Frugality: More from less May - June 2013

THE HOUSE MAGAZINE OF GODREJ & BOYCE MFG. CO. LTD., VOL. 12 NO. 3, MAY-JUN 2013

FRUGALITY: MORE FROM LESS

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ENVIRONMENT Creating value sustainably

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INTEGRITY

TRUST

TO SERVE

RESPECT

nvironment’, one of our core values, is integral to the DNA of Godrej. It was Pirojsha Godrej who had resolved to make the factories and living quarters of his workmen as healthy and comfortable as they could be. He wanted the surrounding environment to be as green and as healthy as possible so that people could give their best at work without the ill effects of unhealthy working and living conditions. This resolve of his is profoundly reflected in the way he visualised Pirojshanagar. His vision of ‘Green’ is unmistakably present in the evolution of the Industrial Garden Township at Vikhroli. It is a verdant sanctuary where men and machines work together in harmony with nature in a healthy environment that has lower ambient temperature, cleaner air, plenty of water and an abundance of greenery for enhanced wellness.

At an offsite held in the year 2000 to articulate and adopt values, the value of ‘Environment’ was unanimously agreed upon and adopted. This value is meant to direct and guide the way we conduct our business, the way we design our products and manufacturing processes and the way our people think and act both individually and collectively. Ultimately, we want to propagate ‘Green’, by example.

Building on Pirojsha’s heritage, Sohrabji worked relentlessly for promoting the cause of environment all his lifetime, so much so that he came to being known as ‘Mr. Environmentalist’. Ensuring care and protection for the Mangroves and establishing Pirojsha Godrej National Conservation Centre at New Delhi are amongst the many successful Green Initiatives that he led over the years.

For more than two decades, Mr. J. N. Godrej has provided the required empowerment to our businesses to grow and be green in a systematic and

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scientific way. Standards like ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 are widely adopted and Godrej has become a signatory to the CII’s mission on Sustainable Growth, hence taking full responsibility for growing businesses, sustainably. In 2010, Godrej Group adopted an overarching Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative ‘Good & Green’ to promote employability, innovation for good and green products and initiatives for a greener India.

Environment is the value by which Godrejites are expected to live and work by, our people are encouraged to lead greener lives by conser ving natural resources, managing waste and saving energy through making sensible choices.

‘Environment’ as a value is promoted through regular communication and events like newsletters, e-mailers, contests, lectures, celebrations, and others. These ongoing efforts help reinforce the concern for environment in the minds of Godrejites and all our business associates. In our Udayachal Schools, subjects relating to environment are given special emphasis.

The imperative of caring for nature is creatively promoted to sensitise, educate and empower our young minds so that they grow up into environmentally responsible citizens. This new generation of citizens will not only respect what we have today but will participate actively in spreading awareness and taking actions for safeguarding our invaluable heritage.

As we move ahead in the rapidly globalising market, ‘Good & Green’ is becoming an important element of our growth strategy. Today, our value of ‘Environment’ has emerged as one of the most effective levers for delivering on our promise of ‘Brighter Living’, especially for the generations yet to be born.

To know more about how G&B strives to become Greener, please see the special edition of CHANGE, May – Aug. 2011 having the theme of Sustainability.

Editorial

Less is more The practice of Frugality at G&B came about first as a necessity and thereafter, under the influence of the Gandhian way of life, it became a guiding principle. The principle of frugality has remained deeply embedded into the fabric of G&B for decades and it has enabled G&B to sail through the difficult times without getting unduly scarred. Conservative approach to spending money and seeking greater value through all transactions has always bolstered the viability of our businesses.

The 3rd June 2013 marked the end of a yearlong birth centenary celebrations of Sohrabji. To commemorate the centenary, in the month of June, a specially put together exhibition in memory of Sohrabji was held at the Pragati Kendra. In this issue of CHANGE, we present to our readers a photo-essay based on the exhibition, which we believe captures the essence of his vision, his life and the causes that were dear to him. Sohrabji worried a great deal about the ever increasing population of India. He worked hard at promoting measures for containing population through more desirable means such as creating awareness, providing education and constant communication. In an article, Mr. Vishwanath Koliwad, the Director General of Family Planning Association of India, pays a handsome tribute to Sohrabji for his contributions towards strengthening the movement of family planning in our country.

Sohrabji was frugal and simple, and yet he exuded dignity that left behind pretentiousness by miles. Stories abound about his frugal and simple ways of living. For example, he would use pencils until they could not be held in hand any longer. He would wear clothes until they could not be repaired further. He always switched off the lights when no longer needed. He would never leave behind any food on his plate. He did not have to live in this frugal way but he felt that it was his duty to promote frugality through his own

example. A lifelong Rotarian, Sohrabji had 100% attendance for decades. I believe the best way to remember Sohrabji in the years to come would be to promote more vigorously the causes that he espoused during his lifetime.

Today, frugality has assumed different contours. It has come to mean ‘getting more from less’ in a smarter way and not by wielding a sharp edged knife to cut costs or the head count. An attempt has been made to explain the nuances of new frugality.

Frugal design is a powerful methodology to develop products that meet the needs of targeted consumers economically. Adopting of the Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) way promotes frugal operations for becoming competitive. The story of GPS is indeed an inspiring one for everyone to follow. Likewise, we have many interesting features on frugal innovation and similar topics. India has been water deficient for years and there is an urgent need to find new ways for conserving water. Tejashree of Godrej Construction shares with us an engaging story of G&B’s journey for becoming ‘water positive’ by 2015.

At Godrej Memorial Hospital, a Cathlab was inaugurated to render ‘high quality heart care’ to all at affordable prices. The Lab was inaugurated by the well known physician Dr. F. E. Udwadia. His brief speech contained a great deal of wisdom, which if followed, would undoubtedly change the face of medical practice for the benefit of millions.

The theme of the next issue of CHANGE is ‘Becoming better at value creation’.

Be frugal. Be sensible.

Happy reading!

Indrapal Singh

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Contents

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Understanding Frugality, today

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Restless visionary. The man who couldn’t let things be.

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The Restless Visionary

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A Tribute

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Frugal by Design

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Frugality and flexibility at the core

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The TPM way

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Chaos to order

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A simulator for imparting welding skills

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Edit Board

Anil Verma | Head, Edit Board

Customer Satisfaction Number

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Managing water resources

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Advanced Cardiac Care Centre at Godrej Memorial Hospital

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Nalini Kala | Edit Board

Deepak Banota | Edit Board

Nariman Bacha | Distribution

Modern cardiac technology, now accessible to all

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Frugal by Choice

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Absolute frugalitythe Buddhist way

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For private circulation only.

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

You can mail your contributions, suggestions and feedback to: The Editor, Plant 11, 2nd Floor, Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd., Pirojshanagar, Vikhroli (W), Mumbai 400079, INDIA or email us at change@godrej.com Published by Indrapal Singh on behalf of Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd. Design & layout by thought blurb thoughtblurb.in Photography by Shivaji Ghag Printed by Silver Point Press Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai

Visit us online change.godrej.com

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By Indrapal Singh

Understanding Frugality, today Spending sensibly where it counts to create greater value.

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raditionally, any form of excess has been considered undesirable in our culture. Indian folklore is full of stories telling our people as to how excesses led to downfall and widespread misery. Consuming resources thoughtfully has become a way of life in India over many centuries. The Gandhian movement further promoted the virtue of consuming less, especially in the context of India’s endemic poverty.

Gandhiji put it very well when he said “The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed.” He was a great example of frugal and simple living. Amongst many industrialists who deeply imbibed his way of thinking were our founders Ardeshir Godrej and Pirojsha Godrej. They led exemplary lives; frugal, simple and yet impacted millions of lives positively. Generations of Godrej family members thereafter embraced frugality as a sensible way of living and conducting business.

Against the backdrop created by the values of our founders, frugality became a way of life at Godrej. All aspects of business were conducted with a sense of responsibility for spending money and any form of excess was frowned upon and shunned. This was reflected in procurement, manufacturing, people policies, promotional events, advertising and the like. Many of our erstwhile managers were known for promoting frugality. Not only did they lead frugal lives, but the factories they ran were frugal too. Purchase of pre-owned machines and their refurbishments to get more from less were order of the day. Materials, energy and other resources were consumed sensibly. Productivity of our workforce was monitored constantly.

Our workmen and engineers were encouraged to find solutions to reduce cost, for example, build equipment in-house for production at a cost which was lower than that of locally procured or imported.

This focus enabled Godrej to offer good value for money products.

This kind of conventional frugality can be seen in the box no. 4 of the accompanying figure.

The liberalisation of the Indian economy beginning in ’91 saw the emergence of the new Indian consumer. The new Indian consumer was well informed; he wanted something more and new in products and services as compared to what the generation of his parents had used. What conventional frugality was generating was no longer seen as value for money because consumers were now ready to pay a little more for higher value. He wanted solutions and not mere product offerings. He expected the same or more of value from the Indian companies as compared to what was available from the multinational ones. He wanted something exciting, something fresh and something more at a lower price. The satisfaction of this expectation of new breed of consumers became a challenge for Indian businesses

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which called for new ways of thinking and performing. The paradigm to be addressed now was ‘significantly higher value at a little higher price’.

To meet the demands of this new paradigm, it became essential to be frugal holistically, at the level of the business system. In the context of this new paradigm, individual frugality remained relevant but was simply not enough. Innovative solutions for getting the job done had to be developed through deep insight, totally different and fresh ways of thinking, deployment of newer technologies and ways of delivering. The emphasis on consuming less resources remained, added to which was the challenge of creating greater value for consumers. This concept of new frugality can be understood from the box no. 8 of the figure. Now it became essential to deliver more value not only in products and services but from the system that delivers value, namely the entire value chain. It was a major shift.

The new customer was now expecting a completely new experience in all the aspects of his interaction with the brand.

Thus, it can be seen that new frugality is not about cutting costs, it is about redesigning processes and systems in an

imaginative way to deliver more. Cutting corners is certainly not the objective and hence, it is undesirable. New frugality is about ‘systemic frugality’ which begins with design and design thinking, and ends in making a meaningful difference into the lives of new consumers. It’s not about having armies of mediocre people but having platoons of highly capable, inspired people. And likewise, it is not having a basketful of ‘good to have initiatives’ but having a few well thought out initiatives with high leverage to become truly competitive.

In the second decade of the 21st century, the challenge of meeting the demands of global climate change has given rise to yet another imperative that necessitates thoughtful and lower usage of materials, energy and anything else that impacts the environment adversely. It is now clear that we have been consuming far too many resources than was absolutely necessary.

All this has damaged our planet Earth irrevocably. As a result, we have no choice but to be ‘Green’ in our thinking, creating products and solutions and delivering them not only in India but globally. Further, the ongoing persistent global financial crisis that began in 2008, makes a compelling case for consuming resources frugally and using things thoughtfully over a

longer period of time. The culture of ‘use and discard’ in a short span of time has undergone a rethink and people now want solutions that are smart, cost effective, and durable. The concept of planned obsolescence has become obsolete. The focus has now shifted from having ‘new and more’ to having fewer, well designed, longlasting solutions to do the job well. It is now a quest for enduring quality. Businesses today have the responsibility to promote a concept of enduring value and educate the new consumer accordingly to enable them to lead more satisfying and meaningful lives devoid of wasteful excess! Buying energy efficient, well designed and durable products at a slightly higher price makes a great deal of sense, in the long run.

Recently, the chief of British Petroleum made a statement that what worries him most is the amount of energy which is wasted by the educated world over.

Conserving energy and other resources must be on everyone’s agenda, even those who are well off.

It is up to our leaders to lead the way. By being frugal today we will certainly make our living planet more sustainable so that it becomes healthier for the generations yet to come. We owe it to them.

Value created

Understanding the new frugality

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Jackpot!

Great value for money

An avoidable excess

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Smart spend

Nothing special

Think it over

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Plain Vanilla

Waste

Criminal waste!

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Level of spend Conventional frugality is ‘value for money’ – Box no. 4 New frugality is ‘great value for money’ – Box no. 8

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S

ohrab Godrej was instrumental in

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steering the Godrej group into the

twenty first century; he inspired change that went beyond business. He taught us to never leave well enough alone, to pay attention to the details and to build vital relationships. On 3rd June 2012, to commemorate his birth centenary, a specially created advertisement (see opp. page) was released in the leading publications across the country.

On the same day, many events were held to pay homage to this restless visionary. At New Delhi, a function was held at the Pirojsha Godrej National Conservation Centre - HQ of WWF India.

At Hyderabad, a function was held at

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the CII-Sohrab Godrej Green Building Centre, where Mr. V. M. Crishna was the chief guest. At Pirojshanagar, S. P. Godrej Memorial Marathon was held where Godrejites participated in large numbers.

Later in the year, Bonsai and Ikebana competitions were organised by the Indo-Japanese Association, which were sponsored by Godrej and the awards named after him were presented to the winners. A book named ‘RANI BAGH -150 YEARS Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan’, supported by Save Rani Bagh Botanical Garden Foundation, National Society of the Friends of the Trees and Bombay Natural History Society was

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launched on the 6th of December, 2012.

Sohrabji had a lifelong association with these bodies.

To give glimpses of a life well lived, an exhibition on Sohrab P. Godrej was held from 3rd June to 3rd July 2013 at Pragati Kendra, Pirojshanagar.

1.Participants in the S. P. Godrej Memorial Marathon 2. Employees visiting the S. P. Godrej exhibition held at Pragati Kendra 3. The Padma Bhushan awarded to Sohrab Godrej displayed at the exhibition

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S

ohrab Godrej grew up around the inspiring presence of his father and

uncle. A self proclaimed dreamer, he often thought of himself as Walter Mitty, building dreams in the air about what he would achieve one day. Always a bright student, Sohrab graduated from Xavier’s college with a B.Sc. degree in Physics and joined Godrej soon after.

At the age of 22, Sohrab travelled to Japan for the first time and returned greatly enamoured by what he saw and experienced there.

Thus, travelling became one of his deepest passions and over the years, he travelled to all the continents and more than 160 countries.

Sohrabji’s most remarkable journey was to Antarctica, which he described as a “Fitting climax to all my journeys, a voyager’s dream come true.”

During his travels, Sohrab was exposed to new ideas, cultures and experiences. Once back at Godrej, he would try to introduce the company to a global way of thinking and doing things.

Sohrab was actively involved in the Marketing and PR team of Godrej, leaving his brothers to oversee the technical aspects of the business.

Which is why, after his father’s death in 1973, the last thing he expected was to be nominated as the Chairman of Godrej. He may not have had the desired engineering background for a company like Godrej, but his strong ties with the leaders of the world; Presidents, Kings and the key influencers enabled him to lead the company to the threshold of a global debut.

Being Chairman was a full time job, but Sohrab never forgot his larger responsibilities.

His skills of managing time and a belief that not a single moment ought to be wasted helped him to live a 48 hour life in a 24 hour day. He donned many hats: Sheriff of Mumbai, Chairman of the Indian Heritage Society, a founding member of the WWF, social activist at the Rotary Club and an ardent advocate of family planning among many others.

Many battles, few triumphs, a Padma Bhushan, 160 countries and 28 passports later, Sohrab Godrej left us on 20th May, 2000. More than a decade has passed and yet Sohrabji’s imprint on the very fabric of Godrej is getting bigger and sharper as the years go by.

Sohrab and sister Dosa as children

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The Restless Visionary A tribute to the life of Sohrab Godrej.

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1. B.Sc. degree from Xavier’s College 2. At Suffero Restaurant in Japan with the Japanese Rotarian Governor, 1961 3. Antartica, 1982 4. Sohrab Godrej with the Ambassador of Iran, 1970 5. Sohrab Godrej with the Principal of Bank of India and Bank of Baroda, Staff College, 1966 6. Commandeur de l’Ordre de Leopold II at Egmont Palace, Brussels, 1989 7. Sohrab taking over as the Sheriff of Mumbai from Sunil Dutt

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“The only causes worth fighting for are the lost causes.�

Many battles, few triumphs, a Padma Bhushan, 160 countries and 28 passports later Sohrab Godrej packed his life and departed from this world on 20th May, 2000. But his legacy lives on in the spirit of Godrej, to never let well enough alone.

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A TRIBUTE

By Vishwanath Koliwad, Secretary General, Family Planning Association of India

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ohrabji Godrej, popularly known as S. P. Godrej was a leading industrialist and Chairman of the Godrej group of companies until his demise in 2000.

Mr. Godrej’s outstanding personality espoused interests beyond industrial boundaries.

His interests ranged from scientific management techniques, environment, wild life, population stabilisation, education, social welfare, international affairs, mass media, arts and archaeology to heritage conservation. He was a rare combination of a hard core industrialist driven by social causes. He would opine that business houses should recognise their social responsibility. The trusteeship of wealth was a living concept with him - wealth earned to become wealth shared for the common good. He always stressed on putting money to its proper and most effective use.

A perfectionist to the core, one of his favourite pastimes was editing the Times of India editorial in the morning. His philosophy “The best philosophy is to do the best one can.

There are to my mind several components of this philosophy. The first is noblesse oblige, which holds that those who are better off in life owe an obligation to those less fortunate than themselves. Another component is to live and let live, acquire tolerance and understanding of other people. Still another is to bid goodbye, firmly and finally, to our deplorable `chalta hai, chalne do’ (let it pass) attitude and develop a rational ethos, cultivating the scientific temper.”

At a time when very few industrialists were interested in family planning and some even feared that the workers and the trade unions would react unfavourably to any encouragement given by the management to such a controversial measure as family planning, there were a few, however, like the Godrej family who were encouraging.

The two comparable leaders of industry to promote family planning work in the corporate sector were Mr. J.R.D. Tata and Mr. S.P. Godrej. While the Tatas created the Steel City in Jamshedpur, Bihar and began their own family planning services in the early 1950s, the Godrej family established a garden city for their work and workers in Vikhroli, a Suburb of then Bombay. Mr. S.P. Godrej, the Chairman, started fully fledged family planning programmes there along with health centres and schools for the workers’ children. Within a few years, the two-child family became the norm among the residents.

Mr. Godrej was also linked with the FPA India and was a lifelong and dedicated champion of population policies and family planning, as well as the environment.

His concern about population, environment and development was so deep that he often referred to population, environment and development as the Holy Trinity in his writings and speeches.

Mr. Godrej has been closely connected with the Family Planning Association of India, which is a voluntary organisation devoted to promote Family Planning as a basic human right, as well as Policies on sexual and reproductive health which can help bring about a balanced development and raising the quality of life. His commitment to the cause is legendary; he would wear a black patch on his right sleeve as a reminder of his protest against the Government. Along with Smt. Avabai B. Wadia, who was the Champion in the field of Family Planning, Mr. S. P. Godrej considered the Family Planning Association of India Movement crucial to the welfare of our people and helped it spread across the country. He was the Vice President of the FPA India for many decades. Thereafter, he was the Patron.

We at FPA, will remember Sohrabji for years to come for his vision and the support he provided.

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By Venkat Ega, Godrej Interio

Frugal by Design Providing greater value at an affordable price.

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decade long economic growth has increased levels of income in tier II and tier III towns and rural areas. A new and a fairly large segment of consumers has emerged from these markets who can afford relatively higher priced branded products, offering good value for money and who are not yet ready to afford existing higher priced products.

This phenomenon has created a new challenge for Godrej Interio, who has been a leader in the field of Steel Wardrobes for more than a hundred years. Godrej Storwels and wardrobes have become icons. They are considered highly secure, long lasting and good value for money. In case of steel cupboards, the measure of goodness traditionally has been the thickness (gauge) of the steel used. The prevailing perceptions of the consumers are- thicker the steel, better the quality of the offering. In this context, it has been a huge challenge for us to design a new range of wardrobes that meets the expectations of the consumers and yet are attractively affordable.

My team and I would like to share a quintessential example of ‘frugal by design’ through the case of Millennium range of steel wardrobes. This is the latest offering from Godrej Interio, which will be launched in the market shortly, during the forthcoming festive season. The design brief given to us was very demanding. We were told to design a product that could be transported without any damages to the remotest locations in the country

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at the minimal transportation cost. The product had to score very high on the ‘ease of assembly’ dimension. Also, it should be possible to disassemble the wardrobe for transporting it to another location and reassemble it there in the same time frame without any difficulty.

All this should be delivered, within a price range of `10,000 - `11,000. In other words, we had to deliver considerably higher value at much lower than the prevailing cost!

To design and develop a product that fits the brief called for a completely fresh approach to design and not any ‘cut and paste’ of existing designs. Firstly, we had to reduce the material cost substantially to bring it within its target budget. No matter how much we reduced the thickness of the steel, it was not possible to meet the target budget for material using the cold rolled steel. Our team came up with a radical idea of using a new grade of Dent Resistant (DR) steel. A few experiments were conducted and we were convinced that without compromising any of the performance parameters we could reduce the thickness of steel, thus the cost of the steel by using this new type of DR steel. A good breakthrough. Smart detailing to eliminate the use of multiple sheet thicknesses of various sheet metal components resulted in the reduction of the steel content by 27% as compared to the traditional construction. Also, the inventory of steel got streamlined because of a fewer variety of steel stock.

The second challenge was to crack the construction details of the wardrobe.

Here we had to build-in frugality in all aspects of the product, from toolings, manufacturing, transportation, assembly and handover. The design had to meet the requirements of robustness in performance with attractive aesthetics to enable it to penetrate the markets where Knocked Down (KD) design products have not been considered favourably until now. The design task was to overcome the negative perceptions of the KD design wardrobes and yet make a strong case for selecting KD design in the new form and colours.

To meet the conflicting criteria of less weight and higher security and strength, we had to build in several new features into the design. The first being, bold and rounded edges for the sides that enclose the doors. To achieve this, we had to design a new set of toolings, which would give the desired form in a single stroke as opposed to multiple strokes, which was operationally tedious. A special tool was designed and imported for production of round edged components. The second important feature we built was the use of ‘H’ configuration for a stronger network of shelves and walls that support each other. The doors were designed to conceal all the locking details which are normally visible when the door is open.

This feature gives the door clean lines besides adding a measure of security as the locking system now is not accessible

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readily. Also, an additional metal section spanning the entire height of the door adds to the strength of the door, making it appear robust as opposed to flappy and tinny.

The locker unit has been strengthened for greater security.

On the outside of the door, the lock and the recessed handle are provided in a single component that has been matched in color with the body and offers a strong and contemporary outlook to the door.

The selection of the lock has been on the criterion of maximum security and hence the lock selected has a very large number or combinations with a key that has a combination of wave & dimple technology.

Specially developed powder coated finishes are used to make the product look stronger. These powders have low baking temperatures with better spreads,

Millennium

resulting in improved efficiency in the usage of powder.

As mentioned above, easy assembly and disassembly were two of the key requirements. The ingenious assembly method developed by our team using significantly fewer numbers of fasteners gave us the desired results as compared to the conventional KD wardrobe where pop rivets are used. The new innovative method required only 30 minutes for installation, as opposed to 90 minutes required in case of conventional KD products, a reduction of 66% in installation time. The new designed fasteners also solved the issue of dismantling and reassembling of the steel wardrobes necessary while shifting homes.

The design of packaging posed two challenges. The first being, that it had to

30 minutes

Other knock down products

Assembly Time

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90 minutes

be strong enough to withstand multiple handlings involved in travelling over long distances to reach the consumers located far away. The second challenge being the cost of the package itself. Both these challenges were overcome through the use of honeycomb fitments and three ply instead of five ply corrugated sheets for the cartons. The packaging cost was reduced on account of these and other changes by nearly 50%.

And yet another challenge was to reduce the transportation cost. This involved trimming down of the package volume so that a larger number of packages can be loaded into a truck or a container. The new flat packed design for Millennium wardrobes saved around 11% of package volume as compared to conventional KD products in the same category. Of course, the Millennium package was now 84% lesser in package volume as compared to that of the assembled one. It was now possible to load 160 plus packages of Millennium wardrobes in a standard 10 Tonne truck.

Thus, the perspective of frugal by design helped us achieve a great deal in terms of savings in material, manufacturing,

packaging and transportation costs. This task though looked simple in the face of it, turned out to be a complex one requiring a great deal of creative and detailed work.

Millennium range of products now have the potential to reach the new emergent group of consumers who hitherto had no other options but to buy inferior local products or opt for products that strained their budgets. Now, Millennium offers them greater security and utility at a price that is affordable- a truly great option.

In closing, I must acknowledge the contributions made by all the teams in the business as well as my own team for the successful completion of this very challenging project.

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27% reduction vs. other products in the category

Steel Content 2.

1. Millennium 2. Millennium Team: L-R (Standing): Vinay More, Amit Babardesai, Vaishali Lahoti Shah, Nitin Mhatre, and Lav Harjani. L-R (Seated): Nitin Thatte, Venkat Ega, and Jogy Abrahim

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By R. K. Shankar, Mercury, Chennai

Frugality and flexibility at the core No frills customer orientation, a way of life at Mercury, Chennai.

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any years ago Sohrabji visited Godrej’s Mount Road showroom during the busy hours, and like a customer, examined each of the displays. He stopped to look at the price tag on a refrigerator and remarked, “Why do we have to make it so expensive?”

I quickly guided him away from earshot of customers to make sure they don’t realize he was the Chairman of the group!

Sohrabji’s comment reflected his life’s motto of simple living and high thinking, which resonates at Mercury each day.

However, it is not only Sohrabji we recall, but other Directors, and especially Aspy Bardy who inspires us to walk the talk on true customer orientation.

The path we have chosen is to focus relentlessly on waste and delays in all our activities, with absolute confidence that it will naturally address all the expectations of our customers. Let me walk you through some of the areas.

Minimalist collaborative work style We sit together in an open plan. Cabins and conference rooms are only for visitors and group meetings. Naturally all of us are online

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in real time, independent of the computer!

Communicating with each other, handing over jobs, taking feedback, everything is easy, quick and complete.

Major customers are dispersed all over the globe: even as we reach the office in the morning, it is already afternoon for our customers in Australia, asking for our response before they go home. Towards the end of our day, North America and Latin America is waking up, and we need to respond to them before we go home. This arrangement and work style is critical to responding quickly and completely to all our customers. Personalised relationships with customers are encouraged to give a ‘face’ to our business and build enduring bonds.

Ingenious product design The Completely Knock Down (CKD) design of our products ensures a high degree of fit-feel-finish. But the cutting edge in our design comes from the package, which is so slim that we are able to load more number of units into a shipping container than any other manufacturer in the world.

As freight adds no value to the product, our

slim design ensures that the freight cost has a minimal impact even on the customers who are as far away as North America.

Not only does it make good business sense, but it contributes to reduction of carbon footprint, an often overlooked aspect of sustainability.

Process design for customisation We produce only against orders; customers are free to ask for any combination of models and colors, and order quantity can be as small as 1 or 2 numbers of a model.

Despite these variations, orders are taken up for production one at a time on handme-down machines from Godrej. These are true work horses, but the heart is in the toolings, which allows for variations from the previous stage to be accepted and processed without rework or wastage.

Commercial terms Pay in any currency, so long it is US Dollars ($) will not work for the customer or even for Mercury. Our customers in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, U.K. pay in their local currency, to avoid exchange losses and transaction costs, which benefit only

the intermediary. Even letters of credit are not insisted upon, as that again has costs at opening and closing, and invariably amendment costs as well. Of course we make sure the customer is creditworthy and business savvy, and that effort is well spent and appreciated by the customer.

Competing across the globe I must admit that we have not been challenged sufficiently in the marketplace till now. There was little competition from China, and our customers were satisfied with our standard range of products.

1. Team Mercury 2. Operating in real time, online 3. Running a tight ship(ment)

The world has changed dramatically in 2. recent years. Demand of new products, features and aesthetics, all at very low prices have become the order of the day. Our confidence is high, in ourselves, our values and our practices, to face the challenges of the future successfully.

Editor recommends: Those individuals and teams at Godrej who want to travel further on the path of frugality and flexibility should pay a visit to Mercury Mfg. Co. Ltd. at Chennai. The time spent and the cost incurred will be worth it.

3.

19

By Seshu Nayak, Industrial Products Group

The TPM way The pathway to world-class manufacturing.

T

PM - Total Productive Maintenance is an innovative approach to maintenance that optimises equipment effectiveness, eliminates breakdown and promote autonomous operator maintenance through day to day activities by involving the total workforce. It all began in Japan around 1970. The Japanese have a knack of turning good ideas into enormously successful practices. TPM combines the American practice of preventive maintenance with the Japanese concept of Total Quality Control (TQC) and Total Employee Involvement (TEI).

Seiichi Nakajima is known as the father of TPM. Many companies in Japan adopted it for becoming globally competitive. Nippon Denso of the Toyota Group became the first company to win the TPM Excellence Award by JIPM, Japan. Today, there are about 250 Indian companies who have been awarded TPM excellence award by JIPM and perhaps equal or more number of companies are pursuing the TPM journey.

The basic idea behind TPM is to make business profitable. It involves pursuit of economical efficiency, zero accidents, zero defects and zero failures. Prevention is the dominant philosophy. All this is required to happen with the participation of everyone. The performance in the TPM way of managing is measured on Productivity (P), Quality (Q), Cost (C), Delivery (D), Safety (S) and Moral (M). The acronym PQCDSM becomes a prodder of improvement amongst the workforce, and in a way helps change the culture of a business where high level of customer satisfaction becomes a powerful weapon to fight global competition.

The 5S methodology is the foundation of TPM. The goal of 5S is to create a work environment that is clean and well organised.

20

develop skills to perform routine maintenance on their equipment and learn to identify emerging problems.

Maintenance people become good at preventive maintenance and managers trained in TPM principles help create a culture of caring and teamwork.

Office TPM

Safety-Health & Environment

Development Management

Education & Training

Quality Maintenance

Planned Maintenance

Individual improvement

Autonomous Maintenance

TPM

5S SENIOR MANAGEMENT INVOLVEMENT

It has five elements; Sort, Set in order, Shine, Standardise and Sustain. 5S becomes intuitively the foundation for well running equipment. Clean and organised workspace, easy to find parts and tools, and easily visible maintenance issues help prevent costly breakdown/defects.

The edifice of TPM rests on eight pillars.

These pillars have to be attended to proactively with the core idea of prevention constantly in view for improving productivity, quality and cost.

The eight pillars are: Pillar no. 1: Autonomous Maintenance It is meant to bring ownership of equipment to operators and it empowers him to take care of it for smooth, defect free production.

It increases operator’s knowledge of the equipment and helps him identify emergent issues in time, before they become failures.

Maintenance personnel are free to attend to high level task.

Pillar no. 2: Individual Improvements The activities under this pillar are directed

towards maximising equipment efficiency to reduce cost of manufacturing. It helps by identifying and resolving recurring problems and encourages team workfunctional and cross functional, for continuous improvement.

Pillar no. 3: Planned Maintenance This activity ensures availability of reliable and well maintained equipment for production.

Unplanned downtime is reduced and loss of production is minimised. Proper inventory of wear and failure prone parts prevents costly downtime.

Pillar no. 4: Quality Maintenance The aim here is to eliminate deficiency in quality assurance system and produce defect-free products at reduced cost of poor quality. This helps eliminate root causes of defects. The ‘upstream’ catching of defects reduces costs.

Pillar no. 5: Training and Education Activities here improve skill levels of employees and their capabilities to analyse issues scientifically and arrive at counter measures. Obviously, operators

Pillar no. 6: Development Management The activities here support flawless introduction of new products. Reliable new equipment reduces the time required to market the product and assures that it is defect free. New equipment gets stabilised and reaches planned performance levels faster due to fewer startup issues. Maintenance issues are learnt quicker by the team ensuring smooth production, sooner.

Pillar no. 7: Safety, Health, Environment (SHE) Essentially, SHE related activities improve work environment, hence morale of people.

Sustainability of business is enhanced.

Elimination of potential health and safety risk helps the business reach the goals of zero accident in the workplace. Also, the stress levels among the workforce are lowered.

Pillar no. 8: Office TPM It focuses on the relationship between the production process and the office activity to attain a high level of customer satisfaction. Under this pillar, the scope of TPM gets extended beyond the shopfloor and addresses administrative systems such as order processing, procurement, order fulfilling etc., for delighting customers.

The methodology of Total Productive Maintenance has the potential of becoming Total Profitability Management, provided TPM is implemented by production and maintenance functions becoming equal partners in its success.

TPM rests on teamwork, and works as an empowerment process. It is not a quick fix.

It requires serious and sustained efforts.

Top management’s commitment and support are a must. Like any philosophy, its deployment must be business specific and yet deeply embedded into its fundamental principles.

21

By P. Rajakumar, Godrej Precision Systems, and Seshu Nayak, Industrial Products Group

Chaos to order Godrej Precision Systems – transforming itself the TPM way.

T

he TPM journey at G&B began in 2009 with Godrej Tooling and Godrej Interio adopting TPM to improve efficiency in manufacturing and pursue excellence. A few months later, six other businesses of G&B, Godrej Precision Systems, Godrej Precision Engineering, Godrej Process Equipment, Godrej Locking Solutions & Systems, Godrej Material Handling and Godrej Security Solutions, adopted TPM for all around improvements. The TPM initiative was started with the help of the CII TPM Club of India and Mr. S. Srinivasan was selected as our principal facilitator.

To promote and monitor the activities of TPM, a TPM council was established at the corporate level with Seshu Nayak as its head and having a representative from all the eight businesses as council members.

A TPM steering committee was established in each business with the business head as its chairman, manufacturing head as deputy chairman and with mid-level executives appointed as manager and secretary to assist the working of the committee. In addition, for each of the eight pillars of TPM, a pillar head was appointed for implementing the activities pertaining to a particular pillar. Further, under each pillar head, a sub-committee was formed in which all the functions of the business were represented. To take the initiative to the working level, TPM circles were established in all the functions, involving each and every employee of the business. These TPM circles are accountable for implementing TPM activities in their own areas as specified by the Pillar heads concerned.

In 2009, GPS was in dire straits, overall output was low, productivity was abysmal, quality was questionable and so on. Once the senior management of GPS declared their commitment to the TPM way, things began to change rather quickly. In the beginning there was deep skepticism all around. Everyone doubted the power of TPM as it was a ‘managerial initiative’ and not a technical one. The people in the business had a belief that

22

Seven types of Abnormalities (Table no. 1) SR. NO.

ABNORMALITIES

1

Minor Flaws

2

Unfulfilled Basic Conditions

3

Inaccessible Places

4

Contamination Sources

5

Quality Defect Sources

6

Unnecessary and Non-urgent items

7

Unsafe Places

the solution to their problems lay in more and new technology, rather than a people directed initiative like TPM. Soon, their doubts were dispelled.

A team of managers were selected and were trained in the basics of TPM in a daylong session by Mr. Srinivasan.

Mr. Srinivasan had laid out the roadmap systematically and it had small, clearly understandable steps. A pilot was to be run by this team to demonstrate how things would work under the TPM way.

The team selected five model machines for implementing TPM. The first task was to identify the abnormalities present in the machines. This involved stripping open of the machines by the managers themselves to identify the abnormalities.

Thereaf ter, the abnormalities were corrected by the managers and the machines were restored to their base level of performance as specified by the manufacturer. In all, 7 types of abnormalities were identified (see table no.1 for details). The machines were now working at the level of efficiency at which they are supposed to work af ter the first installation. Obviously, these machines had very low Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), around 55%. The team of managers now set about to make the improvements to increase the OEE to the targeted level of 85%. To reach the target OEE, the first pillar of TPM – Autonomous maintenance - related activities were performed on the machines. T he per formance of the machines improved to an extent.

Simultaneously, data collection on the performance of the machines also began.

This data was collected for a period of about 30-45 days so that adequate enough data is collected for rigorous analysis. The purpose of this exercise was to identify 16 types of losses (see table no.2) occurring in the machines. Once the data collection was over, a Pareto

chart was prepared which showed the losses in a descending order, helping prioritise the corrective action. The team of managers now began performing the activities of the second pillar – Individual improvements – on the machines to eliminate the losses and improve the performance of the total machining process. Concurrently, the activities pertaining to the third and the fourth pillar of TPM, namely Planned Maintenance (PM) and Quality Maintenance (QM) also were undertaken.

16 Types of Losses (Table no. 2) Loss No.

Loss type

1

Equipment failure

2

Set up and adjustment loss

3

Tool change loss

4

Start up Loss

5

Minor Stoppages

6

Speed Loss

7

Defect and rework loss

8

Shut down loss

9

Management loss

10

Motion loss

11

Line oraganisation loss

12

Distribution loss

13

Measurement and adjustment loss

14

Energy loss

15

Tool jig and die loss

16

Yield loss

Machine Shop

Fabrication & Assembly

Surface Treatment

Heat Treatment

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TPM Target (Table no. 3) S.N.

1

Area

P

Description

Unit

BM (2009-10)

Target

Current

Overall Equipment Efficiency Improvement

%

55

85

83

Overall Assembly Efficiency Improvement

%

32

85

83

Number per month

0.5

2

1.5

Customer Complaints

Numbers

8

0

0

In Process Rejection

%

10

0

1

Ratio with Sale Value Of Production

0.8

0.5

0.5

%

60

100

95

Days

74

30

52

Reportable Accidents

Numbers

1

0

0

Non Reportable Accidents

Numbers

14

0

12

Numbers of Kaizens per annum

Numbers

204

1200

1807

Productivity (Main product)

2

Q

3

C

4

D

Conversion Cost Planx Actual Lead Time (Main product)

5

6

S

M

The activities which fall under the pillar of Planned Maintenance are easy to understand as these are the common activities performed in any manufacturing operation. The activities under the pillar of QM require some elaboration. The purpose behind the QM activities is to identify the root causes that generate defects in the output of the machines.

The root causes may lie in any of the 4Ms - Machines and Materials (both hard), Men and Methods (both soft). Analysing both hard and soft means of production yielded the root causes of defects, eliminating of which improved the quality of output. The team having implemented four pillars of the TPM on five model machines now fully understood the methodology of implementing TPM. The team was now ready to cascade their learnings across the business for a full scale implementation.

In November 2009, a kickoff function for the TPM was organised at GPS. At this function the results achieved on the model machines were shared with the team of managers and a declaration was made that henceforth the TPM related activities will be carried throughout the business. Also, the benchmarks and the TPM targets were communicated for each of the Pillar activities, which were converted into the targets to be achieved for the business, for each of

24

the performance parameters, namely Production, Quality, Cost, Delivery, Safety and Moral (PQCDSM) – (see table no. 3).

The efforts to deploy TPM across the business began in all earnestness and it is needless to say that it involved a lot of hard work. We faced many hiccups and setbacks. Some of the team members got deeply involved and began enjoying the process of implementing TPM wholeheartedly while some team members had weak involvement. A small group of people simply sat on the fence awaiting the initiative to peter out!

But this time, the commitment of the senior management was so strongly forthcoming that a few pockets of resistance simply did not matter and the TPM way swept through the business, changing it for the better. At this point of time, we found that the speed of TPM activities accelerated across the business and many improvements began to get implemented, raising our performance parameters to new heights.

This effort combined with the pressures to produce more, made the intervening months pass by quickly and we found ourselves in April 2013, having just made record deliveries of `63 crores, approximately 100% above the last year. Our turnover consists of value addition only and excludes the costs of raw materials, except in case of exports.

1.

2.

3.

4.

The model machines 1. Mikron 1000 2. DMG 5 axis 3. VTC PL-16 4. Mikron 5 axis

Our performance on various parameters was vastly improved against the targets set in 2009 (Please see table 3). The GPS team was jubilant as it received accolades from the board of directors at the annual review meet. Undoubtedly, the overall performance improved as a result of the implementation of the TPM way, besides, it facilitated our entry into the new markets for supplying sub-systems to world renowned aerospace players. By March 2013, we had about 30% of our business from the markets abroad.

In about 4 years time, the business that was struggling to stand on its own feet, had not only expanded substantially but had earned praises and commendations from its very demanding group of customers like DRDO, ISRO and others abroad.

The performance of the businesses on customer related parameters, namely ‘delivery on time’ is worth noting. Today we are delivering 95% of the orders ontime or before time. The TPM improved our operations so much that we could take the challenge of accepting a few orders at a shorter delivery time.

Encouraged by the success, we decided to challenge Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance (JIPM) TPM Excellence award in Januar y 2013.

We have cleared the first assessment conducted by the JIPM, Japan auditors.

The second and the final assessment of business is scheduled to be carried out in the month of October 2013 and the

people in the business are hopeful of sailing through this audit in flying colours!

In this short article, it’s not possible to capture all the gruelling details of implementing TPM on the shop floor, but we would like to assure our readers that notwithstanding the efforts involved, the outcomes were a source of pride and joy for everyone. We realised that traversing further on the TPM way could be our future and we could have our rightful place in the arena of the aerospace business.

S. M. Vaidya, Godrej Precision Systems

TPM – My View

A

round 2009, I was looking for a methodology that would help us improve our operations significantly and would enable us to improve our bottom line. We opted for TPM. After implementing TPM for three years, I am happy to say that we have made substantial improvements in each and every aspect of our operations. Our people are now excited by the opportunity to make improvements, individually and in teams for improving the business.

The philosophy of ‘first time and every time right’ has helped us reduce substantially the development cycle of new projects. The TPM across the businesses has helped us win new customers from markets abroad. Considering our progress in last three years, global aerospace giants like Boeing, GE, Avio, and SAFRAN have started showing greater interest in us and have promised more business. I am confident that on the foundation of TPM, we will be able to build more competitive and larger business in future.

25

By S. M. Jawle, Godrej Security Solutions

A Simulator for imparting welding skills A frugal yet efficacious innovation to make a large number of young, employable.

S

ometime back I had visited a few of our partners who work with us closely to promote the imperative of Employability, under our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative ‘Good & Green’. In many of the specific skill development programs the progress was satisfactory, but in the area of imparting of welding skills the progress remained unsatisfactory. On digging deeper, I found that the root cause of the poor progress in imparting welding skills was poor availability of welding machines for the trainees to work upon. At some locations there were hardly one or two machines which were shared by more than 25-30 trainees and at some other locations the machines were found to be under perpetual breakdown. Our partners gave me the feedback that the cost of acquiring welding machines and the cost of running and maintaining them was simply too high and was unaffordable.

On my return, I felt very uncomfortable about this situation; on one hand the trained welders are in great demand and on the other, the training institutes are unable to train the required number of trainees to meet the demand. As mentioned above, the reason for this paradoxical situation

26

was the high cost of training equipment. I wondered if there was a way to overcome this constraint. Only if we could develop a low cost solution, we could train many more welders and make them employable. I asked myself, what is the key capability that a good welder requires? Is it the technical knowledge of welding? Is it the robust physical health and the willingness to work in demanding conditions, or something else? Thinking over these aspects of the welder’s job, I came to a conclusion that a welder needs to have a steady hand and lots of practice to become good at welding.

The challenge before me was to reduce the cost of training by an order of magnitude. In case, if I tinkered with the welding machines, maybe I could reduce the cost by 10% or so. But, if I were to reduce the cost of the training equipment to a 1/10th of the original cost, a completely novel solution had to be developed. Thinking it over, it occurred to me that some kind of a low-cost simulator was the answer to the problem.

At this stage, I decided to take up this problem as one of the Kaizens for our business. We formed a team consisting of Raymond D’Souza, Anil Kadam, Suresh Nerkar and Sudhir Surve, having varied

backgrounds. I presented the core idea to the team and was delighted to receive an enthusiastic support from all the team members. Depending on their backgrounds and experience each of them contributed ideas to help us overcome the challenge of designing a low-cost welding simulator.

In a few days a prototype was built. Like all prototypes it had the scope for many improvements and refinements. We took a few trials and identified the improvements to be made. The team brainstormed and listed down the alternate ways in which these improvements could be made. After much discussion, we selected few of the improvements that had good chance to work well. Our team went back to the drawing board, made these changes and a new prototype was built. To our delight, we found that this prototype was good enough for testing. We took the prototype to a team of welders in our business and extensive trials were taken on it by some of our experienced welders. Our engineering staff along with the experienced welders joined in the effort and gave some useful suggestions for further refining the prototype. Monitoring of the speed of welding and the use of Programmable Logic Controller (PLC)

were amongst the suggestions received.

These ideas coupled with some ingenious solutions developed by our team members resulted in one more refined version of the prototype which was not only versatile but flexible as well. Now it was possible to weld in 2G and 3G positions.

After many trials at our works, we took the prototype to one of our leading training partners, Father Agnel Ashram, Bandra. The trainers at this institute tried out the prototype extensively and found that it helped reduce the cost of training significantly, as compared to that being incurred using conventional welding machines. We also found that the entire training facility was now devoid of harmful welding fumes and tiring heat. Mr. Jaywant Raut of the institute remarked, “this simulator has transformed my costliest training course to the cheapest one”. Some more feedback was received in the process which we used for further refinement.

At this stage of development, we were somewhere in May 2013 and we learnt that the 21st Kaizen conference was being held in Pune by CII. Our Business Head asked us to participate in the competition

and present this Kaizen. To our delight, our Kaizen was declared the winner of the first prize at the competition!

Kudos to all the team members and everyone else who helped us in our efforts.

At present we are in the process of producing these simulators in large numbers for the use of welding training institutes

all over the country. Is it difficult to be Good & Green? The answer is a resounding ‘no’, provided your intent is noble, you are passionate about the cause, and you are willing to involve many more into the team. Taking feedback constructively and combining it with dedicated teamwork is a sure shot way to solve problems hitherto not solved.

1.

1. The team receiving the best kaizen award. L-R Jangiraman (CII), Anil Kadam, S. M. Jawle, and Sagar Dhalawade of GSS

27

By Arnab Baagchi, Godrej Appliances

Customer Satisfaction Number A frugal and reliable practice for tracking and improving service to customers.

C

ustomer Satisfaction Number (CSN) is a three digit secret code given by Godrej Appliances (GA) to its customer at the time of booking of a service call at the call centre. It’s a simple tool where a customer is told to share the code with the visiting service technician only if he/she is completely satisfied with the service rendered.

It all began about three years back when GA had decided to build customer service as a differentiator.

The market feedback was that our service levels were way behind that of the competition. GA used to conduct customer surveys every year, but we needed a simple tool that would enable us to track customer satisfaction levels almost on a daily basis. As we began engaging with the customer using this tool, and started tracking the service level, we found that our scores were miserably low, at around 20-30%. At this point we realised that CSN was a potentially powerful tool if used seriously and imaginatively. We decided to use CSN extensively to boost the levels of customer service to the next level.

28

To ensure that our service centres and our customers take this tool seriously, we had to revamp the whole process. With this goal in mind, we unleashed a slew of initiatives such as external survey, trade interactions, careful study of complaint letters and so on. We started taking action on each of the building blocks of service. A call centrE started working 24x7. The SMS call back facility was added. Trade partners were given access to our system so that they can book calls directly into our system. The infrastructure of our service centres was improved. To render service in up country areas, service vans - nearly a 100 - were deployed, 50 of them fitted with generators.

Vans with generators help us provide service in areas of acute power shortage.

Likewise, to upgrade skills of technicians, performance and retention incentives were introduced. Technical and soft-skill training was intensified. Senior management started communicating directly with the Authorised Service Providers (ASPs) all across the country. Star Summit with the top 50 ASPs is organised every year in Mumbai where COO of the business and the top management interacts with them.

To bring about performance culture, a

scheme was announced wherein an ASP would earn substantially more in return for imparting good service within strict timelines. A contest called Smart Care premier league was initiated on the lines of IPL to create competition amongst ASPs and boost performance on service delivery parameters.

Slowly, all these measures started yielding results. From the level of 20-30% satisfaction earlier, today we are at about 60-65% level, with the east zone reaching a level of 80%! In 2011, we were awarded the Business Excellence Award for Good Management Practice for ‘innovative incentive scheme for service personnel to ensure speedy and effective customer call closure.’ This award really inspired our service centres and demonstrated that good service was good business too.

At this juncture, CII announced the first National Excellent Practice competition as a part of the 12th anniversary of CII Institute of quality, Bangalore. This was held on 9th and 10th of May, 2013. To showcase the impact of our CSN initiative, we decided to take part in the competition.

In this first of its kind competition, about 50 companies across sectors participated.

10 companies were shortlisted for the final round. The shortlisted 10 companies were given 30 minutes each to present their case which was followed by a Q&A session by jury and the audience. The jury consisted of industry stalwarts as well as domain experts. Our presentation evoked many questions from the audience and it was well received.

And the final results were announced; NSE bagged the first prize with Wipro being declared as the first runner-up and GA was declared the 2nd runner-up.

A three year long journey culminated with a prestigious award which speaks a lot for the commitment of the top management to customer service. Also, an unstinted dedication of the service team, service providers and the technicians to do their best and keep improving service levels helped a lot, of course with the help of this simple tool of CSN. We plan to enhance our service level to an average of about 80% across the country building on the success achieved.

1.

2.

1.

Team Appliances receiving the 2nd Runner up trophy at the CII event. L-R – Arnab Bagchi, Satyendra Kumar - Former Senior Vice President & Global head, Quality, Infosys Limited, Nirjhar Chakraborty , Regional Service Head- East, Godrej Appliances, Shakeel Jamadar, Head of Training, Appliance service 2. Fleet of vans launched for the entire state of Punjab with all necessary parts for quick resolution of complaints.

29

By Tejashree Joshi, Godrej Construction

Managing water resources Adopting structured engineering approaches for sustainability.

30

F

rugal and green might seem to be the opposite ends of a spectrum.

For the ‘Frugalites’, ‘Green’ products may seem to be costly as compared to their ‘conventional’ counterparts. On the other hand, those living green lifestyles often see frugal living as concerned only with the cost of living and not having any concern for the environment and the quality of products.

Frugality is defined as the quality of being frugal, sparing, thrifty, prudent or economical in the use of consumable resources such as food, time or money, and avoiding waste, lavishness or extravagance. In behavioural science, frugality is the tendency to acquire goods and services in a restrained manner and resourceful use of already owned goods and services.

Now let’s try and define what sustainability is or what is being ’Green’. For some it is recycling, for others it is a complete change in their way of life. Doing a small bit to make the planet a better place to live with things like recycling of paper, card, plastic and glass or saving the planet’s resources whether it be using alternate energy sources like wind power, solar energy or

Industrial ETP - 750CMD

bio-fuels, saving water, reducing resource use or a much grander gesture like living in a completely eco-friendly environment (like self-sustaining communities that are popping up everywhere) with a totally green way of life.

However you term it, the point is, being green does sound quite similar to what we have defined above as frugality! In reality there seems to be a natural progression from being frugal to being green which is seen time and again. Initially, while being frugal you concentrate on getting the maximum possible for your money. But subsequently, frugality becomes a broader definition of savings - not just the money, but time and resources as well. Common strategies for frugal living include the reduction of

waste, conserving of resources, seeking of efficiency, avoiding of excesses and so on.

The adequacy of resources like water and energy are the building blocks for the sustainability of business. Pirojshanagar establishment has been lucky to have both of these resources in ample since its existence. However, in the recent times, lot of strain has been experienced in the availability of water from the once reliable municipal water supply of Mumbai. There are various reasons for this, one of the major one being the ever increasing demand for water due to the rapid transformation of suburbs of Mumbai from manufacturing hub to commercial and residential spaces, requiring huge quantities of portable water.

Due to the wasteful lifestyles of the residents

31

1.

2.

1. STP Residential Colony - 900CMD 2. STP near Gate No. 8 - 750CMD

32

of the city, the overall water demand has increased exponentially! But at the same time, the infrastructure to meet the needs of ever-increasing population of Mumbai has not been upgraded to the extent required.

The strain on municipal infrastructure of the city is very high which seems to have now reached a breaking point. This became evident in the year 2010 when the city experienced a major water cut regime which had to be enforced due to the dangerously low water levels of the reservoirs supplying water to the city. This was due to the failed monsoons. The authorities feared that with one more failed monsoon, the city will face severe draught like situation. This fear triggered a host of corrective actions for the conservation of water across the city, including at G&B.

Some of the projects are: •0Recycling of treated industrial effluents to achieve ‘zero discharge’ •0Construction of Sewage treatment and recycling plant with a distribution network for using it for flushing of toilets in residential colonies •0Using of recycled and ground water for cooling applications instead of potable water •0Using of cooling tower drain water for gardens •0Using recycled water for ready mix concrete production •0Enhancing efficiency of well water pumping system •0Augmenting old and available water resources for larger supply of water •0Harvesting of rainwater comprehensively to augment ground water

The total water footprint of G&B’s Pirojshanagar Township was estimated to rise to 100 lakh litres/day by 2012 from 85 lakhs litres/day in 2009, considering the size of the setup and the increase in the demand of water due to an increase in the industrial production and commercial activities.

Cumulative impact of all these initiatives has resulted in maintaining the overall water footprint at 83 lakh litres/day ending 2012, which is marginally lower than the baseline consumption of 85 lakh litres/day in 2009.

Effectively, this has led to a reduction of overall water footprint by 20% (about 10 lakh litres/day) against the estimated consumption. This conserved quantity of water is sufficient to meet the daily needs of 11,000 persons or 2,225 families drawing water from the municipal sources.

‘Structured Water Management Project’ of G&B was initiated in 2010 under the ‘Greener India’ vertical of the CSR initiative of ‘Good & Green’. It was meant to address the challenges of water usage efficiency, ageing infrastructure and unpredictable severe shortages of water by leveraging the available resources and generating newer ones.

The umbrella initiative of Water Management has more than 35 large, medium and many frugal improvement projects in its scope for reducing water use, enhancing in-waste water treatment and recycling and replenishing of the ground water by recharging.

G&B has achieved ‘Zero Discharge’ status since 2010 for its industrial activities by effectively treating and recycling industrial effluent generated by various manufacturing processes. A total of around 15 lakh litres/day of treated waste water is brought into use in processes like PreTreatment (PT) line, RMC production and maintaining of gardens. By making use of recycled and ground water for our cooling applications, we have reduced the use of potable water by about 3 lakh litres/day

which was being lost due to evaporation and drift. We are also using recycled water for new constructions in the campus.

Today, nearly 50% of the total water footprint for the industrial activities is met by the Municipal water sources, whereas the balance 50% of the water footprint is met by the alternative sources- 33% from the recycled water and 16% from the ground water.

We take pride in stating that our water conservation measures are comprehensive in nature and have positively impacted both, our manufacturing units as well as residential colonies. One among the many conservation measures is the construction of sewage and recycling plant with a distribution network for using the treated water for flushing in toilets in our residential colonies for about 3000 tenements; this reduces the consumption of portable water by 5 lakh litres/day.

As a result of the above efforts, by the end of 2012 we have been able to offset around 80% of our fresh water consumption by recycling and replenishing. However, we do not intend to stop just right here. We believe, we still have a long way to go and even bigger goals to achieve. Our future plan is to be at least ‘Water Neutral’ if not ‘Water Positive’ by 2015 and we are certain that we will achieve it.

I believe, environment-friendly structured engineering solutions for the management of water resources will have a huge positive societal impact in the years to come. The need of the hour is to work on such solutions relentlessly, until each and every establishment and each and every township becomes self-sustaining.

Being frugal is being green in the case of water usage!

33

Inaugural speech by Dr. F. E. Udwadia

1.

Advanced Cardiac Care Centre at Godrej Memorial Hospital I

am just going to make this very short.

Jamshyd, Phiroza, all Godrej family members… whole Godrej family, doctors, staff members of this hospital, all working here. I am indeed very happy to be here and it’s a bit of an eye-opener to me, who remains cloistered in South Bombay in my room, looking at a different groups of people and… I can tell you why it is an eyeopener for me.

One thing – This is a beautifully designed hospital. I don’t think there is another hospital in Bombay, I have seen most of them, that is better designed than this. It is spacious. It is open. It is bathed with light everywhere you go. It is spotlessly clean; as if you are walking into a hospital somewhere in Western Europe. It is very well designed.

I was struck by the design particularly because of the Cardiac Care Centre. The Cardiac ICU where the nursing station can see every single patient with just a flick of a head one way or the other. There is not a single hospital, I can tell you, in Bombay which has this and which is the real ideal design of what an ICU should be. And now that you have added on the Catheter Lab, and with it, the dedicated Theatre which would allow the surgeons to do cardiac surgery and the interventional cardiologists to do whatever intervention they need. I think it will be a great, great addition to the

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people of this part of the city and its large surrounding area. And I am sure it’s going to do extremely well.

What struck me immediately also is the way in which this hospital is run. In the sense, that it is so exceedingly affordable that it boggles my imagination. And I congratulate the doctors who are working here for having accepted this way of doctoring, of having accepted the charges, so that the community at large has a lot to benefit, lot to profit.

If medicine is to be a humanitarian profession… unfortunately is has become a business and unfortunately in many a places a nefarious business at that. This is the one place I have seen where both standard of medicine and ethics are high indeed. Moral and professional standards are excellent too. And though small it is, it is small and beautiful.

I would like then to just say and wish this place lots of success. I don’t know whether they are planning to expand. But I don’t think they should expand very much because I feel that gaining on to having many beds or many more beds it is not going to be an advantage. I think they should plan to treat more patients on out-patient basis and expand if necessary the facilities required.

If they can manage to do this, they would have done a great job, really a great job.

1. Dr. Udwadia inaugurating the Cathlab 2. Dr. Udwadia Delivering the inauguration speech

Thank you very much on my behalf, and on my wife’s as well, for having invited me to open this centre. Can’t tell you how happy and grateful I am. Thank you!!

Dr. Udwadia is an eminent physician, specialising in pulmonary diseases and critical care. He is a recipient of many awards for his services to the humanity and the nation like the Dhanwantari Award and the Padmabhushan. He is elected a fellow of American Society of Physicians and Royal College of Physicians, London as well as many others. He has authored several books related to medical practice, which are widely followed as standard texts. An inspiration to generations of doctors in Mumbai, Dr. Udwadia is Professor Emeritus of Medicine, Grant Medical College, J.J. Hospital, University of Mumbai since 1964. Currently, he consults at Breach Candy Hospital, Mumbai.

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By Daisy Raj, Godrej Memorial Hospital

Modern cardiac technology now accessible to all Unveiling of Advanced Cardiac Care Centre and Cath Lab at Godrej Memorial Hospital.

Dr. Suhas Gangurde, Chief Executive Officer, Godrej Memorial Hospital, said, “Hitherto, we had no interventional facilities to treat an increasing number of patients suffering from heart ailments. This Advanced Cardiac Care Centre completes our repertoire of cardiac treatment.”

GMH is one of the few hospitals in the country to be accredited with NABH (National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Health care Providers) & NABL (National Accreditation Board for Testing & Calibration Laboratories) by the Quality Council of India (QCI).

G

odrej Memorial Hospital (GMH), commissioned in 2004, is a modern 110 bed, multi-specialty hospital, committed to providing high quality healthcare at affordable cost to all. On 2nd May, 2013, an advanced cardiac care centre was inaugurated at GMH by eminent physician Dr. F. E. Udwadia in the presence of Mr. J. N. Godrej and other members of the Godrej family.

This cardiac care centre is equipped with cutting edge facilities to conduct Angiography, Angioplasty, Cardiac bypass surgery, Valvular procedures and the like.

The centre is also equipped with modern intelligent facilities to perform neurological procedures such as Carotid and Cerebral angiography, carotid artery stenting, Aneurysm/AVM coiling / Embolisation, Spinal angiogram and others. Additionally, it has everything in place to treat patients suffering from stroke (paralysis) on an emergency basis. Besides all these

facilities, it has advanced interventional radiology services. The state-of-the-art Cath Lab is supported with the latest technology like Fractional Flow Reserve (FFR), Road Mapping and Haemodynamic monitoring. Besides enabling advanced cardiac treatment, it will also be used in neurological emergencies.

The centre will be functional round the clock and is open to all. 40 beds are dedicated to patients undergoing treatment at the centre, 10 of which form the Intensive Cardiac Care Unit (ICCU).

Shortly it will have a cardiac rehab centre which will enable patients to begin leading normal lives in the shortest possible time, post treatment.

The centre is supported by highly skilled and experienced cardiac surgeons, cardiologists and specially trained support staff. The nurse – patient ratio is maintained at the recommended level of 1:1 for the beds in ICCU.

GMH holds workshops, programs and seminars regularly to promote awareness about the need to prevent cardiac and other diseases. Its health checkup program is well worth its cost and can provide guidance on impending health issue/serious ailments.

GMH stands out as an outstanding example of hospital that offers ‘high quality’ multispecialty Health Services at prices that are affordable to all. GMH offers free treatment for selected ailments under the Rajiv Gandhi Jeevandayi Aarogya Yojana, Smile Train and ART For AIDS patients.

In an event, if you come to know of anyone suffering from cardiac or neurological ailments, please feel free to call GMH. Also, in the cases of emergencies in Vikhroli and its surrounding areas, GMH could be the hospital of the first call. It’s specially equipped Ambulance services can help save lives. Please pay a visit to see firsthand how GMH provides value healthcare.

Godrej Memorial Hospital www.godrejhospital.com E: hospital@godrej.com T: +91 22 6641 7100, +91 22 6641 7031

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By Meheryar Unwalla, Godrej Singapore

Frugal by Choice S

ometime in August this year, I was asked by Mr. Indrapal Singh if I remembered any examples of frugal ways followed by SPG and Aspy Bardy (our erstwhile Managing Director of Godrej Singapore). I remembered a few stories which I would like to share with my fellow readers of CHANGE. I was very unfortunate in not having contact with the late Mr. Sohrabji Godrej as I left for Singapore/Malaysia in 1993.

However, Sohrabji did visit Singapore for a day, a few months before he passed away and I did spend a few hours with him in Singapore. I clearly remember that we had booked a private taxi for Sohrabji as he had a few engagements in Singapore.

After meeting me, for the first time, he just asked me if I could drive him around for his engagements so that we could release the taxi. I promptly released the taxi and SPG sat next to me in my car and we completed all his engagements and dropped him to the airport for his onward journey. I remember that we had a very pleasant time together.

Mr. Aspy Bardy never travelled by Business Class for his air travels, irrespective of the distance involved.

With the onset of Budget Class air travel,

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Mr. Bardy would always prefer Budget Class travel for our trips from Johor Bahru to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and for our trips from Singapore to Vietnam while visiting Godrej Vietnam.

We used to regularly calculate and compare budget air travel costs for the two of us travelling in Malaysia from our factory in Johor Bahru to our sales office in Kuala Lumpur, flying by Air Asia and other budget airlines. Also, we used to compare costs of travel by air with travel by road using company car- the cost would include the cost of petrol and toll charges etc.

I just cannot forget Aspy Bardy’s reaction to the fastners lying around in the factories in Malaysia and Singapore.

Mr. Bardy, while taking his regular rounds in both these factories, would pickup unused pop rivets, nuts & bolts etc and place them on the factory manager’s table mentioning loudly the value of such fastners. He would do this each and every time and God forbid, in a rare case if the value of the fastners amounted to a few dollars, he would let the factory manager have it. If you knew Mr. Aspy Bardy, I leave the nature of the conversation to your imagination!

Contributed by Kaustubh Shukla, Industrial Products Group

Absolute frugalitythe Buddhist way

B

uddha, one day, was in deep thought about the worldly activities and the ways of instilling goodness in human.

The following is the text of conversation between him and his disciple.

One of his disciples approached him and said humbly “ Oh my teacher! While you are so concerned about the world and others, why don’t you look in to the welfare and needs of your own disciples also.”

Buddha : “OK.. Tell me how I can help you?”

Though he met his disciple’s requirement, Buddha was not all that contended on his decision. He realised he missed out some point.

A while later, he realised what he should have asked the disciple .

He went to his disciple’s place and asked him “Is your new attire comfortable? Do you need anything more?”

Disciple: “Thank you my Master. The attire is indeed very comfortable. I need nothing more” Buddha: “Having got the new one, what did you do with your old attire?”

Disciple : “Master! My attire is worn out and is beyond the decency to wear the same. Can I get a new one, please.”

Disciple: “I am using it as my bed spread.”

Buddha found the robe indeed was in a bad condition which needed replacement. He asked the store keeper to give the disciple a new robe to wear. The disciple thanked Buddha and retired to his room.

Disciple: “ No.. no.. master. I am using my old bedspread as my window curtain.”

Buddha: “Then I hope you have disposed of your old bed spread.”

Buddha: “ What about your old curtain?”

Disciple: “Being used to handle hot utensils in the kitchen.”

Buddha: “Oh.. I see.. can you tell me what did they do with the old cloth they used in kitchen?”

Disciple: “They are being used to wash the floor.”

Buddha: “Then, the old rug being used to wash the floor...???”

Disciple: “Master, since they were torn off so much, we could not find any better use, but to use it as a twig in the oil lamp, which is right now lit in your study room....”

Buddha smiled in contentment and left for his room.

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Awesome Nature N

ature is very frugal and this virtue can easily be seen in the lifecycle of a leaf.

Leaves are the powerhouses of plants. They host the process of photosynthesis, which is meant to provide nutrition to plants. The lifecycle of a leaf begins with the sprouting of a tiny, delicate leaf form. As the time passes, this small form grows to its full size and shape optimally, so as to capture maximum sunlight and lose only the required amount of water; all depending on the type of tree it is and where it is growing. Leaves continue to play their role of providing nutrition as they follow their lifecycle. Once they reach a certain age, the chlorophyll in them starts depleting, turning them yellow. At this stage, the mother plant starts shedding them. These discarded leaves now begin to decompose and release nutrients which are absorbed by the plant. At the end, all that is left behind is a pinch of compost which too is used as manure. Thus, leaves are 100% recyclable and the entire system is highly efficient.

Mother Nature is truly frugal. Let us mimic nature to create good and green products.

The leaves shown here are of the Cannonball Tree (Couroupita guianensis) – a native of South America. Grown widely, quite a few of them can be seen at Pirojshanagar.

Concept & Design by: Adittya Dharap, Godrej Efacec

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