Betterness by Godrej

As on cover: One of natureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most beautiful creatures, the Chambered Nautilus adds ever-larger segments or â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;chambersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; as it grows throughout its life cycle. Kaizen-driven organisations are like that; fed by nutrients from the environment, they continually increase their capacity while maintaining internal harmony and symmetry.

Editorial outstanding briefing titled ‘Betterness’, which is reproduced to enable our readers appreciate what becoming better is all about. A must read. Jayanth Murthy and Vijay Pandey captured the essence and importance of Kaizens in organisations in their wonder ful ar ticle, whilst laying the conceptual foundation of Kaizen thinking. B. K. Rajkumar traces the journey of the Kaizen movement at G&B highlighting important milestones which is followed by reports on Kaizen competition and exhibition held recently. Kaizen logo competition was also held and Chaitali, the winner of the competition, tells us how she designed the Logo. World renowned authority on Kaizen, Prof. Masaaki Imai liked our new Kaizen logo and wrote a letter of appreciation.

his quote is essentially about two fundamental strategies to be followed for surviving and prospering in the difficult times ahead. The first strategy is about becoming better and the second one is about innovation, doing things which are new and different. The theme of this issue of CHANGE is ‘Betterness’. It was inspired by a daylong participation of mine in the Kaizen event held in early September this year. The events were Kaizen competition and exhibition. I could see so many things being made better, individually and in teams. Positive energy and contagious enthusiasm were the obvious outcomes of engaging in making things better. H e n c e, te a m CH A N G E d e c i d e d to capture all about betterness and the Kaizen movement at Godrej in this issue of the magazine.

“Something more, somewhat better Something new, somewhat different” - N S Rao

We remember Sohrabji by elaborating upon his insightful remark of “Never leave well enough alone”. All of his life he strived hard to make things better which are impor tant for human life, such as environment, heritage, population growth and international relations. Theodore Levit t, a Prof. at Har vard wrote an

Parampal takes a somewhat different tack and elaborates upon the need to becoming disciplined and about becoming bet ter at work. Deepak describes one of the most power ful tools ‘Flowcharting’, w h i c h c a n h e l p u s i m p r ove o u r processes continually. We have three stories about the betterment of products. The first one is from industrial category that of Bridge and Carriage assembly manufactured by GPE for NPCIL, the second one is in the consumer durable category which is about our 7 star air conditioner and the third story is about Godrej Interio having applied for and awarded BIFMA level ® 2 certification for one of its product range- a step forward on the path of becoming greener. The Kaizen movement is not sustainable without the transformation of people. The GPE stories about the empowerment of their people through Kaizen movement and making available Brahmavidya for the holistic development of people are indeed inspiring. And so is the story of personal change by Umesh. And finally, a book worth reading- The Checklist Manifesto by Dr. Atul Gawande, as Venkat puts his review, Checklist, though simple in nature, can yield hugely beneficial outcomes without any cost. As always, your feedback is requested to shape CHANGE to your liking. Enjoy becoming better.

Indrapal Singh 1

Team For private circulation only. No part of the magazine can be reproduced in any form without due permission of the editor. You can mail your contributions, suggestions and feedback to: The Editor, Plant 11, 2nd Floor, Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd., Pirojshanagar, Vikhroli (W), Mumbai 400079, INDIA or email us at change@godrej.com Published by Indrapal Singh on behalf of Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd. Design & layout by thought blurb thoughtblurb.in Photography by Shivaji Ghag Printed by Silver Point Press Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai Visit us online change.godrej.com

Everyday, everyone, everywhere

Never leave well enough alone

Betterness

Anil Verma | Head, Edit Board

Nalini Kala | Edit Board

Godrej Interio awarded BIFMA levelÂŽ 2 Gold Certification for Wish

The best Kaizen competition - 2012

Best Kaizen 2012; Category - workmen 24 And the Kaizen logo was designedâ&#x20AC;Ś

Kaizen Journey

Deepak Banota | Edit Board

Nariman Bacha | Distribution

Sujith Nair | Special Contributor

Contents

Discipline for betterness

Flowcharting

Book Review: The Checklist Manifesto

Kaizen journey at Godrej Precision Engineering

A case study - Fueling machine bridge & carriage project

Embrace change to survive

An evening of Green Thinking

Becoming better the Brahmavidya way

Kaizen exhibition â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 2012

29 3

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Never leave well enough aloneâ&#x20AC;? - S. P. Godrej An anecdote by Indrapal Singh

any years ago on one Thursday afternoon I received a call from Krishnaswami (secretary to Sohrabji), asking me to come across right away to meet an important visitor SPG had. I rushed to SPG’s office and was introduced to Dr. Balkrishna Doshi, a distinguished architect and educator from Ahmedabad. He was a partner in the reputed firm of architects- Stien Doshi & Bhalla and had later designed Pirojsha Godrej National Conservation Centre at Delhi. SPG and Dr. Doshi were friends and had known each other for years. Dr. Doshi wanted Godrej office furniture but, made to his design. The furniture was required for MPEB (Madhya Pradesh State Electricit y Board) building at Jabalpur. A degree of standardisation and manufacturability in future were called for and had to be kept in mind. In fact Dr. Doshi wanted the furniture in our traditional Olive Green and Grey colours, but duly refined so that it blended well with the ethos of the architecture of the new MPEB building. Based on the drawings handed over to me we manufactured a few samples and called Dr. Doshi to have a look at them about six weeks later. This time SPG wanted to accompany him to our Plant 4 and have a look at the samples that we had manufactured. One glance at the samples presented and it was

clear that they had met the approval of Dr. Doshi. The samples looked indeed modern and attractive with the changes made in the design. SPG too looked pleased that our standard furniture could be modified easily to look so much better and meet the approval of an architect as distinguished as Dr. Doshi! A few minor changes were suggested by Dr. Doshi which were subsequently incorporated. We were about to leave for SPG’s office when Dr. Doshi remarked, “Sohrabji, look what can an architect’s touch do to your furniture”. Sohrabji nodded in approval and turned to me and said “Never leave well enough alone”! This remark of SPG’s has been stuck in my mind for more than two decades. How appropriate it is even today as we see nothing around us becoming better even after decades have gone by. Nothing gets better quickly enough to make an impact on the life of the common man. It seems that we are happy with “leaving what is not well enough, alone!” Now is the time to make everything around us ‘better’ including what we make and sell. To survive and prosper in future it is a must that we cultivate the mindset of improving continually our products, processes, supply chain and infrastructure. Remember what SPG had said, “Never leave well enough alone”.

1. Sohrabji Pirojsha Godrej 2. Dr. Balkrishna Doshi

Betterness By Theodore Levitt Sustained success is largely a matter of focusing regularly on the right things and making a lot of uncelebrated little improvements every day. Getting better and better one step at a time adds up. Sometimes a little step turns surprisingly into a big leap.

rofessor Levitt, a Doctorate in Economics, was an academic at Harvard Business School (HBS) for over 30 years and started teaching marketing at HBS at a time when as the legend has it he had never previously read a book on the subject. He taught marketing for more than 30 years and wrote the famous Harvard Business Review (HBR) article ‘Marketing Myopia’ which has been reprinted more than a million times.

He coined in 1983 a statement of ‘Corporate purpose’ as, not merely to make money but to create and keep a customer. A brilliant communicator and writer with a great sense of humour, Prof. Levitt wrote many briefings for the management. One of them, “Betterness” is reproduced from HBR Nov.-Dec. 1988, for our internal use only. It is perhaps one of the best articulation of what betterness is and how it is acquired.

MOST THINGS get done in small doses. “Every day in every way I’m getting better and better,” goes the inspirational mantra. Japanese business language speaks prescriptively of Kaizen, continuous improvement. Trying routinely to get better one step at a time is a far better way to get better than shooting constantly for the moon.

that succeeds has a constant curiosity about its customers and competitors. It aims for reasonable attainments so that its members can have some direct impact on and get some modest recognition for. It asks of them neither heroism nor miracles, and certainly not theatrics. It seeks and eagerly rewards honest workmanship, committed effort, and innovation.

Major prophetic leaps into sudden business success are rare. That is why they make the headlines, as do similarly sudden and spectacular flops. Sustained success is largely a matter of focusing regularly on the right things and making a lot of uncelebrated little improvements every day. Getting better and better one step at a time adds up. Sometimes a little step turns surprisingly into a big leap. Occasionally there will be big or daring efforts in pursuit of big results that, even more surprisingly, actually pay off. In these combinations of ways, big powerhouse corporations finally get built. It is also how they stay strong and ahead- how they become the blue-chip companies we wisely prefer to have our retirement pensions invested in.

Years ago at 3M, a product manager who later became a high executive said, “We try and do a lot of things, a little of this and a little of that, and try to make it work. We make a little and sell a little; then make and sell a little more and a little better. Usually, something pretty good happens. It can even get big. And all along we know who did what and who we are.”

The fact that strong big companies regularly spend a lot on R&D and on new products and new ventures, or even have big setbacks, is not entirely beside the point. By doing a lot of things well and trying constantly to do them a little better, they generate the cash and build the confidence to try occasional big things without jeopardising the whole enterprise. The world of affairs is certifiably unstable and largely unpredictable. Almost nothing lasts, especially if it’s a good thing. What’s called excellence today is apt to be execrable tomorrow. Things wear out. Strategies and programs exhaust themselves. And what doesn’t actually wear out gets caught up with and passed by. People tire and slow down- no matter that they get briefly aroused at inspirational convocations to go passionately after an undefined and unsustainable excellence. Inevitably, manufactured inspiration collapses into disappointment, cynicism, and retreat. The messiah of excellence, defrocked by failure, turns vehemently against rationality, and in unctuous conceits pronounces the world chaotic. An organisation succeeds through thick and thin by operating according to simple principles and beliefs that can be comprehended and sustained under the pressures, push, and boredom of life’s daily duties and routines. The organisation

Things may not be that homespun in other solid and achieving companies, but the spirit is much the same-progress by Kaizen, by modestly attainable increments. That helps explain Tide’s hammerlock market share these past thirty years, Bisquick’s endurance through thick and thin, Sony’s continuous flow of successful new products, and the persistence of Siemens and so many other bluechip corporations. Everybody at every level keeps intelligently and diligently at work, attending to the issues and details appropriate to his or her job. Everybody tries always to do even the little things in new and better ways, without any presumption of having to make rockets go off in the evening skies. There are no special heroes, only honest journeymen with solid work habits and good instincts. Everybody tries everyday to do things a little better and get better results. Effort and vision build, little by little, into a culminating momentum. Success gets sustained by cultivating, largely via planning, budgeting, and management, healthy habits of constructive selfexamination and environmental awareness. Improving things little by little does not mean sticking wrongly to what should no longer be done. Without a market in suitable abundance, nothing works. No amount of betterness can reverse Sol Hurok’s immutable law: “When people don’t want to come, nothing in the world will stop them.” Betterness comes in all magnitudes, but it is not likely to come in any sustainable proportions if unsustainable efforts are wrongly urged on the organisation. What is surely unhealthful is to invite raging evangelists periodically to whip people into believing the latest fast fixes.

Everyday, Everyone, Everywhere By Jayanth Murthy, Director - Kaizen Institute - India/ Africa/ Middle East and Vijay Pandey, Associate Director - Kaizen Institute, India & Africa Kaizen makes routine daily work more meaningful. It engages minds of people and sets them thinking to improve work and things at hand. Work as a result becomes enjoyable, challenging and motivating.

ong long time ago, when we were in the ‘artisan’ world, people created things and sold them. A weaver made cloths from cotton, he was part of the entire process - from plucking the cotton to selling the cloth. A black smith made things from Iron, again in control of the whole process - heat, beat and sell! Let’s take the example of a Tailor, he would take measurements, stitch and fit clothes. After a day’s of hard work, if this tailor was to get home and his little child were to ask him, “Dad, what did you do today at work?”, what do you think he would say? Most likely you will hear him say; “you know what, I had an order to stitch a shirt, I took the measurements, cut the fabric, put it together and boy! it fitted well! the customer was so happy! I had fun!!”

Now, quickly lets look at the tailor. As demand grew he adopted the ‘factory’ approach to making more and more shirts. A few only cut the fabric, some only stitched the sleeves, some only packed it and some only sold it! It was all fine, the numbers grew, the job was divided and specialists were born! Now let’s zoom into a man on the line, his job is to sew the buttons on the shirt. All day long his sews 100’s of buttons, and after a hard day’s work, goes home and child will ask “what did you do at work today”? What do you think would be his answer? Oh! I had fun sewing 100’s of buttons? It was meaningful work; I could see the customer smile? Or will it be more on the lines of; ‘child don’t even ask, I want to forget my day’s pain and work, I sewed buttons all day!

Now, let’s fast forward to the next era in the journey of human development. Call it the era of mass manufacturing, industrialisation, division of labour, etc. As population grew, the demand grew. It was found that manufacturing in large scale was required. So large scale production came into being. It brought with it many advantages and many problems too!

Let’s assume that a person works for 30 years in his life time. Is it not necessary that most part of this work life will be happy, meaningful, rich? Apart from MONEY, what do people need on the job? Kaizen makes work meaningful! It engages peoples and makes them think. It challenges, motivates, and makes work life fun! Nobody knows the job better

than the person who does it daily. Kaizen engages people who know and do a job to reflect on what they do, how they do it and pushes them to find a better way to do what they do! Kaizen stands for continual improvement. Old fashioned, been around for long, but hardly understood and applied well! Let’s look at an interesting case. Europe is known to be the highest cost zone. People costs are the highest and thus cost per unit of production tends to be high. Interestingly one of world’s leading Cola manufactures runs their most cost efficient plant in Sweden, which has the highest people cost in the world!! How do you think this happens? Well, they were very costly and were ready to be shut. A new CEO was hired. He came from a company that greatly believes and lives by the Kaizen way! He engaged the people to get waste out. His Kaizen efforts started giving about 8.5 Mil Euro savings per year, whereas some other approach that were existing for years at this plant (with all sorts of green and black belts), was hardly giving them 2.5 Mil Euro savings a year and it was reducing. So via Kaizen they moved from being the worst to best; they were looking at 85 improvements per employee per year! A bumper Kaizen harvest! The entire box (in Fig. 1) is in three parts. The Blue is 50%, it represents the most important role in management, which is making, keeping and doing work as per standards. Standard work, results in standard output. The white part is Kaizen - improvement achieved via elimination of Muda (waste), Mura (variability), Muri (physical burden). The red portion is Innovation or break through. It is about the big ideas, the big bangs that generates big growth, new products, process, etc. Roles and work content: Now if you see the right side, you will notice that front line employees have 90% blue and 10% white. Which means that 90% of their focus and work content is on standard work, whereas some opportunity (say 10% of their time) does exist to engage in Kaizen (white zone). If you look at the supervisors, the mix changes. It is 40% blue (standard work) and rest of it focused on improvements of both kinds, i.e., Kaizen (improvement by reducing Muda) and Innovations. And finally if you look at the managers, they hardly have 25% of their work focused on standard or routine work, 75% of their efforts and time must be directed towards improvements - both the Kaizen and Innovation kind.

So from this model there are four types of Kaizens that emerges; at the bottom is Kaizen tien (daily Kaizen activities). These are Kaizens given by front liners, individuals (or small teams). They look at their work standards and think of ways to improve them. Then there is the Gemba Kaizen workshops, which are driven by middle managers, it is cross functional in nature and looks at a much larger scope, improves larger processes. Then there are value stream projects, which is driven by top level task forces, not often, but as required. They focus on total redesign of an entire end-to-end value stream. Many Gemba Kaizen workshops may emerge from these large value stream projects. Finally you have design of a Kaizen model. This focuses on the design of a model which manages and controls the promotion of Kaizen, Everywhere, Everyday, Everyone - making Kaizen a DNA of the organisation. Kaizen: Current perceptions in industry It is important to understand the entire scheme of span of Kaizen. There is a misconception in industry as to what Kaizen truly means. Is Kaizen small improvements made by anybody, anywhere in the organisation? Is it improvement activity taken up in spare time? Or, is it a suggestion scheme for shop-floor employees? Over the years, the word has come to symbolise different things to different people. A common theme, however, i s d i s pa rate i m p rove m e nts, m ad e occasionally, here and there in the

Fig. 1: Kaizen Stratergy “Model”

organisation. In essence, a scheme introduced by Management to keep people motivated and to make point level improvements with little apex direction or focus. Plunging a little more deeper - is Kaizen any longer optional for any enterprise? To answer that question, let’s look at the 3 stakeholders central to any organisation. In the first place, organisations commercial or non-commercial - exist only as long as they have customers for their product or service. Secondly, they must meet the objectives that management/ shareholders/ trustees set out for the organisation along its purpose line. And thirdly, the organisation must necessarily fulfil the aspirations of its employees the people who deliver against customer expectations and organisational goals. The need for customer focus: How many organisations from the 1960s are still around today? Of those that are, what ensured their survival? Clearly, dynamics at the marketplace have changed dramatically over the decades. No longer are businesses operating in a “monopolistic” or “supply” contex t. Technical know-how to deliver quality products & services is now extensively available. Today, companies that are winning at the market place are ones who, in the first place, make continuous efforts to understand their customers’ needs and what customers value in the product or service. Secondly, these companies have quality assured processes and systems

Value adding

Necessary but not value adding

35%

Primary focus of efficiency improvement projects

Primary focus of Lean with 5S as Foundation

Non value adding= WASTE

60%

that translate customer insights with integrity through their product innovation cycles and supply chain. Having said this, with a number of quality options now available at the market place - and smarter customers - purchase choices are increasingly being made after evaluation of overall value-for-money spent. Thus, the challenge for enterprises has moved in recent times from marketing a quality product to marketing and delivering a quality product at the lowest possible cost. In light of the above, is continuous improvement an option for any enterprise or necessary even to just stay in the game? The need for continuously improving being clear, one often hears management’s debating priorities: Customer First or Employees First? The question itself is in error and best left alone. In truth, “demands” of all 3 stakeholders must be addressed in the continuous improvement journey. Customers look for on-time, in-full and error-free delivery of a product or service and expect quick resolution of complaints. Shareholder/Management focus is primarily on gaining market share, improving margins and ensuring healthy cash flow. Employees, on the other hand, are seeking to be part of an enterprise that provides challenging work, a supportive organisational climate and opportunities for learning and personal growth. What distinguishes a Kaizen approach from other improvement practices? True Kaizen is focussed improvements and directed by the organisation’s understanding of customer requirement. The essential idea being to take up projects of strategic importance from a customer perspective and conduct problem-solving in PDCASDCA cycles to ensure improvements are sustained. When this is the aim and practice by everybody, everyday and everywhere in the organisation, results that managements and employees seek are a natural outcome (reduced costs, improved team work, etc.) Key to the Kaizen approach is a fundamental knowing that waste is intrinsic in organisational processes. Figure 2 illustrates this aspect.

Fig. 2: Value Adding & Wasteful Activities

From a customer perspective, activities in the organisation he would be willing to pay for are ones that add value efficiently to inputs in the direction of the promised output.

Fig. 3: Long term company value Studies show that, for most organisations starting out on a Kaizen journey, Value Adding activities (VA) are normally < 5% of total. A full 95% are Non-Value Adding activities (NVAs). Of the latter, it is estimated that some 35% are essential NVAs and that up to a whole 60% are completely wasteful. Some examples of waste in the manufacturing context are: waiting, rework, over-production, inventory, motion, transportation and over-processing.

to have a cross-functional team conduct an end-to-end Value Stream Mapping (VSM) exercise for the specific product/service family in which improvement is sought from both a customer and management perspective. The purpose of the VSM exercise is to make â&#x20AC;&#x153;wastesâ&#x20AC;? in the end-toend processes visible. Once this is done, the appropriate problem-solving tool from the Kaizen Toolbox is deployed to move from the current to the future state.

The Kaizen methodology While Godrej has started well with the Kaizen Tien approach, it is important to also integrate the other building blocks of Kaizen, which is the cross functional Kaizen Workshops, Value Stream Kaizen and development of a Kaizen model at global level and integrating it with business needs. In starting out on a Kaizen-Lean journey, the recommended approach in Operations is

Kaizen: Change Management Managing operational transformation in the Kaizen way requires a systematic and structured approach. This is embodied in the Kaizen Management System (KMS). Central to this is a Kaizen-Lean Strategy that the organisation needs to develop within its specific context. The over-arching aim of this strategy is to optimise delivery to customers while delivering financial benefits to shareholders/management.

Delivering world-class performance to customers requires improvement first of oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own processes via the appropriate Kaizen Toolbox before extending the approach to supplier and distributors. Integral to this work is development of people and establishment of Kaizen Promotion infrastructure to manage and sustain change. So, in closing it is clear that one cannot only promote Kaizen to the front liners, the top most managers must also engage it! Maybe of a different kind and via a different approach, but If they do it, and are seen doing it, the front liners feel encouraged and supported. In the words of Mr. Masaaki Imai, worldclass is a journey, not a destination. He says the goal is Everyday; Everyone; Everywhere Kaizen. In many organisations it is Someday; Someone and Somewhere Kaizen! This has to change! All the very best!

Godrej Interio awarded BIFMA level® 2 Gold Certification for Wish By Shreya Jalan, Godrej Interio

n its drive towards sustainability, Godrej Interio has crossed yet another milestone. It has attained BIFMA level® 2 Gold Certification for WISH, the popular system furniture range, the first of its kind in the Indian furniture industry. This global certificate has been awarded to Interio for meeting BIFMA e3 sustainability standards by Intertek, the authorised third party certifier.

“Over the last 100 years, Godrej has firmly believed that commercial success and sustainability go handin-hand, and growth in business and growth in green footprint is not just our mantra but a way of life at Godrej.” - P. D. Lam Executive Director and President, G&B

BIFMA level®, unlike other certifications in the furniture industry, does not merely certify the product line or a range. As a multi-attribute sustainability standard and third-party certification program for the industry, it assesses the environmental and social impact of furniture on environment while simultaneously taking into account a company’s processes, social actions, energy usage, material selection and human & ecosystem health impacts. Hence, the BIFMA level ® 2 Gold certification is an endorsement for Godrej Interio’s larger sustainability practices with focus on design for environment, chemical management, life cycle assessment, Green House Gases (GHG) baseline and sustainability reporting. However, not limiting to just these areas, the certification also covers human & ecosystem health and social responsibility. As on August 2012, Godrej Interio becomes one of the only 3 businesses outside of North America to have achieved this level of BIFMA Certification.

Sustainability: a long-term initiative Godrej has been sustainable since its very inception but only recently they have began consciously measuring the impact of their efforts. Interio, the largest furniture manufacturer of India, has been working towards this certification since a few years now. It has committed itself to manufacturing products with decreasing environm e n t a l f o o t p r i n t , a c h i e ved through the pioneering efforts in design, selection of materials, manufacturing, packaging, transportation and disposal of products. These ef for ts have been complied into a ‘Brighter Tomorrow’ report, readily available for download on our website www.godrejinterio.com Interio has attempted to make Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) disclosures within the current systems. Here’s a brief overview of different aspects at Interio’s ef for ts towards becoming a sustainable business. Design for Sustainability It is at this stage only that the environmental footprint can be minimised. Design sets the stage for sustainability in all other stages of the product lifecycle. Design of the product plays an important role in reducing the usage of material and energy. Take for instance, modular design facilitates various options with the use of minimum basic standard components and ensures lower carbon emissions during transportation. Material Selection Interio favours recycled / recyclable materials and is focused on eliminating the use of hazardous chemicals like PVC, chrome, mercury and lead. To reduce overall material usage, Interio promotes minimalistic and simple designs that reduces the number of components and weight of products for added compactness. The recycled content of raw materials ranges between 8 to 10% and efforts are on increasing it without compromising on the quality of the product. The chemical management process has resulted in 100% elimination of Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from glues used in the product and Interio is now working towards the elimination of other chemicals of concern with defined milestones. Manufacturing Processes Interio has adopted use of low impact processes like powder coating, which is 100% VOC-free. And they also ensure

that the powder coating booths are kept clean to yield powder usage up to 100%. Various other efforts are also taken to optimise the use of water with zero wastewater discharge, board optimisation to ensure wastage is less than 10% and many more. Use of camel back oven, variable frequency drives, natural lighting and energy efficient lighting fixtures ensures reduced energy consumption and smaller carbon footprint of the business. Also, green energy generated by bio-mass combustion is used wherever possible. Packaging and Transportation Interio extensively uses knockdown designs that ensure flat packing, reducing the volume of product being transported. This results in saving of transportation fuel and related carbon emissions. The use of greener packaging materials like corrugated paper also helps in reducing carbon foot print.

Product in Use Interio has been working on making their products greener and this has bagged them two most coveted certifications; namely GREENGUARD in 2009 and BIFMA level® in 2012. While GREENGUARD ensures that “healthy indoors” are maintained, BIFMA level® ensures sustainability with multiple perspectives. They are committed to keep adding to this range of green products. End of Life

Wi t h s i m p l e d i s a s s e m b l y a n d r e c o n f i g u r a t i o n of f e r e d by I n te r i o products, it becomes convenient to refurbish Interio products for lengthening their useful life. Most of Interio’s products are recyclable with some of them being up to 100% recyclable. And now with Godrej Interio’s ‘WeCycle’, the recycling service for all institutional products, it closes the loop for becoming a responsible manufacturer. With this ser vice, Interio customers will have an avenue for eco-friendly disposal of their products. This reflects Godrej’s commitment to be green throughout the lifecycle of a product- as many components/materials are extracted from the products meant for disposal which are recycled and put to alternate use. Fo r m o re i nfo r m ati o n, visit us at w w w.godrejinterio.com/green or write to us at interiogreen@godrej.com

1. Looks Good, Feels Good and is Green Too... “Wish” range of work-stations 2. Wish with its contemporary looks, imparts an expansive visual spread to an office and offers an infinite range of styles.

“As we work to ensure brighter living for all our stakeholders, Interio constantly endeavours to create a brighter and greener world through its products, services, processes and systems. The early reports show us that we are on the right path. We are aware that there is much more that needs to be done.” - Anil Sain Mathur, COO, Godrej Interio

The Kaizen Journey By B. K. Rajkumar, Corporate Services “To adopt Kaizen means to be ever willing to change, for if you don’t, you surrender yourself and your market to those who do.” - a renowned Japanese scholar

a i ze n m e a n s m a k i n g s m a l l i m p rove m e nts w i th m i n i m a l investments and involving everyone. Small improvements have always been happening in our organisation. What was however missing was a system to document and capture all the Kaizens and the related documents for the benefit of entire organisation. Thus, Kaizen movement in the current avatar was born in G&B.

its members. The main objective of the council was to standardise the working of Kaizen movement across the company and share with each other learnings and experiences for making the company wide Kaizen movement better.

In early 2009, I was asked to undertake the task of coordinating and systematising the Kaizen activities across G&B. My team and I began by putting in place a structure for governing Kaizen activities.

To standardise the working of the Kaizen initiative, a document of guidelines was prepared. The document elaborated how the movement is to be reviewed and promoted. These guidelines were put on the G&B intranet under the Kaizen Council Site, which was created to make available all relevant information relating to Kaizen.

Kaizen coordinators at business and zonal level were appointed. Their primary responsibility was of streamlining and strengthening of the Kaizen movement in their businesses/areas. A little later a Kaizen council of entire G&B was formed with all the business coordinators as EVENT

1. The Kaizen Council members: Sitting from left to right: S. V. Nayak, Rishikesh Ahirrao, B. K. Rajkumar, Reginaldo D’Souza, M. S. Deboo, S. Y. Nagarsekar. Standing from left to right: Sujith Nair, Shoeb Siddique, S. S. Agarkar, Vijay Pawar, Prajot Pednekar, Parag Shah. *Note: Images of the remaining Kaizen council members (not present in the image above) are shown on the next page.

Required training on Kaizen and its related concepts was given to all the coordinators.

An on line Kaizen Management System (KMS) was put in place to have a single data source for reference by all concerned. The system was WINNER

CATEGORY

Viswakarma Rashtriya Puraskar, 2010 (Awarded in 2012)

Godrej Precision Engineering

Category C won by 3 teams

INDIZEN 2012

Godrej Appliances, Mohali

1st Runner up Case study presentation

CII 17th Kaizen Competition Pune, 2011

Godrej Precision Engineering

2nd Prize in Supervisor/Manager Category

Krit Shiromani Awards 2010

Godrej Appliances, Mohali

Level 1 & Level 2 in industrial safety

INDIZEN 2011

Godrej Appliances, Mohali

2nd Runner up case study presentation

INDIZEN 2011

Godrej Appliances, Mohali

1st Runner up, Case study presentation

CII 6th Kaizen Competition Nasik, 2010

Godrej Precision Engineering

1st Prize- Overall

INDIZEN 2010

Godrej Appliances, Shirwal

1st Prize- Overall

developed by Godrej Infotech, based on the inputs given by the Corporate Depar tment. Using this system, any user can maintain his Kaizen data from concept to implementation stage, thus making the Kaizen documentation a paperless activity. The goal of KMS is to make improvements accessible to all employees for learning and the horizontal deployment of Kaizen ideas across G&B. KMS is also used to generate extensive and specific data on Kaizen for analysis and is used by the Kaizen Coordinators to analyze the per formance of their businesses for continual improvement through internal benchmark ing of best practices. This system has been continuously improved based on the requirements of the businesses and today we can proudly claim to have one of the finest online Kaizen Management System in India.

2. Top Row (L to R): Rajendra Charatkar, Anil Rijhwani, N. D. Dharmadhikari, Khuzema G. Bottom Row (L to R): Gurpreet Singh, Vikas G., Sunil Beloshe, V. S. Ramesh

To provide unique identity for the Kaizen activities at G&B, a Kaizen logo was required. Instead of outsourcing its development, we decided to involve Godrejites in the design of Kaizen logo. A competition was held in August 2012 where more than 850 entries were received, which were evaluated and a winning logo was chosen. More about this competition appears elsewhere in this issue of CHANGE. With many important building blocks of the Kaizen movement in place, it looks like Kaizen mindset has taken roots in G&B.

Starting with a count of 7400 Kaizens in 2009-â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;10, the very first year it was taken up as a corporate initiative, we are at 24000 Kaizens in 2011-â&#x20AC;&#x2122;12, a growth of over 300% in 2 years. Participation of our people has gone up from 34% to 48% in the above years. The Kaizen teams of G&B have been regularly participating in many National and State level competitions and have won many coveted awards, as shown in the table. While we are proud of our achievements so far, we still have a long way to go, especially in terms of participation of our people in Kaizen movement. Our goal is to increase the participation of our people to 100% in next 3 years. At the recently held Kaizen exhibition, Mr. J. N. Godrej observed that horizontal deployment of Kaizens across businesses needs to be enhanced for multiplying the benefits already accrued. The Kaizen council has taken note of this mandate given by JNG and is mulling over concrete steps to be taken in the coming few months for having a better process for horizontal deployment of Kaizens at G&B. In closing I would like to thank all the heads of businesses, managers, workmen and Kaizen coordinators for their painstaking efforts and making the Kaizen movement a way of betterness at Godrej.

Kaizen movement at G&B- milestones.

Online Kaizen management system at G&B - milestones.

The best Kaizen competition â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 2012 By Sujith Nair, Corporate Services â&#x20AC;&#x153;The ongoing process of Kaizen is really important. The idea of just getting everybody involved and bringing up new ideas is a very powerful idea and I suppose the Toyota Production System is well known because of the enthusiasm it has brought within the entire organisation of people making suggestion and bringing up new ideas.â&#x20AC;? -Mr. J. N. Godrej

rior to 2009, some of the businesses at G&B have been practicing Kaizen and had linkages with CII and Kaizen Institute of India. These businesses, notably amongst them LOCKSS and Godrej Precision Engineering had made impressive progress on the path of continual improvement. Mr. J. N. Godrej took note of the good progress made by these businesses and mandated that the Kaizen movement should be taken across all the business of G&B. Mr. Godrej also stated that an adequate governing structure at the corporate level should be established to facilitate the promotion of the Kaizen movement. 1. From left to right - S. S. Jagtap, S. S. Giri, V. B. Kudale, J. A. Tiwari, X. K. Marker and N. D. Dharmadhikari receiving the Award for G&B Best Management Kaizen by Mr. J. N. Godrej.

In compliance of this mandate, in 2009 a Kaizen council at the corporate level was formed under the leadership of B. K. Rajkumar. Having a Kaizen Council proved to be an invaluable aid for promoting the Kaizen movement at G&B.

Kaizen competition is one way by which organisations create awareness and involvement of people for the Kaizen movement. Also, the element of competition boosts creativity of ideas, coming together for winning solutions and so on. To give a boost to the Kaizen movement, which was in its infancy, the first Kaizen competition was held in 2010 which was declared a success, considering it was our first attempt at organising the competition. The par ticipation was restricted to workmen only and about 70 odd persons attended a daylong event. The event was reviewed thoroughly by the kaizen council and the ways and means for promoting the competition better were identified and listed. Mr. Rajkumar had told the council members to work in all earnestness to surpass by a large margin the performance of the first competition in the following year. Also, the scope of

2. Front row (L&R) - Jayanth Mur thy, Jayprakash Zende and Manoj Degloorkar, the judges of the Kaizen Competition. 3. The Kaizen pledge being taken by everyone.

the competition was extended to the management category as well. The Kaizen competition of 2011 in its extended form was certainly a larger event with more than 100 persons participating in the event. The council members had thought this to be a good improvement but Mr. Rajkumar was not yet satisfied with the outcome. Once again in July 2011, the Kaizen Council met to figure out the ways and means for promoting the event better and have the competition on a larger scale involving all of G&B businesses and their establishments in and outside Mumbai. For 2012 competition, a new category of office Kaizen was added to make the scope of the competition still wider. A very ambitious plan for the competition was worked out and a number of specific committees were formed to act upon the action plan such as reception, program, awards, exhibition committee etc. To add zing to the event an additional competition for designing of the Kaizen logo to be used at the G&B level was also announced.

All these three events- the logo design competition, the exhibition and the Kaizen competition together created substantially greater awareness amongst Godrejites and created much buz z resulting in higher participation. The program committee did a wonderful job of collecting five nominations from each of the businesses and checking them out for their adherence to the competition guidelines. The committees thoroughly checked all of 70 nominations received. Our Kaizen coordinators also rendered huge support at each and every step. The awards committee thought of a new idea of giving Ruby Red colour t-shirts to all the participants, coordinators and council members to create a visible mass of 500 + Kaizen soldiers. All the committees met regularly to review the progress, sort out the issues that might have risen, make course corrections to plans and in general to take care of all the details and keep the project moving. Mr. Rajkumarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s guidance in this effort was indeed laudable. 3

4. O r g a n i s i n g c o m m i t te e m e m b e r s with Mr. J. N. Godrej, Vijay Crishna, Anil Verma, B. K. Rajkumar & the Judges Front row (L-R) : Daisy Pradhan, Falguni Turakhia, Reginaldo D’Souza, Rishikesh Ahirrao, Suruchi Trivedi, V. S. Ramesh Back Row (L-R) : Jaikumar Hinduja, Prajot Pednekar, Sujith Nair, Roxanne Fernandes, Namrata Saraf, Anjali Arvindakshan, Shoeb Siddique & Suhas Shinde. 5. Kaustubh Shukla and Sushil Agarkar of Godrej Precision Engineering receiving the award for ‘Business with maximum participation percentage’ from Mr. J. N. Godrej.

Finally a week long intense planning culminated in the inauguration of the Best Kaizen Competition 2012 on 6 th Sept. this year. All businesses of G&B, including establishments located outside Mumbai participated in the competition. The auditorium having a capacity of 200 seats was occupied with around 350 to 400 people with many standing in the aisles. The view of the audience was fascinating with so many Ruby Red Kaizen t-shirts all over the auditorium. Falguni Thurakia was the compere for the day. Mr. Rajkumar made everyone take the Kaizen pledge right at the beginning and the participants were simply overwhelmed with the underlying emotion. Anil Verma inaugurated the competition mentioning about the importance of employee involvement and the need to embrace a culture of continual improvement. Mr. Rajkumar made the introductory remarks about the competition, giving details of its history and the status of Kaizen in the organisation today. 4

Jayanth Mur thy, Director, Kaizen Institute of India, Jayprakash Zende, a reputed Kaizen consultant and Manoj Degloorkar from CII west zone formed the panel of judges who would evaluate the presentations that would ensue during the day. All the judges had vast experience in the field of continual improvement as well as in evaluating Kaizen. The evaluation criteria used by the judges was the same as that specified in the Kaizen management system (KMS), but two additional criteria were added pertaining to the clarity of presentation and time management. In all, 28 presentations were made, 14 by workmen and 14 by management staff. Each and every presentation was made with great enthusiasm and as per CII guidelines. At the end of each and every presentation loud applauses were heard, not only from the colleagues of the team members making the presentation but the members of the competing teams and other participants as well. All in all, the presentations were of higher quality as compared to the previous years. Better

The prize winners of the G&B Best Kaizen Competition 2012 are: t TU 1SJ[F 8PSLNFO $BUFHPSZ won by Dalpatlal Panchal from Locking Solutions and Systems for Kaizen LK001524. t OE 1SJ[F 8PSLNFO $BUFHPSZ won by Keshao Ingle from Precision Systems for Kaizen PS000349 t SE 1SJ[F 8PSLNFO $BUFHPSZ won by Nilesh Mestry from Tooling for Kaizen TR001523 t #FTU .BOBHFNFOU ,BJ[FO XPO CZ Jaikumar Tiwari from Lawkim Motors Group for Kaizen LM001144

efforts and the outcomes were visible. And the judges had tough time evaluating the presentations made by the workmen and the management staff. Finally at around 3:45 pm, all the presentations got over and the judges retired for consultations among themselves to pick the winnersthree from the workmen category and one from the management category. Mr. J. N. Godrej arrived at around 4 pm and spent nearly 45 minutes at the exhibition engaging with Kaizen teams, asking many questions, listening to the replies carefully and making suggestions. And at around 5 pm the prize distribution function started. The judges gave their impressions about the competition making very useful comments and gave some mantras to take the Kaizen movement to the next level. After their encouraging remarks, Mr. J. N. Godrej took the stage and with his brief and thoughtful speech appreciated the efforts put in by all concerned and remarked that he

was very happy to witness a great deal of enthusiasm and involvement in the Kaizen movement. He said that he was particularly keen on safety Kaizens as they are very important for the reputation of the company as a good and safe place to work. He urged people to bring in new ideas all the time and emphasised that people thinking on the job and getting deeply involved in the work was a powerful idea which in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s difficult times is very important and crucial. The event ended with a vote of thanks. Special features on Kaizen logo competition and exhibition are featured in this issue of CHANGE. Ms. Falguni did a wonderful job of compering the event throughout the day and used innovative means to engage the audience and keep them enthused. She deserves our special thanks. P. S . â&#x20AC;&#x201C; To p r e p a r e f o r t h e K a i z e n competition 2013, already the first meeting had taken place where what went well, what could be improved etc. are identified and listed for better competition next year!

t #FTU ,BJ[FO &YIJCJU XPO CZ Kantilal Panchal and Rizwan Baig from Security Solutions for the Kaizen SQ000989. Other awards given on the occasion were: t #FTU ,BJ[FO 4ZNCPM %FTJHO Award won by Ms. Chaitali Rambhad from Construction Division. t 5IF $POTPMBUJPO QSJ[FT GPS UIF shortlisted entries were given to Saounak Lahiri from Locking Solutions and Systems, Nishant Kumar from Construction, Ramchandra Ambekar & Mandar Sakhardande from Precision Engineering. t )JHIFTU OVNCFS PG ,BJ[FOT JO 12 (Workmen category) awarded to V. R. Singh from Interio. t )JHIFTU OVNCFS PG ,BJ[FOT JO 2011-12 (Management category) awarded to S. D. Parthe from Lawkim Motors Group. t # V T J O F T T X J U I . B Y J N V N Participation percentage 2011-12 awarded to Precision Engineering Division.

Best Kaizen 2012; Category- workmen By S. V. Nayak, Godrej Locking Solutions and Systems Keeping it simple and ingenious pays handsomely!

he panel of judges unanimously judged the Kaizen No - LK001524, described below as the best Kaizen of 2011-â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;12 for entire G&B. The originator of this Kaizen is Dalpatlal Panchal of Godrej LOCKSS, who has been with the business for 31 years. Currently he works in the team responsible for promoting low-cost automation in manufacturing. Overview of the operation: In the Ultra Locks, the locking combinations are determined by the sequence of the operating pins. 42 pins and 14 springs are required to be assembled in every lock. The correct orientation of every pin is of critical importance for the proper functioning of the lock. To improve productivity of this operation, an in-house automation was developed for assembling Ultra Locks. Bowl feeders are employed to feed the pins & springs through the plastic tubes to the 3 Assembly S.P.Mâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (Special purpose machines) in Ultra Pin filling automation cell. Kaizen Theme: To reduce, repair and rework losses in Automated Ultra Lock pin filling operation due to incorrect orientation of Vertical pin (V1). Problem Description: During automated pin filling assembly, pins are getting inverted at Bowl feeder exit resulting in rejection of about 12 Ultra locks/shift.

The operator working on the assembly handles three machines at a time and his sole responsibility is to assemble the locks. But, due to the improper functioning of the automated pin filling machine he was taking 10 minutes extra per lock for repair and rework. To eliminate this loss of time the operator would discontinue using the bowl feeder for pin filling and would fill the pins manually for about 30 minutes per shift. A Kaizen team with Dalpatlal Panchal as the team leader with Ameya Dandekar and Fohaid Hashmi was formed to find a solution to the problem.

WHY?

DUE TO

WHY 1

Why Repair and rework losses in Ultra Lock pin filling assembly?

Press fitted bushes have to be manually removed online.

Why press fitted bushes have to be manually removed online?

To check the orientation of all Vertical pins.

WHY 2

WHY 3

Why to check the orientation of all Vertical pins?

Incorrect orientation of Vertical pins.

WHY 4

Why incorrect orientation of Vertical pins?

Vertical pins found inverted in the cartridge tube.

WHY 5

Why Vertical pins are found inverted in the cartridge tube?

The length to diameter ratio of Vertical pin is around 1 and they fall freely into the tube at the bowl feeder exit.

Root cause: The length to diameter ratio of Vertical pin is around 1 and hence they fall freely into the tube at the bowl feeder exit. Toppling Area

Bowl Feeder Track

Plastic Tube (Cartridge)

The Idea: Loading of Vertical pins into the tube to be assisted by unidirectional force as it is not possible to alter L/D ratio of the Vertical pin. Counter Measure: A simple spring wire provided at the Bowl feeder exit which exerts force on the Vertical pin head, due to the force exerted the pins do not fall freely and the correct orientation is maintained till they enter the cartridge tube.

Sustenance of the improvement: 1. Improvement communicated to all in the Department. 2. CLITA (Cleaning, Lubricating, Inspection, Tightening and Adjustment) Sheet updated to check the spring tension daily. 3. Template made to recreate replacement springs. The judges awarded this Kaizen the best Kaizen of the year award in the workmen category as they felt that it was ingenious. It used only a piece of wire to create a simple mechanism which boosted the efficiency of the automated line significantly.

Spring Wire

Congratulations to the team for this ingenious solution. 1

Results: Repair and rework losses of 120 minutes per shift eliminated for correcting the Vertical pin orientation. Other Benefits: The tedious work of manual pin filling in tube is eliminated thus saving the operatorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 30 minutes per shift which he utilizes for assembly activities.

1. Mr. J. N. Godrej awarding the Best Kaizen (Workmen Category) Trophy to Dalpatlal Panchal, Ameya Dandekar & Fohaid Hashmi.

odd entries, two finalists were from Godrej Construction, where I belong. For both of us it was no less than a victory! Least did I know that the best was yet to come. With a click of a button Mr. J. N. Godrej unveiled the winning symbol while we were still facing the audience. The very next moment the entire auditorium erupted with humungous clapping and cheering. I gathered the courage to turn around and take a look at the winning entry; I saw something on the enormous screen that resembled the logo that I had designed. I told myself “Its real, it is your logo.” Yes it was!

And the Kaizen logo was designed… By Chaitali Rambhad, Godrej Construction The winning Kaizen logo design could only have been created with a clear understanding of Kaizen and its efficient application. Chaitali takes you through her experience of creating Godrej’s new Kaizen logo.

he logos of all the finalists, of which I was one, were being displayed on the screen sequentially, as our names were being called upon to come in the front. The whole experience of standing in the jam packed Auditorium facing the dignitaries and the audience at large was awe-inspiring. We were just a few nervous moments away from the defining moment when one amongst us was going to be declared as a winner. Out of the five finalists from 850

On 10th August’12, Kaizen logo design competition was flashed online. It looked like a great opportunity to unfetter ones creative self. The prospects were inspiring. Winning logo was to be used for all Kaizen related activities thereafter. 22nd August’12, I was back after a small vacation to my hometown. The Kaizen symbol design contest was still on. I had some vague idea of what according to me, could represent the spirit of Kaizen. With a lot of mundane work to cope with, in spite of a profound desire, I was not sure if I could take out the required time to design the logo. At 2:30 pm I was discarding sheets that contained rough sketches of the logo I was trying to design. With few interruptions because of urgent work, I was still on and off thinking of the elements that could represent team work, collaboration, ideas, power of knowledge, sustainability, 1

5S and so on. It was almost 4:00 pm, by then I had zeroed down to three persons encircling an earthen lamp (in a triangular form), with a creeper at the bottom that represented sustainability and the Five lines at the top of the triangle symbolic of 5S and improvements. Something was just not clicking. Maybe the initial design was more of an aesthetic drawing than a logo. My next step was to make the logo more precise with no superfluous elements, for ease of application. With a few modifications & alterations I was almost through. My logo now showcased, the three persons as earlier representing the Management, Staff and Work force and their coming together to join hands indicating teamwork and collaboration, a sustainable bulb that represented Big Ideas, emitting the light of knowledge, improvement and innovation, being nurtured and protected by the three task forces, at the centre instead of the earthen lamp, and the progressive lines symbolic of the 5S, their increasing length symbolic of continual, step by step improvement leading to Big ideas at the bottom of the bulb. I tried to put together my thoughts in the best manner possible and prepared a write up for the logo. At 8:30 pm I was all set to upload the logo, overwhelmed with a feeling of accomplishment. Winning or losing was immaterial.

On 6th Septemberâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;12, sitting in the audience listening to the elaborate and meticulous process of short listing and selecting the best logo design and having seen the other finalist entries, which were very good, winning was something I was not contemplating. I was thinking about my efforts so far and my experience of participating in this competition. Little did I know that my efforts will bear fruits, and what sweet fruits! 3

1. Kaizen logo as designed by Chaitali 2. Kaizen logo refined for application 3. Chaitali receiving the award from Mr. J. N. Godrej

Prof. Masaaki Imai, the world renowned authority on Kaizen, on being shown our Kaizen logo took time out of his busy schedule to write a letter to us, which is reproduced on the next page.

Kaizen exhibition, 2012 By Sujith Nair, Corporate Services “I was overjoyed at this opportunity of presenting my idea of improvement to all the visitors and especially in an interactive manner to Mr. Godrej.” - Babulal Joitaram, LOCKSS

he company wide Kaizen movement at Godrej began in 2009. Mr. Godrej has been voicing his concern about the sharing of learning’s with our colleagues within and across the businesses. Kaizen council has been also thinking about the ways and means to be adopted for enhancing the sharing of the ideas with our vendors and suppliers. B. K. Rajkumar had many years back during his stint at Delhi as Regional Manager, North, seen an exhibition by Modi Xerox. It then occurred to him that this was a good way of increasing awareness and facilitating cross learning on any subject. This is how the idea of a Kaizen Exhibition was born.

In early 2012 we decided to hold a Kaizen exhibition to coincide with the Best Kaizen Competition, which was to be held in first week of September. Having taken the decision, the Kaizen Council realised that as we had never held an exhibition before and had no experience of simila r acti v it y, it was inde e d a daunting task that we had undertaken. We however had a firm belief that a wellinformed and cohesive group can always accomplish much more than what it could think of. We then decided to form a team of dedicated and committed individuals under the leadership of V. S. Ramesh of Godrej Security Solutions (GSS). Suruchi Trivedi from IMC department of GSS was to assist him in his work. Viscomm,

1. The exhibition space before it was opened for public 1

an agency would execute the project. I too got involved in the team all along. We began with the collection of data and exhibition material more than a month in advance so that the agency could be given plenty of time for preparing the exhibits. We collected second and third best workmen Kaizen of the year and one best office Kaizen in the Kaizen idea sheet format from each of our businesses. In all we collected 40 Kaizen idea sheets which were reviewed repeatedly and polished suitably for the exhibition. This arduous task could not have been accomplished but for the help given by the members of the Kaizen council.

The banquet hall on the fourth floor of the Plant 13 Annexe was selected as the venue for the exhibition. The agency found it quite challenging to fit 40 large sized exhibits in the exhibition area available in the banquet hall. They had to provide for large size panels to facilitate visibility and readability of the Kaizen sheets, specially the images and also to provide adequate space for the exhibitor’s to stand and present their Kaizens through the mockups of Kaizen sheets and videos. Sufficient space also had to be allotted for 400 odd participants who were to have their lunch and refreshments in the venue.

Viscomm team worked very hard and ensured that all the exhibits were installed a day in advance so that our team could check each of the installation thoroughly. Each of the exhibits was to be manned by the originator of the Kaizen selected for display.

At 9 am on 6th Sept. 2012, Anil G. Verma, ED-P&A, inaugurated the exhibition and declared it open for all. After the inaugural function, he visited each and every exhibit and appreciated the efforts taken by the teams and encouraged them to do better in future. As the day progressed, many heads of businesses and managers from different businesses and corporate departments visited the exhibition.

2. Sushil Achrekar from Godrej Material Handling presenting his Kaizen to Mr. J. N. Godrej, Anil Verma and B. K. Rajkumar 3. An office Kaizen being presented to Vijay Crishna by Karuna Gawane of Godrej Precision Systems 4. G&B’s Senior Management going through the Exhibits.

At 4:30 in the evening Mr. J. N. Godrej visited the exhibition and interacted indepth with each of the teams. He visited all the stalls, asked many questions, appreciated the ef for ts put in and encouraged the par ticipants. At the end of his visit, ever yone was highly elated and proud having showcased his/his team’s Kaizens to Mr. Godrej. There was a separate section for office

5. Kantilal Panchal and Rizwan Baig from Godrej Security Solutions receive the Best Kaizen exhibit award from Mr. J. N. Godrej. 6. B. K. Rajkumar (right) showing the Kaizen Corporate display to Anil Verma (left). 5

Kaizens which evoked much interest as Godrejites generally believe that Kaizens are meant only for the shop floor and not for office. The display of office Kaizens cleared this misconception and paved the way for better participation of office staff in Kaizens. To make the participation in the exhibition more interesting and competitive, an award for the best exhibit was also announced. V. S. Ramesh and R. Ahirrao were appointed judges for this contest. The judges evaluated each and every exhibit on a comprehensive criteria and after much deliberation declared the exhibit of Kantilal Panchal and Rizwan Beg for their Kaizen No. SQ000989 as the Winner Exhibit of the event.

Overall the exhibition was a great success with nearly 400+ Godrejites visiting the exhibition in a single day! Many visitors expressed a thought that such exhibitions should be held more frequently as they were highly beneficial in terms of creating awareness about the Kaizen activity, and also learn about what other businesses were doing. Members of Kaizen council, V. S. Ramesh and Suruchi as well as Viscomm deserve our congratulations and thanks for carrying out this difficult task successfully in a smooth and nice way.

Discipline for betterness By Parampal Singh Demanding more and bet ter helps people to become disciplined practitioners and moves them into the league of higher value creators.

hen you hear the word ‘discipline’, what comes to your mind? Your teacher screaming “Quiet!!” Or “Silence!” ruler in hand, uniform, crew cuts, straight lines, orderly queues et cetera, right? N o w, w h e n y o u h e a r t h e w o r d ‘betterness’ what springs forth? Is it progression, continuous improvement, the quality of being better? What on earth does the discipline that we know of as described above, have to do with betterness? Nothing. Let’s stretch our minds beyond the basics to a kind of discipline that leads to betterness, not bitterness! In large systems, discipline is crucial to establish boundaries in order to prevent chaos from taking over. But, due to its very purpose it’s more about what should not be done. Much effort goes in the setting up of such rules, but what’s most often ignored is the potential for discipline at the level of practice. It’s about what must be done at the level where value is created and shaped. What we need is disciplined practice. Say we’re calling an important meeting like at the start of a new project or an important review with a vendor partner.

Basic discipline is about informing everyone about the meeting and its venue/time, getting to the meeting on time, finishing on schedule, ensuring that phones and laptops are switched off and so on. But, the disciplined practice of running effective meetings would involve much more than that. What might that be? Prior to the meeting, does everyone know the purpose of the meeting? Who’s leading it? What are the key decisions to be taken? What’s the key deliverable? Is it a plan or consensus or a brief or a bank of ideas or just agreement on next steps? Do the participants need to specifically prepare anything prior to the meeting? Has all of the above been circulated prior to the meeting? During the meeting, start by going ove r the age nda. Let the younge st team member voice their thoughts and opinions first. The decision maker must reserve his comments until after everyone in the room has spoken. Encourage creativity by allowing dissent, by letting everyone feel equal until the time a decision needs to be made. It might be a good idea to factor in breaks for warming up, for refreshments, for being human and personal. Each one around the table

has a wealth of experience to share! But, also agree on a chairperson who will be the metronome of the meeting to keep things moving forward. At the end of the meeting; Summarise. Agree on a follow-up date or at least a date by which a follow-up date will be set! Circulate a summary of key decisions taken, next steps and accountabilities. So, what’s the linkage to betterness? If such disciplined practice becomes hygiene over time, that’s betterness. If collective time is saved in achieving meeting deliverables while ensuring all round par ticipation and learning, that’s betterness too! In the context of rapid change and shifting competitive forces, effectively run meetings can release collaborative time for solving harder, complex challenges and lead the organisation to new heights in its evolution.

t "SF BMM PUIFS DSFBUJWF FMFNFOUT MJLF lighting, set construct, costumes, actors, music in sync with each step of the film creation chain (messaging strategy / advertising idea / script)? Do they string together nicely? For tasks that are creative, it calls upon immense willpower to be a disciplined practitioner. So you might ask, ‘What does this have to do with betterness’? If you can ensure creative coherence of the final output with the communication objectives as stated in the brief, that’s betterness through disciplined practice, even in a creation setting.

This was one example of disciplined practice in an area that is all per vasive – meetings.

Many of us might believe that discipline stifles creativity. But, the discipline of brief writing, and the mental discipline of constantly assessing the value added by various creative elements to the fulfilment of the brief’s objectives, actually helps channel the agency’s creative faculties. It sharpens the creative corridor and hence demands a higher order of creativity to deliver the desired impact.

Here’s another one that stems from my experience. Say we need to make an advert for TV. Here are some key questions to be asked along the way; they embody disciplined practice as applied to the film making process.

In sum, when we become disciplined practitioners, we give ourselves the oppor tunity to focus on challenges within the task that are worthy of our creative selves forging ahead a path to a better, brighter future.

t %P XF IBWF B CSJFG UIBU JT BQQSPWFE CZ all stakeholders concerned? t %PFT UIBU CSJFG MJTU LFZ NFTTBHFT JO B desired hierarchy? t %PFT UIF BHFODZ VOEFSTUBOE PVS brand and brief? Is our brief inspiring? t " SF UIF NFBTVSFT PG B TVDDFTTGVM output agreed upon? t )BT UIF BHFODZ QSFTFOUFE BU MFBTU two advertising ideas with at least one script each that are on brief? t %PFT UIF JEFB ESBNBUJTF UIF NFTTBHF that we needed to give highest priority to? t )BWF XF HJWFO DMFBS GFFECBDL PO which is our preferred script and why? t %P XF LOPX UIF DSJUFSJB GPS TFMFDUJPO PG a director for the chosen script? H a v e w e a p p l i e d t h e s e t o t h e selection process? t *T UI F TUP S Z C P B SE J O M J O F X J UI UI F approved script? What value has the film director added as evident in the stor yboard?

Flowcharts - A tool to make processes better By Deepak Banota, Corporate Communications Flowcharting is the essential and first building block for the improvement of a process and kept the japanese ahead of the game for over two decades.

nstead of writing paragraphs af ter paragraphs to depict a process, use f lowchar ts. They do a bet ter job. Remember, “a picture is worth a thousand words”. The famous seven Quality Control (QC) tools were extensively talked about by the Japanese in the western world and were promoted as the secret of superior quality of goods manufactured by them. However, during entire 60’s and 70’s they never talked about flowcharts, the essential and first building block for the improvement of a process. A simple act of not popularizing Flowcharting kept the Japanese ahead on the quality curve for more than two decades. It was in the early 80’s that the Americans and the others in western world started talking about and using flowcharts, as the first, the most important of the eight QC tools including the traditional seven. Flowcharts picture the process. How can you improve the process unless you know how it works, how it is? The best way to depict a process is to flowchart it.

In practice, flowchart help as follows: t 4IPXT VOFYQFDUFE DPNQMFYJU Z problem areas, redundancies and highlight the steps in the process where simplification and standardization may be possible. Allow the team members to come to agreement as to what is the process and which of the activities impact the performance of the process t *EFOUJGJFT MPDBUJPO XIFSF EBUB PVHIU to be collected and investigated t $PNQBSFT BOE DPOUSBTUT BDUVBM versus the ideal flow for identif ying improvement opportunities t 4FSWFT BT B USBJOJOH BJE Who draws the flowchart? Ideally a team consisting of not more than five members should draw a flowchar t. Sometimes an individual too can draw a flowchart but he would benefit greatly if one or two persons worked with him. How to draw the flowchart? 1- Before actually drawing the flowchart, clearly define the process under study and clearly state the starts and the ends of the process chosen for examination.

2- Brainstorm a list of major activities, inputs, outputs and decisions on a flipchart sheet from the beginning of the process to the end. 3- Sequence the steps in an order in which they are being carried out currently. Tip â&#x20AC;&#x201C; use post-it notes so that the steps could be moved around easily. Do not draw the arrows until the team agrees that the flow is right. Essentially four symbols, that of an oval, rectangle and diamond is to be used for drawing a flowchart. The oval is used to show what triggers the process which could be any input such as material, information or action. It is also used to show the results at the end (output of the process). A rectangle is used to show a task or activity performed in the process, usually only one arrow arrives at or leaves each activity box. A diamond shows those points in the process where a Yes/ No question is being asked or a decision is required. The arrows show the direction of the flow of the process. Flowcharts can be drawn basically at three different levels- macro level flow chart in which key steps are shown but no decision boxes, an intermediate level flowchart which shows action and decision points and a micro level flowchart, which will show minute details. Usually in practice, for improving any process intermediate flowcharts are drawn by the teams assembled and made responsible for improving of the process. Learning to draw flowcharts readily is a skill which is best acquired by a good deal of practice and checking out the process drawn with what is actually happening and correcting it diligently for representing the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;as isâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; status. Here, I too found that I had to draw and re-draw a simple process of developing of collaterals as shown. Also, my efforts helped me to identify the steps where check sheets need to be developed for performing the activity thoroughly. Having gone through this exercise myself I wonder how people claim to improve the work process without correctly flowcharting them. In case you are serious about the pursuit of betterness then draw as many flowcharts as you can and you will find superior visibility of the way in which things are getting done in your area of work.

The Checklist Manifesto E - By Dr. Atul Gawande A review by Venkatesh Easwaran, Godrej Security Solutions

ver watched a pacy thriller? The Checklist Manifesto happens to be a book in the same league that rivets its reader right from the first page! The introduction reveals inaptitude being a fundamental reason for human failure and surprisingly, the solution to overcome it, seemingly ridiculous in its simplicity, is the CHECKLIST! Author and surgeon Dr. Atul Gawande keeps the reader engrossed with a series of stimulating narratives and shows how to achieve a qualitative change for better using a checklist of things to do. The drowning incident exemplifies how scores of people carried out thousands of steps correctly and in the right sequence and saved a child. It proves the absence of preparation as being the chief villain in emergencies. Understand how a checklist is prepared and given to the people with the least power in the process chain to produce a turnaround in results. A tragedy made early Boeing pilots realise that a new prototype was too much of an airplane for one man to fly. Pilots motivated by the near bankruptcy, designed the first pilot checklist and later flew the same plane 1.8 million miles without a single accident. The first doctor checklist tried out by a specialist at a world famous hospital, demonstrated that in 1/3rd of patients

at least one step was missed out of 5 steps! Read about the dramatic results derived by using the same checklist for a year in a pilot project. An interesting study of complexity and types of problems and the checklist’s ability to avert failures arising from combined problems catches the attention of readers. Find out how Gawande’s question of trusting judgement or a checklist protocol gets answered by a builder. A lot can be learnt and adapted by us from the submittal schedule, a type of checklist an American builder operates with, especially when dealing with unanticipated situations and unpredictable difficulties. Ponder upon the adage ’man may fail, but men fail less so’ and its undeniable relevance for us. Anecdotes from a celebrity chef’s kitchen and a rock star’s use of a peculiar quirk ingeniously, in a checklist will keep the reader intrigued! Another lesson worth learning is from the Wal-Mart philosophy of pushing decision making power to the periphery away f r o m t h e c e n t r e, to s o l ve extraordinarily complex problems. Read about the author almost botching the opportunity of developing a WHO global program and a change of heart following his study undertaken in Pakistan which became his inspiration to develop a checklist for surgical care. Acquaint yourself with the ‘activation phenomenon’ and its benefits.

The author dwells upon a new dif ficulty we humans face in making systems work. He cautions us about how optimising par ts will not give us system excellence just as joining the best parts of different luxur y cars will only give us a pile of expensive junk! Here too, the checklist helps improve the outcome without increasing skills. The instances narrated by the author clearly prove that under conditions of complexity, checklists not only help, but are required for success. Checklists pass where super specialists and experts fail. CLs provide protection against failures by reminding us of minimum necessary steps explicitly. They facilitate verification and instill discipline. It is commendable that Dr. Gawande has acquired such a phenomenal amount of knowledge on diverse subjects though he is a specialist surgeon by education. The statistics he has compiled and the painstaking research undertaken by him are truly awe inspiring and should serve as an example to all. The book is priced at ` 250/- only, and I would strongly recommend its possession to everyone interested in making things better not only on the job but all around.

Gawande helps us differentiate between good and bad checklists and exhorts even experts to use them without prejudice with excellent examples. His hypothesis about human inertia in accepting innovation due to knowledge not being presented in a simple, usable and systematic form is spot on. It would be worth emulating the author’s professionalism which comes to the fore by his refusal to accept the fantastic results of his project at a face value and the pains he takes to ensure that factors like Hawthorne Effect are eliminated before publishing project results. Gawande is pleasantly surprised when a reputed fund manager in the US unwittingly draws a parallel with his surgery checklist during a meeting. The financier had devised a checklist of his own to avoid errors during investment process thereby gave him the edge of efficiency over others.

Kaizen journey at Godrej Precision Engineering By S. S. Agarkar Difficult years are the best time to embark on the journey of becoming better in a deeply committed way. GPE chose to adopt the Kaizen path to get the division on its feet. Starting out with 25 Kaizens, GPE today has seen over 2500 Kaizens.

articipating in the Kaizen competition and exhibition 2012 made me nostalgic and took me back to 2003, when our Kaizen journey had just begun. At that time, Kaizen was a new word in our vocabulary and we looked at it as yet another management initiative, little realising that it would change the very essence of the way we would work in the years ahead. GPE was born almost overnight in 2002 out of Machine Tools Division. As we had closed machine tools business, the new born GPE had to reorient its working and the culture for meeting the requirements of nuclear and defense sectors. The challenge was enormous indeed. Our decades’ long experience of machine tools was simply of no use. Quality inspectors of NPCIL and others were telling us loudly that everything that we were doing was wrong and we were like lost babes in the wood, struggling to find our way out. Our morale was low and the future looked bleak. In this period of crisis the path of Kaizen gave us the proverbial silver lining, inspiring us to move ahead. In our previous avatar we were used to the traditional approach of ‘I say and you do’, and now we had to adopt a new approach of ‘let us do it better together’. The underlying belief was that everyone is capable given an opportunity and freedom to act. An individual or a group can come up with simple ingenious solutions to seemingly complex, insurmountable problems.

In 2003 I was heading the machine shop which was in deep trouble having the largest number of Hourly Rated Workers (HRWs). I had to exploit and channel their mental energy to make improvements, which would over time help us meet the challenges of high precision machining. We had at that time D. D. Chogle to help us in the Kaizen journey. Initially I was skeptical about the benefits and I was pushing for the so called ‘engineering solutions’ approach, but a pilot project involving a simple Kaizen convinced me of its potential benefits in terms of improved capability as well as new found confidence amongst the workmen. I embraced Kaizen approach fully and thus began our journey. Within a span of few months, participation in the Kaizen movement spiralled like a tornado, drawing in all other manufacturing departments. The initial success was boosted further as we refined the method of giving rewards for the Kaizens implemented successfully. Specially printed certificates were distributed to the participating employees, which boosted their prestige amongst their colleagues. Direct cash payment through salaries also made people believe that management indeed appreciates their efforts and their working in a win-win environment. Likewise, supervisors and engineers were also pulled into the Kaizen movement. Participating and winning awards at state and national level competitions also boosted our pride at work and encouraged our people to perform their daily tasks more diligently. Our journey of last nine years is punctuated with lot of hard work and discipline all along. All documents were translated into Marathi for making it easy for our workmen to participate. Extensive benchmarking was done in evolving methodology for evaluating Kaizens. Meticulous recordkeeping and development of online Kaizen Management System tied up the loose ends and created a way of working where everyone was involved. Starting with only 25 Kaizens in 2003-04, GPE touched 2742 Kaizens in 2011-12 with 90% people participation! Our efforts brought us many accolades, such as GPE team won the 1st Prize in “Best Kaizen Competition” conducted by CII at Nashik on 13th Feb. 2007, followed up by various state and national level awards and 1st prize in intra-Godrej ‘Bedhadak Bolo’ contest wherein team solved seemingly impossible technical challenges in manufacturing of Primary Sodium Pump Shaft for Nuclear reactor. Today the journey continues and this year the team GPE received a trophy for highest participation amongst G&B at the hands of Mr. J. N. Godrej on 6th November 2012, making all of us immensely proud. I took an opportunity to whisper into the ears of our team members that the best of GPE is yet to come!

A case study Fueling machine Bridge and Carriage project By S. S. Agarkar Godrej Precision Engineering has been on the path of becoming better for more than 7 years or so. Bridge and Carriage Assembly (B&CA) shown below in its all glory is the superb example of what can be achieved through the pursuit of continual improvement in manufacturing practices and core capabilities. This B&CA is meant for 700 MW nuclear power plant located in Rajasthan and is first of its kind to be manufactured in India. This 700 MW B&CA is 15 metres tall and 12 metres wide, hydraulically operated, numerically controlled, Nuclear Fuel positioning machine. GPE manufactured it and made it ready for dispatch in 27 months from order to delivery – a record unmatched by any other Indian manufacturer!

1. 700 MW Bridge & Carrige Assembly with core team assembled on it

PE in its infancy years, had delivered similar but smaller B&CA for 220 MW Tarapur Atomic Power Plant. The delivery of these 3 numbers of B&CAs had a delay of about 2 years. This experience was highly unfavourable and frankly speaking, at GPE we were deeply embarrassed on many fronts. Whatever were the causes of our poor performance, we decided that we would not leave the situation unchanged. We carried out a thorough review of what had gone well and what had gone wrong to chalk out a path of betterment for future. In retrospect, it meant that we had to completely overhaul the way we were performing our work. In other words, improve all the key processes involved. We had to also change the culture of GPE and empower, inspire and equip our people in GPE to do better. These are covered in separate articles in this issue of CHANGE, namely – The Kaizen Journey of GPE and Becoming better – the Brahmavidya way. In order to achieve the above, a large number of business processes were mapped out and consciously improved to transform the way of working especially as related to the manufacturing and quality assurance.

facilitate e a r l y d e te c ti o n of e r ro r s to minimize expensive and time consuming rework. Early discovery of deviations and subsequent corrective actions ensure that the job is ready for the next operation. This change to implement in practice proved to be quite demanding as the earlier practice was to discover and act upon deviations at later stages of work only.

1. Estimation design and process planning - Ou r te a m d e ve l o p e d i n - h o u s e proprietary software for estimating the work involved in welding and machining. This enable d the business to estimate quite accurately, cycle times for fabrication and machining taking into account, weld geometry and deposits & metal cutting parameters. - To facilitate accurate work, stage drawings highlighting critical process points, references, etc. are being developed to prevent ambiguities and human errors. - Detailed process plans are developed as a routine for every setup and machining operation. 2. Manufacturing practices - A way of working where every manufacturing operation is planned, check e d a n d a p p r o v e d p r i o r t o proceeding ahead. The key reason for doing this is to prevent errors and 3

2. B&C column on Skoda 4 3. First B&C column loaded on Skoda 4 for machining. 4. Critical subassemblies which will ultimately carry Nuclear fueling head in the Nuclear power plant.

- Nuclear and defense jobs demand accuracies in fabrication and machining whic h a r e s e e m i n g l y i m p o s s i b l e to a c h i e ve. To a c h i e ve h i g h l e ve l of accuracies in fabrication, everyone in design, process planning, manufacturing and quality assurance had to work together to figure out ways and means to achieve the accuracies specified in the drawings. The mantra followed is â&#x20AC;&#x153;drawings are sacred and it is possible to meet its requirementsâ&#x20AC;?. This can-do mindset enabled our fabrication team to design solid fixtures which could give us fabrication linearity of 2 mm in 13000 mm, processes which restricted ovality of 3 mm in shell of 8000 mm dia and 5500 mm height. Maintenance team could establish 50 micron straightness in 15000 mm travel and machining team could deliver a dowel hole of 10 mm dia and 200 mm length in 10 microns. - Special packaging and materials handling schemes developed for small and medium sized ultra-accurate components, which prevents even the smallest damage like scratch to components. These are like nylon nets, transfer forks covered with rubber mats, cushioned trolleys, contoured wooden transfer boxes, etc. - Due to humongous nature of jobs, design and shop teams developed special safet y schemes and audit sheets for ever y component handling

during all its manufacturing processes so that damage to people, property or component is avoided.

- Nature of GPE business is such that projects are new and not always repetitive. Hence, common as well as specific to project processes, improvements, photos, tools, etc are stored in Knowledge management system for future references. 3 Project management - T he procure me nt of plate s to subassemblies to motors to power packs to electronic components all have special requirements of precision and ruggedness and therefore are required to be manufactured specially as per the requirements specified. Our projects te a m d e ve l o p e d a c o m p r e h e n s i ve database for procurement and inspection of these raw materials and bought outs. - A process of in-depth review of closure meetings was institutionalised to enable our teams refine the existing processes to contain costs and improve cycle times. 4 Quality Assurance practices - Nuclear and Defense projects require stamp transfers, continual third party surveillance and witness requirements all through its value addition processes. Non-Destructive Testing, Destructive Testing and Traceability are norms at every stage of manufacturing, from raw material procurement to assembly for every component and even smallest boughtouts like fasteners. QA team developed proprietary softwares like QCAT, CAPA system, calibration, online dimension transfers to earn confidence of customers.

- QA team, through deployment of their sophisticated and innovative inspection techniques like 3 axis LASERs, inspection jigs, auto UT machines, etc. reduced time taken for inspection and made available to inspectors all the data required readily. These measures enabled our projects earn 100% green channel clearances. As this article goes to print, GPE would have delivered the first Bridge & Carriage assembly unit. At GPE, we are very hopeful that by end of March 2013 it will be able to deliver the additional two B&CAs. In closing, I must state emphatically that a new milestone in the history of Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s nuclear power plant manufacturing industry would not have been possible to establish without the betterment of all business processes continually.

Becoming better - the Brahmavidya way By Ketan Desai, Godrej Precision Engineering A healthier, emotionally stable and optimistic workforce can do wonders for boosting business performance.

n 2006, Kaustubh Shukla, COO, IP Group, learnt about Brahmavidya and was impressed by the benefits its practice offered. He enrolled himself for the 16 weeks course and on completing it he was fully convinced about the difference regular practice of Brahmavidya can make to individuals. As Mr. Shukla wanted to create a holistic platform for wellness for everyone at GPE, he took a decision to introduce Brahmavidya at GPE. In 2007, GPE began its journey on the path of this practice with the help of Guruji Shree N. B. Suresh Mudaliar, a former employee of G&B. Some years back Guruji was suffering from a chronic heart disease and had 3 cardiac arrests in a single day! He was hospitalised awaiting stabilisation of his health parameters to undergo a Coronary Bypass Surgery. He was not willing to undergo the surgery and was surviving with the help of a life support system. As his health parameters began getting stable, during the recovery he heard about Brahmavidya and he instantly decided to not to undergo the Bypass Surgery but to get well by practicing Brahmavidya. He took a huge personal risk but miraculously he recovered fully and started leading a normal life. His doctors were simply baffled at this recovery and could not offer any cogent explanation for this miracle! Guruji felt so indebted to Brahmavidya that he quit his job and dedicated himself to spreading of this Vidya of wellness far and wide. He has been teaching Brahmavidya by conducting courses across the country and until now he has himself conducted more than 400

courses. Guruji established Yoga Sadhna charitable trust in 2012. All about the course of Brahmavidya: t 5 I F D P V S T F I B T U I S F F M F WF M T Prathamik (Basic), Pragat (Advanced) & Pradeepak (Master) t 5IF 1SBUIBNJL DPVSTF JT DPOEVDUFE once a week for a period of 16 weeks. t *U JT B DPVSTF XIFSF CSFBUIJOH exercises along with their individual affirmations are taught and also are the meditation techniques. t 5IF UPUBM UJNF UBLFO GPS QFSGPSNJOH BMM the eight exercises is about 45 minutes t &BDI XFFL B OFX FYFSDJTF JT UBVHIU which has to be performed daily in the early hours of the morning as it yields maximum benefits. Meditation has to be done at night prior to going to bed. t 5IF DPVSTF HJWFT HVJEBODF PO desirable daily intake of food and water. t "U UIF FOE PG UIF DPVSTF BMM UIF students are required to share their experiences with each other. Most importantly, the participants have to make practice of Brahmavidya an essential part of their daily life. How individua ls benefit by the practice of Brahmavidya: Brahmavidya is known to be a sure shot cure for many ailments. Unlike drugs, which are meant to cure specific diseases, Brahmavidya is an integral system for wellness in which root causes of the diseases are removed and better health is promoted. Breathing Exercises and Meditation have been found useful in getting rid of asthma and other breathing

ailments such as chronic cold & cough. The practice of Brahmavidya has proved beneficial for cardiac diseases, high BP, thyroid malfunction, blood sugar and diseases of spine, joints, back, etc. Besides, practice of BV makes the practitioner brighter, optimistic, conf ident and cheer ful. It enhances wellness on all of its dimensions. How pr ac tice of Br a hmavidya benefitted GPE: In around 2005, GPE business was facing multiple challenges such as, establishing itself as a reputed supplier to nuclear and defense sectors, reorienting its workforce, to work at a higher level of sophistication, to meet the new high standards and to embark on a path of continual improvement including Kaizen journey so that the business could meet the challenges faced. Involvement of all employees had to be boosted for the generation of creative ideas as well as a degree of resilience was to be developed to keep working at problems to overcome them. All of this necessitated that people cultivate a high degree of emotional stability, positive feelings and higher levels of energy to take on the challenges. O nce a few batche s of pe ople complete d B ra hmav id ya c our se, a noticeable transformation in the ver y personalities of the people became evident to everyone. As if a magic had happened, those who had undergone the course started exhibiting all the desirable behavioral traits mentioned earlier. An emotionally stable and optimistic workforce, willing to learn new skills began to morph and started contributing greatly

to the successful turnaround of GPE. In fact GPEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most demanding customers took note of this transformation and began appreciating the new found ethos at GPE and as a result cooperation instead of confrontation became a norm for the customers of Nuclear and Defense sectors. As the word spread, people from other businesses such as LOCKSS and corporate HR began participating in the course. In closing, I must state that Brahmavidya has helped our people become better, boost their positivity all around and play a crucial role in making GPE profitable- ready to take on more challenging projects.

Voices of practitioners: Vilas Satalkar (GPE-M/c-Shop): Prior to attending BV course I used to consume alcohol regularly and was a non-vegetarian. My unhealthy habits created many family problems and serious financial difficulties. Practice of Brahmavidya changed all of this and today I am a transformed person having realised that the source of happiness is within me and not outside. Pundalik Malwankar (Ex-GPE employee â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Presently with LAWKIM): In 2005 I was suffering from TB and had difficulty in breathing. I learnt about BV and enrolled immediately. After completion of the course and regular practice thereafter, my TB was fully cured. I regained my energy and took part in 8Kms marathon. BV energises me so much that I find no difficulty in commuting to work on a bicycle from Saki Naka to Vikhroli, everyday. I recommend BV to everyone and experience firsthand its power. Ajay Dalvi (GBSS Office bearer - PED): About 11 years ago I developed a knee problem and accepted the condition rationalising that I had become old. I came to know of Brahmavidya and joined the course and it completely changed my life. By 2010, not only had I overcome the knee condition but had become so fit that I ran a full marathon in 3 hours! I would like to thank Guruji for teaching me BV. Also, my sincere thanks to GPE for introducing BV.

Embrace Change to survive By Umesh Chunawala, Rolling Machine Operator “The beginning was difficult, I was scared, I could not concentrate on my work, I remained absent, but my friends taught me to come out of my fears and encouraged me to take up the challenge. All this helped a great deal.”

am Umesh Chunawala, currently working as a Rolling Machine Operator in Plant 19, Godrej Process Equipment. I have been at this job for last 7 years. Prior to Process Equipment business, I worked for 10 years in Plant 3 where refrigerators were made. I used to work in an assembly department and my job was to assemble doors of the refrigerators. My department used to assemble about 2500 doors in every shift. The work was highly repetitive and did not have any new challenge or any element of novelty, requiring fresh thinking, etc. In fact the job was so much deskilled that even a newcomer could learn it in 3-4 days time. Around 2005 it was decided to shift manufacturing operations of refrigerators to Shirwal. Only a few selected workers were transferred to Shirwal whilst others of higher age group were absorbed in other plants. I belonged to a younger age group and we were sent to a training centre to acquire new skills. It was made clear to us that this was the only way out.

My colleagues and I were trained for the trades of fitting and welding. I received my training as a fitter but I also wanted to learn welding. Somehow, I started enjoying the work of fitting. After about six months of training I was selected after a short interview to work on a huge rolling machine in our Plant 19. One of my friends was also selected to work with me. After a few days when my friend and I arrived at Plant 19, we got a shock of our lives. The job that I was selected for was completely different to my job of assembling of refrigerator doors. The job at the refrigerator business was of a routine nature; the sheet steel that we handle was merely 0.5mm thick, the size of the refrigerator was not too large to handle and the job was repetitive. As opposed to this, at GPE the equipment that we made were one of its kind. The jobs were huge- reactors, columns and heat exchangers. They jobs weighed from 100 to 1000 tons, and were fabricated from the steel plates 30mm to 220mm thick. Our job was to bend these steel plates on the rolling machine and make a shell out of them. Many shells were then joined together to make a column or a heat exchanger. The beginning was difficult, I was scared, I could not concentrate on my work, I remained absent, but my friends taught me to come out of my fears and encouraged me to take up the challenge. All this helped a great deal. Most importantly the training of a fitter given to me came to my rescue. Slowly, I began to work on my new job with great enthusiasm and started learning new ways of working in these new circumstances. Pravin Panchal and Pople, my seniors at work taught me many routines which were necessary to learn to operate a huge rolling machine properly. Today, after 7 years of experience I can roll all kind of jobs, I could even roll a cone on the rolling machine. I am proud of the new skills that I have learnt on the job. My new job is a demanding one requiring a lot of patience, concentration and safety consciousness. A small mistake can result into a big loss; I have learnt to work without a mistake. Now I am enjoying the variety of the jobs that come my way everyday. I can’t say that I have become ‘highly skilled’ as still there remains a lot to be learnt. But I must tell everyone that had I not decided to embrace the change it would not have been possible for me to enjoy this highly challenging new work requiring totally different skills. I have retained my job and grown as a person. I would like to tell everyone that develop a ‘can do’ attitude, learn new skills, take help that is given and change the course of your life for better. My sincere thanks to our management for helping me all along and giving me a new career.

An evening of Green Thinking By Parampal Singh “The trick to finding ideas is to convince yourself that every one and everything has a story” - Malcolm Gladwell

fter a hard day’s work on a typical tropical Indian day, who wouldn’t like to come home to a hot cup of tea in a cool yet quiet living room, put one’s feet up and savour every sip of the tea…loosen every aching muscle and calm every hyperactive grey cell? What holds us back from switching on the AC in the evenings as opposed to using it for only a few hours at night? We worry. Anticipating a huge electricity bill at the end of the month keeps us from feeling relaxed. Then, our school going daughter reminds us that she needs to make a project on global warming to be submitted the next day. When we start to look at Wikipedia, we discover that air conditioners and aerosols are exactly what we should use less of if we want our very daughter to inherit a planet fit to live on. While researching for her project, we come across a link to a unique product from an environmentally conscious company called Godrej. The product is a Godrej Eon Air Conditioner with something called Green Balance Technology. It seems like they’ve cracked a difficult problem. On reading further, we discover that they have developed an AC that is not only energy efficient but also great at cooling. It even looks cool. They use an advanced hydrocarbon gas that saves up to 23% energy as compared to their own previous range of energy efficient 5 – star ACs. This gas or refrigerant as it’s called does not harm the earth’s protective ozone layer at all and has a GWP of 3 against an average of 1780 for the gas used by the competitor’s products. In case you’re wondering, GWP is a measure of Global Warming Potential – an industry metric to assess potential damage to our planet. All of this means that we can enjoy even more precious moments of tranquil in the evenings with that hot cup of tea without worrying about next month’s electricity bill. But, most of all, once we buy this product, we can look our daughter in the eye while discussing global warming with her as we’re assured that we’ve done our bit in at least one way.