase Al-Mix addition at the end of the process. We got the idea of Al-Mix Injection from seeing Coal Injection and Team innovate on doing this for Al-Mix injection.This resulted in specific and on-time addition of Almix.

Result:

• Reduction in Cr2O3% in EAF Slag by 1.5%.
• Resulting in savings of Rs. 3.51 Crores.
• Morale booster of Workers as manual working reduced.
• No additional expenditure incurred.

Introduction:
Top management gave breakthrough improvement target (15% ) for Specific water reduction during EHS pillar performance review in FY 16~17 over continuous improvement of 5% year on year. DMAIC methodology helped in achieving targeted improvement.

• Hot work in summer season for resin plant- safety sensitive
• Line modification without process delay
• Correction in pipe lay outing and approval for the same

Apart from many challenge we did by “WE CAN”

Solution:
SIPOC & Macro level water distribution flow helped to identify the actual usage of water. CFT and process owner were part of discussion to freeze the action points based on identified ideas. Several graphical and statistical tools were used to validate the action before permanent implementation.
Following were the action points:
- Recycling of water being used to create vacuum for resin process
- Steam Condensate water being discharge in ETP can be recycled by modification
- Reduction of CED Tanker cleaning from half inch to ¼ inch pipe line
More than 31 actions were taken to achieve the target

Result:
Water consumption reduced by 14% in FY 16~17.
Tangible saving is less weightage in compare to consumption reduction.
Cost saving realized more than 5 Lacs/annum.
Improved KPI for consequence metrics as:

• Effluent generation reduced by 14% from 0.3kl/ KL to 0.26kl /KL.
• ETP load reduced by 14% having cost impact 6 lacs+.

Introduction:
Complaints redressal system had a huge scope for improvement in view of mounting Patient Expectations (comparable to Hospitality sectors), rampant use of Social Media, Medico Legal implications; affecting the Hospitals Brand name.

Challenge:
Request/ Feedback/ Complaint management system was fragmented, approach lacked a one-point resolution, closures were not monitored and garnering support from various stakeholders was a challenge. Persistent issues were addressed repeatedly, but not resolved completely & in a timely manner. Additionally, Requests not attended can quickly spiral into Complaints

Solution:
The team identified Potential areas of improvement using Process mapping, C&E matrix, FMEA, and brainstorming.
• Time bound Escalation Matrix (hierarchy wise) for Patient Requests/ Complaints
• Staff Training on Patient Sensitivity
• Optimal stocking of Hospital Linen and Quality check at Laundry
• Pre-admission Patient Room Checklist
• Preventive Maintenance plan for ancillary services like Air-conditioning, Television, Food Trolley
• Patients prescribed diet related methodology to be systemized
Others like - Marking Physical Discharges at ward level and consequent alerts to Housekeeping and Admission & Billing, Disposable Urinals and Bed-pans at patient bed-side, Consultant / JMS scheduling are a work in progress.

Result:
One-point resolution of Requests/ Complaints time-bound escalations and closures via system
Staff Training on Patient Sensitivity
Ancillary support processes being streamlined
Team Cohesion improved, with cross functional coordination, interdepartmental interactions and realization that everyone has a part to play towards improving Patient Care

Introduction:
The Discharge process is the last leg of hospitalization but currently the lengthiest in Indian hospitals.The point of concerns was %of patients discharge before 2:00 p.m. have declined ‘ .Patient experience scores have reduced to 24%.

Challenge:
- Multiple steps and processes involved in completing a discharge
- Some of these process owners are internal like Clinicians, Nursing, and Billing and sometimes external like Health Insurance companies.
- Multiple hand offs delay the process and lead to immense Patient dissatisfaction.

Solution:
- Centralized discharge department was created
- In room billing was launched
- Discharge blue book was launched
- Clinician sensitization through Departmental meetings
- Automated discharge summary in CPRS by auto populating the patients information.
- Digital signing assessment note in CPRS
- We also created the workflow system for processing all TPA (Third Party Insurance ) cases. This initiative is the first in the industry to solve the problem of discharge for TPA cases..This is the industry first initiative

Result:
The results were really encouraging wherein we were not only able to meet project CTQ but exceeded it by a good margin. We were able to discharge more than 64% of the cases before 2:00p.m.The customer satisfaction score improved from 24% to 73%

Introduction:
A device which can showcase lens properties to the customers while purchasing.

Challenge:
1. The parameters are to be measured by Non-destructive method.
2. All the parameters are to be measured with accuracy and repeatability.
3. The equipment should be portable and consume less space as this needs to be placed in our Retail showrooms.
4. The equipment price has to be within Rs.10,000/-

Solution:
The team started finding ways to compute all the features in one device. The solution evolved as a process when the team realized that it is possible to club some of the features as they are related to light and transmission. Also, the team arrived at a conclusion that one micro-controller could measure all the properties and give the output in the desired manner.
Finally the team was successful in incorporating all the features into one device by having one electronic circuit board with one rechargeable battery. This reduced the size as well as clubbed multiple devices into one device.
The cost objective was also met by using standard sensors, Light emitting Diodes, light dependent resistors and other parts.

Result:
89% customers found it useful to make an informed decision
90% store staff found it to an effective sales tool
Customer satisfaction scores went up on price matching with product features.

Introduction:
Welding is integral part of heavy equipment manufacturing.Welding induced distortion during fabrication was controlled using significant weld mock-ups. This was consuming considerable fabrication resources, time & cost and needed innovative solution.

Challenge:
1) Root cause analysis of excess resource consumption for weld distortion control with conventional techniques 2) Evolving innovative solution and handling related feasibility challenges 3) Development of computer based welding simulation technology, which is still research area in the world and its successful application on actual fabrication jobs to improve productivity.

Solution:
Brainstorming by multi-functional team were carried out evolving various solutions. Project of in-house development of computer based welding simulation technology was taken up. In this, Computational Welding Mechanics is used to convert actual welding process in to numerical model capturing various aspects. Heat input during welding is simulated using moving heat source models. Material properties from room temperature up to melting point are considered. User defined Functions are developed for generation and solution of model using commercial FEA tool. Simulation comprises series of nonlinear thermo-structural analysis to predict weld distortion & residual stresses which can be used to optimize actual welding and reduce mock-ups & rework.

Result:
Development was validated using experimentation & implemented on actual jobs. Simulated distortions were found closely matching with practical data.
Innovation resulted in:
1. Reduction of welding cycle time by 20 to 30%
2. Reduction in weld mock-ups & related cost up to 30%
3. Reduction in rework
4. Customer satisfaction
5. Improved cross functional communication

Introduction:
Consumption of High Alumina (Al2O3 >3.5 %) Iron ore in Sinter without affecting sinter quality to reduce cost of raw material and by then reduce the overall cost of pig iron manufacturing. which is directly linked with the cost of pig iron sales.

Challenge:
1) Product sinter physical quality to maintain:Tumbler Index : >73. RDI : 24 to 28 RI : 60-65. 2) Maintain overall Quality of the sinter. 3) Various trials with limited resources. 4) Tumbler Index (cold strength) decreases.Internal fines generation increases. 5) Every 1% increase in alumina content in sinter, the coke breeze consumption increases by 5–10 kg/t.

Solution:
DMAIC Methodology adopted in the project with statistical process control .following solutions were implemented.
1.Neutralization of the Effects of Alumina on product sinter:
2.Increase in CaO & MgO % in Product sinter.
3.Increase in FeO (9 to 10%), optimum FeO level to improve RDI without compromising the other sinter properties.
4.Maintaining Alumina silica ratio less than 0.45
5.Maintaining the % of -0.5mm in coke breeze less than 20% & crushing index more than 90%by proper crushing practices.
6.Maintaining Flux crushing index more than 90.
7.Addition of water to maintain optimum moisture % in raw mix with the help of moisture meter.
8.Increase in Bed hight to improve productivity and maintain the temperature.

Result:
With Improvements in process, team has achieved to consume high Alumina iron ore which is contributing to Reduction in cost of raw material by 750 Rs/Ton ,Total Raw Material handled per month is-35000 Ton.Total Annualized cost savings -31 Crs. Also it is benefiting to Society and other Iron ore industry. CASE Study Published in INDUSTRY Magazine Steel 360 June 2017.

Introduction:
InstaClaim™ aims to keep promises and keep dreams alive at the time of customer’s utmost need, by providing claim approval decision within 1 day. Claim in 1 day is a USP with no parallel elsewhere in the life insurance industry

Challenge:
Before this project, in Oct’15 Claim Approval in 1 day % was less than 25 % and average settlement TAT was 7 days. Challenges were to get claim documents from offices across India to central office and system and process inefficiencies including core system design itself and manual interventions due to system errors and imperfections.

Solution:
The project was run as per Six Sigma DMAIC methodology. A cross functional team from Claims, IT, Finance and Quality was made to deliver this with senior leadership steering it
3 key technology enablers used were;
UCHIT, claims management system
CAM, a rule based risk management engine
FTP, to transfer claim documents instantly from branch offices to central office
Systemic changes were made in 3 key levers People, Process and Technology to achieve and sustain the results
First, a cross functional Uchit Recertification Project certified claim amount calculation logics by Actuarial & Claims teams.
Second, a comprehensive re-engineering of Uchit completed to re-jig work flow design.
Third, major changes under People & Process themes done

Result:
CTQ moved from less than 25 % levels in Oct’15 to 85 % levels in Aug’16 and stabilized around 95% levels from Dec’16 till day. More than 60 % respondents rated claims excellent for past 7 months in CTA surveys done by IMRB. As per finance vetted CBA, project is to save Rs 50 lac cost due to increase efficiency, out of which Rs 5 lac has been realized till Mar’17

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Introduction:
One of the most common marketing channel for product penetration for banks is sales through on field sales executives. Due to lack of valid client credentials/ information the rejection of lead generated is high at backed.

Challenge:
In product like credit card, large amount of application collected by open market acquisition gets rejected because of discrepancies found during appraisal stage at the back end. This results in low conversion rate, increase in campaign cost, overall profitability and dissatisfaction among prospective customers.

Solution:
“YES Insta” solves this problem of quality check. It empowers the front end sales team to instantly make decision of accepting or rejecting a customer based on statistical developed rule engine. It not only creates a real time decision making mechanism for accepting a customer into the banking ecosystem with a superior customer service experience but helps in effective time and human resource management. Based on such instant decision making technique the team can accept or reject the application and inform the customer with more certainty.

Result:
The tool was first implemented in card product showed that the overall rejection rate gets improved by 50-60% from the existing process in practice. End to end process takes only few seconds thus practically making it a zero lag process and convenient.

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Introduction:
Deal labeling is one of the most critical process in Loans process. Process had seen increase in processing time due to increase is number of new joiners. Team had to develop remedy to reduce processing time to cater upcoming high volume season.

Challenge:
Team had to develop a solution that could interpret 1000+ deal name patterns coming from equal number of agent banks. In case of opportunity of error team had to reduce scope of audit to ease out auditor's work. Time frame to develop this solution was limited due to upcoming high volume season, which was further constrained by the clients demand for low/no cost solution.

Solution:
In order to reduce processing time in the process, team had to develop a solution with minimal human interventions. All patterns of deal name from past one year were captured and coded in logic buckets. These logic buckets were part of internal repository of deal patterns which were updated on weekly basis. All these patterns were coded in an autonomated solution called Auto Deal identifier. The purpose of this tool was to auto identify deal names based on past patterns.
The next challenge was to reduce the audit scope in case the tool faced ambiguity in logic set. Visual control system were developed which reduced scope of audit based on category in which logic ambiguity were identified. Thus reducing overall audit scope by 90%.

Result:
Primary Benefit
Processing time was reduced by ~92%, saving 549 monthly processing hours which is equal to 3.5 full time equivalent of an employee
Financial benefit of ~$ 210,000 was realized through effort reduction
Reduction in process resource utilization from 130% to 110%
Secondary Benefit
Reduction in manual effort helped to improve accuracy from 90% to 99%

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Introduction:
OMS contract is the starting point for business association which defines the business life cycle, operational and commercial scope, payment schedule & revenue projections.

Challenge:
Longer cycle Time (TAT) of avg 119 days (against target of 30 days) for Contract renewal life cycle resulting into revenue blockage, process inconsistency & Customer dissatisfaction.

Solution:
Roll out of 4 pager contract renewal format, Established SLA & Contract tracking mechanism for timely approvals and Process simplification by revamping process

Result:
TAT reduced from 119 days to 37 days, Reduction of 776 expired contract (As on 1st Apr'16) to 5 (As on 31st Mar'17) and against the collection target of INR 1060 Cr collected INR 1094 Cr for FY 16-17

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Introduction:
The success of the RM- Customer engagement program broadly depends on the capability of the RM to connect with the Customers on a real time basis. This called for an innovative solution for instant customer contact opportunities.

Challenge:
- Multiple RM call back requests from Customers.
- Significant number of complaints regarding RM reachability
- De-growth in the RM portfolio size was attributed to lack of contact

Solution:
A cross functional team (Program, Finance, Line, Service Excellence) was formed develop an innovative solution using creativity tools with an aim to help both customer & RM connect with each other without fail each time.
Solution: Addressing the Problem…
“YES OMNI-Connect” A system to seamlessly connect with the Relationship Manager, anytime anywhere!!!
- A Virtual Number (VN) assigned to the Portfolio
- RM is assigned to the portfolio.
- Customer calls the VN which gets directed to the existing RM. If RM busy, call goes to Branch Manager, else to a dedicated Contact Centre Desk

Result:
- 100% HNI Customer calls are attended
- 90% NPS by HNI Customer
- RM Portfolio grew by 14%
- RM Calling!! Permanent Contact number for HNI Customers in the portfolio

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Introduction:
The increased number of vendors in Chat Customer care led to a fierce competition among existing players. In order to get additional business eClerx had to create a differentiator and hence a project on improving Repsat from 78.3% to 86% was started.

Challenge:
Being a service industry, standardizing the level of service in order to get a good score in the survey triggered by client was one of the major challenges in the project. Training agents in order to resolve customer complaints efficiently and setting up a system that will enable agents to get live updates of their performance were a few other major challenges.

Solution:
The solutions for achieving Repsat greater than 86% were categorized in 3 areas- process improvements, training improvements & software development. Additional processes such as Managers analyzing Chat sessions in order to identify process gaps, process for ensuring latest updates percolate to operations floor, Poka-Yoke in process steps, and calculation of tentative Repsat scores were introduced.
Training related improvements included formation of a PIR (Performance Improvement & Research) team to monitor trainings, addition of mock chats, and remedial trainings for bottom quartile performers.
A Coaching & Feedback tool was developed in order to ensure 100% audit of “Not Satisfied” chat sessions and provide auto feedback to agents.

Result
In Control phase we achieved a Repsat of 86.6%. Increase in Repsat led to higher customer satisfaction thereby increasing the Net Promoter Score of our client. eClerx got additional business that increased the existing headcount by 30%. Another additional benefit was the increase in First Call Resolution percentage which further increased client & customer satisfaction.

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