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“Quality has to be a national movement”: NBQP chairman KC Mehra

A QCI Publication QCI

Special Issue

E H T

The 6th National Quality Conclave saw practitioners discussing methods to usher in quality in the country’s development

Quality in the

national agenda

Professional Membership Scheme of Quality Council of India (QCI) AN INVITATION TO JOIN THE NATIONAL QUALITY MOVEMENT Quality Council of India, India’s national accreditation and quality promotion body, has recently launched the Professional Membership Scheme. QCI through this scheme will be working to lay the foundation of a nationwide quality movement. Membership is open to professionals who have expertise and experience in field of quality in different sectors like industry, healthcare, education, government, environment etc. The membership scheme will serve as a catalyst for the development of new ideas, new applications and new learning models of quality in all fields of activities and above all synergy among quality professionals. Membership Type: Presently two principal types of memberships are operating; namely, individual and organizational membership. There are different categories of membership under each type with different fee structure. Membership Benefits: • Receiving a copy of Quality India magazine • Getting discount on QCI publications • Availing discount for QCI training programmes & other events • Networking with co-professionals • Opportunity to form Special Interest Group • Priority to join free sponsored seminars of QCI • Participate in QCI Chapter activities Member Fee Structure: Membership Type Category Organisational Corporate Small (Turnover up 10 Crores) (Corporate) Corporate Medium (Turnover up 10 – 100 Crores) Corporate Large (Turnover above 100 Crores) Hospital Small Hospital (up to 50 Beds) Medium Hospital (50 – 200 Beds) Big Hospital (above 200 Beds) Education School College Higher / Professional Institute NGO’s Individual Associate Member (Quality Practitioner with 3 years experience) Full member (Quality Practitioner with 5 years experience) Life Member (Quality practitioner with 5 years experience) Fellow (By Invitation only)

Proposed Fee Rs. 5,000/- annual Rs. 10,000/- annual Rs. 20,000/- annual Rs. 5,000/- annual Rs. 10,000/- annual Rs. 20,000/- annual Rs. 1,000/- annual Rs. 2,000/- annual Rs. 5,000/- annual Rs. 1,000/- annual Rs. 1,000/- annual Rs. 1,500/- annual Rs. 10,000/- (one time) Nil

For details of membership scheme, please logon to: www.qcin.org For any queries you may get in touch with Mr. A Raju, Mr. Sunil Jaiswal, National Board for Quality Promotion, Quality Council of India, at any of the following emails: raju.nbqp@qcin.org, qci08@qcin.org

QCI Mission “Quality for National Well Being”

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Quality India SPECIAL ISSUE EDITORIAL

Charting a new role for QCI

Having achieved success through the accreditation framework, QCI is now contemplating to evolve different kinds of quality framework, which will have a direct relevance for the common man. It is working on designing quality criteria to improve education, health and sanitation in villages.

GIRDHAR J. GYANI is the Secretary General of the Quality Council of India and editor of Quality India. He can be contacted at sg@qcin.org.

he Sixth National Quality Conclave held during February 11-12, 2011 on â&#x20AC;&#x153;Future of Qualityâ&#x20AC;?, lived up to the expectation and resulted in intense debate on how quality was to drive the national agenda on development. It proved to be a happy networking ground for the 800-odd delegates. The QCI conclave is, perhaps, only event of its kind, where quality professionals from wideranging domains assemble at one place and in a way justifies, why it is called a 'CONCLAVE'. There were more than 250 delegates from healthcare and an equal number from education/vocational sectors and the rest from manufacturing and other service sectors. Quality Council of India (QCI) is basically an umbrella organisation, which is expected to establish frameworks for advancement of quality in different sectors of the economy. Accreditation of conformity assessment bodies for testing, certification and inspection was the first such framework established by QCI, which aimed at facilitating international trade. The accreditation by QCI in these areas today has global recognition. This also resulted in quality becoming more often measurable and no more abstract. Accreditation in healthcare similarly is known to have provided an excellent framework for healthcare organisations to deliver patient safety and quality in healthcare. Over and above this has provided hospitals with an opportunity to have global recognition and get a share of the pie of the global medical tourism business. Similar initiatives in vocational training and skill-building are poised to bring rich dividends at the national level. These frameworks, to an extent, are conventional in nature but at the same time essential for the advancement of quality, productivity and in a way, the national GDP. What has come as a bonus is that QCI has successfully used accredited conformity assessment bodies in compliance of regulation and this is increasingly being used by government for the overall benefit to the citizens. The National Quality Campaign so far has focused on raising awareness in industry on emerging management standards. While management standards help industry have an effective management framework, industry needs to go beyond and apply quality tools to improve efficiency and competitiveness. This has been one of the serious handicaps in the advancement of the SME sector. The

same is the case with a large segment of the service sector. QCI is poised to launch a series of new initiatives to improve upon these aspects. The launch of the professional membership scheme is another measure that has the potential to multiply quality promotion efforts in all walks of life. The membership scheme is aimed at members taking pride in being quality champions not only at their workplace but more importantly at the societal/ community level. Having achieved reasonable expertise and success through the accreditation framework, QCI is now contemplating to evolve different kinds of quality framework, which would have a direct relevance for the common man. For example, QCI is working on designing quality criteria for Gram Panchayats (GPs) to consciously improve primary education, primary health, sanitation, environment and ultimately community living in a village. This would be launched in close support from the Ministry of Rural Development and the Ministry of Panchayati Raj. Once again, an army of professional members is expected to drive this initiative. In time to come, a similar scheme is under design for local bodies in cities. This would be launched in association with the Ministry of Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation. Both these initiatives are aimed at bringing quality at the grassroots' level of society. We have a large percentage of public services still with the government. Citizens visit government departments to avail these services. One of the major concerns raised has been on the upkeep of government buildings. QCI has finalised a unique criterion on the evaluation of government buildings in terms of how a department maintains the premises for cleanliness and orderliness, as these two factors have direct relevance on departmental efficiency and delivery of public services to the citizens. The criterion has made use of Japanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Model 5S on housekeeping and has addressed issues relating to safety for the public as well as for the staff. This initiative is inspired by the Chairman, QCI, who is a strong advocate of cleanliness in public places. As I said, some of the areas in a way are different kinds of initiatives, which are proposed to be launched with the active participation of all stakeholders. QCI is poised to play a decisive role in rejuvenating the quality movement in the country and I look forward in all of us joining together to make it a grand success.

GIRDHAR J. GYANI MARCH-APRIL 2011 I Quality India I 3

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Contents

Q U A L I T Y

C O U N C I L

O F

I N D I A

Letters PRE-CONCLAVE

SPECIAL

A QCI Publication QCI

18 INDIA SPEAKS

EMINENT

INDIANS AND THEIR VIEWS ON

QUALITY

I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to participate as a speaker at the Sixth National Quality Conclave. I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate you and the entire team at QCI and NABH for a highly successful conference. The breakthroughs we are seeing in healthcare quality improvement across the country, under the leadership of the Secretary General, Quality Council of India, Dr Girdhar J Gyani are landmark achievements. Dr Arati Verma Chief Medical Excellence Programs Max Healthcare The theme, the ‘Future of Quality in India’ was rightly selected. The eminent speakers drawn from different faculty were at their best in sharing their experiences with the enthusiastic participants. The experts were of the opinion that we need to draw inspiration from the wisdom of the past — some of the speakers took us on a quality journey (darshan) drawing the incidents from the past (epics) where quality was practiced as a habit to the present where we need to pay attention to so that we can build a future quality India with quality

4 I Quality India I MARCH-APRIL 2011

Blueprint For The Future The Sixth National Quality Conclave, through extensive discussions and enlightening presentations, laid down the blueprint for promoting and propagating quality to go by this year's theme of “Future of Quality — The National Agenda”.

Education Is The Key From primary to higher education, the system is in need of an innovative curriculum in education today.

Patient Safety Above All

Quality Prizewinners

Totally Hi-Tech

Healthcare systems the world over are getting aligned to a more patient-centric and patient safety approach.

Acknowledging the work of quality professionals, the QCI conferred the QCI — D.L. Shah National Awards

HCL’s Ramkumar Ranganathan, gives an insight of how millions of clients benefit from the BPO sector.

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Quality India SPECIAL ISSUE

Letters minds â&#x20AC;&#x201D; along with developing our own idiom by taking the best practices from the East and the West. That will be what the future quality India will be. Prof. N.Shashidhara Principal Advisor, NRCLPI Bangalore

Power Generator

Power Producer

Promoting Wellness Tourism India has become a preferred destination for those seeking wellness through the wellness tourism workshops. Underlining the importance of safe and dignified tourism, initiatives are taken to ensure that Indian Tourism followed international standards of safe tourism practices, applicable for both tourists and local residents. Workshops on Ayurveda and yoga are also conducted.

NTPC Vindhyachal unit set an example by improving unit heat rate with reduced fuel consumption

BHEL emerged victorious by bringing in wireless technology over traditional cables.

Clean Milk Initiatives Banas Dairy improved upon quality and freshness of milk to fetch good dividends

Maximum Insurance

Centre For Excellence

Max New York Life created a benchmark by reducing leakages in insurance proposals.

To maximise operating profits, Convergys brought in innovative solutions by in-house capabilities.

This is regarding the article, Indian interpretation of Global Gap standards initiated (QUALITY INDIA, January-February 2011). I wish to point out that the article was quite informative but the heading suggested that GAP had become mandatory in India. That is not the case. In fact, the introductory lines at the beginning of the article clearly suggest that once the Indian interpretation of Global Gap standards for crops is endorsed, it will facilitate certification in Indian standards. Vani Bhambri Arora Assistant Director NABCB, QCI, New Delhi

QCI

Quality Council of India Institution of Engineers Bldg., 2 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110 002 Tel / Fax: 011 - 2337 9321/ 2337 0567 Designed, printed and published by Newsline Publications Pvt Ltd. D-11 Basement, Nizamuddin (East), New Delhi -110 013 Tel: +91-11-41033381-82 on behalf of Quality Council of India (QCI) at Nutech Photolithographers, New Delhi 110 020 Editor: Girdhar J. Gyani For private circulation only.

H C Tewari contributed photographs for this special edition of QUALITY INDIA.

MARCH-APRIL 2011 I Quality India I 5

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Quality India SPECIAL ISSUE

Quality: Blueprint for the country’s

future

QUALITY PRACTITIONERS FOCUSSED ON EXPLORING THE FUTURE ROLE OF QUALITY TO NATIONAL INITIATIVES ON KEY ISSUES AT THE SIXTH QUALITY CONCLAVE. A REPORT BY NANDU MANJESHWAR. he annual National Conclave organised by Quality Council of India is an event awaited eagerly by practising quality professionals in manufacturing sector, service sector, medical, education et al. The Conclave is also an occasion for exhibiting the best practices developed and achieving quality in economy. It is also an occasion to listen to the luminaries whose life mission has been promoting and propagating quality. The theme for this year was “Future of Quality — The National Agenda”. Many assume that quality is modern-day phenomenon. On the contrary, look around you the civil works or structures built eons ago, while we appreciate its beauty and aesthetics but fail to appreciate or understand that it has, even

after several centuries, maintained its form because of quality. It will not be out of place to quote Aristotle — Quality is not an act, it is a Habit —written over two millennia ago. This perhaps illustrates that people did what they did because aspects of quality was ingrained in them and positively they did not require an external agency to push them to achieve quality. Fast forward into 20th Century and we note that words like quality, productivity and reliability entering our work space and lingo. Though some prefer to take shelter behind the argument that ancients did not have so many industrial activities as seen today and naturally they were good in a limited activity in what they did to achieve quality. This perhaps is a perfect example of an apolo-

gist taking shelter behind such an argument. The practitioner does not lay importance on quantity but on quality. In the pre-inaugural session audience had the pleasure of listening to some of the best minds in education, healthcare and manufacturing — Prof SK Chakraborty, Dr G Bakthavathsalam and Dr N Ravichandran. Where does quality begin? Prof Chakraborty started his speech with the example of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, a school dropout. Tagore won the Nobel Prize in 1913 for the quality of his writing even though he was outside the perimeter of “quality education” as we know today. On Gandhiji, he quoted his writing that education does not mean knowledge of letters, but means character building and duty. Quality begins

DELIBERATING ON QUALITY: Arun Maira, Chairman, Quality Council of India, at the inaugural session of the Sixth National Quality Conclave. Also seen are KC Mehra, Chairman, National Board for Quality Promotion, and Dr Girdhar J Gyani, Secretary General, Quality Council of India.

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Quality India SPECIAL ISSUE

SHOWERING PRAISE: Dr Girdhar J Gyani inviting SK Chakraborty for the Conclave session.

with all of us and if everyone realises this aspect in life, then the communities, the nations and the world would be a better place to live. We celebrate every kind of Days, for example Human Rights Day, so why not have Human Duties Day? The rights orientation and duties orientation are, indeed, the culture we have inherited. The authentic quest is to ignite the quality and its future should be our national agenda. Again reverting to yesteryears, Prof Chakraborty mentioned that even in the absence of certified quality professionals, people achieved quality in work and life. It is time for us to listen to these great individuals to imbibe quality in life first and that ethics will follow in workplace as well. Duty and quality in what we do, are in our culture, let us now take the pledge to imbibe those qualities in our life. As an academician, Prof Chakraborty dwelled on the quality in education. In the past, there were excellent teachers who imparted onto students’ quality education and now with accreditation system in vogue have we exceeded quality of the past? “We want quality, the right quality but are we heading towards that goal with so much of chaos around us? Quality is not a product that one goes and buys. It is inbuilt in us, and quality education helps us reignite nuances of quality inherited through our culture. Let us respect our roots and build national character.” Dr Bakthavathsalam, a Padma Shree awardee, has established a 500-bed super speciality hospital in Coimbatore. His speech punctuated with humour and wit kept the audience in thrall but it was all relevant to this year's theme: Future of Quality — The National Agenda. He started with a quote of one of our young Member of Parliaments had said that a pizza delivery boy arrives faster than an ambulance. He countered in saying that it is not so, for example the 108 ambulance service, which is in operation only in a

few states, does arrive faster than pizza delivery boy. The medical system and medical profession has made a tremendous progress though admittedly this progress has not spread uniformly across the country. If the systems are in place neither the size of the hospital nor the location matters. He quoted an event from his own life when he was knocked down by a car. The passer-by who took him to the nearby hospital did not know that hospital belonged to him. Irrespective of the absence of any identification on him he was treated and emerged later without an adverse effect, commented, “This happened because the systems were in place. That is quality.” On heart bypass surgery he queried, “Do you know how many systems are in place? 275 before and during operation and 125 post-operation period, and missing on a system or two, then imagine the fate of that patient who has reposed so much of faith in doctor and the hospital should something go wrong?” Quality is a state of mind. Self-analysis contemplation is the way to understand quality within. The speeches of both Dr Bakthavathsalam and Prof Chakraborthy bordered on spirituality to quality in life. The doctor mentioned that spirituality gives strength for introspection and that introspection enables the person to realise the strength and quality within. Spirituality has no connotation with any religion, while it brings out the best in a person, he emphasised. Spirituality negates the negativity. Quality can be achieved through the systems in place and does not depend on personcentric activity and does not matter the size of the organisation. He gave the example of Indian Railways and said, “It is a humungous organisation with largest employee base, thousands of trains running every day and lakh of passengers travelling and yet to a great extent it maintains the schedule.” But similar systems do not work on our roads, he lament-

ed and quipped: “On American roads one drives on the right side, on English roads it is on the left side and alas on Indian roads it is suicide.” “The earlier two speakers dealt on quality though they took different paths to explain but the final destination was quality,” said Dr N Ravichandran. He said, technology is changing at a rapid pace. A computer or a laptop bought today becomes obsolete within a short span and that is the speed in the manufacturing sector too. Today’s business depends on quality, and ushered in a large extent by globalisation. The options are two: Either one flows with the changing scenario or be left out. Business environment is changing and electronic is ruling our development and technology, and inter-related sciences combine in innovation. Customer’s demands are changing and they are mostly implying and never in specifics. So, how does a manufacturer assume what kind of product and its quality that a customer demands? The manufacturer has to think in terms of future or how would a product be? Dr Ravichandran gave the example of present-day laptop that could be turned into a roll! “That is innovation and when you have an innovative idea it can be made into a reality. Did any one think of iPad two years ago? It is a reality today and that product has many applications rolled into one,” he opined. Yes, knowledge is power but that power is of no use if there is with no attendant skills and attitude. The simple equation is Power = Knowledge + Skills + Attitude. In manufacturing field and for that matter in any field it leads to excellence and that in turn leads to better quality. Quality is not a fixed goalpost, it shifts further and further and therefore there is no finish post. Quality is a measure of excellence. There is neither shortcut nor quick-fix in achieving quality. Like the bottleneck is at the top of a bottle so is the case in management and not on the shop floor. MARCH-APRIL 2011 I Quality India I 7

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Quality India SPECIAL ISSUE

SHARING WISDOM: Avik Mitra, Advisor, National Board for Quality Promotion, QCI, meeting delegates before the inauguration.

“India gave the world zero, sugar, pie (mathematical sign), precise astronomy and many more, so we are the children of a great civilisation. The past gives us confidence and the present gives us commitment. Let us believe in ourselves. We do not need certification from outsiders that we belong to a great nation,” emphasised Dr Ravichandran. He gave the example of TVS Lucas where on Sundays 600 workers come voluntarily to clean the shop floor, machines, tools and including toilet. Top management joins. It is the topdown commitment because the leader shows the commitment. Create joy in work, quality automatically comes in. That comes in not by aping other countries; we are Indians and let us create quality with our efforts and innovations for our nation. The Inaugural Session started with an invocation to Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge. Quality and growth are interlinked. While many developed countries are facing stunted economic growth the two Asian giants — India and China — are growing exponentially. The economic pundits of the world do agree on one point and that is 21st Century belongs to India and China. While India’s consistent GDP growth is envy of many countries while we here are apprehensive whether this is a bubble about to burst. The growth is based on sound economic fundamentals and so it is not a bubble though the question remains whether the growth is all pervasive. Have the fruits of the growth been able to spread across every section of our society? A little soul-searching would reveal that there is disparity between the growth of India and the growth of Bharat. Thus the challenge is not about the growth in India but the challenge is definitely of inclusive, quality growth. In his welcome address Girdhar J Gyani, 8 I Quality India I MARCH-APRIL 2011

Secretary General, QCI, touched on the role of QCI and its need at the national level during its inception in 1997. He narrated an interesting anecdote when the then President APJ Abdul Kalam was invited to be chief guest at the 2nd National Conclave. The President after going through the vision and mission statements simply commented that the Council’s main objective ought to be “quality for national wellbeing”. Like the man himself his thinking was simple and straightforward without any ambiguity. The initial task was to create an assessment structure to conform the assessment bodies in line with international standards. From the 1st National Conclave to the current 6th Conclave the profile of participants has changed dramatically, from manufacturing sector to health and then healthcare providers, education and government sectors. The credit goes to chairmen and council members, down the line in these six years, who were of the firm view that path, taken by manufacturing sector in quality growth, should be replicated and integrated with sectors like healthcare, education, IT, environment, social sectors, infrastructure and governance. This august body mentioned time and again that name being Quality Council of India the efforts should be aimed at the nation, India. He pointed out that accreditation system brings out competency, objectivity and transparency. Today QCI’s National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB) and National Accreditation Board for Laboratories (NABL) are accepted world over. Now the Central Government desires QCI to propagate national quality mission across the country. “Unless we empower the consumers to demand quality, suppliers will not supply quality products. To undertake this mission we have six boards out which four are for

accreditation and two are for promotion of quality,” Dr Gyani said. He reminded the audience that government is equally keen that QCI moves into government sectors to usher in good governance. Though not an easy task QCI is making a measured entry into some of the sectors: Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board has an MoU with QCI to use third party bodies duly accredited by QCI for ensuring compliance of regulatory norms. Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has decided to rely on QCI-accredited conformity assessment bodies in its regulatory framework. Ministry of Environment and Forests has decided to empanel only QCI-accredited consulting organisations for preparing Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) reports. Ministry for Health and Family Welfare has decided to empanel only QCI accredited hospitals for its CGHS scheme. Ministry of Labour has signed a comprehensive MoU with QCI to revamp vocational training in the country and as first step is linking affiliations of ITIs with accreditation by QCI. Dr Gyani did not miss the opportunity in mentioning that entry into government sector is not an easy process but a challenging task since those organisations would view at QCI with suspicion in entering their domain. These organisations will have to be assured that QCI’s objective is to help them in all possible manner to enable them provide quality delivery. This is a small step towards good governance. Another challenging task for QCI is in revamping vocational training sector to meet the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s desire to have 500 million certified technicians by year 2022. By then, it is estimated that world will have 40 million shortfall in qualified technicians and India will have that many surplus qualified workforce. ISO 9000, 14000 or similar certifications are voluntary initiatives driven either by consumer or the market. Now take the example of malls and retail chains, which also stock fresh vegetables. The international chains in these complexes would demand quality compliant to the international standards. This is based on good Global Agricultural Practices (GAP) and QCI has signed with International Organisation to bring in such standards into the country. In future, consumers would be able to buy fresh agricultural products conforming to GAP norms. Dr Gyani ended his welcome address on an optimistic note that future of quality is in governance and quality mission dedicated to the nation. Irrespective of human development index, which is not favourably inclined

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Quality India SPECIAL ISSUE towards India, but if the regulatory quality is good, then governance is also good and conversely corruption will be less. Arun Maira, Member of Planning Commission, the next speaker and the chief guest asked the gathering, are we a quality nation? Though the response was mixed, Maira reminded that we may not yet be, while indications are that we are moving towards that goal. We have seen quality movement and let us start with India. The father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, taught us the process, a movement by people to gain political freedom for the people. It was world’s greatest quality movement. We now do have a government of the people, for the people, by the people and in that process do we have the government for the people? There is a considerable concern whether the government works for the people. We have only the first part and yet to develop latter parts in delivery system for the people. The Planning Commission manifesto clearly mentions a government of the people, for the people, by the people since government’s planning and execution cannot be separated. Historically, after Independence, we followed rather inherited the Westminster system and have found several lacunae. The planning must be for the people and by the people and with this in view we have embarked on a movement of change in consulting civil society of all hues. In furthering this movement, the government has launched a dynamic website inviting people to express their views. The website was launched in the presence of press personnel and the foreign correspondents especially were impressed and mentioned this is the first time anywhere in the world that such a process has been adopted. Through our efforts we wish to be a nation of quality. Our former President gave us a simple slogan — Quality for National Wellbeing. Measuring growth through GDP is the wrong way to measure. The actual growth should be measured against wellbeing of the people. Take the example of Taj Mahal, a perfect example of human endeavour in making a monument of quality several centuries ago, but the people living around it today do not portray a picture of wellbeing. The former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi would request the head of states and foreign diplomats, apart from visiting Taj Mahal, should also visit some factories. “It was her way of saying that India’s glory was not all that was past, look the present too to assess where India is progressing,” mentioned Maira. In quoting one of the anecdote, Maira said, “I recollect an incident when Tata Motors factory was being built near Pune. The Chairman then Sumant Mulgaokar stressed

KNOWLEDGE SEEKERS: A view of the audience at the inaugural session.

that this factory should be cleaner than a foreign hospital. The productivity will be more in a cleaner environment. Later when I used to escort foreign dignitaries it was an eye opener for them.” Once a German entrepreneur wished to be invited to the Tata Motors factory with a specific request to see the foundry and he was invited. After spending several minutes inside the factory he said I am yet to see the foundry section and when he was told that for the past ten minutes he has been standing at the foundry section, he bent down to pick a bit of dust and to apply on his forehead. He later commented what quality means to Indian industries. This emanates from self-belief and self-confidence. Scores of such stories of excellence abound in our land. We need to usher in a quality movement similar to Gandhiji’s movement. There are centres of excellence but these are not enough. The movement should spread across length and breadth of the country. Let us start quality that touches people first like hospitals, civic services and educational institutions. It is important to engage people not through berating but through examples. Let us enrich our lives through the pursuit of quality. The chief guest Arun Maira’s inspiring speech on quality was followed by the release of a book and honouring three quality gurus with Fellowship Awards. The book Emerging Trends in Supply Chain Management: Framework, Models and Applications authored by Prem Narain, Indian Railways, and its forward written by Dr Girdhar J Gyani was released collectively by Arun Maira, K C Mehra and Dr Gyani. The three quality gurus Prof S K Chakraborty, Dr G Bakthavathsalam and Dr N Ravichandran were bestowed with Fellowship Awards. QCI-D L Shah Awards were presented to

17 companies that included large public sector undertakings, large-scale manufacturing sector, large-scale service sector and micro, small and medium-scale (MSM) enterprises. This year there were two notable differences — Best of the Best Award and MSM enterprises. National Accreditation Board for Hospital and Healthcare Providers (NABH) and National Accreditation Board for Education and Training (NABET) certification were presented. The NABH Certification recipients were Leelavati Hospital, Mumbai, Apollo Hospital, Gandhinagar, Max Super Speciality Hospital, Patparganj (New Delhi), General Hospital, Ernakulam, and Vijaya Eductioanl & Medical Trust, Chennai. The General Hospital at Ernakulam is the 4th hospital in government sector out of 70 to receive this certification. The NABET Accreditation Certificates were awarded to Kendriya Vidyalaya School, Chennai and School for Scholars, Nagpur. In the concluding remarks of inaugural address, K C Mehra, Chairman of National Board for Quality Promotion, QCI, said that the country has woken up quite late in quality movement. In the past since shortage economy was prevalent the manufacturers and suppliers never felt that quality was relevant as customers bought whatever was on offer. Now they have realised that customer is the king and what customers look for is quality. Quality is not expensive, it is priceless. At the end he asked the audience, are we moving towards a quality nation? There was resounding ‘yes’. We are good at being armchair advisors — we advice Planning Commission what they should, we tell the Prime Minister what to do and then to other ministers what they ought to do. Now onwards let us take the pledge what we should do to steer India to a quality nation. The passion for quality is very important and passion alone will move the country towards quality nation. MARCH-APRIL 2011 I Quality India I 9

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INTERVIEW

Quality India

SPECIAL ISSUE

QA &

QCI IS PROMOTING QUALITY IN ALL SPHERES OF SOCIETY. IN THIS

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW, QCI, SECRETARY GENERAL, GIRDHAR J GYANI EXPLAINS THE FOCUS ON QUALITY AS A NATIONAL AGENDA.

“QCI needs to unite nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

The concept of Total Quality Control looked at interlinking all processes responsible for final product, i.e. design, purchase, inspection, etc. The improved version of this came as Total Quality Management, which encompasses every activity in an organisation including the human component. nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

QUALITY INDIA: AT THE OUTSET, LET ME CONGRATULATE YOU AND TEAM OF QCI TO HAVE ORGANISED VERY SUCCESSFUL 6TH NATIONAL QUALITY CONCLAVE, WHICH GOT WIDE SPREAD APPLAUSE FROM ALL CONCERNED. WILL YOU SPELL OUT, HOW THE THEME OF CONCLAVE, I.E. “FUTURE OF QUALITY —THE NATIONAL AGENDA”, WAS DECIDED? SECRETARY GENERAL: As you might have noted, all our past conclaves generally have focussed on national issues. Our emphasis has been to link quality to National Well Being. This time we first decided the theme: “Out of Crisis — Building National Agenda for Quality”. Out of Crisis is the title of a book by Quality Guru Dr Deming. We wanted to convey that Quality can take the country out of crisis. When we took this theme to Chairperson Arun Maira, he said that Out of Crisis sounded negative and suggested that theme should begin with positivity and that is when we finalised “Future of Quality”. The end objective remains the same i.e. defining the national agenda for quality.

Q: A:

WILL YOU BRIEFLY DESCRIBE THE CONTEXT IN WHICH FUTURE OF QUALITY IS PERCEIVED? Quality in the past was identified with a product; its features, characteristics, etc. Quality was the end of the pipe exercise in segregating quality products by way of inspection and rejecting those which did not meet specifications. The next phase came when the focus shifted to process, what was termed as Quality Assurance, resulting into improved quality and cutting down on rejection. Then came concept of Total Quality Control, which looked at interlinking of all processes, responsible for final product, i.e. design, purchase, assembly, inspection, packaging, etc. The improved version of this came as Total Quality Management, which encompasses every activity in an organisation including the human component. In a way, it relates to the quality of an organisation. Today, most successful companies practice TQM and are leaders in their class. Future of Quality is a distant extension of this concept when it is practiced as a national agenda, i.e. when we look at a country as an organisation and apply the principle of TQM in governing a nation.

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Quality India

SPECIAL ISSUE

YOU MENTIONED DURING THE INAUGURAL SESSION THAT HAVING DONE REASONABLY WELL IN ESTABLISHING ACCREDITATION FRAMEWORKS IN VARIOUS AREAS, QCI WOULD FOCUS IN COMING DAYS ON SPREADING QUALITY IN THE COUNTRY. WILL YOU PLEASE ELABORATE? campaign on a regular basis, Quality Council of India has adopted a through talk shows, seminars, resolution wherein National Board for competitions, etc. in crossQuality Promotion (NBQP) would play the role of a national quality facilitating body by promoting functional sectors. For example, experts from the auto secquality and building capacity to meet the expectations of citizens/consumers in all sectors, i.e. man- tor can help hospitals implement Lean tools and likewise ufacturing, infrastructure, education, health, government, social, etc. It needs to become an organi- hospital doctors can help the auto industry on occupational sation that will unite quality professionals with the health. One of the organisacommon cause of promoting quality across sectional members of QCI will tors. The launching of the Professional Memberbe requested to provide secreship Scheme of QCI is going to take the National Quality Campaign to the grassrootsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; levels of soci- tariat/venue for the chapter activities. In order to ety. Membership of QCI would be aimed at build- provide guidance to the chapters, we will form divisions in different sectors like manufacturing, ing a sense of pride among professionals in being education, health, government, etc. where some of torchbearers in spreading quality under overall mission: Quality for National Well Being. Chapter the best brains will be available through sectorbased divisions of QCI, to advise chapters in carry(comprising 50 members in one location) will act ing out activities including giving expert talks. as an empowered centre of QCI in carrying out a

LEARNING CURVE: A view of the audience at the inaugural session.

quality professionalsâ&#x20AC;? Q: A:

HAVE WE SEEN SOME APPLICATIONS OF TQM IN THE GOVERNMENT IN OUR OWN CASE? CAN YOU CITE SOME EXAMPLES? as pure government departments are concerned, I will like to go back to 1991, when India there have been a few isolated instances of applying launched the era of open economy. It is fundamental that quality comes through competition formal quality. A few police stations, a few post offices, a few municipal services, a few government and never in a monopolistic way of doing business. I hospitals have distinguished themselves by implepersonally believe that 1991 initiated quality into menting quality management systems. In most cases, governance. The PSUs were first to feel this impact these came more from efforts put in by individual and today, we see most of our Navratna PSUs officials and not originating from the system. Unforcompeting on quality and price with the best of tunately, we have not been able to keep pace with libmultinationals. This has been a big plus-point. So far eralisation and many public services continue to operate exclusively in government (monopoly). Even if we are constrained to operate some of the services that are under the government, there is need to have effective monitoring/measuring. More recently we have had a good initiative: performance monitoring in the government. There is an exclusive department on performance management, set up under the Cabinet Secretary and 62 departments have been identified, which will implement the quality system and report performance improvement by preparing and reporting on the Results-Framework Document (RFD). It is going to take time before good results are visible as considerable efforts would need to be put in by way of capacity-building in government, aimed at cultural transformation for various departments to be citizen-centric. STARTING ON A HIGH NOTE: Dr S K Chakraborty speaking at inaugural session of the Sixth National Quality Conclave.

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It is very encouraging to see that the health industry has taken accreditation in a positive manner, more so when it is purely voluntary. All stakeholders are unanimous that accreditation benefits each one of them. I keep saying that accreditation in health is aimed at saving lives of patients. nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

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Quality India

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SPECIAL ISSUE

Q: A:

QCI AS THE APEX NATIONAL BODY ON QUALITY HAS BEEN WORKING TO ESTABLISH ACCREDITATION IN DIFFERENT SECTORS. CAN THIS IN ANY WAY HELP IN QUALITY GOVERNANCE? with a number of departments and regulatory bodies, Accreditation as you know is basically aimed at notable among them being Petroleum & Natural Gas establishing a framework, by which an organiRegulatory Board (PNGRB), Food Safety and Stansation practices a transparent and objective system dards Authority of India (FSSAI), Ministry of Health built around competency to undertake defined scope of activities. Accredited conformity assessment bodies & Family Welfare (MOHFW), Ministry of Environment & Forest (MOEF), Director General Employ(CABs) for certification, inspection and testing are ment & Training (DGET), AYUSH, Ministry of New traditionally known to facilitate trade by establishing and Renewable Energy, National Horticulture Board, global equivalence. QCI in the past 3-4 years has taken this model to help government and regulatory bod- Ministry of Food Processing Industry (MFPI), Department of Commerce, Ministry of Defence, Minies, by making available accredited CABs to monitor istry of Tourism, etc. It stands to reason that it directly compliance of governance/regulatory requirements. helps improve governance. Even World Bank indicaThe use of third party CABs bring transparency, objectivity and faster responses and these factors have tors for various nations show that as regulatory quality improves so does governance. huge impact on governance. QCI today is working

Q: A:

ELOCUTION AT ITS BEST: Arun Maira, QCI Chairman and Member Planning Commission, at the inaugural session.

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QCI is watching developments. First is to make sure that standard on accreditation remains dynamic, meeting needs of all stake holders. Second, we need to expand panel of competent assessors.Third area is building capacity by way of providing competent consultants and trainers. nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

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WHAT WERE THE MAIN CONCERNS/SUGGESTIONS FROM THE PARTICIPANTS ATTENDING THE CONCLAVE? This conclave was, by far, the most productive as there was open discussion in all the sessions, on wide-ranging topics. We have captured the suggestions and included them in the action plan. Some of the suggestions were: Ø QCI needs to promote among industry and certification bodies on accruing maximum benefit from QMS standard ISO 9001; Ø SMEs to be encouraged and guided in applying 7-QC tools in cluster approach to maximise quality and productivity; Ø QCI to capture best practices in various sectors (manufacturing/service) and share among SMEs through short-term training workshops, organised at district industry association centres; Ø There was a demand that QCI develop a standard Body of Knowledge (BOK) for short-term courses on quality for different levels of quality professionals, starting from shop floor workers to senior management; and, Ø There were suggestions to have quality certification schemes for various public services like Municipal Bodies, Gram Panchayats, etc

ANOTHER GOOD ACHIEVEMENT OF QCI HAS BEEN THE LAUNCHING OF ACCREDITATION IN HEALTHCARE, WHICH WE KNOW IS IN GREAT DEMAND. MORE AND MORE HOSPITALS ARE QUEUING UP TO HAVE THIS MARK OF EXCELLENCE. LOOKING AT THE MAGNITUDE AND SIZE OF INDUSTRY, WILL YOU PLEASE SPELL OUT THE PLANS TO COPE UP WITH THIS KIND OF WORKLOAD AND PRESSURE? accreditation remains dynamic and meets the needs Yes. It is very encouraging to see that the of all stakeholders. Second, we need to expand the health industry has taken accreditation in a panel of competent assessors. I always maintain that positive manner, more so when it is purely NABH has so far been credible, largely because senvoluntary. All stakeholders are unanimous that ior doctors/administrators/nursing staff have been accreditation benefits each one of them. I keep saying that accreditation in healthcare is not another supporting it by way of devoting time as assessors. The third area is building capacity by way of providkind of certification; it is directly aimed at saving lives of patients. The accreditation requirements are ing competent consultants and trainers. There is a huge demand for consultants who have expertise in very logical and that is why it is said that in case a hospital is not complying with these requirements, it understanding standards as well as in guiding hospitals to implement and, more importantly, in instituis not fit to be in the business of healthcare. I also tionalising the practices in hospital. Yet another area believe that many hospitals must be operating and is to work on measures by which the NABH accredicomplying with these requirements, without having tation will keep on adding value to the hospital, after formally gone for accreditation. As awareness accreditation. Finally, QCI needs to work on develincreases, market forces (consumers) will drive the oping models by which well-known quality tools accreditation. like LEAN, SIX SIGMA, etc. are adapted by hospiQCI is closely watching developments. We tals that will help them to minimise waste and varianeed to work simultaneously on many fronts. tion and at the same time make them competitive. First, we have to make sure that the standard on

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Quality India

SPECIAL ISSUE

Q: A:

SOUNDS SIMPLE. IS IT REALLY SO? CAN YOU GIVE US SOME EXAMPLES? During my tenure as Director, Indian Institute of Quality Management, I was once invited to address officers of Indian Administrative Services (IAS), on the application of TQM in government. I took the TQM model as was taught to us by Prof John Oakland during our training at United Kingdom in 1992 and remodelled it by defining the national quality system as an interconnection of legislation, executive and judiciary. Since then, there have been many attempts and TQM has been applied in government departments in many countries. If the same is applied to all organs of governance including legislation and judiciary, then yes, we can have a come across the ranking assigned by TransparenTQM nation. cy International to various countries. TransparenLet me put it in a simpler way. TQM means cy, by far, is the most important element of qualiworking to a system, which is transparent, objective, dynamic and finally driven by customers (cit- ty governance. Similarly, the World Bank comes out with an index for various countries based on izens in the national perspective). To begin with regulatory quality, which once again is based on these features of a system are to be defined and the same basic principles of transparency and progressively applied in different functions coverobjectivity coupled with a degree of compliance. ing various aspects of governance. You must have

LEADING THE WAY: (Standing from left to right) K C Mehra, Chairman, NBQP, Arun Maira, QCI, Chairman, Dr Girdhar J Gyani.

Q: A:

FINALLY, MAY I ASK YOUR TOP FIVE PRIORITIES FOR QCI, SAY FOR THE NEXT THREE YEARS? goods/services. I would like to have a detailed road Work at QCI is highly dynamic, in the sense that virtually everyday we come across some- map to drive this. QCI can do this as today we have thing new. Still, let me try to identify five core activi- all quality professional bodies represented on the council. QCI as a network body is ideally posities, which shall be our focus in the next three years. tioned to be truly a national quality facilitating (1) Remaining Credible: With growing body. The membership scheme would be modelled appreciation about QCI in government, industry primarily to take this across all sections of society. and consumers, expectations from QCI would also (5) Quality in Governance: increase. I would like to ensure that QCI remains I firmly believe in the system theory and institutionalCREDIBLE, first, in being ethical and, second, in ising the same, be it in an organisation or in a counadding value through its services. try. As a large majority of public services in our coun(2) Quality Knowledge Centre: As workload is on try continue to remain with the government, we need the increase, the present work space is just not to encourage application of third party conformity adequate. QCI needs exclusive premises of its own assessment model in government and in regulation. to accommodate secretariat staff as well as it should become a place where quality professionals can visit QCI, as mentioned earlier, has been working with a number of government departments and regulating to learn and contribute through discussion. The bodies and has succeeded in applying third party place needs to become a knowledge centre in the quality assessment model and this will need to be discipline of TOTAL QUALITY. I would like QCI to have its own premises with all infrastructure to be pursued in more and more areas to improve quality of governance. We are working on an exclusive what I mentioned: a quality knowledge centre. model to introduce simple quality framework for (3) Quality in Curriculum: My third priority will Gram Panchayats, which I believe will bring quality be to focus on introducing quality in the curriculum revolution at the very basic echelon of our society. of all disciplines like Engineering, Medical, Management, Diploma/ITIs and finally at school level. Qual- Similar initiatives shall be worked upon for urban local bodies. The aim will be to make quality ity orientation at an early age, below 14 years of age management relevant in the context of the common will bring a sea change in our future generation as that is the age when the IQ component is in a formu- man. In the Fifth National Quality Conclave last year, we had a theme session on bringing quality in lation stage. administration of judicial systems. I still believe that (4) Quality as Movement: Quality needs to be this can be the mother reform as this reform has driven. Ideally, we should have empowered conimmense power to dramatically change governance sumers who would drive quality. QCI needs to aggressively take the National Quality Campaign to in nation, society and community. QCI will work with government in applying quality management the grassrootsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; level among citizens. Empowered in judiciary, police and in local bodies. n citizens will be able to put pressure on suppliers of

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Launching of Professional Membership Scheme of QCI will take National Quality Campaign to the grassrootsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; level of the society. Membership of QCI would be aimed at building a sense of pride among professionals in beingtorch bearers in spreading quality under overall mission: Quality for National Well Being. nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

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INTERVIEW

Quality India

SPECIAL ISSUE

“QCI’s quality message should go to

the grassroots” NBQP CHAIRMAN K C MEHRA BELIEVES IT’S NOW TIME TO TAKE QCI ACROSS THE COUNTRY AND TO THE GRASSROOTS. EXCERPTS FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH K SRINIVASAN AND NANDU MANJESHWAR.

We had the National Conclave recently. What are your broad impressions about the Conclave and the quality movement per se and how has it helped the Quality Council of India? Frankly, I was quite amazed at the large attendance at the Conclave and at the same time I have to admit as a practising, manager for number of companies, QCI is still not widely known in the manufacturing sector. Having said that, the astounding fact is that on the first day we had over 800 delegates from all over the country. It was well organised. The theme – Future of Quality – was well thought of. The kind of speakers and number of them QCI was able to get are praiseworthy. I interacted with many of them and their views about QCI was very well placed. As I learnt, QCI was by and large known as accreditation body for conformity assessment bodies and therefore is widely known in that circle. Likewise, a large number of training providers were aware of QCI. Another pleasant surprise was that lots of government officials were aware of the QCI and its services. So, I was wondering why the QCI was not known among industry at large. The reason was that industry knows certification body(CB), which certifies them and not QCI, which accredits the CB. These 800 delegates definitely had knowledge about the QCI. Similarly, I had occasion to a conference at Chandigarh, attended by 450 delegates. Here again there was all-round appreciation of activities of QCI as presented by me, but still knowledge of QCI was

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QCI/NBQP is fully geared up to be the apex body to promote quality in the country by taking all stakeholders under one umbrella. As said by the Secretary General of QCI, the members of QCI will be those who will like to be quality champions not only at their workplace but in the society and help build Quality India. nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

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confined. I therefore wonder, why can’t we have such Conclaves in other regions, say Mumbai for the west, Bengaluru for south, and an appropriate place in the east, so that good work of QCI is known and we engage a large number of professionals to carry out mission of QCI, i.e. Quality for National Well Being. What you say is correct that QCI enjoys a lot of credibility. Would you not agree that we need to ramp up QCI’s profile and take it across to all other segments, not necessarily industry? When you talk about credibility, QCI through various boards like NABH or NABET has done a phenomenal work. In fact good work done in these areas has increased expectation and people want QCI to encompass more and more segments to improve national quality. But then there is acute shortage of resources. We do not have professionals of requisite expertise needed for QCI kind of work. As chairman of National Board for Quality Promotion (NBQP), our endeavour is to build ‘Brand QCI’. It needs to be extended through the efforts of “brand warriors”. For example, when people come to know that a seminar or a workshop is conducted by QCI, they should readily participate with the knowledge and assurance that quality topics such as Six Sigma, Lean Sigma or Kaizen would be discussed. Similar seminars or workshops are conducted by other institutions as well, but programmes by QCI should be more appealing to the participants and the quality time they would spend in QCI seminars or workshops for a day or two should give phenomenal returns.

What are your views on regional events, say like regional conclaves in different cities? This point has emanated in our discussions along with chairmen of other boards . Our endeavour is to promote all other boards. We will be seeking their ideas and views as to how their boards have to be promoted. What is important here is to know their USP or anything special they have done, in our efforts of promoting the boards. For example, as I said NABH today is very well recognised in the health industry. NBQP should promote this among users and empower consumers so that they can demand NABH accreditation, when they visit hospital next. Such a demand will keep raising the bar for quality. We are organising special conclave at Ahmedabad, where best practices in healthcare will be shared. Similar conclave is being planned in Mumbai, where best practices in quality governance of schools will be discussed. You mentioned about the long waiting list for hospitals to be accredited. How can this be overcome? This is one of the challenges. Hospital accreditation is very sensitive subject. We need to be careful as grant of accreditation symbolises with patient safety. Today we have over 80accredited hospitals and more than 400 are in the pipeline. Today government, industry and consumer, all have appreciation about good work put in by NABH. We need to continue. At the same time we need to build capacity so that waiting hospitals can prepare fast for the accreditation. NBQP has launched a scheme for registration of professionals as consultants and this should help.

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Quality India

SPECIAL ISSUE How would you propagate initiatives by QCI at the grassroots, to other elements of society beyond industry? You have raised an important point. At the last board meeting we discussed this and the general impression was, we need hundreds of QCIs to take the message at grassroots level. This is where we have launched professional membership scheme. The members would be chosen among the people, who have passion to be torchbearer of quality. This is showing great promise and we are getting large number of volunteers for this. The first chapter (with 50 members) is being formed at Mumbai. This will be extended arm of QCI and will pursue promoting of quality in that part and similarly other chapters will soon follow and what I said, we shall have 100s of QCIs. Many years ago when I was in Jamshedpur, it was a neat, clean and well-maintained city but when one drove 40 km down the road, filth and poverty were too apparent. And issues and areas like that ought to be in our agenda. Our chapters will address such issues. That being the case, isn’t there a case to prepare a roadmap? There is a lot of thinking among top QCI officials and this is now getting more and more defined with clear objectives that the presence of QCI is required in these places as well. The points emanating is that QCI need not do everything and there are a number of professional bodies and NGOs to propagate some of our programmes. We need to network and take like-minded organisation to join the march.

There are too many organisations in the country purporting to promote quality. This may entail working at cross purposes. Isn’t there a need for a single organisation to oversee propagation of quality? Certainly, indeed. This is a huge country. I recollect the statement former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew once made: “Thanks for praising Singapore, but remember we are just one fourth the size of Bombay.” A large country has its plus and minus points. Go 40 km out of a metro or a big city and the situation is entirely different. Some people in position do not venture out while others do go out but do not have official sanction. There is no law in our country as to what is permissible and what is not. For example, in the US pharmaceutical companies cannot

market products unless approved by Food and Drug Administration. That’s what makes for quality. Good point is that government has begun to rely more and more on third-party assessment and is taking services of QCI. Secondly almost all quality professional bodies have agreed to be a part of QCI and there is synergy in various quality initiatives and this will show impressive results in time to come. Finally, how do you wish to propagate quality and ramp up the profile of QCI? As I said above, launch of professional membership scheme and formation of chapters should trigger quality movement at grassroot level. It will also cross fertilise knowledge between different sectors. We have decided to develop standardised body of knowledge for some of the key courses on quality and will

encourage training providers to adopt such BOKs. We also plan to encourage research in quality in some of leading engineering/management institutes. Besides we shall try to capture citizens perception on quality in different sectors, based on which we will launch series of sensitisation programmes to help suppliers in addressing these issues. We also have plans to undertake some of the major projects, aimed at improving quality culture. QCI has already brought out a few very good publications and will continue with more such projects. In short, QCI/NBQP is fully geared up to be apex body to promote quality in the country by taking all stakeholders under one umbrella. As said by the Secretary General of QCI, the members of QCI will be those who will like to be quality champions not only at their workplace but in the society at large and will help build Quality India.

Apart from taking chapters to other places, does it not entail taking QCI’s administrative acumen as well? As I mentioned in the beginning regarding the National Conclave, I am astounded as regards the amount of work done by QCI with limited resources. Here I am not talking about funds but personnel. If you double them, with a dedicated lot, one can achieve a lot. That is the way organisations grow and expand. MARCH-APRIL 2011 I Quality India I 15

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Innovation to ensure quality in

education WHAT WE ARE TODAY IS ONLY BECAUSE OF THE QUALITY OF OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM. EMINENT SPEAKERS OUTLINED THE IMPORTANCE OF AN INNOVATIVE CURRICULUM, REPORTS LAKSHMI SINGH. t the recently held sixth National Quality Conclave in Delhi, a session on ‘Quality in Education’ saw representation from eminent personalities, sharing their views on the importance of quality education in the life of an individual. Session Chairman Dr K B Kushal, kickstarted the session, stating that there cannot be education without quality and vice versa. Talking about learning societies, quality becomes the most important the agenda when there are multiple learning platforms. Dr Kushal expressed his concern by stating: “What is of prime importance is to empower already existing educational platforms. The larger question is: Are

STRESSING ON TOTAL DEVELOPMENT OF STUDENT: Dr. Vijayam Ravi with Anita Makkar at the session on ‘Quality in Education’.

What is of importance is to empower already existing educational platforms. The question is: Are these educational platforms adequately powered in terms of technology and competent human resources? In order to add capacity to new platforms, millions of youth are to be educated.

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these educational platforms adequately powered in terms of technology, infrastructure, and competent human resources?” In order to add capacity to new platforms, millions of youth are to be educated. So the question of capacity is very important. As literacy is increasing, serious competency gaps are emerging. Focus on competence nurturing for the future is essential for the future. Competence must be built not at the elementary level but there is a need to build way beyond mainstream education. The focus has to be on management of effective curriculum. Also, there is a need to concentrate on attitudes and value-centered initiatives in education. The speaker said that more interac-

tions, convergences and collaborations to bring together as many educational institutions as possible to pool resources were needed. These initiatives would serve children better. Eminent educationist Dr Vijayam Ravi focussed on learning processes that are importantant for the educational institutes in the country. For Dr Ravi, quality means total development of students. She emphasised the concept of counseling which dates back to Lord Krishna and Arjuna in the Mahabharata, the guru-sishya parampara starts from there. According to her, “Quality has to be self-driven. It’s a mindset.” In the present day, teaching cannot be teacher-centric at all.

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KICKSTARTING THE SESSION: Dr. K B Kushal starting the session on education.

Today’s student is different. He cannot have the same kind of homogeneity. Students in a learning institute come from different geographic and demographic areas. The educational system should neither be student-centric nor teacher-centric. It has to be a dialogue between the both. Focussing on the challenges that keep quality away, Dr Ravi stated that during school years, a student is under 100 per cent teaching. But after school years, the student acquires a certain position in life. Like schools and colleges have their own quality norms. So it is always advisable to create its own quality norms. Government, management, principal-staff, parents all are not on the same platform. Unless the educational institutions decide to be on the same wavelength of thinking, they cannot implement quality. In order to achieve quality, quality of students, quality of staff and quality of infrastructure are very essential. In rural areas, it is very difficult to get good teacher at the same time who is consistent too. To tackle this, a pool of teachers can be trained, so that they can be sent to neighbouring villages to teach. Dr Ravi discussed various factors that guide the quality of education. The first and foremost factor was money. Language as communication was the greatest challenge the country was facing. In an educational institution, children from various

parts of the country study whose mother tongue is different. So, another important factor was that the quality of communication had to improve. The most important factor was the performance of the child in an educational institute. What was of prime importance was the pedagogy. Was the teacher attending to the needs of the child or not? The method or the passion in a teacher should have the feeling of “I feel your pain in my heart”. The next important issue was quality assurance. Academic assurance was the solution for this. There were missing links in the education system. So, there was a need to bridge that gap. The attrition rate of teachers was very high and the factors for that were many and varied. First, teachers are so fed up with the repetitive work they do that monotony sets in. There were no challenges involved in the pattern of work. The solution for this was that unless the educational institutes decided that they wanted quality, quality won’t be achieved. This was necessary for the overall commitment. There should therefore be more focus on teacher training that should be more interactive and inter-disciplinary and not monotonous. The next speaker, Anita Makkar, gave a brilliant insight into education. Laying more stress on innovative curriculum management, she stated that it

was not just the curriculum that could push the child ahead. And innovative curriculum was the necessary tool to enhance the development of the child. Although in our system of education, the curriculum was already decided and described by NCERT, it has to be innovative. Emphasising on curriculum, Anita Makkar asked, “Why do you need innovative curriculum transaction?” She stated that the present generation was in need of innovative curriculum transaction because the needs of the learner have changed today. So there is a need to prepare the learner to become a global citizen. Varied sources are available outside the classroom. A child learns a lot of things from the outside world. So it is imperative to create the best ambience for the child’s development. According to NCF, 2005 childcentred pedagogy with constructivist approach to be followed. The reason for a need for a curriculum management is to stay goal-oriented. For this, it is important to choose curriculum to match national standards. In addition, there is a greater need for the teachers to be empowered. The classroom instructions are very important. There is a need to improve on classroom learning strategies. Children need to be highly engaged and seek higher levels of creativity and innovation and to have a voice in their own learning. This helps children develop

In the present day, teaching cannot be teacher-centric at all. Today’s student is different. Students in a learning institute come from different geographic and demographic areas. The educational system should neither be student-centric or teacher-centric. It has to be a dialogue between the both

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QUALITATIVE APPROACH: Delegates who spoke on Quality in Education.

In order to achieve quality, quality of students, staff and infrastructure are very essential. In rural areas, it is very difficult to get good teacher at the same time who is consistent too. To tackle this, a pool of teachers can be trained, so that they can be sent to neighbouring villages to teach.

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integrated ways by creating a participative and activity-oriented environment. Along with this, building background knowledge and reading in groups, group discussions as well as action followed by feedback session were also important. Dhruv Academy’s Alka Vaidya focused on the child in an educational institute. Citing examples of Walt Disney who was a failure as a student and had to be sent out of the school as saying that Disney “lacked creativity”. But it was Walt Disney who gave those famous cartoon characters like Mickey mouse to the world. Alka Vaidya stated that “children are like volcano who are ready to erupt. It is for us to tap that talent out of them”. Vaidya, therefore, laid stress on providing the right kind of infrasture and ambience to the child as the vital source for an educational institute to function successfully. Dr Y S Rajan in his incisive presentation spoke about the quality of governance in education. Systemic elements like courts, parents, teachers, rules, laws, procedure, etc decide the quality of governance in education. Academic elements were governed by these factors. In order to make it more successful, Dr Rajan suggested that these governance systems like laws, rules and regulations must be simplified. Oversight mechanisms to be made thin in terms of hierarchial facilitators and not inspectors. The most important

suggestion was to empower teachers as this would bring a lot of self evaluation. It is also necessary to minimise compulsory subjects in the curriculum. There was need for flexibility to learning from experience and to capture new oppurtunities. Reeta Sonawat focused on the quality in elementary education as the most importan area to be taken care of in an academic institution. Defining quality in elementary education, Dr Reeta Sonawat said that quality meant taking good care. It was with that in mind that the curriculum was contextualized. It was developmentally appropriate. For quality in elementary education, must introduce standard based on child development. Dr Sonawat focused on four important elements that kept a watch on quality. They are teacher, parent, researcher and government. The factors that affect the quality are teaching and non-teaching staff who are to be well trained. The next factor is the curriculum which has to be developmentally appropriate. And lastly, the assessment methods and parents involvement affect the quality in elementary education. The physical settings like the location, space, lighting , cleanliness of a school surroundings and teacherchild relationship decide the successful functioning of the institute. The best experience Dr Reeta Sonawat said which a child got out of a quality programme are good physical health, better

understanding of social and emotional needs, competence in communication, refined mathematical understanding, creativity in arts, music and understanding of the scientific world. On the second day of the conclave, session chairman R L Singh dedicated to skills development. He started the session by saying that there were 17 ministries for skill development in the country. Boards like CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM, etc. were all meant for skill development. About Rs 1,000 cr were allocated for this from the Government of India. Singh introduced the first speaker Graham Brent from Scotland for the Scotland experience who started his presentation by laying importance on training. “Training is only effective if learning is verified,” he said. So, for verification, the certification became important. Citing examples on crane operators, Brent said that the certification for crane operators was established in 1995. A written test was followed by a practical test as well. This Scotland experience to India enabled training and development of the crane operators too. So, education and training to labourers were also important. To conclude, Brent enlightened the need for education of workers, in terms of skill development. The second speaker Anthony Mitchell also stressed on the role of psychometricians. The method of examination and examination content were important factors in skill development. The first thing was job analysis and work with subject matter experts. Vijay Kapoor, advisor to the Vice Chancellor, IGNOU, concluded the session by speaking on ‘Education sans frontiers’. That was the challenges for Indian higher education in the 21st century. He said that the only 5 per cent of the workforce in the country was certified. This was a major challenge. So, the solutions are online learning and distance learning. Currently, IGNOU, which was aggressively moving towards the online mode, was facing challenges. Education had a major role to play at the school level.

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Quality India SPECIAL ISSUE

Quality buzzword: Patient safety

above all A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO TACKLE CHALLENGES AND A ROADMAP THAT WILL CHANGE PATIENT SAFETY WERE DISCUSSED DURING THE CONCLAVE, REPORTS JASLEEN KAUR.

THE QUALITATIVE START: Healthcare session of Day 1 kicked off by Dr Narottam Puri, Chairman, NABH, who chaired the session.

DAY 1, CONCURRENT SESSION: HEALTHCARE ealthcare systems the world over are getting aligned to a more patientcentric approach, with growing thrust on issues of patient safety, as underlined by Dr Narottam Puri, Chairman, National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH), who chaired the first session of “Quality in Healthcare”. He kicked off the proceedings by saying that patient safety was the flavour of the season. The name of the game today was change, and managements were moving from doctorcentric to the patient-centric approach, making it imperative to capture the patients’ voice. This, in turn, came out with the term, which was used to describe a systematic approach to maintaining and improving the quality of patient care within a health system, i.e. ‘Clinical Governance’, and became the first topic of discussion in the session.

Carrying forward the session, the first speaker of the session, Dr Anil Kumar Mulpur from Narayana Hrudayalaya, made a presentation on the “Role of Clinical Governance in Delivering Quality Healthcare”. His presentation began with the most acceptable description of clinical governance, which he defined as “a framework through which NHS organisations were accountable for continually improving the quality of their services and safeguarding high standards of care by creating an environment in which excellence in clinical care will flourish.” Talking about clinical governance, he explained that it included doctor-patient relationships and this could only be achieved by healthy interaction between clinicians and management /administration. Today, there is a need for interaction between doctors and doctors, patients and patients. Patients groups can be created. Dr Mulpur went on to mention that patients’ expectations

had changed. Now, they are more cost and quality-conscious. They want to spend the least money to get the best-possible care. Appointments have to be respected and cannot wait to be seen. Good food, good toilets, and good entertainment are the key requirements. Doctors/nurses need to be courteous, so that there can’t be delays in investigation and intervention. Concluding his presentation, he said, “Don’t regard clinical governance as just another project or a superficial makeover. It is a root and branch transformation of the way clinical care is provided.” Talking about “Clinical Audit”, Dr Anand,Professor, Dept of Pulmonary Medicine, Kasturba Medical College Hospital gave a detailed account of the “why, when and how — clinical audit”. He began with the history of clinical audit. It started in the era of 175 BC with the monitoring of patients’ outcomes, during King Hammurabi of Babylon. Then in 1850s, during Florence Nightingale, hospitals acquired

Patients’ expectations have changed. Now, they are more cost and quality-conscious. They want to spend the least money to get the best possible care. Appointments have to be respected and cannot wait to be seen. Good food, good toilets, and good entertainment are the key requirements.

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AN IDEAL PLATFORM: The session on quality in healthcare led to some interesting discussions with the prime focus on patient safety.

Shift from reliance on principles to use of past experience, changes of perception of a situation, and passage from detached/anxious observer to involved performer are the key changes, which are ideal for patient safety and would lessen the ratio of nurses going abroad.

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infection audit — high mortality rates among injured or ill soldiers. The beginning of accreditation could be traced back to clinical audit in 1910 when Ernest Codman proposed the “endresult system of hospital standardisation”. He moved on to say that while searching on Google about clinical audit, one would get numerous results and gave the definition of clinical audit as a quality-improvement process that sought to improve patient care and outcomes through systematic review of care against explicit criteria and the implementation of change. The aim of the clinical audit, he mentioned, was to measure the gap between ideal practice and actual practice. Why clinical audit? Society is questioning quality of care and concepts of professional discretion or clinical freedom. The stark evidence of this shift in attitudes is shown in the demands of pressure groups, press coverage, calls for public inquires, and the rise of complaints, legal challenges, and claims for redress. Audit is the one way in which the medical community could work to retain the trust and respect in an increasingly critical environment. The first session ended with the presentation of Dr Murali Srinivas, Manipal Hospital, who highlighted the tips to overcome most common obstacles in preparing for NABH accreditation. He started with the journey towards

healthcare excellence — establish quality systems, healthcare accreditation and achieving services and clinical excellence. NABH accreditation steps, which he mentioned, involved steering committee for NABH, understanding standards, form subgroups, help relevant stakeholders, ensure NABH standards were implemented in hospital functions, internal audit, pre-assessment, call for the action, final audit and accreditation. The second session was chaired by Dr R Karanjekar, Chairman, Healthcare Committee, NBQP, who introduced Capt Ajitha PS, Chief of Nursing, Fortis Hospital, Gurgaon. She stressed on building excellence in nursing services. “I don’t have any formula for this or any short cut,” adding a quote from Florence Nightingale”…the very first requirement in a hospital is that it should do the sick no harm.” She outlined the positives of nursing: the largest healthcare workforce, significant adaptive capacity, regular and close proximity to patients, scientific understanding of care processes and multiple practice settings. On the other side were some negative aspects: the youngest and least experienced in most hospitals, limited/no participation in decision-making, at the sharp end of patient care and, most importantly, held responsible for anything going wrong. She stated “Excellence in nursing services” as

a degree to which nursing care was experienced by the patients, relatives, physicians, other stakeholders and the nurses themselves as against a predetermined standard, which resulted in less/no harm and improved outcomes. Change is in fashion and skilled performance was not an exception. Shift from reliance on principles to use of past experience, changes of perception of a situation, and passage from detached/anxious observer to involved performer were the key changes, which were ideal for patient safety and would lessen the ratio of nurses going abroad. Saying that nursing cannot be learned by attending lecturers, or reading books, it comes working with those who are working in this field, she enlisted the challenges ahead: capacity building, demand-supply issues, nursing human resource management, training — “too much too soon”, and inculcating professionalism and values. The way forward, according to her, was to set up a nursing core committee by Quality Council of India. She informed that they had the first meeting on January 6, 2011, at Global Hospital, Chennai — Reshaping Nursing in Indian Hospitals. Named National Accreditation for Nursing Excellence (NANE), the committee would help in improving the working environment for nurses up to 6070 per cent, which will be headed by Girdhar J Gyani as President and Dr R Karanjekar as Chairman. Healthcare organisations worldwide are increasingly recognising the need to evaluate and demonstrate the quality of what they do. Different countries are making different choices about which processes best suits their needs. Newer models and innovations are driving improvements. According to Dr Aarti Verma, Member, Technical Committee, NABH, good foundation was critical, which included structures like availability of beds, OPDs, staff, building, space, equipment, supplies, resources and basic monitoring of patients. Talking about NABH, she mentioned that the Indian National standards had been benchmarked with international accreditation standards (USA, UK, and Australia).

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SPELLBOUND AUDIENCE: Presentations on various issues of healthcare kept the audience in rapt attention.

Over 50-plus hospitals were accredited with NABH and it had over 300 applicants. Government healthcare, according to her, was rapidly gaining awareness and participation. QCI was running QA programmes in Delhi, Gujarat, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Care of patients was provided through the adoption of adequate policies and treatments. Patient and families had a right to information and education about their healthcare needs and this was what clinics informed them. Quality was above all. She informed that there was a structured quality improvement and continuous monitoring programme. “We need your commitment…To make a new beginning… Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed persons can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has,” she concluded. NABH accreditation for AYUSH systems of medical practices in meeting the challenges of the 21st century was the focus of the presentation of Dr Niranjan Murthy, Managing Director and Head of Technical Activities, Pentacure Ayurpharma, Bengaluru. He kicked off with the definition of Ayurveda and its roots — It is only for the sake of Dharma and not for fulfiling personal desires and lusts that the science of Ayurveda was

brought to the light by sages. According to Dr Murthy, medical success was equal to physician, drug, nurse and patient. A good physician was the complete package of well-read, good practical experience, skillful, pure, whose medical prescriptions and surgical operations are infallible, with healthy sense organs and character, with excellent knowledge of anatomy, physiology, pathology, signs and symptoms, good prognostic knowledge, in-depth knowledge of pharmaceutics. Present challenges, according to him, were to re-establish the glory of a patient-centric approach as taught by Acharyas, to bridge the wide gulf between quality of medical care the community expected and deserved and what AYUSH was actually delivering, to establish AYUSH centres which ensured critical patient benefits, and, to galvanise the preparedness of AYUSH systems to meet the demand of the surging affluent- class seeking alternative medical care in the era of internet and pro-active communication media. He concluded with a message that “Ayurveda is not evidencebased”.

DAY 2, CONCURRENT SESSION: HEALTHCARE Dr YP Bhatia, Managing Director, Astron Hospital and Healthcare Consultants, NBQP, who

was chairing the session, introduced the first speaker— Dr Sanjeev Singh, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences. His presentation was on “Quality Dashboard: A quality initiative in healthcare”. Data hierarchy included wisdom, knowledge, information and data. Aggression and analysis of data catered to nursing informatics, utilisation and care review, safety and environment data, risk management, performance improvement, clinical support services, clinical outcomes and audits, human resource, marketing, patient and employee satisfaction surveys, health record statistics, and, finance activity reports. Mentioning that time was changing, he gave a brief description of quality dashboard planning process, which starts with mission and vision, moves on with objectives, measures, targets, and progress. With this, he showed a quality dashboard indicating dashboard strategy and performance measures. The session moved from dashboard to radiology and imaging. Dr Uday Patil, Adjunct Professor, Dept of Radiology and Imaging, Kasturba Medical College, stressed on the topic: “Key indicators for measuring and improving radiology department”. Dr Patil said, “Measuring the quality of imaging services is inherently difficult. Scientifically sound metrics are lacking. The

Aggression and analysis of data catered to nursing informatics, utilisation and care review, clinical support services, clinical outcomes and audits, human resource, marketing, patient and employee satisfaction surveys, health record statistics, and, finance activity reports.

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QUALITY TALKS: Quality dashboard, radiology, water quality in dialysis and practical approach towards quality formed the key discussion points during the healthcare session of Day 2.

To manage quality, the main objectives are effectiveness in the system, and proper patient care. And if one asked how this quality could be achieved, the answer is every evaluation needed yardsticks for reference. Systematic quality assurance work would contribute towards removing quality deficits.

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review of patient records to document the effect of diagnostic imaging on the care outcome is costly in staff time and labour.” Key performance indicators (KPIs) were considered to be measurement tool used to monitor and evaluate the quality of important governance, management, clinical, and support functions. Each step in the care process was associated with a metric. Combined, these metrics defined a comprehensive radiology quality programme. A properly targeted and organised set of KPIs would help a leadership team identify the most important problems or opportunities to be addressed and the best way to create the most valuable set of KPIs was to derive them from the strategic planning process. Collaborative effort of radiology department and administration was vital. Administration has to allocate resources — human, financial as well as technological — to help the radiology department collect and analyse the data. Dr Soma Chatterjee and Dibyendu Maji from Lonza discussed the importance of water quality in dialysis and need for endotoxin testing. Saying that water was the most critical factor in dialysis, Dr Chatterjee said, “The dialysis fluid consists of up to 99 per cent of reverse osmosis

water, in addition, chemicals are added, such as acids, salts and bicarbonate,” adding, “Out of 1, 50,000 new patients develop end stage kidney failure each year in India, only three per cent receives kidney transplant and about 15-20 per cent treated with dialysis.” Reverse osmosis reduces bacteria and endotoxin levels. If sanitation was inadequate, bacteria and endotoxin would reach dangerous levels. Then she explained what endotoxin was. It was the natural form of lipopolysaccharide occurring in the outer layer of the bi-layered gram negative bacterial cell wall. The term lipopolysaccharide referred to the pure chemical form. Patients receiving hemodialysis therapy were exposed to approx. 400 liters of water per week , which was 20-25 folds greater than drinking water. This potentially exposed them to large amounts of endotoxin. In addition, washing with water for the reuse of hemodialysers and centralised dialysate production also increased the risk of endotoxin contamination. This practice was not being used any more in the USA, Europe, Japan, but might be used elsewhere. Exposure to endotoxin could result in pyrogenic reactions — fever, chills, fall in blood pressure, activation of the complement system, release of cytokines, inflam-

mation, and resistance to recombinant human erythropoietin. She enlisted the international limits for water for dialysis applications, e.g. according to Japan Society for Dialysis Therapy, endotoxin level should be above 0.25 EU/ml, while French Health Ministry requires a limit of 0.05 IU/ml for replacement electrolyte fluids used in hemofiltration. She also demonstrated the hemodialysis schematic through a diagram. Talking about sample collecting (water), she said, “Water samples should be collected directly from taps on the water distribution system. Do not disinfect water collection tap. Water tap should be opened and allowed to run for a minimum of 60-seconds before a sample is collected. A minimum of 50 ml or a volume specified by the testing laboratory should be collected.” Dr Rajiv Mohan, Mohan Eye Institute, gave an intrinsic presentation on “Quality in Healthcare — A practical approach”. According to him, quality improvement is an important goal. Committee of clinicians was the need of the hour. Data should be monitored accurately so as to ensure patient safety. To manage quality, the main objectives are effectiveness and efficiency in the system, and proper patient care. And if one asked how this quality could be achieved, the answer was every evaluation needed yardsticks for reference. Systematic quality assurance work would only contribute towards removing quality deficits. The problem areas were lack of organisation, structure, information, process, etc. He went on to mention the quality assurance approaches, which included measuring quality, defining quality and improving quality. To be patient-friendly hospital, Dr Mohan mentioned that parking was an alarming issue. Concluding his presentation, he said, “To eliminate margin of errors, standardisation is vital. Time, money, manpower and commitment are the basic ingredients for providing quality healthcare services.”

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Quality India

PHOTOS BY: H.C. Tiwari

SPECIAL ISSUE

Made in India—

The Quality way CENTURIES AGO, ARISTOTLE DEFINED QUALITY AS A HABIT AND NOT AS AN ACT. IN ANY OCCUPATION “QUALITY” IS INBORN AND CANNOT BE EITHER THRUST FROM THE TOP OR INDUCED FROM THE BOTTOM. TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE WORK OF QUALITY PROFESSIONALS, THE QUALITY COUNCIL OF INDIA CONFERS THE QCI - D.L. SHAH NATIONAL AWARDS ON ECONOMICS OF QUALITY. A LOOK AT THIS YEAR’S WINNERS AND HOW THEY ACHIEVED THE HONOUR.

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Quality responses through

intuition HCL'S BPO WAS FACED WITH A UNIQUE PROBLEM: HOW TO SERVICE AN INSURANCE CLIENT IN THE US WITH YOUNGSTERS WHO WERE UNAWARE OF US LAWS? NANDU MANJESHWAR GIVES AN INSIGHT. ndia has made its mark in business process outsourcing (BPO) for a decadeand-a-half. It is not because India is “cheap”, as some prefer to deride, but provides value-for-money services in reliability, quality and above all create value addition to a client’s business. HCL BPO commenced operations in 2001 and since then its valuable asset is human resources with 11,000 professionals operating out of India, Northern Ireland and the USA. It consists of 22 delivery centres

I SETTING THE RIGHT AGENDA: HCL’s BPO training has gained prominent attention among jobseekers who want to carve a niche in the BPO sector.

HCL BPO commenced operations in 2001 and since then its valuable asset is human resources with 11,000 professionals operating out of India, Northern Ireland and the USA. It consists of 22 delivery centres across India, the United Kingdom and the United States of America offering multilingual support.

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across India, the United Kingdom and the United States of America offering multi-channel and multi-lingual support in eight European and in eight APAC languages. Its focus has been on verticals in sectors like telecom, retail, banking and financial services, insurance, hi-tech and manufacturing, media, publishing and entertainment. The company also services in areas like supply chain management, knowledge and legal services, customer relationship management and tech-

nical support services, and finance and accounting. It has created a niche in the telecom sector and operates business processes for world-renowned clients’ back-office services particularly in the telecom and retail domains. Its leadership credentials are impressive and it is:

The first Indian BPO to enter telecommunication expense management. Ranks among the top-10 ITenabled services BPO. Largest BPO service

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PROMOTING RELIABILITY AND SECURITY: The HCL BPO team receiving prize in recognition of enhancing client satisfaction.

provider in Northern Ireland. Largest provider of telecom BPO service in Asia. Pioneered blended-shore operations for Indian BPO service providers.

Project: Operational excellence through intuition. The project was steered through application of pattern recognition, artificial intelligence, positioning and branding theories to back office operations. Back office operations are at an inflection point in India. It is expanding from simple rulebased processes to those that are complex and demanding decisions and judgments. It is more so in projects in the insurance domain. People buy insurance poli-

Totally hi-tech

cies from the HCL BPO’s client and when they experience accidental losses, obviously they place their claims. However, all claims are not passed by the insurance company: while some are accepted, others are rejected. People whose claims are rejected resubmit their claims. One cannot assume such claims are not open-and-shut cases, but are complex requiring decisions and judgments based on thorough analysis. These cases are routed to the HCL BPO in India. Insurance is a well set, mature industry abroad while it is a nascent sector here. The expertise needed is not available - even at a reasonable cost in our country. The other aspect compounding the problem is that executives, handling the cases, have either limited domain knowledge or only on-the-job

experience to handle the cases. The alternative is to train and coach the executives in making judgments and in taking decisions that match those made by the experts. It is a huge intellectual challenge. Then there is another structural challenge and that is the information security requirements of the client. The client expects the work to be done in a “clean room” where pen, paper, phone and internet are banned. The HCL BPO team started work with known best practices of the industry, basic logic and decision rules like in any other back office transaction processing. They followed three sets of tactics:

HCL Technologies is a global IT services company headquartered in Noida in the National Capital Region. It is the IT services arm of HCL, a $ 5 billion global technology and IT enterprise. As on last fiscal, HCL Technologies along with its subsidiaries had consolidated revenues of $ 2.60 billion. A workforce of 77,000 professionals of diverse nationalities is working in its network of offices in 26 countries. In 2008, it acquired US-based Capitalstream and UKbased Axon Group. HCL's BPO is heading towards a maturity level where a new form of BPO called Transformational BPO and an evolution constituting Full Process Outsourcing and Multiple Process Outsourcing. It services customers in various industries such as telecom, retail, insurance, banking and financial services nad hi-tech services.

Avoid the clean room constraint of having to glean, memorise, recall, mentally debate and decide. A two executives-in-a-box concept with four monitors was adopted wherein all databases can be referred simultaneously, discuss between the two and thus eliminate the strain substantially. Tasks were segmented based on nature and people were segmented based on performance. They were aligned by giving specific tasks to specific teams thereby improving overall performance. In addressing attitudinal problems of not being able to give benefit of doubt judgment, operational excellence

Insurance is a well set industry abroad while it is a nascent sector here. The expertise needed is not available — even at a reasonable cost. The other aspect compounding the problem is that executives handling the cases, have either limited domain knowledge or only onthe-job experience.

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Quality India SPECIAL ISSUE “Client benefited in millions of dollars”

Ramkumar Ranganathan, Vice President & Head, Banking and Financial Services, on how teething problems to tackle insurance claims by the BPO unit were overcome. I find most of the BPOs are doing similar kind of work. How different is yours? Though basic functions of BPOs may be more or less the same but there are certain functions

that are complex. It all depends on the work one does for the client and also depends on clients' brief. After all, a BPO's job is to provide economical, reliable and quality service. In fact, a BPO is as good as an extension of the client's office. This particular project was for a client, an overseas insurance company. In this project you are tackling insurance claims. Isn't there a need for people to understand nuances associated with this sector? Of course, domain knowledge is very important. Settling insurance claims is complex if one does not have the knowledge of either insurance or the

with human face concept was harnessed through roles linked into a cell and thereby deriving right behaviour and attitude.

Global experts carry as many as 50,000 chunks of information or case studies built over a ten-year period. In a split second, their sub-conscious minds supply the right input for their decisionmaking process from their intellectual repertoire. This was the way forward, the management felt.

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Though these initiatives improved the situation only partially, they soon impacted timing substantially. Result: a higher level of solution was needed. Diagnosing the problem, it was realised that a certain level of ‘expertise’ was needed to improve performance. The question in the management’s mind was: How to develop expertise in youngsters when they have limited knowledge and no on-the-job experience in insurance claim settlements? Researching on ‘expertise’, they found valuable concepts in Herbert Simon’s Nobel Prize winning artificial intelligence and behavioural economics research. The author proved that expertise and intuition were closely related and both referred to ‘sub-conscious pattern recognition’. Global experts carry as many as 50,000 chunks of information or case studies built over a five or ten-year period. In a split second, their sub-conscious minds supply the right input for

law of the land. In settling the claims we have to be fair to both claimant and insurance company. And to be fair one has to have domain knowledge and experience in handling such cases and above all an unbiased view. Did you encounter problems and if so how did you overcome them? I will be frank in saying we did encounter problems. Our youngsters with five or six years' experience did not have the requisite knowledge. No one to be blamed since none of us had this kind of project earlier. But after getting this client it was for us to learn the ropes and we did learn though I admit the knowledge

their decision-making process from their intellectual repertoire. This was the way forward, the management felt. A methodology to implement pattern recognition was another concern. The positioning and branding theories developed by Al Ries and Jack Trout on how brand names act as pegs to hang products and their merits in people’s mind were recalled. With this basis, the company developed a methodology to implement the skills of pattern recognition and it was on that, a training regime was developed. They primed it with a few case studies and branded these cases for ease of recall. The team members added more from their day-to-day work. Eventually, these measures helped to build intuition levels. Whenever they saw a new case a sub-conscious trigger would tell them to which previous case this related to and, therefore, what should be the probable set of checks and decisions. Making patterns and memorising them became a habit with the team. In a month’s time the progress was perceptible. Simultaneously, defects and turnaround time shrunk in a sus-

did not come on a platter. Since you service a foreign insurance company how difficult or easy was it acquire the requisite knowledge? Today, we are living in an era of information explosion. So, obtaining information was not such a problem but obtaining the relevant information did take time. Then training the young staff and getting them into the groove was time-consuming since none of them had on-the-job training. Given the intelligence of our youngsters it took us less time than anticipated. Finally, we would be gauged by how much the client benefited and they did so in millions of dollars.

tained manner enhancing employee and client’s satisfaction. In a period of six months, a stage of zero defect was reached suggesting a near perfect alignment with the experts. Applying the concepts of “rapid cognition”, “thin slicing” and “stored-set-of-patterns” gleaned from Malcolm Gladwel’s Blink, it was established that like any expert in any industry the company’s team of youngsters had slowly moved ahead to solve cases much faster, with lesser parameters. In so doing, the team developed a sizeable stock of patterns in their minds, aligning their decisions and judgment capabilities to those of the experts in the United States of America and that too with only 5-10 years of experience. The uses, because of this project, are foreseen in other domains such as supply chain, media and publishing, and finance and banking. Any activity requiring expertise as an essential or a desirable trait can benefit from these findings, practices and tactics. In financial terms, the client benefited to the extent of $ 12 million per annum.

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Analysis and training raised

quality BEL ADOPTED THE SIX SIGMA APPROACH, WHICH ENABLED IT TO FOCUS ON CUSTOMER REQUIREMENTS WITH COST-EFFECTIVENESS AND WELL-PLANNED ANALYSIS, REPORTS NANDU MANJESHWAR.

TOWARDS QUALITATIVE GROWTH: S V N Narasimha Kumar, Manager (Technical Literature), BEL receiving the award.

harat Electronic Limited (BEL) set up in 1954 was to, initially, develop indigenously and meet the requirements of our defence forces. Over the years, it has emerged as a major player in electronics through robust in-house research and development. This effort has catapulted the company, a force to reckon with, in the world market of electronics. The company believes no work is too small. From supplying electronic systems to Malawi, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Uganda, to contract manufacturing services to Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and the USA and UAE, there are many other products exported to different countries in the world. Even though its products are marketed in different parts of the world the company’s major customers are Indian defence and security forces. It supplies top-ofthe-line electronic products to the defence forces. The Technical Literature division has been preparing and supplying training docu-

ments conforming to Joint Services specifications JSS 0251-011987 edition. The revised version of specifications JSS 0251-012002 introduced additional requirement in the form of training aggregates. The training aggregates include charts, slides, brochures, work modules, blowup diagrams, video films and computer-based training (CBT). Project: Design and develop cost-ffective and customer-centric training aggregates. The project was necessitated when training aggregates developed for 81 mm Mortar Simulator seemed to have a lot of lacunae that wasted considerable time, for the company, as well as the customer’s time and resources. The training aggregate was reworked and even after several rounds of iterations, the customers’ feedback was not encouraging. Thus Six Sigma approach was adopted to uplift the quality, focusing on customers’ requirement with cost effectiveness. The goals set were: Increasing the customer satisfaction from existing 43 per

cent to 80 per cent. Reducing the number of iterations from existing 3 to 1. Bringing down the number of days of getting approval from existing 57 days to 20 days. Increasing profit margin.

Through SIPOC tool supplier, inputs, process, outputs and customers were identified. The critical to quality (CTQ) were data collection, content creation, designing the process and layout, preparing the scope and selecting the vendor, photography and videography, integration and multimedia, quality check and customer approval followed by bulk production. The CTQ specification table was used to mark the drivers and their significance in deciding the Kano status of the requirement. Voice of customer feedback helped understand customer satisfaction with BEL products. Customer survey forms were sent to 15 customer agencies for evaluating quality and training aggregates on points related to trainees as

The Technical Literature division has been preparing and supplying training documents conforming to JSS 0251-01-1987 edition. The revised version of specifications JSS 0251-01-2002 introduced additional requirement in the form of training aggregates.

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Quality India SPECIAL ISSUE “To improve the quality and meet customers’ demands”

SVN Narasimha Kumar, Manager (Technical Literature), talks about significance and methodology of training. Training modules have to have certain formats. Then what was the need to re-format the training literatures? Technical literature department traditionally prepares technical documents as per the requirements of customers. Joint Services

Specifications (JSS) prepared in 0251-01-2002 include training aggregates like charts, blow-ups, computer-based training, etc. The principle behind this is that these training aggregates explain to all tri-services personnel the contents of training. This helps trainees trouble shooting, fault finding, fault rectification, repair the defects, etc. It also helps them understand even without trainers at their own pace. However, in due course of time we realised that our efforts were not customer-centric, lacked end-user's satisfaction.

we interact with the customers. We were keen to know what information they were keen to arrive at. The 2002 guideline being that preparation training aggregates was by the manufacturers, use of training aggregates by trainers and classroom training for the trainees. Earlier trainers used to prepare training materials but now it is responsibility with the manufacturers.

Do you bring trainers to your establishment to explain the nuances of training manuals or literatures? No, we do not call trainers instead

Since manufacturers are involved, in a sense outsourced, how did you reduce the cost? We admit that earlier we were not customer-centric. We were using standard methodology and then gave for approval and many a time there were changes. We repeatedly re-worked and sent for approval.

well as trainers. They were asked to rate it between one and five on six quality parameters. Replies given by eight agencies helped understand the criteria for the quality of training aggregates. Pareto charts, based on cus tomer feedback, trainees as well as trainers, were plotted for diagnostic analysis. The charts

helped in identifying the issues needing attention, by using hard data instead of intuition. It helped in analysing and diagnosing the problems that influenced the outcome most. The analysis pointed to 25 probable causes for defects in any training aggregates. The most notable among them being:

3. 4.

Sitemap and standardisation were propagated to sustain the improvement. Awareness programme was arranged for all training literature officers regarding the standards formulated to understand and implement the standards for the development.

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Not the learner centered. Not adhering to the instructional System Design (ISD)or similar model. Content is not accurate and correct. Not presenting information in an organised coherent manner.

C6- Not effective tool and not cost effective 1. 2. 3. 4.

Has not completed post-implementation evaluations and subsequent revision. Not ensuring best value for training costs. Not able to generate user feedback. Not following industry standards for interoperability

Not meeting the objectives. Not learner-centric. Not providing high levels of interactivity. Not able to accommodate the individual learning styles. Not presenting information in an organised and coherent manner. Not continually adapting to

1. 2. 3. 4.

Not providing high levels of interactivity Not able to engage the user. Not demonstarting good usability through excellent user interface design. Design and layout are not attractive.

C3-Presentation and style is not user friendly

Defective Training Aggregates

C5- Material is not strong and long lasting. 1. 2. 3.

C2- Design and layout is not as per requirement

C1-content is not uniform and standard 1. 2.

Now we have gone for different models and ask our customers the types and kinds of training aggregates required. Now it is customercentric for that we have made a site map and types of contents required that include design, specifications and materials to be used. Based on design and specifications, we select the manufacturers. This helped us select appropriate materials, improve the quality and meet customers’ demand. In this process of improvement, we were able to develop work modules having dimensions and specifications just as the original. This was in the case of printed circuit boards. This helped trainees a great deal in fault finding. Other achievement was in video and computer-based training that includes interactive modes.

Not long lasting. Raw material and printing are not impressive. Not using media effectively.

1. Not helping the users to apply learning productively. 2. Not able to accommodate the individual learning styles. 3. Not continually adapting to the user's knowledge or skills. 4. Not presenting extended learning opportunities. 5. Not easy to use and to install. 6. No promoting a positive user experience with computer technology.

C4- Not meeting the purpose and objective 1. 2. 3. 4.

Not validation learning at each session. Not meeting the objectives. Not using group-enabling technologies. Difficult to understand and implement.

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the usersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; knowledge or skills. Not using group enabling technologies. Not promoting a positiveuser experience with computer technology. Design and layout is not attractive. The 25 probable causes were categorised into six clusters, and the interrelationship between the causes and defects have been illustrated in the interrelationship diagram. The cate-

Multi-player

gories C1 to C6 amply point to the causes for the defects. Based on customer feedback, every aspect of defects and causes were attended to. In order to assess the impact after development and supply of training aggregates, BEL quantified it through measurable parameters. The number of defects prior to improvement was 170 that decreased to 81 after improvement. In case of defect per cent, it dropped from 56.67 per cent to 27 per cent and yield percent-

Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) was established at Bengaluru in 1954, under the Ministry of Defence, to meet the special needs of the Indian defence services. Over the years, it has grown into multi-product, multitechnology and multi-unit company serving the needs of customers in diverse fields in India and abroad. The company specialises in the manufacturing of wide spectrum technology like radars, military communications, naval systems, electronic warfare systems, opto-electronics, tank electronics, solar photovoltaic cells, embedded softwares and electronic components. The company also undertakes turnkey system solutions. BEL has nine units across India and also has liaison units in New York City and Singapore. The subsidiary BEL Optronic Devices Ltd was set up to conduct research, development and manufacture of image intensifier tubes for military, security and commercial systems. The joint ventures with GE and Multitone took BELâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s product portfolio into niche segments.

age increased from 43.33 to 73. Sitemap and standardisation were propagated to sustain the improvement. Awareness programme was arranged for all training literature officers regarding the standards formulated to understand and implement the standards for the development and supply of training aggregates. The outcome of this study has been: Process for developing the training aggregates established. Standardisation achieved. Process time reduced. Cost reduction achieved. Robust and quality product developed. Usefulness of training aggregates by customer established. Plans for the future have already been chalked out. For example, dummy training module of printed circuit board (PCB) to be improved by encasing PCB in a transparent pouch cold lamination. CBT is to be upgraded to web-based training using Asymetrix and other tools. Likewise several modules and power point slides that can be web-enabled. The financial benefits have been immense. The total savings is to the tune of `27.46 lakh.

EXCELLING IN DIVERSE FIELDS: BEL specialises in the manufacturing of wide spectrum technology like radars, military communications, naval systems, electronic warfare systems optoelectronics, tank electronics, solar photovoltaic cells, embedded softwares and electronic components.

Plans for the future have been chalked out. For example, dummy training module of printed circuit board (PCB) to be improved by encasing PCB in a transparent pouch cold lamination. Several modules and power point slides that can be web-enabled. The financial benefits have been immense.

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Raising heat to

save fuel NTPC’S VINDHYACHAL UNIT IS INDIA’S LARGEST POWER GENERATOR. IT SET AN EXAMPLE WHEN CHALLENGED TO IMPROVE ITS UNIT HEAT RATE, REPORTS NANDU MANJESHWAR. ational Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC) is India’s largest power generator. Of its 27 power generation plants, 15 are coalbased. Vindhyachal Super Thermal Power Station (VSTPS) is one of 15 coal-based plants and the largest power generator in the country with an installed capacity of 3,260 MW consisting of 6x210 MW in Stage I and 4x500 MW Stage II units. It supplies power to the western region power grid. At VSTPS, the sustainable energy rests on two pillars -

renewable energy and energy efficiency. On the renewable energy front, it will be commissioning “distributed generation” project in the nearby identified villages. On the energy efficiency front, it lays enormous importance on improving the systems through performance improvement projects adopting two types of improvement methodologies: the first through Quality Circles and the second, breakthrough improvement through Six Sigma. In the last fiscal year, VSTPS achieved 94.14 per cent plant load factor (PLF), an envious record the organisation has maintained for several years.

“Only with total commitment, it is possible to achieve such high PLF constantly,” mentioned V N Choudhary, Executive Director (Business Excellence). Project: Improvement in unit heat rate, reduction in auxiliary power consumption and specific fuel consumption. VSTPS undertook a detailed study covering all macro and micro aspects of power generation by Stage I units (6x210 MW) with primary aim of systems improvement in line with the expectations and requirements expected from modern day thermal plants

VARIATION SOURCE - TURBINE HEAT RATE End seal leakages

Tip Spill Leakages

On the energy efficiency front, NTPC’s VSTPS lays importance on improving systems through performance improvement project adopting two types of improvement methodologies: the first through Quality Circles and the second, through Six Sigma.

30 I Quality India I MARCH-APRIL 2011

Higher Clearances

Worn out tip deals High vibration

Less Optimised start up

Bent shaft

Cover deposit losses Foreign particle from boiler

Higher clearances

High vibration Worn out seals

Worn out parts of turbine internals

High Eccentricity

Turbine Heat Rate Worn out seals High Eccentricity

Solid particle erosion

Interstage leakages

Chemical Deposits

Water erosion

Water erosion Higher Clearances

Old worn out parts

Foreign particle blockage

Flow path damages

Solid particle erosion Solid particle denting

Surface Roughness loss

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ACCOLADES: The NTPC Vindhyachal team receiving the QCI-DL Shah Award from Arun Maira, Member, Planning Commission. Also seen in the picture are V N Choudhary, Executive Director (Business Excellence) and Dr. Girdhar J Gyani.

which are economical, reliable and environment-friendly. Though improvement actions on some of the sub-systems have become glittering examples in achieving results through seamless integration with quality philosophy but the present project was challenging since it had to improve unit heat rate, reduce auxiliary power consumption and fuel consumption. The authorities of Stage I plant resorted to DMAIC (define, measure, analyse, improve and control) methodology. In define step project, overview was planned and important steps to be taken were defined through project report. Critical to quality (CTQ), drill

Power generator

down tree showing project linkages to companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s objectives were drawn. The problem statement with goal statement containing estimated project benefits was derived. The whole process was mapped and different heads of generation loss was identified and kept on tab. The SIPOC (supplier, inputs, process, outputs and customers) diagram was also drafted highlighting key deliverables. The process was sub-divided into three parameters - loading factor of the units, reliability and efficiency. Critical to quality (CTQ) in this phase are plant load factor, maintenance cost, auxiliary power consumption, manpower: MW ratio, lead time procure-

National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC) was incorporated in 1975 to supplement the efforts of the States for quicker and greater capacity addition in thermal power generation. Over the years, NTPC has grown to become the largest power utility in India with a commissioned generation capacity of 32,694 MW with 27 power stations, geographically spread across the length and breadth of the country. NTPC is a "navratna" enterprise. Today it occupies the slot of sixth largest thermal power generator in the world and second most efficient in terms of capacity utilisation amongst top 10 utilities in the world. NTPC has embarked on plans to become a 75,000 MW company by 2017. This capacity consists diversified fuel mix with coal-based generation of 53,000 MW, 10,000 MW through gas, 9,000 MW through hydro, 2,000 MW through nuclear sources and 1,000 from renewable energy sources.

ment, occupational safety, manpower utilisation, overhead expenses and under energy efficiency are de-mineralised (DM) water used, safety aspect, training manpower, air emission quality and noise level. In measure phase, complete process drill down was done and main project CTQs were segregated into smaller equipment level CTQs. In addition to process drill down, data collection plan was prepared detailing data type, measurement type, operational definition and collection frequency. Measurement system analysis was not needed as data was taken digitally online and concerned meters are calibrated periodically as per predecided schedule. In analysis phase, current process capabilities for important parameters and suspected source of variation were identified. Through Ishikawa diagram, it was amply clear variation sources in turbine heat rate: the sources being tip spill leakages, end seal leakages, cover deposit losses, inter-stage leakages, flow path damages and surface roughness loss. Through failure mode effect analysis potential failure and process steps (to be correlated with cause and effect diagram) are given below:

Tip spill leakages Turbine cylinder. End seal leakages Turbine cylinder.

Through Ishikawa diagram, it was amply clear variation sources in turbine heat rate: the sources being tip spill leakages, end seal leakages, cover deposit losses, inter-stage leakages, flow path damages and surface roughness loss.

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Quality India SPECIAL ISSUE “Call monitoring assesses quality of service”

VN Choudhary, Executive Director (Business Excellence) Was the loss of heat rate a sudden phenomenon or was it detected late? This is not a sudden development but an endeavour to better ourselves in performance. We believe that today’s performance should be better than yesterday’s and tomorrow’s should be better than today’s. This is our motto.

In all our plants there are continual improvement projects. In this case, we have systematically analysed the problem. In thermal power generation, the quantum heat has to be optimal for the boilers to generate steam to run the turbines. Even a small loss has an effect on the efficiency. This loss compounds on the resources used. As a result, there is revenue loss. So we constantly engage in measuring every parameter to achieve efficiency and quality of power generation. In a plant of this size, functional parameters have to be checked constantly. Then how did it miss earlier? We have constant measurement

systems. There are certain systems tracked on daily basis, some on weekly and others on monthly and yearly basis. The frequency depends on particular equipment or a system or subsystem. In doing so, every time we have improvement plans because there is no parallel elsewhere to peg our improvement plans. Our aim is to improve in such a way that improvements become benchmarks for others to emulate. Since NTPC has so many coalbased units around the country, do you communicate your efforts and achievements to others? Of course, we do. Every plant of NTPC in the country is constantly on improvement proj-

WORK IN PROGRESS: NTPC’s gas-based power generator

“This is an endeavour to better ourselves in performance. We believe that today’s performance should be better than yesterday’s and tomorrow’s should be better than today’s. This is our motto. In all our plants there are continual improvement projects”, says VN Choudhary.

32 I Quality India I MARCH-APRIL 2011

Cover deposit losses Turbine cylinder. Inter-stage leakages Turbine cylinder. Flow path damages Turbine cylinder. Surface roughness loss Turbine cylinder. Parting plane leakage loss Turbine cylinder. In improve phase, detailed and targeted actions were initiat-

ed on all suspected sources of variation. On turbine side, high pressure (HP) and intermediate pressure (IP) diaphragms tip seals were replaced. HP, IP and low pressure (LP) rotors and diaphragms were cleaned by grit blasting. All glands and interstage seals were replaced during the capital overhaul of concerned units. During course of this proj-

ects. The nodal agency keeps monitoring improvement project across our coal-based plants and apart from that it queries other units whether a particular project undertaken by other unit is useful and if so whether it is being considered. At no stage, there is laxity. Is NTPC planning a foray into other types of power generation? Yes. We are already into gasbased power generation and we have a tie-up with GAIL. We are into solar and wind power generation too. Since most of our plants are coal-based we have entered into mining for uninterrupted good quality coal. Of course, there are separate division within to handle those sectors.

ect, in six bines, gland and interstage seals of LP turbine. New maintenance processes were initiated.In feed water cycle, boiler feed pump cartridge and various valves were attended to. Condenser online cleaning system was also installed along with condenser helium test for better vacuum. The circulating water ducts were painted to increase condenser water flow through condenser system. On the boiler side, modular replacement of components was resorted to resulting in better efficiency, reliability and load factor. Blending with imported coal was also resorted to for better loading and PLF from machines. And importantly on the control and instrumentation side, DDCMIS was put in service to replace Russian system and resulted in better treading, analysis and synthesis of data. In control phase, previously made process improvement are sustained and improved upon through systems approach After the improvement project extra 938 MU power was put into the grid and this accrued `2.34 cr and after deducting the cost incurred in improvement the net profit was healthy `19 cr.

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Optimising cable use to bring

in quality BHEL DECIDED ON WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY OVER TRADITIONAL CABLES WHICH BROUGHT ABOUT OPTIMISATION AND COST REDUCTION. NANDU MANJESHWAR FOUND OUT THE PROCESS IN BHEL .

COMPETENCE AT ITS BEST: M Ravindra - Additional General Manager (Head Quality Department), BHEL, Ranipet receives the award from QCI Chairman Arun Maira. .

harat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) is the 12th largest power equipment producer in the world and an entirely home-grown conglomerate that has always believed in indigenisation. BHEL has so far installed equipment for over 1,00,000 MW of power generation for utilities, captive and industrial sectors. In addition, it has supplied over 2,25,000 MVA transformer capacity and other equipment operating in transmission and distribution network up to 400kV (AC/DC). The Ranipet plant is one of the 15 manufacturing divisions of BHEL and manufactures boiler auxiliaries, a critical part, to power generation (boiler) equipment. One such auxiliary is the electrostatic precipitator (ESP) meant to collect dust. The size and design of ESP varies depending on the boiler capacity and design. ESP requires enormous amount of cables, of varied sizes and specifications, for its operation and more cables also means more

work at the site notwithstanding fatigue to the designer in preparing cable route drawing, contract document review, schedules and procurement activities. Project: Optimisation of cable consumption and procurement. There are many reasons for optimisation of cables and these are: Lack of standardisation of cables and types leading to many variants. Apart from designer and field staff fatigue, there was wastage of resources like manpower and materials. Delay in adhering to customer’s tender requirement. Delay in approval of vendor and quality of cables. Finally, wastage in time and materials. The problems were identified and the Quality Circle Team decided to categorise them. Out of a total 52 problems identified 28 were in Category A, 20 in Category B and 4 in Category C. The notable observations in Category

A were lack of uniform drawing practice with electric controls and instrumentation (ECI), need to send standard drawing to customer for approval, standardisation of components, training on low tension main switch board breaker and importantly introduction of wireless technology for ESP auxiliaries applications. In Category A, the problems to be addressed were of technical nature and in Category B were more of administrative nature such as soft copies of vendor drawing not accepted for approval, controls and switchgear altered without engineering department’s concurrence, uploading of design inputs on other department’s websites and training for personnel for air preheater area. The Category C, once again administrative, decided on one technical/graduate apprentice for each employee, modular offices with air-conditioner, internet for all and vendors should be able to see specifications on standard drawings and drawing status.

BHEL has so far installed equipment for over 1,00,000 MW of power generation for utilities, captive and industrial sectors. In addition, it has supplied over 2,25,000 MVA transformer capacity and other equipment operating in transmission and distribution network up to 400kV (AC/DC).

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Quality India SPECIAL ISSUE “Give customers the best in quality and service”

M Ravindra, Additional General Manager (Head Quality Department) on what brought BHEL the award What was the reason that you decided on wireless technology over traditional cables in electro-static precipitator? At BHEL we are constantly on the lookout for innovation through which we better our

quality in equipments and functioning. This project is one such innovation amongst many we are doing. Electrostatic precipitator is meant gathering dust and it has to function at optimal level at all times, otherwise power generation is affected. Secondly, cables too would get deteriorated over a period of time and re-cabling is time consuming and costs money for the end-user. It is always our endeavour to give our customers the best that includes quality and service and keeping this in view we decided to experiment on the alternate method. It is always said that one spark

On brainstorming the Team decided to prioritise each of the 28 problems in Category A. The foremost was introduction of wireless technology for ESP auxiliary application, followed by standardising earthing scheme, uniform drawing practice within electric controls and instruments, sending drawing to customers for approval and standardisation of components. A problem selection matrix for top-

ignites innovation and in your case what was it? Simple, it is our mobile phone. One, a mobile does not require wire or cable attached for its use. Secondly, user’s mobility is not restricted while using mobile phones like traditional telephones, which are now called landlines. This was the real spark. We give absolute freedom in our organisation to think and communicate the thoughts to the team. So, we all said why not give a try? Has this been tried out in the field and how successful has it been? Before going to field trail, we tried the concept within our plant. We tried out on

ics mentioned earlier keeping quality, cost, delivery and service and its nature being easy to delay and critical. The Team decided to follow Deming’s Circle to solve the problem. These were: Plan: Define problems and objectives and then decide the method of achieving it. Do: Educate, train and perform the work. Check: Trial implementation

electrical hoists and worked successfully. Its success gave us confidence. Apart from the innovation we were equally concerned about the stiff competition. So we had to match the competing products without compromising on quality and at the same time keep on the cost. By eliminating long cables with wireless technology we reduced the cost and saved on copper usage. We tried at Bellary and North Chennai plants and operation was successful. In future all electro-static precipitators will have this system and in long term we have saved country’s consumption of copper in our own humble way.

and feedback for improvement and implementation. Act: Regular implementation. Currently, time (cycle time in man-days) consumed from estimation to erection, field trials and customer acceptance was 156 man-days out of which 50 man-days were for sample preparation by vendor, 45 for identification of vendors and 30 for erection, field trials and customer acceptance. The objective was to

Identification of Causes

Cause & Effect Diagram

“At BHEL we are constantly on the lookout for innovation through which we better our quality in equipments and functioning. This project is one such innovation amongst many we are doing. Our endeavour is to give our customers the best that includes quality”. — M Ravindra, AGM, BHEL

34 I Quality India I MARCH-APRIL 2011

PEOPLE

VENDOR Delay

Delay in Evaluating Offer Delay in Approving Data Sheet

Own Format Non- Standard

Data Sheet Delay in Correcting Data Sheet

Vender Data Sheet Lock of Skill

Check Each Vendor Data Sheet

Delay in Approval Check Each Vender Data Sheet Delay Plot Plan

CUSTOMER

Delay in Sending Data Sheet to Customer Delay in Preparing Cable Schedule

Increase cycle time for cable procurement

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Quality India SPECIAL ISSUE reduce cycle time to 51 man-days and the goal being meeting customer satisfaction with latest technology. Ishikawa (cause and effect) diagram was used to identify the causes. The elements in the diagram were delineated into vendor, customer and people (in the plant). At vendor’s side causes were delay in data sheet and correcting data sheet. The main causes at people’s end the delays were mainly evaluating offer, approving data sheet, sending data sheet to customer, in indenting and preparing cable schedule. On customer’s side it was due to checking each vendor sheet and delay in approval. The root cause through whywhy analysis indicated more cable erection increasing cycle time. The analysis indicates:

Why: More quantity of tray supports for erection. Why: More quantities of trays to be erected. Why: More quantities of cables for wrapping motor controls. Why: Lack of alternate method for controlling the motors. Further, brainstorming was conducted for developing a solution and assessing its impact. In engaging additional workforce for erection of cable trays and

Power producer

support structure meant high overheads. On the other hand, avoiding cable tray was not possible since interconnection of controls required for ESP functioning. The final solution was to reduce cables by alternate technology. The analysis pointed to one direction and that is to implement wireless technology for ESP. Wireless technology would eliminate cables. Wireless technology was perhaps first of its kind in Indian context and BHEL expected resistance such as reliability of operation, vendors not agreeing to free trials and customers may

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), founded in 1953, is India largest engineering and manufacturing enterprise and 12th largest power equipment producer in the world. It caters to the core sector — power, transmission, industry, transportation, renewable energy, oil and gas, and defence — of the Indian economy. BHEL ushered in an indigenous heavy electrical equipment industry in India in an era when almost all the equipment were imported and now its area of operation covers 70 countries. The conglomerate has 15 manufacturing divisions, 15 regional offices, 4 power sector regional centres, eight service centres, four overseas offices and over 100 project sites spread across the country to promptly serve its customers and provide them with suitable products, systems and services. The emphasis on design, engineering and manufacturing to international standards in conjunction with its own R&D centres the company is able to provide quality and reliability in products and services.

not agree for implementing untested technology. The remedial action taken by them was to conduct field trials to ensure reliability, educating vendors on future business prospects and for customers it was free supply and trials with vendor support. BHEL had to convince both vendors and customers through field trials and selected Bellary and North Chennai sites. Since wireless technology needs free line-of-sight for operation but during field trials the glitch was its line-of-sight blocked by structures. On analysing, it was deducted that repeaters would improve performance and it indeed did and results conformed to functional parameters. BHEL benchmarked the new technology. The tangible benefits were: Man-days reduced to onethird enabling cost reduction. Through improved method of cable erection time is reduced to 0 man-days. 15 km of cables saved for a 500 MW power generation unit. Mechanical support materials reduced by 15 percent. In financial terms, the benefits have been considerable. BHEL has planned 25 projects in 201011 totalling `13.12 lakh and the total saving would accrue to `3.20 lakh.

THE POWER GENERATOR: The Ranipet plant is one of the 15 manufacturing divisions of BHEL, a critical part in the production of power generation equipment.

Since wireless technology needs free line-of-sight for operation but during field trials the glitch was its line-of-sight blocked by structures. On analysing, it was deducted that repeaters would improve performance and it indeed did. BHEL benchmarked the new technology.

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Quality minimised

maintenance A SMALL MISTAKE WAS CAUSING BIG LOSSES TO THE SIPAT PLANT OF THE NTPC. A RELEVANT SOLUTION REDUCED THE MAINTENANCE COSTS DRASTICALLY, AS NANDU MANJESHWAR FOUND OUT.

WINNING LAURELS: The NTPC team receiving D L Shah Award from Arun Maira, Chairman, QCI.

ational Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC) was set up in 1975 to accelerate power development in India. At the initial stages, most of the power plants used coal as primary fuel. The conglomerate has 15 coal-based power plant, and Sipat plant is one of them. Its initial approved capacity was 2,980 MW (Stage I—3x660 MW; Stage II— 2x500 MW). While Stage II plant is already operational, the Stage I plant, with supercritical technology, is likely to commence operation shortly. Against the backdrop of 13.3 per cent peak deficit and 11.7 per cent energy deficit, eight coal-based plants out of 15 have been producing energy around 95 per cent plant load

Mill reject handling system is an essential sub-system in a steam generator. Due to poor functioning of mill reject handling system hot and corrosive pyrite had to be manually handled causing health problems.

36 I Quality India I MARCH-APRIL 2011

factor (PLF), and the remaining seven plants produce between 85 and 90 per cent PLF. In the last fiscal year, NTPC contributed 28.60 per cent to India’s total generation while its capacity is mere 18.10 per cent of the country’s installed capacity, 1,00,351 MW. SD Garwar, DGM, Business Excellence, said, “Our endeavour has always been to keep the plant at highest level operational efficiency.” NTPC Sipat plant is located 22 km from Bilaspur in Chhattisgargh. The power plant operates on Rankine Cycle and entails three processes: heat addition in boiler, work done in boiler and heat rejection in condenser. All the major equipment systems such as boilers, turbines, generators and their auxiliaries are supplied by Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL).

Project: Rectify mill reject handling system suffering from high failure rate and poor availability. Mill reject handling system is an essential sub-system in a steam generator. The main function of this system is to safely dispose the hot and corrosive pyrites rejected by the coal mill. The mode of disposal can be either manual or pneumatic. Since commissioning availability of the system suffered, it ranged between low and poor and had other operational problems. As a result, manual labour was used which, indeed, was a hazardous job. The problems with mill reject handling system were:

Due to poor functioning of mill reject handling system hot and corrosive pyrite had to be manually handled

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STRONG FOUNDATION: Views of NTPC Sipat plant.

causing health problem. Non-availability of immediate maintenance. Frequent breakdowns even after thorough maintenance. High cost incurred on maintenance and on labour.

The in-house team decided to take on the challenge. Since the cause is mill reject handling system, it would be prudent to understand the system to find where the problem lies. The system consists of ‘pyrite hopper’ and ‘denseveyor’. The fuel feed once pulverised, which is of heterogeneous in nature, requires segregation. This segregation takes place at pyrite hopper and the reject enters a vessel called denseveyor, four metres below the surface. Compressed air is pumped into denseveyor to push reject through discharge pipes to disposal bunker. For denseveyor to function efficiently, its seal called Dome Valve (or Dome Seal) has to make the vessel leak proof. That did not happen and it was one of the causes. The Team zeroed in on the major causes: seal failure, frequent line chocking and trench chocking. The Seal Failure: The seal is inflated by instrument air pressure (IA Pr) and is important to run the system. The seal failure Results in: Boiler washing water ingress. Compressor malfunction.

Sand formation in mills. Insufficient IA Pr due to defective piping. Manual intervention.

Frequent Line Choking: The convey lines carrying reject to disposal silo choked frequently and observed it happened mostly in horizontal to vertical bend area. As a result, the system was unable to carry reject further. The causes were:

Seepage and boiler washing water ingress. Defective/improper piping. Defective gaskets/sealing. Sand formation in mills. Grill damage.

Choked Trenches: The maintenance trenches around denseveyor were getting choked frequently and hot reject pileup made it unsafe and difficult to work. Instrumentation hoses, critical in valve operation, were also damaged while coming into contact with hot reject. Choking caused delay in maintenance activity thereby aggravating the outage situation. Data on sub-factors, derived from cause and effect diagram plotted for all three major defects, were taken and also frequency of occurrence recorded. The data for 30 days on 20 numbers of mill reject system were taken and analysed on Pareto chart. Key findings were IA Pr required to inflate insert seal became insuffi-

ciently low since the pipes were routed under the trench and had too many bends. On leakages at several places, the option was either attend to leakages or modify piping. On analysing, it was decided to change the complete design since the earlier options would mean recurring expenditure. Line choking was due to excess accumulation of water in the trench. After prolonged contact with asbestos gaskets of pipe flanges, the water entering conveying lines the choking after few cycles. Finally, it was trench choking. It was due to either spillage during operation or accidental spillage; the latter though could be handled. Here the option was to modify design of spout. The solutions were: New instrument air header to arrest leakages in the old header. Discharge line of all denseveyor extended and joined to common header to prevent line choking. Air boosters installed in addition to the original line in conveying line to provide air cushion at bends. To prevent reject getting accumulated in trench a two-ft wall was constructed to prevent accumulation and enable maintenance. Average monthly expenses, before and after the project, were `66,450 and `26,667 respectively. Thus the annual saving in maintenance is `4,77,396.

Most of the power plants used coal as primary fuel. The conglomerate has 15 coal-based power plants, and Sipat plant is one of them. Its initial approved capacity was 2,980 MW (Stage I— 3x660 MW; Stage II— 2x500 MW).

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Reducing greenhouse gases for

efficiency RELIANCE SAW THE DEVELOPMENT OF A CHEMICAL FORMULATION THAT IMPROVED FURNACE EFFICIENCY WHICH BROUGHT SAVINGS IN REFINERY COSTS, REPORTS NANDU MANJESHWAR. eliance Industries Limited (RIL) is the largest conglomerate in the private sector in the country. Since its modest beginnings in 1977, the RIL group has blossomed into a mega-corp and it is often said that whatever RIL does it will be on global scale. It continues to be in the Fortune Global 500 list for the past five consecutive years. RIL’s operation started with textiles, under the brand name of ‘Vimal’ which became popular in the market in terms of quality and pricing. It pursued a strategy of backward vertical integration and has been the cornerstone of the evolution and growth of RIL. As the corporate journey progressed it started manufacturing polyester, fibre intermediates, polymers, petrochemicals, refining, crude and natural gas, retail and life sciences to be fully integrated along the materials and energy value chain. In 2002, it struck a major gas find on India’s eastern coast in the Krishna-Godhavari basin. Gas production from this field started in April 2009. Reliance enjoys global leadership in its businesses being the largest polyester yarn and fibre producer in the world and rated amongst top ten producers in the world in major petrochemical products. RIL is organised in three major business segments:

RIL’s operation started with textiles, under the brand name of ‘Vimal’ which became popular in the market in terms of quality and pricing. It pursued a strategy of backward vertical integration and has been the cornerstone of the evolution and growth of RIL.

38 I Quality India I MARCH-APRIL 2011

1. Exploration and production

of oil and gas. 2. Refining and marketing of petroleum products. 3. Petrochemicals including manufacturing and marketing of polymer, polyester and polyester intermediates. The Hazira manufacturing division of RIL was set up in 1991 to manufacture petrochemicals, polyester and polymers. This is country’s largest petrochemicals and polymers complex. The cracker plant manufactures ethylene, propylene and other high-value chemicals through cracking of naphtha in ultra-selective cracking furnaces. Over a period the heat transfer coefficient of all convection section banks deteriorated resulting in decrease of furnace energy efficiency and increase in stack temperature. This was leading to a considerable “energy penalty” and limited production throughput. Project: Development of innovative solution for convection coil cleaning to improve furnace efficiency. The need was identified through global benchmarking carried out by M/S Solomon Associates and subsequent GAP analysis. The project’s potential was conceived through brainstorming sessions among stakeholders. A team was set up to conceptualise, develop and execute with an objective to improve energy efficiency, plant reliability, plant throughput and

reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The project was prioritised based on Pareto analysis and balance-scorecard methodology. The cracker plant is at the centre of entire operation at Hazira. The unit produces olefin products, which are supplied internally within the complex to various downstream units, which produce a variety of products for domestic and export markets. Cracker, therefore, is regarded as “mother plant” of all plants in Hazira. Naphtha is cracked in the cracker plant to deliver high value-added products such as ethylene and propylene. This plant has largest number of products and by-products. The plant operates at over 125 per cent capacity through collaborative operation, technology, maintenance and other related functions. Cracker plant is equipped with 12 ultra-selective main cracking furnaces and three recycle furnaces. Main furnaces and recycle furnaces at cracker plant have been in operation since 1997. The operational effectiveness and efficiencies are regularly measured and monitored to ensure its optimum and reliability, and one such measure is heat transfer coefficients of all the furnaces. The SWOT analysis carried out in 2007-08 revealed that one of the major weaknesses on operational front was high energy and feedstock and increased

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GARNERING LAURELS: C Kulkarni from Reliance Industries Limited (second from right) receiving the citation during the 6th National Quality Conclave.

energy index and this was a cause for concern. During the same period in one of the benchmarking results published by M/S Solomon Associates indicated that cracker plant at Hazira was slipping in its global position on account of its high energy index. With energy conservation uppermost in mind a brainstorming session involving staff at various levels was carried out to identify options that would help cracker improve energy performance. The Pareto analysis helped in identifying the most vital among the few vitals. Different methods and tools such as cause and effect diagram, affinity diagram, why-why analysis and regression analysis were used. Affinity diagram focused on physical system and human fac-

Gas for growth

tors. The cause and effect diagram was more centred to work out all possible causes for the specific conditions and performance indicators of furnace operation Process capability studies were conducted for all critical to quality and process parameters. Data on all the major conditions and performance indicators for furnace were collected, computed, evaluated statistically and analysed to extract inference on each of the parameter. Based on existing process the causes affecting furnace efficiencies were identified. Relationship of these causes with furnace heater efficiency was established and analysed. Data was collected and plotted to work out relationships. The analysis and interpretations on this data helped in segregating

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is India’s largest private sector conglomerate by market value and by annual turnover in excess of $ 49 billion. It is a Fortune Global 500 company and also features in Forbes Global 2000 list. Till date, RIL is the only Indian company featuring in the Forbes’s list of “world’s 100 most respected companies”. RIL’s businesses include petroleum, petrochemicals, textiles and retail. Though it started operation with textiles (under brandname Vimal) its primary business today is petroleum refinery and petrochemicals. It operates a 33-million-tonne refinery at Jamnagar, Gujarat, and has added a second refinery of 29 million tonnes. In 2002, it struck gas in the Krishna-Godavari Basin and started production in April 2009. RIL enjoys global leadership in its businesses, being the largest polyester yarn and fibre producer.

high stack temperature as one of the conditions that seemed to be the major cause and validation of this observation was done through regression analysis. For certain conditions such as high draft pressure and excess oxygen, R-square values were observed to be less than 40 per cent indicating weal relationship. But R-square was over 97 per cent for the relationship between heater efficiency versus stack temperature. This validated the observation regarding high stack temperature being one of the major reasons for the problem. Cause and effect diagram listed many causes for high stack temperature, however, upon analysing them individually, possibility of most of them were not directly linked and could be eliminated. The apparent reason for high stack temperature was deposition and the need to remove deposition was established. Later brainstorming helped in developing various possible alternatives to address this issue. The alternatives emerged were: 1. Cleaning through cold water. 2. Cleaning through chemicals. 3. Cleaning through combination of hot wash and chemicals. 4. Scrapping of coils. 5. Replacement of convection coils. Continued on Page 42

With energy conservation uppermost in mind, a brainstorming session involving staff at various levels was carried out to identify options that would help cracker improve energy performance. The Pareto analysis helped in identifying the most vital among the few vitals.

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Charting

QUALITY The task at hand is enormous: balancing the challenges of growth in India with those posed by the challenges of inclusive, quality growth. Spearheading the move, the Quality Council of India in the Sixth National Quality Conclave energised participants to debate and fashion ways to achieve the objective of â&#x20AC;&#x153;Quality for national wellbeingâ&#x20AC;?. The overwhelming response from participants at the conclave was proof enough that quality is becoming a habit. Glimpses from the conclave. 40 I Quality India I MARCH-APRIL, 2011

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FUTURE

MARCH-APRIL, 2011 I Quality India I 41

Photos by: H.C. Tiwari

the path to a

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Quality India SPECIAL ISSUE â&#x20AC;&#x153;We achieved a global benchmark in cleaning convection bank of furnacesâ&#x20AC;?

C Kulkarni from Reliance Industries Limited explains how thermal efficiency was improved How important is heat coeffi cient in productivity? This project is about improvement in thermal efficiency in furnaces of cracker plant and the cracker plant is like a mother plant in the plastic

industry. Unlike in other chemical industry where production cost is 50 per cent power and other 50 per cent is steam while in a typical naphtha cracker plant 90 per cent expenditure is on fuel gas. So any improvement in thermal efficiency gives a lot of benefit in terms of economics and reliability. What action was taken in improving the thermal effi ciency? Optimal thermal efficiency is possible only when convection bank works efficiently when 100 per cent heat is transmitted. And if does not, it means that convection bank is fouled

restricting heat transfer. So, this is all about cleaning convection bank of furnaces which gets fouled that results in heat transfer efficiency coming down. In financial terms, how benefi cial was this project? In financial terms, it was quite attractive. The cost of cleaning of all 15 furnaces was around `1.20-`1.30 cr while fuel gas saving was `6.00 cr. Improvement in plant throughput was around `65 cr per annum. It was quite a significant improvement. In order to do that we developed our own chemicals on trial basis and after several trials

ROBUST GROWTH: Relianceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hazira plant production capacity has grown manifold over the years.

Continued from Page 39

The plan-do-check-act (PDCA) approach was adopted to understand the characteristic of deposit. The team succeeded in identifying the deposit scale as one consisting inorganic salts and this led to search for chemical that can effectively remove inorganic deposit scales.

42 I Quality India I MARCH-APRIL 2011

The alternatives had to be weighed against effectiveness, cost, safety and operational ease. Consensus criteria method was used to analyse the possible alternatives and to zero in on the most appropriate solution. The process simulation tools were also used to finalise one of the alternatives and the use of IT in processing and in developing interpretations was considerable in helping to reduce the time to arrive at a decision. From the analysis of available data, case studies, literature search and vendor interactions it emerged that furnace coil cleaning through a combination of hot water and chemicals was the most appropriate solution. Though this

was established the real question was what kind of chemical ought to be used: A chemical that does not affect plant process or equipment integrity in any manner. This was the real challenge. It is undoubtedly a question of innovation. Any innovation is always fraught with doubts since it has its upside and downside. A suitable chemical was need of the hour. The coils in the furnaces/boilers are prone to developing deposits over its surface, which mainly include metal salts or organo-metalic compounds. The nature of these deposits varies from soft to very hard. The soft deposits may easily be cleaned with water but it is the harder deposits that need special treatment. In doing so the

we succeeded in cleaning convection banks of furnaces. You have similar plants in oth er locations too. Are you trying out this methodology there as well? Yes. This project has great replication capability. We have already tried with chemicals that we developed at Hazira complex and also planning to try at Dahej, Patalganga, Vadodra and Jamnagar. We have received queries from overseas cracker plants and they are interested in acquiring this technique. In a way, it is a global benchmark and we are now planning to patent this chemical that we developed in-house.

latter care needs to be taken not to damage metallurgy of the coils. Indeed, such a hard surface cleaning application should not only provide a clean surface but the hard surface should also not show any visible filming and/or streaking. The plan-do-check-act (PDCA) approach was adopted to understand the characteristic of deposit. The team succeeded in identifying the deposit scale as one consisting inorganic salts and this leads to search for chemical that can effectively remove inorganic deposit scales. Chemical(s) of suitable composition was tried in the laboratory. The convection coil cleaning using hot water and chemical composition was tried on one of the furnace of cracker plant and the outcome was highly satisfactory. The same was used in all other furnace coils. The 2009 study of Solomon Associates benchmark indicated improvement in energy performance. In financial terms, the project investment was `1.25 cr that enabled thermal energy saving of `5.23 cr and gained throughput by `6.51 cr and more importantly reduced greenhouse gas emission by 98,000 tonnes of CO2 per annum.

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Initiative to keep milk clean

and fresh

BANAS DAIRY REALISED THAT QUALITY AND FRESHNESS OF MILK ALONE WOULD FETCH THEM GOOD DIVIDENDS, NANDU MANJESHWAR LOOKS INTO THE CHANGING MINDSET OF THE FARMERS.

BANG ON TARGET: Parathibhai G Bhatol (second from left), Chairman of Banas Dairy, receiving the award from QCI Chairman Arun Maira.

ndia is the largest milk producer in the world at 115 million tonnes (MT) followed by the United States of America with 74 MT. It has taken long years and efforts of many dedicated professionals to reach this milestone and yet large quantities still get spoilt before reaching the market. Result: per capita milk consumption is among the lowest in the world. Historically, India had a deficit in milk and milk products till 1960 and per capita milk consumption was a lowly 130 millilitres. Large dairies or milk cooperatives were unknown and even today individual milk producers carry milk cans supplying households in large parts of the country. A little incident in 1946, at Kheda in Gujarat, changed the scenario forever. The milk producers in the province went on a strike against a milk contractor named Polson, running a creamery at Anand town, demanding higher payment for their produce. A fillip to this movement was given by Tribhuvandas Patel and

resulted in the first dairy cooperative. He named it as Anand Milk Union Limited — AMUL — now called Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers Union Limited. Today, milk products bearing the brand name Amul are well known. Patel’s movement led to rethinking among milk producers in the state. Amul Dairy was nurtured and developed into a modern dairy by Dr V Kurien through indigenous research and development using appropriate technology to ensure quality. During a visit to the dairy in 1964, the late Lal Bahadur Shastri, the then Prime Minister, was impressed and requested Dr Kurien to replicate dairy cooperatives all over India. Thus, the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) was formed and “Operation Flood” programme was launched. Operation Flood, the world’s largest dairy development programme, is based on the rich experience gained from the Amul Model dairy cooperatives. Project: Milk collection and

cooling ensuring clean milk production. The Amul model is a simple three-tier cooperative structure consisting of a dairy cooperative at the village level affiliated to the milk union at the district level which in turn is federated into a milk federation at the state level. This three-tier structure enables delegation of various functions at appropriate levels. The functions are: Milk collection at the village dairy society. Procurement and processing at the district milk union. Marketing milk and milk products by the state milk federation. The real stakeholders in this movement are the farmers who produce and provide milk for the consumers. All stakeholders are members and they elect a management committee, consisting of 9 to 12 representatives who govern village dairy cooperative society (VDCS). Banas Dairy has 1,345 VDCS whose main functions are:

Today, milk products bearing the brand name Amul are well known. Patel’s movement led to rethinking among milk producers in the state. Amul Dairy was nurtured and developed into a modern dairy by Dr V Kurien through indigenous research and development using appropriate technology to ensure quality.

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Quality India SPECIAL ISSUE “We impressed upon the farmers that quality milk fetched better returns”

Parathibhai G Bhatol, Chairman of Banas Dairy, on what led to the establishment of bulk milk cooling units in villages. Considering our climatic condition most of the farm produce, including milk, perishes. How did you

overcome this? Though we may the largest producer of milk but we wanted to know how small countries like Australia and New Zealand export more milk and milk products than we do. There we found, in addition to many good factors, that milk was cooled at the village or farm level whereas in our district we lacked this facility. As a result the milk by the time it reached the dairy had a high microbial level rendering the milk unusable. What action did you take to make milk retain its freshness and quality?

The real stakeholders in this movement are the farmers who produce and provide milk for the consumers. All stakeholders are members and they elect a management committee, consisting of 9 to 12 representatives who govern village dairy cooperative societies (VDCS).

44 I Quality India I MARCH-APRIL 2011

Collection of surplus milk from the producers of the village and pay according to quality and quantity. Provide support services to the members such as veterinary first aid, artificial insemination services, cattle feed, mineral mixture sales, fodder and fodder seeds, conduct training on animal husbandry and dairying. Selling liquid milk to local consumers at the village level. Selling milk to the district milk union. The milk union at the district level complements certain services for the VDCS including management support, training in dairying, fodder and fodder seeds, and veterinary care. Its main functions are procurement of milk, processing, establish chilling centres, selling liquid milk and milk products within the district and decide on the prices of milk to be paid to milk producers as well as the prices of support services provided to members. The state cooperatives milk federation (federation) is the apex body in this three-tier structure, has members from all cooperative milk unions and is governed by a board of directors consisting elected members of each milk union. The Federation further appoints a Managing Director and Member Secretary. It also

As you are aware ours is a cooperative and every producer is a stakeholder. Initially, we had to tell them the importance of quality and how we could achieve that with modern techniques. After all it involves money and it had not been tested and tried in villages around Gujarat. But we managed to impress upon the farmers that only quality milk would fetch better returns and in 1998 we set up bulk milk cooling units in a few villages. The others saw the benefits. Others, naturally, saw the benefits as cooled milk fetched a better price because it retained

employs staff to assist the Managing Director in discharging his/her duties. In addition to complementing district-level milk unions and providing support services the main functions are: Marketing milk and milk products processed and manufactured by milk unions. Establish distribution network for marketing milk and milk products. Arrange transportation of milk and milk products from milk unions to markets. Brand building of its products. Arrange common purchase of raw material used in manufacture and packaging or milk products. Decide on the products to be manufactured at various milk unions. Long-term planning on procurement, production and marketing. Arrange finances for the milk unions and technical knowhow. Conflict resolution and keep entire structure intact. Banaskantha district is a semiarid countryside and depends entirely on the monsoon for agriculture. Drought-like situations are a common feature in the district and since villagers cannot entirely depend on agriculture an

freshness and, importantly, retained quality. We now have bulk cooling units in almost 80 per cent of villages. Why only in 80 per cent and not in all villages? There is a reason behind this. In the rest 20 per cent of the villages we do not have land to build the buildings to install bulk milk cooling units. We will sort out the land acquisition shortly. So, in future no milk will be carried in cans. The entire collection of milk will be transported from bulk milk cooling units to Banas Dairy directly.

alternative form of livelihood was needed. The district is famous for Kankrej breed cattle and milk production was the alternative. Consequently, eight village-level cooperative milk societies of Vadgam and Palanpur were registered in 1966. This small step fructified in 1969 as Banaskantha District Cooperative Milk Producers Union, popular as Banas Dairy. Today it has three plants, quality assurance laboratory, research and development centre and production facilities for milk products. Little wonder then it is called “An Oasis in the Desert”. The growth was not devoid of problems especially in maintaining the quality of the milk procured. Till large-scale dairying came up, the farmers sold their produce either locally or in the next village, a short distance away. The farmers were not attuned to the idea of carrying milk long distances to collection centres and when they did the milk was unusable due to microbial activity. Infrastructure was to be blamed such as road, modes of carrying, hygiene and, above all, searing hot weather. As a result, freshness and organoleptic quality deteriorated. The hurdle of infrastructure like roads up to village level, from collection centres to milk union was, of course, beyond the purview of Banas Dairy. However,

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WELL-EQUIPPED: A view of the Banas dairy plant.

other facets were within the control of Banas Dairy. High temperature (which goes up to 45°C in the district) leads to faster growth of bacterial counts but at 4°C the microbial growth becomes stagnant. At this temperature the quality of milk is maintained and prevented from further deterioration due to microbial growth. Collection and carrying milk in the traditional milk was another factor for faster deterioration. In addition, the farmers would wait for long periods for the open trucks to transport the produce. By the time milk reached collection/chilling centres the shelf life was reduced to half and considering the climatic condition in summer deterioration was extreme. Quality cattle feed and prompt veterinary aid though equally important were lacking.

Source of clean milk

Banas Dairy realised that in today’s open market’s fierce competition quality alone would fetch them good dividends,. In 1998, they realised that it would not be possible to preserve quality and freshness of milk unless the milk was chilled within the shortest period of time once milked. The concept of bulk cooling was the alternative and this was introduced initially at a few villages in 1998-99. Till date 650 bulk milk cooling units have been installed for cooling 1.50 million litres of milk on an average day. The tangible results have been: Transportation in milk cans stopped ever since the installation of bulk milk cooling units as a result farmers have more time to tend to their farms and cattle than waiting for transport to carry their

Banaskantha District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union Limited (Banas Dairy) at Palanpur in Gujarat is one of 13 milk cooperatives in the state and is the largest cooperative in India under the Amul group of dairy cooperatives. There are 13,140 village cooperative societies producing 2.70 million litres of milk of which Banas Dairy’s contribution is 3.07 lakh litres. Banas Dairy is the largest milk cooperative in terms of milk production in the country. The cooperative is under the umbrella of the District Cooperative Network of Amul. In the last fiscal, the average procurement a day was 18.86 lakh litres and the peak touched 24.99 lakh litres. In 1999, Banas Dairy started the movement of clean milk production changing the mindset of the farmers, milk suppliers and ushered in financial benefits that accrued out of clean milk for the people.

produce. Reduced sour milk quantity, which otherwise would be the direct loss to the farmers. The raw milk quality and quantity improved fetching better remuneration to the farmer and also helped improve milk and milk products at the dairy plant. Improved hygiene at district level during transportation Quality for clean milk production and more importantly change in mindset towards quality, cleanliness and hygiene at the rural producers’ level.

Since the dairy husbandry in India is mostly looked after by women, the economic empowerment of women has been strengthened and gave them more disposable income for spending on health, nutrition and education of children. From its original one plant Banas Dairy now has three plants. Banas I (also old plant) has facilities for milk processing, Amul Kool (sterilised-flavoured milk), Amul ice cream, two milk powder plants of combined capacity of 50 tonnes per day, and quality assurance laboratory. Banas II plant’s facilities are liquid milk processing, market liquid milk pouches, Amul butter plant, milk powder plant of capacity of 60 tonnes per day, and quality assurance laboratory. Banas III plant’s facilities are liquid milk processing, Amul butter plant, ice cream plant, and quality assurance laboratory.

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Quality steel to compete with the

world’s best ESSAR STEEL FACED A UNIQUE PROBLEM: HOW TO INCREASE PRODUCTION WHEN ITS PERFORMANCE WAS AT PAR WITH THE BEST IN THE WORLD. BUT IT DID. A REPORT BY NANDU MANJESHWAR. ssar Steel is a global steel company with a strong presence in intensive steel-consuming markets in Asia and North America. It is India’s largest exporter of flat steel with 8.6 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of capacity. Essar Steel is fully integrated from mining to retail and has strong downstream capability with a global retail capacity of over 3 MTPA. Its global footprint is spread across Asia, North and the Middle East. In 2007, Essar Steel acquired Algoma Steel in Canada, which has a current capacity of 4 MTPA, and Minnesota Steel, which has iron ore reserves of over 1.4 billion tonnes. The company is building a 6 MTPA pellet plant, a concentration plant and a direct reduced iron plant in Minnesota. In Indonesia, it operates a 4,00,000 TPA cold rolling complex with a galvanizing line of 1,50,000 TPA, making it the largest private steel company in that country. In March 2010, Essar announced that it had signed a deal to buy US coal producer Trinity Coal Partners from US private equity group Denham Capital for $600 million. At Bailadilla, the company has an iron ore beneficiation plant having a capacity of 8 MPTA. Bailadilla has some of the world’s richest and finest ore. The iron ore slurry is sent through a 267-km pipeline to the pellet plant yielding advantages in quality, cost and real-time inventory management. The pellet plant at Visakhapat-

Essar Steel is India’s largest exporter of flat steel with 8.6 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of capacity. Essar Steel is fully integrated from mining to retail and has strong downstream capability with a global retail capacity of over 3 MTPA. It is globally spread across Asia, North and Middle East.

46 I Quality India I MARCH-APRIL 2011

nam, which is also of 8 MPTA capacity, converts the slurry into pellets providing vital raw material for the steel plant at Hazira, Gujarat. The steel complex at Hazira has 5 MPTA sponge iron plant, the world’s largest gas-based sponge iron plant in a single location. The plant provides raw material for state-of-the-art for 4.60 MPTA hot rolled coil plant, largest of the country’s new generation steel mills. This plant is fed with four electric arc furnaces and three casters. The complex has sophisticated infrastructure including independent water supply and power, oxygen and lime plant, and a captive port capable of handling up to 8.00 MPTA of cargo with modern cargo handling equipment like barges and floating cranes. In addition, at Hazira, it has a plate mill having a capacity of 1.50 MPTA making it one of the widest plate mills in the world. The plates undergo close process metallurgy and chemistry, keeping in view the specific requirements of different application segments. The pipe mill has a combined capacity of 0.60 MPTA of helical submerged arc welded and longitudinal submerged arc welded steel pipes. At the other end of value chain the downstream facility includes 1.40 MPTA cold rolling complex. Project: Increase production of coils per hour from 23.5 to 24.5 per hour in hot strip mill. Essar’s hot strip mill at Hazira

operates a wide coil strips whose range and specifications are: Coil/strip width range: 750 mm to 2,000 mm. Coil/strip thickness range: 1.60 mm to 20 mm. Specific coil weight: 18 kg/mm (maximum). Coil inside diameter: 760 +/20 mm. Coil outside diameter: 1,880 mm (maximum). The current output of hot strip mill is around 480 coils in a day at the production level of 23.50 coils in an hour. Though the productivity was at par with other flat steel manufacturers the management firmly believed it was possible to further enhance the capability of hot strip mill. This required a thorough study and analysis; hence a team comprising representatives from every functional areas such as mechanical, electrical, automation, operation and technical group was formed. The Hazira hot strip mill has been operational since 1995 and ever since the production commenced the input has been of a considerably wide range. The input is termed as product mix and implies the combination of grades, thickness and width rolled in hot strip mill. The grade classification of different types of steel is based on their metallurgical composition and specific application, which includes structural steels, skin panels, automotive segments, transport, boiler quality, line pipe and cold-rolled applications. This, indeed, is a huge

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QUALITY AT ITS BEST: Mahesh Dhume, Joint General Manager, Essar Steel, receiving the award

challenge for any hot strip mill. Essar Steel was confident that by adopting DMAIC (define, measure, analyse, improve and control) methodology it could achieve its aim. In define step Essar defined its objective of increasing coils per hour by one. The measure step entailed timebased process flow in hot strip mill. The processes are: Re-heating Furnace: The slabs produced from the caster are charged into the reheating furnace. The slabs are inside the furnace for 140 min and then extracted at 1,250oC. Roughing Mill: The extracted slabs are fed into roughing mill through a primary descaling system. The roughing mill is a 4-high reversible rolling with 2 work rolls and 2 backup rolls. The rolling is

Steely determination

accomplished in 5 or 7 passes and the average rolling for 5 passes is 109 sec and for 7 passes 142 sec. Coil Box: The rolled bar from roughing mill is transferred to a coil box, which bends and wraps the bar into a coil. This leads to homogenous temperature throughout the bar resulting in uniform properties in the strip. Sometimes rolling is done with coil box bypass mode for achieving surface quality (skin panel grades). However, for higher productivity it is always beneficial to use coil box in-use mode. Finishing Mill: The finishing mill comprises of six-4 high rolling stands and it converts the transfer bar from coil box into the desired dimensions in width and thickness. Aver-

Essar Global Limited is a diversified business corporation with a balanced portfolio of assets in the manufacturing and services sectors of steel, oil and gas, power, communications, shipping ports and logistics, and construction. The corporate is in seizing opportunities to expand its reach. Essar Steel is a global producer of steel with a footprint in India, Canada, USA, the Middle East and Asia. It is a fully integrated carbon steel manufacturer from iron ore to ready-to-market products with a current capacity of 8.60 million tonnes per annum. With enhanced production and aggressive marketing it believes in achieving 14 million tonnes per annum in this fiscal year. The companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s major strategic advantage is high level of forward and backward integration providing value addition in the chain of production.

age rolling time in finishing mill is 95 sec. Though, the finishing mill rolling time is lesser than roughing mill in very thin gauges (1.6 mm to 2 mm), the rolling time in finishing mill exceeds that of roughing mill. Coiler: The 2-down coilers wrap the final strip to coil form. The influencing parameters are the time taken in each of the processes as well as the scheduling and product mix. Thus, the major bottleneck was identified by measuring rolling time in roughing mill and finishing mill for each coil and cross tabulated against thickness and width groups. It was evident from the table that: 1. Roughing mill is the major bottleneck being slowest. 2. Finishing mill is a bottleneck only for 1.6 mm to 2 mm group. 3. Re-heating furnace is a bottleneck for wider section above 1,600 mm. The Pareto chart clearly indicated that roughing mill had to be optimised to achieve the target of one extra coil per hour. The focus area in analyse phase is the roughing mill. Under normal circumstances, 70 per cent of rolling is done with 5 passes and the rest 30 per cent with 7 passes though this ratio is not sacrosanct since the ratio changes according to the product mix. Different combinations of grades, thickness and

"We checked the global standards with our competitors output, and found our plant was at par with their level of production. We believed that with focussed efforts it was possible to increase the production. The expertise from other functional areas like automation were required," said Mahesh Dhume.

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Quality India SPECIAL ISSUE â&#x20AC;&#x153;We achieved what we had to by maintaining qualityâ&#x20AC;? an option in the growth of a company and especially in steel where there is an immense competition. The decision was not planned at the spur of a moment. We did a thorough feasibility study to increase the quantum within the existing parameters.

Mahesh Dhume, Joint General Manager, Essar Steel, on how the increase in steel production has benefited the company. What prompted you to increase production? In any manufacturing unit there is always a scope to improve production, the quality of product or products and efficiency. Status quo is never

One coil extra an hour meant an additional 22 tonnes and in a year, considering 330 operational days, it was 1,49,842 tonnes. On an average, the value realised `5,000 per tonne, the additional financial benefits accrued was `75 cr.

48 I Quality India I MARCH-APRIL 2011

What were the additional inputs required for this increase in production? We checked the global standards with our competitors output, and found our plant was at par with their level of production. We strongly believed that with focussed efforts it was possible to increase the production. Of

widths lead to increase or decrease of roughing mill passes. As evident from the rolling time, more the percentage rolled with 5 passes lesser the rolling time and higher the mill productivity. This, however, leads one to believe that conversion of 7 passes into 5 passes is the simplest solution. But there are criteria for the number of passes and also limitations too. Criteria for 5 passes are for softer steel grades (low-yield strength and lower-width range, less than 1,550 mm. Criteria for 7 passes are for hard steel grades (high-yield strength) requiring high loads and currents in the mill and upper-width range exceeding 1,550 mm. These limitations negated consideration of reducing number of passes and the alternative was in reducing gap time between two rolling time since the total roughing mill rolling time is equal to rolling time plus gap time. The effects of parameters were plotted against equipment availability, roughing mill time and gap time, roughing mill 5/7 pass ratio and product mix. In improved phase detailed study of bar rolling time in rough-

course, the expertise from other functional areas such as mechanical, electrical, automation, operation and technical groups were required. Currently, we were producing approximately 480 coils a day at 23.5 coils per hour. Our hot strip mill has been functional since 1995 and has been working well rolling out a combination of grades, thickness and width. This certainly would have tak en re-orientation and training the workforce? Yes, of course. There are lots of processes from slabs coming out of re-heating furnace at 1250Â°C going through rough-

ing mill, coil box, finishing mill and so on. Each of the processes requires definite time and that also depends on width. So we had to factor where we could save time without compromising on quality. We did achieve what we had to by maintaining quality. In what manner did the com pany benefit? In financial term it was a good jump. What may seem as marginal to others is not in terms of tonnage manufactured. Through these improvements we were able to manufacture an extra 1.50 lakh tonnes a year and in financial terms it was an additional `75 cr per annum.

WHY-WHY ANALYSIS High Reversal Time Why Bar Stopping to Far From RM Why 1- Slow Decelaration of Roller Table 2- Delayed Stop Command

ing mill was carried out. On extraction from furnace moves at a particular speed up to primary de-scaling system and decelerates to half the speed for effective descaling. During rolling period after every pass the bar stops on leaving roughing mill and reverses to enter again. It was noticed that there was scope of reducing the gap before reversal. The why-why analysis was used to optimise this process time (see the chart). The analysis concluded that if the bar stops very near to roughing mill, the travel distance of bar and time can be reduced. Many trials later the distance was tuned to 1.50 m from vertical edger (roughing mill entry side) and

1.50 m on exit side. This was done by adjusting the tracking distance in transport director which controls the bar movement. The software was modified incorporating all the modifications. In control phase continuous monitoring of the roughing mill gap time and rolling time on barto-bar basis was logged. The shiftwise coils per hour and daily analysis were continuously tracked. One coil extra an hour meant an additional 22 tonnes and in a year, considering 330 operational days, it was 1,49,842 tonnes. On an average, the value realised `5,000 per tonne, the additional financial benefits accrued was `75 cr.

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Ayurvet’s novel approach to quality

agricultural DABUR LAUNCHED HYDROPONICS AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM THAT HAS MORE BENEFITS THAN THE TRADITIONAL METHODS. NANDU MANJESHWAR REPORTS ON THE NEW INITIATIVE.

WELL DESERVED: Mohan Saxena, Managing Director, Ayurvet Limited, receiving the award from QCI Chairman Arun Maira.

abur, a brand that requires no introduction and a matching pedigree, was founded in 1884 by Dr S K Burman. Dr Burman’s mission was to produce healthcare products, a commendable feat in an era when foreign medicines and healthcare products ruled the roost. Over the years his descendants furthered Dr Burman’s dream to give Indians totally Indian products formulated with Indian herbal ingredients. Its three strategic business divisions are: consumer care division, consumer health division and international division. The company’s products are marketed in 60 countries and have manufacturing units in Bangladesh, Egypt, Pakistan,

Nepal, Nigeria, UAE and USA. Its major brands are Dabur (ayurvedic healthcare products), Vatika (premium hair care), Hajmola (digestives), Real (fruit juices and beverages) and Fem (fairness bleaches and skin care products). Dabur’s market leader products are honey, Chyawanprash, Hajmola and Isabgol. Ayurvet Limited, earlier known as Dabur Ayurvet Limited, is into animal healthcare products catering to a wide range of animal species. These are manufactured from natural and herbal products. Now, they have introduced hydroponics to their product portfolio. Hydroponics agriculture is not known to many. It has many benefits to agriculture as compared to traditional cultivation methods. It

uses lesser quantities of resources such as water, land and fertiliser. Mohan Saxena, Managing Director, Ayurvet Ltd says, “World population is growing, landmass is shrinking for cultivation, water is becoming dearer and price of fertilisers is soaring. Under these circumstances, innovation is the answer.” Though conservation is laudable but conservation alone will not be enough to take care of present and potential problems in future. A paradigm shift towards innovative agriculture system is needed. Ayurvet ProGreen Hydroponics machines are the solution for green fodder based on the integration of agriculture and livestock production having salient benefits to both. The

Ayurvet Limited, earlier known as Dabur Ayurvet Limited, is into animal healthcare products catering to a wide range of animal species. These are manufactured from natural and herbal products. Now, they have introduced hydroponics to their product portfolio.

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CHECKS AND BALANCES: Maj. Gen.(retd.) Dr. R. M. Kharab, Chairman Animal Welfare Board of India, appraising the Ayurvet ProGreen hydroponics green feed.

machines come in four dimensions for producing 50 kg, 240 kg, 480 kg and 500 kg fodder per day. The dimension of a typical 50 kg per day machine is 8 ft x 4 ft x 8 ft and the dimension increases for higher capacity machines. The fodder or other crops are on trays inside the machine. The major benefits are:

Ayurvet ProGreen Hydroponics machines are the solution for green fodder based on the integration of agriculture and livestock production having salient benefits to both. The machines come in four dimensions for producing 50 kg, 240 kg, 480 kg and 500 kg fodder per day.

50 I Quality India I MARCH-APRIL 2011

Saving of land: Requires 135 sq ft for 240 kg fodder production as against 2,178 sq ft in conventional system. Saving of water: Requires 2-3 litres of water to produce 1 kg as compared to 80-90 litres as in conventional system. Saving of time: Requires only seven-day production cycle from seeds to fully grown plants with biomass conservation ratio of 6-8 times. Nutritional value: Green feed is highly rich in protein, vitamin content and energy. It is also contamination free.

The comparative details are:

Nutrient (percentage) Protein Fibre Energy (kcal/kg) Ash

Grain Barley 10.10 6.80 3,900

Conventional Fodder 11.50 31.8 2,600

Hydroponics Fodder 31.99 24.75 4,727

2.79

11.40

5.70

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The state of our livestock meant for milching is certainly not good mainly due to poor animal feed. The livestock herders have to go long distances either for grazing or fetching green fodder. With hydroponics several issues like nutrient fodder, availability are taken care of,â&#x20AC;? mentioned Dr A. Kalra, CEO (Animal Feed Business). Of course, hydroponics concept is still in its nascent stage. Any innovation takes time to sink in for people to understand. They, perhaps, look at the initial investment cost. The company, however, claims the machines are not meant for merely producing fodder but even for growing vegetables.

The production in hydroponics is an year-round, daily activity and depending on the machine capacity one can harvest between 50 kg and 500 kg fodder every day. A comparison between conventional and hydroponics fodder production economics for 500 kg is indeed impressive. Taking into account, costs incurred on 500 kg fodder production on land, seed, land preparation, water, fertiliser and pesticide, labour, electricity and transportation a conventional method would cost `1,02,094 against `12,194 in hydroponics production. The economics is, indeed, in favour of hydroponics in addition to other benefits.

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Getting the most from

each call

WHAT DOES A BPO UNIT DO WHEN ONE OF ITS CLIENTS WANT MORE FROM EACH CALL? THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT WIPRO BPO FACED. NANDU MANJESHWAR FOUND OUT THE METHODS EMPLOYED BY THE BPO.

A LEAP FORWARD: Devender Malhotra, Head Quality, Wipro BPO, receiving the award from QCI Chairman Arun Maira.

ipro Limited, headquartered in Bengaluru, is $ 6 billion company. The four divisions of Wipro Limited are Wipro Technologies, Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting, Wipro Infrastructure Services and Wipro Eco Engineering. It is three decades into IT industry and the first one to obtain SEI CMM Level 5 certified software services company and also the first outside the USA to receive IEEE Software Process Award. Wipro is a global IT services company that provides consulting, business process outsourcing, business technology services, enterprise application services, infrastructure management, testing, product engineering, engineering design and product support. Their services are spread across a range of strategic domains and is backed by more than 1,00,000 associates from over 70 nationalities and 72 plus global delivery centres in over 55 countries. It believes in knowledge investment backed by years of R&D has led to

the creation of laboratories and centres of excellence to produce innovative solutions. This has enabled to acquire more than 800 active clients that include governments, educational institutions, utility services, and over 150 global Fortune 500 enterprises. Business process outsourcing (BPO) optimises business performance to attain value creation. There has been tremendous upsurge in the outsourcing industry in many developing countries, like India, which aid in reducing costs and in increasing service quality. The domestic BPO market, would touch almost $ 7 billion by 2013, is evolving into third-party ‘transformational outsourcing’ relationships from the existing captive dominated market structure. This implies that rather than merely running isolated processes for customers, BPOs would engage more deeply to identify and transform core business processes to add greater market value in the “creation and delivery of end products and services”. The Wipro organisation is

split into several industry verticals from customer relationship management, technical helpdesk support, finance and accounting right up to industry specific and specialised. Some of these are: Finance and Accounts Outsourcing This, perhaps, is the most essential fundamental of any enterprise. This ensures effective operations with requisite compliance and controls, balancing expenses versus growth, reducing the cash cycle and maximising return on investment. It offers operating cost reduction, win-win transformation model, scalable and sustainable services and continuous improvements and innovation. Human Resource Outsourcing Services and products portfolio management has driven organisations globally to rethink their service delivery strategy. The company’s human resource outsourcing has substantial capability to support the full spectrum of HR service offerings through a combination of certified domain experts, proven transition method-

There has been tremendous upsurge in the outsourcing industry in many developing countries, like India, which aid in reducing costs and in increasing service quality. The domestic BPO market, would touch almost $ 7 billion by 2013.

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Quality India SPECIAL ISSUE “Six Sigma helped us detect the fault lines” the problem that the customer is encountering and provide technical support. The customer has to go back satisfied that the problem has been solved. Also, we have to have experts in that particular domain and we do have.

Devender Malhotra, Head Quality, Wipro BPO, on how revenue per call was increased. In what manner can you really increase revenue per call? Customers, for example, approach us to sort out problems in their laptops or desktop computers. We immediately detect and analyse

Apart from providing technical support, Wipro also does “contextual selling” of products and services relevant to the customer’s need by generating additional revenue for the client. And also revenue generation from “cross selling” through support channels.

52 I Quality India I MARCH-APRIL 2011

us since 2005 and for this client we up-sell and cross-sell the products and we had to analyse the reasons for declining revenues.

With reference to this particular project your client seemed to foresee decreasing revenue generation. How did you solve it? This client is a Fortune 100 American hardware company. They observed that enough revenue generation was not there and needed us to improve it. The company has been with

When a customer is not happy with a product or its performance any up-selling or cross-selling is futile. How do you resolve it? Of course, customer satisfaction is very important. That is where we come into picture. And that can be done only if expertise is at hand and resolve the problem. Only then would a customer listen to us. As you are aware one cannot sell a product if the customer is dissatisfied.

ology and quality driven operational execution. Procurement Outsourcing This is the turnkey solution to supply chain management, from product sourcing to delivery. It delivers transformational sourceto-pay procurement outsourcing services for in diversified industry segments, thereby helping clients convert their fixed costs to variable costs and improve profitability, service levels and internal client satisfaction. Knowledge Process Outsourcing In recent years knowledge and legal process is gaining momentum. It entails business research, analytics, reporting, planning and analysis. The outsourcing capabilities are in the form of methodologies, competence and enabling technologies of the targeted business processes meaning process flows, value drivers and functional or sub-sector knowledge. The current project is about a major hardware company, a Fortune 100 American Company, demanding greater sales and revenues since the client’s incentives scheme was not in line with business needs and also no structured approach for revenue per call outlier management. Project: Improving revenue per call. A company always expects a

call to fructify into sales but it has not always been the case irrespective of the product or the brand name. Presently companies rely more on the outsourced agencies for such transactions and more importantly generating more revenue per calls. Wipro’s association with this hardware client started in 2005 with a few professionals, however in due course strengthened to 3,000 support professionals. Wipro provides Level 1 and Level 2 technical support to end customers through inbound and outbound, e-support channels for clients’ products in the North American region. Apart from providing technical support, Wipro also does “contextual selling” of products and services relevant to the customer’s need by generating additional revenue for the client. And also revenue generation from “cross selling” through support channels is key strategy to gain greater market share and enhance customer retention. The critical to quality (CTQ) key issue is to improve revenue per call and improve revenue from cross selling. In SIPOC analysis, input, process and output were of particular importance to this project. The customer call, help tool, internal help, agent support group help and knowledge base, in input, were the start point followed by process step

How did you resolve their problem? We adopted Six Sigma DMAIC methodology. We had to analyse from bottom up. For instance, when a call is received, how does the frontline associate receive, react and resolve the customer’s queries and at the end of it what is the customer’s reaction? Cross selling can happen only when a customer is happy and willing to listen. We can never underestimate the customer’s view. We detected the fault lines, measured various ways to mitigate them and then improved upon it.

that pegs on the onward journey. The procedure in this phase is calls hit automatic call distribution, frontline agents (agents handling calls) greets and verifies customer information, probes customer on the issue, searches for information, provides solution, frontline agents (FLA) pitches for sale, FLA completes sale followed by validation of sale. In define phase of DMAIC, business case, problem statement, goal statement, project statement, client and Wipro benefits were jotted. The important points in business case were:

Revenue generation is a key strategy to gain greater strategy of wallet of American consumer. With increasing market competition it is critical to retain customers through cross selling. Wipro being major touch point for client’s end consumers need to deliver on revenue per call metric to be a partner of choice. An improvement in revenue per call from $ 5.05 (Mar-Jun ‘09) to $ 6.34 (by Dec ‘09) at Wipro would bring in an estimated additional revenue of $ 4 million for client and $ 75,000 additional incentive for Wipro.

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Quality India SPECIAL ISSUE The project scope being: Longitudinal - Start of call to revenue booked. Lateral - Wipro all location. Out of scope - e-support, APAC and tool issues. On the frame - best practices from other processes and partners. In measure it was essential to establish performance standards. The critical to quality was revenue per call and this depended on output characteristic (revenue booked), project Y (revenue per call per day) target (in excess of $ 6.34), specification limit ($ 6.34) and defect (revenue per call less than $ 6.34 on any day). The first step was to do internal benchmarking in analyse phase that included hypothesis, hypothesis test, statistical tool drawing to conclusion. In hypothesis test was to identify if any significant differences in Mean revenue per call of different product lines. Null hypothesis and alternate hypothesis were considered and using statistical tool (1-Way ANOVA) it was concluded that since P value of for null hypothesis was less than 0.05 this hypothesis rejected with 95 percent confidence. The qualitative elements in analyse phase were hiring profile, floor induction training, incentive, rewards and recognition, coaching, peer to peer learning, outlier management, customer profile module goal setting and branding. The

A pro all through

quantitative parameters were offer rate, conversion rate, total problem resolutions, out of warranty and customer satisfaction, though these parameters were statistically impacting revenue per call. In improve phase vital X factors were taken. Factor 1: The proposed solution was to increase offer rate by 65 percent Factor 2: Cross sell to be a differentiator in floor induction training graduation. Factor 3: Sale-a-day programme launched to drive front line associate participation and track daily progress. Changes made to the participation calculation methodology for 1 sale a week to 5 sales a week to

Wipro IT business, a division of Wipro Limited, is among the largest global IT services, BPO and product engineering companies. In addition to the IT business, Wipro also has leadership position in the niche market segments of consumer products and lighting solutions. Annual turnover of the company is $ 6 billion. The company is listed on the BSE, NSE and New York Stock Exchange. This global IT giant offers consultancy, business process outsourcing, business technology services, enterprise application services, infrastructure management, testing, product engineering, engineering design and product support. Reinvention is its forte as far as technology and process advancement is concerned. Three decades in the IT industry, Wipro is backed with unmatched technical expertise and insights to maintain highest levels of compliance and quality that go with changing times and technology.

drive floor participation. Factor 4: Launched a structured 4 week “Sale Bay” outlier management programme. Sales Bay training programme strongly focuses on bottom 10 per cent outliers of the floor with high resolution score and low revenue per call. This programme was aimed at sharing the best practices and hence bringing about consistency in the sales performance of FLA. Factor 5: Customer profiling module for right product for right customer to improve conversion rate. Factor 6: Hiring profile changes incorporated in job description for FLA with inclusion of selling as a key deliverables. Hire FLA with prior sales experience to the extent possible. Incorporate cross selling attributes in initial screening. Factor 7: Differentiate cross selling performance outside of appraisal system. Factor 8: Sale-a-day programme launched to drive FLA participation and track daily progress. Through these measures Mean shifted from $ 5.05 to $ 6.42 and the Median shifted from $ 4.98 to $ 6.50. From pre-project revenue per call of $ 5 increased to $ 7 postproject and the future is expected to be even brighter targeting $ 8 revenue per call. In financial terms the client benefited with additional revenue of $ 5.90 million (annualised) and Wipro’s accrual was an additional $ 1,50,000.

SKY IS THE LIMIT:Wipro’s area of operations has grown largely, thanks to its burgeoning BPO operations.

Sales Bay training programme strongly focuses on bottom 10 per cent outliers of the floor with high resolution score and low revenue per call. This programme was aimed at sharing the best practices and hence bringing about consistency in the sales performance of FLA.

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Sealing deals through

quality SELLING HEALTH AND LIFE INSURANCE IS A TRICKY BUSINESS — ESPECIALLY ON PHONE. NANDU MANJESHWAR FOUND HOW MNYL REDUCED LEAKAGES AND CREATED A BENCHMARK. n the last decade, liberalisation in the insurance sector has seen tremendous upsurge both in general and life insurance categories. Max New York Life Insurance Company Limited, a joint venture between Max India Limited and New York Life International. Max New York International, an international arm of New York Life is a Fortune 100 company and Max India Limited is a multi-business enterprise, based in Delhi. Max New York Life has multichannel distribution spread across the country. Agency distribution is the primary channel completed by partnership distribution, alliance marketing and dedicated distribution in emerging markets. The company places a lot of emphasis on its selection process for agent advisor, which comprises four stages - screening, psychometric test, career seminar and final interview. The company has more than 71,000 agent advisors at 676 offices across 389 cities and townships. The company also has 50 tie-ups with banks, 30 partnership distribution relationships. Max New York Life has put in place a unique hub and spoke model of distribution to deepen rural penetration. This is the first time such a model has been for rural marketing of insurance with 139 offices dedicated to rural areas. The usual line taken by every insurance company is that unexpected events that strike without warning can disrupt rhythm of

The company places a lot of emphasis on its selection process for agent advisor, which comprises four stages: screening, psychometric test, career seminar and final interview. The company has more than 71,000 agent advisors at 676 offices across 389 cities and townships.

54 I Quality India I MARCH-APRIL 2011

life and be prepared. It is more so in India where per capita insurance is perhaps lowest in the world. Though people here are good at saving their earnings but little headway has been made as far as insurance is concerned. Max New York offers a suite of flexible products. It now has 25 individual life and health insurance products and 8 riders enabling customers to choose the policy that best fits their need. Besides this, the company offers 6 products and 7 riders in group insurance business. Mac New York Life (MNYL) insurance has three broad divisions - individual, corporate and non-resident Indian. The individual division consists of Life Plan, Growth Plan, Child Plan, Health Plan and Retirement Plan. The life plan consists of MNYL Platinum Protect, 20 Year Endowment, Life Gain Plus 20, Whole Life Participating, Endowment to Age 60, Life Gain Plus 25, Life Pay Money Back and Life Gain Endowment. The growth plan covers MNYL Flexi Fortune and MNYL Shubh Income. The child plan consists MNYL College Plan and MNYL Shiksha Plus II. The policies under health plan are LifeLine MediCash Plus, MNYL LifeLine Health Family, LifeLine Safety Net and LifeLine Wellness Plus. The retirement plan covers Life Partner Plus and Immediate Annuity. In the past, group insurance was mostly confined to the gov-

ernment institutions and public sector undertakings. Now, of course, even companies in private sector are into group insurance. Though corporate honchos may view it as a power tool, for motivation, reward and retention in these times of high attrition but for the employee it all about safety at work place and on the shop floor. It may not be entirely altruism but may work as an incentive to opt for a workplace where there is safety in work. The corporate group plan consists of Corporate Group Credit Line, Corporate Group Term Life, Max Super Life, Corporate Employee Deposit Linked Insurance and Group Gratuity cum Term Assurance. The insurance companies vie with one another to enrol more customers but in that process what is written in “fine print” is not told to the customer. In that process when the customer realises he/she has been led up the illusive garden path, the customer rejects the policy proposal. MNYL Insurance faced similar situation. Project: Sankalp - Reduce business leakage. MYNL Insurance, in Punjab, faced a piquant situation in business leakage. It is an emerging market and considering the income level in Punjab, insurance business ought to be good but it was not so and the loss in 2009 was `14.40 cr (annualised). The management believed that an opportunity existed to reduce the

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ESPOUSING CONFIDENCE: R P Singh, Director and Head (Emerging Markets), Max New York Life (fourth from left) receiving award.

business leakage from 14 per cent (on applied business between January and February â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;09) to 8 per cent which would result in revenue generation of Rs 13.23 cr and save operational cost by Rs 6.39 lakh (annualised). Six Sigma DMAIC methodology was adopted. In the define phase, the tools used were project charter, communication plan, ARMI (approver, resource, member and interested party), critical processes, SIPOC, top down chart, functional deployment chart, qualitative analysis and quick wins. In communication plan meeting/update and their frequency were fixed - Team status update meeting (weekly), leakage status report (monthly), project plan update (weekly) and project reviews (fortnightly). In SIPOC, the process was of utmost importance. Starting point was general office and end

Maximum insurance

point being premium payment of policy after 30 days of issuance. The processes were: Application received at general office, data entry in system and banking, cheque cleared/bounced, proposal accepted/cancelled, customer initiated cancellation and premium paying policy after 30 days. The top down chart of policy issuance process (and subprocess) is: Application received at general office: Customer fills and signs the proposal form. Proposal form along with financial instrument submitted at General Office. Data entry in the system and cheque banking: Proposal form along with financial instrument accepted at General Office. Data entry in the system.

Max New York Life Insurance Company Limited is a joint venture between Max India Limited and New York Life International, the international arm of New York Life, a Fortune 100 company, positioning itself on the quality platform. Max India Limited is one Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading multi-business corporations. Max New York Life offers a suite of flexible products. It now has 25 individual life and health insurance products and eight riders enabling customers to choose the policy that best fits their need. Besides this, the company offers six products and seven riders in group insurance business. The company has 676 offices and 139 dedicated to rural areas. 71,000 strong agent advisors working in 389 cities generate not only business but also educating people about the benefits of life insurance. .

Financial instrument sent to bank. Documents screened and sent to Head Office. Completion of data entry at Head Office. Cheque bounced or cleared: Clearance received from bank Money applied against proposal. Proposal enforced or cancelled: Policy enforced or cancelled. Policy pack despatched to General Office. Policy pack received at General Office. Policy pack handed over to agent. Policy pack received by customer. Customer initiated cancellation: Customer initiates cancellation. Cheque bounces The tools used in measure phase were Ishikawa diagram, operational definition, data collection format, data measurement plan, and measurement analysis. Ishikawa diagram identified 22 probable factors. In operational definition the factors, and causes for business leakages, were high spurt in number of cases at the month-end, time taken for cheque clearance is inordinately long, high attrition level of sales managers, mode (monthly and quarterly) of payment enforcement, method of payment and finally duration of sales managers. In analyse phase the focus was on the factors causing business

Group insurance was confined to the government institutions. Now, even companies in private sector are into group insurance. Though corporate honchos may view it as a power tool, for motivation, reward and retention in times of high attrition but for the employee it is all about safety at work place and on the shop floor.

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Quality India SPECIAL ISSUE â&#x20AC;&#x153;Six Sigma methods fixed the problemsâ&#x20AC;?

R P Singh, Director and Head (Emerging Markets), Max New York Life, on the methods used to stem leakage. The word leakage is used in the

project. How do you define it in insurance? There is intense competition in insurance segment in the country and it has happened within the last decade. The staff and agents have to approach prospective customers with life insurance proposals educating them about the benefits of insurance. Some respond and others do not. Of those who respond we found many withdraw before making payment and some withdraw after completion of formalities.

This, we term as leakage.

applicant gets rejected too.

What, in your view, are the fac tors that led to this situation? The reasons are both within and without. There is certain criterion one has to fulfil in the policy application form, this is the norm. When those criteria are not fulfilled, obviously the application is rejected. These relevant points need to be informed to the applicant and if it is not followed, while the application is rejected, the customer or the

It appears that the staff or agents are not well versed with the rules and regulations? No, it was not the case. In fact, there were multiple reasons and that was the reason we initiated project Sankalp. This business leakage was in Punjab. We used Six Sigma DMAIC methodology. In the end it became a benchmark for emerging markets. The business imp-act was a healthy `21.80 cr per annum.

The brainstorming session in finding quick win solutions and potential opportunities/solutions were concluded. These were:

CONCERNS/ISSUES

SOLUTIONS

Premium policy after 30 days: This becomes active premium paying policy.

High cheque-bounce cases in specific branch office or at sales managers.

Acceptance of cash or demand draft only in those specific branches.

High turn around time in clearance and high probability of up-country cheques bouncing.

Non-acceptance of up-country cheques.

Mounting number of after enforcement cancellations and no proactive communication to sales for retaining the business.

State level free- look cancellation report.

High free-look cancellations and no acknowledgement proof available.

Despatch of policy directly to customer.

Office-wise performance including leakage was not getting shared with other offices and other offices are unaware of own performance in relation to others.

Branch-wise weekly score card.

Difficult to detect mis-selling data quality.

In operational definition, the factors and causes for business leakages, were high in a number of cases at the month-end, time taken for cheque clearance is inordinately long, high attrition level of sales managers, mode of payment enforcement.

56 I Quality India I MARCH-APRIL 2011

wide branch network of which up-country will be converted to local. High attrition rate of sales managers: No self sourcing by sales managers. Laxity of confirmation criteria. Initial hand holding by senior officers. Mode of payment: Control on monthly and quarterly mode payment. Acceptance of monthly mode with ECS/direct debit/PDC. Higher minimum premium limit for monthly/quarterly mode. Type of financial instrument:

leakages (all the X factors). Business pressure indicated spike highest at month-end, cheque clearance turn around time exceeding 15 days was highest followed by those between 8-15 days. Attrition level of sales manager was due to termination, in mode of payment category the maximum defaulters were in monthly payment segment followed quarterly, similarly bouncing of cheques was high and finally attrition of sales manager affected performance and business leakage. The possible solution in improve phase were: Business pressure/spike at

month-end volumes: Compulsory self sourcing by sales managers to be discontinued Non-acceptance of up-country cheques at month-end. Weekly targets for sales team Applied and paid month-end dates to have at least 5 days difference. High cheque clearing turn around time: Non-acceptance of up-country cheques. Processing up-country cheques through speed clearance. Tie-up with bank having a

Higher monthly/quarterly limits for cases initial premium in cash/DD. Initial premium with cash/DD promoted with advantage like lesser turn around time. Non-acceptance of cheques at month-end. The proposals were implemented in Punjab and replicated in all 139 rural offices. A revised functional deployment chart and process control sheet prepared. The results were impressive: Achievement of 137 percent reduction in business leakage and a cost saving of `9.60 lakh and the business impact `21.80 cr (per annum), which was additional 22 per cent business for the channel.

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Quality progress with

‘Pragati’ WHEN CAPGEMINI DISCOVERED IT WAS EMPLOYING A HIGHER NUMBER OF PERSONNEL FOR CLIENTS BRINGING PROFITS, IT FORMED A SIX SIGMA TEAM, REPORTS NANDU MANJESHWAR.

TOWARDS A QUALITATIVE PROGRESS: The Capgemini team recieving prize from Arun Maira, Chairman, Quality Council of India, during the Sixth Conclave.

apgemini India is the Indian arm of the global giant Capgemini headquartered in Paris. Every industry has its own unique requirements and challenges and Capgemini India, with its industry domain experts, works with Indian businesses to address their unique challenges in making them competitive globally. Capgemini believes in the philosophy that people matter and results count. In today’s global business environment, technology is sans border and competition is indeed global. The key is to respond to the complex and unexpected challenges. Thus, developing customised business strategies and technologies to helping clients deal with changing business and technology issues it offers contemporary solutionsbased tools, methodologies and beat practices developed over years of experience. The collaborative business experience helps define the rules and is central to Capgemini’s philosophy and a pil-

lar of service delivery. The four dimensions of collaboration are: Targeting Value: Exactly understand what is to be achieved and establish targets all along the path of the project. Mitigating Risk: Project failure is a major concern. The dimension reflects attention paid in understanding the stakes of an initiative and the level of risk inherent in the initiative. Initiative manages the risk and reduce the obstacles that otherwise reduce value realisation. Optimising Capabilities: This dimension refers to twoway transfer of knowledge during the project and the efforts to ensure that the know-how and support required to sustain the value of the project is in place till completion of the project. Aligning the Organisation: Initiatives often fail to provide lasting value because either implementation fails or is delayed within the organi-

sation. This failure can result from a number of causes. Knowing what might inhibit implementation can shape the nature of collaboration and accelerate the realisation of project value. Capgemini group is one of the world’s largest management and IT consulting firms. The key features of business are finance and accounting, assurance, research services, engineering services, analytics, data management, antimoney laundering, supply chain, life sciences BPO and content management. The current project is focussed on master data management (MDM) process for one of the largest beverages company in the world. Any delay or an error in the process will impact business revenue and sales turnover, however, Capgemini India’s operating margin was declining. Project: Pragati — Journey towards excellence. The objective was to improve the beverages client’s master data process and at the time of initiat-

Capgemini group is world’s largest management and IT consulting firms. The key features of business are finance and accounting, assurance, research services, analytics, data management, antimoney laundering, supply chain, life sciences BPO and content management.

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Quality India SPECIAL ISSUE “We believe in global benchmarking” had to deploy more people to meet the client’s expectations as per the statutory requirement and meet the customer’s service standards. Later we identified the gap and wastages since our operating margins were decreasing.

Raman Katyal, Director (Operations), Capgemini India, on the inclusion of the strong Six Sigma team to lower the headcount and maintain delivery excellence. Why was there so much variation in staffing pattern for a single project or a client? It was neither deliberate nor accidental. It was about adding value to our client. How we did and why we did that was the basis of this project. Initially, we

Before launching project ‘Pragati’, key resources were identified and trained on the Six Sigma methodologies and Lean concepts to resolve the problem. Appropriate tools and methodologies were used during the project.

58 I Quality India I MARCH-APRIL 2011

our operating margins.

You have clients offering differ ent products and operating in different domains. How do you organise staffing? Yes, we do have a large client base. There are cross-functional teams to deal with various functions and clients. In this particular case, we had a commitment of 50 headcounts as per the service level agreement but were employing 85. We were meeting client’s requirement but internally it was too much and that was affecting

How did you overcome this predicament of extra deployment of manpower? In all our activities we always keep a tab on our operating profit for each project and in this case we found that our operating profit was declining rather than catered for. In our contract with the client we had agreed to run the business with 50 headcounts but exceeded that number though we were meeting client’s requirement, accuracy and quality. Once we understood our drawback, we formed a Six Sigma team to streamline the operation. Through this project we eliminated wastages and subsequently brought a lot of standardisation. In addition we

ing the project the average productivity was 60 requests per person per day. During due diligence (transition of process from client to Capgemini), Capgemini agreed the productivity of 96 calls per person per day to meet client’s service level agreement (SLA). The low-productivity resulted in deployment of more persons (headcounts) than contracted to meet the client’s demand. Currently, in a meeting client’s demand 85 headcount was deployed against 50, 70 per cent more than the contract requirement. Apart from extra headcount other repercussions were: Delay in processing resulting in failure to meet client’s SLA. Impact on the client’s sales turnover and revenue. Low controls in system since it was 100 per cent manual and only detection based. High-processing time in new customer master data creation (16 min against the target of 4.50 min per request). Low visibility on accuracy of customer master database (75 per cent against the target of 97 per cent). Highly person-dependent process (100 per cent in all

the six major process steps) The reason was too many process references and validation leading to long-process time. Another reason being requests were unevenly allocated due to manual allocation process and skill set restrictions and also lack of excellent skills, poor error tracking and reporting mechanism coupled with high manual dependent process. Through the voice of stakeholders inference drawn was three main points — Need to identify a solution to handle the workflow with on time and accurate service delivery, action towards improving the operational margin and improve the technical efficiency and ensure improvement of transaction output. The improvement idea was discussed with the client, key business decision-makers and processing team. Voice of stakeholders confirmed the idea and agreed to drive the project through Six Sigma DMAIC cycle. Before launching project ‘Pragati’, key resources were identified and trained on the Six Sigma methodologies and Lean concepts to resolve the problem. Appropriate tools and methodologies were used during the proj-

brought in technology solutions that we leveraged in bringing down headcounts without compromising either accuracy or quality or timely delivery schedules. How will you manage future clients and projects without committing the same mistake? Of course, this was a lesson learnt in our eagerness to prove that we can do better in every aspect like meeting delivery schedules, accuracy and quality. Again this is lesson learnt in handling clients from any sector -- be it telecom or retail or banking, etc. We believe in global benchmarking and have a strong Six Sigma team to manage the nitty-gritty and believe in the philosophy of delivery excellence.

ect. Critical to quality (CTQ) and supplier, input, process, output and customer (SIPOC) methodology applied. In SIPOC high-level understanding of the scope of the process was obtained. Clarity on the process, process owner and the boundaries of the project was agreed upon and provided a structured way to discuss the process and get consensus on what it involves before the Team progressed to the next stage. The CTQ defined the customer requirement in relation to operation definition. Creation of master data with optimal processing time, efficiency and resources were critical performance standards traced to critical service delivery, while correct master data creation was confirmed to the critical performance requirement for the service delivery quality. The Team used Lean (value stream mapping) and basic tools (Fishbone and Pareto) to perform the root cause analysis and finally failure mode effect analysis (FMEA) to confirm the effect of new process. The value stream mapping inference was most of the process steps were manually including intervention, the overall processing time 16 min, lead time

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Quality India SPECIAL ISSUE 34.35 min, the request waits for almost 15 min between allocation and before being acted upon 1st touch and quality check being done post-delivery and found to be totally non-value addition. The cause and effect (Fishbone) diagram inference was identified with the team’s cause category based on the area of pain and causes were listed in each category. The inference drawn by the drill down analysis through box plots indicated that Teams B and C performance was better than Teams A and D: 70 per cent of the data points of Team B and 65 per cent of Team C indicated performance above baseline while low performance observed in Teams A and D were only 35 per cent and 45 per cent, respectively, of the data points above the baseline. Also, no significant correlation or trend was observed in a day against the volume inflow (an average of 4,824 request received in a day was observed from the historic data). Skill set matrix indicated that if an associate well versed in all three stages of the process was considered an ‘expert’, then in descending order ‘2’ was the intermediate and ‘1’ the beginner. The analysis through valuestream mapping, skill-set mapping and team-wise performance indicated gap between expectation and shortfall. This enabled the steps that had to be taken: Develop an action plan for the prioritised root causes with

Focus on competency

person responsible and milestone to be achieved. Develop to-be (or proposed process) value stream process map. Conduct cost-benefit analysis for the identified actions and get the approval from sponsor and client-related changes to be obtained from client. Collect data in the new format for understanding the impact. Consolidation of multiple solutions. The proposed process through value-stream mapping inferences was implementation of work-flow management tool to enable effective and even the work allocation, effective and systematic customer master data processing system (CMPDS) validation

Capgemini is headquartered in Paris and operates in more than 35 countries and employs over 1,00,000 in North and South Americas, Europe and the Asia Pacific region. In India, it has a dedicated staff close to 30,000 working across seven cities and provides service to over 400 clients globally and in the Indian market. Capgemini India promises to be a true local business partner with focused capabilities and unmatched competencies which are committed to client’s business success. It offers full spectrum of services in consulting, technology, customised software, enterprise resource planning and system integration, infrastructure management and business process outsourcing. Capgemini believes in honesty, boldness, trust, team spirit and these values help in building innovative solutions for customers towards leadership position.

performed with minimal intervention and improve versatility of the team to ensure process associates understand and perform effectively all stages of master data setup. In control stage sustaining results were important. The client’s target on service delivery exceeded (from 97 per cent to 98.5 per cent), process control developed, business logics used for the development of CMPDS system documented and the results and solutions tracked through Command Centre and Matrix Tracking System. The resources (headcount) reduced from the earlier 85 to 43 (lower than contracted 50 headcount). The most visible benefits were:

TOWARDS HIGH PRODUCTIVITY: The Capgemini team involves in business srategies and technologies to improve their performance and satisfy customers.

Improvement in productivity resulting in handling the volume with less people. Standardisation and streamlining of various sub-processes leading to better control of overall process. Elimination of person dependency. Improved processing time from 16 min to 4 min on master data management (MDM). The success of this productivity improvement project is excellent for replication across other regions within MDM process and found 30 per cent improvement opportunities. The financial benefit was around `2.59 cr per annum.

The Team used Lean (value -stream mapping) and basic tools (Fishbone and Pareto) to perform the root cause analysis and finally failure mode effect analysis (FMEA) to confirm the effect of new process

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Centre of Excellence for call

monitoring CONVERGYS BROUGHT IN INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS. ONE SUCH EFFORT WAS TO SET UP A CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE FOR CALL MONITORING, REPORTS NANDU MANJESHWAR. onvergys India is the Indian division of Cincinnatibased Convergys Corporation, with offices spread across North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, notable amongst them being India, and the Philippines, and the Pacific. The Corporation is a global leader in sectors such as learning, development, billing, human resources and customer care. Globally their clients are: Sri Lanka Telecom, Telecom Egypt, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, Kmart, Time Warner Cable, Genral Motors, Palmetto GBA, Disney Mobile and many more. Including Convergys India, the company handles close to two million customer and employee processes everyday through electronic or live media. It also generates 1.70 million bills on a daily basis with its dedicated software. Convergys India, operating out of Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Thane and Gurgaon, caters mainly to industry segments like consumer products, technology, communications, financial consultancy, technical support, healthcare, manufacturing and transportation. A few of the specialised services offered are: Revenue Management Solutions: Rating and billing convergent services in a costeffective manner, revenue management solutions pro-

Duing the recession, BPOs came out with innovative solutions to maximise operating profit. In this endeavour, Convergys had to leverage in-house capabilities and set up COE for call monitoring. A cross functional team was formed to set up COE and used Six Sigma DMADV approach.

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vide an unprecedented success rate, low latency, high availability and flexibility to meet today’s challenge. Customer Retention Solutions: The extreme business environment creates an even greater need to strengthen customer relationship and maximise customer retention. By combining consulting-led strategy and operational expertise with market leading analytics and automation technology offers highly effective customer retention solutions. Customer Acquisition Solution: One of the ways to expand business is through acquisition and this solution identifies and attracts highvalue consumers and business customers, maximise sales conversion rates and increase revenue per customer. Multi-channel Interaction Solution: Communications and media service providers look for expertise in business support system. The providers can now deploy and optimise mission-critical, cost-effective billing and business support systems technologies and services. Customer Back Office Solutions: Convergys has developed a suite of solutions that can bring customer’s back office process to the forefront, transforming disjointed manual processes into an

efficient, smoothly running machine that can dramatically improve customer service. The BPO industry in India has matured over the years and is moving towards providing more value-added and high-end services to the client. The high-end service fetches 1.5 times for the call centre work rate. With the objective to set up a Center of Excellence (COE) for call monitoring by leveraging existing inhouse capabilities, Convergys pitched for this service to one of the world leaders in telecommunication industry and won the deal. Project: Compliance to commercial — An opportunity to grow. In the recessionary period, BPOs came out with innovative solutions to maximise operating profit. In this endeavour, Convergys had to leverage in-house capabilities and set up COE for call monitoring. A cross functional team was formed to set up COE and used Six Sigma DMADV (define, measure, analyse, design and validate) approach. The high-level project included define (gathering voice of customer and identifying critical to quality), measure (preparing benchmarking questions, conduct benchmark survey, analyse benchmark survey results, set critical to quality targets, identify critical to process and set critical to process tar-

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CALL FOR EXCELLENCE: The Convergys team with the prize that was awarded to it during the Sixth National Quality Conclave

gets), analyse (company design options and select best design elements), design (design high level quality monitoring model, develop design elements and operating model process map) and verify (conduct FMEA, prepare implementation plan, execute implement plan and prepare and implement control plan). The voice of customer aside, the important issues were critical customer requirement and, critical to quality and critical to process. The critical to customer requirement was that information should be accurate, should adhere to the schedule given and calls should be selected randomly from all centres. The requirements for critical to quality (CTQ) and critical to process

(CTP) were accuracy, schedule attainment and team balance in all centres. In measure phase benchmarking was done both internally and with best in class (external) service provider to access various elements of call monitoring programme. A sample questionnaire was prepared and the questions in survey were for the following areas in benchmarking and tabulated below comparing Convergys India and external (in brackets). Call Monitoring Process: Follows random sampling with additional monitoring for low performers (follow random sampling). 100 per cent monitoring for call that got dissatisfied feed-

Meeting professional needs

Convergys Corporation, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, provides customer relationship management services, consulting and professional services, billing services and self-care technology. It employs around 75,000 professionals in more than 70 countries speaking more than 35 languages in 85 sites spread across North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, most notably in India and Philippines and Latin America. The company grew from Cincinnati Bell Information Systems and MATRIXX, both subsidiaries of Cincinnati Bell. Most of its clients are companies in the telecommunications, financial services, technology sector, government, and employee care markets. Convergys sold its Human Resource Management line of business to Northgate Arinso in 2010. Its international clients include DuPont, Whirlpool Corporation, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, Sri Lanka Telecom, Telecom Egypt, Disney Mobile, ESPN Mobile and Time Warner Cable.

back from customer (randomly picks the calls and are not aligned to client teams). Training: Process specific training (no clearly defined and documented training process). Knowledge Management: Central repository of knowledge (does not exist and depends on their client systems). Calibration: Once a week, between client, quality evaluator, team leader and agent (frequency can be reduced if client suggests so). Calibration variance on accuracy, repeatability, ability to re-produce is calculated and managed (calibration session once a week). Evaluation, Feedback & Performance Management: 100 per cent feedback on monitored calls (direct realtime access to the monitoring scores as well as feedback given by quality evaluators). Joint feedback by quality evaluator and team leader (online and written feedback for all calls monitored by quality evaluators within 24 hrs and attribute-wise stack ranking of agents is done to support team leader for coaching). Reporting: Dedicated MIS team for each programme for reporting. Online system for efficiency

The voice of customer aside, the important issues were critical customer requirement and, critical to quality and critical to process. The critical to customer requirement was that information should be accurate, should adhere to the schedule given and calls should be selected randomly from all centres.

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Quality India SPECIAL ISSUE â&#x20AC;&#x153;Call monitoring assesses quality of serviceâ&#x20AC;? the call is acted upon, in terms of accuracy and prompt delivery of service, the client gets the benefit and we are committed to deliver the highest-level customer service.

Hanumant Talwar, Managing Director and Country ManagerIndia, Convergys, on the usefulness of monitoring client calls. What does call monitoring exactly mean and how does it help in business process? It means in service delivery each and every call that we receive and also the outgoing calls that we monitor is to ensure whether we deliver quality service. When

Though the companies always look forward to financial benefits but the processes developed and its replication possibilities have a long-term effect. The revenue earned (annualised) by the new programme was $ 5.21 million and revenue earned by two new programmes was $ 6.11 million.

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In what way do you assess that calls are responded and high service levels are achieved? We actually run and re-run these calls and log them on quality evaluation sheets on multiple parameters like how the words are pronounced, response to a question, clarity or empathy with the customer...It could range up to 50 parameters on which we evaluate. Based on the feedback on the individual agent, we assess the performance and decide whether the agent requires fur-

metrics reporting (the company urges online tool, which provides agent performance trending online). Technology Infrastructure: The company is able to support different call recording system including Nice, Witness, Ultra etc (able to support more than 40 different call recording systems including Nice, Witness, Variant, E-talk, i360 etc). Advantage of internal technology team (facility to do online selective call recordings based on specific requirements and can do real-time live call barging for monitoring purposes). From the tabulated format it could be assessed that Convergys India was matching the best in class and only in technology infrastructure, reporting and evaluation, feedback and performance management were slightly lagging. Four alternate options for design elements were considered. In each option the design element was either selected or flagged as will be used, if required. The initial objective being call monitoring the design of call monitoring entails call selection

ther training. Call monitoring is also the basis for assessing our quality of service. How difficult is it when an agent has to answer calls seeking different products and serv ices? Processes are laid out before a person is assigned to a particular client. Before assigning a person goes through a detailed training programme to understand that particular product of the client, the basics of the product and kind of queries would emanate related to the product and unless that person (agent) understands the statement of work it will be quite difficult to work effectively. So from an agent to a leader everyone has to

and centre and the team balance. In doing so each team will be covered by a minimum of two quality evaluators to avoid bias and likewise total call to be monitored for centre will be equally divided between Teams. Call selection is around the centres, team, and select calls as per schedule starting from first call, for all the intervals. Intervals were assigned to quality evaluators (odd for one quality evaluator and even for other quality evaluator). The design element included training and certification process. The new training method was conducted in a sequence that 25 days for instructor-lead classroom training, five days practice session by quality evaluators, calibration between quality evaluator and trainer, two weeks of trainer in which first week is for practice under the calibration gate and the second week for monitoring for certification and finally two months of nesting. The other elements in design elements were knowledge management process, calibration, evaluation and feedback, reporting; call monitoring and reporting. The failure mode effect analysis (FMEA), before

understand clientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s requirement based on statement of work. How do you achieve the intended targets when you receive calls from different part of the world? First, it is about training which could span from one week to ten weeks before the person is assigned to a call and the training also depends on the complexity of the call since we may not know from which part of the globe a call is made. That is why we adopt global English and also indulge in cultural communication training. This is the reason that we do not patronise any other accent. In fact, we are doing a programme on global English for a global software company.

and after, was conducted on process steps, potential failures, potential effects, potential causes and current controls. In the revised (after) analysis improved actions identified. The implementation plan included seven items, from updating training process to control plan, description of actions to be taken and responsibilities allotted and also timeline for each. The control plan detailed exactly the frequency checks on daily, weekly and monthly of activities. The daily checks included team review and schedule reviews. The weekly check activities were calibration by client, team leader, subject matter expert, performance review and update discussions. The monthly review entails monthly programme performance review and calibration by team leader, subject matter expert and quality evaluator. Though the companies always look forward to financial benefits but the processes developed and its replication possibilities have a long-term effect. The revenue earned (annualised) by the new programme was $ 5.21 million and revenue earned by two new programmes was $ 6.11 million.

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Creating value addition

to clients WORLD-CLASS DELIVERY AND CLIENT SATISFACTION ARE THE KEY COMPONENTS OF FIRSTSOURCE. A REPORT BY NANDU MANJESHWAR.

EXCELLENCE ENABLER: The Firstsource BPO team receiving the award.

irstsource is a provider of business process outsourcing (BPO) services and is headquartered in Mumbai. In India it operates from Bangalore Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Coimbatore, Hubli, Indore, Jalandhar, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Siliguri, Tiruchirapalli and Vijayawada. It was formerly ICICI Onesource. The company also has offices in the USA, the UK and Philippines. Firstsource provides customised business process management to customer in the banking and financial services, customer services, telecom and media and healthcare sectors. The portfolio includes customer acquisition, customer care, billing and collections, transaction processing and business research and analytics. It has delivery model across 42 world-class centres and is staffed by 24,000 professionals for timely, efficient and cost- effective

ways to meet clients’ demand. Founded in 2001, Firstsource has built a reputation for quality service. In their long list of clients are 20 Fortune 500 companies, eight FTSE companies, nine out of top 10 US credit card companies, two largest Indian banks and one of top five UK banks and over 1,000 hospitals in the US. The India BPOs have moved ahead in creating value addition to their clients through innovative methods apart from prompt delivery and quality associated with work. This helps to stand apart from the other BPOs. The company’s vision and mission was in consonance with that objective in not only meeting the Australian client’s SLA but exceed the target. Project: Meet and exceed the target of 87 per cent on overall quality scores. The project objectives have to be in sync with the vision and mission of the company but it is

easier said than done. The start point is the person receiving the call (every BPO has different nomenclature from agent to associate to headcount and many more) and here it is advisor. As the front of the company advisor’s conduct, understanding of the query from a customer, resolution or otherwise of that query determines the success rate. The simple process map, opportunities for error and problem areas illustrates the flow and stages during the call contributing to maximum defects. Of the many factors in the root cause analysis there are certain fundamental and basic faults to be precise and these are (taken at random from root cause analysis but experienced commonly on 1800 calls):

Calls not answered on time. Lack of active listening. Not sounding friendly. Unable to build rapport with caller.

Firstsource provides customised business process management to customer in the banking and financial and customer services, telecom, media and healthcare sectors. The portfolio includes customer acquisition, customer care and collections, transaction processing and business research and analytics.

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QUALITY AT ITS BEST: The principal objective of the company is client satisfaction.

Lack of effective questioning. Lack of confidence. Lack of assurance.

The control impact matrix illustrated high, medium and low and whether the factors (X) are in or out of control. The factors having high, medium and low impact are:

The project objectives have to be in sync with the vision and mission of the company but it is easier said than done. The start point is the person receiving the call (every BPO has different nomenclature from agent to associate to headcount and many more) and here it is advisor.

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High Impact Lack of assurance - unaware of verbiage (X1). Lack of effective questioning - not following support point (X2). Not offering further assistance (X3). Unable to build rapport with customer - due to culture gap (X6). Lack of active listening (X8). Lack of confidence - lack of product knowledge (X9). Lack of confidence - not evident in the tone of voice (X10). Breach of privacy law (X14). Medium Impact The medium impact factors are: Unnecessary credit applied since unaware of process updates (X4), not adding relevant notes due to high call volumes (X5), not using customer name (X7), unnecessary credits applied due to lack of objection handling skills (X11) and lack of active listening could be correlated advisor updating notes on the previous account (X12).

The projected executed with appropriated solutions as under: X Factors

Counter Measures

Lack of confidence-not evident in tone of voice.

Soft skill refresher were conducted.

Unnecessary credits appliedunaware of Process updates.

Product specific refresher were conducted.

Not adding relevant notes due to high volumes of calls

Common notes enabled where advisors can use them effectively to reduce the wrap time and be prepared for the next call

Unnecessary credits appliedunaware of objection handling skills.

Product specific refreshers were conducted.

Lack of active listening-advisors updating notes on the previous account.

Common notes enable where advisors can use them effectively to reduce the wrap time and be prepared for the next call.

Breach of privacy

Product specific refreshers were conducted.

Low Impact Sounding monotonous (X13) is at times annoying to the customer. The factors X1 to X12 were prioritised for effective actions and most of them were high impact category. The causes have also been indicated against of the X factors in the previous paragraphs. The deployment method for ideal call flow was formulated from welcome to close and these have been with time spent in sec-

onds (in brackets): Welcome (5), issue description (40), questioning (25), acknowledge, empathise and assure (10), trouble shooting (240), reason for fault and customer education (20), offer further assistance (15) and close (5). On completion of the project the company circulated white paper within the organisation to replicate the best practices. On the financial front the impact cost saving was `14,40,000 or Australian $ 36,000.

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Analysing processes to raise

production SUSIRA INDUSTRIES DECIDES TO BRING IN PRODUCTIVITY IMPROVEMENT AND COST REDUCTION. NANDU MANJESHWAR WENT THROUGH THE PROCESS TO UNDERSTAND HOW SUSIRA DID IT.

THINKING BIG: Monikandan Susira of Susira Industries receiving citation during the 6th National Quality Conclave.

he Chennai-based Susira Industries Limited was set up in 1976 as a proprietary company which was later converted into a joint stock company in 2006. Initially, it started as a job shop and through that experience Susira has become a world-class manufacturer of engine valve pushrods and related valve train components. Over the years with focus on commitment to quality and reliability, the company has occupied the top slot for its products within the country and is moving towards a firm slot in the international market. Susira supplies its products to all major commercial vehicle and diesel engine manufacturers in the country. Four out of every five commercial vehicles plying on the Indian roads are fitted with its products. Twenty-five million â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;zero defectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; supplies over the years make the company a preferred supplier. It is a leading exporter to international original equipment manufacturers (OEM) like Cum-

mins Inc (USA, UK, Brazil, Mexico and China), Scania (Sweden), Iveco (Italy), Same-Deutz (Italy), Wartsila (USA) and Caterpillar (USA); and as a result one-third of its production is exported. The domestic customers include Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors, Force Motors, Avtec, Mahindra & Mahindra, New Holland Tractors, Same-Deutz Fahr, Tata Cummins, Cummins India and Greaves Cotton. Project: Productivity improvement and cost reduction in induction hardening. The company was confronted with the problem of meeting 1,00,000 pushrods per month to meet the demands of global OEM and domestic customers within three months period. The part had to meet the global standards of induction hardening and to meet that quantity the company would require twice the number of machines rather than presently used and also twice the workforce. It was apparent that an innovative breakthrough in productivity improvement was the answer.

A team comprising new product development, manufacturing, maintenance, and induction hardening operators along with machine manufacturer was set up to carry out critical study of the processes. Through brainstorming process activities were analysed, in enhancing productivity, and the problems were categorised: Category A: Minimum involvement of other departments. Category B: Necessity in involvement of other departments. Category C: Management approval and support requirement. Category A: There were 12 problems consisting of cup offset, quenching crack, control length undersize, ball flat oversize, total run out high in assembly pushrods, cup inner diameter block spot, cup inner diameter pit marks, low hardness, total length under size, cup outer diameter tool mark, gap between cup and ball, and low weld strength.

A team comprising new product development, manufacturing, maintenance, and induction hardening operators along with machine manufacturer was set up to carry out critical study of the processes.

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Quality India SPECIAL ISSUE Process Flow Diagram Incoming material inspection Cup end Forging Ball end Forging CNC Machining Induction Hardening Tempering Inspection & Packing INNOVATION: An inside view of one of the labs at Susira Industries.

In order to validate the analytical findings the machine’s parameters were set and trials were conducted before regular production commenced. The machine’s output was consistently monitored to ensure it met with quality specifications.

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Category B: The problems under this category were less productivity and low yield in 961 pushrods. Category C:Time and cost were the constraints. The induction hardening throughput time high and induction hardening cost was high. The company ranked the problems, keeping in view effect on customer, effect on productivity, effect on cost and effect on delivery, Score-1 being very high severity and Score-4 being low severity. Out of the problems listed 12 ranked very high severity. Then top three problems summarised were. 1. Less productivity in induction hardening. 2. Cup offset in hot upsetting operation. 3. Run out in assembly pushrods. The target was to increase productivity in induction hardening machine by 50 per cent. A plando-check-act (PDCA) was carried out in identifying problems, which are unsolved, selection of problem, definition of the problem and its analysis and finally put through cause and effect (Ishikawa) diagram for probable causes in material, machine, men and method. The process flow diagram (alongside) explains the whole process till despatch. The probable causes at material end was induction

hardening at supplier end, at machine side the causes were machine design and designed for single end hardening only. Whywhy analysis and its solution is: Why: Less induction at supplier end. Why:Cycle time high. Why: Single end induction hardening. Why: Machine designed with single end induction hardening only. Solution: Machine to be modified for double end hardening and additional features to reduce cycle time. The significant cause has been the induction hardening machine and the cross functional team was tasked to identify additional features for new machine and design a new machine with the help of manufacturer incorporating features like conveyor, drop quench, channel type coil etc. The brainstorming session concluded design for new machine with improved features. These are simultaneous induction hardening at both ends, continuous feeding with adjustable feed rate, drop quenching, poka-yoke (a pneumatic design) for holding the components during power drop, power failure or heating station trip, independent heating control for cup and ball end induction hardening and cycle time per

component at 9.3 sec. In order to validate the analytical findings the machine’s parameters were set and trials were conducted before regular production commenced. The machine’s output was consistently monitored to ensure it met with quality specifications. The comparative study, indeed, is revealing. The production before and after (in brackets) are given: Cycle time for in-house 48 sec/1 and 36 sec/1 for subcontractor (cycle time of 9.3 sec/1). The in-house induction hardening per shift is 600 (inhouse increased to 3,100). The in-house component induction hardening is `4.00/1 and sub-contractor’s `3.75/1 (in-house component induction hardening reduced to `0.97/1). The combined monthly production is 72,800 (the inhouse production increased to 1,61,200). These measures have given the company boost in benefits both in tangible and intangible terms. In terms of production it has increased to 6,200 from the earlier 1,200 per day, cost per component reduced from the earlier `4.00 to 0.97 a saving of `3.03. This has accrued a saving of `27.30 lakh per annum for the company.

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Technological abilities of

Ability COMMITTED TO MAKING IMPROVEMENTS IN THE FIELD OF QUALITY, ABILITIES INDIA PISTONS AND RINGS LIMITED DEVISED A TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP. NANDU MANJESHWAR REFLECTS ON THEM.

TECHNOLOGICALLY ABLE: Abilities India Pistons and Rings Limited team receiving prize from Arun Maira, Chairman, QCI.

bilities India Pistons and Rings Limited (AIP), founded 40 years ago, manufactures and OEM supplier of pistons and rings for automobiles (two and three wheelers), chain saws, brush cutters, agriculture sprayers and compressors. It has to its credit nearly 200 models of pistons for chain saws and brush cutters. In 1993, it bagged its overseas contract to export to France and Italy. In the domestic market, it started as OEM supplier to Enfield and TVS Motor Company in 1982. Since then it has widened its customer base to cover most of the domestic two and three wheeler manufacturers as well as engine manufacturers. Their key customers are Husqvarna (in China, Italy and USA), Yama group (in China and Italy) Emak (Italy), Chinook (Italy) and in domestic market, Greaves Cotton Limited and TVS Motor Company. AIP participated in INDEE Brazil 2009, an Indian engineering

exhibition held in Brazil. The company is part ACMA (Automotive Components Manufacturers Association) Advance Cluster and has accredited with International Standard ISO/TS 16949:2002. It has received export excellence awards from ACMA as well as from the government. Its quality objectives are: 1. Provide on-time delivery and right quality products to customers. 2. Minimise customer complaints. 3. Reduce internal rejections. 4. Continually improve all processes and reduce costs 5. Improve productivity, efficiency, quality and capabilities. 6. Improve customer satisfaction. AIP has quality circles in all departments and adopts 5S, Pokayoke and Kaizen in daily activities. Its designing is performed on 3D CAD and uni-graphis CAD+CAM. A piston undergoes

18 operations in the machine shop before despatch to the customers. Recently Husqvarna (USA) projected a demand for 10,752, Piston PO-414 per week whereas companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s current production was only 5,000. This steep jump of 115 per cent increase in production would be a major challenge for any company in maintaining quality and quantity at the same adhering to delivery schedule every week. Project: Productivity enhancement of piston PO-414 in machine shop line 2. The first action was to do internal assessment on the shop floor as to understand the weaknesses and where improvements were required. It was observed that there was a lot of wastage in the manufacturing operations. The manufacturing workstations were isolated and there was no line concept. Manual operations, almost 100 per cent, caused operatorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fatigue. In addition, the rejections were high and inventory piled up at each work station. Having analysed the weak-

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MOTION ELEMENT ANALYSIS: Video shooting for each work station is carried out to capture the cycle time of each operation.

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nesses, it was apparent that to meet the customer’s requirement the manufacturing processes and systems in the machine shop required radical changes. Productivity improvement steps involved were PQ Analysis, calculation of Takt time, cycle time study through video recording, separation of man and machine time with the help of standard work combination table, identifying the bottleneck operations. Takt time is a function of customer demand. In this case, for PO-414 Takt time available per shift was 480 min per shift and considering 85 per cent efficiency and 10 per cent rejections net available time was 367 min. The customer’s demand being 10,752 pistons per week the requirement was to produce 597 pistons per shift. In other words time taken or takt time is 37 sec. There are 18 operations carried and 11 operators work on in the line. In order to find out the actual time taken, video shooting for each work station was carried out to capture the cycle time of each operation. The major elements in the cycle are manual operation time, machine time and waiting and walking between operations. Motion element analysis was also done through video to prepare standard work combination table. An average of five consecutive pieces were calculated to arrive at the cycle time of the operation. Through these measures it was observed that three operations like fine boring, boss facing and

oval turning were taking more cycle time than the Takt time indicating the bottlenecks in the process. This needed to be addressed to through standard work combination chart. In the chart, activities such as loading, unloading, walking between machines and waiting were plotted and the sum of manual time worked out to 181 sec whereas Takt time was only 37 sec. The calculation dividing manual time by Takt time showed that only five operators were required in the line to meet the customer’s requirement of 597 pistons per shift while there were 11 operators working in the line. A total of seven Kaizen were identified including three Kaizen for bottleneck operations. This included three low-cost automations to avoid fatigue to the operator. The seven Kaizen adopted and action taken to reduce cycle time was: 1. Fine Bore: Remove air cleaning and start water cleaning by foot switch. 2. Boss Facing: Reduce manual operation and perform lowcost automation. 3. Oval Turning: Instead of manual air cleaning start water cleaning with foot switch. 4. Rough Head Facing: Design the head button cutting fixture to reduce height. 5. Rough Turning: Reduce manual work and do low-cost automation. 6. Lock-pin Drilling: Lock-pin pressing and lock-pin drilling

to be done on the same station. 7. Bore Chamfer: Avoid manual labour and perform low-cost automation. On implementing 7 Kaizen, it was observed that there was imbalance in the line indicating that work content for some operators was less in comparison to other operators. As a result operators with less work content were idle. Kaizen for line balancing was adopted. The operations such as (a) rough turning, casting bore drilling, (b) inner seating and size turning, ring grooving and (c) fine head facing which was done earlier by different operators could be carried by one operator. Lock grooving and bore chamfer were done earlier by different operators could be performed by one operator. Similarly bore’s burnishing, boss facing and internal bore chamfering could be done by one operator instead of three different operators. The Takt time versus cycle time was plotted on the graph with respect to operator’s work. Before operator balancing, there were 11 operators and after the operator’s work content was balanced only six operators were required to carry out the same operations. This, however, was called for multi-tasking of operators. In the end, using quality management tools productivity improved by 100 per cent, inventory reduced by 92 per cent, lead time reduced by 97 per cent and in financial terms the company benefited by `43.62 lakh.

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Reducing rejection

rates

A MANUFACTURER OF AUTOMOTIVE RUBBER IN ASIAN MARKETS, JSON POLYMER FACED A HIGH REJECTION RATE. NANDU MANJESHWAR FINDS OUT HOW THE COMPANY OVERCAME THE PROBLEM.

TEAM WORK: Json Polymer team receiving prize for high performance and consistency in quality

son Polymer Privater Limited (Json) was set up in 2009 though Laxman Jadhav is a 17-year veteran in the rubber industry. He is experienced in formulation, moulding, extrusion, mould design and machine design. The company was established with the objective of becoming a single source supplier of automotive control cables. It manufactures and exports an assortment of automotive and other industrial rubber components to domestic, Asian and European markets. Jsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s products find application in different domains such as automobiles, engineering, construction, steel plants, aeronautics, medical, refinery and electrical. In its short period of existence, it has earned enough appreciation and contracts mainly due to dimensional precision, high performance, long service life and quality. In addi-

tion, the products have tensile strength, weather resistance as well as resistance to extreme temperature and pressure, expansion and contraction resistance, durability and ecofriendliness. The company upgrades its technology consistently and the full-fledged laboratory keeps a tab on various formulations that is used in customised products. It uses natural rubber and synthetic polymers to meet specific demands of customers. In so doing, it constantly interacts with customers regarding special formulations for customisation of products and samples are given free of cost. The company has two units to manufacture the products. The demand of each industry is different and the products sizes, specifications, compounds used are varied. The product range includes: Mechanical Seals Bellow:

These are used extensively in diverse applications requiring efficient transfer and compression moulding machines. The products are manufactured with different elastomers. Metal Blended Components: Shock absorber bush and metal-rubber bonded parts used in trucks, buses, and other automobiles need to have high tensile strength and durability during shock dampening. Axle Boots: This product should be resistant to extreme temperatures, dust and oil. Its salient features are good elongation, tensile strength and compression set. Components for Tractors: Different types of rubber components such as gasket, pads and grommets. Mechanical Rubber Cup: Various types of mechanical

The company upgrades its technology consistently and the fullfledged laboratory keeps a tab on various formulations that is used in customised products. In so doing, it constantly interacts with customers regarding special formulations for customisation of products and samples are given free of cost.

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DURABILITY CHECK: Metal rubber parts being checked thoroughly for their tensile strength and durability.

MR-161 is used in automobiles and supplied exclusively to General Motors. The defects of four types occur at the time of moulding, which could range from short mould, cuts to airtraps. The project was to bring down rejection level to 1.50 per cent from the overall high of 7.74 per cent.

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seal L-ring rubber cups used extensively in different industrial applications. 45o O-ring and Oil Seal: These rings and oil seals are used in automobile, heavy engineering and aeronautical industries. Control Cable Parts: Automotive control cable parts are used as dust preventive covers and these rubber components are used for special purpose automotive control cables. Rubber Matting: Used extensively in the automobile industry. Rubber Pads: The product may seem to be the simplest of all but these have to respond qualitatively to stringent specifications. Extruded Rubber Products: The product is ideally suited for those applications demanding high as well as low temperatures. Rubber Hose: The product has wide application for steam, air, gas, petroleum, water, acids, chemical and for other liquids and considering its varied usage the

specifications varies considerably. Recently, the company faced a piquant problem of high rejection rate in its product MR-161. The problem was in moulding and de-flashing and the rejections were 6.21 per cent 1.53 per cent, respectively. Project: Reduce rejection rate in moulding and de-flashing and bring down overall rejection rate to 1.50 per cent. MR-161 is used in automobiles and supplied exclusively to General Motors. The defects of four types occur at the time of moulding, which could range from short mould, cuts to airtraps. Though these are detected in-house and segregated, even then there was customer dissatisfaction. Again at the finishing stage (de-flashing) there were rejections. The total in-house rejection amounted to 7.74 per cent. A customer’s demand is always a defect-free product while the company was incurring enormous costs in terms of productivity loss and material costs. The project was to bring down rejection level to 1.50 per cent from the overall high of 7.74 per cent.

The SIPOC system was adopted and a monthly customer schedule was maintained from moulding compound to mould status to supplier, production department, de-flasher to final product followed by inspection, packing and despatch. Critical to quality (CTQ) was identified and data collection plan started. The data was collected for six continuous months and operator-wise data was maintained. In this operation seven operators were involved and on the data collection sheet names of each operator, machine used, quantity produced and quantity rejected due to cracks, short mould, air-trap and de-flashing were recorded. The rejection percentage varied to a low of 1.41 per cent to as high as 9.98 per cent. A correlation chart for operator and the machine was prepared to identify whether it was the operator’s inability or a machine’s malfunctioning. Similarly, data on de-flasher operator was also collected. In cause and effect diagram, machine and environment, machine de-flashing operator (skill matrix), raw material and defects leading to rejection were plotted. It was apparent that machine operator and de-flashing operator played a crucial role in rejection percentage. In improved phase general solution, solution implementation using same moulding and de-flashing operator were implemented. Operators were allotted to specific machines and separate de-flasher operators were assigned. In both moulding and de-flasher, the operators’ rejection rates fell down below one per cent. In financial terms, the company achieved a savings of `60,000 per annum. The other benefits:

Similar methodology was adopted for other products as well. This developed team work and team unity. Standardisation concept and value of quality was understood by one and all.

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Towards a drug-free

society QCI JOINS HANDS WITH IMA TO FOCUS ON INFECTION CONTROL AND JUDICIOUS USE OF ANTIBIOTICS ON WORLD HEALTH DAY. he World Health Day is celebrated each year on April 7th. This year, Quality Council of India (QCI) joined hands with Indian Medical Association (IMA) in making it a memorable event. This year, the World Health Day assumes special significance since the theme announced by World Health Organisation is “Combat Drug Resistance: No action today — No cure tomorrow”. At the function held in the auditorium of IMA, officials of National Accreditation for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH), QCI, IMA officials and medical professionals attended in large numbers. Dr Gayatri Vyas Mahindroo, Dr Zainab Zaidi and Dr Bhawna Gulati of NABH, Dr DR. Rai, Dr Narinder Saini, Dr Ajay Lekhi, Dr VK Narang and Dr Ashwini Goyal amongst others attended on behalf of IMA. Drug resistance is becoming a serious concern around the world more so in India due to either overuse or misuse. The drug resistance, medically termed antimicrobial resistance, occurs when micro-

organisms such as bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change in ways that render the medications used to cure infections becomes ineffective. When the micro-organisms become resistant to most drugs they are often referred to as ‘superbugs’. This is a major problem because an infection that is resistant may kill, can spread to others and impose huge costs on individuals and society. Antimicrobial resistance is caused by inappropriate use of medicines — either taking substandard doses or not completing a prescribed course of treatment as prescribed by the doctor. Dr DR Rai, Honorary Secretary General, IMA, succinctly put across the reasons for drug resistance:

Self-medication with antibiotics. Open sale of antibiotic medicines by pharmacists without prescription. Spurious drugs. Use of drugs beyond expiry date. “The sad part is a person falling ill listens to friends and neighbours and not a doctor to use

a particular drug little realising the effects of wrong medication nor following the full course of medication,” laments Dr Rai. This malaise is spread across our country. As a result the person starts using stronger and stronger antibiotics ending in person’s natural immunity and a stage comes when the person does not respond to any medication. This is extremely serious. Unfortunately most of Indian citizens are moving towards this destination. Dr Girdhar J Gyani, Secretary General, QCI, pointed out, “Patient safety is the overall agenda this year under which focus is going to be on infection control and judicious use of antibiotics. As per IOM Report, 98,000 preventable deaths occur every year in the USA. More than 50 per cent of this are on account of medication errors. Most of these are not picked up nor reported. US recognises medical errors as public health issue. It is said that as many as one in ten patients is harmed while receiving hospital care caused by range of errors or adverse events in developed countries. In the case of developing countries it is

UNITED WE STAND: Speakers at the WHO day celebration organised by QCI and IMA. MARCH-APRIL 2011 I Quality India I 71

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Q NEWS Accreditation for schools Quality Council of India (QCI) and Bihar government signed an MoU on March 7, 2011, to set accreditation standards for qualitygood governance in state-owned and aided secondary and higher secondary schools in the state. Dr Girdhar J Gyani, Secretary General, QCI and Anjani Kumar, Principal Secretary, on behalf of State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT), signed the MoU. National Accreditation Board for Education and Training (NABET), and QCI, have designed a special scheme and guidelines to the HRD department, in Bihar.

As per the MoU, QCI will initially facilitate 10 schools for fulfilling the requirements for the accreditation standards and this will be a continuous engagement that would help in spreading the standards to other schools. QCI will also help their government in capacity building for implementing the standards through training programmes and workshops. At the outset this is a pilot project. Subsequently, SCERT will implement the standards required for accreditation in all the government schools in the state. The Government of Bihar (SCERT) is the first state to take on the offer for accreditation though QCI has been in contact with other states. QCI will recommend the name of the consultants or consulting agencies that will guide and train the secondary and higher secondary schools for implementing accreditation standards.

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Patients’ safety and quality healthcare Shalby Hospital, Ahmedabad, celebrated World Consumer Rights Day on March 15, 2011. The Consumer Rights Day, which was celebrated around the world, was the historic address to the US Congress by the then President John F Kennedy on March 15, 1962. Patients in hospitals seeking healthcare have the rights and responsibilities as any consumer. Shalby Hospital believes in Mahatma Gandhi’s saying, “A customer is the most important visitor in our premises. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it.” Shalby Hospital accredited by National Accreditation Board for Hospital and Healthcare Providers (NABH), QCI, is even higher, as much as 20 times higher in some of the countries. As regard to the infection, it is estimated that hospital-acquired infection (HAI) is in the range of 5-25 per cent in developed countries and up to 40 per cent in developing countries. In this context, the Indian scene is particularly grim: In certain regions, antibiotics are unavailable and in other regions high levels of resistance exist. The latter problem is compounded due to lack of regulation in dispensing antibiotics at the pharmacy level as these are sold like any other OTC drugs. In addition, susceptibility testing and drug regulation in rural areas is difficult to enforce due to sheer vastness of the country and in many instances such facilities do not exist in remote areas. Dr Gyani further added, “Unfortunately we do not have data on our own country. The reason is simple — so far we are gripped by acute shortage of healthcare facilities and emphasis obviously has been to provide minimal healthcare first, admittedly this scenario is changing to a great extent and we see a larger participation of private sector in supporting existing public healthcare system. This obviously requires regulation and quality monitoring.” “Accreditation by NABH has to a large extent established framework to define quality HEALTH CONSCIOUS: A view of the audience at the World Health Day celebrations.

deeply involved in preservation of, care for and responsible for human lives. Though healthcare as a service has grown, however, it has to be said that healthcare delivery system has not kept pace with the growth of this important services. Thus educating customers (patients) is as important in educating the staff in providing quality healthcare. In this wholeday event there were lectures and exhibition related to quality healthcare. The exhibition showcased quality initiatives practised by the hospital. As Neeraj Lal, Vice President (Quality and Academics) mentioned, “It is the customers’ basic right to know about and make informed decisions on the services being provided to them.” as holistic measure in clinical as well as managerial terms. This also encourages hospitals continuously monitor and measure clinical outcome and even some managerial indicators including capturing patient satisfaction. We need to emphasise accreditation in private as well as in government hospitals to ensure

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Awards for entrepreneurs

Punjab Technical University’s (PTU) Gian Jyoti School of TQM and Entrepreneurship holds annual conventions and awards at Mohali. The Seventh North-West Qual Tech Award ceremony was patient safety. Let us take a resolution on this World Health Day to build India as mostfavoured destination for quality healthcare,” mentioned Dr Gyani. Admittedly there is lack of control over the use of antibiotics and importantly there is a need to create community awareness on the issues involved in antibiotic therapy. This effort should be coupled with stopping `open sale’ of antibiotics in the pharmacies. The woes do not

held on Feb 26, 2011. KC Mehra, Chairman, National Board for Quality Promotion, QCI, was the chief guest at the ceremony. The awards are given to manufacturing and service sectors. The manufacturing sector is divided into large, medium and small entrepreneurs. The companies from Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh vied for the awards. Out of total entries, 22 companies were shortlisted whose total savings were `27.09 crore through the structured quality improvement initiatives. Phillips Electronics India Limited, Mohali won the Vardhman Quality Navigator award for large business segment, Trident Quality Pioneer award for medium businesses was won by Winsome Textile Industries Limited, Badd. Whereas, in the small industry segment Hycron Electronics, Baddi secured Winsome Quality Pathfinder award. In services sector, Tata Teleservices Limited, Mohali won Educomp Quality Innovator award. Addressing a galaxy of corporate leaders and quality professionals, KC Mehra mentioned that “Quality is not expensive, but it is priceless”. Mehra also announced QCI Chapter at Mohali in Gian Jyoti School of TQM and Entrepreneurship. Quality, he reiterated, is a must for national wellbeing and QCI has the agenda to promote and propagate quality as well as empower billions in demanding quality.

stop here. Add the primitive infection control in most of the hospitals in the country coupled with slack sanitation enables conditions suitable for transmission and/or acquisition of antibiotic resistance. This is the root cause for enteric pathogens to spread unabatedly. Being in India we are concerned about antimicrobial resistance but it seems to be a worldwide phenomenon. Though the clinical research has kept pace with this phenomenon

in producing newer, potent drugs, these drugs are costlier. For the economical weaker section of the society it is a squeeze between cost of drugs and rampant resistance. World Health Organisation (WHO) is seized with the problem. Dr Nata Menabde, WHO’s representative in India, mentioned that a new policy to help governments in preventing misuse/overuse of antibiotics. Accordingly antibiotic medicines will be colour-coded on the basis of toxicity, efficacy and other parameters under the newly drafted antibiotic resistance policy and in all 536 antibiotics will be colour-coded. The problem of antimicrobial resistance is a complex one and requires a comprehensive response from policy-makers and a sustained information campaign to create necessary awareness among communities. Action needed is clear but in developing economies it has been observed that there is a failure of commitment and accountability. In countries like India, with poor awareness amongst communities about drug resistance, coordinated NGO action, sustained information campaigns and incentives for more R&D for new diagnostics and medicines will go a long way in tackling the menace of drug resistance. “QCI and IMA will take up the issue with the government to bring about suitable regulation to curb the menace of antibiotic abuse, over the counter sale and measures to educate chemists related to the abuse of antibiotics. We will form along with QCI a standard treatment protocol for certain diseases,” mentioned Dr Vinay Narang, National President of IMA. MARCH-APRIL 2011 I Quality India I 73

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Quality moves to promote wellness

tourism

TO ENSURE WORLD CLASS TREATMENT TO FOREIGN PATIENTS AND PROMOTE WELLNESS TOURISM, QCI HAS ACCREDITED HOSPITALS TO CONFORM TO INTERNATIONALLY ACCEPTED PRACTICES. A REPORT.

llness and cure are two sides of the same coin. As human civilisation progressed curing illnesses took giant strides as well. In India, the science of medicine was seen much earlier that than in other countries. The earliest literature on Indian medical practices appeared during the Vedic period. The Sushruta Samhita and the Charaka Samhita were the influential works on traditional medicine during this era. Over the following centuries, Ayurveda practitioners devel-

oped a number of medicinal preparations and surgical procedures for the treatment of various ailments. Around 2500 BC, two schools emerged: Atreya, the School of Physicians and Dhanvantari, the School of Surgeons. Two millennia ago, Sushruta not only wrote a treatise on surgery but performed as well. Though documented in his time, it was lost in the mist of history unlike the precise documented form of the Western world that appeared many millennia later.

Ayurveda connotes “ayus” meaning life or longevity and “veda” meaning science or knowledge and to be precise the “science of life”. Ayurveda is grounded in the metaphysics of five elements that surround us: earth, water, fire, air and ether all of which comprise the universe including the human body. The Western world instead of dubbing it a mere “alternative medicine” is gradually realising it is also a science of holistic healing.

NEXT STEP FORWARD: Subodh Kant Sahay, Union Minister for Tourism, releasing the accreditation book along with other delegates.

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DELEGATES SPEAKING ON HEALTH: R H Khwaja, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism; Anil Kumar, Secretary, Department of AYUSH; and Sultan Ahmed, Minister of State for Tourism.

In recent years, India has become a centre for medical treatment for reasons of proficiency, quality of treatment, aftercare and, above all, affordability. Close on the heels are people reaching our shores for wellness, a genre that covers yoga to naturopathy, meditation to massaging, spas to herbal treatment and everything to do with nature and that are natural; a treatment that controls all five elements and brings balance in our body in curing ailments. Marketers were sharp and saw an opportunity in “wellness business”. Judging from the number of wellness centres that have mushroomed across the country it certainly is paying. Though it is encouraging to see our ancient art being revived, it is equally worrying that unregulated growth, operated by unqualified people could bring down the credibility of wellness concept equally fast. The government is equally aware of the pitfalls of such a rapid development and recently held a workshop on the promotion of wellness tourism. The workshop organised jointly by Ministry of Tourism and Department of AYUSH (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare), saw representatives from the tourism industry, spas and wellness centres, hotels and standalone operators taking a keen interest in the proceedings. Inaugurating the proceedings Dr Girdhar J Gyani, Secretary General, Quality Council of India (QCI), questioned at the outset why India attracted fewer tourists in comparison to either Malaysia or Singapore or China. India offered so many attractive destinations in different climatic and topographic locales, yet we have been unable to create a niche in the international market. On the other hand, we have made a mark in the medical field, which is now euphemistically called “medical tourism”. In similar vein, India could become a preferred destination for those seeking wellness. National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH)

of QCI accredits hospitals and healthcare providers conforming to the criterion that is internationally accepted. Foreign patients while looking for cost-effective treatment also look for high international standards. NABH has started accrediting wellness centres and spas. Recently, the Philippines requested NABH assistance for advice and accreditation of hospitals and wellness centres. Wellness is part of country’s culture and Ayurveda is all about wellness. In subsequent centuries, other forms such as unani, siddha, homeopathy and naturopathy came up -- all aimed towards wellness. India has been the leader for centuries in this segment of treatment but now it needed regulation No country has this amount of abundant knowledge developed and refined over centuries on wellness. “It is time that we realise our strength and use it to our advantage,” he mentioned. QCI (NABH) is an institutional member of International Spa Association and accreditation by NABH would be recognised throughout the world. RH Khwaja, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, agreed upon the comment made by Dr Gyani on low arrival of tourists in our country compared to Southeast Asian countries, “to understand that we have to do a bit of soul searching”, he mentioned. Nature has bestowed on us some of the most scenic locales anywhere in the world; add to that man’s creations as well. Why is it then we have not created a niche in the world market? The answer lies in lack of quality in most of things related to the tourism industry and inconsistencies because of which we are not able to sustain and create a niche. Unless there is consistency and enhancement of quality, people’s satisfaction will not. This is true for the wellness sector too. He quoted a Urdu couplet Jaan hai, to jahan hai or world lives, when we live and to live well wellness is important. Department of AYUSH has been promoting the Indian system of medicine. “We cannot

separate wellness from Indian systems of medicine. All forms of stress is affecting people, of all age groups, world over and now looking for safe remedy and safe cure. Indian system of medicine offers holistic approach to life,” mentioned Anil Kumar, Secretary, Department of AYUSH (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare). The advantages of Indian system of medicines are: inexpensive, requires no hospitalisation and plant-based. He stressed the products have to be standardised and there should be quality and as for the quality the Department has been working closely with QCI (NABH) to bring in the systems needed for quality. Speaking on the occasion, Sultan Ahmed, Minister of State for Tourism, said, “It is essential for destinations to create unique travel experiences on an emotional, physical, intellectual, and even spiritual level. Wellness has been the USP of Indian tourism.” He was of the opinion that wellness tourism was now creating major opportunities for destinations, resorts, spas, hotels and other smaller businesses throughout the tourism industry. Subodh Kant Sahay, Union Minister for Tourism, emphasised on developing quality tourism infrastructure at identified tourist destinations and circuits through convergence of resources of various union ministries and state governments. Inaugurating the national workshop on promotion of wellness tourism, he said, “Wellness tourism is a global trend for the health-conscious consumers seeking to enhance their wellbeing through their travel experiences. A person who travels for wellness is generally healthy, but seeks therapies to maintain his or her wellbeing.” The Minister was of the opinion that the increasing demand for this type of activity shows immense possibility for potential investors in tourism. Underlining the importance of safe and dignified tourism he said initiatives in this regard would be taken to ensure that Indian tourism followed international MARCH-APRIL 2011 I Quality India I 75

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A WARM HANDSHAKE: Dr Narrottam Puri with Sultan Ahmed at the workshop on wellness tourism.

standards of safe tourism practices, applicable for both tourists and local residents. Speaking on the sidelines of the function, the Union Tourism Minister informed that his Ministry was in the process of sanctioning `25 cr for developing tourism infrastructure in and around Deoghar in Jharkhand. He said that a roadmap for developing the tourism sector on a large scale in Bihar was also under consideration of his Ministry. The Minister also released the guidelines for wellness centres on the occasion. These guidelines have been developed by NABH and approved by the Department of AYUSH. The wellness centres accredited as per these guidelines would give a level of confidence to tourists and those availing the services of wellness tourism service providers that they were dealing with someone who had international standards in place. Also, this would provide for effective regulation of the functioning of wellness centres. Accreditation Standards for Wellness Centres provide the framework for quality of care for customers and quality improvement for wellness centres. The standards help build a culture of quality at all levels and across all the functions of the wellness centres. NABH Standards has ten chapters incorporating 84 standards and 396 objective elements. The Accreditation Standards for wellness centres contain a complete set of standards for evaluation of wellness centres for grant of accreditation. The standards focus on all aspects of service delivery like customer rights and education, infec76 I Quality India I MARCH-APRIL 2011

tion control practices, trained and experienced staff, infrastructure, environment safety, processes and controls and statutory and regulatory compliances. The workshop on promotion of wellness tourism was organised with the active participation of Department of AYUSH and NABH to define the areas of development in the wellness industry and strategise with the help of the industry for defining the roadmap for the government over the next few years.

HEALTH TALK : Audience at the workshop on wellness tourism.

More than 150 participants representing the captains of the wellness industry attended the workshop to deliberate on the issues concerning ayurveda wellness centres, spas, skincare centres, cosmetic care centres, gymnasiums, fitness centres, preventive healthcare centres and yoga centres. The objective of the workshop was to evolve a roadmap for formulating strategies for development and promotion of wellness tourism to position India as the leading destination for wellness tourism, incorporating the country’s natural attributes like yoga, ayurveda, siddha, well-developed spas, etc., increase visitation, length of stay and expenditure by wellness visitors and increased professionalism and excellence amongst those delivering the wellness experience. The workshop was intended for participants to understand the needs for quality and standards in operating wellness centres. The Ministry of Tourism and Department of AYUSH would work jointly in promoting and marketing wellness tourism. In addition, the Department of AYUSH has been offering 50 scholarships every year to overseas students for training in Indian systems of medicines. Said Anil Kumar, “They would go back to their countries as knowledge ambassadors to spread the goodness of the system.” As for the promotion, Department of AYUSH has been taking part in several fairs abroad and now the world is gradually taking note of its importance.

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Enhancing patient

satisfaction IN A UNIQUE MOVE, NETHRADHAMA SUPER SPECIALITY EYE HOSPITAL IN BENGALURU RECENTLY CELEBRATED WORLD CONSUMER DAY IN A PATIENT-CENTRIC PROGRAMME. A REPORT.

QUALITY MOVES: Patient awareness banners were displayed in all the departments and counsellor explaining the precautions to be taken by the patient after surgery in Nethradhama Super Speciality Eye Hospital, Bengaluru.

he growth in the number of corporate hospitals, healthcare related issues and constant attention from the media have led to a focus on patient’s rights and protection. Varied agencies like regulatory bodies, scientific review committees, ethics committees, NGOs, etc. work for patient rights and protection. One such hospital to have taken an initiative towards consumer protection was the Nethradhama Super Speciality Eye Hospital, Bengaluru. In a move that promises to bring about a sea change in the perception of patients, the hospital organised a special programme to celebrate World Consumer Rights Day on March 15, 2011. Hospital sources pointed out, “At Nethradhama, we always strive hard to keep our patients highly satisfied and delighted. To accomplish this goal ongoing programmes like World Glaucoma Day, World Quality Day and many more are celebrated with great zeal among the staff and patients of the hospital.” This year, however, there was an addition of one more patient-centric programme: “Consumer Rights Day”. To make Consumer Rights Day a successful event at the hospital, a number of activities were conducted. The most important one was

the awareness programme about the patient safety solutions manual to all doctors conducted by Quality Assurance Coordinator Dr. Savitha Arun. The significance, necessity, preventive measures and implementation methodology of various safety aspects were highlighted. Among these were:

Proper identification of patients before registration and surgery; Identifying and implementing preventive measures for look alike and sound alike drugs; Strict adherence to hand hygiene was reinforced in hospital infection control measures; 5R’s to follow at every point of treatment so as to eliminate various kinds of errors. Performance of correct procedures at the correct body site; Communication during patient handover; Assuring medication accuracy at transition in care; and Single use of injection devices.

In addition, a presentation on patient rights and education was given by the General Manager (Administration) to the staff. The presentation pointed out how patients had to

be made aware of their rights and responsibilities at Nethradhama through scrolling messages and displays available at the registration and admission areas and the notice board. The displays are bilingual: in English and Kannada. The approved tariff lists are displayed in all patient areas and they are given written estimates for various procedures and surgeries that display the system of transparency policy of the hospital towards its patients. The staff was also briefed about patient “Grievance handling mechanism” and reporting verbal complaints in the complaint register. The importance of collecting patients’ confidential feedback for evaluation was emphasised. The staff at Nethradhama is encouraged to proactively collect the feedback, so that prompt action can be taken. This can only lead to an enhancement in patient satisfaction. The Consumer Rights Day happened to coincide with World Glaucoma week. An awareness programme on Glaucoma played a major role in sensitising general public about patients and visitors rights during their visit to any hospital. Nethradhama Super Speciality Eye Hospital thanked Quality Council of India for the motivation and encouragement to celebrate the event. MARCH-APRIL 2011 I Quality India I 77

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Quality India SPECIAL ISSUE

COMMENTS &

ON TOWARDS QUALITY! K C A B D FEE Keep it up! It was a good programme to understand the topics and its importance for personal and national growth. Ajeet Kumar Rai, Crema, New Delhi

ogramme. Well-arranged pr ld be ou sh e However, ther h hospitals. us Ay on s cu more fo it Dr Mahesh Pand ical Coled M am ar ird Sant H hy and Yogic lege of Naturopat Sciences, Bhopal

Money concession for studen ts need to be below `1000. Overall good but more techno log related things can be included yin the quality conference like what’s going on in IT, Healthcare in the wo rld. Akshay Soni IHMR

Overall the progra mme was good. For next year’s th em sions, ethics and e and sescore values should be include d.

Amitabh Sharma DNV Delhi

Dr Sunil K Khetr ap Indian Spinal Inju al ries Centre

llent work. Keep up the exce Congratulations! Thanks! ld be quesestions: there shou I have a few sugg where the queries of hospin tion-answer sessio NABH can be addressed. of s es oc pr r de un tal ns should ards-based sessio More NABH stand be held. Dr Deep Kamal Supdt. Deputy Medical i elh PSRI, New D

e. nised programm It was a well-orga ore open house .M A few suggestions be included to ld ou sh ns sio discus dience. The time au e connect with th per the kers should be as allocation to spea d. Please pay special se topics to be discus e. tim xt attention ne d) jeet Pannu (Ret Capt. (Mrs) Har a Research Institute ni Pushpawati Singha

acquiring CDs I am interested in kers which may ea sp with PPTs of all , if not already ed id ov pr please be planned. Dr P C Das stan Lever HLFPPT (Hindu omotion Trust) Pr ng ni an Family Pl

78 I Quality India I MARCH-APRIL 2011

The contents of the sessions were good. However, subjects related to medical devices, product specification, process STL may be included.

me! Excellent program m the Indian fro ls na Call professio and Bureau of te tu sti In l Statistica r presentation fo s Indian Standard s and Techon Quality Problem /SPC, etc. M niques on QC/ TQ yanan Dr E K Jayanara d. Lt n ki ea M an Moh

The speakers were excellent and so were the contents of the sessions. For next year’s theme and sessions, some more emphasis must be paid on health sector and education. Dr S M Arif Zaidi Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi

The programme covered challengi ng But there should be more topics on topics. th healthcare sector . The healthcare se e ctor must be focused on. It must have at least 75 per cent of the sessio ns concentrating on healthcare with senior sp ea My suggestion fo kers. r next year’s them e: Im mentation of Qua lity — The challen plege. Dr. Anusuya Bo se Quality Coordin ator

The sessions were good and some of them were very informative but the time allotted to them was short hence they could not completely deliver the concept. This can be taken care of in future. The entire event was very productive and informative. The three keynote addresses were very enriching and has sensitised us to make up our mind to pursue quality as a passion. Dr P Saranyan Sant Hirdaram Medical College of Naturopathy and Yogic Sciences, Bhopal

was good. The programme eat and gr s The conclave wa valuable. Ekta Sapra DNV

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Quality India SPECIAL ISSUE BOUQUETS THERE WERE IN PLENTY FROM THE PARTICIPANTS AT THE SIXTH QUALITY CONCLAVE. MANY OF THEM HAVE MADE USEFUL AND WORTHWHILE SUGGESTIONS THAT QUALITY COUNCIL OF INDIA WILL TRY TO IMPLEMENT IN THE FUTURE.

Well-structured and arranged programme. For next yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s theme and sessions, please include topics for paramedical workers also. A small complaint: The food served was cold. Dr Ashok Rana DHS (Govt. of Delhi)

The speakers and the conten ts of the sessions were good. A sm all suggestion: The registration counters need to be more organised . Dr Minnie Bodhanwala Baroda Heart Institute & Research Centre

The programme was excellent and very informative. Daisy Rani Godrej Memorial Hospital

The conclave wa s go guest to speak. I wo od. My company can bring a uld like to bring m Wolfendale from NEVCO, Educat y CEO, Ted ion, USA to address the audien ce tion through video about Quality Health Educa-based programm es There were very informative discus . sions. I was very impressed by D Excellent addresse r Vijay Kapur, IAS, IGNOU. s from all the parti cipants. Please invite heated prog ra opportunities avail mmes on board to showcase able.

s good. The conclave wa ficates Participation certi particid an d ue iss be ld shou of papers ts ac str ab pants given ll the propresented. Overa od. y go gramme was fairl ar Shri G Jayakum Santhigiri Ashram

W C Chhabra (E x-U Professional Supp SAID/ India) orts was good. The programme in quality assurance be ld There shou in g in ep ke a di In in higher education nical institutes ch view the various te lave was an eye nc co e Th . up coming we should make d an us r fo er en op r for our children. Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s future bette Jasdeep Kaur dur Instt. of Guru Tegh Baha Technology

s excellent. We The conclave wa rts on for this fo ef e th should keep e. m m ra og pr sort of ehta Rajesh Kumar M i elh D ew N A M CRE

was excellent and, The programme out the conclave ab in fact, everything .. nt lle ce was ex

Overall the progra m There should be me was good. quality, safety, transparency and be information, com nchmarking of munication and media (TV, news paper industry). Some of the spea kers were very narrow in their vis ion and commen ts. Dr Garima Trive di Private Consulta nt

The conclave was excellent. It was very well organised and the topics were well spoken. Very good. Keep it up. Prarthana Sengupta Pushpawati Singhania Research Institute

Excellent conten ts of the sessions! Please arrange pr actical workshop s on ferent topics e.g. medical audit in th dife future. It will be good if yo u PowerPoint pres can please provide enta and their email ad tions of all speakers dresses. Dr Rakesh J Shah Superintendent, Hospital for Men tal Health Karelibaug, Vado dara

Radhika Anand Mallya Hospital

was very good. The programme of quality themes Implementation technical and on e should be mor g institutions. vocational trainin me was nice. m Overall the progra T S Rajput , l Services Centre NSIC - Technica Aligarh

feel challenges in It was excellent! I sed widely in the us quality can be disc therwise, the O . es lav nc co g comin systematically s wa e m m ra og pr arranged. Reshma S Mane ospital H Godrej Memorial

MARCH-APRIL 2011 I Quality India I 79

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