FORGING PRODUCTIVITY

THE HOUSE MAGAZINE OF GODREJ & BOYCE VOL 19-20 JUN 2020

FORGING PRODUCTIVITY FOCUS

Beyond Benchmarks: Productivity Redefined

15 Keys to Modern Manufacturing

Productivity – A Constantly Moving Target

How Godrej Appliances Became a Role Model Business

THE HOUSE MAGAZINE OF GODREJ & BOYCE VOL 19-20 JUN 2020

Productivity Matters ‘More from Less’ is the essence of productivity, which is realised by improving work and business processes continually, and injecting innovation as required.

Indrapal Singh Editor

A few months ago, Mr. Anil Verma suggested that we put together an issue of CHANGE on the theme of productivity, and then added that though productivity is at the very foundation of competitiveness, it has not received the attention it deserves. In this CHANGE, we take a multi-dimensional view of productivity through insightful articles and stories contributed by Godrejiites.

Over the years, Godrej Appliances has been trying to improve productivity in their operations by implementing initiatives such as lean manufacturing, value stream mapping, and others. Shariyarr Hussain shares the challenges he faced, and the outcomes realised in his article. In a separate article, he elucidates his views on what constitutes productivity mindset. Sushil Agarkar shows us how productivity can be enhanced by improving capabilities in the manufacturing of ‘made to order’ capital goods. Productivity can also be enhanced in logistics and intra-logistics by automating various activities, which is narrated by Naresh Tahiliani through a case study. Godrej Process Equipment’s new Dahej plant is designed and built for higher productivity to manufacture large-

sized, critical equipment for oil and gas industries. Collectively, these articles give us a good idea of how productivity is pursued in our industrial businesses.

Mr. Takao Kasahara, our mentor for modern manufacturing, has contributed significantly towards improving productivity.

He has always championed modern manufacturing practices across G&B and helped improve efficiency of shop-floor space, machines and people in a major way. If we successfully implement his 15 keys of modern manufacturing, then we will surely enhance our competitiveness. Further, measuring productivity meaningfully, is the vital step in the journey of enhancing productivity. The adapted version of Dr E. Goldratt’s article shows us how to measure productivity right.

Managerial and individual productivity are always areas of concern. Several articles on topics related to these are included to help us be more productive. As managers spend about half of their time in meetings, it is essential that all meetings, face – to – face or online, are conducted effectively by following the guidelines given. To grow, we must cultivate the ‘Growth mindset’ about which you

No part of the magazine can be reproduced in any form without due permission of the editor.

Read the magazine online anytime at www.change.godrej.com

TEAM

Mail your contributions, suggestions and feedback to: The Editor, Plant 12, 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. Designed by Design Stack Printed at Silverpoint Press Pvt. Ltd.

Nalini Kala

Gillian Dennett

Nariman Bacha

Edit Board

Edit Board

Distribution

Bipin Shringarpure Production

can learn from the book “You Are Awesome”

by Mathew Syed reviewed here.

We have shared four anecdotal stories highlighting lessons that relate to productivity. Going forward, we will have more theme related stories. Also, many general interest articles are included for you and your family members. Do share this issue of CHANGE with them.

The pursuit of productivity is a challenge, which has to be undertaken with the right mindset, indefatigable enthusiasm, and requisite tools. Deep commitment of everyone is called for - which must be cultivated by the leadership team.

We have attempted to make your journey of productivity enhancement a little easier by sharing useful practices and concepts. Do tell us what you liked, did not and what we can do to make CHANGE better. Happy reading!

INSIGHT

INSIGHT

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Tool Up to Boost Your Productivity Learning to use tools effectively matters more than having them.

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Contents

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04

Positivity in the morning paves the way to a productive day.

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FOCUS

Productivity of people and capital must be improved continually.

SUCCESS STORIES

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32 Boosting Productivity in Warehouses and Intralogistics

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Godrej Values and Their Ripple Effect

The Dahej Story

Values are forever. Success, bereft of values, is ephemeral.

Beyond Benchmarks: Productivity Redefined

Productivity - A Constantly Moving Target

By constantly challenging itself, the Godrej Appliances Shirwal plant has raised the bar of productivity.

In the manufacturing of capital goods, ingenuity and capabilities of the people are crucial.

INSIDE G&B

PERSPECTIVE

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Breaking Out of the Trap of ‘Busyness As Usual’!

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Learning to Conduct Better Meetings

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Be a Finisher

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Productivity Mindset

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Competing at the High End

Streamline logistics to serve better.

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Sleep Well & Be At Your Best Good Sleep = Sleep Quality + Sleep Quantity

Let’s Prosper through Higher Productivity Let Right Measurements Propel Growth Productivity is the result of commitment to excellence, planning and focused effort.

The Morning Mindset

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LAUNCH PAD

Controlling Risk through Behaviour-Based Safety Naoroji Godrej Award For Business Excellence

Godrejites Took 82

Marathon Strides

52 ISRO’s Historic 50th Successful PSLV Launch Powered by Godrej Aerospace

BOOKMARK

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Takao San

How Godrej Appliances Became a Role Model Business

The catalyst for modern manufacturing at Godrej.

Purpose and persistence pays off handsomely.

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The Buddha Story Appreciate to Motivate!

The Mazda Story It’s ‘Complete’ Only When the Client Says So

BOOKMARK

LAUNCH PAD

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Gandhi Continues to Resonate @ 150

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Godrej Healthcare Systems

by Godrej Interio

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You are Awesome!

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Upbeat Workstations from Godrej Interio

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Many Secrets of Mangroves

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Auto Vault by Godrej Security Systems

The Taste of Summer

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Let’s Prosper through Higher Productivity Productivity is the result of commitment to excellence, planning, and focused effort.

Anil Verma

In the global business context, companies need to be competitive if they wish to have a right to win. Productivity drives the competitiveness of both companies and countries. It is the linking factor between costs of production and the demand for goods and services produced, and therefore, revenue growth.

Customers benefit through higher productivity as they get lower prices and cost-efficient services. Companies benefit as higher productivity yields larger surpluses that help fuel their growth.

Countries having overall higher productivity become prosperous as they garner a larger share of business from international markets, generating higher employment and improved standards of living for their people.

India’s productivity lags behind other countries. Several recent reports highlight this fact. However, there are many Indian

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companies out there who are world leaders in industries such as IT, automotive components, pharmaceutical, gems, jewellery and so on… all because of their high levels of productivity.

At G&B, our productivity is, at best, moderate. Our people and other fixed costs are high, and the margins are sub par. Hence, there is a need, and in fact, an obligation on our part, to enhance both productivity in our businesses and our individual productivity at work. To enhance productivity, we need to understand what it is all about.

Simply put, productivity is the ratio of output to input.

It is an efficiency ratio.

Most companies and we at G&B, look at value add (revenues less cost of raw materials) to total employee costs, as a productivity ratio. This ratio indicates people productivity.

We also look at capital productivity, through a measure of ROCE, which is return on capital employed. Among the factors of productivity, people matter most.

For people to operate at their productive best, we need to create an enabling work environment and culture; an environment where tools that help drive productivity are made available readily and used meaningfully.

A culture where good work finds instant appreciation and recognition. Motivating by non-financial means such as giving a pat on the back to giving credit where it is due publicly and felicitating those who have made significant contributions should be a part of our cultural DNA. As colleagues, peers, superiors, we ought to do more of this.

At G&B, we are empowered to boost our productivity. It starts with having a positive attitude and a strong desire to work to our full potential. Very often, we are unable to appreciate the contributions that we are making by creating products and services that we provide and their impact on our society, environment and our country. If we keep the larger picture in our minds all the time, then it will certainly inspire us to work with more passion, energy and perseverance.

For e.g.; when we supply office furniture, we should bear in mind that we are enhancing the productivity of millions of our customers.

Likewise, when we supply cryogenic engines to ISRO to help them launch heavy satellites, we aid millions of Indians to access weather forecasts, education inputs, medical help, and

so on. All these have a strong linkage to what we do daily and to G&B’s mission - ‘Enriching quality of life every day, everywhere’. Another key ingredient for boosting productivity is relentless innovation. The drive to innovate constantly has been institutionalised by our founder, late Mr. N. P. Godrej who used to ask all the time ( in Gujarati ) , “Aaje navu su kidhu?”, and urge each and every one at G&B to ask this question of themselves daily, for inspiration to innovate continually. We too, need to ask ourselves, what is the new and different contribution we have made to the business today?

Productivity is not something that we should be concerned about only for the factories and workforce there. Managerial productivity is equally important. Managers can contribute to higher productivity through their knowledge, experience, innovation and creativity. To enhance productivity, the leverage managers have is twofold; through their own individual contributions - design, manufacturing practices, procurements, improvements and new ideas… and the contributions their teams make. Managerial work is key to optimal resource utilisation of the plants, machines and all other physical infrastructure that the company has invested in, and that we are entrusted with.

As we are aware, the world is not only becoming more competitive but is also getting increasingly disrupted.

The only way we can survive the competition and disruptions is to make our businesses and our organisation highly competitive.

This can happen when each and every one of us strives to work to our full potential, i.e. our productive best. For those of us at G&B, who take immense pride in our legacy, our brand and our reputation, know that there is so much more we can do.

We must realise deeply that higher productivity is an imperative that we cannot take lightly if we are to come closer to realising our vision of ‘Godrej in Every Home and Workplace’.

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Beyond Benchmarks: Productivity Redefined By constantly challenging itself, the Godrej Appliances Shirwal plant has raised the bar of productivity.

Shariyarr Hussain, Godrej Appliances

Currently, around 49% of the total energy consumed at the plant comes from renewable sources.

When productivity transcends the four walls of an office or a shop floor and leaves its signature on every conceivable thing around us, it transforms from being merely a subject of a boardroom discussion to becoming a way of life. Once internalised, it surpasses mandates and expectations, and distinguishes the one pursuing it, leaving only oneself to challenge, compete with and outdo. Such is the inspiration that one draws from a single visit to the Godrej Appliances (GA) plant at Shirwal.

On November 19th, last year, Frazer Rustomji and I visited GA’s Shirwal Plant and we have described, what we saw. Our description is interspersed with Shariyarr’s narrative for clarifying various initiatives that he has taken to boost productivity in a holistic way. As we entered the campus, the first thing that caught our attention was an imposing national flag. Shariyarr explained, “We have installed our national flag to instill a feeling of national pride and awaken the good citizen within”.

We constantly remind ourselves that our higher purpose is to contribute to nation-building through exemplary manufacturing.

A great beginning for our visit meant to see for ourselves how productivity can be made a way of life.

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‘Garden-Green outside, Hospital-Clean inside’ The outdoors here aren’t just another factory campus. With conservation efforts, numerous species of flora and fauna flourish here. In fact, there’s a flora and fauna picture gallery here that provides details about these beautiful lives. An open- air butterfly park with a man-made waterfall, replete with plants attract many species of butterflies.

Employees, when free, take a stroll, relax and if required engage in brainstorming in these soothing, green outdoors.

The campus is dotted with over 15,000 trees of various species, including sandalwood.

Improving water management The plant is water-positive as it harvests more water than it uses. It attempts to capture all rainwater falling within the campus for harvesting. A reservoir with 4.4 million litre capacity collects rainwater running off the hill slopes during the monsoons- a unique method of capturing rainwater. This water helps the plant mitigate shortage of water and the resultant production loss during peak summers. Certainly, an innovative initiative. The plant has also worked on reducing its water consumption.

The flora is watered using drip irrigation. A functional hydroponic system - an example of productive water use, has been installed by the garden enthusiasts. Inspired by the 5S system of lean manufacturing, both the outdoors and indoors are spic and span. The offices are simple and lean on paper. We will come to the shop floor later.

Redefining waste management

Improving power efficiency

The waste management and control (WMC) zone, traditionally called the scrapyard, is something to talk about. Scrap is neatly and systematically organised, stacked and reused to the fullest extent. The WMC area is treated as a separate department and there is a clear accountability for material moving in and out of it. Only the material that cannot be used in any way possible is sent out for recycling. The Shirwal plant is very close to becoming a zero-landfill plant – as all waste is either reused, recycled or used for creating energy. Equal efforts are continually made to reduce waste generation.

Conversion cost as % of sales revenue

The entire roof area of the plant is covered with solar panels. Plus, the plant generates producer gas from biomass to be used as fuel in place of fossil fuel. Currently, around 49% of the total energy consumed comes from renewable sources. The above initiatives have maintained the energy cost per unit of production, constant over the years in spite of continual increases in the cost of inputs. The plant has also worked on reducing energy consumption year on year.

Having seen these initiatives, we got a clear idea of how natural resources and the environment are conserved to make the business more sustainable as it grows.

Water conservation at plant level (Litres/ Appliances)

Energy conservation at plant level (KWH/ Appliances)

To the shop floor...

100 92.5

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87.5 78.5

8.4 61

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Previous page: Solar panels on the roof of the plant. Left page (Clockwise) - Use of green spaces, Water reservoir to harvest rainwater, A view of the jogging track and walking aisle, waste disposal area. Next page: Natural light on the shop floor.

When we asked Mr. Hussain “what drives productivity on the shop floor?” He answered, “value adding manufacturing (VAM)”.

He then elaborated “Customer perception of value is the amount he is willing to pay for the product and service he receives. He is not willing to pay for non-value adding wastes, which are built into the product, service and the manufacturing system.”

If we look at any manufacturing activity, we

The plant is water-positive, it harvests more water than it uses. will find two distinct sets of activities, 1. Those that add value and 2. Those that do not.

Following VAM strategy involves, according to Shariyarr, systematically working to identify and eliminate non-value adding activities and waste. Also, it involves making value adding activities more efficient. This enables GA to give higher value to their customers as perceived by them.

Explains Shariyarr, “The waste in Manufacturing is divided in two categories: » Waste generated in operations due to inefficiencies in methods, running of processes & equipment, and poor management of people and the like, which results in wasted time and wasted effort/activity. » Waste generated due to poor decisions, planning and design of products, processes and equipments, which results in wasted capital and wasted natural Resources. Now, these wastes, very much fall in place when viewed in the context of Dr. Goldratt’s definitions of People productivity and Capital productivity.

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Value Stream Mapping (VSM) VSM is a lean tool used by its practitioners to analyse and modify the flow of materials and information in a plant for bringing products or services to its consumers in a more efficient way. It was pioneered by Henry Ford in the 1920’s and later perfected by Toyota.

VSM can be applied to any value chain and it helps clearly map the value adding and non-value adding activities in a value chain.

It is a versatile tool that can be used in non-manufacturing areas such as logistics, supply chain, service delivery chains, healthcare, software development, administrative processes and the like.

Value Adding Activities (VAAs) are defined as those activities that create any physical change to the component being worked upon.

A growing organisation increases its Throughput (T) with the same or lower level of inputs. (OE and I). Profits and ROI improve when either People productivity or Capital productivity or both are improved. Obviously when both are improved, profits and ROI improve greatly.

People and Capital productivity can improve only when waste in time, efforts, natural resources and capital are reduced.”

5S at work As we enter the shop floor, the high level of 5S is strikingly visible. Ample natural light from the roof illuminates the entire shop floor. The aisles are linear and clearly marked. Along the aisles and the plant wall, runs a painted path two feet wide, which is called the jogging track. Shariyarr pointed out that it is the path which the plant manager should walk once daily to ensure that it is clear, and nothing whatsoever is kept there and if required, one should be able to jog on it. As a matter of discipline, no surplus items, trolleys or any such things should be

kept on this pathway. All unwanted items if kept there block the clear view of the plant as well as the natural light, hide the clutter, etc.

The jogging track, Shariyarr believes, signifies the quality of discipline followed in material handling and storage in the plant. This discipline promotes sharper focus on continual de-cluttering of shop floor resulting in improved productivity.

Space utilisation We are told by Shariyarr, that when the plant started in 1996, it only manufactured washing machines and injection-moulded parts. Today, the same plant accommodates four lines of refrigerators, one line of air conditioners and one line each for medical refrigerators and TE products, in addition to the washer line and injection moulding shop.

Because of better utilisation of shop floor, the SVOP per square foot of shop floor has increased 3.5 times from 0.54 Lakhs/sq. ft to 1.9 Lakhs/ sq. ft. This is a superb example of improving capital productivity.

As we walked along, we asked Shariyarr what his secret was that helped in such impressive improvements in productivity.

Without batting an eyelid, he replied, “the method of value stream mapping”.

With better utilisation of the shop floor, the SVOP per square foot of shop floor has risen 3.5 times from Rs 0.54 lakhs/ sq.ft to Rs 1.9 lakhs.

The non- value adding activities are the ones which involve loading/ unloading, storage, transfer, inspection, changeover, rework, machine idling and the like.

At Shirwal, we observed, that using VSM has helped bring about these improvements: » We did not see any stores on the shop floor. All components are brought to shop floor just in time (JIT) by the suppliers every two hours. As an outcome of this, the shop floor was free of any unwanted materials. » The absence of storage racks on the shop floor is noticeable. VSM has helped the plant scrap more than 3000 storage racks over the years. » All manufacturing lines are linear; they start at one end and end at the other.

Shorter lines cut down travel of items under assembly as well as make the plant highly visible. » All sub-assembly operations are carried out as close as possible to the final assembly line in a single piece flow.

As we moved further, we observed a considerable amount of automation. On enquiring, we were informed by Shariyarr, that he and his team believe deeply in the power of Low Cost Automation (LCA) to ensure quality, consistency and speed. They also believe in developing LCA solutions in-house so that their own learnings are deeper and continual.

Mix Model Manufacturing has increased the availability of finished goods to as high as 95% from 88%.

VSM initiatives have enabled the plant to improve its conversion cost to Sales ratio by 21.5% over the last 5 years.

As we walked along, Shariyarr drew our attention to different models of refrigerators on the same line one after the other. We inquired, “Why this mix model manufacturing?”

Shariyarr replied, “For the last many years, our customers have been demanding many more variants of our products. Customers demand specific configurations as a result, the demand for so-called standard products has been declining. To grow our business, we had no option but to deliver the required variants as quickly as possible without increasing inventories or production costs.

This really posed a great challenge to us.

We did not have a ready solution, hence we started looking outside and found it in the auto industry.

We took measured steps and today we are producing nearly 110 variants every month as compared to 30-odd earlier. Shariyarr told us that this was not easy as it had involved changes in the layout of lines, line balancing, standardisation of tools, jigs and fixtures as well as parts. LCA and fool proofing were implemented to ensure Mix Model Manufacturing (MMM) more efficaciously.

We were awestruck with this major change implemented successfully using internal resources only. Shariyarr added that their

cluster journey too had helped them imbibe principals of lean manufacturing in a meaningful way. Taken together, all these learnings and changes have helped the plant reduce production batch size to 100 from 1000 earlier. The finished goods (FG) availability was at 88%. With MMM, it has risen to as high as 95%.

Post our shop floor visit, we were given a brief presentation by Shariyarr and his team where we were shown how pursuit of productivity in a holistic manner at Shirwal has helped them in becoming an exemplary manufacturing facility across the Appliance industry in the country. We were also shown that the Operating Equipment Efficiency (OEE) now stood at 84%, a real high. FG turns stood at 9.7 and tooling costs for any modern changeover have been reduced to less than Rs100 lakhs through standardisation and continual improvement in various processes.

Sounds unbelievable? Go and spend a day at Shirwal and see for yourself.

Creating an enabling ecosystem Building a culture of productivity across a business requires the management team to create an enabling ecosystem which continuously drives productivity and productivity boosting behaviours. It reminds and encourages employees all the time to be more productive in all facets of work and life.

We could see just such an ecosystem in place at Shirwal.

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Productivity – A Constantly Moving Target In the manufacturing of capital goods, ingenuity and capabilities of the people are crucial.

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Sushil Agarkar, Godrej Precision Engineering

In the early 1900s, Henry Ford devised a system of mass producing cars, which made the manufacturing world realise that productivity can be increased to levels hitherto unimagined. While this concept of productivity continues to have its appeal, the Japanese brought in many innovations, such as JustIn-Time, Single Piece Flow , Single Minute Exchange Of Dies (SMED) and others that replaced the paradigm of mass manufacturing and changed it to the new paradigm of single piece manufacturing where a unit of an item can be produced as efficiently as those produced in a mass way. Even today, R&D for improving productivity mostly takes place in the domain of repetitive manufacturing. As opposed to this, hardly any R&D takes place for the domain of project manufacturing, leaving it essentially to the ingenuity and capabilities of those engaged in it.

Improving productivity in a business such as GPE is a greater challenge as all the projects undertaken are unique and seldom repeated.

Each project is different from the other in terms of design, materials, production processes, customer requirements and the like. These characteristics make improving productivity very challenging as it must be improved as and when a particular process or a procedure is required to be carried out in changing contexts.

Over the years at GPE, we have been pursuing improvements in productivity through several approaches of which six are described.

Improve Overall Project Efficiency (OPE)

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In a business like GPE, the concept of system productivity as against equipment productivity makes greater sense. Being able to utilise assets to very high levels (85%) using the concept of Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE) is appealing but not desirable especially in project business. Management must focus on improving project efficiency. At GPE, we use MAKIGAMI analysis, a technique learned during TPM implementation for improving office processes such as design, procurement of raw materials and bought-out items.

It is crucial to determine the suitability for manufacturing. This is achieved by cross departmental reviews.

The entire set of processes from Design to first feed for manufacturing are mapped for their cycle times and identifying opportunities for improvement. Based on findings, revised versions of processes are developed for use, both in the present and the future. Cross-functional teams work to achieve productivity improvements as shown in the departmental maps.

Fast and intense training To cope with the variations in the demand for skilled manpower and to compensate for attritions, GPE has developed special modules to train machinists, welders and fitters.

In these modules, intense training is imparted to these categories of workmen in a short span of time.

GPE has no choice but to create this kind of training capacity because trained and qualified workmen for nuclear and defense projects are not readily available. At a point in time, even if they are available, they are picked up quickly by competing businesses.

Also, without multi-skilled and qualified operators, defects shoot up resulting in work stoppages and rejections which the business cannot afford. Taking all these into account, we created various training modules that are delivered by our own engineers and are refined continually.

Replacement cost for skilled workmen is minimised as apprentices and trainees are easily available.

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First Time Right At GPE, it is essential to carry out work in the mode of First Time Right. The scope for most of the projects is such that every defect must be reported, and approval must be taken for rectifying it. It is seldom that any deviation from specifications is acceptable.

Obtaining clearances for deviations is a long-drawn process that impacts projects adversely.

To overcome this obstacle, GPE has developed a mechanism where Production Readiness Review (PRR) is carried out and if required, an approval is obtained before the commencement of the job. First Time Right is ensured by rigorously adhering to this practice.

Further, in production, every stage is approved through Operation Process Sheet (OPS) before the commencement of the next phase. This also ensures faster progress of the job being manufactured.

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Digitisation and automation

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After embracing TPM methodology, we realised that all kinds of losses in the system cannot be eliminated without good data availability. We then set out to develop Data logger, Transmitter and Analytical software with Team EnE. Within about a year, we developed a TPM-based Data logger and system which is home grown, reliable and cost effective.

ZERO wait time Empirical studies have shown time and again that non- value-added time contributes the maximum to the overall cycle time of the project. In other words, most of the time, the project is simply waiting to be worked upon.

If waiting time is reduced, then value-added time can be increased to shrink overall cycle time.

Zero wait for all components falling on the critical chain is an approach that ensures critical resources are utilised in the best possible way. Also, the practice of “look ahead for six months” helps us take decisions of makeand-buy well in advance.

The above steps give us adequate time for thoroughly understanding and complying with various quality requirements both for components and processes.

Also, it allows us to communicate quality requirements clearly to our purchase and sub-contracting teams.

A taste of success has immensely encouraged our people to take on many more complex projects, giving GPE an edge in advanced manufacturing.

All our critical machines are now connected through this IoT network, resulting in an improved machine productivity of 20%.

Dashboards now clearly indicate areas that require attention. Calibration and Traceability software (Q-CAT), developed with GITL’s help, is appreciated by customers and are recommending it to other industries.

This software assures appropriate documentation and traceability, which has resulted in huge savings in manpower which otherwise would have engaged in non value-added work such as data collection, analysis, etc.

Welding automation was another focus area. A few industry firsts in automation were developed at GPE such as the electromechanical welding machine for circular internal blind welding, SPM for titanium tube-to-tube welding, submerged ultrasonic testing and others. A taste of success has immensely encouraged our people to take on many more such projects, giving GPE an edge in advanced manufacturing. Now we stand shoulder to shoulder with the giants of our industry.

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Managing customer expectations Customer involvement in GPE’s projects is greater than that in other businesses. From raw material to finished products, all processes, including rework, require customer approvals.

To contain cycle times, GPE works 7 days a week round the clock, while most of our customers work 9 to 5, in a five-day week. This mismatch with customer availability leads to substantial overruns in the cycle times.

To expedite projects, accuracy of reporting, transparency and mutual trust are essential.

Any efforts for productivity improvement will be nullified in the absence of a strong, trustbased bond between our customers and us.

Mutual trust is at the very core of our relationships with our customers.

As there is no limit to productivity improvement, we attempt to make our people engage with their work deeply both with their heads and hearts. We constantly try to improve the level of teamwork so that projects get executed seamlessly.

We believe unless we keep pushing forward, we can never really know how good we can become.

Only by pushing forward, is it possible to know how good we are and how good we can become.

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The Buddha Story Resources ought to be utilised to the maximum.

Indrapal Singh

In manufacturing firms, Bill Of Materials (BOM) costs are a key component, accounting for nearly 50 per cent of the total costs.

To be competitive, it is crucial to minimise the usage of materials and maximise the savings on material costs.

This is achieved by eliminating waste, improving designs and recycling the residuals.

This aspect of economising on resource usage is beautifully captured in a brief story that drives home the message - nothing should be wasted, and everything should be used as much as possible.

A new robe for the monk The story goes that one evening, after prayers, the Buddha was taking a stroll in the garden when he noticed a monk trying to catch his eye. Obviously, the monk wanted to say something. The Buddha turned and asked the monk what it was that he wished to say. The monk replied that he required a new robe. The Buddha asked, “Why do you require a new robe?” The monk replied, “The one I’m wearing is fully torn,” to which the Buddha asked, “If I give you a new robe, what will you do with the torn one?” The monk said, “I will cut it into pieces and hang them in our windows to keep the wind out.” The Buddha then asked, “What will you do with the worn curtains?” The monk replied, “I will cut those curtains into small pieces and use them as mops to wipe the floors.” Again, the

Buddha asked, “What will you do with the worn-out mops?” The monk replied, “We will cut them into wicks and burn them in lamps to keep the darkness away.” The Buddha was satisfied with the answers and he gave the monk a new robe right away.

Do the due diligence The learning from this story is - what diligence do we practise when we ask for a replacement or a new addition to get things done? How often do we ask if the existing device or equipment can be refurbished or repaired to extend its usage? As managers, what kind of due diligence do we observe while sanctioning the items requested? How often do we consider if we can use less of anything than we use routinely, particularly, those things whose greater usage may harm the environment such as paper, wood, cloth, food, water, energy, etc.?

The secret to having lower Bill of Materials for any product is in eliminating the wastage to the maximum extent possible.

It is essential to develop a new consciousness which intuitively leads us to get rid of wastage and encourages us to conserve our resources. Collectively, being open to new ideas, brainstorming, benchmarking, improving processes, optimising designs, etc., can help us get our individual as well as product-related BOMs in shape.

Let Buddha be our inspiration!

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This happened at the behest of Jehangir.

D. Karkaria, a Godrej alumni who was then heading our Locks business. The thought behind this intervention was to moderniSe and rejuvenate our 100 year-old product line of Locks and its manufacturing processes.

On his first visit, he asked to be taken around the manufacturing plant. After a quick tour, he could get a feel of what was going on and clearly saw the potential for drastic improvement. In minutes, he assessed all the factors at play and mentally concluded what needed to be done.

Takao San The catalyst for modern manufacturing at Godrej.

T.S. Murali and Indrapal Singh

It was in 1997, G&B’s centenary year, that Takao Kasahara was introduced to Godrej as an expert in establishing modern manufacturing in organisations hitherto engaged in conventional manufacturing.

Takao San requested a meeting with Mr. J.N. Godrej where after a brief discussion, he made an unbelievable promise that given an opportunity, he could double the production using half the area of existing shop floor, in a year or so.

JDK was asked to begin right away, the journey of modern manufacturing at Locks.

There, in a way, G&B started its journey of transforming its operations to the paradigm of modern manufacturing under the guidance of Takao San. It would amount to falsehood if we say that the journey was without resistance of all kinds. However, the rationale behind this initiative was so compelling that the heads of business had no option but to fall in line, willingly or unwillingly. In cases where commitment was strong, immense progress was made rapidly in boosting quality, productivity, speed, space utilisation, building of capabilities and the like. And in cases where the willingness was weak, the progress was found wanting.

Takao San always challenges people to do what they think they can’t. For him, even a few seconds are granular enough to warrant a change in work methods.

All lines of production had to be halved in length and made compact to conserve space and reduce movement. For the first time, he encouraged engineers to think afresh, rather than follow the well-trodden ways. At a time when low-cost automation was rare, he encouraged people to experiment and find their own ingenious ways to develop solutions. He disapproved of dependence on external solution providers. His motto being, “My plant, my solutions. “For him, the anathema was not thinking differently, not trying different things and not failing fast enough to make progress.

He helped us change the very language that was in use. For e.g.: The generation-old workmen became Operators, the mukaddam became a cell leader and so on.

Today, nearly after two decades, the tenets of modern manufacturing are deeply embedded into our manufacturing and practices. Overall impact of his teachings has been so fundamental and huge that it is not possible to recount it in any detail that may do justice to the contributions made.

Those who want to witness the impact should visit our plants not only at Pirojshanagar, but at locations such as Shirwal, Mohali, Ambattur, Bhagwanpur, Goa and others.

Takao Kasahara

In cases where commitment was strong, immense progress was made rapidly in boosting quality, productivity, speed, space utilisation and building of new capabilities.

Mr. Takao Kasahara, fondly addressed as Takao San at Godrej, is Managing Director of Streamline Strategy Japan Inc. He is an internationally renowned expert on lean manufacturing and service strategy and implementation.

In the initial years of his career, he worked with Toyo Engineering, Japan, where his responsibilities included overall design and construction of major manufacturing facilities throughout the world.

His vast experience includes working in diverse industries such as automotive, auto part supply, heavy machinery, aerospace. electronics, medical and others. Also, he has worked in service industries, nonbank finance, healthcare, and car and truck services.

He has worked in more than 150 companies and factories in more than 20 countries.

He has a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from University of Tokyo. In addition to his role at SSJ, Takao San teaches manufacturing and information technology courses at Wasada University, Japan.

A proficient swimmer, he imparts training to young persons on weekends. His is passionate about his work, which combined with his vast experience and deep expertise, leads to significant performance improvements in output, productivity and quality, simultaneously.

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Getting more out of existing resources, the Takao San way: A case study

We have culled out 15 keys for excellence in manufacturing from Takao San’s innumerable teachings. We believe that these will be immensely useful to those engaged in manufacturing today and those who will in the future.

15 Keys of Modern Manufacturing

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Minimise non value-added work. Deploy scientific analysis to improve processes and operations. Use video shooting extensively.

No subjective functional QA. Only an objective method should be used to measure and collate data for comparison against the specification to determine if OK or not OK.

Train operators using detailed instructions for an operation and change over.

Begin from video analysis.

Storage Racking Industry in India is seeing a rapid transformation and growth over last few years. Logistics is gaining industry status.

The introduction of GST, growth of e-commerce and the perennial quest for reducing logistics cost is fuelling rapid expansion of warehousing spaces in India. The growth rates have jumped to 40 – 45 % per annum from 15 – 18 % per year earlier.

The dilemma this situation creates is, should we invest more to meet the demand or not? Facing such a situation, SSG recently sought guidance from Takao San.

Productivity should always be an area of focus for people and for machines, their capacities.

These keys are derived from the transformational work done in manufacturing under the guidance of Takao San at G&B.

15 keys are meant to ensure Flow Manufacturing, Reduce Manual Work Content, Consistency in Quality, Reliability & Repeatability in Operation, Speed in Manufacturing and Operations, and Digital Manufacturing.

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Create a flow in the operations by using the concept of Single Piece Flow (SPF)

There are three qualities, i.e. function, aesthetics and reliability. Function and aesthetics can be assured in manufacturing, but reliability must be assured at the product development stage.

Stick 100% to preventive maintenance schedule to keep machines in good condition and minimise breakdowns.

Machining process design, must start from finish process and minimum input stock for finish. Then design in remaining material removal processes.

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Assign product to specific line according to PQ (Product-Quantity) Analysis.

The journey of transformation begins by the deployment of 5S across the shop floor and elsewhere in the business.

Integrate IT into the processes wherever possible to improve their visibility and performance in Production (Production Monitoring System), Quality (Quality Monitoring System) and Maintenance (Condition Monitoring System).

Cultivate a healthy attitude for continuous improvement by giving interesting and challenging tasks as it is the very foundation of successful transformation.

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Bring Manufacturing Cycle time to be less than Takt time by focussing on the slowest cycle time in the end-to-end process.

Process design first and layout design last. Minimise travel time for operators, components, assemblies, and products, using compact lines and cellular layouts.

Make the operator’s job easy, i.e., eliminate labour intensive and cumbersome manual work such as manual welding, grinding, pushing of trolleys, heavy and bulky item handling, etc. De-skill operations using low cost automation and mechanisation.

Implementation results of activities must be evaluated by tangible data that can affect the performance of organisation.

Takao San’s advice was simple; “compact, yet flexible facility needs to be created; a big factory is not necessary to grow.”

With product getting commoditised and factory space becoming premium, SSG needed to “get more from the existing machines and people” as they were the primary resources and ultimately it was all about their productivity.

Creating additional capacity To meet the increasing demand, we had planned to procure three additional machines. This plan was shared with Takao San who immediately challenged and debunked it. He pushed us to question the ratio of changeover time to production time. On analysing, we found to our horror, that this ratio was embarrassingly high. Takao San characteristically remarked, “A dog’s tail cannot decide the capacity of the dog.” In our case, the capacity of slitting line was the constraint whilst we were trying to double the capacity of recoiler and upstream operations. This insight nudged us to carry out in time, out time and loss time analysis, which in turn, led us to challenge the specifications and assumptions made for procuring additional machines. Step-by-step work undertaken under the guidance of Takao San helped the SSG team to reduce the change over time by a whopping 50% and selectively increase the speeds of roll former by modifying the machine minimally. As a result, we realised significantly higher output from these machines.

In addition to this major improvement, I would like to share a case study where significant improvements have helped us con-

serve the CAPEX earmarked.

In the panel roll-forming machine, because of combined cutting and folding operations, the machine was designed for “stop and cut”.

Takao San suggested that we double the cutting station so that we get two panels at a time instead of one panel for every stoppage.

The doubling of cutting stations enabled us to increase the speed of the roll former to feed two panels at a time to the cutting stations.

Results Over a period of 5 months (Feb 2019 to July 2019), the results obtained were phenomenal. In the Panel Roll Forming machine, we nearly tripled the capacity. In slitting line, we doubled the capacity. As an added benefit, we could utilise flat parts painting line fully i.e., nearly twice as much as earlier.

All these improvements helped us conserve on the planned CAPEX of about 26 Cr meant to augment the capacities of machines mentioned above. Also, the facilities’ running cost has reduced significantly because of utility consumption savings and productivity improvement of the operator. Conservatively speaking, the additional capacity generated is likely to suffice for at least the next 3 years, assuming the current rate of growth in the business.

Key learnings for our teams are: » Adjustments are the biggest enemy for change over times – always engineer in, “remember positions / datum.” » Productivity should always be an area of focus for people all the time. For machines, their capacities should be an area of focus. » In automation, all movements must be guided. Avoid so-called natural phenomena.

As we continue the journey of releasing more capacity from other machines, enhancing productivity by automating repeated & mundane operations is being focused upon as Wave Automating loading and unloading from roll formers / paint lines are the new key focus areas.

Takao San is challenging the digital savviness of the SSG teams towards part tracking, production logging and condition monitoring of production resources.

At SSG, we feel the “Takao San way” of running a plant, will enable us to become highly productive manufacturers of racking systems in the industry and hopefully it will pave the path for becoming globally competitive.

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GO DR E J HE ALTHC ARE SY STE M S

BY GODREJ INTERIO A healing medical care environment leads to faster recoveries.

Godrej Interio recently inaugurated its Healthcare Experience Centre at Pirojshanagar, Mumbai. This centre is meant to demonstrate how design and technology can be brought together to create medical and non-medical furniture for superior experiences for patients, doctors, nurses and other players in the healthcare domain.

At this centre, a modern healthcare clinic is created to demonstrate healing medical care environments in hospitals, nursing homes and individual clinics. Extensive research was carried out by the Interio healthcare design team to understand the requirements of high quality healthcare spaces. Inputs were collected from patients, doctors, hospital administrators and others. These inputs have been used to design and create products which we believe will significantly enhance comfort and safety of those working in healthcare. Contemporary ergonomic considerations have been built into products to assure positive outcomes.

At the centre’s inauguration, Mr. J.N. Godrej said, “At Godrej, our mission has always been about Enriching the Quality Of Life Every Day, Everywhere. Indian healthcare is growing at a brisk pace because of increasing investments being made by public and private players.

The industry, however, is somewhat lacking in creating healing environments which focus

on providing utmost comfort and safety to patients while handling cost challenges. We, at Godrej are working on many innovations keeping in mind the unique challenges faced by the industry. Shortly, we will be launching the world’s first hospital bed which can be converted from the manual mode to the motorized one at hospital premises itself. This innovation will help hospitals upgrade their existing beds as and when they choose to do so. It’s a matter of pride to see Interio working towards uplifting the quality of experiences at healthcare facilities through continual innovations.”

The centre showcases an advanced range of ICU beds, and hospital furniture for various zones: reception, private and general wards, out-patient facilities, rooms for gynecological examinations, emergencies, post-operative recovery, and the like.

Seating furniture for doctors, patients and mobility aiding hospital furniture are also on display. The centre also has a special zone for innovation where concepts of products to be introduced in the future are on display for inviting feedback from the visiting doctors, administrators and others. Godrej Interio intends to become a leader in designing and delivering medical and non – medical furniture for superior experiences of the patients, nurses, staff, doctors and others in healthcare sector.

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INSIGHT

Let Right Measurements Propel Growth Productivity of people and capital must be improved continually.

Team CHANGE

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This article makes a strong case for improving the productivity of people and capital, by using meaningful, TOC-based measurements. The abridged and edited version of Dr E. Goldratt’s article ‘Growth or Expansion’ is reproduced below for the purpose of learning only.

In the last decade or two, Indian manufacturing companies have shown remarkable growth, whether we look at their revenues, profits or cash flows. But are we sure these companies are growing particularly when we use the term growth instead of revenue, profit after tax or market share? In general terms, any increase can be called growth. However, let us define growth as “Doing more with the same or less resources”. Having defined growth, let us clarify Expansion. Expansion is increasing output with a corresponding increase in inputs.

Let us apply our definition of growth and expansion to manufacturing companies and understand the implications.

What is the output of any manufacturing organisation?

It could be vehicles, equipments, medicine, shoes, shirts or computers or any product that the organisation makes and sells in the market. To manufacture any product, the organisation needs to purchase either some raw materials and process the same to obtain the finished product or buy components and assemble them to a finished product.

We can therefore say that the output of the organisation is the finished product that it sells in the market. For e.g.: an organisation can import paper in bulk and re-package it in small packages of hundred or two hundred sheets. Can we say that the output of this organisation is the paper or the packages of the paper? Most people will term this repackaging.

In order to create output or products, an organisation requires inputs such as materials, machines and manpower. The real output of the organisation is the value addition it creates by processing materials it procures, through the men and machines it deploys, purchased by its money. In simple terms, this could be defined as the revenues less all materials consumed. Off course, all taxes and duties must be subtracted from sales for working out value addition. Let’s term this as Throughput (T)= (S-TVC).

If we ask a CEO of a business about the performance of his business for the last year, the typical answer is “we had 20 percent growth in sales, or we increased our market share by 5 percent”. From this answer, we cannot conclude that Throughput or value addition has also increased by 20 percent. It could be more, the same or even less.

Let’s clarify this with an example. A computer assembling company; Computers India, sold 100 computers at a price of INR 30,000 per computer last month. The total sales for last month were INR 30,00,000.

Let us assume, material cost for computer is INR 24,000. Hence, the material cost for 100 computers sold in the last month was INR 24,00,000. Accordingly, the Throughput (T) for the last month was INR 6,00,000. i.e.

INR 30L – 24L. To increase sales, Computers India launched a special scheme for one month only offering 10 percent discount. The new sales price of INR 27,000 attracted many more customers and the sale increased by 50 percent to 150 numbers from 100 numbers previously. The total value of sales for the month will now be INR 40.5L. The material cost for 150 computers at the rate of INR 24,000 per computer works out to INR 36L. Hence, the Throughput of the month will be INR 4.5L (i.e. 40.5L – 36L). As the sales increased by 35% in value terms or 50% by quantity, the Throughput shrunk by 25%!

Any increase in the market share does not imply corresponding increase in the Throughput.

We are not suggesting that all market share increase or sales increase through price changes will always reduce Throughput!

At the same time, we should not assume that all increases in sales will automatically result in increased Throughput.

Having defined the output of an organisation, we need to identify what inputs an organisation requires to create output.

One input is the people, for running its various processes, both technical as well as administrative. The organisation has to pay

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salaries to its people along with other expenses that are required for the people.

We club together all such expenses other than total variable cost (TVC) as Operating Expenses (OE). The other input that the organisation uses is the money or the money deployed for carrying out the business activities. This includes money required for acquiring land, building, plant and equipment, inventories, outstanding dues of customers, advances paid to the suppliers, etc. In short, all the money that the organisation uses but cannot be cashed instantly. Let us call this Total capital employed or Investment (I).

Now, let’s focus on growth and its measurement. As we defined earlier, growth is creating more with same or less resources.

Hence, an organisation that creates greater output, i.e., Throughput (T) with the same resources, i.e., OE or investment (I) should be considered as a growing organisation.

Accordingly, growth could be measured by the following two parameters. » T/OE – People Productivity (PP), and » T/I – Capital Productivity (CP) holder within or outside an organisation.

Promises rarely occur in a vacuum or in isolation. To deliver on a promise, the maker must work with, obtain and oversee a supporting network of promises or commitments from colleagues, subordinates, partners, and so on. To bring this intricate web of promises together and deliver on the commitment made is quite complex and challenging. In a way, it is the essence of managing effectively.

We can say that a business is nothing but a dynamic network of promises made and kept.

Not taking a legalistic or contractual view of promises, it is important to focus on how the provider can go about satisfying the requirements of the customer. In practice, there could be competing priorities as well as resource bottle necks that could readily derail the fulfilment of promises.

Recently in a study, managers were asked what percentage of the promises made by them could be relied upon? The answer was, about 50%. It is likely that similar situations exist at our businesses. If this is the reality, then it is essential for us to become proficient at making promises that can be relied upon, i.e., Good Promises.

Now an organisation will be considered to be growing if at least one of these two parameters (T/OE) and (T/I) are increasing continuously. Let us also substantiate that any organisation that is growing as per our

definition will also simultaneously increase its profits and Return On Investment (ROI) or Return On Capital Employed (ROCE).

In order to link profits and ROI/ROCE to growth, we need to understand the linkage between T, OE, I, Profit and ROI/ ROCE. » Profit = Revenue less all expenses, or = Revenue less (variable cost i.e. material cost) less Operating expenses, or = (Revenue less variable cost) less (Operating Expenses).

Earlier we had defined value addition or Throughput (T) as revenue less variable cost.

Hence, Profit = T – OE = OE X (T/OE -1) Substituting T/OE as PP, we will get Profit = OE X (1 – 1/PP) Now ROI = Profit / Investment = (T – OE) / I = T X (1- OE/T)/I = (T/I) X (1-1/(T/OE)) When we substitute T/OE by PP (People Productivity) and CP (Capital Productivity) in the above, we will get 2.ROI/ ROCE = CP X (1-1/PP). As we can observe from the above Profits and ROI, will definitely increase even when PP improves with all other parameters remaining the same. Additionally, any improvement in CP will increase the ROI further.

Looking at the performance of the companies, we tend to get impressed by the growth registered in the revenue or in market share.

However, an analysis would readily show that such results, more often than not are mere expansion.

Unless the organisations improve their people productivity (PP) and their capital productivity (CP), any increase in profits is not possible. By increasing PP by 10 percent per year, current profits could be several times greater. We are not saying that expansion is bad, and any increase in it must happen only through productivity improvement. What we are saying is, we must first look at improving productivity of people and capital (growth) before adding resources, be it men, money or machinery (expansion). It pays handsomely to keep improving productivity continually.

Businesses are urged to think carefully, incorporate and use the TOC-based measurement system to track and improve productivity of people and capital.

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PERSPECTIVE 28FOCUS

Breaking Out of the Trap of ‘Busyness as Usual’!

Anxiety saps productivity.

Parampal Singh, President’s Office

“Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent, and not enough time on what is important.”

- Stephen Covey

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Whenever India’s competitiveness is discussed, the issue of labour productivity arises and fretted about, but rarely is the elephant in the room - managerial productivity – addressed. Even when it is touched upon, the discussion winds up being around addressing symptoms such as “committees for everything”, “never-ending meetings”, unnecessary calls, inadequate delegation, poor prioritisation and so on.

Focusing on such symptoms is what most of us instinctively do. But, if we were to apply the principles of root cause analysis that we learned at TQM Class, we need to go deeper and unearth the root cause.

Research carried out by leading consultants has revealed that the managerial role needs to accomplish the following key objectives:

Organising day-to-day activities, improving performance under pressure, and getting teams to be more productive.

Achieving these three objectives in a concurrent manner necessitates managers to do higher-level work that is innovative, non-routine and developmental in nature. This kind of work moves the organisation forward and makes it more competitive. However, it’s very different from the kind of “do” work that managers are used to. The gap between the

two kinds of work produce so much job-related anxiety in managers that they take refuge in performing routine tasks that they are familiar with. These kind of behaviours lead to the widely prevalent phenomenon of managers, across levels, performing roles that their subordinates could have fulfilled.

Thus, employee costs across the hierarchy aren’t being properly utilised, i.e., people are simply not doing the work demanded of their role. This has an adverse impact on firm-level/ enterprise-level competitiveness.

Further, it’s not as if managers don’t know this or don’t want to change. They simply don’t know how to change. They try time management techniques, but these don’t have a lasting impact as the root causes of time wastage don’t get addressed. However, managers still need to show their relevance and, so, they develop the fine art of appearing busy (henceforth called busyness). They push papers, demand reports that don’t reveal anything actionable, micro-manage, breathlessly rush to several meetings, engage themselves in meandering discussions and so on.

Finally, the more they indulge in busyness activities, the harder it becomes to begin and pursue result-producing, innovative activities. When every level of the hierarchy behaves in this manner, a culture of busyness sets in. There’s our trap!

Now, let’s attempt a deeper understanding of the three anxiety-generators mentioned above.

The more the managers indulge in busyness activities, the harder it becomes to pursue result-producing, innovative activities.

Planning and organising day-to-day activities Most managerial jobs are a blend of familiar routines and innovative activities.

Innovative, developmental projects that are characterised by uncertainty of success have the potential to induce change within the system and can, thus, cause job-related anxiety within managers. The response is anxiety-avoidance and hence a retreat to their comfort zones that are replete with routine, non -value adding work.

The symptoms of this pattern can be observed across roles: » The senior manager who procrastinates on formulating policies that can alter the strategic direction of the business. » The operations manager who spends much time and energy fighting fires without exerting sufficient effort in improving production planning and scheduling systems. » The quality control manager who studies reams of inspection reports but doesn’t enthusiastically promote quality improvement activities.

Completion of routine activities, hence, becomes the only satisfying measure of daily achievement, leaving difficult and challenging tasks unattended. The proverbial ‘tomorrow’ never does seem to come.

Improving performance under pressure The requirement of producing better results, quarter after quarter, year after year without any increase in resources can be very stress-inducing indeed. This consistent improvement in performance requires that fundamental changes take place in mindsets, attitudes and work routines. But, it’s hard work that takes reflection, re-orientation and reorganisation of daily work patterns. This results in the elevation of managerial anxiety levels and to avoid such anxiety, managers resort to “Action Now!” activities.

For example, under pressure to reduce inventory, managers quite often engage in the costly redesign of IT-based inventory management systems only to find, months later, that such systems are not working that well and have not had any lasting impact.

Likewise, to arrest dwindling profits, managers undertake to reorganise lines of business and cut costs only to learn that costs had returned to their former levels within a few quarters of the completion of reorganisation.

Thus, knee-jerk, ‘Action Now!’ initiatives result in those all-too-familiar busyness routines that managers were trying to get out of in the first place!

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Demanding more of one’s teams When managers themselves are doing routine work within their comfort zones, they lack the credibility to demand a higher level of performance from their teams. To avoid such anxiety-inducing conversations, managers end up assigning teams with objectives that are well within their comfort zones giving their teams an easy way out. Sometimes, team members delegate upwards; they come back with issues and problems to their manager making managers even busier than before. If such managers cannot set clear accountabilities, they are setting themselves up for longer hours at the office.

To achieve a sustained reduction in busyness, managers need to attack the way in which they address the crucial, albeit, anxiety-provoking requirements of the job.

It is only when they infuse zest and ingenuity into their real work that they will have no time to slip into the routines of busyness.

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Here is a step-by-step approach to help break out of the busyness trap:

Select a few complex managerial challenges that are at one level higher than the routine work.

Preferably, take just one to try out this approach. For example, a national sales manager who would normally spend most of his time tracking, monitoring and following up, needs to take up developmental projects such as embedding new sales processes, providing cutting edge sales tools to salespeople and designing work structures for various levels of the sales team that focus on activities that could eventually result in desired sales outcomes.

Break down the complexity into a series of few, bite-sized next steps.

Write down a few bite-sized next steps (not more than 5) that you will attack in the next few days rather than weeks or months.

Integrate the bite-sized steps of that complex project into your daily work plan so that it becomes a part of what you need to get done every day.

Make sure that the tasks pertaining to these steps are incorporated into the daily work plan with clear accountability.

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Analyse and review your use of time every week The key thing to look out for is whether or not you have been able to complete those first few steps and whether or not you have been able to increasingly substitute busyness activities with result-producing work.

Achieving small victories gives us positive feedback that generates the enthusiasm and confidence to take the next five steps, and also gives us the clarity on what those next five steps should be. A virtuous cycle is being born!

This approach differs from traditional time management techniques as it is about substitution of the content of work rather than just reorganising the same work.

Experiencing faster closure on a few small, focused projects helps managers gain a sense of control over their jobs and their managerial anxiety should begin to wane.

Lowered anxiety would enable managers use the discipline described above for a wider sphere of their activities, thus ensuring that more effort is exerted towards results-producing work that makes the organisation competitive.

The above approach must first be applied by senior leaders within an organisation so that they develop the credibility and the insight to deploy it across the hierarchy. When agenda-setting senior leaders spend more

time on non-routine, results-producing work, a new consciousness will set in where working more on important and critical initiatives will become the new routine. This is how organisations can shape a more productive culture for themselves.

In sum, it should be remembered that managerial jobs will always have anxiety-generators that will pull managers into the realms of busyness. The approach described above should be applied continually so that we can break out of this trap and create a brighter day for ourselves and our teams, every day.

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SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES

Godrej Consoveyo Logistics Automation Ltd. (GCLA) is a joint venture between G&B and Körber AG, Germany. This JV has come into being on Körber AG having acquired Consoveyo SA in the recent past.

GCLA are the pioneers and leaders in offering intralogistics (the art of optimising, integrating, automating, and managing the logistical flow of information and material goods within the walls of a fulfillment or distribution centre) automation solutions in India. We add value to our customers by offering state-of-the-art, high performance and reliable solutions. We are able to offer such solutions because of our experience, deep capabilities of our people and access to the know-how of our globally renowned partner.

It is said that logistics and intralogistics are the last frontiers available to manufacturers and ecommerce firms for saving on costs.

Boosting Productivity in Warehouses and Intralogistics Streamline logistics to serve customers better.

Naresh Tahiliani, Godrej Consoveyo Logistics Automation Ltd.

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These costs typically amount to 2-9% of total manufacturing cost. Manufacturing having matured does not offer much scope for reduction in cost hence, decision makers and supply chain managers are exploring the ways to cut costs, in the logistics and intralogistics area. It is in the area of intralogistics that GCLA has an attractive value proposition in the form of customised automated solutions which help boost operational efficiency and productivity all around.

Manufacturing companies and warehouses face many challenges in their day to day operations. Solutions offered by GCLA are well integrated by design and help our customers overcome the above challenges besides enabling them to reach their business goals in a cost-effective manner.

We offer our services and expertise in designing an appropriate solution for the customer taking into account the following parameters: » No. of stock keeping units (SKUs) » Material type, form, properties » Consumption per day and working hours » No. of orders to be fulfilled per day » Inventory holding periods » Customer’s processes » Existing methods of material handling » Space constraints and height restrictions » Existing facility, brownfield or greenfield

Taking these parameters and requirements into account, we create a few concepts for the customer to evaluate. This evaluation is carried out jointly for selecting the most suitable concept. Once a concept is selected, then a detailed solution is rolled out to enable the customer to achieve his business goals at an optimum cost. Let me illustrate what we do and how we realise efficiency through a case study.

Case study: Japanese machine manufacturing company The customer is a world leader in developing molding machines for producing a wide range of PET bottles.

The existing situation: Before GCLA entered the scene, all store operations were handled manually by the customer. The number of SKUs handled were more than 11,000, which were requested by the manufacturing facility in a specific sequence depending on the machines to be produced. The major challenge for the warehouse/ store was to deliver the required parts in the right sequence and quantity. Each machine manufactured required about 1200-1500 parts.

As the demand for the machines increased, it became impossible for the warehouse/ store to handle a large variety of parts and issue them as required by the manufacturing facility.

Obviously, such complex operations called for an automated solution and that is where GCLA entered the fray.

The solution We conducted a comprehensive assessment of the intralogistics against the parameters listed above as well as factors like maintenance of storage system, throughput, material flow and the automation required.

We developed several alternate solutions which were discussed threadbare and evaluated to arrive at the most suitable solution.

The solution was Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS) to be installed at a greenfield site.

The greenfield facility has a racking system to store 1,700 pallets, each weighing around 1000 to 2000 kgs. The throughput required was 150 such pallets per hour. The facility required 3 stacker cranes supported by peripheral equipment such as chain conveyors, roller conveyors and transfer tables.

Once the material is received from the vendors, it is stored in the ASRS until requested.

Once the request is entered in the system, the required pallets are retrieved as per the

assembly sequence and sent to the assembly line for the machines to be produced.

The sub-assemblies made are stored in the ASRS and immediately the inventory records are updated so that correct information about the inventory is always available. The entire process is controlled and managed by the Warehouse Management System (WMS) software which is integrated with the ERP which in this case is SAP. The WMS controls stacker cranes, their movement as well as their utilisation. It also tracks the movement of materials, manages inventory and generates required inventory/production reports.

The WMS is interfaced with various data logging sensors to facilitate integration of processes across the automated warehouse.

The design of the system aligned with the customer’s fundamental requirements for storage and retrieval of parts in the assembly line. High density storage allows for larger manufacturing footprint for achieving desired higher levels of throughput. The delivery of all parts/ sub-assembles in required sequence for the machine under production ensures higher productivity in the assembly shop. Human intervention is minimised to the extent possible. We ensure that besides meeting the operational requirements, the solutions supplied meet regulatory requirements.

The customer benefitted from the solution as the usage of floor space for storage of parts and assemblies reduced by 50%. Also shop floor productivity rose by 30% due to assured availability of parts before the start of production.

As of today, GCLA has supplied more than 100 intralogistics automated solutions for diverse industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, agro-chemicals, FMCGs, food and beverages, textile, paper, paints, automobiles, engineering, railways and defence, amongst others.

The team GCLA looks forward to higher growth and supplying sophisticated solutions for the ever-changing needs of their customers.

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INSIDE G&B

Controlling Risk through Behaviour-Based Safety Safety is an integral part of our core business philosophy.

Yashpal Singh & Suhas Paradkar, Corporate Safety Dept

It is imperative that our safety systems should lead to better quality, higher morale, and help in creating a work environment where productivity thrives.

If we think behaviour is a resource to be deployed for the desired output, then it should be safe and positive in its impact to enable an accident-free work environment which facilitates higher productivity.

Occurrence of any unsafe incident is always emotionally taxiing to not only the person involved, but his family as well. At the place of work, such incidents result in loss of productive time, reputation and wastage of other resources.

Unsafe behaviours are risks not only to the person concerned but also to his team, the business and the entire organisation.

A couple of years ago, we analysed the trend of unsafe incidents taking place in our organisation. We found that the trend was nonlinear and had random variation in it. It clearly showed that the practices we were following were not effective in controlling or reducing the level of incidences taking place.

The analysis of causes pointed towards human errors and related behavioural aspects. In safety parlance, these are called At Risk Behaviours which are difficult to control despite instituting a hierarchy of safety controls such as elimination, substitution, engineering controls, administrative mechanisms and the use of personal protection equipment (PPEs) and others. It was clear that if people didn’t behave in a safe manner, no matter what controls were established, the

desired safety-related results were simply unattainable.

At G&B, we have systems to enhance a culture of safety, viz., OHSAS 45001, various inter-divisional competitions, online systems, incentives, measurement of safety lead and lag indicators, etc. However, at workplaces, people tend to take chances by not following Sops, take short-cuts, are over confident and don’t coordinate effectively with their colleagues. Therefore, we decided to reach out to individuals to encourage safe behaviuor at work. This led us to implement ‘Behaviour Based Safety’ (BBS) initiatives in G&B. This is one kind of transition from hard-core to softcore safety intervention. In fact, it is more about behavioural and emotional connects to the need for safety.

Changing a person’s behaviour towards achieving a desired outcome can be done in two ways, either through positive or negative reinforcement.

For e.g., when someone violates traffic rules, then road traffic authority can give roses or counselling, a form of positive reinforcement. The same authority can impose fines and penalties.

We believe that positive reinforcements work better to help people imbibe safe behaviours. Hence the initiative is purely based on positive approach with the view that everyone in the organisation is equally responsible for safety. It helps employees to see safety in a new way, so that they can alter their own behaviours as well as that of their coworkers so that everyone learns to behave in a safe manner. The initiative encourages a mindset where safety is discussed every day amongst all concerned and not only during a training session or whenever an unsafe act is observed. BBS does not involve any disciplinary action, propagation of personal prejudice or implementation of a mandate from the top. Godrej Appliances at Mohali led this initiative from the front and implemented a few prime interventions such as Train the Trainers, Observation feedback process and its analysis. Subsequently, Corporate Safety Dept decided to horizontally deploy the BBS initiative at all our manufacturing establishments.

The implementation journey involved actions such as: » Forming a ‘BBS Steering Committee’ representing senior members from Manufacturing and Safety Council, » Developing the B-Safe web-based application to record observations and analysis » Promoting BBS in various forums » Developing training modules and conducting ‘Train the Trainers’ Program across G&B.

BehaviourBased Safety is basically a behaviour observation and feedback process.

Top: Live demonstration for Personal Protective Equipments at Vikhroli, a theme-based activity for BBS Implementation Bottom: Train The Trainer Program for Line Managers on Implementation of Behavioural-Based Safety

BBS is basically a behaviour observation and feedback process. In observation feedback practice, a trained observer focuses on the behaviour of his colleagues, where he first appreciates safe behaviors (positives) and then suggests corrective measures for the unsafe behaviours (negatives). The unsafe behaviours could be not following the SOPs, not wearing PPEs, etc.

This practice is constructive in nature as it helps change behaviors.

For example, instead of just saying wrong tools were used to do a job, it also mentions which are the right tools that should have been used. The observer’s goal is to make sure that people understand the reasons behind safe work practices. This means talking to the people until they have the information to make correct decisions for working safely.

This is important because people need to work safely even when the observer is not there to oversee them.

If we help people understand that it is in their best interest not to repeat an unsafe act, they will be more inclined to work safely even when no one observes them. The observer also tries to connect with people, both emotionally and empathetically.

The observations are recorded in the B-Safe Web-based application, which provides data to formulate business specific safety interventions to minimise workplace risks.

Since the inception of this initiative, more than 2,500 persons have been trained and are now active users of B-Safe.

Based on the analysis, three theme-based initiatives have been completed and various promotional activities carried out, based on these themes. Although the visible results of BBS are not immediately visible, we have noticed improved morale in the workforce, increase in the number of safety kaizens, improvement in various lead indicators such as hazard closures, trading hours, etc. which enables a lowering of the lag indicators, i.e., incidents. Implementing BBS initiative at manufacturing establishments outside Vikhroli is our next aim.

The root cause of any incident is either unsafe behaviour or unsafe conditions. Unsafe conditions can be corrected by engineering controls, but we believe that engineering controls alone do not adequately provide a safe workplace unless behavioural safety is practiced. Unsafe behaviours need to be eliminated to ensure total safety at the workplace.

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Appreciate to Motivate!

A good word goes a long way in lifting morale and encouraging effort.

Indrapal Singh

We all know how improved motivation can translate into increased productivity.

So, what can a manager do to improve motivation in a large-sized manufacturing unit? I happened to ask this question to an elderly acquaintance of mine and to my surprise, he gave me a one-word answer - Appreciation. I inquired how he hit upon this wonderful way of boosting motivation and he narrated his following experience: “I worked in a large textile mill for four decades in different capacities and rose to the position of General Manager during the last decade (1970 to 1980) of my career.

During this period, the textile industry in Mumbai was in turmoil because of intense union activity and huge political interference.

Managing a large workforce of more than 2000 people in a textile mill was extremely challenging, particularly in the absence of progressive personnel policies. Most of the burden for managing people and ensuring productivity fell on the shoulders of the supervisors and managers.

As it is widely known, the wages and the conditions of working were governed by the agreement entered into by the workers’ union with the management. The promotions were decided by the management based on the intelligence available, the recommendations from the departmental heads and finally approved by me. Given the style of management prevailing then, I had nothing substantial in my hands to motivate workmen for better productivity. After many trials and errors, I discovered that all I could do was to approve or disapprove – be it the quality of work done, any improvement made or any increase in the production achieved. This insight led me to conclude that rather than using disciplinary measures frequently, I could focus on the positive measures to get the de-

sired results. One such positive measure in my view was the much less used measure of appreciating good work done, bereft of any financial incentives.

I weighed the pros and cons of using this measure more frequently and concluded that no great harm would be caused if I used it in a bigger way. I then began looking for good work that deserved my appreciation. I had many false starts. Sometimes, I appreciated work that was not up to the mark and at other times, I missed out on appreciating work that deserved to be appreciated. For a few months, I kept reflecting on the appreciations given by me and identifying the errors in my judgement. In about six months, I believe I had developed a fairly good sense of identifying good work that deserved to be appreciated. I became adept at appreciating in a meaningful way. In a year’s time, my appreciation of work was so valued by the workforce that they began seeking it by drawing my attention and showcasing their good work. I would often hear about how some persons took these words of appreciation personally, and shared them with their family members and friends with visible pride.

“Given my reputation of a tough task master, I had to make sure that the work I chose to appreciate was indeed, good work. It had to be justifiable with evidence.”

Soon, the workmen began valuing my words of appreciation greatly. People whose work was appreciated began sharing my words with their colleagues within their de-

partment and sometimes across other departments as well. I could see pride on the faces of persons whose work I had appreciated and could see them motivated to do better work. Of course, all this was without any monetary considerations attached to the appreciation; it was just the power of the good words that inspired people to resolve everyday problems and make continuous improvements at the workplace.

“The finest tribute to this method of appreciation was heard by me when many workmen at the time of retirement get-togethers would make a specific mention of the appreciation they had recieved from me.”

Some would also remark that while they did not care much about any increase in the salary, the ‘shabbashi’ they received from me encouraged them to continue doing good work.

I feel, even in today’s times, the art of appreciating well can be deployed to motivate people and create a sense of pride in them to do good work and aspire for improved productivity.”

Let me invite you, the team leader or the manager, to reflect on this practice adopted by the so-called tough manager and if you find it effective, you can also implement it to identify genuine good work and sincerely appreciate it.

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U PB E AT WO R K STAT ION S FROM GODREJ INTERIO Flexible and personalised workspace solutions

Offices are becoming smaller leading to claustrophobic work environments and mundane work settings. Moreover, workstations are isolated spaces that restrict free thinking, making work culture rigid. It is necessary for modern day offices to be more personalised and home-like that can make an individual feel at ease and in turn improve productivity at work.

UPBEAT is designed to bring life to offices by creating clever ‘activity-based’ layouts with more options for open environments in limited floor spaces. It facilitates creating of zones for primary work, interactions and rejuvenation.

It blends superbly with social office products, modern lounge seating and other associated interior elements to create an inspiring work environment.

Principal innovation of UPBEAT is the immense modularity of its understructure. It enables fast assembly and helps in creating different configurations over and above the options for the desk leg designs.

The modularity is achieved through ingeniously developed universal die-cast components that effortlessly connect the understructure elements. This innovation leads to easy creation of varied configurations with the required precision, stability and durability expected from Godrej products.

A user-centric furniture design; UPBEAT benefits workers at different levels. At a layout level, the system allows the creation of ‘break-in’ spaces within the primary workstations which greatly reduces the need for meeting rooms.

The patented lightweight removable screens at each workstation revolutionises the way people can swiftly change workstations from focused to collaborative work. At the individual level, it gives choice to workers with power beams to reconfigure their settings using mobile tables.

Its design has the potential to change traditional work settings and create versatile, flexible solutions.

UPBEAT has a novel high-workstation ergonomic solution aimed at providing health benefits to its users, essentially it gives a choice to sit or stand while working. It also improves the way in which people communicate and interact with each other by bringing the eye levels of sitting and standing workers to the same elevation.

This makes conversations natural and intuitive.

In addition, a range of accessories helps bring a unique character to the workstations enabling users to personalise their work spaces as they choose to.

Never mind less space! It’s how individuality is created at a workstation that creates a sense of belonging to one’s office; one of the desirable aspects of UPBEAT.

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INSIDE G&B

Naoroji Godrej Award For Business Excellence - 2019 Putting the customer first is the foundation for building an edifice of excellence.

Kartik Modi, Corporate Business Excellence

“Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.”

– Pat Riley

The third edition of the Naoroji Godrej Award For Business Excellence (NGAFBE) was celebrated on 3rd December 2019, the birth anniversary of our founder Naoroji Godrej. The award function was held at the plant 13 auditorium and was graced by Mr. J.N. Godrej, Dr. Pheroza Godrej, Mr. Vijay Crishna, Mrs. Smita Godrej Crishna, Mr. Rishad Naoroji and Mrs. Nyrika Holkar. The event was also attended by the senior management team of G&B, internal assessors and Godrejites.

NGAFBE was institutionalised on 3rd December 2017, the birth centenary of our beloved Naval Pirojsha Godrej.

The award is meant to commemorate NPG’s passion for excellence in business.

NGAFBE is a platform where businesses and corporate functions of G&B are assessed internally and externally for their performance deploying world renowned model of business excellence developed by the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM).

Under the model, a business can score on assessment, 0-1000 points. However, there is a threshold limit of a score of 400 points. If a business scores between 400 – 449 points, it is awarded one star and thereafter an additional star for moving to the next band of additional 50 points and so on until a business attains a score of 599. If a business crosses

600 points, it is awarded 5 stars and a prize.

A business with the highest score above 600 points is awarded the NGAFBE award.

NGAFBE is awarded to a business that is judged as the Role Model Business based on the criteria defined and used for assessment by a jury comprising executive directors and the CFO of G&B. The function began with the lighting of the ceremonial lamp and the introductory remarks by Kartik Modi. He shared the journey of BE over the years at G&B and paved the path for the introduction of EFQM 2020 in the coming years. Unlike EFQM 13, which was a diagnostic tool, the EFQM 2020 is a tool for managing a business with emphasis on these selected areas: » Primacy of the customer » The need to take a long-term, stakeholder-centric view » The need to understand the causeand-effect linkages in the actions taken by the business and the achieved outcomes. » Managing of performance » Managing of transformation Kartik highlighted the salient features of the new model and urged the businesses to adopt EFQM 2020 in totality and work sincerely to get the most out of it.

All this was rather heavy stuff which was then followed by an interlude in the form of a skit, ‘Excellence Ki Jhappi’ conceptualised by Rahul Arora and Devendra Dubey of the BE cell and enacted by the students of Udayachal schools – Primary and Secondary.

Moving forward, senior managers from businesses and corporate functions were invited to share their impressions of the internal assessors and the assessments carried out by them. All the managers who shared their views were greatly appreciative of nearly 1000 hours of work put in by the assessors. Among the persons who spoke were, Sunil Dubey from Corp P&A, Ganesh from Commercial Dept, A.M. Viswanathan from Godrej Storage Solutions and Ms. Pervin Vanskuiwalla of Internal Audit. They highlighted the value adding features of the assessment process and what they learnt by applying for the NGAFBE. Under the NGAFBE 2019, eleven of our businesses and two corporate functions had participated. Corporate legal and internal audit had applied for the first time.

The commendations were awarded to the businesses and corporate functions who had progressed to the next level- Corporate legal was given one star, Godrej E&E, MHE, Godrej Infotech and G&B Internal Audit were awarded two-star commendations. Godrej Construction had progressed to a four-star level. And finally, Godrej Appliances (GA) was awarded NGAFBE 2019 for crossing 600 plus score and was recognised by the G&B jury as a “Role Model” business.

On receiving the award, Mr. Kamal Nandi, Business Head, GA, thanked the management of G&B, other businesses, corporate functions and assessors both internal and external for being a part of GA’s journey of Excellence. He said that without the valuable feedback he had received from all involved,

Excellence is a constantly moving target and we need to be strong and agile to predict the needs of our consumers and pivot our strategies and business models to serve them better.

GA would have never attained the level of performance it had.

Further, Mr. Anil Verma highlighted the need to improve and keep advancing which he believes is the essence of the journey of excellence. He also emphasised the need to have sustainable improved results by deeply imbibing the principles of the BE model in day to day operations.

Ms. Nyrika Holkar shared her thoughts and said, “Excellence is a constantly moving target and we need to be strong and agile to predict the needs of our consumers and pivot our strategies and business models to serve them better.”

Now, everyone was waiting for the thoughts and comments of Mr. J.N. Godrej.

He congratulated all the winners, the assessors and the organising committee for their achievements and efforts. He said the EFQM BE framework is a well-tested, renowned BE model. He urged the businesses to pursue it sincerely and vigorously as he believed the pursuit of excellence and financial performance are correlated strongly. He also said that he was confident that using the BE model as a foundation, it was possible to build world class business processes to deliver superior financial results. He appreciated the efforts of G&B legal and internal audit

Top Left - Udayachal Students. Top Right - Senior management in the audience. Second Row: Left - Kamal Nandi accepting the trophy on behalf of GA. Middle - Smita Crishna giving an award to Ravi Gupta. Right - Nyrika Holkar presenting an award to Sushil Thariani. Bottom - Mr. J.N. Godrej sharing his thoughts.

for adopting the BE framework and urged all other corporate functions to undertake the journey of BE. He emphasised the crucial role played by the assessors in providing value adding feedback and congratulated all internal assessors for their diligent support.

And finally, he urged the leadership teams of all businesses to become assessors and expressed his hope that businesses and corporate functions too, would work collaboratively and learn from each other.

The function ended with a vote of thanks

by Mr. Anand Bagdare which was followed by high tea - enjoyed greatly by all present.

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The Mazda Story How the American automobile giant learnt lessons in process improvement from the Japanese automaker.

This vintage story from the automobile industry powerfully portrays the positive impact of process improvement. In the late ‘90s, the American automobile giant Ford Motor Company had purchased a significant stake in Japan’s Mazda Motor Company, primarily to learn the Japanese way of making cars.

While Ford Motors gained valuable insights from Mazda over time, one of the impressive stories to emerge from this collaboration was about the process-driven productivity gains realised by Mazda over a period of five to seven years.

Indrapal Singh

Made in Michigan

Excessive accounting of inventory is not essential and if eliminated to the extent possible, it can yield significant productivity gains.

Mazda’s plant and Ford’s plant, both located in Michigan, were practically of the same size in terms of production capacity. Ford, with an accounts payable team having a strength of 530 persons, felt the department was over staffed. The American motor company conducted an exercise to benchmark this department with Mazda and to its surprise, Ford found that Mazda had around 380 persons in its accounts payable department.

Keen to cut numbers, Ford began streamlining its processes in the department and after many improvements over a period of two years, it achieved a staffing strength of about 390 persons. When Ford reconciled the numbers with Mazda, they found that Mazda had by then reduced its headcount in the department to just 230 persons. Ford Motors decided to undertake a second round of improvements in its processes. At the end of this round, after another two years, the headcount reduced to about 280 persons. During the same time, Mazda went and reduced its headcount further to just 145 persons. The comparative numbers clearly demonstrated that Mazda was leagues ahead when it came to improvement of processes.

Continuous improvement Not to take it passively, Ford decided to renew its efforts, and undertook the third round of improvements. At the end of the third round, after a year, Ford had 180 persons in their accounts payable department.

The customary benchmarking with Mazda followed and guess what was the outcome?

Mazda had reduced its headcount to just 35 persons in their accounts payable department. Ford undertook an in-depth review

and audit of this process at Mazda’s plant and found that this massive reduction in the manpower was achieved through a combination of human insight and computer software that was specially designed to leverage the insight. At the core of the initiative was a realisation that there was no point in keeping track of the materials received, issued, used, rejected, etc., and instead the focus should be on finished cars. To speed up payments to the vendors, it would be sufficient for Mazda to keep track of the ‘accepted’ number of cars rolling off the assembly line each day. At the end of the final shift of the day, the number of cars produced during the day would then be expanded into their respective Bill of Materials (BOMs), and linked to the vendors concerned for making payments for the parts accepted and used. The rejected parts were very few in number, and were returned to the vendors to be replaced with good parts.

Be the change-maker This iconic example of process re-engineering, even though a greatly simplified one, clearly delivers the point that excessive accounting of inventory is not essential and if eliminated to the extent possible, it can yield significant productivity gains.

It is not enough to improve processes incrementally.

It is essential to aim for breakthrough improvements by combining insights with modern technology.

The reader is invited to review one process and then improve it relentlessly over a period of five years to see if breakthrough levels of improvement can be achieved. The way to do this effectively would be to look for any insights that can be leveraged for massive improvement, such as the one achieved by Mazda.

Any takers? Do share your experience of process improvement journey.

Note: As this story is written from memory, some details could be inaccurate. However, the learnings remain valid even today.

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FOCUS

How Godrej Appliances Became a Role Model Business Purpose and persistence pay off handsomely.

Alignment with EFQM model This involved honest self-assessment and gap analysis, taking on all OFIs from external BE assessments with charters to monitor action taken against the same, benchmarking rigour across areas till continuous improvement became a mantra for everyone.

Leadership commitment with a clear focus on strategy planning & execution Amongst the enablers, leadership and strategy received maximum attention. A 10 year roadmap for the division spanning Bridge, Consolidate and Grow phases was laid out with clear strategies of ‘Where to Play’ and ‘How to Win’.

Quality was adopted as a fundamental driver in 2015 – over and above Product, Channel, Lean operations, Brand and Service.

Tougher quality goals were set with rigorous processes and structural changes. Achieving global quality standards became an ambition. A special team to drive zero defect was

instituted. Over time, quality was broadened from product performance to include product aesthetics as well.

The biggest inflection point came in 2015. As part of an OFI, the division’s vision was reassessed. Godrej in every home was changed to a sharper and more competitive “Be amongst the Top 3 in the Appliances industry by 2020”. The vision was communicated to every stakeholder – internal and external. Consequently, GAD started adopting this lens for all its key decision making “Will this help in meeting our top 3 vision?”

Improvement charters were adopted along with a strong structured review process.

A clearly defined stakeholder map was laid out with a continuous engagement process to capture everyone’s voice. A strong customer visit culture was instituted and deliberately made top-down so that the resulting consumer empathy could drive truly consumer-centric decision-making.The strategy planning and execution process was rehauled. Risk planning became a key component in strategy. Strategy was deployed till the last mile through a robust performance management system, ensuring linkages and alignment across the organisation.

Thrust on technology and product innovation Continuous product innovation is a must in the durables Industry. At GAD, a Multi Generation Product Plan drove the new product development. Developing consumer convenience features, use of green technologies and material, strong focus on energy efficiency in keeping with the environment value of the brand, product and component design based on Indian conditions and cost optimisation through miniaturisation and standardisation principles were key focus

Green manufacturing was supported by a strong green sourcing journey. Our sourcing cluster journey has been impressive, more so because of the business results. From working on proximate suppliers to encouraging our suppliers to go through GreenCo assesments to digitisation at suppliers and laying down of a supplier code of conduct, this and much more has gone into the supplier excellence journey, the pillars of which have been ‘Make in India’ and ‘Reduced Carbon Footprint’.

Making service a differentiator

Kamal Nandi and Krishna Saraf, Godrej Appliances

2019 saw Godrej Appliances winning the coveted CII BE - role model award. GAD’s journey however commenced long back in 2010-11. Those were tough times for the division as reflected in most of the financial parameters - net revenue below break-even point, high costs, negative EBT & ROCE. There were major gaps in product portfolio, product quality as well as service delivery, low brand visibility, channel was not strong enough while operating costs were high. It was amidst these conditions that GAD embarked on its excellence journey, which revolved around some key pillars:

Suppliers and partners management

areas. The results were many firsts in technology, products and processes, best in class energy efficiency across ACs, Refrigerators and Chest Freezers, best in class water consumption in Washing Machines, least environmental impact, deployment of advanced next level thermo electric technology, etc.

New technologies were developed indigenously as well as with strong partnerships – for example, Medical Refrigerators that could preserve vaccines for upto 10 days without power. Revenue from NPIs climbed; successful forays were made into new spaces and multiple accolades won for product designs.

Capacity building, lean operations To support the NPIs and the ambitious vision, bold investments were made in the form of plant expansions, new lines and machinery, new testing equipment, etc. Lean and Green became a mantra in manufacturing.

Today, we are benchmarked against world-class factories and can deliver on time with flexible mixed-model manufacturing.

Our green manufacturing practices – use of renewable energy, zero waste to landfill, water positive manufacturing, green building, material conservation and recycling - have become the benchmarks in Indian manufacturing. ‘Going Digital’ was a key lever in our lean journey. We have deployed IoT in our smart factories to enable real-time monitoring, and going ahead, a strong digital road map has been laid out.

Closer to the end consumer, after sales service was identified as a potential differentiator. In 5 years, we moved from service hygiene to service delight. The shift involved many initiatives – multilingual call centres, excellence centres, weekend working, extended working hours keeping in mind changing consumer lives, Apps to drive efficiency, live dashboards, zero pendency drive for trade

etc. The proof of the pudding is in the positive feedback received from trade and best of all, from the consumers in a large-scale independent survey where GAD was rated best on service.

Robust performance management and capability building No excellence journey can be undertaken without people focus. One of GAD’s strongest interventions was the deployment of common KRAs and linked goals across the hierarchy of the organisation apart from a careful focus on talent building in specific core areas without allowing people costs to scale up.

Driving Good & Green G&G was an integral part of GAD’s 3P (People-Planet-Profit) strategy. Extensive work was done in skilling youth, community development, green manufacturing, good & green products and working on green across the value chain.

Apart from the above thrust areas, a key tenet of our BE journey was a lean BE structure. The BE journey was integrated with GAD’s business and no separate BE roadmap was drawn. The weekly BE meetings were always a platform for business improvement.

Hence our biggest joy comes from our steadily improving business health measures over the course of the 9 assessments - 126% improvement in net revenue, 183% on ROCE and 249% on PBT , 22% conversion cost improvement, 52% warranty cost improvement and 81% service cost improvement led by improvements across our market, brand and service performance. The BE- Role Model Award conferred upon us last year is the icing on top!

Business goes on and so does our business excellence journey. We will be integrating the new 2020 EFQM Model with our business plans and continue to tread the improvement path.

Top - Kamal Nandi receiving the trophy from Mr. J.N. Godrej.

Bottom Left - Kamal Nandi receiving the award at the CII event.

Bottom Right - NGAFBE trophy

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Competing at the High End – The Dahej Story To compete globally, a global level manufacturing infrastructure is a must.

Nitin Palan, Godrej Process Equipment

“The best way to have a future is to create one.”

– Peter Drucker

To expand our global footprint, Godrej Process Equipment adopted the strategy of making fewer but more complex, larger thus heavier, critical equipment covering the entire range of custom-built static equipment (namely pressure vessels, reactors, columns and heat exchangers) for oil & gas, petrochemicals, refineries, fertilisers, pharmaceuticals, power and the water industries.

Typically, such equipment weighs hundreds of tonnes and are very large in dimensions.

The existing plants in Vikhroli were constructed at a point in time when the Process Equipment business of G&B was essentially catering to the middle segment of equipment. However, the recent years presented challenges for the growth ambitions of the business from manufacturing to logistics.

Our international competitiveness comes under pressure by being in Mumbai as it is a high cost location.

As GPE became more of a global player, being globally competitive demanded that these cost issues be addressed. All of these debilitating factors resulted in GPE being able to cater to only the high-end segment of the market, much to the dissatisfaction of its customers who would much rather prefer a wide range supplier to cater to their diverse needs.

Necessity dictated that a state-of-the-art new facility was the need of the hour. That decision was reached in 2006. The new plant

would enable the ramping up of capacity and with access to its own ultra-modern jetty would effectively neutralise the challenges experienced in Mumbai. Any facility would have to be on the water front. It would be preferred if the new plant was located on the western coast of India, closer to the all-weather port of Mumbai. Several potential areas were scanned, the pros and cons evaluated and eventually Dahej was selected.

At the time, Dahej SEZ was being developed and as GPE’s business had a pre dominant share of exports, locating the new plant in an SEZ was considered ideal. Being on the waterfront along the banks of the river Narmada leading to the Gulf of Cambay was decisive.

Initially a plot of land measuring 1,00,000 sq. mt. was acquired only to be followed by the acquisition of another adjoining plot of the same size. But this was the easy part.

What followed was a lengthy process of ensuring that all SEZ requirements were complied with, relocating land owners and obtaining all required clearances and permissions to allow for the commencement of construction. Easier said than done as it involved overcoming many procedural and bureaucratic hurdles spanning several agencies.

Construction of the plant began in November 2014 and production started after two years in October 2016.

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History is a great teacher. And we were blessed by the lessons of G&B’s long history.

Along with the plant, there had to be a provision for residential quarters. For that, we acquired another plot of land about 22kms from Dahej SEZ for providing housing facilities for the employees.

The main plant The entire manufacturing facility as envisaged comprises of five distinct phases, of which the Construction of Phase – I has been completed. The main plant was erected using massive steel structures measuring 300 m length x 75 m width x 29.45 m roof height.

In phase-1 the total built up area developed is about 37,270 sq. mts. with a covered manufacturing area under the roof of 22,500 m2.

Approximately 1150 piles of varying diameters ranging from 600mm to 1000mm going to depths of 15m to 25m; 6550 tonnes of structural steel; 52000 cu. mt. of concrete; 5,500 tonnes of reinforcement steel was used in the 1st phase of construction. The structure has two levels of girders for accommodating EOT cranes of varying capacities. In Phase-1, the installed crane capacities range from 50 tonnes to 150 tonnes with a plan of going up to 300 tonnes in the future.

The structure is divided into three bays, each measuring 24 metres width and 300 metres length, with a provision for expansion in the future.

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World-class manufacturing facilities Being a Heavy Fabrication shop, plant and machine capacities have been planned and put in place for the manufacture of varying sizes, weights and metallurgies of equipment.

To illustrate this, the clear height under the crane allows fabrication of equipment up to 12 metres in diameter, of lengths up to 100 metres, weighing up to 1700 metric tonnes.

Heavy duty plate bending machines that can cold bend plates from 6mm thick to 285mm thick, deep hole horizontal drilling machines that can drill tube sheets up to a thickness of 1000mm, CNC vertical drilling machines, horizontal boring machines, large diameter VTLs, state-of-the-art marking and cutting facilities that include gas cutting, under water plasma cutting machines and water jet cutting machines, heavy duty positioners, and saw machines along with high tonnage rotators up to 500MT capacity join together with heavy lift EOT cranes to constitute what is indeed a World Class Manufacturing facility for the manufacture of high pressure static equipment. But that’s not all.

Equipment designed and manufactured for the process industry has to conform to stringent international design and testing codes.

The level of automation is what distinguishes us from our competitors.

Like human beings, welds have to be radiographed and subject to sonography to ascertain their health. Iridium and cobalt RT enclosure, ultrasonic testing machines for health checks of welds are pre-requisites in a modern fabrication facility. And Dahej has it.

And to cap it all, modular furnaces for heat treatment, painting enclosures add to the panorama of ultramodern manufacturing facilities that positions Dahej as one of the premier fabrication facilities globally.

Automation

The jetty

The level of automation is what distinguishes GPE from its competitors. If it is automation in manufacturing, it is digitisation in other office processes. No area has been left untouched, from marketing to design to project management, all serving to increase value for its customers.

The Dahej facility has its own fully equipped jetty. The beaching jetty is contiguous with and about 300 metres away from the exit point of the main assembly area and is constructed for roll-on roll-off barging operations. It can cater to 300 class barges and its berthing is 95 metres long and 40 metres wide. Recently, what is arguably the world’s tallest CCR reactor weighing 700MT and having a length of 95 meters was shipped to Nigeria from this jetty. The future includes a floating jetty to load equipment in “all water” conditions and a pencil jetty to enable direct loading of equipment on ships that would be anchored out in the Narmada river.

What is even more remarkable is the fact that almost all the ideas are homegrown and are executed in-house.

To name a few, automatic CNC Plate marking, automatic nozzle welders, automatic orbital welding, seam trackers, online weld defects detection, dish end welding by GMAW, nozzles to flange welding SPMs, cleat pad welding using robots, automatic shell marking, automatic tube expansion, etc., are just a few of the many forward-looking manufacturing processes in day to day operation at Mumbai and Dahej. Automated design software that has been specifically developed to automate the design process, an internet-based marketing information portal and bar code-enabled, technology-facilitated, real-time, project management platform are the bedrock of how GPE fulfills its fundamental promises of safety, on-time delivery with world-class quality to its customers.

Corporate Social Responsibility The coastline at Dahej and neighbouring areas are subject to tidal variations of large magnitude throughout the year.

Consequently, the coastline is prone to high erosion. To contain erosion, we have resorted to compensatory eco-restoration along the coastline by planting mangroves in a phased manner.

This initiative is much appreciated by the Gujarat Ecology Commission as well as other agencies. We intend to monitor the growth of this plantation for several years to ensure that coastline erosion is contained as envisaged.

On the CSR front, Project Vikas has been

Previous Page: CCR Reactor weighing 700MT. Left Page (clockwise) - Use of various manufacturing operations. Right Page: Equipment awaiting shipment.

undertaken that engages women and the youth of nearby villages. Various livelihood creating know-how is imparted to increase their incomes. Building skills for increasing incomes is also a part of this initiative.

Gardening and landscaping To carry forward the ethos of the industrial garden township of Pirojshanagar to Dahej, adequate resources have been allotted to landscape and area of about 11,000 square metres and 3000 trees of several indigenous species have been planted. In addition, plants for beautification and medicinal values are being grown.

In closing, team GPE would like to thank all departments of G&B who have made this project possible with special thanks to construction and E&E. Team GPE would like to assure all stakeholders that they would strive their best to adhere to Godrej culture and values in all facets of its working.

Dahej - The first step towards the brighter future of Godrej Process Equipment and also of G&B.

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It’s ‘Complete’ Only When the Client Says So Best lessons in business are learnt the hard way.

The trick is not to forget them, ever.

Indrapal Singh

Henry Ford once said, “Quality means doing it right when no one is looking”. Of course, those were the days when Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) and other hightech applications of today for monitoring quality and production processes in general weren’t available. Notwithstanding that, Ford’s aphorism still holds weight in today’s times, as is evident from the experience of an entrepreneur cum contractor known to me.

This contractor runs a successful, midsized business in the construction industry, and has been acclaimed over the past seven decades for his civil work and the charm he brings to interiors. His story takes us back a few years, when he had been awarded a fairly large project of constructing and finishing a school building at the behest of a wellknown business group from North India. This group owns and runs several prestigious schools that dot the northern face of the country. These are managed by a trust that is headed by an elderly family member, known for promoting high-quality education among children hailing from marginalised sections of society who demonstrate talent, proficiency in academics, and a desire to learn.

A promising start The blueprint of the school that was to be built had been prepared by a leading architect with the objective of creating aspiration among deserving and industrious students, and drawing them towards the institution.

One of the key requirements of the contract was that the work had to have a flawless finish. The contractor was as pleased as Punch to be entrusted with this duty, given that the

project was financially alluring and the time horizon acceptable. The advance payout he had received also exceeded the amount generally handed out as per the prevailing industry practice. With a song in his heart, the contractor set-out to begin his work.

Every contractor’s dream come true Everything went like clockwork, with the architect and supervisors cooperating fully, without undue interference. Approvals were received promptly and the construction-linked bills were also processed on time. Working on the project had become a pleasure, and the contractor took great care to ensure there were no time or cost overruns. Time flew by and soon, the project was completed. Or so the contractor thought. By then, the contractor had received 90% of his payment, and as per the terms, the balance was payable within 30 days of submission of the final bill. The contractor obtained the necessary approvals from the site supervisors and submitted his final bill. Around the 13th day thereafter, he approached the trustee to collect his final cheque.

And then a red herring?

The contractor, feeling quite upbeat, entered the trustee’s office, and was given a warm welcome. As the two struck a tête-àtête over a cup of tea, the trustee began by complimenting the contractor for his efforts.

The discussion was all quite cheery and the contractor was expecting the trustee to open his drawer and take out the cheque any mo-

ment. However, contrary to his expectations, the trustee reached out for a sheaf of papers and said something that left the contractor both flabbergasted and perturbed.

The trustee handed the papers to the contractor and politely told him that this was a list of small things that needed attention and some further work. Hearing this, the contractor felt alarmed and shell-shocked, realising that now there was a palpable disconnect between the approvals he had received from the architect and site supervisors, and what the trustee was saying. Looking at the list with dismay, he saw that there were not just 10 or 50 or even 100 things on the list, but an eye-watering 864 of them that were standing between him and his cheque! As he sat there with a blank look on his face, not knowing how to react, his mind went into overdrive, inundated by a flurry of questions and plausible theories being fired in all directions – was this a ploy to buy more time to clear the dues? Or a tactic to negotiate on the last 10%? Did the architect and supervisors really overlook certain things which the trustee’s roving eyes had caught? Why did the trustee not share this list earlier?

His mind, now flushed with indignation, sensed that his bubble of joy had been burst, but nonetheless, he maintained his composure. Better sense prevailed, and his inner voice told him that the experience till then was too good to put a strain on his relationship with the trustee -- in what seemed to be an anti-climax to a beautiful story. He decided to give the trustee the benefit of doubt and took his feedback constructively before committing to attend to each requirement on the list.

The inflection point As the contractor walked out the trustee’s office, he felt gripped with a new feeling of enlightenment and a lesson echoing in his mind -- a job is complete only when the client says so, no matter what we or others around us may feel. After ruminating over this, on the very same day, the contractor assembled a team of masons, carpenters and painters, and asked them to report to the site at 9 am the next morning.

The next morning, the team began tackling the tasks on the list. While the contractor briefed them about the requirements, he also raised their consciousness about setting such standards and obtaining approvals from the site supervisors. Over the next 20 days, the contractor religiously looked into each of the requirements and obtained the necessary approvals at the end of each day.

After jobs on the list were completed, he decided to check everything once again, looking at things from the trustee’s lens. After he was satisfied, he knocked on the trustee’s door with full confidence.

The trustee was very cordial, gave him a warm welcome, and offered him a cup of tea.

The contractor then handed him the list of 864 things that he had completed. The trustee took the papers, and without looking at them, put them into a drawer. He then pulled out another drawer, took out a cheque for the balance amount, and gave it to the contractor -- with an intriguing smile on his face.

Confused and sceptical, the contractor wondered if the smile was made mockingly at him, or in good faith. Not wanting to ponder much over this, he quickly finished his tea, thanked the trustee and stood up to leave.

Just then, the trustee signalled him to sit down and said that he was pleased with the contractor’s work. He pulled out his drawer, took out another cheque of a sizeable amount, and handed it to the contractor.

Quite perplexed, the contractor asked him what this was for, to which the trustee explained by saying that he had acquired another site where a new but similar school was to be built, and this was an advance for

him to commence work. He added by saying that the formal work order would be issued soon. The trustee stood up with a smile, and shook the contractor’s hands and gave him his best wishes for the new assignment.

The contractor could hardly believe his eyes. After thanking the trustee, he exited his room, and again felt overcome with a sense of enlightenment. He knew that these life lessons were worth sharing with others and that’s how his experience has made it to this issue of Change.

Key Takeaways » Expect the full payment only after completing the work as per the client’s expectations. » Repeat orders can be expected only if the job is confirmed to have been done as per the client’s satisfaction.

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ISRO ’S TH HISTO R IC 5 0 SU CC E SSFUL PSLV L AU NCH POWERED BY GODREJ AEROSPACE PSLV is one of the most reliable launch vehicles, globally.

On 11th December 2019, history was made at Sriharikota Space launch centre with the successful 50th mission of PSLV - the workhorse of ISRO.

of launching two spacecraft, Chandrayaan-1 in 2008 and the Mars Orbiter in 2013 to Mars.

Over the years, PSLV’s load-carrying capacity increased from 850 kg to 1.9 tonnes.

PSLV C-48 carried primary satellite RISAT – 2BR1, a radar imaging earth observation satellite for applications in agriculture, forestry and disaster management support. The satellite weighed 628 kgs. It also carried nine other satellites- 6 from the US and one each from Israel, Italy and Japan. All of them were put into polar orbit.

PSLV is one of the most reliable launch vehicles in the world with only two unsuccessful launches in its long journey of 26 years.

Over the last two-and-a-half decades, the PSLV has proven its capability repeatedly and now international clients are queuing up to put their smaller satellites into orbit in a cost-effective way using ISRO’s PSLV. PSLV has also the distinction

Godrej Aerospace in partnership with MTAR Hyderabad has supplied Vikas Liquid Propulsion Engines and Satellite components for all launches and satellites.

Godrej Aerospace salutes ISRO on this outstanding achievement and takes deep pride in its association with India’s space program.

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Gandhi Continues To Resonate @ 150 The means matter as much as the end.

Shweta Jadhav, Godrej Archives.

“Gandhiji felt that leadership strength derives from self-control and those with sufficient self-control do not need to control others.”

– From the Practical Idealist: Gandhi’s leadership lessons – James O’Toole.

The aura and influence of Gandhiji and the force of his ideals are relevant even today, more so as the world grapples with increasing insecurities and intolerance. Gandhiji almost always features in the debates about equality and brotherhood, appears on posters during mass civil protests, becomes the face of a nationwide cleanliness campaign and the like. He continues to be a global face for advocating peace and non-violence.

The Mahatma, you see, refuses to go out of fashion!

Gandhiji had rejected materialism and favoured an agrarian economy over the industrial one during the freedom struggle. This was in spite of the fact that he had wholeheartedly supported many industrialists, including Mr. Ardeshir Godrej. He had even gone further and had called Ardeshir Godrej, ‘a brother’ for commending his Swadeshi spirit of entrepreneurship.

In his 150th birth anniversary year, we recall some tenets of his philosophy that corporate India should reflect upon and attempt to re-orient itself for creating an inclusive society and brighter future for all.

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Trusteeship Gandhiji’s doctrine of trusteeship remains an inspiration even today for many industrialists of India who consider themselves trustees of their wealth and give back to society in various forms, contributing to many a noble cause.

Gandhiji advocated that wealth held in excess of one’s income and above one’s needs is a social surplus.

Anyone holding such a surplus should try and divert it towards the benefit of society always remembering that we all are trustees of this wealth and not owners.

Today, this thought needs to be understood in a broader sense, without restricting it to financial wealth alone.

In a world where knowledge is wealth, businesses must appreciate that another noble thing to do is to share their knowledge as well as other intellectual resources with those who need them.

Empowering employees and communities to achieve their professional goals as well as enabling them to pursue lifelong learning is yet another form of enlightened trusteeship.

Moral leadership The trusteeship doctrine has its roots in the moral leadership that Gandhiji lived by.

The Mahatma was no military leader, yet he commanded an army of civilians and led them into a battle against one of the world’s mightiest empires. So, what made a wiry, bare-chested, loincloth-sporting man, so inspirational to millions?

Gandhiji’s deeply held spiritual and moral values, his spirit of service and sacrifice, and his behaviour of practicing before preaching is what endeared him to the millions.

The leadership that blends courage with compassion is what the business world needs today for sustainable prosperity. Acceptance of people from diverse backgrounds, fair and equal opportunities for everyone without

discrimination, compassion for the underprivileged, humility in the face of success, forgiveness to others and self are just a few of the other values that can lead to an emergence of morally strong leaders.

Such leaders can then achieve not just material success but also can ensure the welfare and growth of the countrymen they serve.

Right means and right ends.

Gandhiji’s words keep warning us about the perils of incessant greed and manic consumerism when he says, “How heavy is the toll of sins and wrongs that wealth, power and prestige extract from man.” Only those leaders who can guard themselves from the delusions induced by the trio of wealth, power and prestige, can run their businesses in the right way.

By adhering to the ‘right means, right ends’ strategy, business leaders can ensure the physical and emotional wellbeing of employees, gain trust and goodwill of consumers, vendors and other associates, to ultimately pave the way for becoming an exemplary business.

Frugality As we talk about sustainability, Gandhiji’s lessons of frugality are worth remembering.

Frugality was for him, a way of life and he often said, “The world has enough for everyone’s need but not for their greed.”

Gandhiji epitomised this by observing ‘simple living’ - wearing the bare minimum in the harshest weather, avoiding wastage of even the most basic resources like water, food and other things of daily use.

Frugality, in the business world, amounts to conservation of all resources. It calls for observing sustainable practices in business as well as at work places, which includes taking small steps such as using personal ceramic mugs instead of paper cups, glass/ metal bottles instead of plastic ones, switching off electricity when not required, carpooling, etc. And also, taking larger steps such as procuring sustainable raw materials at the right cost, cutting down on wasteful transportation, using machinery and other industrial resources judiciously, and many more.

Dignity Of labour To improve people’s lives, business leaders should believe in the importance of dignity of labour and that of collective effort. This is because no great endeavour can succeed without the leaders and the people working harmoniously.

This moral value was deeply rooted in Gandhiji’s lifelong campaign for enhancing cleanliness. The campaign had two key objectives -1. To spread awareness about the importance of sanitation and 2. To banish untouchability. This value still holds great salience for modern India as it seeks its rightful place amongst the global powers.

Dignity of labour teaches us to not look down upon so-called menial work and urges us to take up any rightful work necessary for progress of business or society or self. It also asks us to respect anyone who contributes to the making of a successful endeavour.

Respect must be accorded to an individual whether he’s an ordinary worker performing humble tasks or a highly qualified techie creating world-class software.

Imbibing and practicing these tenets, does not by itself guarantee perfection in our lives and our work. Gandhiji himself never preached striving for perfection; rather he advised us to pursue noble ideals like humanity, selflessness, truth and non-violence with greatest sincerity to make the lives of millions better.

The intellectual and spiritual heritage of the Mahatma is so vast that whatever we write or talk about does not even amount to a mere drop in the ocean. And yet, I’m confident that if businesses adhere to these basic tenets of Gandhiji, then their foundations will surely become deeper and stronger.

What could be a better way forward for us to navigate a chaotic future ahead?

SUCCESS STORIES SUCCESS STORIES 56 INSIDE G&B

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Godrej Values and Their Ripple Effect “Values are forever.

Success, bereft of values, is ephemeral.”

Jacob Verghese

Can a values-driven organisation continue to grow and be an industry leader in today’s quagmire of rapidly eroding values?

Can principles-centred executives succeed in the dog-eat-dog cesspool of competitive corporate India? Do organisational values influence employees for the better?

The answers to all the above questions are still, fortunately a resounding YES. I had the privilege of working for Godrej & Boyce (G&B) for nearly twenty years, from 1979 to 1998. At G&B, I received opportunities for growth by being assigned to various functional and managerial roles such as marketing, sales, branch management, manufacturing, management responsibility of divisions, and headed the HRD function for the whole group. From 1986, I had the golden opportunity of working directly with the titans of G&B legacy like NPG, JNG, Dr. K.R. Hathi and EJK. All of them have been architects and conscience keepers of creating a unique and powerful Godrej culture, built over three generations on a solid foundation of lasting values. These leaders have also been the epitome of simplicity and humility and have always walked the talk of Godrej values.

Godrej was ahead of its time in practising the concept of trusteeship, treating employees fairly and caring for the community in which they operated.

Godrej introduced the very effective employee welfare measures much before they were legislated, and pioneered many impactful projects aimed at uplifting the poor and the underprivileged decades before they became compulsory for others to follow under the new CSR law.

What are these enduring Godrej values? » » » »

Integrity Trustworthiness Passion for excellence/ high quality Respect and win-win value creation for all stakeholders » Sound governance and abiding by all the laws of the land » Community upliftment » Conservation of the environment Unlike other organisations at Godrej these values are not communicated explicitly or publicised internally through prominently displayed vision statements or newsletters.

But every one of these values constantly get played out in day to day actions in the

organisation. By observing our leaders living up to the Godrej values and emulating them, these values get ingrained in every employee in G&B. Our moral fabric got fine-tuned to these values when whatever we did needed to pass the filter of guiding principles derived from these values. Whenever anyone tries to short circuit these, he stands out as a lone exception striking a wrong chord. Some employees, whose values were not in sync with the company values, may have suffered angst in trying to reconcile with a different set of values. However, over time and encouraged by peer practices, the majority will abide by them.

The story does not end here. The Ripple Effect spreads much beyond the boundaries of Godrej. They extend to all our employees

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The Ripple Effect spreads much beyond the boundaries of Godrej.

It extends to all our employees and their families, our vendors and our customers, as well as the ecosystem in which Godrej operates.

and their families, our vendors, customers, and the entire communities and ecosystem in which Godrej operates. All of them then start practicing these values in various facets of their lives and thus, a much larger circle of codependence is created, like a spiralling virtuous cycle.

Many of my contemporaries have since moved out of Godrej and become very successful in diverse sectors. We still have an active Godrej alumni group and many of us still fondly cherish our shared memories in Godrej. Yet most importantly, what unites us are these Godrej values, which we still espouse in our lives. I firmly believe that many other organisations and families are the richer for the creation of this culture of kindness and virtuosity.

In my personal life, Godrej values have played a huge transformational role and helped me discover a much larger mission in life.

After sensing a steady erosion of values in the corporate sector, and surviving a neardeath experience in 1999, I followed my strong inner calling to espouse social causes in a meaningful way. In the last twenty years I have been actively involved in spearheading many social sector organisations and causes, helping them scale by using the best of managerial thinking, practices, technology and pioneering various social innovations.

The causes include all aspects of Rural Development, Science Education, Mental Health, Kidney care and Disability. Some of the innovations I was involved in incubating, scaled nationwide like Digital Village Centres, 108 Emergency Services, 104 Health Services, Reverse Osmosis plants for villages under the Rural water supply scheme, telemedicine in villages and rural BPOs. More than 4 million people across the country have been positively impacted by all these programmes.

What led me to such opportunities to serve others and pursue my own path for self-actualisation was guided by nothing else, but my moral compass built on Godrej values. Believe me, following this path has given

me immense inner satisfaction and fulfilment, which I believe is far greater than what I could have ever gained in corporate life! All the comforts, status, power and money that I walked away from in the corporate world, turned out to be no sacrifice at all. On the other hand, it reinforced my belief in principles- driven values, which Godrej has taught me in abundance, and these continue to be the guiding light in my life.

Godrej values have also helped me overcome many health challenges. I am one of the few lucky ones to have survived two kidney transplants and one heart surgery and still lead an active and healthy life till date.

In the last 30 years, corporate India has certainly witnessed an erosion in its moral fabric. Winning at any cost seems to have become the only mantra.

It is doubtful whether purely profit-driven organisations will survive in the coming years as they continue to trudge along, bereft of values, with their trust quotient diminishing rapidly.

Today, what the majority of Indian companies do, may pass muster going by the letter of the law, especially in the grey zones of interpretations that are deliberately kept vague. However, such doings may not pass the filter of Godrej values.

At the individual level, many top executives might have felt exhilarated having climbed all the rungs of the corporate ladder and acquired wealth, status and power. These are indeed intoxicating as long as they last. On retirement, the euphoria evaporates, and the pangs of consciousness begin hurting. Their lives tend to become joyless and regrets of all kinds set in. Late in the day, they realise the virtues of listening to the inner voice of their conscience.

I am sure the Godrej group would have been far more successful in “business terms”, had they sacrificed some of their values. Yet I firmly believe that in the bargain, we would

have lost the trust and respect and the image of a clean and honest organisation, built up over a century. But what makes us proud is the fact that even now the Godrej has not succumbed to the temptation of shortchanging its values and has continued to grow and be an industry leader.

What makes me even prouder is in seeing that Godrej’s commitment to the underprivileged in society remains very strong, even in the wake of headwinds.

When faced with the dilemma of taking any grey zone decisions, I always recall the words of NPG. His golden words were: “ Imagine you are sitting around your breakfast table with your family. And in the morning newspaper, there is a truthful news item about what you or your company did. And your whole family is reading it with great interest.

If there is anything there that will make you ashamed in the eyes of your near and dear, then you should never have done that in the first place.”

These are indeed pearls of wisdom and even after attending many seminars on Business Ethics and Social sector guidelines, I am yet to find anything more powerful and useful.

Success by any means at any cost should be banished for a brighter future for all in India.

Sadly, I think we may have reached a stage, when even the family members of such corporate leaders are rejoicing the indictments in the morning newspapers!

In the light of all this, what Godrej has achieved and the way it has persevered on its value-driven path is highly commendable and praiseworthy.

I wish Godrej group and all my friends and colleagues many more years of value-driven success.

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Learning to Conduct Better Meetings Our meetings must lead to better decisions.

Nalini Kala, Corporate Communications

Typically, managers spend four to six hours a day in meetings both formal and informal.

This time, if added over a year, would easily amount to as much as half of the total working time available to a manager to get things done…to meet the goals set. Therefore, it’s very important that this huge chunk of time is managed and utilised as effectively as possible. Planning a meeting and running it well is an important capability that can impact managerial productivity tremendously.

Here are five important aspects of conducting meetings that all managers must pay attention to and apply in their work routines.

Define the purpose of the meeting and invite only the right people The meeting’s organiser needs to be clear on whether the meeting is for creating awareness about something, discussing a specific issue or deciding on a course of action. Accordingly, the appropriate number of people and the right people need to be invited. Information-sharing meetings could have a large number of people as attendees. At the other end of the spectrum are decision-making meetings where only decision-makers and their advisors would need to be present.

Set the agenda and communicate it clearly to the participants and their managers.

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Most meetings fail to be productive because the agenda is either not explicitly set or is not clearly communicated in advance.

Sometimes, it appears as if the agenda has been designed to fill in the time allotted for the meeting.

As these items should be high on importance/ urgency, they should be taken up for discussion first. Each of the items should receive adequate time and to ensure that, the manager must facilitate the involvement of all concerned while keeping an eye on time.

A good discussion meeting should have not more than 3-5 important items on the agenda and these should take three-fourth of the meeting time.

Conduct meetings well The very purpose of calling a ‘discussion’ meeting is to get diverse views of all concerned on the issue at hand. To elicit authentic views and encourage creative ideas, the most important thing a manager can do is to create a micro-climate that is free of fear and

retaliation. People won’t open up with their assumptions and genuine perspectives if they fear any retribution or harsh put-downs.

Fear of being perennially judged ensures the suppression of ideas that, if expressed, could prove to open up solutions for tackling the issue at hand.

The consequence is that people get into early agreement – saying only that which will be more palatable to the person leading the meeting. In fact, fear promotes intellectual dishonesty. Managers need to signal that every voice in the room is equally important.

Managers must also develop the skill of gentle questioning and steering the discussion to ensure that it stays focused on the topic being discussed. He must learn not to intervene either too early or too late – a skill that may be developed by observing senior colleagues, or through reflection and practice.

Everyone’s views must be heard.

Sometimes, individuals who are more vocal or simply may have more ideas may end up consuming all the time available. It is up to the manager to tactfully involve the quiet ones to air their views as well.

And lastly, any harsh put-downs must be avoided at all costs to create a climate that is attractive for all participants to engage with the subject at hand, meaningfully. Only constructive criticism that relies on logic rather than opinion or emotion, must be encouraged.

Document the output It is always a good practice to write the minutes of the meeting as briefly as possible, in a standardised format. This document should not exceed a single page. It must only record the decisions taken and the next steps – what’s to be done, by whom, by when and so on. Please do not write minutes in an elaborate ‘he said – she said’ manner. Time is precious.

Finally, the minutes of a meeting should be sent within 24 hours of the meeting’s conclusion rather than 24 hours before the commencement of the next meeting!

Follow-through on decisions and actions

At the end of discussion meetings, make sure that the key points made are circulated to the attendees. If decisions were made by decision makers present at the meeting, then, ensure that next steps were also discussed so that accountable people can start working at them. Implementation should not be left to chance or any individual’s choice, Effective follow-through creates a sense of urgency so that, routinely, more things that get decided in meetings actually get done. In every meeting, as a part of the brief review of the previous meeting, this follow-through must be done so that execution is ensured. All implementation plans must have timelines, which should be extended only if adequate reasons exist. Another powerful mechanism to ensure execution is that of short-cycle reviews which should be carried out within and outside of the meetings.

There are many do’s and don’ts of conducting meetings. There are also some excellent articles on this subject available with the Editor that he would be happy to share, on request.

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Tool Up to Boost Your Productivity Learning to use tools effectively matters more than having them.

Indrapal Singh

Personal productivity has always been an area of concern for both individual contributors as well as managers. The right mindset is vital for higher levels of productivity; however, by itself it is not sufficient to attain higher productivity. We also need the right climate of work (culture), management systems and work processes as well as various tools that would enable us work flawlessly and faster.

Being a tooled-up contributor/ manager means to be well equipped to make sense from all kinds of data, situations, reports that may land their way. Typically, the data that flows in is not analysed adequately to make sense. Similarly, there are situations where novel solutions are required, hence, more work must be done. Also, the IT revolution has resulted in communications flowing in such large numbers that it is difficult to cope with them during daily work. Some smart ways have to be adopted to overcome this deluge of emails and messages. Daily work also involves making recommendations where the knowledge of various tools can help communicate insights more effectively.

As there are a plethora of tools available of all kinds, it is not possible for us to select and recommend a few tools to help you become more productive. Instead, we have selected five domains and for each of these, we have recommended a set of basic and moderately advanced tools, which you can choose according to your background, need, capability, etc.

Productivity-boosting tools are classified as applicable five domains: Analytical, IT, Project management, Creativity and Communications.

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Being proficient in using various tools is akin to being a skilled craftsman as opposed to being an ordinary worker who stumbles constantly, reworks frequently and wastes resources regularly.

The outcome of an ordinary worker is inconsistent and of low quality. On the other hand, the craftsman analyses, interprets and highlights the data at hand in such a way that the right meaning is derived and communicated for taking decisions or making an improvement.

Analytical tools for problem solving For this domain, it is recommended that you acquire good working knowledge of all 7 QC tools taught in TQM101 or some similar course. The 7 QC tools are Check sheets, Pareto Analysis, Cause-effect diagrams, Histograms, Scatter diagrams, Stratification and Control charts. Further to understand how processes work, flow charting is an important tool to master. Most of the problems encountered in daily work can be analysed and solved using these tools.

For advanced practitioners, there are advanced 7 QC tools which one can learn about depending on the need and the problems to be solved. The Memory Jogger published by Productivity Press, is a useful reference to acquire the knowledge of these sets of tools.

The jogger also guides the user as to which tool is to be used for different situations. For e.g., the tools to be used when working with ideas, the tools to be used when working with numbers and when working in teams.

Selecting a stack of tools and learning them thoroughly is advised as against merely knowing about them and having superficial knowledge. Mastery of at least 5-6 tools is recommended.

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Project management tools

Every day, a new personal productivity app is developed and put up for sale with a promise that it will help boost productivity.

In practice, we believe instead of using such Apps one after the other, if we can simply become more proficient at a few commonly used tools, then we can certainly be more productive.

Most people can’t put together a decent PowerPoint presentation. Ability to use MS Excel and its variants for collecting and analysing data is often less than adequate. Also, being good at search and deep search is essential for mining the required data and information from the internet.

If 90% of people at work become proficient up to the level of 8, on a scale of 0-10, then huge productivity gains can be realised.

All of us are always a part of a project that is being implemented or are working at planning of a project, small or big. Today, most of the work is done in teams in a project mode as the routine work is progressively getting automated. For managing projects, basic tools such as Activity Network Diagram and Gantt charts is a must. In addition, one has to develop good proficiency of M.S. Projects software for monitoring small and mid-sized projects. For handling large projects, software such as Primavera and TOC based software using critical chain methodology becomes essential.

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Creativity tools

A good reference here is a book ‘Good charts’ by Scott Berinato published by Harvard Business School Press. For communicating complex data, books by Dr. Edward Tuffty can be of immense use though these are meant for advanced practitioners. Also, you should observe how data is communicated using info graphics in leading business dailies such as Mint, Economic Times, Business Line and others.

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The basic creativity tools include Brainstorming, Forcefield analysis, Nominal group technique, Affinity diagrams, Synectics, etc. Over and above these well-known tools, one can learn to use the thinking tools popularised by Dr. Edward De Bono such as SIX THINKING HATS and others. Dr De Bono’s six self-learning course on Creative Thinking is one from which you can benefit. Also, there are many proprietary tools and courses developed by individual consultants and practitioners which can be accessed depending on specific needs. For using advanced tools, initial training is essential.

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The basic knowledge of these tools can form a core of the tool set which can be augmented depending on the function you are working in and at the level of work you are handling, e.g., a design engineer can learn AutoCAD thoroughly and go for Pro Engineer, 3D Max or any such tools, if required by the job. Graphic designers must learn about the Adobe Creative Suite, etc., and if required learn about Cinema 4D and others. As videos are used more on social media, it may be a good idea to learn one or two simple, easily accessible video editing softwares.

To communicate the data analysed, you should know how to use various charts such as run, bar, pie and others.

Communication tools If we take a survey, we will find that not more than 40-50% of the people at work are truly proficient at managing emails. To cope with the communications received both electronically and physically, there is one-time tested tool called TRAFF. In TRAFF, T stands for Trash, R stands for Refer, A stands for Action, F stands for Follow-through and F stands for Files. This tool also recommends that any communication should be handled only once and acted upon as above. Its usefulness is self-explanatory, and you are advised to use it for a week or two and discover for yourself its utility.

For communicating better, the focus ought to be more on skills than on specific tools.

For e.g., You should know how to write a brief for a problem or a project. You should also know how to communicate clearly and effectively using minimum possible words both in writing and in speech.

The ERP system

Over and above these tools, you should become proficient at using our ERP system for retrieving and analysing the data required.

Off course, this should be as authorised and role specific. As cyber security is becoming a huge concern, one should become good at protecting one’s work, data pertaining to business, intellectual properties, etc.

In addition to the above, it is worthwhile to learn about scheduling tools for managing daily tasks. Time for preparation, setup or travel needs to be considered for scheduling major tasks or visits.

The cache of tools for individual and managerial work is huge. Hence, caution is advised in choosing the tools. Fewer, smarter tools with a large user base can outperform many advanced tools having a smaller user base.

Needless complexity must be avoided in favour of widespread clarity.

There are tools for strategic thinking, strategy development, implementation, financial analysis, decision analysis, etc. It is recommended that the practitioner becomes familiar with different tools as he grows into his career from an individual contributor to manager to general manager.

Learning about the required tools is a lifelong journey which should be pursued with dedication.

In closing, you are advised to master simple tools first and then progressively learn to use advanced tools. Using tools adroitly assures higher quality outcomes that you may find surprisingly satisfactory.

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Be a Finisher Understanding the expectations of the client thoroughly is key to higher productivity.

Gillian Dennett, Corporate Personnel & Administration.

A survey by a reputed consultancy firm recently found that 64% of the work considered complete, is in fact incomplete in some way or the other as found by its recipients or clients.

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On further analysing the data, the consultants found it had happened on account of two major reasons.

1. The doers had limited knowledge and awareness of where their work would fit in or be used in the next steps of the process by the recipients/ clients. Hence, attention given to make the interface foolproof remained insufficient.

2. The definition of completed work as understood and internalised by the doers was different from what was understood or expected by the recipients/ clients.

These two factors come into play creating to and fro movement and wasteful rework.

Also, the relationships tend to become acrimonious.

As a doer, one can give a good deal of thought and go beyond the words spoken or written to arrive at the expectations of the receiver of work. One good way could be to put oneself in the shoes of the receiver and look at the work from his point of view. Being empathetic can certainly help redesign work or the process being used.

For getting a clear idea of the completed work, it is essential to know the interfacing conditions well and thoroughly understand the expectations of the recipients.

This should be obtained upfront to avoid wasteful rework or delayed payments. Work done with this kind of sensitivity and thought will inevitably lead to higher productivity overall.

In business, it is extremely important to get a clear understanding of when the work submitted, or the supplies made will be considered complete by the clients. This is vital for most of our B2B businesses. In these businesses, if the interfaces are not managed properly, then a huge amount of wastage and loss occurs. This phenomenon applies to software, construction and other similar activities. It is essential that the definition of completed work is included into the contract itself or it is recorded in such a way that it becomes a part of the contract. It is advised that this definition is connected to payment terms and is reviewed frequently for modifying it if required. The idea here is to strengthen the understanding of completed work so well that at no stage of execution of the contract, a difference in the understanding may arise resulting in conflict and avoidable costs.

Taking this line of thinking to our homes, two or three things that happen daily are worth considering. The first one is about the state in which you leave the bathroom once you have used it. Did you flush it, did you wipe it dry, did you dry the bathing area, kept the towels and soaps in place, etc.? In short, did you leave the bathroom in a state that would be a pleasure to use for the next user?

I’m sure if this is done, a lot of early morning bickering amongst family members can be avoided.

The second place where friction arises is the kitchen. Very few people using the kitch-

en leave it the way they received it– dry, clean and neat. Most of the time, post cooking, at least one person in a household leaves the kitchen in a shabby state with things strewn all over, platform not cleaned, trash not thrown in the bin, utensils not put in the sink or things not put in their place, making it difficult for the next user to find things. Such behaviours flow from having a stunted definition of cooking. The definition of cooking should include a thorough cleaning of the cooking equipment, platform and putting all the knives and spoons back in their respective locations. The adage that everything has a place, and everything should be in its place works very well in kitchens, leading to harmonious living.

There could be many more examples at home where not defining complete work as understood by the recipient or the next user lead to chronic displeasure and strained relationships.

As an individual at work also, you should strive to complete the work assigned to you as expected by the assigner or the recipient of your work. Sometimes the last step of the work done is filing/saving it for future reference. This step too should be carried out diligently without delay. Another important step could be to note down the ideas for improvement that might have come your way while carrying out the work. Taking note of such ideas can lead to useful improvements in the future.

To conclude, please try and obtain or construct a definition of completed work from the point of view of a client or a recipient of your work to generate higher value and a sense of pleasant relief all around. Earlier in the magazine, there is a story of an entrepreneur who learns the definition of completed work at great cost. Do read it.

It is recommended that the process of defining complete work is developed jointly. Both the client and supplier should understand and accept it fully as it is crucial to deliver promised satisfaction.

This would surely facilitate receiving of payments expeditiously and if possible, repeat orders too.

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Productivity Mindset Concepts and tools count, but the mindset counts most.

Shariyarr Hussain, Godrej Appliances

It is now proven that the productivity on the shop floor is dependent on the mindset of people.

To create a flow, we can learn and use many tools such as quick changeover, standardised work, fool proofing (poka – yoke), total productive maintenance (TPM) and the like. To remove waste from the processes, mapping them and taking required actions is also not difficult. All these and similar initiatives are relatively easy to implement to reach initial stages of transformation. However, as the journey progresses and higher levels of transformation are attained, sustaining improvements and results become rather challenging. The improvements then are difficult to come by and it appears that efforts of people are not producing expected results.

A degree of disenchantment begins to set in.

On introspection, it is revealed that using lean tools alone does not help in building a lean enterprise. So, where does the problem lie? Delving deeper, it becomes clear that the problem lies in the thinking of our people; i.e. in their mindset.

Productivity cannot be continually improved unless Productivity Mindset is deeply embedded into the very thinking of everyone, leading to an enterprise- wide culture of productivity.

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What exactly is Productivity Mindset?

Productive Mindset helps people make the best use of their resources, time, energy and efforts. It is not about trying to do everything or be everything or even doing it in the quickest way possible.Many people think they are productive when they’re just busy. They’re not actually completing the tasks or projects efficiently. Having a productivity mindset means that one is clear about one’s goals and is focused on achieving these goals, using all possible personal capabilities and resources in a systematic way, while enjoying the process itself. So, what are the building blocks of a productivity mindset?

Vision To move towards one’s goals, it is essential to have a clear vision of what those goals are. If the destination is not clear, what plans could be made to get there?

One should always have a mental picture of the vision of the business that everyone is working to accomplish. A strong and clear vision inspires everyone to complete the tasks in the best possible productive way, every day. A well thought-out vision has been shown to have power to help people take actions and stay inspired for achieving the goals set.

Focus on one thing If one has a long to – do list, then one can easily get overwhelmed and feel demotivated for doing things that are required to be done.

Focusing on one thing at a time can be a great productivity booster.

Picking one task each day that must be completed and completing it, creates a feeling of accomplishment so very essential to sustain high motivation and do many things in a day.

Finishing the task without getting distracted helps a great deal. Just keep working on that one thing. Following this discipline will always make each day more productive. Over a period, the productivity of a person who focusses on one big task at a time is bound to be higher than that of others.

Self-motivation We all know that motivation is a key factor in working towards our goals. We need to have something that always pulls us towards achieving the success we want. Although such motivation could be fleeting, it is essential to sustain it at whatever levels possible.

If one isn’t motivated to accomplish things daily, then it’s going to be difficult to be productive.

Research shows that there is a strong linkage between achievement and motivation. All our achievements are in a way driven mostly by intrinsic motivation and to some extent by extrinsic motivation as well. These insights must always be borne in mind so that they act as constant reminders to be productive each day, every day.

A positive attitude This is a must-have building block of productivity mindset. One needs to stay positive not only to achieve what one wants, but also to enjoy the journey. The good thing about attitude is that one could choose one’s own attitude regardless of external stimuli or pressures frequently beyond one’s control.

One can have moments when negative thoughts prevail but understanding that such thoughts are normal can help one overcome them in a short while.

The good news is that one has the power to convert these negatives into positives.

Staying positive and actively working on being productive counts the most.

Get a routine Routines are great for getting into a mental state that is highly productive. The word “routine” may sound boring and uninspiring, but it is a fundamental building block of productive behaviour.

The best time to kick off a routine is in the morning. A good morning routine triggers right emotions that awaken and energise our mind- body system to help us stay productive through the day. Read more about the power of Morning Mindset in a separate article in this issue.

Productivity of a person who has a positive attitude towards it, is bound to be higher than that of others.

Persistence Undoubtedly, motivation plays a huge part when one begins to work towards accomplishing the goal set. However, it is persistence that enables one to keep going even when the going gets tough and tougher. One should always expect obstacles and struggle to overcome them along the way.

Sometimes slow progress dampens one’s motivation but even then, not giving up and being persistent ensures success, albeit a bit delayed. Just keep trudging forward every day, even if it is only by a tiny bit. It will strengthen your resolve and keep you productive.

Mindfulness Being mindful helps create a mental state for being productive. Being fully aware of each moment helps bring clarity and composure. Be present in every moment through the day. Be aware of what you are working on and why. Being mindful and purposeful helps align one’s energies to the task at hand for achieving the goals set.

Conclusion If you are struggling to achieve your goals, then please introspect on your mindset and identify the elements which require modification or elimination. This process is not as easy as it sounds, but then whoever said creating a winning enterprise was? Remember, success comes to those who forever adapt to change. Cultivating productivity mindset and reshaping it as required is in the final analysis, a way forward.

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BY GODREJ SECURITY SYSTEMS Assured 24/7 access to lockers without human intervention

Godrej Security Systems (GSS) is the pioneer and leader in the security space in India. Over the years, GSS has strived to provide stateof-the-art products to mitigate ever changing security risks. Banks and financial service providers have undergone an evolution over the years, as a result of which, customer experience has pivoted into the centre stage of all their endeavours. Hence, Customer Convenience has assumed primacy in their operations by deploying newer technologies in the digital space.

Godrej safe deposit lockers are a category of products where customers of banks and others, namely our customers, engage directly with Godrej products supplied in B2B mode by us. A careful study of this engagement opened a window of opportunities to convert current customer interactions into memorable experiences for improving their delight. GSS strives to provide such experiences by improving upon existing value propositions.

Our studies of interactions at the safe deposit vaults in the banks and elsewhere has helped us to identify the unmet needs of end consumers, such as, 24/7 access to lockers, minimal waiting time during marriage and festive seasons, and improved privacy at the time of use.

After much thought and developmental work, our team came up with an answer in the form of the Auto Vault that meets these unmet needs.

The Auto Vault essentially is, an Automated

Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS), specially designed for the safe deposit locker rental business. Auto Vault consists of two major sections: 1. The Auto Vault strong room which houses the lockers and 2. The Booth area where the customers are seated with all the conveniences at their disposal.

The locker boxes are retrieved from the strong room and are brought to a desk right in front of the customers with the help of a robotic drive. The booth area can be customised and expanded from a single booth to four booths so that multiple users can access their lockers simultaneously.

The major benefits offered by Auto Vault: Âť 24/7 access to lockers without any human intervention. Âť A higher overall level of security as a result of a 3 layered advanced security system that works on a combination of a swipe card or biometric access, pin code, and a safe deposit locker key. Âť Ample privacy and convenience as even the top and bottom most lockers are brought to customers at a seating level in the booths.

Godrej Auto Vault is designed and built to offer unmatched convenience and security leading to an outstanding experience for customers.

Another pioneering and innovative offering from Godrej.

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You are Awesome!

Cultivating the ‘Growth Mindset’ Cultivating the right mindset is very important. You can’t get good at anything if you are so worried about trying to do something you’ve never done before, or are afraid of looking foolish or asking questions. If you try to blend in with everyone else rather than risk people laughing at you, you’ll never learn anything new. You also won’t reach your full potential if you don’t even try. The positive effects of simply trying is that you’ll probably be more confident and more willing to try new things and be less frightened of looking stupid.

“You Are Awesome” by Matthew Syed: A book review.

Team CHANGE

Did you know that your brain can actually change structurally simply by taking on a challenging task and practicing it? It could be something you never dared to or thought you could possibly never do. In the process, your brain will develop new neural connections and grow its capacity for learning new things. The more and stronger these connections become over time with practice, the easier it becomes to do the same thing the next time around. Over a period of time, we can become experts and prove our mindset of ‘not being able to do’ wrong. In other words, we can become awesome!

Matthew Syed is a British journalist, author, broadcaster, and table tennis player.

He was the top-ranked table-tennis player in England for nearly 10 years. He represented Great Britain in the men’s singles table-tennis championship at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona and the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. Through his own training and life experiences, he shares how he transformed from being just average to awesome.

Hard work and practice – the key to success Matthew stresses on the importance of hard work and practice, saying that it is the key to success. Contrary to popular belief, talented and successful people are not born talented. They are not effortlessly brilliant.

Quite often, we watch successful people through our ‘success goggles’, through which we see only the ‘result’ and not all the ‘effort’ that they’ve put in through the years and the failure that have had to cope with. We feel they have a natural-born talent and writeoff our chances of following them in their footsteps.

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No one is handed a pot of brilliance at birth. Your basic qualities are things that you can cultivate through your efforts. You can grow and change your ability with practice, determination and effort. Just because something is difficult doesn’t mean you are no good or you should stop trying.

Practice really boosts performance. Lionel Messi, the football star, played futsal when he was young. This is a version of football that is played on a tiny pitch and requires the player to be extremely fast, honing the player’s deft ball skills. For Messi, playing football on the full-size pitch became easier to master because he learnt to play an accelerated version of the game earlier.

Failures are the stepping stones to success Along the way, challenges and failures are normal and one shouldn’t be bogged down by pressure or failure. Pressure is not a problem; it is a privilege. Everyone that has learnt to become good at something has made loads of mistakes. Matthew shares the examples of failures that some famous people had to face:

Michael Jordan Former basketball player Michael Jordan revealed “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

Thomas Alva Edison Failure should not hold us back. If that happened, Thomas Edison would not have invented the light bulb. Edison once said, “I haven’t failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work”.

Steve Jobs The founder of Apple had to leave his company nine years after building it because of a disagreement he had with the people he brought in to help him out. He could easily have left the technology world, but instead focused his energy on projects like Pixar (the animation company) and setting up ‘NeXT’, a company which he founded and was later bought by Apple 10 years after he left it. In fact, 12 years after he left Apple, Steve became the boss of Apple once again. He said, “I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance”.

J.K. Rowling The best-selling author and creator of Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling was earlier unemployed and broke before she became successful. Her first book was rejected by 12 publishers. She says, “Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected”. Remember, that life will continue, no matter the outcome, so don’t let failure bog you down.

Thinking about your mindset will bring you one step closer to better understanding your personality.

Professor Carol Dwek, a psychologist, says there are two kinds of mindset – the ‘Fixed Mindset’ and the ‘Growth Mindset’. She estimates that forty percent of all people might be in a fixed mindset, and that’s a huge problem. Such people believe they can be good at something only if they are gifted or talented, and not good at something if they have no talent. People with a fixed mindset may say “I often start things but never finish them. I’m not really very good at anything. I’d rather die than stand up and speak in front of people.

Hard work is for other people. I’m a natural.”

The small things people say or do can influence us in a wrong way and drive us into a fixed mindset, which comes with the risk of not practising and not improving.

Cultivate a ‘Growth Mindset’ to achieve a bigger success in life.

People with a fixed mindset will not admit to making mistakes, and will carry on exactly as before without asking anyone for help, whereas those with a growth mindset will accept having made mistakes without being ashamed. They believe that mistakes teach them what they don’t know; that way, they can work on improving their skills.

Feedback will make people with a fixed mindset uncomfortable and make them ignore it, whereas people with a growth mindset will appreciate feedback and feel that unless they know where they are going wrong, they will never be able to improve.

Remember that your ability is not fixed. Cultivate a growth mindset, do not fear failure, embrace your mistakes, learn from the past, and build resilience. That way, nothing can stop you from becoming awesome!

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The Morning Mindset Positivity in the morning paves the way to a productive day.

Indrapal Singh

“Stop sleeping on your dreams. Wake up and live them.”

– Anonymous

Mindset is defined as the established attitudes held by someone. The issue is not whether you have established attitudes but rather what those established attitudes are.

What impact these established attitudes have on your life. And finally, how you can improve these established attitudes.

One sure way to change these established attitudes is to examine your existing belief system and change it by adopting a new belief system learnt from the experts, coaches, self-study, deep reflection and the like.

Your mindset will definitely undergo a change once the belief system is altered.

Sadly, the forces of natural decay set in and the new mindset gets weak or reversed over time.

The challenge is in constantly reinforcing the new mindset and enabling it to evolve into a better version of itself.

One of the strongest, influencing forces for changing your belief system could be your morning routine. What is your morning routine? Typically, in large cities where we live, people rush to work after having a cup of tea, bath, glancing at the headlines, seeing off the children to school and so on. This kind of routine is unavoidable, but it does not add any value to the morning mindset that is required to be cultivated for having a more productive day.

What could be a morning routine, that if we follow, could shape our core attitudes for leading more productive lives? Obviously, such a mindset cannot be shaped in a hurry and will take diligent practice over a long period of time. It is a process and following it could be demanding, painful but can also facilitate focus and consistency, which can lead to pleasurable outcomes. Without consistent efforts, pleasurable outcomes will elude us.

The morning routine that would help us shape a healthy morning mindset should have in it the following activities: It is recommended, that YOU: » Take an early start, say at 5.30 to 6.00 am as it is a great time slot to wake up and get going. »

First, make your bed without fail. As more productive people believe, when you make your bed every morning, you complete your first task of the day successfully and are ready to take on the world. »

Say a short prayer thanking the powers greater than us for the fact that we are alive and so are our near and dear ones. »

Express your gratitude for all the bounties that you are enjoying. If you are an advanced practitioner, make an entry into your gratitude journal. »

Attend to your body while listening to

soothing, mind calming music or the music that you like. »

Exercise for 20 mins or so with your own playlist and get your blood circulation going. Also, flex your joints and stretch your muscles for agility. »

Bathe with warm water followed by vigorous towelling. »

Enjoy a nutritious breakfast with a balance of protein, carbs and fibres. »

Listen to some inspirational messages, podcasts for just about 3 to 5 mins before leaving home or while travelling. »

Review on reaching office, your to-do list and select for four or five things that must be completed and delivered during the day. Start working aggressively on these before the day becomes chaotic.

» And lastly, follow this routine every day.

The above routine is a template to enable you to construct your own morning routine that you are comfortable with. A good routine should have if not all, most of the elements mentioned. As you get experienced, you can refine your routine by adding some more elements to it that you might have discovered over time, e.g., affirmations of your liking, a bit of yoga, or a bout of healthy laughter, now known as laughter yoga, etc. It is best to avoid any negative thoughts, expressions,

interactions, social media or emails. As they say, practice makes man perfect. The power of this adage is beautifully captured in a quote below.

“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”

- Bruce Lee.

What are you waiting for? Get going and learn to have a productive day, for the rest of your life. I believe this, or similar routines have great potential to spur us into a productive mode hitherto not experienced by us.

A team that follows a routine like this could become simply unstoppable!

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Sleep Well and Be at Your Best Good Sleep = Sleep Quality + Sleep Quantity S. Anand, Godrej Interio

In the advanced world that we’re living in today, there seems to be an instant remedy for all ailments, like if you have acidity you take an antacid pill and within seconds you feel better, likewise for headaches, colds, etc.

Unfortunately, for certain conditions such as impaired productivity there is no pill in the market (yet) that would within minutes give your impaired productivity a boost.

Well, the good news is that you don’t need any medicine to boost your productivity; all you need is good sleep, night after night.

Tons of research done in the field of sleep study is of the opinion that poor and insufficient sleep has an impact not only on the physical but also on the mental productivity of a person. Let’s go through some hard facts to back up this theory.

Insufficient sleep The main cause for lowered productivity today is insufficient sleep. Insufficient sleep refers to the sleep quantity aspect. On average, humans need 6-8 hours of sleep for the body to repair the physical and mental wear and tear it goes through the day. As a result of less or insufficient sleep most people are unable give their 100% the following morning. A good example of this is when college students pull an all-nighter to study for an exam; they have difficulty recalling what they have studied the next morning. Thus, they are unable to give their best.

Inconsistent sleep A good sleep is = sleep quantity + sleep quality. Inconsistent sleep refers to the quality aspect. Irregular sleep patterns cause the body clock to go haywire upsetting the normal circadian or sleep-wake cycle.

Inconsistent sleep patterns lead to more severe problems such as higher incidents of

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accidents, errors at work, slower responses, and increased drowsiness during the day.

The survey As per the survey conducted by Sleep@10 campaign, an initiative by Godrej Interio, a staggering 70 percent of Indian urban population does not get enough sleep. Most of this population hit the bed between 10pm2am and are up early. A sleep deprived person be it a child or an adult will always be less energetic and will have difficulty in focusing and recalling information. Such persons are always prone to serious health issues such as heart problems, diabetes, obesity and depression.

How to improve sleep The most common causes for sleep deprivation are too much screen time before bed, eating sweets and high carb meals at night, consuming stimulants such as alcohol, energy drinks, etc. However, there is one more reason which has been ignored and overlooked by most and it is the ‘Mattress’.

So, if you are one who suffers from sleep deprivation despite having a healthy lifestyle, following a sleep regime, the culprit could be your mattress. Most of us ignore the fact that though we fall asleep, we are not sleeping well due to faulty or badly designed mattresses causing stiff back or neck pains the following morning.

Mattress matters The Sleep@10 campaign revealed a shocking fact that only 1 out 5 people living in cities are actually happy with their mattresses whereas a larger population in general is ignorant about the impact a good or bad mattress has on sleep.

Let’s break the misconception of ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to mattresses. » A good mattress is the one that not only supports your back but also your shoulder, neck, and hips. » A good mattress supports your weight while sleeping. It alleviates discomforts such as aches and pains experienced on waking up. » A good mattress fits well with your sleeping posture. Do you usually sleep on your back or side? » A good mattress keeps you away from allergies stemming from the materials used such as lint, dust, foam, cotton, etc.

Through the #SleepAt10 initiative, Godrej Interio aims to create awareness amongst people about how important sleep is for physical well-being and mental health.

The data collected by Sleep-o-Meter on Sleep@10 website highlighted the severity of sleep deprivation in our country. This message was communicated and well received across the country through various social media platforms. As a result of this campaign 3.5 lakh people in the country undertook sleep tests, while another 20K people pledged to sleep@10. The whole idea was to create awareness and educate the people about the importance of good sleep and how a good mattress matters.

Contact Godrej Interio and select your Good Mattress!

The main cause of lower productivity today is insufficient sleep. A staggering 70% of the Indian urban population does not get enough sleep.

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The Taste of Summer

Mangoes are a rich source of fibre, vitamins A, B6, C and K, folate, betacarotene and antioxidants.

Mangoes make summer liveable.

Team CHANGE

Summer is the season for mangoes, a divine fruit that offers a sensory overload – and that’s even before you eat it!

DID YOU KNOW? Nothing announces ‘Summer’ in India quite like the arrival of mangoes. The heat and dust of the Indian summer is made somewhat bearable by these luscious fruits that range from the palest of pale yellows and greens to the vivid golden yellows, deep greens and vivid reds. Our national fruit, the mango is often referred to as the ‘King of Fruits’ and the ‘Nectar of the Gods’. One very popular myth indicates that the mango is the daughter of Surya, the Sun God. Native to India (the mango’s scientific name is Mangifera Indica), the mango is mentioned in the Vedas and the travel writings of Megasthanes and Hsuan-Tsang. In fact, Alexander the Great is said to have taken several varieties of mango back with him on his way to Greece. Buddhist monks are said to have introduced the fruit to other South East Asian countries, while the Portuguese took it to West Africa and Brazil.

For most of us, ‘mango’ brings back memories of summer; when the elders, unable to cope with the afternoon heat, took a much-needed siesta in cool, dark inner rooms, the children sneaked out of the house to play in the open. Hot, dusty and tired, they’d sit on the broad branches of one of the mango trees in the backyard. Out would come a penknife, and someone would pull out a small, precious paper packet of salt and chilli powder. There, resting in the shade, watching the kingfishers dive into the pond, they would sit, dipping slices of tender, raw mango into the spicy mixture. Life was never so good! For many Indians of those generations, these are precious memories.

India, the single largest producer of mangoes, produces more than half of the global supply.

A comprehensive list of all known varieties in India, including cultivars, lists more than 1,500 varieties. Unfortunately, this does not include almost 400 varieties of the fruit that are now extinct due to the demand for popular cultivars like Alphonso, Banganapalli, Dussehri, etc., which flood the markets.

In fact, many of us may not even have heard of existing mango varieties with exotic names such as Akhurasas, Imam Pasand, Musarrat, Gulabkhas, Suvarnarekha, or Panchadharakalasa – let alone eaten them.

Even so, one is spoiled for choice. Do you want to slice into the saffron-coloured flesh of a ripe Alphonso? Or squeeze out the pulp from a Chausa or a Chakiriyan (so called for its fibrous pulp)? Do you want to dip a piece of pale green Totapuri into some salt and chilli powder, or grind a raw Neelam to make a deliciously tangy chutney? Or perhaps you would like to root through the baskets of tender mangoes to find the best ones to make Kerala’s famous ‘kadumanga’ pickle, redolent with mustard? Or you could just be like Haji Kalimullah Khan, the famous Indian horticulturist, popularly known as ‘Mango Man’. Khan has successfully grafted over 300 varieties onto a single mango tree.

Ripe, raw, cooked, uncooked… the mango is a versatile fruit. Drink it in the form of aam panna or squashes or milkshakes, make

chutneys, jams, murabbas and papads and aamchur, and even dry the ripe pulp with spices, till it is a rich, reddish brown and can be pinched off for a quick snack.

Each region has its own way of cooking mangoes into delicious dishes, from the sweet aamras served with hot, puffy pooris to the tangy, spicy ‘maampazha kootan’ that Keralites will serve you with a hot mound of rice. It doesn’t matter how you eat it; you can rest assured that you’re packing in nutrients.

Mangoes are a rich source of fibre, Vitamins A, B6, C and K, folate, beta-carotene and antioxidants.

Recent studies suggest that mangoes, with their low glycaemic index, can help regulate blood sugar.

Mangoes make people happy as it connects them to their childhood, summer vacations and family get-togethers. Our friends and relatives living abroad bemoan the absence of the fruit. It is what summer tastes like.

So, what are you waiting for? Go grab a mango. Or two. Or three dozen. Or Summer – and mangoes – will be gone before you know it, leaving behind only wistful memories of hot, sunny days and the cool, refreshing taste of ripe mangoes.

Mango is related to cashew nuts and pistachios.

The paisley pattern developed in India is inspired by the mango.

The oldest known mango tree in the world is in East Khandesh. It is over 300 years old.

The largest mango tree is said to be in Thakurgaon district in Bangladesh – it spreads across an acre of land.

Mango trees are evergreen and can grow up to a height of 130 ft.

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BOOKMARK

Many Secrets of Mangroves Let us conserve mangroves for our future generations.

Laxmikant Deshpande, Godrej Wetland Management Services

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Ganesh and his two children, Radhi and Abhay, escape the stormy sea and land up on an unknown island. Bauna, the local fisherman offers them food and shelter. What happens next? Read on…

This crispy introduction in ‘Many Secrets of Mangroves’, the storybook conceptualised and produced by the Wetland Management Services Department of G&B, is just the beginning of an engaging mangrove exploration for 8-12 year-old children.

This forty-page book is an elaborate virtual safari in the world of mangrove forests, with the story revolving around a fisherfolk family that seeks shelter on an island.

Here they discover the diversity of mangrove plants, various creatures, their inter-dependence, and importance of mangroves. This story is narrated as a series of incidents that keeps its readers engaged yet offers a tranquil visual experience of the coastal mangrove forests found in about 110 countries across the world. The wildlife species mentioned in the book are found in almost every mangrove forest of the world and hence, makes it a relevant read for any child across continents.

The book is authored by Katie Bagli, a renowned children’s author, who has several story books in her kitty. She conducts story reading and writing workshops across India. One of the highlights of ‘Many Secrets of Mangroves’ is its stunning illustrations hand-drawn by Nilakshi Bandodkar of Godrej Infotech Ltd., who also has designed the book. Along with creative writing and illustrations, the book has images of mangrove flora and fauna that offer real-life sneak peeks.

Optional word activities like crossword, word scramble etc. are included to reinforce the learnings in a fun way.

The book was released on 2nd December 2019 by Dr. K. Kathiresan, a pioneer mangrove researcher of India and internationally acknowledged professor, along with members of the Godrej family as a part of G&B’s Founder’s Day celebrations.

Many Secrets of Mangroves is available for online reading and can be downloaded from www.mangroves.godrej.com. The book’s printed edition is available to schools and institutional libraries upon request to mangroves@godrej.com.

This book will surely sensitise our children to the importance of mangroves and the urgency to conserve them.

The International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem, adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO in 2015 and celebrated each year on 26 July, aims to raise awareness of the importance of mangrove ecosystems as “a unique, special and vulnerable ecosystem” and to promote solutions for their sustainable management, conservation and uses. At Godrej, we celebrate Mangrove Day every year. Take our new ‘Mangrove Quiz’ on www.mangroves.godrej.com to test your understanding of the mangrove ecosystem. Happy Mangrove Day !

The wildlife species in the book are found in almost every mangrove forest of the world and hence, it is a relevant read for any child, anywhere.

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Godrejites Took Marathon Strides One run can change your day; many runs can change your life.

Nariman Bacha, Corporate Personnel and Administration

On 19th January, 2020 Godrejites decided to run FOR LIFE when in today’s despairing times, people are running AWAY from LIFE.

For the 13th consecutive year, 105 Godrejites represented G&B Mfg. Co. Ltd., at Tata Mumbai Marathon, by running Full, Half, 10 Kms & Dream Runs, in support of three NGOs.

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INSIDE G&B

The NGOs being: the War Wounded Foundation, which works for the betterment of over 11,000 war wounded personnel of our defence forces; Republican Sports Club coaches underprivileged children to play hockey, so that they can find employment and build a better life for themselves; National Society For Equal Opportunities for the Handicapped (NASEOH provides comprehensive rehabilitation support to people with disabilities to enable them to lead a life of dignity and self-respect). This year, Godrejites and their associates have collected donations of about Rs.1.3 crores for providing financial support to these NGOs.

This is something we Godrejites can be proud of. Undoubtedly, it will inspire everyone at Godrej to contribute generously to such noble causes in the future.

Ajit Shinde from Godrej Security Solutions finished 1st in the Godrej Group by completing Half Marathon (21 Kms) with a running time of 1hr:45mt:35seconds.

Indeed, a praiseworthy achievement. Here is what Ajit said about his run when Team CHANGE connected with him, “I consider myself fortunate to have this opportunity to represent G&B and showcase my abilities.

Running is my passion and it was wonderful to see people from all walks of life and

age groups participating in the Marathon.

Thousands who did not participate were also there to encourage those who participated.

The performance of professional runners makes me more determined than ever to challenge my performance and better it.”

Congratulations Ajit!

On behalf of our Senior Management, three NGOs and Team CHANGE, we thank all the donors who have donated so big-heartedly towards these worthy causes.

As Winston Churchill put it, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”

This year, Godrejites and their associates have collected donations of about Rs.1.3 crores for providing financial support to these NGOs.

Bottom Left - Godrejites who ran for the cause.

Bottom Right - Beaming Ajit Shinde with his medal.

‘One must lead with creativity and follow with efficiency... and repeat.’

Beau Lotto Author - ‘Deviate - Seeing Reality Differently’

Forging is a process in which metal is shaped by being heated and then, either pressed or hammered. Almost any metal can be forged. As metals are composed of crystals, the pressing of metal bends the crystals, making the structure less stable. But the heat used in forging enables new crystals to form in place of the deformed ones. In most cases, the new crystals are smaller, and the metal becomes tougher than before. This is the reason forging is used to make metal products that must withstand great stress. In the same way, forging productivity in all aspects of business can help it to withstand stress that can emanate from within or the outside.