QCI_march_april2011

QCI

A QCI Publication

Special Issue

The 6th NationalQuality Conclavesaw practitioners

discussing methodsto usher in quality

in the country’s development

FACTOR

THE

P14

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

Quality in the national agenda

QI cover_Layout 1 4/28/2011 6:09 PM

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 Proposed Fee

Organisational

(Corporate)

Corporate Small (Turnover up 10 Crores) Rs. 5,000/- annual

Corporate Medium (Turnover up 10 – 100 Crores) Rs. 10,000/- annual

Corporate Large (Turnover above 100 Crores) Rs. 20,000/- annual

Hospital Small Hospital (up to 50 Beds) Rs. 5,000/- annual

Medium Hospital (50 – 200 Beds) Rs. 10,000/- annual

Big Hospital (above 200 Beds) Rs. 20,000/- annual

Education School Rs. 1,000/- annual

College Rs. 2,000/- annual

Higher / Professional Institute Rs. 5,000/- annual

NGO’s Rs. 1,000/- annual

Individual Associate Member

(Quality Practitioner with 3 years experience)

Rs. 1,000/- annual

Full member

(Quality Practitioner with 5 years experience)

Rs. 1,500/- annual

Life Member

(Quality practitioner with 5 years experience)

Rs. 10,000/- (one time)

Fellow (By Invitation only) 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: [email protected], [email protected]

QCI Mission “Quality for National Well Being”

MARCH-APRIL 2011 I Quality India I 3

he Sixth National Quality Conclaveheld during February 11-12, 2011 on “Future ofQuality”, lived up to the expectation and resulted inintense debate on how quality was to drive thenational agenda on development. It proved to be ahappy networking ground for the 800-odd dele-gates. The QCI conclave is, perhaps, only event ofits kind, where quality professionals from wide-ranging domains assemble at one place and in a wayjustifies, why it is called a 'CONCLAVE'. Therewere more than 250 delegates from healthcare andan equal number from education/vocational sec-tors and the rest from manufacturing and otherservice sectors.

Quality Council of India (QCI) is basically anumbrella organisation, which is expected to establish frameworks for advancement of quality indifferent sectors of the economy. Accreditation ofconformity assessment bodies for testing, certifica-tion and inspection was the first such frameworkestablished by QCI, which aimed at facilitatinginternational trade. The accreditation by QCI inthese areas today has global recognition. This alsoresulted in quality becoming more often measura-ble and no more abstract. Accreditation in health-care similarly is known to have provided an excel-lent framework for healthcare organisations todeliver patient safety and quality in healthcare. Overand above this has provided hospitals with anopportunity to have global recognition and get ashare of the pie of the global medical tourism busi-ness. Similar initiatives in vocational training andskill-building are poised to bring rich dividends atthe national level. These frameworks, to an extent,are conventional in nature but at the same timeessential for the advancement of quality, productivi-ty and in a way, the national GDP. What has comeas a bonus is that QCI has successfully used accred-ited conformity assessment bodies in compliance ofregulation and this is increasingly being used bygovernment for the overall benefit to the citizens.

The National Quality Campaign so far hasfocused on raising awareness in industry on emerg-ing management standards. While managementstandards help industry have an effective manage-ment framework, industry needs to go beyond andapply quality tools to improve efficiency and com-petitiveness. This has been one of the serious hand-icaps in the advancement of the SME sector. The

same is the case with a large segment of the servicesector. QCI is poised to launch a series of new ini-tiatives to improve upon these aspects. The launchof the professional membership scheme is anothermeasure that has the potential to multiply qualitypromotion efforts in all walks of life. The member-ship scheme is aimed at members taking pride inbeing quality champions not only at their work-place but more importantly at the societal/community level.

Having achieved reasonable expertise and suc-cess through the accreditation framework, QCI isnow contemplating to evolve different kinds ofquality framework, which would have a direct rele-vance for the common man. For example, QCI isworking on designing quality criteria for Gram Pan-chayats (GPs) to consciously improve primary education, primary health, sanitation, environmentand ultimately community living in a village. Thiswould be launched in close support from the Min-istry of Rural Development and the Ministry ofPanchayati Raj. Once again, an army of professionalmembers is expected to drive this initiative. In timeto come, a similar scheme is under design for localbodies in cities. This would be launched in associa-tion with the Ministry of Urban Development andPoverty Alleviation. Both these initiatives are aimedat bringing quality at the grassroots' level of society.

We have a large percentage of public servicesstill with the government. Citizens visit governmentdepartments to avail these services. One of themajor concerns raised has been on the upkeep ofgovernment buildings. QCI has finalised a uniquecriterion on the evaluation of government buildingsin terms of how a department maintains the prem-ises for cleanliness and orderliness, as these two fac-tors have direct relevance on departmental efficien-cy and delivery of public services to the citizens.The criterion has made use of Japan’s Model 5S onhousekeeping and has addressed issues relating tosafety for the public as well as for the staff. This ini-tiative is inspired by the Chairman, QCI, who is astrong advocate of cleanliness in public places.

As I said, some of the areas in a way are differ-ent kinds of initiatives, which are proposed to belaunched with the active participation of all stake-holders. QCI is poised to play a decisive role in reju-venating the quality movement in the country and Ilook forward in all of us joining together to make ita grand success.

��

Having achieved successthrough the accred-itation framework, QCIis now contemplating toevolve different kinds ofquality framework,which will have a directrelevance for thecommon man. It isworking on designingquality criteria toimprove education,health and sanitation in villages.��

Quality IndiaSPECIAL ISSUE

GIRDHAR J. GYANI

T

ED

ITO

RIA

L

GIRDHAR J. GYANI is the SecretaryGeneral of the Quality Council of India and editor of Quality India. He can becontacted at [email protected].

Charting a new role for QCI

Edit new.qxd 4/28/2011 6:11 PM

19

ContentsContents6

17

23

24

19

4 I Quality India I MARCH-APRIL 2011

I would like to thank you forgiving me the opportunity toparticipate as a speaker at theSixth National QualityConclave.I would also like to take thisopportunity to congratulateyou and the entire team at QCIand NABH for a highlysuccessful conference.The breakthroughs we areseeing in healthcare qualityimprovement across thecountry, under the leadershipof the Secretary General,Quality Council of India, DrGirdhar J Gyani are landmarkachievements.

Dr Arati VermaChief

Medical Excellence ProgramsMax Healthcare

The theme, the ‘Future ofQuality in India’ was rightlyselected. The eminent speakersdrawn from different facultywere at their best in sharingtheir experiences with theenthusiastic participants. Theexperts were of the opinionthat we need to drawinspiration from the wisdom ofthe past — some of thespeakers took us on a qualityjourney (darshan) drawing theincidents from the past (epics)where quality was practiced asa habit to the present wherewe need to pay attention to sothat we can build a futurequality India with quality

QCI

A QCI Publication

PRE-CONCLAVESPECIAL

18EMINENTINDIANSAND THEIR VIEWS ON

QUALITY

I N D I A S P E A K S

Letters

17

23

24

6Blueprint For The FutureThe 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 KeyFrom primary to higher education,

the system is in need of an

innovative curriculum in education

today.

Patient Safety Above AllHealthcare systems the world over

are getting aligned to a more

patient-centric and patient safety

approach.

Quality Prizewinners Acknowledging the work of quality

professionals, the QCI conferred the

QCI — D.L. Shah National Awards

Totally Hi-TechHCL’s Ramkumar Ranganathan,

gives an insight of how millions of

clients benefit from the BPO sector.

Q U A L I T Y C O U N C I L O F I N D I A

contents new qci.qxd 4/28/2011 5:56 PM Page 2

74



30 43

60

Letters

QCI

Quality Council of IndiaInstitution of Engineers Bldg.,

2 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110 002Tel / Fax: 011 - 2337 9321/ 2337 0567

H C Tewari contributed photographs for this special edition of

QUALITY INDIA.

Designed, printed and published by Newsline Publications Pvt Ltd.

D-11 Basement, Nizamuddin (East), New Delhi -110 013

Tel: +91-11-41033381-82on behalf of Quality Council of India (QCI)

at Nutech Photolithographers, New Delhi 110 020

Editor: Girdhar J. GyaniFor private circulation only.

minds — along withdeveloping our own idiom bytaking the best practices fromthe East and the West. Thatwill be what the futurequality India will be.

Prof. N.ShashidharaPrincipal Advisor, NRCLPI

Bangalore

This is regarding the article,Indian interpretation ofGlobal Gap standardsinitiated (QUALITY INDIA,January-February 2011).I wish to point out that thearticle was quite informativebut the heading suggestedthat GAP had becomemandatory in India. That isnot the case. In fact, the introductory linesat the beginning of the articleclearly suggest that once theIndian interpretation ofGlobal Gap standards forcrops is endorsed, it willfacilitate certification inIndian standards.

Vani Bhambri AroraAssistant Director

NABCB, QCI, New Delhi 30

33

43

54

60

Power GeneratorNTPC Vindhyachal unit set an

example by improving unit heat

rate with reduced fuel

consumption

Power ProducerBHEL emerged victorious by

bringing in wireless technology

over traditional cables.

Clean Milk InitiativesBanas Dairy improved upon quality

and freshness of milk to fetch

good dividends

Maximum InsuranceMax New York Life created a

benchmark by reducing leakages

in insurance proposals.

Centre For ExcellenceTo maximise operating profits,

Convergys brought in innovative

solutions by in-house capabilities.

74Promoting WellnessTourismIndia 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.

contents new qci.qxd 4/28/2011 5:56 PM Page 3


The annual National Conclaveorganised by Quality Council ofIndia is an event awaited eagerlyby practising quality profession-als in manufacturing sector, serv-

ice sector, medical, education et al. The Con-clave is also an occasion for exhibiting the bestpractices developed and achieving quality ineconomy. It is also an occasion to listen to theluminaries whose life mission has been pro-moting and propagating quality.

The theme for this year was “Future ofQuality — The National Agenda”. Manyassume that quality is modern-day phenome-non. On the contrary, look around you thecivil works or structures built eons ago, whilewe appreciate its beauty and aesthetics but failto appreciate or understand that it has, even

after several centuries, maintained its formbecause of quality. It will not be out of place toquote Aristotle — Quality is not an act, it is aHabit —written over two millennia ago. Thisperhaps illustrates that people did what theydid because aspects of quality was ingrained inthem and positively they did not require anexternal agency to push them to achieve quali-ty.

Fast forward into 20th Century and wenote that words like quality, productivity andreliability entering our work space and lingo.

Though some prefer to take shelterbehind the argument that ancients did nothave so many industrial activities as seentoday and naturally they were good in a limit-ed 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 onquantity but on quality.

In the pre-inaugural session audience hadthe pleasure of listening to some of the bestminds in education, healthcare and manufac-turing — Prof SK Chakraborty, Dr G Baktha-vathsalam and Dr N Ravichandran.

Where does quality begin? ProfChakraborty started his speech with the exam-ple of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, aschool dropout. Tagore won the Nobel Prizein 1913 for the quality of his writing eventhough he was outside the perimeter of “qual-ity education” as we know today. On Gandhi-ji, he quoted his writing that education doesnot mean knowledge of letters, but meanscharacter building and duty. Quality begins

QUALITY PRACTITIONERS FOCUSSED ON EXPLORING THE FUTURE ROLE OF QUALITY TO NATIONALINITIATIVES ON KEY ISSUES AT THE SIXTH QUALITY CONCLAVE. A REPORT BY NANDU MANJESHWAR.


DDEELLIIBBEERRAATTIINNGG OONN QQUUAALLIITTYY:: 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.

Quality: Blueprint for the country’s

future

inaugration.qxd 4/29/2011 1:49 PM Page 2


with all of us and if everyone realises thisaspect in life, then the communities, thenations and the world would be a better placeto live.

We celebrate every kind of Days, forexample Human Rights Day, so why not haveHuman Duties Day? The rights orientationand duties orientation are, indeed, the culturewe have inherited. The authentic quest is toignite the quality and its future should be ournational agenda. Again reverting to yester-years, Prof Chakraborty mentioned that evenin the absence of certified quality profession-als, people achieved quality in work and life. Itis time for us to listen to these great individu-als to imbibe quality in life first and that ethicswill follow in workplace as well. Duty andquality in what we do, are in our culture, let usnow take the pledge to imbibe those qualitiesin our life.

As an academician, Prof Chakrabortydwelled on the quality in education. In thepast, there were excellent teachers whoimparted onto students’ quality educationand now with accreditation system in voguehave we exceeded quality of the past? “Wewant quality, the right quality but are we head-ing towards that goal with so much of chaosaround us? Quality is not a product that onegoes and buys. It is inbuilt in us, and qualityeducation helps us reignite nuances of qualityinherited through our culture. Let us respectour roots and build national character.”

Dr Bakthavathsalam, a Padma Shreeawardee, has established a 500-bed super speciality hospital in Coimbatore. His speechpunctuated with humour and wit kept theaudience in thrall but it was all relevant to thisyear's theme: Future of Quality — TheNational Agenda. He started with a quote ofone of our young Member of Parliaments hadsaid that a pizza delivery boy arrives fasterthan an ambulance. He countered in sayingthat it is not so, for example the 108 ambu-lance service, which is in operation only in a

few states, does arrive faster than pizza deliv-ery boy.

The medical system and medical profes-sion has made a tremendous progress thoughadmittedly this progress has not spread uni-formly across the country. If the systems are inplace neither the size of the hospital nor thelocation matters. He quoted an event from hisown life when he was knocked down by a car.The passer-by who took him to the nearbyhospital did not know that hospital belongedto him. Irrespective of the absence of anyidentification on him he was treated andemerged later without an adverse effect, com-mented, “This happened because the systemswere in place. That is quality.” On heartbypass surgery he queried, “Do you knowhow many systems are in place? 275 beforeand during operation and 125 post-operationperiod, and missing on a system or two, thenimagine the fate of that patient who hasreposed so much of faith in doctor and thehospital should something go wrong?”

Quality is a state of mind. Self-analysiscontemplation is the way to understand quali-ty within. The speeches of both Dr Baktha-vathsalam and Prof Chakraborthy borderedon spirituality to quality in life. The doctormentioned that spirituality gives strength forintrospection and that introspection enablesthe person to realise the strength and qualitywithin. Spirituality has no connotation withany religion, while it brings out the best in aperson, he emphasised. Spirituality negatesthe negativity.

Quality can be achieved through the sys-tems in place and does not depend on person-centric activity and does not matter the size ofthe organisation. He gave the example of Indi-an Railways and said, “It is a humungousorganisation with largest employee base,thousands of trains running every day andlakh of passengers travelling and yet to a greatextent it maintains the schedule.” But similarsystems do not work on our roads, he lament-

ed and quipped: “On American roads onedrives on the right side, on English roads it ison the left side and alas on Indian roads it issuicide.”

“The earlier two speakers dealt on qualitythough they took different paths to explainbut the final destination was quality,” said DrN Ravichandran. He said, technology ischanging at a rapid pace. A computer or a lap-top bought today becomes obsolete within ashort span and that is the speed in the manu-facturing sector too. Today’s businessdepends on quality, and ushered in a largeextent by globalisation. The options are two:Either one flows with the changing scenarioor be left out. Business environment is chang-ing and electronic is ruling our developmentand technology, and inter-related sciencescombine in innovation.

Customer’s demands are changing andthey are mostly implying and never inspecifics. So, how does a manufacturerassume what kind of product and its qualitythat a customer demands? The manufacturerhas to think in terms of future or how would aproduct be? Dr Ravichandran gave the exam-ple of present-day laptop that could be turnedinto a roll! “That is innovation and when youhave an innovative idea it can be made into areality. Did any one think of iPad two yearsago? It is a reality today and that product hasmany applications rolled into one,” he opined.

Yes, knowledge is power but that power isof no use if there is with no attendant skillsand attitude. The simple equation is Power =Knowledge + Skills + Attitude. In manufactur-ing field and for that matter in any field it leadsto excellence and that in turn leads to betterquality. Quality is not a fixed goalpost, it shiftsfurther and further and therefore there is nofinish post. Quality is a measure of excellence.There is neither shortcut nor quick-fix inachieving quality. Like the bottleneck is at thetop of a bottle so is the case in managementand not on the shop floor.


SSHHOOWWEERRIINNGG PPRRAAIISSEE:: Dr Girdhar J Gyani inviting SK Chakraborty for the Conclave session.



“India gave the world zero, sugar, pie(mathematical sign), precise astronomy andmany more, so we are the children of a great civilisation. The past gives us confidence andthe present gives us commitment. Let usbelieve in ourselves. We do not need certifica-tion from outsiders that we belong to a greatnation,” emphasised Dr Ravichandran. Hegave the example of TVS Lucas where on Sun-days 600 workers come voluntarily to cleanthe shop floor, machines, tools and includingtoilet. Top management joins. It is the top-down commitment because the leader showsthe commitment. Create joy in work, qualityautomatically comes in. That comes in not byaping other countries; we are Indians and letus create quality with our efforts and innova-tions for our nation.

The Inaugural Session started with aninvocation to Saraswati, the goddess of knowl-edge. Quality and growth are interlinked.While many developed countries are facingstunted economic growth the two Asian giants— India and China — are growing exponen-tially. The economic pundits of the world doagree on one point and that is 21st Centurybelongs to India and China.

While India’s consistent GDP growth isenvy of many countries while we here areapprehensive whether this is a bubble about toburst. The growth is based on sound econom-ic fundamentals and so it is not a bubblethough the question remains whether thegrowth is all pervasive. Have the fruits of thegrowth been able to spread across every sec-tion of our society? A little soul-searchingwould reveal that there is disparity betweenthe growth of India and the growth of Bharat.Thus the challenge is not about the growth inIndia but the challenge is definitely of inclu-sive, quality growth.

In his welcome address Girdhar J Gyani,

Secretary General, QCI, touched on the roleof QCI and its need at the national level dur-ing its inception in 1997. He narrated an inter-esting anecdote when the then President APJAbdul Kalam was invited to be chief guest atthe 2nd National Conclave. The Presidentafter going through the vision and missionstatements simply commented that the Coun-cil’s main objective ought to be “quality fornational wellbeing”. Like the man himself histhinking was simple and straightforward with-out any ambiguity.

The initial task was to create an assess-ment structure to conform the assessmentbodies in line with international standards.From the 1st National Conclave to the current6th Conclave the profile of participants haschanged dramatically, from manufacturingsector to health and then healthcare providers,education and government sectors. The creditgoes to chairmen and council members, downthe line in these six years, who were of the firmview that path, taken by manufacturing sectorin quality growth, should be replicated andintegrated with sectors like healthcare, educa-tion, IT, environment, social sectors, infra-structure and governance. This august bodymentioned time and again that name beingQuality Council of India the efforts should beaimed at the nation, India.

He pointed out that accreditation systembrings out competency, objectivity and trans-parency. Today QCI’s National AccreditationBoard for Certification Bodies (NABCB) andNational Accreditation Board for Laborato-ries (NABL) are accepted world over. Nowthe Central Government desires QCI to prop-agate national quality mission across thecountry. “Unless we empower the consumersto demand quality, suppliers will not supplyquality products. To undertake this missionwe have six boards out which four are for

accreditation and two are for promotion ofquality,” Dr Gyani said.

He reminded the audience that govern-ment is equally keen that QCI moves into gov-ernment sectors to usher in good governance.Though not an easy task QCI is making ameasured entry into some of the sectors:� Petroleum and Natural Gas RegulatoryBoard has an MoU with QCI to use third par-ty bodies duly accredited by QCI for ensuringcompliance of regulatory norms.� Food Safety and Standards Authority ofIndia has decided to rely on QCI-accreditedconformity assessment bodies in its regulatoryframework.� Ministry of Environment and Forests hasdecided to empanel only QCI-accredited con-sulting organisations for preparing Environ-ment Impact Assessment (EIA) reports.� Ministry for Health and Family Welfarehas decided to empanel only QCI accreditedhospitals for its CGHS scheme.� Ministry of Labour has signed a compre-hensive MoU with QCI to revamp vocationaltraining in the country and as first step is link-ing affiliations of ITIs with accreditation byQCI.

Dr Gyani did not miss the opportunity inmentioning that entry into government sectoris not an easy process but a challenging tasksince those organisations would view at QCIwith suspicion in entering their domain.These organisations will have to be assuredthat QCI’s objective is to help them in all pos-sible manner to enable them provide qualitydelivery. This is a small step towards goodgovernance.

Another challenging task for QCI is inrevamping vocational training sector to meetthe Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’sdesire to have 500 million certified techni-cians by year 2022. By then, it is estimated thatworld will have 40 million shortfall in qualifiedtechnicians and India will have that many sur-plus qualified workforce.

ISO 9000, 14000 or similar certificationsare voluntary initiatives driven either by con-sumer or the market. Now take the example ofmalls and retail chains, which also stock freshvegetables. The international chains in thesecomplexes would demand quality compliantto the international standards. This is basedon good Global Agricultural Practices (GAP)and QCI has signed with International Organ-isation to bring in such standards into thecountry. In future, consumers would be ableto buy fresh agricultural products conformingto GAP norms.

Dr Gyani ended his welcome address onan optimistic note that future of quality is ingovernance and quality mission dedicated tothe nation. Irrespective of human develop-ment index, which is not favourably inclined


SSHHAARRIINNGG WWIISSDDOOMM:: Avik Mitra, Advisor, National Board for Quality Promotion, QCI, meeting delegatesbefore the inauguration.




towards India, but if the regulatory quality isgood, then governance is also good and con-versely corruption will be less.

Arun Maira, Member of Planning Com-mission, the next speaker and the chief guestasked the gathering, are we a quality nation?Though the response was mixed, Mairareminded that we may not yet be, while indi-cations are that we are moving towards thatgoal. We have seen quality movement and letus start with India. The father of the nation,Mahatma Gandhi, taught us the process, amovement by people to gain political freedomfor the people. It was world’s greatest qualitymovement. We now do have a government ofthe people, for the people, by the people andin that process do we have the government forthe people?

There is a considerable concern whetherthe government works for the people. Wehave only the first part and yet to develop lat-ter parts in delivery system for the people. ThePlanning Commission manifesto clearly men-tions a government of the people, for the peo-ple, by the people since government’s plan-ning and execution cannot be separated. His-torically, after Independence, we followedrather inherited the Westminster system andhave found several lacunae. The planningmust be for the people and by the people andwith this in view we have embarked on amovement of change in consulting civil socie-ty of all hues.

In furthering this movement, the govern-ment has launched a dynamic website invitingpeople to express their views. The website waslaunched in the presence of press personneland the foreign correspondents especiallywere impressed and mentioned this is the firsttime anywhere in the world that such a processhas been adopted. Through our efforts wewish to be a nation of quality. Our formerPresident gave us a simple slogan — Qualityfor National Wellbeing. Measuring growththrough GDP is the wrong way to measure.The actual growth should be measured againstwellbeing of the people.

Take the example of Taj Mahal, a perfectexample of human endeavour in making amonument of quality several centuries ago,but the people living around it today do notportray a picture of wellbeing. The formerPrime Minister Indira Gandhi would requestthe head of states and foreign diplomats, apartfrom visiting Taj Mahal, should also visit somefactories. “It was her way of saying that India’sglory was not all that was past, look the presenttoo to assess where India is progressing,” men-tioned Maira.

In quoting one of the anecdote, Mairasaid, “I recollect an incident when TataMotors factory was being built near Pune. TheChairman then Sumant Mulgaokar stressed

that this factory should be cleaner than a for-eign hospital. The productivity will be more ina cleaner environment. Later when I used toescort foreign dignitaries it was an eye openerfor them.”

Once a German entrepreneur wished tobe invited to the Tata Motors factory with aspecific request to see the foundry and he wasinvited. After spending several minutes insidethe factory he said I am yet to see the foundrysection and when he was told that for the pastten minutes he has been standing at thefoundry section, he bent down to pick a bit ofdust and to apply on his forehead. He latercommented what quality means to Indianindustries. This emanates from self-belief andself-confidence. Scores of such stories of excel-lence abound in our land.

We need to usher in a quality movementsimilar to Gandhiji’s movement. There arecentres of excellence but these are not enough.The movement should spread across lengthand breadth of the country. Let us start qualitythat touches people first like hospitals, civicservices and educational institutions. It isimportant to engage people not throughberating but through examples. Let us enrichour lives through the pursuit of quality.

The chief guest Arun Maira’s inspiringspeech on quality was followed by the releaseof a book and honouring three quality guruswith Fellowship Awards. The book EmergingTrends in Supply Chain Management: Frame-work, Models and Applications authored byPrem Narain, Indian Railways, and its forwardwritten by Dr Girdhar J Gyani was releasedcollectively by Arun Maira, K C Mehra and DrGyani.

The three quality gurus Prof S KChakraborty, Dr G Bakthavathsalam and DrN Ravichandran were bestowed with Fellow-ship Awards.

QCI-D L Shah Awards were presented to

17 companies that included large public sectorundertakings, large-scale manufacturing sec-tor, large-scale service sector and micro, smalland medium-scale (MSM) enterprises. Thisyear there were two notable differences —Best of the Best Award and MSM enterprises.

National Accreditation Board for Hospi-tal and Healthcare Providers (NABH) andNational Accreditation Board for Educationand Training (NABET) certification were pre-sented. The NABH Certification recipientswere Leelavati Hospital, Mumbai, Apollo Hos-pital, Gandhinagar, Max Super Speciality Hos-pital, Patparganj (New Delhi), General Hospi-tal, Ernakulam, and Vijaya Eductioanl & Med-ical Trust, Chennai. The General Hospital atErnakulam is the 4th hospital in governmentsector out of 70 to receive this certification.The NABET Accreditation Certificates wereawarded to Kendriya Vidyalaya School, Chen-nai and School for Scholars, Nagpur.

In the concluding remarks of inauguraladdress, K C Mehra, Chairman of NationalBoard for Quality Promotion, QCI, said thatthe country has woken up quite late in qualitymovement. In the past since shortage econo-my was prevalent the manufacturers and sup-pliers never felt that quality was relevant ascustomers bought whatever was on offer. Nowthey have realised that customer is the kingand what customers look for is quality. Qualityis not expensive, it is priceless.

At the end he asked the audience, are wemoving towards a quality nation? There wasresounding ‘yes’. We are good at being arm-chair advisors — we advice Planning Com-mission what they should, we tell the PrimeMinister what to do and then to other minis-ters what they ought to do. Now onwards letus take the pledge what we should do to steerIndia to a quality nation. The passion for qual-ity is very important and passion alone willmove the country towards quality nation. �

KKNNOOWWLLEEDDGGEE SSEEEEKKEERRSS:: A view of the audience at the inaugural session.



nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

The concept of TotalQuality Control lookedat interlinking allprocesses responsiblefor final product, i.e.design, purchase,inspection, etc. Theimproved version of thiscame as Total QualityManagement, whichencompasses everyactivity in anorganisation includingthe human component. nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

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.


INTERVIEW

QA&“QCI needs to unite QUALITY INDIA: AT THE OUTSET, LET ME CONGRATULATE YOU AND TEAM OF QCI TOHAVE ORGANISED VERY SUCCESSFUL 6TH NATIONAL QUALITY CONCLAVE, WHICH GOTWIDE SPREAD APPLAUSE FROM ALL CONCERNED. WILL YOU SPELL OUT, HOW THE THEMEOF 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 nationalissues. 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 toChairperson Arun Maira, he said that Out of Crisis sounded negative and suggested that theme should beginwith 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:WILL YOU BRIEFLY DESCRIBE THE CONTEXT INWHICH FUTURE OF QUALITY IS PERCEIVED?

A: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 rejectingthose which did not meet specifications. The next phase came whenthe focus shifted to process, what was termed as Quality Assurance,resulting into improved quality and cutting down on rejection. Thencame concept of Total Quality Control, which looked at interlinkingof all processes, responsible for final product, i.e. design, purchase,assembly, inspection, packaging, etc. The improved version of thiscame as Total Quality Management, which encompasses everyactivity in an organisation including the human component. In away, it relates to the quality of an organisation. Today, most success-ful companies practice TQM and are leaders in their class. Future ofQuality is a distant extension of this concept when it is practiced as anational agenda, i.e. when we look at a country as an organisationand apply the principle of TQM in governing a nation.

Interview gyani ji new_final grid qci.qxd 4/28/2011 6:18 PM Page 2

Q: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 INTHE COUNTRY. WILL YOU PLEASE ELABORATE?

A:Quality Council of India has adopted a resolution wherein National Board for

Quality Promotion (NBQP) would play the roleof a national quality facilitating body by promotingquality and building capacity to meet the expecta-tions of citizens/consumers in all sectors, i.e. man-ufacturing, infrastructure, education, health, gov-ernment, social, etc. It needs to become an organi-sation that will unite quality professionals with thecommon cause of promoting quality across sec-tors. The launching of the Professional Member-ship Scheme of QCI is going to take the NationalQuality Campaign to the grassroots’ levels of soci-ety. Membership of QCI would be aimed at build-ing a sense of pride among professionals in beingtorchbearers in spreading quality under overallmission: Quality for National Well Being. Chapter(comprising 50 members in one location) will actas an empowered centre of QCI in carrying out a

campaign on a regular basis,through talk shows, seminars,competitions, etc. in cross-functional sectors. For exam-ple, experts from the auto sec-tor can help hospitals imple-ment Lean tools and likewisehospital doctors can help theauto industry on occupationalhealth. One of the organisa-tional members of QCI willbe requested to provide secre-tariat/venue for the chapter activities. In order toprovide guidance to the chapters, we will formdivisions in different sectors like manufacturing,education, health, government, etc. where some ofthe best brains will be available through sector-based divisions of QCI, to advise chapters in carry-ing out activities including giving expert talks.



It is very encouraging tosee that the healthindustry has takenaccreditation in apositive manner, moreso when it is purelyvoluntary. All stake-holders are unanimousthat accreditationbenefits each one ofthem. I keep saying thataccreditation in healthis aimed at saving livesof patients.nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn


quality professionals”A:I will like to go back to 1991, when India

launched the era of open economy. It is fundamental that quality comes through competitionand never in a monopolistic way of doing business. Ipersonally believe that 1991 initiated quality intogovernance. The PSUs were first to feel this impactand today, we see most of our Navratna PSUs competing on quality and price with the best ofmultinationals. This has been a big plus-point. So far

as pure government departments are concerned,there have been a few isolated instances of applyingformal quality. A few police stations, a few postoffices, a few municipal services, a few governmenthospitals have distinguished themselves by imple-menting quality management systems. In most cases,these came more from efforts put in by individualofficials and not originating from the system. Unfor-tunately, we have not been able to keep pace with lib-eralisation and many public services continue tooperate exclusively in government (monopoly). Evenif we are constrained to operate some of the servicesthat are under the government, there is need to haveeffective monitoring/measuring.

More recently we have had a good initiative: performance monitoring in the government. There isan exclusive department on performance manage-ment, set up under the Cabinet Secretary and 62departments have been identified, which will imple-ment the quality system and report performanceimprovement by preparing and reporting on theResults-Framework Document (RFD). It is going totake time before good results are visible as consider-able efforts would need to be put in by way of capaci-ty-building in government, aimed at cultural transfor-mation for various departments to be citizen-centric.

Q:HAVE WE SEEN SOME APPLICATIONS OF TQM IN THE GOVERNMENT IN OUR OWNCASE? CAN YOU CITE SOME EXAMPLES?

STARTING ON A HIGH NOTE: Dr S K Chakraborty speaking at inaugural session of theSixth National Quality Conclave.

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




INTERVIEW


QCI is watchingdevelopments. First is tomake sure that standardon accreditationremains dynamic,meeting needs of allstake holders. Second,we need to expand panelof competentassessors.Third area isbuilding capacity by wayof providing competentconsultants andtrainers.nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

A:Accreditation as you know is basically aimed atestablishing a framework, by which an organi-

sation practices a transparent and objective systembuilt around competency to undertake defined scopeof activities. Accredited conformity assessment bodies(CABs) for certification, inspection and testing aretraditionally known to facilitate trade by establishingglobal equivalence. QCI in the past 3-4 years has tak-en this model to help government and regulatory bod-ies, by making available accredited CABs to monitorcompliance of governance/regulatory requirements.The use of third party CABs bring transparency,objectivity and faster responses and these factors havehuge impact on governance. QCI today is working

with a number of departments and regulatory bodies,notable among them being Petroleum & Natural GasRegulatory Board (PNGRB), Food Safety and Stan-dards Authority of India (FSSAI), Ministry of Health& Family Welfare (MOHFW), Ministry of Environ-ment & Forest (MOEF), Director General Employ-ment & Training (DGET), AYUSH, Ministry of Newand Renewable Energy, National Horticulture Board,Ministry of Food Processing Industry (MFPI),Department of Commerce, Ministry of Defence, Min-istry of Tourism, etc. It stands to reason that it directlyhelps improve governance. Even World Bank indica-tors for various nations show that as regulatory qualityimproves so does governance.

A:Yes. It is very encouraging to see that thehealth industry has taken accreditation in a

positive manner, more so when it is purely voluntary. All stakeholders are unanimous thataccreditation benefits each one of them. I keep saying that accreditation in healthcare is not anotherkind of certification; it is directly aimed at savinglives of patients. The accreditation requirements arevery logical and that is why it is said that in case ahospital is not complying with these requirements, itis not fit to be in the business of healthcare. I alsobelieve that many hospitals must be operating andcomplying with these requirements, without havingformally gone for accreditation. As awarenessincreases, market forces (consumers) will drive theaccreditation.

QCI is closely watching developments. Weneed to work simultaneously on many fronts. First, we have to make sure that the standard on

accreditation remains dynamic and meets the needsof all stakeholders. Second, we need to expand thepanel of competent assessors. I always maintain thatNABH has so far been credible, largely because sen-ior doctors/administrators/nursing staff have beensupporting it by way of devoting time as assessors.The third area is building capacity by way of provid-ing competent consultants and trainers. There is ahuge demand for consultants who have expertise inunderstanding standards as well as in guiding hospi-tals to implement and, more importantly, in institu-tionalising the practices in hospital. Yet another areais to work on measures by which the NABH accredi-tation will keep on adding value to the hospital, afteraccreditation. Finally, QCI needs to work on devel-oping models by which well-known quality toolslike LEAN, SIX SIGMA, etc. are adapted by hospi-tals that will help them to minimise waste and varia-tion and at the same time make them competitive.

Q:ANOTHER GOOD ACHIEVEMENT OF QCI HAS BEEN THE LAUNCHING OF ACCREDI-TATION IN HEALTHCARE, WHICH WE KNOW IS IN GREAT DEMAND. MORE AND

MORE HOSPITALS ARE QUEUING UP TO HAVE THIS MARK OF EXCELLENCE. LOOKING ATTHE MAGNITUDE AND SIZE OF INDUSTRY, WILL YOU PLEASE SPELL OUT THE PLANS TOCOPE UP WITH THIS KIND OF WORKLOAD AND PRESSURE?

Q:WHAT WERE THE MAIN CONCERNS/SUGGESTIONS FROM THE PARTICIPANTSATTENDING THE CONCLAVE?

A:This conclave was, by far, the most productive as there was open discussion in all the sessions, onwide-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 accruingmaximum benefit from QMS standard ISO 9001;Ø SMEs to be encouraged and guided in applying 7-QC tools in cluster approachto maximise quality and productivity;Ø QCI to capture best practices in various sectors (manufacturing/service) andshare among SMEs through short-term training workshops, organised at districtindustry 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, startingfrom shop floor workers to senior management; and,Ø There were suggestions to have quality certification schemes for various publicservices like Municipal Bodies, Gram Panchayats, etc

Q:QCI AS THE APEX NATIONAL BODY ON QUALITY HAS BEEN WORKING TO ESTABLISHACCREDITATION IN DIFFERENT SECTORS. CAN THIS IN ANY WAY HELP IN QUALITY

GOVERNANCE?

ELOCUTION AT ITS BEST: Arun Maira, QCI Chairman andMember Planning Commission, atthe inaugural session.


Q:SOUNDS SIMPLE. IS IT REALLY SO? CAN YOU GIVE US SOME EXAMPLES?




Launching ofProfessionalMembership Scheme ofQCI will take NationalQuality Campaign to thegrassroots’ level of thesociety. Membership ofQCI would be aimed atbuilding a sense of prideamong professionals inbeingtorch bearers inspreading quality underoverall mission: Qualityfor National Well Being. nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

A:During my tenure as Director, Indian Insti-tute of Quality Management, I was once

invited to address officers of Indian Administra-tive Services (IAS), on the application of TQM ingovernment. I took the TQM model as wastaught to us by Prof John Oakland during ourtraining at United Kingdom in 1992 and remod-elled it by defining the national quality system asan interconnection of legislation, executive andjudiciary. Since then, there have been manyattempts and TQM has been applied in govern-ment departments in many countries. If the sameis applied to all organs of governance includinglegislation and judiciary, then yes, we can have aTQM nation.

Let me put it in a simpler way. TQM meansworking to a system, which is transparent, objec-tive, dynamic and finally driven by customers (cit-izens in the national perspective). To begin withthese features of a system are to be defined andprogressively applied in different functions cover-ing various aspects of governance. You must have

come across the ranking assigned by Transparen-cy International to various countries. Transparen-cy, by far, is the most important element of quali-ty governance. Similarly, the World Bank comesout with an index for various countries based onregulatory quality, which once again is based onthe same basic principles of transparency andobjectivity coupled with a degree of compliance.

A:Work at QCI is highly dynamic, in the sensethat virtually everyday we come across some-

thing new. Still, let me try to identify five core activi-ties, which shall be our focus in the next three years.(1) Remaining Credible: With growing appreciation about QCI in government, industryand consumers, expectations from QCI would alsoincrease. I would like to ensure that QCI remains CREDIBLE, first, in being ethical and, second, inadding value through its services. (2) Quality Knowledge Centre: As workload is onthe increase, the present work space is just not adequate. QCI needs exclusive premises of its ownto accommodate secretariat staff as well as it shouldbecome a place where quality professionals can visitto learn and contribute through discussion. Theplace needs to become a knowledge centre in thediscipline of TOTAL QUALITY. I would like QCIto have its own premises with all infrastructure to bewhat I mentioned: a quality knowledge centre.(3) Quality in Curriculum: My third priority willbe to focus on introducing quality in the curriculumof all disciplines like Engineering, Medical, Manage-ment, Diploma/ITIs and finally at school level. Qual-ity orientation at an early age, below 14 years of agewill bring a sea change in our future generation asthat is the age when the IQ component is in a formu-lation stage.(4) Quality as Movement: Quality needs to bedriven. Ideally, we should have empowered con-sumers who would drive quality. QCI needs toaggressively take the National Quality Campaign tothe grassroots’ level among citizens. Empoweredcitizens will be able to put pressure on suppliers of

goods/services. I would like to have a detailed roadmap to drive this. QCI can do this as today we haveall quality professional bodies represented on thecouncil. QCI as a network body is ideally posi-tioned to be truly a national quality facilitatingbody. The membership scheme would be modelledprimarily to take this across all sections of society.(5) Quality in Governance: I firmly believe in the system theory and institutional-ising the same, be it in an organisation or in a coun-try. As a large majority of public services in our coun-try continue to remain with the government, we needto encourage application of third party conformityassessment model in government and in regulation.QCI, as mentioned earlier, has been working with anumber of government departments and regulatingbodies and has succeeded in applying third partyquality assessment model and this will need to bepursued in more and more areas to improve qualityof governance. We are working on an exclusive model to introduce simple quality framework forGram Panchayats, which I believe will bring qualityrevolution at the very basic echelon of our society.Similar initiatives shall be worked upon for urbanlocal bodies. The aim will be to make quality management relevant in the context of the commonman. In the Fifth National Quality Conclave lastyear, we had a theme session on bringing quality inadministration of judicial systems. I still believe thatthis can be the mother reform as this reform hasimmense power to dramatically change governancein nation, society and community. QCI will workwith government in applying quality managementin judiciary, police and in local bodies. n

Q:FINALLY, MAY I ASK YOUR TOP FIVE PRIORITIES FOR QCI, SAY FOR THENEXT THREE YEARS?

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



Q:We had the NationalConclave recently.What are your broad

impressions about the Conclaveand the quality movement per seand how has it helped the Quali-ty Council of India?

A:Frankly, I was quiteamazed at the largeattendance at the Con-

clave and at the same time I have toadmit as a practising, manager fornumber of companies, QCI is stillnot widely known in the manufac-turing sector. Having said that, theastounding fact is that on the firstday we had over 800 delegatesfrom all over the country. It waswell organised. The theme –Future of Quality – was wellthought of. The kind of speakersand number of them QCI was ableto get are praiseworthy. I interact-ed with many of them and theirviews about QCI was very wellplaced. As I learnt, QCI was by andlarge known as accreditation bodyfor conformity assessment bodiesand therefore is widely known inthat circle. Likewise, a large num-ber of training providers wereaware of QCI. Another pleasantsurprise was that lots of govern-ment officials were aware of theQCI and its services.

So, I was wondering why theQCI was not known among indus-try at large. The reason was thatindustry knows certificationbody(CB), which certifies themand not QCI, which accredits theCB. These 800 delegates definitelyhad knowledge about the QCI.Similarly, I had occasion to a con-ference at Chandigarh, attended by450 delegates. Here again therewas all-round appreciation of activ-ities of QCI as presented by me,but still knowledge of QCI was

confined. I therefore wonder, whycan’t we have such Conclaves inother regions, say Mumbai for thewest, Bengaluru for south, and anappropriate place in the east, sothat good work of QCI is knownand we engage a large number ofprofessionals to carry out missionof QCI, i.e. Quality for NationalWell Being.

What you say is correct that QCIenjoys a lot of credibility.Would you not agree that weneed to ramp up QCI’s profileand take it across to all other seg-ments, not necessarily industry?When you talk about credibility,QCI through various boards likeNABH or NABET has done a phe-nomenal work. In fact good workdone in these areas has increasedexpectation and people want QCIto encompass more and more seg-ments to improve national quality.But then there is acute shortage ofresources. We do not have profes-sionals of requisite expertise need-ed for QCI kind of work. As chair-man of National Board for QualityPromotion (NBQP), our endeav-our is to build ‘Brand QCI’. Itneeds to be extended through theefforts of “brand warriors”.

For example, when peoplecome to know that a seminar or aworkshop is conducted by QCI,they should readily participate withthe knowledge and assurance thatquality topics such as Six Sigma,Lean Sigma or Kaizen would be dis-cussed. Similar seminars or work-shops are conducted by other insti-tutions as well, but programmes byQCI should be more appealing tothe participants and the qualitytime they would spend in QCI sem-inars or workshops for a day or twoshould give phenomenal returns.

What are your views on regionalevents, say like regional con-claves in different cities?This point has emanated in our dis-cussions along with chairmen ofother boards . Our endeavour is topromote all other boards. We willbe seeking their ideas and views asto how their boards have to be pro-moted. What is important here is toknow their USP or anything specialthey have done, in our efforts ofpromoting the boards. For exam-ple, as I said NABH today is verywell recognised in the health indus-try. NBQP should promote thisamong users and empower con-sumers so that they can demandNABH accreditation, when theyvisit hospital next. Such a demandwill keep raising the bar for quality.We are organising special conclaveat Ahmedabad, where best prac-tices in healthcare will be shared.Similar conclave is being plannedin Mumbai, where best practices inquality governance of schools willbe discussed.

You mentioned about the longwaiting list for hospitals to beaccredited. How can this beovercome? This is one of the challenges. Hospi-tal accreditation is very sensitive sub-ject. We need to be careful as grant ofaccreditation symbolises with patientsafety. Today we have over 80-accredited hospitals and more than400 are in the pipeline. Today gov-ernment, industry and consumer, allhave appreciation about good workput in by NABH. We need to contin-ue. At the same time we need to buildcapacity so that waiting hospitals canprepare fast for the accreditation.NBQP has launched a scheme forregistration of professionals as con-sultants and this should help.


QCI/NBQP is fullygeared up to be the apexbody to promote qualityin the country by takingall stakeholders underone umbrella. As said bythe Secretary General ofQCI, the members ofQCI will be those whowill like to be qualitychampions not only attheir workplace but inthe society and helpbuild Quality India. nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn


INTERVIEW

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

“QCI’s quality message should go to

the grassroots”

Interview k c mehra_final grid qci.qxd 4/28/2011 6:29 PM Page 2

How would you propagate ini-tiatives by QCI at the grassroots,to other elements of societybeyond industry?You have raised an importantpoint. At the last board meeting wediscussed this and the generalimpression was, we need hundredsof QCIs to take the message atgrassroots level. This is where wehave launched professional mem-bership scheme. The memberswould be chosen among the peo-ple, who have passion to be torchbearer of quality. This isshowing great promise and we aregetting large number of volunteersfor this. The first chapter (with 50members) is being formed atMumbai. This will be extendedarm of QCI and will pursue pro-moting of quality in that part andsimilarly other chapters will soonfollow and what I said, we shallhave 100s of QCIs.

Many years ago when I was inJamshedpur, it was a neat, cleanand well-maintained city but whenone drove 40 km down the road,filth and poverty were too appar-ent. And issues and areas like thatought to be in our agenda. Ourchapters will address such issues. That being the case, isn’t there acase to prepare a roadmap?

There is a lot of thinkingamong top QCI officials and this isnow getting more and moredefined with clear objectives thatthe presence of QCI is required inthese places as well. The pointsemanating is that QCI need not doeverything and there are a numberof professional bodies and NGOsto propagate some of our pro-grammes. We need to network andtake like-minded organisation tojoin the march.

Apart from taking chapters toother places, does it not entailtaking QCI’s administrativeacumen as well?As I mentioned in the beginningregarding the National Conclave, Iam astounded as regards theamount of work done by QCI withlimited resources. Here I am nottalking about funds but personnel.If you double them, with a dedicat-ed lot, one can achieve a lot. That isthe way organisations grow andexpand.

There are too many organisa-tions in the country purportingto promote quality. This mayentail working at cross purpos-es. Isn’t there a need for a singleorganisation to oversee propa-gation of quality?Certainly, indeed. This is a hugecountry. I recollect the statementformer Singapore Prime MinisterLee Kuan Yew once made:“Thanks for praising Singapore,but remember we are just onefourth the size of Bombay.” A largecountry has its plus and minuspoints. Go 40 km out of a metro ora big city and the situation is entire-ly different. Some people in posi-tion do not venture out while oth-ers do go out but do not have offi-cial sanction.

There is no law in our countryas to what is permissible and whatis not. For example, in the US phar-maceutical companies cannot

market products unless approvedby Food and Drug Administration.That’s what makes for quality.

Good point is that governmenthas begun to rely more and moreon third-party assessment and istaking services of QCI. Secondlyalmost all quality professional bod-ies have agreed to be a part of QCIand there is synergy in various qual-ity initiatives and this will showimpressive results in time to come.

Finally, how do you wish topropagate quality and ramp upthe profile of QCI?As I said above, launch of profes-sional membership scheme and for-mation of chapters should triggerquality movement at grassroot level.It will also cross fertilise knowledgebetween different sectors. We havedecided to develop standardisedbody of knowledge for some of thekey courses on quality and will

encourage training providers toadopt such BOKs. We also plan toencourage research in quality insome of leading engineering/man-agement institutes. Besides we shalltry to capture citizens perception onquality in different sectors, based onwhich we will launch series of sensi-tisation programmes to help suppli-ers in addressing these issues. Wealso have plans to undertake some ofthe major projects, aimed at improv-ing quality culture. QCI has alreadybrought out a few very good publica-tions and will continue with moresuch projects. In short, QCI/NBQPis fully geared up to be apex body topromote quality in the country bytaking all stakeholders under oneumbrella. As said by the SecretaryGeneral of QCI, the members ofQCI will be those who will like to bequality champions not only at theirworkplace but in the society at largeand will help build Quality India.



Interview k c mehra_final grid qci.qxd 4/28/2011 6:29 PM Page 3


At the recently heldsixth National Quali-ty Conclave in Delhi,a session on ‘Qualityin Education’ saw

representation from eminent per-sonalities, sharing their views onthe importance of quality educa-tion in the life of an individual.Session Chairman Dr K BKushal, kickstarted the session,stating that there cannot be edu-cation without quality and viceversa. Talking about learningsocieties, quality becomes themost important the agenda whenthere are multiple learning plat-forms. Dr Kushal expressed hisconcern by stating: “What is ofprime importance is to empoweralready existing educational plat-forms. The larger question is: Are

these educational platforms ade-quately powered in terms of tech-nology, infrastructure, and com-petent human resources?”

In order to add capacity tonew platforms, millions of youthare to be educated. So the ques-tion of capacity is very important.As literacy is increasing, seriouscompetency gaps are emerging.Focus on competence nurturingfor the future is essential for thefuture. Competence must bebuilt not at the elementary levelbut there is a need to build waybeyond mainstream education.The focus has to be on manage-ment of effective curriculum.Also, there is a need to concen-trate on attitudes and value-cen-tered initiatives in education. Thespeaker said that more interac-

tions, convergences and collabo-rations to bring together as manyeducational institutions as possi-ble to pool resources were need-ed. These initiatives would servechildren better.

Eminent educationist DrVijayam Ravi focussed on learn-ing processes that are importan-tant for the educational institutesin the country. For Dr Ravi, qual-ity means total development ofstudents. She emphasised theconcept of counseling whichdates back to Lord Krishna andArjuna in the Mahabharata, theguru-sishya parampara startsfrom there. According to her,“Quality has to be self-driven. It’sa mindset.”

In the present day, teachingcannot be teacher-centric at all.

��

What is of importanceis to empower alreadyexisting educationalplatforms. The questionis: Are theseeducational platformsadequately powered interms of technology andcompetent humanresources? In order toadd capacity to newplatforms, millions ofyouth are to beeducated. ��

SSTTRREESSSSIINNGG OONN TTOOTTAALLDDEEVVEELLOOPPMMEENNTT OOFF SSTTUUDDEENNTT::Dr. Vijayam Ravi with Anita Makkarat the session on ‘Quality inEducation’.

WHAT WE ARE TODAY IS ONLY BECAUSE OF THE QUALITY OF OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM. EMINENTSPEAKERS OUTLINED THE IMPORTANCE OF AN INNOVATIVE CURRICULUM, REPORTS LAKSHMI SINGH.


Innovation to ensure quality in

education

Education53.qxd 4/28/2011 6:50 PM Page 2


Today’s student is different. Hecannot have the same kind ofhomogeneity. Students in alearning institute come from dif-ferent geographic and demo-graphic areas. The educationalsystem should neither be stu-dent-centric nor teacher-centric.It has to be a dialogue betweenthe both. Focussing on the chal-lenges that keep quality away, DrRavi stated that during schoolyears, a student is under 100 percent teaching. But after schoolyears, the student acquires a cer-tain position in life. Like schoolsand colleges have their own qual-ity norms. So it is always advis-able to create its own qualitynorms. Government, manage-ment, principal-staff, parents allare not on the same platform.Unless the educational institu-tions decide to be on the samewavelength of thinking, they can-not implement quality. In orderto achieve quality, quality of stu-dents, quality of staff and qualityof infrastructure are very essen-tial. In rural areas, it is very diffi-cult to get good teacher at thesame time who is consistent too.To tackle this, a pool of teacherscan be trained, so that they canbe sent to neighbouring villagesto teach.

Dr Ravi discussed variousfactors that guide the quality ofeducation. The first and fore-most factor was money. Lan-guage as communication was thegreatest challenge the countrywas facing. In an educationalinstitution, children from various

parts of the country study whosemother tongue is different. So,another important factor wasthat the quality of communica-tion had to improve. The mostimportant factor was the per-formance of the child in an edu-cational institute. What was ofprime importance was the peda-gogy. Was the teacher attendingto the needs of the child or not?The method or the passion in ateacher should have the feeling of“I feel your pain in my heart”.The next important issue wasquality assurance. Academicassurance was the solution forthis.

There were missing links inthe education system. So, therewas a need to bridge that gap.

The attrition rate of teacherswas very high and the factors forthat were many and varied.

First, teachers are so fed upwith the repetitive work they dothat monotony sets in. Therewere no challenges involved inthe pattern of work. The solutionfor this was that unless the educa-tional institutes decided that theywanted quality, quality won’t beachieved. This was necessary forthe overall commitment.

There should therefore bemore focus on teacher trainingthat should be more interactiveand inter-disciplinary and notmonotonous.

The next speaker, AnitaMakkar, gave a brilliant insightinto education. Laying morestress on innovative curriculummanagement, she stated that it

was not just the curriculum thatcould push the child ahead. Andinnovative curriculum was thenecessary tool to enhance thedevelopment of the child.Although in our system of educa-tion, the curriculum was alreadydecided and described byNCERT, it has to be innovative.

Emphasising on curriculum,Anita Makkar asked, “Why doyou need innovative curriculumtransaction?” She stated that thepresent generation was in need ofinnovative curriculum transac-tion because the needs of thelearner have changed today. Sothere is a need to prepare thelearner to become a global citi-zen. Varied sources are availableoutside the classroom. A childlearns a lot of things from theoutside world. So it is imperativeto create the best ambience forthe child’s development.According to NCF, 2005 child-centred pedagogy with construc-tivist approach to be followed.

The reason for a need for acurriculum management is tostay goal-oriented. For this, it isimportant to choose curriculumto match national standards. Inaddition, there is a greater needfor the teachers to be empow-ered. The classroom instructionsare very important. There is aneed to improve on classroomlearning strategies. Childrenneed to be highly engaged andseek higher levels of creativityand innovation and to have avoice in their own learning. This helps children develop

��

In the present day,teaching cannot beteacher-centric at all.Today’s student isdifferent. Students in alearning institute comefrom different geogra-phic and demographicareas. The educationalsystem should neitherbe student-centric orteacher-centric. It has tobe a dialogue betweenthe both��

KKIICCKKSSTTAARRTTIINNGG TTHHEE SSEESSSSIIOONN::Dr. K B Kushal starting the sessionon education.




integrated ways by creating a par-ticipative and activity-orientedenvironment. Along with this,building background knowledgeand reading in groups, group dis-cussions as well as action fol-lowed by feedback session werealso important.

Dhruv Academy’s AlkaVaidya focused on the child in aneducational institute. Citingexamples of Walt Disney whowas a failure as a student and hadto be sent out of the school assaying that Disney “lacked cre-ativity”. But it was Walt Disneywho gave those famous cartooncharacters like Mickey mouse tothe world. Alka Vaidya stated that“children are like volcano whoare ready to erupt. It is for us totap that talent out of them”.Vaidya, therefore, laid stress onproviding the right kind of infras-ture and ambience to the child asthe vital source for an educationalinstitute to function successfully.

Dr Y S Rajan in his incisivepresentation spoke about thequality of governance in educa-tion. Systemic elements likecourts, parents, teachers, rules,laws, procedure, etc decide thequality of governance in educa-tion. Academic elements weregoverned by these factors. Inorder to make it more successful,Dr Rajan suggested that thesegovernance systems like laws,rules and regulations must besimplified. Oversight mecha-nisms to be made thin in terms ofhierarchial facilitators and notinspectors. The most important

suggestion was to empowerteachers as this would bring a lotof self evaluation. It is also neces-sary to minimise compulsorysubjects in the curriculum. Therewas need for flexibility to learningfrom experience and to capturenew oppurtunities.

Reeta Sonawat focused onthe quality in elementary educa-tion as the most importan area tobe taken care of in an academicinstitution. Defining quality inelementary education, Dr ReetaSonawat said that quality meanttaking good care. It was with thatin mind that the curriculum wascontextualized. It was develop-mentally appropriate. For qualityin elementary education, mustintroduce standard based onchild development. Dr Sonawatfocused on four important ele-ments that kept a watch on quali-ty. They are teacher, parent,researcher and government. Thefactors that affect the quality areteaching and non-teaching staffwho are to be well trained. Thenext factor is the curriculumwhich has to be developmentallyappropriate. And lastly, theassessment methods and parentsinvolvement affect the quality inelementary education. The physi-cal settings like the location,space, lighting , cleanliness of aschool surroundings and teacher-child relationship decide the suc-cessful functioning of the insti-tute. The best experience Dr Ree-ta Sonawat said which a child gotout of a quality programme aregood physical health, better

understanding of social and emo-tional needs, competence incommunication, refined mathe-matical understanding, creativityin arts, music and understandingof the scientific world.

On the second day of theconclave, session chairman R LSingh dedicated to skills develop-ment. He started the session bysaying that there were 17 min-istries for skill development inthe country. Boards like CII, FIC-CI, ASSOCHAM, etc. were allmeant for skill development.About Rs 1,000 cr were allocatedfor this from the Government ofIndia. Singh introduced the firstspeaker Graham Brent fromScotland for the Scotland experi-ence who started his presentationby laying importance on training.“Training is only effective if learn-ing is verified,” he said. So, for ver-ification, the certification becameimportant. Citing examples oncrane operators, Brent said thatthe certification for crane opera-tors was established in 1995. Awritten test was followed by apractical test as well. This Scot-land experience to India enabledtraining and development of thecrane operators too. So, educa-tion and training to labourerswere also important. To con-clude, Brent enlightened theneed for education of workers, interms of skill development.

The second speaker AnthonyMitchell also stressed on the roleof psychometricians. The methodof examination and examinationcontent were important factors inskill development. The first thingwas job analysis and work withsubject matter experts.

Vijay Kapoor, advisor to theVice Chancellor, IGNOU, con-cluded the session by speakingon ‘Education sans frontiers’.That was the challenges for Indi-an higher education in the 21stcentury. He said that the only 5per cent of the workforce in thecountry was certified. This was amajor challenge. So, the solu-tions are online learning and dis-tance learning. Currently,IGNOU, which was aggressivelymoving towards the onlinemode, was facing challenges.Education had a major role toplay at the school level. �

��

In order to achievequality, quality ofstudents, staff andinfrastructure are veryessential. In ruralareas, it is very difficultto get good teacher atthe same time who isconsistent too. To tacklethis, a pool of teacherscan be trained, so thatthey can be sent toneighbouring villagesto teach.��


QQUUAALLIITTAATTIIVVEE AAPPPPRROOAACCHH::Delegates who spoke on Qualityin Education.



DAY 1, CONCURRENT SESSION: HEALTHCARE

Healthcare systemsthe world over aregetting aligned toa more patient-centric approach,

with growing thrust on issues ofpatient safety, as underlined byDr Narottam Puri, Chairman,National Accreditation Board forHospitals & HealthcareProviders (NABH), who chairedthe first session of “Quality inHealthcare”. He kicked off theproceedings by saying thatpatient safety was the flavour ofthe season. The name of the gametoday was change, and manage-ments were moving from doctor-centric to the patient-centricapproach, making it imperative tocapture the patients’ voice. This,in turn, came out with the term,which was used to describe a sys-tematic approach to maintainingand improving the quality ofpatient care within a health sys-tem, i.e. ‘Clinical Governance’,and became the first topic of dis-cussion in the session.

Carrying forward the ses-sion, the first speaker of the ses-sion, Dr Anil Kumar Mulpurfrom Narayana Hrudayalaya,made a presentation on the “Roleof Clinical Governance in Deliv-ering Quality Healthcare”. Hispresentation began with the mostacceptable description of clinicalgovernance, which he defined as“a framework through whichNHS organisations wereaccountable for continuallyimproving the quality of theirservices and safeguarding highstandards of care by creating anenvironment in which excellencein clinical care will flourish.”Talking about clinical gover-nance, he explained that it includ-ed doctor-patient relationshipsand this could only be achievedby healthy interaction betweenclinicians and management/administration. Today, there is aneed for interaction betweendoctors and doctors, patients andpatients. Patients groups can becreated.

Dr Mulpur went on to men-tion that patients’ expectations

had changed. Now, they are morecost and quality-conscious. Theywant to spend the least money toget the best-possible care.Appointments have to be respect-ed and cannot wait to be seen.Good food, good toilets, andgood entertainment are the keyrequirements. Doctors/nursesneed to be courteous, so thatthere can’t be delays in investiga-tion and intervention.

Concluding his presentation,he said, “Don’t regard clinical gov-ernance as just another project ora superficial makeover. It is a rootand branch transformation of theway clinical care is provided.”

Talking about “ClinicalAudit”, Dr Anand,Professor,Dept of Pulmonary Medicine,Kasturba Medical College Hos-pital gave a detailed account ofthe “why, when and how — clin-ical audit”. He began with the his-tory of clinical audit. It started inthe era of 175 BC with the moni-toring of patients’ outcomes, dur-ing King Hammurabi of Babylon.Then in 1850s, during Florence Nightingale, hospitals acquired

��

Patients’ expectationshave changed. Now, theyare more cost andquality-conscious. Theywant to spend the leastmoney to get the bestpossible care.Appointments have tobe respected and cannotwait to be seen. Goodfood, good toilets, andgood entertainment arethe key requirements. ��

TTHHEE QQUUAALLIITTAATTIIVVEE SSTTAARRTT::Healthcare session of Day 1 kickedoff by Dr Narottam Puri, Chairman,NABH, who chaired the session.

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


Quality buzzword: Patient safety

above all

Right page.qxd 4/28/2011 6:54 PM Page 3


infection audit — high mortalityrates among injured or ill sol-diers. The beginning of accredita-tion could be traced back to clini-cal audit in 1910 when ErnestCodman proposed the “end-result system of hospital stan-dardisation”. He moved on to saythat while searching on Googleabout clinical audit, one wouldget numerous results and gavethe definition of clinical audit as aquality-improvement processthat sought to improve patientcare and outcomes through sys-tematic review of care againstexplicit criteria and the imple-mentation of change. The aim ofthe clinical audit, he mentioned,was to measure the gap betweenideal practice and actual practice.

Why clinical audit? Society isquestioning quality of care andconcepts of professional discre-tion or clinical freedom. The starkevidence of this shift in attitudes isshown in the demands of pressuregroups, press coverage, calls forpublic inquires, and the rise ofcomplaints, legal challenges, andclaims for redress. Audit is the oneway in which the medical com-munity could work to retain thetrust and respect in an increasing-ly critical environment.

The first session ended withthe presentation of Dr MuraliSrinivas, Manipal Hospital, whohighlighted the tips to overcomemost common obstacles in prep-aring for NABH accreditation. Hestarted with the journey towards

healthcare excellence — establishquality systems, healthcareaccreditation and achieving serv-ices and clinical excellence.NABH accreditation steps, whichhe mentioned, involved steeringcommittee for NABH, under-standing standards, form sub-groups, help relevant stakehold-ers, ensure NABH standards wereimplemented in hospital func-tions, internal audit, pre-assess-ment, call for the action, final auditand accreditation.

The second session waschaired by Dr R Karanjekar, Chair-man, Healthcare Committee,NBQP, who introduced CaptAjitha PS, Chief of Nursing, FortisHospital, Gurgaon. She stressedon building excellence in nursingservices. “I don’t have any formulafor this or any short cut,” adding aquote from Florence Nightin-gale”…the very first requirementin a hospital is that it should do thesick no harm.” She outlined thepositives of nursing: the largesthealthcare workforce, significantadaptive capacity, regular andclose proximity to patients, scien-tific understanding of careprocesses and multiple practicesettings. On the other side weresome negative aspects: theyoungest and least experienced inmost hospitals, limited/no partici-pation in decision-making, at thesharp end of patient care and, mostimportantly, held responsible foranything going wrong. She stated“Excellence in nursing services” as

a degree to which nursing care wasexperienced by the patients, rela-tives, physicians, other stakehold-ers and the nurses themselves asagainst a predetermined standard,which resulted in less/no harmand improved outcomes. Changeis in fashion and skilled perform-ance was not an exception. Shiftfrom reliance on principles to useof past experience, changes of per-ception of a situation, and passagefrom detached/anxious observerto involved performer were thekey changes, which were ideal forpatient safety and would lessen theratio of nurses going abroad. Say-ing that nursing cannot be learnedby attending lecturers, or readingbooks, it comes working withthose who are working in this field,she enlisted the challenges ahead:capacity building, demand-supplyissues, nursing human resourcemanagement, training — “toomuch too soon”, and inculcatingprofessionalism and values. Theway forward, according to her, wasto set up a nursing core committeeby Quality Council of India. Sheinformed that they had the firstmeeting on January 6, 2011, atGlobal Hospital, Chennai —Reshaping Nursing in Indian Hos-pitals. Named National Accredita-tion for Nursing Excellence(NANE), the committee wouldhelp in improving the workingenvironment for nurses up to 60-70 per cent, which will be headedby Girdhar J Gyani as Presidentand Dr R Karanjekar as Chairman.

Healthcare organisationsworldwide are increasingly recog-nising the need to evaluate anddemonstrate the quality of whatthey do. Different countries aremaking different choices aboutwhich processes best suits theirneeds. Newer models and innova-tions are driving improvements.According to Dr Aarti Verma,Member, Technical Committee,NABH, good foundation was crit-ical, which included structureslike availability of beds, OPDs,staff, building, space, equipment,supplies, resources and basicmonitoring of patients. Talkingabout NABH, she mentioned thatthe Indian National standardshad been benchmarked withinternational accreditation stan-dards (USA, UK, and Australia).

��

Shift from reliance onprinciples to use ofpast experience,changes of perceptionof a situation, andpassage fromdetached/anxiousobserver to involvedperformer are the keychanges, which areideal for patient safetyand would lessen theratio of nurses goingabroad. ��


AANN IIDDEEAALL PPLLAATTFFOORRMM::The session on quality inhealthcare led to someinteresting discussionswith the prime focus onpatient safety.



Over 50-plus hospitals wereaccredited with NABH and it hadover 300 applicants. Governmenthealthcare, according to her, wasrapidly gaining awareness andparticipation. QCI was runningQA programmes in Delhi,Gujarat, Kerala, Tamil Nadu,Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradeshand Madhya Pradesh.

Care of patients was providedthrough the adoption of adequatepolicies and treatments. Patientand families had a right to infor-mation and education about theirhealthcare needs and this waswhat clinics informed them. Qual-ity was above all. She informedthat there was a structured qualityimprovement and continuousmonitoring programme. “Weneed your commitment…Tomake a new beginning… Neverdoubt that a small group ofthoughtful, committed personscan change the world. Indeed, it’sthe only thing that ever has,” sheconcluded.

NABH accreditation forAYUSH systems of medicalpractices in meeting the chal-lenges of the 21st century wasthe focus of the presentation ofDr Niranjan Murthy, ManagingDirector and Head of TechnicalActivities, Pentacure Ayurphar-ma, Bengaluru. He kicked offwith the definition of Ayurvedaand its roots — It is only for thesake of Dharma and not for ful-filing personal desires and luststhat the science of Ayurveda was

brought to the light by sages.According to Dr Murthy, med-ical success was equal to physi-cian, drug, nurse and patient. Agood physician was the com-plete package of well-read, goodpractical experience, skillful,pure, whose medical prescrip-tions and surgical operations areinfallible, with healthy senseorgans and character, with excel-lent knowledge of anatomy,physiology, pathology, signs andsymptoms, good prognosticknowledge, in-depth knowledgeof pharmaceutics.

Present challenges, accord-ing to him, were to re-establishthe glory of a patient-centricapproach as taught by Acharyas,to bridge the wide gulf betweenquality of medical care the com-munity expected and deservedand what AYUSH was actuallydelivering, to establish AYUSHcentres which ensured criticalpatient benefits, and, to galvanisethe preparedness of AYUSH sys-tems to meet the demand of thesurging affluent- class seekingalternative medical care in theera of internet and pro-activecommunication media. He con-cluded with a message that“Ayurveda is not evidence-based”.

DAY 2, CONCURRENT SESSION: HEALTHCAREDr YP Bhatia, Managing Direc-tor, Astron Hospital and Health-care Consultants, NBQP, who

was chairing the session, introduced the first speaker—Dr Sanjeev Singh, Amrita Insti-tute of Medical Sciences. Hispresentation was on “QualityDashboard: A quality initiativein healthcare”. Data hierarchyincluded wisdom, knowledge,information and data. Aggres-sion and analysis of data cateredto nursing informatics, utilisa-tion and care review, safety andenvironment data, risk manage-ment, performance improve-ment, clinical support services,clinical outcomes and audits,human resource, marketing,patient and employee satisfac-tion surveys, health record statis-tics, and, finance activity reports.Mentioning that time waschanging, he gave a brief descrip-tion of quality dashboard plan-ning process, which starts withmission and vision, moves onwith objectives, measures, tar-gets, and progress. With this, heshowed a quality dashboardindicating dashboard strategyand performance measures.

The session moved fromdashboard to radiology andimaging. Dr Uday Patil, AdjunctProfessor, Dept of Radiologyand Imaging, Kasturba Medical College, stressed on the topic:“Key indicators for measuringand improving radiology depart-ment”. Dr Patil said, “Measuringthe quality of imaging services isinherently difficult. Scientificallysound metrics are lacking. The

��

Aggression and analysis of data catered to nursinginformatics, utilisationand care review, clinical supportservices, clinicaloutcomes and audits,human resource,marketing, patient andemployee satisfactionsurveys, health recordstatistics, and, financeactivity reports.��


SSPPEELLLLBBOOUUNNDD AAUUDDIIEENNCCEE::Presentations on various issuesof healthcare kept the audiencein rapt attention.



review of patient records to doc-ument the effect of diagnosticimaging on the care outcome iscostly in staff time and labour.”Key performance indicators(KPIs) were considered to bemeasurement tool used to moni-tor and evaluate the quality ofimportant governance, manage-ment, clinical, and support func-tions. Each step in the careprocess was associated with ametric. Combined, these metricsdefined a comprehensive radiol-ogy quality programme.

A properly targeted andorganised set of KPIs would helpa leadership team identify themost important problems oropportunities to be addressedand the best way to create themost valuable set of KPIs was toderive them from the strategicplanning process. Collaborativeeffort of radiology departmentand administration was vital.Administration has to allocateresources — human, financial aswell as technological — to helpthe radiology department collectand analyse the data.

Dr Soma Chatterjee andDibyendu Maji from Lonza dis-cussed the importance of waterquality in dialysis and need forendotoxin testing. Saying thatwater was the most critical factorin dialysis, Dr Chatterjee said,“The dialysis fluid consists of upto 99 per cent of reverse osmosis

water, in addition, chemicals areadded, such as acids, salts andbicarbonate,” adding, “Out of 1,50,000 new patients develop endstage kidney failure each year inIndia, only three per centreceives kidney transplant andabout 15-20 per cent treatedwith dialysis.” Reverse osmosisreduces bacteria and endotoxinlevels. If sanitation was inade-quate, bacteria and endotoxinwould reach dangerous levels.Then she explained what endo-toxin was. It was the natural formof lipopolysaccharide occurringin the outer layer of the bi-lay-ered gram negative bacterial cellwall. The term lipopolysaccha-ride referred to the pure chemi-cal form. Patients receivinghemodialysis therapy wereexposed to approx. 400 liters ofwater per week , which was 20-25folds greater than drinking water.This potentially exposed them tolarge amounts of endotoxin. Inaddition, washing with water forthe reuse of hemodialysers andcentralised dialysate productionalso increased the risk of endo-toxin contamination. This prac-tice was not being used any morein the USA, Europe, Japan, butmight be used elsewhere. Expo-sure to endotoxin could result inpyrogenic reactions — fever,chills, fall in blood pressure, acti-vation of the complement sys-tem, release of cytokines, inflam-

mation, and resistance to recom-binant human erythropoietin.

She enlisted the internation-al limits for water for dialysisapplications, e.g. according toJapan Society for Dialysis Thera-py, endotoxin level should beabove 0.25 EU/ml, while FrenchHealth Ministry requires a limitof 0.05 IU/ml for replacementelectrolyte fluids used inhemofiltration. She also demon-strated the hemodialysisschematic through a diagram.Talking about sample collecting(water), she said, “Water samplesshould be collected directly fromtaps on the water distributionsystem. Do not disinfect watercollection tap. Water tap shouldbe opened and allowed to run fora minimum of 60-seconds beforea sample is collected. A mini-mum of 50 ml or a volume speci-fied by the testing laboratoryshould be collected.”

Dr Rajiv Mohan, Mohan EyeInstitute, gave an intrinsic pres-entation on “Quality in Health-care — A practical approach”.According to him, qualityimprovement is an importantgoal. Committee of clinicianswas the need of the hour. Datashould be monitored accuratelyso as to ensure patient safety. Tomanage quality, the main objec-tives are effectiveness and effi-ciency in the system, and properpatient care. And if one askedhow this quality could beachieved, the answer was everyevaluation needed yardsticks forreference. Systematic qualityassurance work would only con-tribute towards removing qualitydeficits.

The problem areas were lackof organisation, structure, infor-mation, process, etc. He went on to mention the quality assuranceapproaches, which includedmeasuring quality, defining qual-ity and improving quality. To bepatient-friendly hospital, DrMohan mentioned that parkingwas an alarming issue.

Concluding his presenta-tion, he said, “To eliminate mar-gin of errors, standardisation isvital. Time, money, manpowerand commitment are the basicingredients for providing qualityhealthcare services.” �

��

To manage quality, themain objectives areeffectiveness in thesystem, and properpatient care. And if oneasked how this qualitycould be achieved, theanswer is everyevaluation neededyardsticks for reference.Systematic qualityassurance work wouldcontribute towardsremoving qualitydeficits.��


QQUUAALLIITTYY TTAALLKKSS:: Quality dash-board, radiology, water quality indialysis and practical approachtowards quality formed the keydiscussion points during thehealthcare session of Day 2.




PH

OT

OS

BY:

H.C

. T

iwari

CENTURIES AGO, ARISTOTLE DEFINED QUALITY AS A HABIT AND NOT AS AN ACT. IN ANYOCCUPATION “QUALITY” IS INBORN AND CANNOT BE EITHER THRUST FROM THE TOP OR

INDUCED FROM THE BOTTOM. TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE WORK OF QUALITY PROFESSIONALS, THEQUALITY 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.

Made in India—

The Quality way

INTRO Prize Winner.qxd 4/28/2011 6:36 PM Page 1


India has made its mark inbusiness process outsourc-ing (BPO) for a decade-and-a-half. It is not becauseIndia is “cheap”, as some

prefer to deride, but provides val-ue-for-money services in reliabili-ty, quality and above all createvalue addition to a client’s busi-ness. HCL BPO commencedoperations in 2001 and sincethen its valuable asset is humanresources with 11,000 profes-sionals operating out of India,Northern Ireland and the USA. Itconsists of 22 delivery centres

across India, the United King-dom and the United States ofAmerica offering multi-channeland multi-lingual support in eightEuropean and in eight APAC lan-guages.

Its focus has been on verti-cals in sectors like telecom, retail,banking and financial services,insurance, hi-tech and manufac-turing, media, publishing andentertainment. The companyalso services in areas like supplychain management, knowledgeand legal services, customer rela-tionship management and tech-

nical support services, andfinance and accounting. It hascreated a niche in the telecomsector and operates businessprocesses for world-renownedclients’ back-office services par-ticularly in the telecom and retaildomains. Its leadership creden-tials are impressive and it is:

� The first Indian BPO toenter telecommunicationexpense management.

� Ranks among the top-10 IT-enabled services BPO.

� Largest BPO service

��

HCL BPO commencedoperations in 2001 andsince then its valuableasset is humanresources with 11,000professionals operatingout of India, NorthernIreland and the USA. Itconsists of 22 deliverycentres across India, theUnited Kingdom andthe United States ofAmerica offering multi-lingual support. ��

SSEETTTTIINNGG TTHHEE RRIIGGHHTT AAGGEENNDDAA::HCL’s BPO training has gainedprominent attention amongjobseekers who want to carve aniche in the BPO sector.

HCL'S BPO WAS FACED WITH A UNIQUE PROBLEM: HOW TO SERVICE AN INSURANCE CLIENT IN THE USWITH YOUNGSTERS WHO WERE UNAWARE OF US LAWS? NANDU MANJESHWAR GIVES AN INSIGHT.


Quality responses through

intuition

final grid qci.qxd 4/28/2011 6:21 PM Page 2


provider in Northern Ire-land.

� Largest provider of telecomBPO service in Asia.

� Pioneered blended-shoreoperations for Indian BPOservice providers.

Project: Operational excellencethrough intuition.

The project was steeredthrough application of patternrecognition, artificial intelli-gence, positioning and brandingtheories to back office opera-tions.

Back office operations are atan inflection point in India. It isexpanding from simple rule-based processes to those that arecomplex and demanding deci-sions and judgments. It is moreso in projects in the insurancedomain.

People buy insurance poli-

cies from the HCL BPO’s clientand when they experience acci-dental losses, obviously theyplace their claims. However, allclaims are not passed by theinsurance company: while someare accepted, others are rejected.People whose claims are rejectedresubmit their claims. One can-not assume such claims are notopen-and-shut cases, but arecomplex requiring decisions andjudgments based on thoroughanalysis. These cases are routedto the HCL BPO in India.

Insurance is a well set,mature industry abroad while itis a nascent sector here. Theexpertise needed is not available -- even at a reasonable cost in ourcountry. The other aspect com-pounding the problem is thatexecutives, handling the cases,have either limited domainknowledge or only on-the-job

experience to handle the cases.The alternative is to train andcoach the executives in makingjudgments and in taking deci-sions that match those made bythe experts. It is a huge intellectu-al challenge. Then there is anoth-er structural challenge and that isthe information security require-ments of the client. The clientexpects the work to be done in a“clean room” where pen, paper,phone and internet are banned.

The HCL BPO team startedwork with known best practicesof the industry, basic logic anddecision rules like in any otherback office transaction process-ing. They followed three sets oftactics:

� Avoid the clean room con-straint of having to glean,memorise, recall, mentallydebate and decide. A twoexecutives-in-a-box conceptwith four monitors wasadopted wherein all databas-es can be referred simultane-ously, discuss between thetwo and thus eliminate thestrain substantially.

� Tasks were segmented basedon nature and people weresegmented based on per-formance. They were alignedby giving specific tasks tospecific teams therebyimproving overall perform-ance.

� In addressing attitudinalproblems of not being ableto give benefit of doubt judg-ment, operational excellence

��

Insurance is a well setindustry abroad while itis a nascent sector here.The expertise needed isnot available — even at areasonable cost. Theother aspectcompounding theproblem is thatexecutives handling thecases, have eitherlimited domainknowledge or only on-the-job experience. ��

HCL Technologies is a global IT services company headquarteredin Noida in the National Capital Region. It is the IT services arm ofHCL, a $ 5 billion global technology and IT enterprise. As on lastfiscal, HCL Technologies along with its subsidiaries had consoli-dated revenues of $ 2.60 billion. A workforce of 77,000 profession-als of diverse nationalities is working in its network of offices in 26countries. In 2008, it acquired US-based Capitalstream and UK-based Axon Group. HCL's BPO is heading towards a maturity level where a new formof BPO called Transformational BPO and an evolution constitut-ing 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.

�Totally hi-tech

PPRROOMMOOTTIINNGG RREELLIIAABBIILLIITTYY AANNDDSSEECCUURRIITTYY:: The HCL BPO teamreceiving prize in recognition ofenhancing client satisfaction.




with human face concept washarnessed through roleslinked into a cell and therebyderiving right behaviour andattitude.

Though these initiativesimproved the situation only par-tially, they soon impacted timingsubstantially. Result: a higherlevel of solution was needed.Diagnosing the problem, it wasrealised that a certain level of‘expertise’ was needed toimprove performance. The ques-tion in the management’s mindwas: How to develop expertise inyoungsters when they have limit-ed knowledge and no on-the-jobexperience in insurance claimsettlements?

Researching on ‘expertise’,they found valuable concepts inHerbert Simon’s Nobel Prizewinning artificial intelligenceand behavioural economicsresearch. The author proved thatexpertise and intuition wereclosely related and both referredto ‘sub-conscious pattern recog-nition’. Global experts carry asmany as 50,000 chunks of infor-mation or case studies built overa five or ten-year period. In a splitsecond, their sub-consciousminds supply the right input for

their decision-making processfrom their intellectual repertoire.This was the way forward, themanagement felt.

A methodology to imple-ment pattern recognition wasanother concern. The position-ing and branding theories devel-oped by Al Ries and Jack Trouton how brand names act as pegsto hang products and their mer-its in people’s mind wererecalled. With this basis, thecompany developed a methodol-ogy to implement the skills ofpattern recognition and it was onthat, a training regime was devel-oped. They primed it with a fewcase studies and branded thesecases for ease of recall. The teammembers added more from theirday-to-day work. Eventually,these measures helped to buildintuition levels. Whenever theysaw a new case a sub-conscioustrigger would tell them to whichprevious case this related to and,therefore, what should be theprobable set of checks and deci-sions. Making patterns andmemorising them became ahabit with the team.

In a month’s time theprogress was perceptible. Simul-taneously, defects and turn-around time shrunk in a sus-

tained manner enhancingemployee and client’s satisfac-tion. In a period of six months, astage of zero defect was reachedsuggesting a near perfect align-ment with the experts.

Applying the concepts of“rapid cognition”, “thin slicing”and “stored-set-of-patterns”gleaned from Malcolm Glad-wel’s Blink, it was establishedthat like any expert in any indus-try the company’s team ofyoungsters had slowly movedahead to solve cases muchfaster, with lesser parameters. Inso doing, the team developed asizeable stock of patterns intheir minds, aligning their deci-sions and judgment capabilitiesto those of the experts in theUnited States of America andthat too with only 5-10 years ofexperience.

The uses, because of thisproject, are foreseen in otherdomains such as supply chain,media and publishing, andfinance and banking. Any activityrequiring expertise as an essen-tial or a desirable trait can benefitfrom these findings, practicesand tactics.

In financial terms, the clientbenefited to the extent of $ 12million per annum. �

��

Global experts carry asmany as 50,000chunks of informationor case studies builtover a ten-year period.In a split second, theirsub-conscious mindssupply the right inputfor their decision-making process fromtheir intellectualrepertoire. This wasthe way forward, themanagement felt.��


Ramkumar Ranganathan, VicePresident & Head, Banking andFinancial Services, on howteething problems to tackleinsurance claims by the BPOunit were overcome.

II ffiinndd mmoosstt ooff tthhee BBPPOOss aarreeddooiinngg ssiimmiillaarr kkiinndd ooff wwoorrkk.. HHoowwddiiffffeerreenntt iiss yyoouurrss??Though basic functions of BPOsmay be more or less the samebut there are certain functions

that are complex. It all dependson the work one does for theclient and also depends onclients' brief. After all, a BPO'sjob is to provide economical,reliable and quality service. Infact, a BPO is as good as anextension of the client's office.This particular project was for aclient, an overseas insurancecompany.

IInn tthhiiss pprroojjeecctt yyoouu aarree ttaacckklliinnggiinnssuurraannccee ccllaaiimmss.. IIssnn''tt tthheerree aanneeeedd ffoorr ppeeooppllee ttoo uunnddeerrssttaannddnnuuaanncceess aassssoocciiaatteedd wwiitthh tthhiiss sseeccttoorr??Of course, domain knowledgeis very important. Settlinginsurance claims is complex ifone does not have the knowl-edge of either insurance or the

law of the land. In settling theclaims we have to be fair toboth claimant and insurancecompany. And to be fair onehas to have domain knowledgeand experience in handlingsuch cases and above all anunbiased view.

DDiidd yyoouu eennccoouunntteerr pprroobblleemmssaanndd iiff ssoo hhooww ddiidd yyoouu oovveerrccoommeetthheemm??I will be frank in saying we didencounter problems. Our young-sters with five or six years' expe-rience did not have the requisiteknowledge. No one to be blamedsince none of us had this kind ofproject earlier. But after gettingthis client it was for us to learnthe ropes and we did learnthough I admit the knowledge

did not come on a platter.

SSiinnccee yyoouu sseerrvviiccee aa ffoorreeiiggnn iinnssuurr--aannccee ccoommppaannyy hhooww ddiiffffiiccuulltt oorreeaassyy wwaass iitt aaccqquuiirree tthhee rreeqquuiissiitteekknnoowwlleeddggee??Today, we are living in an era ofinformation explosion. So,obtaining information was notsuch a problem but obtainingthe relevant information didtake time. Then training theyoung staff and getting theminto the groove was time-con-suming since none of them hadon-the-job training. Given theintelligence of our youngsters ittook us less time than anticipat-ed. Finally, we would be gaugedby how much the client benefit-ed and they did so in millions ofdollars.

“Client benefited in millions of dollars”



Bharat Electronic Lim-ited (BEL) set up in1954 was to, initially,develop indigenouslyand meet the require-

ments of our defence forces. Overthe years, it has emerged as amajor player in electronicsthrough robust in-house researchand development. This effort hascatapulted the company, a forceto reckon with, in the world mar-ket of electronics. The companybelieves no work is too small.From supplying electronic sys-tems to Malawi, Sri Lanka, SouthAfrica and Uganda, to contractmanufacturing services to Bel-gium, France, Germany, Italy andthe USA and UAE, there aremany other products exported todifferent countries in the world.

Even though its products aremarketed in different parts of theworld the company’s major cus-tomers are Indian defence andsecurity forces. It supplies top-of-the-line electronic products to thedefence forces. The Technical Lit-erature division has been prepar-ing and supplying training docu-

ments conforming to Joint Ser-vices specifications JSS 0251-01-1987 edition. The revised versionof specifications JSS 0251-01-2002 introduced additionalrequirement in the form of train-ing aggregates. The trainingaggregates include charts, slides,brochures, work modules, blow-up diagrams, video films and com-puter-based training (CBT).

Project: Design and developcost-ffective and customer-centrictraining aggregates.

The project was necessitatedwhen training aggregates devel-oped for 81 mm Mortar Simula-tor seemed to have a lot of lacunaethat wasted considerable time, forthe company, as well as the cus-tomer’s time and resources. Thetraining aggregate was reworkedand even after several rounds ofiterations, the customers’ feed-back was not encouraging. ThusSix Sigma approach was adoptedto uplift the quality, focusing oncustomers’ requirement with costeffectiveness. The goals set were:� Increasing the customer satis-

faction from existing 43 per

cent to 80 per cent.� Reducing the number of iter-

ations from existing 3 to 1.� Bringing down the number of

days of getting approval fromexisting 57 days to 20 days.

� Increasing profit margin.

Through SIPOC tool suppli-er, inputs, process, outputs andcustomers were identified. Thecritical to quality (CTQ) weredata collection, content creation,designing the process and layout,preparing the scope and selectingthe vendor, photography andvideography, integration and mul-timedia, quality check and cus-tomer approval followed by bulkproduction. The CTQ specifica-tion table was used to mark thedrivers and their significance indeciding the Kano status of therequirement.

Voice of customer feedbackhelped understand customer sat-isfaction with BEL products. Cus-tomer survey forms were sent to15 customer agencies for evaluat-ing quality and training aggregateson points related to trainees as

��

The TechnicalLiterature division hasbeen preparing andsupplying trainingdocuments conformingto JSS 0251-01-1987edition. The revisedversion of specificationsJSS 0251-01-2002introduced additionalrequirement in the formof training aggregates. ��

TTOOWWAARRDDSS QQUUAALLIITTAATTIIVVEE GGRROOWWTTHH::S V N Narasimha Kumar, Manager(Technical Literature), BEL receivingthe award.

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


Analysis and training raised

quality

Bel.qxd 4/28/2011 5:42 PM Page 3


well as trainers. They were askedto rate it between one and five onsix quality parameters. Replies giv-en by eight agencies helpedunderstand the criteria for thequality of training aggregates.

Pareto charts, based on customer feedback, trainees as wellas trainers, were plotted for diag-nostic analysis. The charts

helped in identifying the issuesneeding attention, by using harddata instead of intuition. Ithelped in analysing and diagnos-ing the problems that influencedthe outcome most. The analysispointed to 25 probable causesfor defects in any training aggre-gates. The most notable amongthem being:

� 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 coherentmanner.

� Not continually adapting to

��

Sitemap andstandardisation werepropagated to sustainthe improvement.Awareness programmewas arranged for alltraining literatureofficers regarding thestandards formulatedto understand andimplement thestandards for thedevelopment. ��


SVN Narasimha Kumar, Manager(Technical Literature), talks aboutsignificance and methodology oftraining.

TTrraaiinniinngg mmoodduulleess hhaavvee ttoo hhaavveecceerrttaaiinn ffoorrmmaattss.. TThheenn wwhhaatt wwaasstthhee nneeeedd ttoo rree--ffoorrmmaatt tthhee ttrraaiinniinngglliitteerraattuurreess?? Technical literature departmenttraditionally prepares technicaldocuments as per the require-ments of customers. Joint Services

Specifications (JSS) prepared in0251-01-2002 include trainingaggregates like charts, blow-ups,computer-based training, etc. Theprinciple behind this is that thesetraining aggregates explain to alltri-services personnel the contentsof training. This helps traineestrouble shooting, fault finding,fault rectification, repair thedefects, etc. It also helps themunderstand even without trainersat their own pace. However, in duecourse of time we realised that ourefforts were not customer-centric,lacked end-user's satisfaction.

DDoo yyoouu bbrriinngg ttrraaiinneerrss ttoo yyoouurreessttaabblliisshhmmeenntt ttoo eexxppllaaiinn tthheennuuaanncceess ooff ttrraaiinniinngg mmaannuuaallss oorr lliitteerraattuurreess??No, we do not call trainers instead

we interact with the customers.We were keen to know what infor-mation they were keen to arrive at.The 2002 guideline being thatpreparation training aggregateswas by the manufacturers, use oftraining aggregates by trainers andclassroom training for the trainees.Earlier trainers used to preparetraining materials but now it isresponsibility with the manufac-turers.

SSiinnccee mmaannuuffaaccttuurreerrss aarree iinnvvoollvveedd,,iinn aa sseennssee oouuttssoouurrcceedd,, hhooww ddiidd yyoouurreedduuccee tthhee ccoosstt??We admit that earlier we were notcustomer-centric. We were usingstandard methodology and thengave for approval and many a timethere were changes. We repeatedlyre-worked and sent for approval.

Now we have gone for differentmodels and ask our customers thetypes and kinds of training aggre-gates required. Now it is customer-centric for that we have made asite map and types of contentsrequired that include design, speci-fications and materials to be used.Based on design and specifica-tions, we select the manufacturers.This helped us select appropriatematerials, improve the quality andmeet customers’ demand. In thisprocess of improvement, we wereable to develop work modules hav-ing dimensions and specificationsjust as the original. This was in thecase of printed circuit boards. Thishelped trainees a great deal in faultfinding. Other achievement was invideo and computer-based trainingthat includes interactive modes.

“To improve the quality and meet customers’ demands”

1. Not the learner centered.2. Not adhering to the instructional System

Design (ISD)or similar model.3. Content is not accurate and correct.4. Not presenting information in an organised

coherent manner.

C1-content is not uniform andstandard

1. Not providing high levels of interactivity2. Not able to engage the user.3. Not demonstarting good usability through

excellent user interface design.4. Design and layout are not attractive.

C2- Design and layout is notas per requirement

DefectiveTraining

Aggregates

1. Not validation learning at each session.2. Not meeting the objectives.3. Not using group-enabling technologies.4. Difficult to understand and implement.

C4- Not meeting the purposeand objective

1. Not long lasting.2. Raw material and printing are not impressive.3. Not using media effectively.

C5- Material is not strong andlong lasting.

1. Has not completed post-implementation evalu-ations and subsequent revision.

2. Not ensuring best value for training costs.3. Not able to generate user feedback.4. Not following industry standards for interoper-

ability

C6- Not effective tool and notcost effective 1. Not helping the users to apply learning

productively.2. Not able to accommodate the individual learn-

ing styles.3. Not continually adapting to the user's knowl-

edge 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.

C3-Presentation and style isnot user friendly

Bel.qxd 4/28/2011 5:42 PM Page 4


the users’ knowledge orskills.

� Not using group enablingtechnologies.

� Not promoting a positive-user experience with com-puter technology.

� Design and layout is notattractive.The 25 probable causes

were categorised into six clus-ters, and the interrelationshipbetween the causes and defectshave been illustrated in the inter-relationship diagram. The cate-

gories C1 to C6 amply point tothe causes for the defects. Basedon customer feedback, everyaspect of defects and causes wereattended to. In order to assessthe impact after developmentand supply of training aggre-gates, BEL quantified it throughmeasurable parameters. Thenumber of defects prior toimprovement was 170 thatdecreased to 81 after improve-ment. In case of defect per cent,it dropped from 56.67 per centto 27 per cent and yield percent-

age increased from 43.33 to 73. Sitemap and standardisation

were propagated to sustain theimprovement. Awareness pro-gramme was arranged for alltraining literature officersregarding the standards formu-lated to understand and imple-ment the standards for the devel-opment and supply of trainingaggregates.

The outcome of this studyhas been:� Process for developing the

training aggregates estab-lished.

� Standardisation achieved.� Process time reduced.� Cost reduction achieved.� Robust and quality product

developed.� Usefulness of training aggre-

gates by customer estab-lished.Plans for the future have

already been chalked out. Forexample, dummy training mod-ule of printed circuit board(PCB) to be improved by encas-ing PCB in a transparent pouchcold lamination. CBT is to beupgraded to web-based trainingusing Asymetrix and other tools.Likewise several modules andpower point slides that can beweb-enabled. The financial ben-efits have been immense. Thetotal savings is to the tune of`27.46 lakh. �

Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) was established atBengaluru in 1954, under the Ministry of Defence, tomeet the special needs of the Indian defence services.Over the years, it has grown into multi-product, multi-technology and multi-unit company serving the needsof customers in diverse fields in India and abroad. Thecompany specialises in the manufacturing of wide spec-trum technology like radars, military communications,naval systems, electronic warfare systems, opto-elec-tronics, tank electronics, solar photovoltaic cells,embedded softwares and electronic components. Thecompany also undertakes turnkey system solutions.BEL has nine units across India and also has liaisonunits in New York City and Singapore. The subsidiaryBEL Optronic Devices Ltd was set up to conductresearch, development and manufacture of image inten-sifier tubes for military, security and commercial sys-tems. The joint ventures with GE and Multitone tookBEL’s product portfolio into niche segments.

�Multi-player��

Plans for the futurehave been chalked out.For example, dummytraining module ofprinted circuit board(PCB) to be improved byencasing PCB in atransparent pouch coldlamination. Severalmodules and powerpoint slides that can beweb-enabled. Thefinancial benefits havebeen immense.��


EEXXCCEELLLLIINNGG IINN DDIIVVEERRSSEE FFIIEELLDDSS::BEL specialises in themanufacturing of wide spectrumtechnology like radars, militarycommunications, naval systems,electronic warfare systems opto-electronics, tank electronics, solarphotovoltaic cells, embeddedsoftwares and electroniccomponents.

Bel.qxd 4/28/2011 5:42 PM Page 5


National ThermalPower Corpora-tion Limited(NTPC) isIndia’s largest

power generator. Of its 27 pow-er generation plants, 15 are coal-based. Vindhyachal Super Ther-mal Power Station (VSTPS) isone of 15 coal-based plants andthe largest power generator inthe country with an installedcapacity of 3,260 MW consistingof 6x210 MW in Stage I and4x500 MW Stage II units. It sup-plies power to the westernregion power grid.

At VSTPS, the sustainableenergy rests on two pillars -

renewable energy and energyefficiency. On the renewableenergy front, it will be commis-sioning “distributed generation”project in the nearby identifiedvillages. On the energy efficiencyfront, it lays enormous impor-tance on improving the systemsthrough performance improve-ment projects adopting twotypes of improvement method-ologies: the first through QualityCircles and the second, break-through improvement throughSix Sigma. In the last fiscal year,VSTPS achieved 94.14 per centplant load factor (PLF), an envi-ous record the organisation hasmaintained for several years.

“Only with total commitment, itis possible to achieve such highPLF constantly,” mentioned V NChoudhary, Executive Director(Business Excellence).

Project: Improvement in unitheat rate, reduction in auxiliarypower consumption and specificfuel consumption.

VSTPS undertook adetailed study covering allmacro and micro aspects ofpower generation by Stage Iunits (6x210 MW) with primaryaim of systems improvement inline with the expectations andrequirements expected frommodern day thermal plants

��

On the energy efficiencyfront, NTPC’s VSTPSlays importance onimproving systemsthrough performanceimprovement project adopting two types ofimprovementmethodologies: the firstthrough Quality Circlesand the second, through Six Sigma.��

NTPC’S VINDHYACHAL UNIT IS INDIA’S LARGEST POWER GENERATOR. IT SET AN EXAMPLE WHENCHALLENGED TO IMPROVE ITS UNIT HEAT RATE, REPORTS NANDU MANJESHWAR.


Raising heat to

save fuel

VARIATION SOURCE - TURBINE HEAT RATE

Tip Spill Leakages

Higher Clearances

Less Optimised start up

High vibration

Worn out tip deals

Worn out seals

High Eccentricity

Higher Clearances

Solid particle erosion

Water erosion

Foreign particle blockage

Bent shaft

Worn out seals

High vibration

High Eccentricity

Higher clearances

Old worn out parts

Water erosionSolid particle

erosion

Solid particle denting

Chemical Deposits

Worn out parts of turbine internals

Foreign particle from boiler

Turbine Heat Rate

End seal leakages Cover deposit losses

Surface Roughness lossFlow path damagesInterstage leakages

qci.qxd 4/28/2011 6:44 PM Page 2


which are economical, reliableand environment-friendly.Though improvement actionson some of the sub-systemshave become glittering exam-ples in achieving resultsthrough seamless integrationwith quality philosophy but thepresent project was challengingsince it had to improve unit heatrate, reduce auxiliary powerconsumption and fuel con-sumption.

The authorities of Stage Iplant resorted to DMAIC(define, measure, analyse,improve and control) method-ology. In define step project,overview was planned andimportant steps to be taken weredefined through project report.Critical to quality (CTQ), drill

down tree showing project link-ages to company’s objectiveswere drawn. The problem state-ment with goal statement con-taining estimated project bene-fits was derived. The wholeprocess was mapped and differ-ent heads of generation loss wasidentified and kept on tab. TheSIPOC (supplier, inputs,process, outputs and cus-tomers) diagram was also draft-ed highlighting key deliverables.The process was sub-dividedinto three parameters - loadingfactor of the units, reliability andefficiency.

Critical to quality (CTQ) inthis phase are plant load factor,maintenance cost, auxiliarypower consumption, manpow-er: MW ratio, lead time procure-

ment, occupational safety, man-power utilisation, overheadexpenses and under energy effi-ciency are de-mineralised (DM)water used, safety aspect, train-ing manpower, air emissionquality and noise level.

In measure phase, completeprocess drill down was done andmain project CTQs were segre-gated into smaller equipmentlevel CTQs. In addition toprocess drill down, data collec-tion plan was prepared detailingdata type, measurement type,operational definition and col-lection frequency. Measurementsystem analysis was not neededas data was taken digitally onlineand concerned meters are cali-brated periodically as per pre-decided schedule.

In analysis phase, currentprocess capabilities for impor-tant parameters and suspectedsource of variation were identi-fied. Through Ishikawa diagram,it was amply clear variationsources in turbine heat rate: thesources being tip spill leakages,end seal leakages, cover depositlosses, inter-stage leakages, flowpath damages and surfaceroughness loss.

Through failure mode effectanalysis potential failure andprocess steps (to be correlatedwith cause and effect diagram)are given below:

� Tip spill leakages - Turbine cylinder.

� End seal leakages - Turbine cylinder.

��

Through Ishikawadiagram, it was amply clear variationsources in turbine heat rate: the sourcesbeing tip spill leakages, end sealleakages, cover depositlosses, inter-stageleakages, flow pathdamages and surface roughness loss.��

National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC) wasincorporated in 1975 to supplement the efforts of the States forquicker and greater capacity addition in thermal power genera-tion. Over the years, NTPC has grown to become the largest pow-er utility in India with a commissioned generation capacity of32,694 MW with 27 power stations, geographically spread acrossthe length and breadth of the country. NTPC is a "navratna"enterprise. Today it occupies the slot of sixth largest thermal power generatorin the world and second most efficient in terms of capacity utilisa-tion amongst top 10 utilities in the world. NTPC has embarkedon plans to become a 75,000 MW company by 2017. This capac-ity consists diversified fuel mix with coal-based generation of53,000 MW, 10,000 MW through gas, 9,000 MW through hydro,2,000 MW through nuclear sources and 1,000 from renewableenergy sources.

�Power generator

AACCCCOOLLAADDEESS:: The NTPCVindhyachal team receiving theQCI-DL Shah Award from ArunMaira, Member, PlanningCommission. Also seen in thepicture are V N Choudhary,Executive Director (BusinessExcellence) and Dr. Girdhar J Gyani.


qci.qxd 4/28/2011 6:44 PM Page 3


� 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 ofvariation. On turbine side, highpressure (HP) and intermediatepressure (IP) diaphragms tipseals were replaced. HP, IP andlow pressure (LP) rotors anddiaphragms were cleaned by gritblasting. All glands and inter-stage seals were replaced duringthe capital overhaul of con-cerned units.

During course of this proj-

ect, in six bines, gland and inter-stage seals of LP turbine. Newmaintenance processes were ini-tiated.In feed water cycle, boilerfeed pump cartridge and variousvalves were attended to. Con-denser online cleaning systemwas also installed along withcondenser helium test for bettervacuum. The circulating waterducts were painted to increasecondenser water flow throughcondenser system. On the boilerside, modular replacement ofcomponents was resorted toresulting in better efficiency, reli-ability and load factor.

Blending with imported coalwas also resorted to for betterloading and PLF from machines.And importantly on the controland instrumentation side,DDCMIS was put in service toreplace Russian system andresulted in better treading,analysis and synthesis of data.

In control phase, previouslymade process improvement aresustained and improved uponthrough systems approach

After the improvementproject extra 938 MU powerwas put into the grid and thisaccrued `2.34 cr and afterdeducting the cost incurred inimprovement the net profit washealthy `19 cr. �

��

“This is an endeavourto better ourselves inperformance. Webelieve that today’sperformance should bebetter than yesterday’sand tomorrow’s shouldbe better than today’s.This is our motto. In allour plants there arecontinual improvementprojects”, says VNChoudhary. ��


VN Choudhary, Executive Director (Business Excellence)

WWaass tthhee lloossss ooff hheeaatt rraattee aa ssuudd--ddeenn pphheennoommeennoonn oorr wwaass iittddeetteecctteedd llaattee??This is not a sudden develop-ment but an endeavour to betterourselves in performance. Webelieve that today’s performanceshould be better than yesterday’sand tomorrow’s should be betterthan today’s. This is our motto.

In all our plants there are con-tinual improvement projects. Inthis case, we have systematicallyanalysed the problem. In thermal power generation,the quantum heat has to be opti-mal for the boilers to generatesteam to run the turbines. Evena small loss has an effect on theefficiency. This loss compoundson the resources used. As aresult, there is revenue loss. Sowe constantly engage in measur-ing every parameter to achieveefficiency and quality of powergeneration.

IInn aa ppllaanntt ooff tthhiiss ssiizzee,, ffuunnccttiioonnaallppaarraammeetteerrss hhaavvee ttoo bbee cchheecckkeeddccoonnssttaannttllyy.. TThheenn hhooww ddiidd iitt mmiisssseeaarrlliieerr??We have constant measurement

systems. There are certain sys-tems tracked on daily basis,some on weekly and others onmonthly and yearly basis. Thefrequency depends on particularequipment or a system or sub-system. In doing so, every timewe have improvement plansbecause there is no parallel else-where to peg our improvementplans. Our aim is to improve insuch a way that improvementsbecome benchmarks for othersto emulate.

SSiinnccee NNTTPPCC hhaass ssoo mmaannyy ccooaall--bbaasseedd uunniittss aarroouunndd tthhee ccoouunnttrryy,,ddoo yyoouu ccoommmmuunniiccaattee yyoouurr eeffffoorrttssaanndd aacchhiieevveemmeennttss ttoo ootthheerrss??Of course, we do. Every plant ofNTPC in the country is con-stantly on improvement proj-

ects. The nodal agency keepsmonitoring improvement proj-ect across our coal-based plantsand apart from that it queriesother units whether a particularproject undertaken by other unitis useful and if so whether it isbeing considered. At no stage,there is laxity.

IIss NNTTPPCC ppllaannnniinngg aa ffoorraayy iinnttooootthheerr ttyyppeess ooff ppoowweerr ggeenneerraattiioonn??Yes. We are already into gas-based power generation and wehave a tie-up with GAIL. We areinto solar and wind power gener-ation too. Since most of ourplants are coal-based we haveentered into mining for uninter-rupted good quality coal. Ofcourse, there are separate divisionwithin to handle those sectors.

“Call monitoring assesses quality of service”

WWOORRKK IINN PPRROOGGRREESSSS:: NTPC’s gas-based power generator

qci.qxd 4/28/2011 6:44 PM Page 4


Bharat Heavy Electri-cals Limited (BHEL)is the 12th largestpower equipmentproducer in the world

and an entirely home-grown con-glomerate that has alwaysbelieved in indigenisation. BHELhas so far installed equipment forover 1,00,000 MW of power gen-eration for utilities, captive andindustrial sectors. In addition, ithas supplied over 2,25,000 MVAtransformer capacity and otherequipment operating in transmis-sion and distribution network upto 400kV (AC/DC).

The Ranipet plant is one ofthe 15 manufacturing divisions ofBHEL and manufactures boilerauxiliaries, a critical part, to powergeneration (boiler) equipment.One such auxiliary is the electro-static precipitator (ESP) meant tocollect dust. The size and designof ESP varies depending on theboiler capacity and design. ESPrequires enormous amount ofcables, of varied sizes and specifi-cations, for its operation andmore cables also means more

work at the site notwithstandingfatigue to the designer in prepar-ing cable route drawing, contractdocument review, schedules andprocurement activities.

Project: Optimisation ofcable consumption and procure-ment.

There are many reasons foroptimisation of cables and theseare:� Lack of standardisation of

cables and types leading tomany variants.

� Apart from designer and fieldstaff fatigue, there waswastage of resources likemanpower and materials.

� Delay in adhering to cus-tomer’s tender requirement.

� Delay in approval of vendorand quality of cables.

� Finally, wastage in time andmaterials.The problems were identi-

fied and the Quality Circle Teamdecided to categorise them. Outof a total 52 problems identified28 were in Category A, 20 in Cat-egory B and 4 in Category C. Thenotable observations in Category

A were lack of uniform drawingpractice with electric controls andinstrumentation (ECI), need tosend standard drawing to cus-tomer for approval, standardisa-tion of components, training onlow tension main switch boardbreaker and importantly intro-duction of wireless technology forESP auxiliaries applications.

In Category A, the problemsto be addressed were of technicalnature and in Category B weremore of administrative naturesuch as soft copies of vendordrawing not accepted forapproval, controls and switchgearaltered without engineeringdepartment’s concurrence,uploading of design inputs onother department’s websites andtraining for personnel for air pre-heater area. The Category C,once again administrative, decid-ed on one technical/graduateapprentice for each employee,modular offices with air-condi-tioner, internet for all and vendorsshould be able to see specifica-tions on standard drawings anddrawing status.

��

BHEL has so farinstalled equipment forover 1,00,000 MW ofpower generation forutilities, captive andindustrial sectors. Inaddition, it has suppliedover 2,25,000 MVAtransformer capacityand other equipmentoperating intransmission anddistribution network upto 400kV (AC/DC). ��

CCOOMMPPEETTEENNCCEE AATT IITTSS BBEESSTT::M Ravindra - Additional GeneralManager (Head QualityDepartment), BHEL, Ranipetreceives the award from QCIChairman Arun Maira. .

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


Optimising cable use to bring

in quality

Bhel.qxd 4/28/2011 5:48 PM Page 3


On brainstorming the Teamdecided to prioritise each of the28 problems in Category A. Theforemost was introduction ofwireless technology for ESP aux-iliary application, followed bystandardising earthing scheme,uniform drawing practice withinelectric controls and instru-ments, sending drawing to cus-tomers for approval and stan-dardisation of components. Aproblem selection matrix for top-

ics mentioned earlier keepingquality, cost, delivery and serviceand its nature being easy to delayand critical.

The Team decided to followDeming’s Circle to solve theproblem. These were:� Plan: Define problems and

objectives and then decidethe method of achieving it.

� Do: Educate, train and per-form the work.

� Check: Trial implementation

and feedback for improve-ment and implementation.

� Act: Regular implementation.Currently, time (cycle time

in man-days) consumed fromestimation to erection, field trialsand customer acceptance was156 man-days out of which 50man-days were for sample prepa-ration by vendor, 45 for identifi-cation of vendors and 30 for erec-tion, field trials and customeracceptance. The objective was to

��

“At BHEL we areconstantly on the lookoutfor innovation throughwhich we better ourquality in equipmentsand functioning. Thisproject is one suchinnovation amongstmany we are doing. Ourendeavour is to give ourcustomers the best thatincludes quality”. — M Ravindra, AGM, BHEL��


M Ravindra, Additional GeneralManager (Head Quality Depart-ment) on what brought BHELthe award

WWhhaatt wwaass tthhee rreeaassoonn tthhaatt yyoouuddeecciiddeedd oonn wwiirreelleessss tteecchhnnoollooggyyoovveerr ttrraaddiittiioonnaall ccaabblleess iinn eelleecc--ttrroo--ssttaattiicc pprreecciippiittaattoorr??At BHEL we are constantly onthe lookout for innovationthrough which we better our

quality in equipments andfunctioning. This project isone such innovation amongstmany we are doing. Electro-static precipitator is meantgathering dust and it has tofunction at optimal level at alltimes, otherwise power generation is affected. Secondly, cables too would getdeteriorated over a period oftime and re-cabling is timeconsuming and costs moneyfor the end-user. It is alwaysour endeavour to give our cus-tomers the best that includesquality and service and keeping this in view we decid-ed to experiment on the alter-nate method.

IItt iiss aallwwaayyss ssaaiidd tthhaatt oonnee ssppaarrkk

iiggnniitteess iinnnnoovvaattiioonn aanndd iinn yyoouurrccaassee wwhhaatt wwaass iitt??Simple, it is our mobile phone.One, a mobile does not requirewire or cable attached for its use.Secondly, user’s mobility is notrestricted while using mobilephones like traditional tele-phones, which are now calledlandlines. This was the realspark. We give absolute freedomin our organisation to think andcommunicate the thoughts tothe team. So, we all said why notgive a try?

HHaass tthhiiss bbeeeenn ttrriieedd oouutt iinn tthheeffiieelldd aanndd hhooww ssuucccceessssffuull hhaass iittbbeeeenn??Before going to field trail, wetried the concept within ourplant. We tried out on

electrical hoists and workedsuccessfully. Its success gave usconfidence. Apart from theinnovation we were equallyconcerned about the stiff com-petition. So we had to matchthe competing products with-out compromising on qualityand at the same time keep onthe cost. By eliminating longcables with wireless technologywe reduced the cost and savedon copper usage. We tried at Bellary and North Chennai plants andoperation was successful. Infuture all electro-static precipi-tators will have this system and in long term we have saved country’s consumption of copper in our own humble way.

“Give customers the best in quality and service”

PEOPLE

CUSTOMER

Own Format

Delay in Evaluating Offer

Delay in Approving Data Sheet

Delay in SendingNon- Standard

Vender Data Sheet

Check Each VendorData Sheet

Data Sheet to Customer

Delay in Preparing Cable Schedule

Delay

Data Sheet

Lock of SkillDelay in Correcting

Data Sheet

Delay in ApprovalCheck Each Vender

Data Sheet

Delay Plot Plan

Identification of Causes

Cause & Effect Diagram

VENDOR

Increase cycle time for cable procurement

Bhel.qxd 4/29/2011 2:11 PM Page 4


reduce cycle time to 51 man-daysand the goal being meeting cus-tomer satisfaction with latesttechnology.

Ishikawa (cause and effect)diagram was used to identify thecauses. The elements in the dia-gram were delineated into ven-dor, customer and people (in the plant). At vendor’s sidecauses were delay in data sheetand correcting data sheet. Themain causes at people’s end thedelays were mainly evaluatingoffer, approving data sheet, send-ing data sheet to customer, inindenting and preparing cableschedule. On customer’s side itwas due to checking each vendorsheet and delay in approval.

The root cause through why-why analysis indicated more cableerection increasing cycle time.The analysis indicates:

� Why: More quantity of traysupports for erection.

� Why: More quantities oftrays to be erected.

� Why: More quantities ofcables for wrapping motorcontrols.

� Why: Lack of alternatemethod for controlling themotors.

Further, brainstorming was con-ducted for developing a solutionand assessing its impact. Inengaging additional workforcefor erection of cable trays and

support structure meant highoverheads. On the other hand,avoiding cable tray was not possi-ble since interconnection of con-trols required for ESP function-ing. The final solution was toreduce cables by alternate tech-nology. The analysis pointed toone direction and that is toimplement wireless technologyfor ESP. Wireless technologywould eliminate cables.

Wireless technology wasperhaps first of its kind in Indiancontext and BHEL expectedresistance such as reliability ofoperation, vendors not agreeingto free trials and customers may

not agree for implementinguntested technology. The reme-dial action taken by them was toconduct field trials to ensure reli-ability, educating vendors onfuture business prospects and forcustomers it was free supply andtrials with vendor support.

BHEL had to convince bothvendors and customers throughfield trials and selected Bellaryand North Chennai sites. Sincewireless technology needs freeline-of-sight for operation butduring field trials the glitch wasits line-of-sight blocked by struc-tures. On analysing, it wasdeducted that repeaters wouldimprove performance and itindeed did and results con-formed to functional parame-ters. BHEL benchmarked thenew technology.

The tangible benefits were:� Man-days reduced to one-

third enabling cost reduc-tion.

� Through improved methodof cable erection time isreduced to 0 man-days.

� 15 km of cables saved for a500 MW power generationunit.

� Mechanical support materi-als reduced by 15 percent.

In financial terms, the benefitshave been considerable. BHELhas planned 25 projects in 2010-11 totalling `13.12 lakh and thetotal saving would accrue to`3.20 lakh. �

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), founded in1953, is India largest engineering and manufacturingenterprise and 12th largest power equipment producerin the world. It caters to the core sector — power, trans-mission, industry, transportation, renewable energy, oiland gas, and defence — of the Indian economy. BHELushered in an indigenous heavy electrical equipmentindustry in India in an era when almost all the equip-ment were imported and now its area of operation cov-ers 70 countries. The conglomerate has 15 manufactur-ing divisions, 15 regional offices, 4 power sector region-al centres, eight service centres, four overseas officesand over 100 project sites spread across the country topromptly serve its customers and provide them with suitable products, systems and services. The emphasison design, engineering and manufacturing to interna-tional standards in conjunction with its own R&D cen-tres the company is able to provide quality and reliability in products and services.

�Power producer��

Since wirelesstechnology needs freeline-of-sight foroperation but duringfield trials the glitch wasits line-of-sight blockedby structures. Onanalysing, it wasdeducted that repeaterswould improveperformance and itindeed did. BHELbenchmarked the newtechnology.��


TTHHEE PPOOWWEERR GGEENNEERRAATTOORR:: TheRanipet plant is one of the 15 manu-facturing divisions of BHEL, a criticalpart in the production of power generation equipment.

Bhel.qxd 4/28/2011 5:48 PM Page 5


National ThermalPower Corpora-tion Limited(NTPC) was setup in 1975 to

accelerate power developmentin India. At the initial stages,most of the power plants usedcoal as primary fuel. The con-glomerate has 15 coal-basedpower plant, and Sipat plant isone of them. Its initial approvedcapacity was 2,980 MW (StageI—3x660 MW; Stage II—2x500 MW). While Stage IIplant is already operational, theStage I plant, with supercriticaltechnology, is likely to com-mence operation shortly.

Against the backdrop of13.3 per cent peak deficit and11.7 per cent energy deficit,eight coal-based plants out of 15have been producing energyaround 95 per cent plant load

factor (PLF), and the remainingseven plants produce between85 and 90 per cent PLF. In thelast fiscal year, NTPC con-tributed 28.60 per cent to India’stotal generation while its capaci-ty is mere 18.10 per cent of thecountry’s installed capacity,1,00,351 MW. SD Garwar,DGM, Business Excellence, said,“Our endeavour has always beento keep the plant at highest leveloperational efficiency.”

NTPC Sipat plant is located22 km from Bilaspur in Chhat-tisgargh. The power plant oper-ates on Rankine Cycle andentails three processes: heataddition in boiler, work done inboiler and heat rejection in con-denser. All the major equipmentsystems such as boilers, turbines,generators and their auxiliariesare supplied by Bharat HeavyElectricals Limited (BHEL).

Project: Rectify mill rejecthandling system suffering fromhigh failure rate and poor avail-ability.

Mill reject handling systemis an essential sub-system in asteam generator. The main func-tion of this system is to safelydispose the hot and corrosivepyrites rejected by the coal mill.The mode of disposal can beeither manual or pneumatic.Since commissioning availabilityof the system suffered, it rangedbetween low and poor and hadother operational problems. As aresult, manual labour was usedwhich, indeed, was a hazardousjob. The problems with millreject handling system were:

� Due to poor functioning ofmill reject handling systemhot and corrosive pyrite hadto be manually handled

��

Mill reject handlingsystem is an essentialsub-system in a steamgenerator. Due to poorfunctioning of millreject handling systemhot and corrosivepyrite had to bemanually handledcausing healthproblems.��

WWIINNNNIINNGG LLAAUURREELLSS:: The NTPCteam receiving D L Shah Awardfrom Arun Maira, Chairman, QCI.

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


Quality minimised

maintenance

NTPC SIPAT.qxd 4/28/2011 6:41 PM Page 2


causing health problem.� Non-availability of immedi-

ate maintenance.� Frequent breakdowns even

after thorough maintenance.� High cost incurred on main-

tenance and on labour.

The in-house team decided totake on the challenge. Since thecause is mill reject handling sys-tem, it would be prudent tounderstand the system to findwhere the problem lies. The sys-tem consists of ‘pyrite hopper’and ‘denseveyor’. The fuel feedonce pulverised, which is of het-erogeneous in nature, requiressegregation. This segregationtakes place at pyrite hopper andthe reject enters a vessel calleddenseveyor, four metres belowthe surface. Compressed air ispumped into denseveyor to pushreject through discharge pipes todisposal bunker. For denseveyorto function efficiently, its sealcalled Dome Valve (or DomeSeal) has to make the vessel leakproof. That did not happen andit was one of the causes. TheTeam zeroed in on the majorcauses: seal failure, frequent linechocking and trench chocking.

The Seal Failure:The seal is inflated by

instrument air pressure(IA Pr) and is important to runthe 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 chokedfrequently and observed it hap-pened mostly in horizontal tovertical bend area. As a result,the system was unable to carryreject further. The causes were:

� Seepage and boiler washingwater ingress.

� Defective/improper piping.� Defective gaskets/sealing.� Sand formation in mills.� Grill damage.

Choked Trenches:The maintenance trenches

around denseveyorwere getting choked frequentlyand hot reject pileup made itunsafe and difficult to work.Instrumentation hoses, criticalin valve operation, were alsodamaged while coming intocontact with hot reject. Chokingcaused delay in maintenanceactivity thereby aggravating theoutage situation.

Data on sub-factors, derivedfrom cause and effect diagramplotted for all three major defects,were taken and also frequency ofoccurrence recorded. The datafor 30 days on 20 numbers of millreject system were taken andanalysed on Pareto chart. Keyfindings were IA Pr required toinflate insert seal became insuffi-

ciently low since the pipes wererouted under the trench and hadtoo many bends. On leakages atseveral places, the option waseither attend to leakages or modi-fy piping. On analysing, it wasdecided to change the completedesign since the earlier optionswould mean recurring expendi-ture. Line choking was due toexcess accumulation of water inthe trench. After prolonged con-tact with asbestos gaskets of pipeflanges, the water entering con-veying lines the choking after fewcycles. Finally, it was trench chok-ing. It was due to either spillageduring operation or accidentalspillage; the latter though couldbe handled. Here the option wasto modify design of spout.

The solutions were:� New instrument air header

to arrest leakages in the oldheader.

� Discharge line of all den-seveyor extended andjoined to common headerto prevent line choking.

� Air boosters installed inaddition to the original linein conveying line to provideair cushion at bends.

� To prevent reject gettingaccumulated in trench atwo-ft wall was constructedto prevent accumulationand enable maintenance.

Average monthly expenses, beforeand after the project, were`66,450 and `26,667 respective-ly. Thus the annual saving inmaintenance is `4,77,396. �

��

Most of the powerplants used coal asprimary fuel. Theconglomerate has 15coal-based powerplants, and Sipat plantis one of them. Its initialapproved capacity was2,980 MW (Stage I—3x660 MW; Stage II—2x500 MW). ��

SSTTRROONNGG FFOOUUNNDDAATTIIOONN::Views of NTPC Sipat plant.


NTPC SIPAT.qxd 4/28/2011 6:41 PM Page 3


Reliance IndustriesLimited (RIL) is thelargest conglomer-ate in the privatesector in the coun-

try. Since its modest beginningsin 1977, the RIL group has blos-somed into a mega-corp and it isoften said that whatever RILdoes it will be on global scale. Itcontinues to be in the FortuneGlobal 500 list for the past fiveconsecutive years.

RIL’s operation started withtextiles, under the brand name of‘Vimal’ which became popular inthe market in terms of qualityand pricing. It pursued a strategyof backward vertical integrationand has been the cornerstone ofthe evolution and growth of RIL.As the corporate journey pro-gressed it started manufacturingpolyester, fibre intermediates,polymers, petrochemicals, refin-ing, crude and natural gas, retailand life sciences to be fully inte-grated along the materials andenergy value chain.

In 2002, it struck a major gasfind on India’s eastern coast inthe Krishna-Godhavari basin.Gas production from this fieldstarted in April 2009. Relianceenjoys global leadership in itsbusinesses being the largestpolyester yarn and fibre produc-er in the world and ratedamongst top ten producers inthe world in major petrochemi-cal products. RIL is organised inthree major business segments:

1. Exploration and production

of oil and gas.2. Refining and marketing of

petroleum products.3. Petrochemicals including

manufacturing and market-ing of polymer, polyesterand polyester intermediates.The Hazira manufacturing

division of RIL was set up in1991 to manufacture petro-chemicals, polyester and poly-mers. This is country’s largestpetrochemicals and polymerscomplex. The cracker plantmanufactures ethylene, propy-lene and other high-value chem-icals through cracking of naph-tha in ultra-selective crackingfurnaces. Over a period the heattransfer coefficient of all convec-tion section banks deterioratedresulting in decrease of furnaceenergy efficiency and increase instack temperature. This wasleading to a considerable “ener-gy penalty” and limited produc-tion throughput.

Project: Development of inno-vative solution for convectioncoil cleaning to improve furnace efficiency.

The need was identifiedthrough global benchmarkingcarried out by M/S SolomonAssociates and subsequent GAPanalysis. The project’s potentialwas conceived through brain-storming sessions among stake-holders. A team was set up toconceptualise, develop and exe-cute with an objective toimprove energy efficiency, plantreliability, plant throughput and

reduce greenhouse gas emis-sions. The project was priori-tised based on Pareto analysisand balance-scorecard method-ology.

The cracker plant is at thecentre of entire operation atHazira. The unit produces olefinproducts, which are suppliedinternally within the complex tovarious downstream units,which produce a variety of prod-ucts for domestic and exportmarkets. Cracker, therefore, isregarded as “mother plant” of allplants in Hazira.

Naphtha is cracked in thecracker plant to deliver high val-ue-added products such as ethyl-ene and propylene. This planthas largest number of productsand by-products. The plantoperates at over 125 per centcapacity through collaborativeoperation, technology, mainte-nance and other related func-tions. Cracker plant is equippedwith 12 ultra-selective maincracking furnaces and threerecycle furnaces. Main furnacesand recycle furnaces at crackerplant have been in operationsince 1997. The operationaleffectiveness and efficiencies areregularly measured and moni-tored to ensure its optimum andreliability, and one such measureis heat transfer coefficients of allthe furnaces.

The SWOT analysis carriedout in 2007-08 revealed that oneof the major weaknesses onoperational front was high ener-gy and feedstock and increased

��

RIL’s operation startedwith textiles, under thebrand name of ‘Vimal’which became popularin the market in termsof quality and pricing.It pursued a strategy ofbackward verticalintegration and hasbeen the cornerstoneof the evolution andgrowth of RIL.��

RELIANCE SAW THE DEVELOPMENT OF A CHEMICAL FORMULATION THAT IMPROVED FURNACEEFFICIENCY WHICH BROUGHT SAVINGS IN REFINERY COSTS, REPORTS NANDU MANJESHWAR.


Reducing greenhouse gases for

efficiency

qci.qxd 4/28/2011 6:48 PM Page 2


energy index and this was acause for concern. During thesame period in one of thebenchmarking results publishedby M/S Solomon Associatesindicated that cracker plant atHazira was slipping in its globalposition on account of its highenergy index.

With energy conservationuppermost in mind a brain-storming session involving staffat various levels was carried outto identify options that wouldhelp cracker improve energyperformance. The Pareto analy-sis helped in identifying themost vital among the few vitals.Different methods and toolssuch as cause and effect dia-gram, affinity diagram, why-whyanalysis and regression analysiswere used.

Affinity diagram focused onphysical system and human fac-

tors. The cause and effect dia-gram was more centred to workout all possible causes for thespecific conditions and per-formance indicators of furnaceoperation Process capabilitystudies were conducted for allcritical to quality and processparameters. Data on all themajor conditions and perform-ance indicators for furnace werecollected, computed, evaluatedstatistically and analysed toextract inference on each of theparameter.

Based on existing processthe causes affecting furnace effi-ciencies were identified. Rela-tionship of these causes withfurnace heater efficiency wasestablished and analysed. Datawas collected and plotted towork out relationships. Theanalysis and interpretations onthis data helped in segregating

high stack temperature as one ofthe conditions that seemed to bethe major cause and validationof this observation was donethrough regression analysis. Forcertain conditions such as highdraft pressure and excess oxy-gen, R-square values wereobserved to be less than 40 percent indicating weal relation-ship. But R-square was over 97per cent for the relationshipbetween heater efficiency versusstack temperature. This validat-ed the observation regardinghigh stack temperature beingone of the major reasons for theproblem.

Cause and effect diagramlisted many causes for high stacktemperature, however, uponanalysing them individually,possibility of most of them werenot directly linked and could beeliminated. The apparent reasonfor high stack temperature wasdeposition and the need toremove deposition was estab-lished. Later brainstorminghelped in developing variouspossible alternatives to addressthis issue. The alternativesemerged were:

1. Cleaning through coldwater.

2. Cleaning through chemicals.3. Cleaning through combina-

tion of hot wash and chemi-cals.

4. Scrapping of coils.5. Replacement of convection

coils.Continued on Page 42

��

With energyconservation uppermostin mind, abrainstorming sessioninvolving staff at variouslevels was carried out toidentify options thatwould help crackerimprove energyperformance. ThePareto analysis helped inidentifying the most vitalamong the few vitals. ��

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is India’s largest private sectorconglomerate by market value and by annual turnover in excess of$ 49 billion. It is a Fortune Global 500 company and also featuresin Forbes Global 2000 list. Till date, RIL is the only Indian compa-ny featuring in the Forbes’s list of “world’s 100 most respectedcompanies”.RIL’s businesses include petroleum, petrochemicals, textiles andretail. Though it started operation with textiles (under brandnameVimal) its primary business today is petroleum refinery and petro-chemicals. It operates a 33-million-tonne refinery at Jamnagar,Gujarat, and has added a second refinery of 29 million tonnes. In2002, it struck gas in the Krishna-Godavari Basin and started pro-duction in April 2009. RIL enjoys global leadership in its business-es, being the largest polyester yarn and fibre producer.

�Gas for growth

GGAARRNNEERRIINNGG LLAAUURREELLSS::C Kulkarni from RelianceIndustries Limited (second fromright) receiving the citation duringthe 6th National Quality Conclave.


qci.qxd 4/28/2011 6:48 PM Page 3

The task at hand is enormous: balanc-ing the challenges of growth in Indiawith those posed by the challenges ofinclusive, quality growth. Spearheadingthe move, the Quality Council of Indiain the Sixth National Quality Conclaveenergised participants to debate andfashion ways to achieve the objective of“Quality for national wellbeing”. Theoverwhelming response from partici-pants at the conclave was proof enoughthat quality is becoming a habit.Glimpses from the conclave.

ChartingQUALITY


40 I Quality India I MARCH-APRIL, 2011

New Centre page New 36-37A-B25.qxd 4/28/2011 6:54 PM Page 2

the path to a FUTURE

MARCH-APRIL, 2011 I Quality India I 41


Ph

oto

s b

y: H

.C. T

iwari



MARCH-APRIL, 2011 I Quality India I 41 a


MARCH-APRIL, 2011 I Quality India I 41 b




Continued from Page 39

The alternatives had to beweighed against effectiveness,cost, safety and operational ease.Consensus criteria method wasused to analyse the possiblealternatives and to zero in on themost appropriate solution. Theprocess simulation tools werealso used to finalise one of thealternatives and the use of IT inprocessing and in developinginterpretations was considerablein helping to reduce the time toarrive at a decision.

From the analysis of availabledata, case studies, literature searchand vendor interactions itemerged that furnace coil cleaningthrough a combination of hotwater and chemicals was the mostappropriate solution. Though this

was established the real questionwas what kind of chemical oughtto be used: A chemical that doesnot affect plant process or equip-ment integrity in any manner.This was the real challenge. It isundoubtedly a question of inno-vation.

Any innovation is alwaysfraught with doubts since it has itsupside and downside. A suitablechemical was need of the hour.The coils in the furnaces/boilersare prone to developing depositsover its surface, which mainlyinclude metal salts or organo-met-alic compounds. The nature ofthese deposits varies from soft tovery hard. The soft deposits mayeasily be cleaned with water but itis the harder deposits that needspecial treatment. In doing so the

latter care needs to be taken not todamage metallurgy of the coils.Indeed, such a hard surface clean-ing application should not onlyprovide a clean surface but thehard surface should also not showany visible filming and/or streak-ing.

The plan-do-check-act(PDCA) approach was adoptedto understand the characteristicof deposit. The team succeededin identifying the deposit scale asone consisting inorganic saltsand this leads to search forchemical that can effectivelyremove inorganic deposit scales.Chemical(s) of suitable compo-sition was tried in the laboratory.The convection coil cleaningusing hot water and chemicalcomposition was tried on one ofthe furnace of cracker plant andthe outcome was highly satisfac-tory. The same was used in allother furnace coils. The 2009study of Solomon Associatesbenchmark indicated improve-ment in energy performance.

In financial terms, the proj-ect investment was `1.25 cr thatenabled thermal energy savingof `5.23 cr and gained through-put by `6.51 cr and more impor-tantly reduced greenhouse gasemission by 98,000 tonnes ofCO2 per annum. �

��

The plan-do-check-act(PDCA) approach wasadopted to understandthe characteristic ofdeposit. The teamsucceeded in identifyingthe deposit scale as oneconsisting inorganicsalts and this led tosearch for chemical thatcan effectively removeinorganic depositscales. ��


C Kulkarni from RelianceIndustries Limited explainshow thermal efficiency wasimproved

HHooww iimmppoorrttaanntt iiss hheeaatt ccooeeffffii--cciieenntt iinn pprroodduuccttiivviittyy??This project is about improve-ment in thermal efficiency infurnaces of cracker plant andthe cracker plant is like amother plant in the plastic

industry. Unlike in otherchemical industry where pro-duction cost is 50 per centpower and other 50 per cent issteam while in a typical naph-tha cracker plant 90 per centexpenditure is on fuel gas. Soany improvement in thermalefficiency gives a lot of benefitin terms of economics and reli-ability.

WWhhaatt aaccttiioonn wwaass ttaakkeenn iinniimmpprroovviinngg tthhee tthheerrmmaall eeffffii--cciieennccyy??Optimal thermal efficiency ispossible only when convectionbank works efficiently when100 per cent heat is transmit-ted. And if does not, it meansthat convection bank is fouled

restricting heat transfer. So,this is all about cleaning con-vection bank of furnaces whichgets fouled that results in heattransfer efficiency comingdown.

IInn ffiinnaanncciiaall tteerrmmss,, hhooww bbeenneeffii--cciiaall wwaass tthhiiss pprroojjeecctt??In financial terms, it was quiteattractive. The cost of cleaningof all 15 furnaces was around`1.20-`1.30 cr while fuel gassaving was `6.00 cr. Improve-ment in plant throughput wasaround `65 cr per annum. Itwas quite a significantimprovement.In order to do that we devel-oped our own chemicals on tri-al basis and after several trials

we succeeded in cleaning con-vection banks of furnaces.

YYoouu hhaavvee ssiimmiillaarr ppllaannttss iinn ootthh--eerr llooccaattiioonnss ttoooo.. AArree yyoouu ttrryyiinnggoouutt tthhiiss mmeetthhooddoollooggyy tthheerree aasswweellll??Yes. This project has greatreplication capability. We havealready tried with chemicalsthat we developed at Haziracomplex and also planning totry at Dahej, Patalganga, Vado-dra and Jamnagar. We havereceived queries from overseascracker plants and they areinterested in acquiring thistechnique. In a way, it is a glob-al benchmark and we are nowplanning to patent this chemi-cal that we developed in-house.

“We achieved a global benchmark in cleaning convection bank of furnaces”

RROOBBUUSSTT GGRROOWWTTHH:: Reliance’sHazira plant production capacityhas grown manifold over theyears.

qci.qxd 4/28/2011 6:48 PM Page 4


India is the largest milk pro-ducer in the world at 115million tonnes (MT) fol-lowed by the United Statesof America with 74 MT. It

has taken long years and efforts ofmany dedicated professionals toreach this milestone and yet largequantities still get spoilt beforereaching the market. Result: percapita milk consumption isamong the lowest in the world.

Historically, India had adeficit in milk and milk productstill 1960 and per capita milk con-sumption was a lowly 130 millil-itres. Large dairies or milk cooper-atives were unknown and eventoday individual milk producerscarry milk cans supplying house-holds in large parts of the country.

A little incident in 1946, atKheda in Gujarat, changed thescenario forever. The milk pro-ducers in the province went on astrike against a milk contractornamed Polson, running a cream-ery at Anand town, demandinghigher payment for their produce.A fillip to this movement was giv-en by Tribhuvandas Patel and

resulted in the first dairy coopera-tive. He named it as Anand MilkUnion Limited — AMUL —now called Kaira District Cooper-ative Milk Producers Union Lim-ited.

Today, milk products bearingthe brand name Amul are wellknown. Patel’s movement led torethinking among milk producersin the state. Amul Dairy was nur-tured and developed into a mod-ern dairy by Dr V Kurien throughindigenous research and develop-ment using appropriate technolo-gy to ensure quality.

During a visit to the dairy in1964, the late Lal Bahadur Shastri,the then Prime Minister, wasimpressed and requested DrKurien to replicate dairy coopera-tives all over India. Thus, theNational Dairy DevelopmentBoard (NDDB) was formed and“Operation Flood” programmewas launched. Operation Flood,the world’s largest dairy develop-ment programme, is based on therich experience gained from theAmul Model dairy cooperatives.

Project: Milk collection and

cooling ensuring clean milk pro-duction.

The Amul model is a simplethree-tier cooperative structureconsisting of a dairy cooperativeat the village level affiliated to themilk union at the district levelwhich in turn is federated into amilk federation at the state level.This three-tier structure enablesdelegation of various functions atappropriate levels. The functionsare:� Milk collection at the village

dairy society.� Procurement and processing

at the district milk union.� Marketing milk and milk

products by the state milkfederation.The real stakeholders in this

movement are the farmers whoproduce and provide milk for theconsumers. All stakeholders aremembers and they elect a man-agement committee, consisting of9 to 12 representatives who gov-ern village dairy cooperative soci-ety (VDCS). Banas Dairy has1,345 VDCS whose main func-tions are:

��

Today, milk productsbearing the brand nameAmul are well known.Patel’s movement led torethinking among milkproducers in the state.Amul Dairy wasnurtured and developedinto a modern dairy byDr V Kurien throughindigenous research anddevelopment usingappropriate technologyto ensure quality. ��

BBAANNGG OONN TTAARRGGEETT::Parathibhai G Bhatol (second fromleft), Chairman of Banas Dairy,receiving the award from QCIChairman Arun Maira.

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


Initiative to keep milk clean

andfresh

Banaska.qxd 4/28/2011 5:29 PM Page 3


� Collection of surplus milkfrom the producers of the vil-lage and pay according toquality and quantity.

� Provide support services tothe members such as veteri-nary first aid, artificial insemi-nation services, cattle feed,mineral mixture sales, fodderand fodder seeds, conducttraining on animal husbandryand dairying.

� Selling liquid milk to localconsumers at the village level.

� Selling milk to the districtmilk union. The milk union at the district

level complements certain servic-es for the VDCS including man-agement support, training indairying, fodder and fodder seeds,and veterinary care. Its main func-tions are procurement of milk,processing, establish chilling cen-tres, selling liquid milk and milkproducts within the district anddecide on the prices of milk to bepaid to milk producers as well asthe prices of support services pro-vided to members.

The state cooperatives milkfederation (federation) is the apexbody in this three-tier structure,has members from all cooperativemilk unions and is governed by aboard of directors consistingelected members of each milkunion. The Federation furtherappoints a Managing Directorand Member Secretary. It also

employs staff to assist the Manag-ing Director in discharginghis/her duties.

In addition to complement-ing district-level milk unions andproviding support services themain functions are:� Marketing milk and milk

products processed and man-ufactured by milk unions.

� Establish distribution net-work for marketing milk andmilk products.

� Arrange transportation ofmilk and milk products frommilk unions to markets.

� Brand building of its prod-ucts.

� Arrange common purchase ofraw material used in manufac-ture and packaging or milkproducts.

� Decide on the products to bemanufactured at various milkunions.

� Long-term planning on pro-curement, production andmarketing.

� Arrange finances for the milkunions and technical know-how.

� Conflict resolution and keepentire structure intact.Banaskantha district is a semi-

arid countryside and dependsentirely on the monsoon for agri-culture. Drought-like situationsare a common feature in the dis-trict and since villagers cannotentirely depend on agriculture an

alternative form of livelihood wasneeded. The district is famous forKankrej breed cattle and milk pro-duction was the alternative. Con-sequently, eight village-level coop-erative milk societies of Vadgamand Palanpur were registered in1966. This small step fructified in1969 as Banaskantha DistrictCooperative Milk ProducersUnion, popular as Banas Dairy.Today it has three plants, qualityassurance laboratory, researchand development centre and pro-duction facilities for milk prod-ucts. Little wonder then it is called“An Oasis in the Desert”.

The growth was not devoidof problems especially in main-taining the quality of the milkprocured. Till large-scale dairyingcame up, the farmers sold theirproduce either locally or in thenext village, a short distanceaway. The farmers were notattuned to the idea of carryingmilk long distances to collectioncentres and when they did themilk was unusable due to micro-bial activity. Infrastructure was tobe blamed such as road, modes ofcarrying, hygiene and, above all,searing hot weather. As a result,freshness and organoleptic quali-ty deteriorated.

The hurdle of infrastructurelike roads up to village level, fromcollection centres to milk unionwas, of course, beyond thepurview of Banas Dairy. However,

��

The real stakeholders inthis movement are thefarmers who produceand provide milk for theconsumers. Allstakeholders aremembers and they electa managementcommittee, consisting of9 to 12 representativeswho govern village dairycooperative societies(VDCS).��


Parathibhai G Bhatol, Chair-man of Banas Dairy, on whatled to the establishment ofbulk milk cooling units in vil-lages.

CCoonnssiiddeerriinngg oouurr cclliimmaattiiccccoonnddiittiioonn mmoosstt ooff tthhee ffaarrmmpprroodduuccee,, iinncclluuddiinngg mmiillkk,,ppeerriisshheess.. HHooww ddiidd yyoouu

oovveerrccoommee tthhiiss??Though we may the largestproducer of milk but wewanted to know how smallcountries like Australia and NewZealand export more milk andmilk products than we do. Therewe found, in addition to manygood factors, that milk wascooled at the village or farm levelwhereas in our district we lackedthis facility. As a result the milkby the time it reached the dairyhad a high microbial levelrendering the milk unusable.

WWhhaatt aaccttiioonn ddiidd yyoouu ttaakkee ttoommaakkee mmiillkk rreettaaiinn iittss ffrreesshhnneessssaanndd qquuaalliittyy??

As you are aware ours is acooperative and every produceris a stakeholder. Initially, we hadto tell them the importance ofquality and how we couldachieve that with moderntechniques. After all it involvesmoney and it had not beentested and tried in villagesaround Gujarat. But wemanaged to impress upon thefarmers that only quality milkwould fetch better returns and in1998 we set up bulk milk coolingunits in a few villages. Theothers saw the benefits. Others, naturally, saw thebenefits as cooled milk fetched abetter price because it retained

freshness and, importantly,retained quality. We now havebulk cooling units in almost 80per cent of villages.

WWhhyy oonnllyy iinn 8800 ppeerr cceenntt aanndd nnoottiinn aallll vviillllaaggeess??There is a reason behind this. Inthe rest 20 per cent of thevillages we do not have land tobuild the buildings to installbulk milk cooling units. Wewill sort out the landacquisition shortly. So, infuture no milk will be carriedin cans. The entire collection ofmilk will be transported frombulk milk cooling units toBanas Dairy directly.

“We impressed upon the farmers that quality milk fetched better returns”



other facets were within the con-trol of Banas Dairy. High temper-ature (which goes up to 45°C inthe district) leads to faster growthof bacterial counts but at 4°C themicrobial growth becomes stag-nant. At this temperature the qual-ity of milk is maintained and pre-vented from further deteriorationdue to microbial growth.

Collection and carrying milkin the traditional milk was anotherfactor for faster deterioration. Inaddition, the farmers would waitfor long periods for the opentrucks to transport the produce.By the time milk reached collec-tion/chilling centres the shelf lifewas reduced to half and consider-ing the climatic condition in sum-mer deterioration was extreme.Quality cattle feed and promptveterinary aid though equallyimportant were lacking.

Banas Dairy realised that intoday’s open market’s fierce com-petition quality alone would fetchthem good dividends,. In 1998,they realised that it would not bepossible to preserve quality andfreshness of milk unless the milkwas chilled within the shortestperiod of time once milked. Theconcept of bulk cooling was thealternative and this was intro-duced initially at a few villages in1998-99. Till date 650 bulk milkcooling units have been installedfor cooling 1.50 million litres ofmilk on an average day. The tan-gible results have been:� Transportation in milk cans

stopped ever since the instal-lation of bulk milk coolingunits as a result farmers havemore time to tend to theirfarms and cattle than waitingfor transport to carry their

produce.� Reduced sour milk quantity,

which otherwise would bethe direct loss to the farmers.

� The raw milk quality andquantity improved fetchingbetter remuneration to thefarmer and also helpedimprove milk and milk prod-ucts at the dairy plant.

� Improved hygiene at districtlevel during transportation

� Quality for clean milk pro-duction and more important-ly change in mindset towardsquality, cleanliness andhygiene at the rural produc-ers’ level.

Since the dairy husbandry inIndia is mostly looked after bywomen, the economic empower-ment of women has beenstrengthened and gave themmore disposable income forspending on health, nutrition andeducation of children.

From its original one plantBanas Dairy now has threeplants. Banas I (also old plant)has facilities for milk processing,Amul Kool (sterilised-flavouredmilk), Amul ice cream, two milkpowder plants of combinedcapacity of 50 tonnes per day,and quality assurance laboratory.Banas II plant’s facilities are liq-uid milk processing, market liq-uid milk pouches, Amul butterplant, milk powder plant ofcapacity of 60 tonnes per day,and quality assurance laboratory.Banas III plant’s facilities are liq-uid milk processing, Amul butterplant, ice cream plant, and qualityassurance laboratory. �

Banaskantha District Cooperative Milk Producers’Union Limited (Banas Dairy) at Palanpur in Gujaratis one of 13 milk cooperatives in the state and is thelargest cooperative in India under the Amul groupof dairy cooperatives. There are 13,140 village coop-erative societies producing 2.70 million litres ofmilk of which Banas Dairy’s contribution is 3.07lakh litres. Banas Dairy is the largest milk cooperative in termsof milk production in the country. The cooperativeis under the umbrella of the District CooperativeNetwork of Amul. In the last fiscal, the averageprocurement a day was 18.86 lakh litres and thepeak touched 24.99 lakh litres. In 1999, Banas Dairy started the movement of cleanmilk production changing the mindset of the farm-ers, milk suppliers and ushered in financial benefitsthat accrued out of clean milk for the people.

�Source of clean milk

��

Since the dairyhusbandry in India ismostly looked after bywomen, the economicempowerment ofwomen has beenstrengthened and gavethem more disposableincome for spendingon health, nutritionand education ofchildren. ��


WWEELLLL--EEQQUUIIPPPPEEDD:: A view ofthe Banas dairy plant.



Essar Steel is a globalsteel company with astrong presence inintensive steel-con-suming markets in Asia

and North America. It is India’slargest exporter of flat steel with8.6 million tonnes per annum(MTPA) of capacity. Essar Steel isfully integrated from mining toretail and has strong downstreamcapability with a global retailcapacity of over 3 MTPA.

Its global footprint is spreadacross Asia, North and the MiddleEast. In 2007, Essar Steel acquiredAlgoma Steel in Canada, whichhas a current capacity of 4 MTPA,and Minnesota Steel, which hasiron ore reserves of over 1.4 billiontonnes. The company is building a6 MTPA pellet plant, a concentra-tion plant and a direct reducediron plant in Minnesota. InIndonesia, it operates a 4,00,000TPA cold rolling complex with agalvanizing line of 1,50,000 TPA,making it the largest private steelcompany in that country. InMarch 2010, Essar announcedthat it had signed a deal to buy UScoal producer Trinity Coal Part-ners from US private equity groupDenham Capital for $600 million.

At Bailadilla, the company hasan iron ore beneficiation planthaving a capacity of 8 MPTA.Bailadilla has some of the world’srichest and finest ore. The iron oreslurry is sent through a 267-kmpipeline to the pellet plant yield-ing advantages in quality, cost andreal-time inventory management.The pellet plant at Visakhapat-

nam, which is also of 8 MPTAcapacity, converts the slurry intopellets providing vital raw materialfor the steel plant at Hazira,Gujarat.

The steel complex at Hazirahas 5 MPTA sponge iron plant,the world’s largest gas-basedsponge iron plant in a single loca-tion. The plant provides raw mate-rial for state-of-the-art for 4.60MPTA hot rolled coil plant,largest of the country’s new gener-ation steel mills. This plant is fedwith four electric arc furnaces andthree casters. The complex hassophisticated infrastructureincluding independent water sup-ply and power, oxygen and limeplant, and a captive port capable ofhandling up to 8.00 MPTA of car-go with modern cargo handlingequipment like barges and float-ing cranes.

In addition, at Hazira, it has aplate mill having a capacity of 1.50MPTA making it one of the widestplate mills in the world. The platesundergo close process metallurgyand chemistry, keeping in view thespecific requirements of differentapplication segments. The pipemill has a combined capacity of0.60 MPTA of helical submergedarc welded and longitudinal sub-merged arc welded steel pipes. Atthe other end of value chain thedownstream facility includes 1.40MPTA cold rolling complex.

Project: Increase production ofcoils per hour from 23.5 to 24.5per hour in hot strip mill.

Essar’s hot strip mill at Hazira

operates a wide coil strips whoserange 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 stripmill is around 480 coils in a day atthe production level of 23.50 coilsin an hour. Though the productiv-ity was at par with other flat steelmanufacturers the managementfirmly believed it was possible tofurther enhance the capability ofhot strip mill. This required athorough study and analysis;hence a team comprising repre-sentatives from every functionalareas such as mechanical, electri-cal, automation, operation andtechnical group was formed.

The Hazira hot strip mill hasbeen operational since 1995 andever since the production com-menced the input has been of aconsiderably wide range. Theinput is termed as product mixand implies the combination ofgrades, thickness and width rolledin hot strip mill. The grade classi-fication of different types of steelis based on their metallurgicalcomposition and specific applica-tion, which includes structuralsteels, skin panels, automotivesegments, transport, boiler quali-ty, line pipe and cold-rolled appli-cations. This, indeed, is a huge

��

Essar Steel is India’slargest exporter of flatsteel with 8.6 milliontonnes per annum(MTPA) of capacity.Essar Steel is fullyintegrated from miningto retail and has strongdownstream capabilitywith a global retailcapacity of over 3MTPA. It is globallyspread across Asia,North and Middle East. ��

ESSAR STEEL FACED A UNIQUE PROBLEM: HOW TO INCREASE PRODUCTION WHEN ITS PERFORMANCEWAS AT PAR WITH THE BEST IN THE WORLD. BUT IT DID. A REPORT BY NANDU MANJESHWAR.


Quality steel to compete with the

world’s best

qci.qxd 4/28/2011 6:06 PM Page 2


challenge for any hot strip mill.Essar Steel was confident that

by adopting DMAIC (define,measure, analyse, improve andcontrol) methodology it couldachieve its aim. In define stepEssar defined its objective ofincreasing coils per hour by one.The measure step entailed time-based process flow in hot stripmill. The processes are:� Re-heating Furnace: The

slabs produced from the cast-er are charged into the re-heating furnace. The slabs areinside the furnace for 140min and then extracted at1,250oC.

� Roughing Mill: The extractedslabs are fed into roughingmill through a primary de-scaling system. The roughingmill is a 4-high reversiblerolling with 2 work rolls and 2backup rolls. The rolling is

accomplished in 5 or 7 passesand the average rolling for 5passes is 109 sec and for 7passes 142 sec.

� Coil Box: The rolled bar fromroughing mill is transferred toa coil box, which bends andwraps the bar into a coil. Thisleads to homogenous tem-perature throughout the barresulting in uniform proper-ties in the strip. Sometimesrolling is done with coil boxbypass mode for achievingsurface quality (skin panelgrades). However, for higherproductivity it is always bene-ficial to use coil box in-usemode.

� Finishing Mill: The finishingmill comprises of six-4 highrolling stands and it convertsthe transfer bar from coil boxinto the desired dimensionsin width and thickness. Aver-

age rolling time in finishingmill is 95 sec. Though, the fin-ishing mill rolling time is less-er than roughing mill in verythin gauges (1.6 mm to 2mm), the rolling time in fin-ishing mill exceeds that ofroughing mill.

� Coiler: The 2-down coilerswrap the final strip to coilform.

The influencing parameters arethe time taken in each of theprocesses as well as the schedul-ing and product mix. Thus, themajor bottleneck was identifiedby measuring rolling time inroughing mill and finishing millfor each coil and cross tabulatedagainst thickness and widthgroups. It was evident from thetable that:

1. Roughing mill is the majorbottleneck being slowest.

2. Finishing mill is a bottleneckonly for 1.6 mm to 2 mmgroup.

3. Re-heating furnace is a bottle-neck for wider section above1,600 mm.

The Pareto chart clearly indicatedthat roughing mill had to be opti-mised to achieve the target of oneextra coil per hour. The focus areain analyse phase is the roughingmill. Under normal circum-stances, 70 per cent of rolling isdone with 5 passes and the rest 30per cent with 7 passes though thisratio is not sacrosanct since theratio changes according to theproduct mix. Different combina-tions of grades, thickness and

��

"We checked the globalstandards with ourcompetitors output, andfound our plant was atpar with their level ofproduction. We believedthat with focussedefforts it was possible toincrease the production.The expertise fromother functional areaslike automation wererequired," said MaheshDhume.��

Essar Global Limited is a diversified business corporation with abalanced portfolio of assets in the manufacturing and services sec-tors of steel, oil and gas, power, communications, shipping portsand logistics, and construction. The corporate is in seizing oppor-tunities 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 car-bon steel manufacturer from iron ore to ready-to-market productswith a current capacity of 8.60 million tonnes per annum. Withenhanced production and aggressive marketing it believes inachieving 14 million tonnes per annum in this fiscal year. The company’s major strategic advantage is high level of forwardand backward integration providing value addition in the chain ofproduction.

�Steely determination

QQUUAALLIITTYY AATT IITTSS BBEESSTT::Mahesh Dhume, Joint GeneralManager, Essar Steel, receivingthe award


qci.qxd 4/28/2011 6:06 PM Page 3


widths lead to increase ordecrease of roughing mill passes.As evident from the rolling time,more the percentage rolled with 5passes lesser the rolling time andhigher the mill productivity. This,however, leads one to believe thatconversion of 7 passes into 5 pass-es is the simplest solution. Butthere are criteria for the number ofpasses and also limitations too. � Criteria for 5 passes are for

softer steel grades (low-yieldstrength and lower-widthrange, less than 1,550 mm.

� Criteria for 7 passes are forhard steel grades (high-yieldstrength) requiring high loadsand currents in the mill andupper-width range exceeding1,550 mm.

These limitations negated consid-eration of reducing number ofpasses and the alternative was inreducing gap time between tworolling time since the total rough-ing mill rolling time is equal torolling time plus gap time. Theeffects of parameters were plottedagainst equipment availability,roughing mill time and gap time,roughing mill 5/7 pass ratio andproduct mix.

In improved phase detailedstudy of bar rolling time in rough-

ing mill was carried out. Onextraction from furnace moves ata particular speed up to primaryde-scaling system and deceleratesto half the speed for effective de-scaling. During rolling period afterevery pass the bar stops on leavingroughing mill and reverses toenter again. It was noticed thatthere was scope of reducing thegap before reversal. The why-whyanalysis was used to optimise thisprocess time (see the chart).

The analysis concluded that ifthe bar stops very near to rough-ing mill, the travel distance of barand time can be reduced. Manytrials later the distance was tunedto 1.50 m from vertical edger(roughing mill entry side) and

1.50 m on exit side. This was doneby adjusting the tracking distancein transport director which con-trols the bar movement. The soft-ware was modified incorporatingall the modifications.

In control phase continuousmonitoring of the roughing millgap time and rolling time on bar-to-bar basis was logged. The shift-wise coils per hour and dailyanalysis were continuouslytracked.

One coil extra an hour meantan additional 22 tonnes and in ayear, considering 330 operationaldays, it was 1,49,842 tonnes. On anaverage, the value realised `5,000per tonne, the additional financialbenefits accrued was `75 cr. �

��

One coil extra an hourmeant an additional 22 tonnes and in ayear, considering 330operational days, itwas 1,49,842 tonnes.On an average, thevalue realised `5,000per tonne, theadditional financialbenefits accrued was `75 cr.��


Mahesh Dhume, Joint GeneralManager, Essar Steel, on howthe increase in steel productionhas benefited the company.

WWhhaatt pprroommpptteedd yyoouu ttoo iinnccrreeaasseepprroodduuccttiioonn??In any manufacturing unitthere is always a scope toimprove production, the quali-ty of product or products andefficiency. Status quo is never

an option in the growth of acompany and especially in steelwhere there is an immensecompetition. The decision wasnot planned at the spur of amoment. We did a thoroughfeasibility study to increase thequantum within the existingparameters.

WWhhaatt wweerree tthhee aaddddiittiioonnaalliinnppuuttss rreeqquuiirreedd ffoorr tthhiissiinnccrreeaassee iinn pprroodduuccttiioonn??We checked the global stan-dards with our competitorsoutput, and found our plantwas at par with their level ofproduction. We stronglybelieved that with focussedefforts it was possible toincrease the production. Of

course, the expertise from oth-er functional areas such asmechanical, electrical, automa-tion, operation and technicalgroups were required. Current-ly, we were producing approxi-mately 480 coils a day at 23.5coils per hour.

Our hot strip mill has beenfunctional since 1995 and hasbeen working well rolling out acombination of grades, thick-ness and width.

TThhiiss cceerrttaaiinnllyy wwoouulldd hhaavvee ttaakk--eenn rree--oorriieennttaattiioonn aanndd ttrraaiinniinnggtthhee wwoorrkkffoorrccee?? Yes, of course. There are lots ofprocesses from slabs comingout of re-heating furnace at1250°C going through rough-

ing mill, coil box, finishing milland so on. Each of the process-es requires definite time andthat also depends on width. Sowe had to factor where wecould save time without com-promising on quality. We didachieve what we had to bymaintaining quality.

IInn wwhhaatt mmaannnneerr ddiidd tthhee ccoomm--ppaannyy bbeenneeffiitt??In financial term it was a goodjump. What may seem as mar-ginal to others is not in termsof tonnage manufactured.Through these improvementswe were able to manufacture anextra 1.50 lakh tonnes a yearand in financial terms it was anadditional `75 cr per annum.

“We achieved what we had to by maintaining quality”

WHY-WHY ANALYSIS

High Reversal Time

Bar Stopping to Far From RM

1- Slow Decelaration of Roller Table2- Delayed Stop Command

Why

Why

qci.qxd 4/28/2011 6:06 PM Page 4


Dabur, a brand thatrequires no intro-duction and amatching pedi-gree, was founded

in 1884 by Dr S K Burman. DrBurman’s mission was to pro-duce healthcare products, acommendable feat in an erawhen foreign medicines andhealthcare products ruled theroost. Over the years his descen-dants furthered Dr Burman’sdream to give Indians totallyIndian products formulatedwith Indian herbal ingredients.Its three strategic business divi-sions are: consumer care divi-sion, consumer health divisionand international division.

The company’s productsare marketed in 60 countriesand have manufacturing units inBangladesh, Egypt, Pakistan,

Nepal, Nigeria, UAE and USA.Its major brands are Dabur(ayurvedic healthcare prod-ucts), Vatika (premium haircare), Hajmola (digestives),Real (fruit juices and beverages)and Fem (fairness bleaches andskin care products). Dabur’smarket leader products are hon-ey, Chyawanprash, Hajmola andIsabgol.

Ayurvet Limited, earlierknown as Dabur Ayurvet Limit-ed, is into animal healthcareproducts catering to a wide rangeof animal species. These aremanufactured from natural andherbal products. Now, they haveintroduced hydroponics to theirproduct portfolio. Hydroponicsagriculture is not known tomany. It has many benefits toagriculture as compared to tradi-tional cultivation methods. It

uses lesser quantities ofresources such as water, land andfertiliser.

Mohan Saxena, ManagingDirector, Ayurvet Ltd says,“World population is growing,landmass is shrinking for culti-vation, water is becoming dearerand price of fertilisers is soaring.Under these circumstances,innovation is the answer.”Though conservation is laud-able but conservation alone willnot be enough to take care ofpresent and potential problemsin future. A paradigm shifttowards innovative agriculturesystem is needed.

Ayurvet ProGreen Hydro-ponics machines are the solu-tion for green fodder based onthe integration of agricultureand livestock production havingsalient benefits to both. The

��

Ayurvet Limited, earlierknown as DaburAyurvet Limited, is intoanimal healthcareproducts catering to awide range of animalspecies. These aremanufactured fromnatural and herbalproducts. Now, theyhave introducedhydroponics to theirproduct portfolio. ��

WWEELLLL DDEESSEERRVVEEDD::Mohan Saxena, ManagingDirector, Ayurvet Limited, receivingthe award from QCI ChairmanArun Maira.

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


Ayurvet’s novel approach to quality

agricultural

Ayurvet.qxd 4/28/2011 6:14 PM Page 3


machines come in four dimen-sions for producing 50 kg, 240kg, 480 kg and 500 kg fodder perday. The dimension of a typical50 kg per day machine is 8 ft x 4ft x 8 ft and the dimensionincreases for higher capacitymachines. The fodder or othercrops are on trays inside themachine. The major benefitsare:

� Saving of land: Requires 135sq ft for 240 kg fodder pro-duction as against 2,178 sq ftin conventional system.

� Saving of water: Requires 2-3litres of water to produce 1kg as compared to 80-90litres as in conventional sys-tem.

� Saving of time: Requires onlyseven-day production cyclefrom seeds to fully grownplants with biomass conser-vation ratio of 6-8 times.

� Nutritional value: Greenfeed is highly rich in protein,vitamin content and energy.It is also contamination free.

The comparative details are:

“The state of our livestockmeant for milching is certainlynot good mainly due to pooranimal feed. The livestockherders have to go long dis-tances either for grazing or fetch-ing green fodder. With hydro-ponics several issues like nutri-ent fodder, availability are takencare of,” mentioned Dr A. Kalra,CEO (Animal Feed Business).Of course, hydroponics conceptis still in its nascent stage. Anyinnovation takes time to sink infor people to understand. They,perhaps, look at the initialinvestment cost. The company,however, claims the machinesare not meant for merely pro-ducing fodder but even for grow-ing vegetables.

The production in hydro-ponics is an year-round, dailyactivity and depending on themachine capacity one can har-vest between 50 kg and 500 kgfodder every day. A comparisonbetween conventional andhydroponics fodder productioneconomics for 500 kg is indeedimpressive. Taking intoaccount, costs incurred on 500kg fodder production on land,seed, land preparation, water,fertiliser and pesticide, labour,electricity and transportation aconventional method wouldcost `1,02,094 against `12,194in hydroponics production. Theeconomics is, indeed, in favourof hydroponics in addition toother benefits. �

��

Ayurvet ProGreenHydroponics machinesare the solution forgreen fodder based onthe integration ofagriculture andlivestock productionhaving salient benefitsto both. The machinescome in fourdimensions forproducing 50 kg, 240kg, 480 kg and 500 kgfodder per day. ��


Nutrient Grain Conventional Hydroponics

(percentage) Barley Fodder Fodder

Protein 10.10 11.50 31.99

Fibre 6.80 31.8 24.75

Energy 3,900 2,600 4,727

(kcal/kg)

Ash 2.79 11.40 5.70

CCHHEECCKKSS AANNDD BBAALLAANNCCEESS:: Maj. Gen.(retd.) Dr. R. M. Kharab, Chairman Animal Welfare Board of India, appraising theAyurvet ProGreen hydroponics green feed.

Ayurvet.qxd 4/28/2011 6:14 PM Page 4


Wipro Limited,headquarteredin Bengaluru, is$ 6 billion com-pany. The four

divisions of Wipro Limited areWipro Technologies, Wipro Con-sumer Care and Lighting, WiproInfrastructure Services and WiproEco Engineering. It is threedecades into IT industry and thefirst one to obtain SEI CMM Lev-el 5 certified software servicescompany and also the first outsidethe USA to receive IEEE SoftwareProcess Award.

Wipro is a global IT servicescompany that provides consulting,business process outsourcing,business technology services,enterprise application services,infrastructure management, test-ing, product engineering, engineer-ing design and product support.Their services are spread across arange of strategic domains and isbacked by more than 1,00,000associates from over 70 nationali-ties and 72 plus global deliverycentres in over 55 countries. Itbelieves in knowledge investmentbacked by years of R&D has led to

the creation of laboratories andcentres of excellence to produceinnovative solutions. This hasenabled to acquire more than 800active clients that include govern-ments, educational institutions,utility services, and over 150 globalFortune 500 enterprises.

Business process outsourcing(BPO) optimises business per-formance to attain value creation.There has been tremendousupsurge in the outsourcing indus-try in many developing countries,like India, which aid in reducingcosts and in increasing servicequality.

The domestic BPO market,would touch almost $ 7 billion by2013, is evolving into third-party‘transformational outsourcing’relationships from the existing cap-tive dominated market structure.This implies that rather than mere-ly running isolated processes forcustomers, BPOs would engagemore deeply to identify and trans-form core business processes toadd greater market value in the“creation and delivery of end prod-ucts and services”.

The Wipro organisation is

split into several industry verticalsfrom customer relationship man-agement, technical helpdesk sup-port, finance and accounting rightup to industry specific and spe-cialised. Some of these are:� Finance and Accounts Out-

sourcingThis, perhaps, is the most

essential fundamental of any enter-prise. This ensures effective opera-tions with requisite complianceand controls, balancing expensesversus growth, reducing the cashcycle and maximising return oninvestment. It offers operating costreduction, win-win transformationmodel, scalable and sustainableservices and continuous improve-ments and innovation. � Human Resource Outsourc-

ingServices and products portfo-

lio management has driven organi-sations globally to rethink theirservice delivery strategy. The com-pany’s human resource outsourc-ing has substantial capability tosupport the full spectrum of HRservice offerings through acombination of certified domainexperts, proven transition method-

��

There has beentremendous upsurge inthe outsourcingindustry in manydeveloping countries,like India, which aid inreducing costs and inincreasing servicequality. The domesticBPO market, wouldtouch almost $ 7 billionby 2013.��

AA LLEEAAPP FFOORRWWAARRDD::Devender Malhotra, Head Quality,Wipro BPO, receiving the awardfrom QCI Chairman Arun Maira.

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


Getting the most from

each call

Wipro.qxd 4/28/2011 7:05 PM Page 3


ology and quality driven opera-tional execution. � Procurement Outsourcing

This is the turnkey solution tosupply chain management, fromproduct sourcing to delivery. Itdelivers transformational source-to-pay procurement outsourcingservices for in diversified industrysegments, thereby helping clientsconvert their fixed costs to variablecosts and improve profitability,service levels and internal client sat-isfaction.� Knowledge Process Out-

sourcing In recent years knowledge and

legal process is gaining momen-tum. It entails business research,analytics, reporting, planning andanalysis. The outsourcing capabili-ties are in the form of methodolo-gies, competence and enablingtechnologies of the targeted busi-ness processes meaning processflows, value drivers and functionalor sub-sector knowledge.

The current project is about amajor hardware company, a For-tune 100 American Company,demanding greater sales and rev-enues since the client’s incentivesscheme was not in line with busi-ness needs and also no structuredapproach for revenue per call out-lier management.

Project: Improving revenueper call.

A company always expects a

call to fructify into sales but it hasnot always been the case irrespec-tive of the product or the brandname. Presently companies relymore on the outsourced agenciesfor such transactions and moreimportantly generating more rev-enue per calls. Wipro’s associationwith this hardware client started in2005 with a few professionals,however in due course strength-ened to 3,000 support profession-als. Wipro provides Level 1 andLevel 2 technical support to endcustomers through inbound andoutbound, e-support channels forclients’ products in the NorthAmerican region.

Apart from providing techni-cal support, Wipro also does “con-textual selling” of products andservices relevant to the customer’sneed by generating additional rev-enue for the client. And also rev-enue generation from “cross sell-ing” through support channels iskey strategy to gain greater marketshare and enhance customer reten-tion. The critical to quality (CTQ)key issue is to improve revenue percall and improve revenue fromcross selling.

In SIPOC analysis, input,process and output were of particu-lar importance to this project. Thecustomer call, help tool, internalhelp, agent support group help andknowledge base, in input, were thestart point followed by process step

that pegs on the onward journey.The procedure in this phase is callshit automatic call distribution,frontline agents (agents handlingcalls) greets and verifies customerinformation, probes customer onthe issue, searches for information,provides solution, frontline agents(FLA) pitches for sale, FLA com-pletes sale followed by validation ofsale.

In define phase of DMAIC,business case, problem statement,goal statement, project statement,client and Wipro benefits were jot-ted. The important points in busi-ness case were:

� Revenue generation is a keystrategy to gain greater strate-gy of wallet of American con-sumer.

� With increasing market com-petition it is critical to retaincustomers through cross sell-ing.

� Wipro being major touchpoint for client’s end con-sumers need to deliver on rev-enue per call metric to be apartner of choice.

� An improvement in revenueper call from $ 5.05 (Mar-Jun‘09) to $ 6.34 (by Dec ‘09) atWipro would bring in an esti-mated additional revenue of $4 million for client and $75,000 additional incentive forWipro.

��

Apart from providingtechnical support,Wipro also does“contextual selling” ofproducts and servicesrelevant to thecustomer’s need bygenerating additionalrevenue for the client.And also revenuegeneration from “crossselling” throughsupport channels. ��


Devender Malhotra, Head Qual-ity, Wipro BPO, on how revenueper call was increased.

IInn wwhhaatt mmaannnneerr ccaann yyoouu rreeaallllyyiinnccrreeaassee rreevveennuuee ppeerr ccaallll??Customers, for example,approach us to sort outproblems in their laptops ordesktop computers. Weimmediately detect and analyse

the problem that the customer isencountering and providetechnical support. The customerhas to go back satisfied that theproblem has been solved. Also,we have to have experts in thatparticular domain and we dohave.

WWiitthh rreeffeerreennccee ttoo tthhiiss ppaarrttiiccuullaarrpprroojjeecctt yyoouurr cclliieenntt sseeeemmeedd ttooffoorreesseeee ddeeccrreeaassiinngg rreevveennuueeggeenneerraattiioonn.. HHooww ddiidd yyoouu ssoollvveeiitt??This client is a Fortune 100American hardware company.They observed that enoughrevenue generation was notthere and needed us to improveit. The company has been with

us since 2005 and for this clientwe up-sell and cross-sell theproducts and we had to analysethe reasons for decliningrevenues.

WWhheenn aa ccuussttoommeerr iiss nnoott hhaappppyywwiitthh aa pprroodduucctt oorr iittssppeerrffoorrmmaannccee aannyy uupp--sseelllliinngg oorrccrroossss--sseelllliinngg iiss ffuuttiillee.. HHooww ddooyyoouu rreessoollvvee iitt??Of course, customer satisfactionis very important. That is wherewe come into picture. And thatcan be done only if expertise isat hand and resolve theproblem. Only then would acustomer listen to us. As you areaware one cannot sell a productif the customer is dissatisfied.

HHooww ddiidd yyoouu rreessoollvvee tthheeiirrpprroobblleemm?? We adopted Six Sigma DMAICmethodology. We had to analysefrom bottom up. For instance,when a call is received, how doesthe frontline associate receive,react and resolve the customer’squeries and at the end of it whatis the customer’s reaction? Crossselling can happen only when acustomer is happy and willing tolisten. We can neverunderestimate the customer’sview.We detected the fault lines,measured various ways tomitigate them and thenimproved upon it.

“Six Sigma helped us detect the fault lines”



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 part-ners. In measure it was essential to

establish performance standards.The critical to quality was revenueper call and this depended on out-put characteristic (revenuebooked), project Y (revenue percall per day) target (in excess of $6.34), specification limit ($ 6.34)and defect (revenue per call lessthan $ 6.34 on any day).

The first step was to do inter-nal benchmarking in analyse phasethat included hypothesis, hypothe-sis test, statistical tool drawing toconclusion. In hypothesis test wasto identify if any significant differ-ences in Mean revenue per call ofdifferent product lines. Nullhypothesis and alternate hypothe-sis were considered and using sta-tistical tool (1-Way ANOVA) itwas concluded that since P value offor null hypothesis was less than0.05 this hypothesis rejected with95 percent confidence.

The qualitative elements inanalyse phase were hiring profile,floor induction training, incentive,rewards and recognition, coaching,peer to peer learning, outlier man-agement, customer profile modulegoal setting and branding. The

quantitative parameters were offerrate, conversion rate, total problemresolutions, out of warranty andcustomer satisfaction, thoughthese parameters were statisticallyimpacting revenue per call.

In improve phase vital X fac-tors were taken. � Factor 1: The proposed

solution was to increaseoffer rate by 65 percent

� Factor 2: Cross sell to be adifferentiator in floor induc-tion training graduation.

� Factor 3: Sale-a-day pro-gramme launched to drivefront line associate partici-pation and track dailyprogress. Changes made tothe participation calculationmethodology for 1 sale aweek to 5 sales a week to

drive floor participation.� Factor 4: Launched a struc-

tured 4 week “Sale Bay” outliermanagement programme.Sales Bay training programmestrongly focuses on bottom 10per cent outliers of the floorwith high resolution score andlow revenue per call. This pro-gramme was aimed at sharingthe best practices and hencebringing about consistency inthe sales performance of FLA.

� Factor 5: Customer profilingmodule for right product forright customer to improveconversion rate.

� Factor 6: Hiring profilechanges incorporated in jobdescription for FLA withinclusion of selling as a keydeliverables. Hire FLA withprior sales experience to theextent possible. Incorporatecross selling attributes in initialscreening.

� Factor 7: Differentiate crossselling performance outside ofappraisal system.

� Factor 8: Sale-a-day pro-gramme launched to driveFLA participation and trackdaily progress. Through these measures

Mean shifted from $ 5.05 to $ 6.42and the Median shifted from $ 4.98to $ 6.50. From pre-project revenueper call of $ 5 increased to $ 7 post-project and the future is expected tobe even brighter targeting $ 8 rev-enue per call. In financial terms theclient benefited with additional rev-enue of $ 5.90 million (annualised)and Wipro’s accrual was an addi-tional $ 1,50,000. �

Wipro IT business, a division of Wipro Limited, isamong the largest global IT services, BPO and productengineering companies. In addition to the IT business,Wipro also has leadership position in the niche marketsegments of consumer products and lighting solutions.Annual turnover of the company is $ 6 billion. Thecompany is listed on the BSE, NSE and New York StockExchange. This global IT giant offers consultancy, businessprocess outsourcing, business technology services,enterprise application services, infrastructure manage-ment, testing, product engineering, engineering designand product support. Reinvention is its forte as far astechnology and process advancement is concerned.Three decades in the IT industry, Wipro is backed withunmatched technical expertise and insights to maintainhighest levels of compliance and quality that go withchanging times and technology.

�A pro all through ��

Sales Bay trainingprogramme stronglyfocuses on bottom 10per cent outliers ofthe floor with highresolution score andlow revenue per call.This programme was aimed at sharingthe best practices and hence bringingabout consistency inthe sales performanceof FLA.��


SSKKYY IISS TTHHEE LLIIMMIITT::Wipro’s area ofoperations has grown largely, thanksto its burgeoning BPO operations.



In the last decade, liberalisa-tion in the insurance sectorhas seen tremendousupsurge both in generaland life insurance cate-

gories. Max New York Life Insur-ance Company Limited, a jointventure between Max India Lim-ited and New York Life Interna-tional. Max New York Interna-tional, an international arm ofNew York Life is a Fortune 100company and Max India Limitedis a multi-business enterprise,based in Delhi.

Max New York Life has multi-channel distribution spread acrossthe country. Agency distribution isthe primary channel completed bypartnership distribution, alliancemarketing and dedicated distribu-tion in emerging markets. Thecompany places a lot of emphasison its selection process for agentadvisor, which comprises fourstages - screening, psychometrictest, career seminar and final inter-view. The company has more than71,000 agent advisors at 676offices across 389 cities and town-ships. The company also has 50tie-ups with banks, 30 partnershipdistribution relationships. MaxNew York Life has put in place aunique hub and spoke model ofdistribution to deepen rural pene-tration. This is the first time such amodel has been for rural market-ing of insurance with 139 officesdedicated to rural areas.

The usual line taken by everyinsurance company is that unex-pected events that strike withoutwarning can disrupt rhythm of

life and be prepared. It is more soin India where per capita insur-ance is perhaps lowest in theworld. Though people here aregood at saving their earnings butlittle headway has been made asfar as insurance is concerned.Max New York offers a suite offlexible products. It now has 25individual life and health insur-ance products and 8 ridersenabling customers to choose thepolicy that best fits their need.Besides this, the company offers6 products and 7 riders in groupinsurance business.

Mac New York Life(MNYL) insurance has threebroad divisions - individual, cor-porate and non-resident Indian.The individual division consistsof Life Plan, Growth Plan, ChildPlan, Health Plan and Retire-ment Plan. The life plan consistsof MNYL Platinum Protect, 20Year Endowment, Life Gain Plus20, Whole Life Participating,Endowment to Age 60, Life GainPlus 25, Life Pay Money Backand Life Gain Endowment. Thegrowth plan covers MNYL FlexiFortune and MNYL ShubhIncome. The child plan consistsMNYL College Plan and MNYLShiksha Plus II. The policiesunder health plan are LifeLineMediCash Plus, MNYL LifeLineHealth Family, LifeLine SafetyNet and LifeLine Wellness Plus.The retirement plan covers LifePartner Plus and ImmediateAnnuity.

In the past, group insurancewas mostly confined to the gov-

ernment institutions and publicsector undertakings. Now, ofcourse, even companies in pri-vate sector are into group insur-ance. Though corporate honchosmay view it as a power tool, formotivation, reward and retentionin these times of high attritionbut for the employee it all aboutsafety at work place and on theshop floor. It may not be entirelyaltruism but may work as anincentive to opt for a workplacewhere there is safety in work. Thecorporate group plan consists ofCorporate Group Credit Line,Corporate Group Term Life,Max Super Life, CorporateEmployee Deposit Linked Insur-ance and Group Gratuity cumTerm Assurance.

The insurance companies viewith one another to enrol morecustomers but in that processwhat is written in “fine print” isnot told to the customer. In thatprocess when the customerrealises he/she has been led upthe illusive garden path, the cus-tomer rejects the policy proposal.MNYL Insurance faced similarsituation.Project: Sankalp - Reduce busi-ness leakage.

MYNL Insurance, in Punjab,faced a piquant situation in busi-ness leakage. It is an emergingmarket and considering theincome level in Punjab, insurancebusiness ought to be good but itwas not so and the loss in 2009was `14.40 cr (annualised). Themanagement believed that anopportunity existed to reduce the

��

The company places alot of emphasis on itsselection process foragent advisor, whichcomprises four stages:screening,psychometric test,career seminar andfinal interview. Thecompany has more than71,000 agent advisorsat 676 offices across389 cities andtownships.��

SELLING HEALTH AND LIFE INSURANCE IS A TRICKY BUSINESS — ESPECIALLY ON PHONE. NANDUMANJESHWAR FOUND HOW MNYL REDUCED LEAKAGES AND CREATED A BENCHMARK.


Sealing deals through

quality

qci.qxd 4/28/2011 6:38 PM Page 2


business leakage from 14 per cent(on applied business betweenJanuary and February ‘09) to 8per cent which would result inrevenue generation of Rs 13.23 crand save operational cost by Rs6.39 lakh (annualised).

Six Sigma DMAIC method-ology was adopted. In the definephase, the tools used were projectcharter, communication plan,ARMI (approver, resource, mem-ber and interested party), criticalprocesses, SIPOC, top downchart, functional deploymentchart, qualitative analysis andquick wins. In communicationplan meeting/update and theirfrequency were fixed - Team sta-tus update meeting (weekly),leakage status report (monthly),project plan update (weekly) andproject reviews (fortnightly).

In SIPOC, the process was ofutmost importance. Startingpoint was general office and end

point being premium payment ofpolicy after 30 days of issuance.The processes were: Applicationreceived at general office, dataentry in system and banking,cheque cleared/bounced, pro-posal accepted/cancelled, cus-tomer initiated cancellation andpremium paying policy after 30days.

The top down chart of policyissuance process (and sub-process) is:Application received at generaloffice:� Customer fills and signs the

proposal form.� Proposal form along with

financial instrument submit-ted at General Office.

Data entry in the system andcheque banking:� Proposal form along with

financial instrument accept-ed at General Office.

� Data entry in the system.

� Financial instrument sent tobank.

� Documents screened andsent to Head Office.

� Completion of data entry atHead Office.

Cheque bounced or cleared:� Clearance received from

bank� Money applied against pro-

posal.Proposal enforced or cancelled:� Policy enforced or cancelled.� Policy pack despatched to

General Office.� Policy pack received at Gen-

eral Office.� Policy pack handed over to

agent.� Policy pack received by cus-

tomer.Customer initiated cancellation:� Customer initiates cancella-

tion.� Cheque bouncesThe tools used in measure phasewere Ishikawa diagram, opera-tional definition, data collectionformat, data measurement plan,and measurement analysis.Ishikawa diagram identified 22probable factors. In operationaldefinition the factors, and causesfor business leakages, were highspurt in number of cases at themonth-end, time taken for chequeclearance is inordinately long,high attrition level of sales man-agers, mode (monthly and quar-terly) of payment enforcement,method of payment and finallyduration of sales managers.

In analyse phase the focus wason the factors causing business

��

Group insurance wasconfined to thegovernment institutions.Now, even companies inprivate sector are intogroup insurance. Thoughcorporate honchos mayview it as a power tool,for motivation, rewardand retention in times ofhigh attrition but for theemployee it is all aboutsafety at work place andon the shop floor.��

Max New York Life Insurance Company Limited is a joint venturebetween Max India Limited and New York Life International, theinternational arm of New York Life, a Fortune 100 company, posi-tioning itself on the quality platform. Max India Limited is oneIndia’s leading multi-business corporations.

Max New York Life offers a suite of flexible products. It nowhas 25 individual life and health insurance products and eight rid-ers enabling customers to choose the policy that best fits theirneed. Besides this, the company offers six products and seven rid-ers in group insurance business. The company has 676 offices and139 dedicated to rural areas. 71,000 strong agent advisors workingin 389 cities generate not only business but also educating peopleabout the benefits of life insurance. .

�Maximum insurance

EESSPPOOUUSSIINNGG CCOONNFFIIDDEENNCCEE::R P Singh, Director and Head(Emerging Markets), Max New YorkLife (fourth from left) receiving award.


qci.qxd 4/28/2011 6:38 PM Page 3


leakages (all the X factors). Busi-ness pressure indicated spike high-est at month-end, cheque clear-ance turn around time exceeding15 days was highest followed bythose between 8-15 days. Attritionlevel of sales manager was due totermination, in mode of paymentcategory the maximum defaulterswere in monthly payment segmentfollowed quarterly, similarlybouncing of cheques was high andfinally attrition of sales manageraffected performance and businessleakage.

The possible solution inimprove phase were:Business pressure/spike at

month-end volumes:� Compulsory self sourcing by

sales managers to be discon-tinued

� Non-acceptance of up-coun-try cheques at month-end.

� Weekly targets for sales team� Applied and paid month-end

dates to have at least 5 daysdifference.

High cheque clearing turnaround time:� Non-acceptance of up-coun-

try cheques.� Processing up-country

cheques through speed clear-ance.

� Tie-up with bank having a

wide branch network ofwhich up-country will beconverted to local.

High attrition rate of sales man-agers:� No self sourcing by sales

managers.� Laxity of confirmation crite-

ria.� Initial hand holding by sen-

ior officers.Mode of payment:� Control on monthly and

quarterly mode payment.� Acceptance of monthly

mode with ECS/direct deb-it/PDC.

� Higher minimum premiumlimit for monthly/quarterlymode.

Type of financial instrument:

� Higher monthly/quarterlylimits for cases initial premi-um in cash/DD.

� Initial premium withcash/DD promoted withadvantage like lesser turnaround time.

� Non-acceptance of chequesat month-end. The proposals were imple-

mented in Punjab and replicatedin all 139 rural offices. A revisedfunctional deployment chart andprocess control sheet prepared.The results were impressive:Achievement of 137 percentreduction in business leakage anda cost saving of `9.60 lakh andthe business impact `21.80 cr(per annum), which was addi-tional 22 per cent business for thechannel. �

��

In operationaldefinition, the factorsand causes for businessleakages, were high in anumber of cases at themonth-end, time takenfor cheque clearance isinordinately long, highattrition level of salesmanagers, mode ofpayment enforcement.��


R P Singh, Director and Head(Emerging Markets), Max NewYork Life, on the methods usedto stem leakage.

TThhee wwoorrdd lleeaakkaaggee iiss uusseedd iinn tthhee

pprroojjeecctt.. HHooww ddoo yyoouu ddeeffiinnee iitt iinniinnssuurraannccee??There is intense competition ininsurance segment in the coun-try and it has happened withinthe last decade. The staff andagents have to approach prospec-tive customers with life insur-ance proposals educating themabout the benefits of insurance.Some respond and others do not.Of those who respond we foundmany withdraw before makingpayment and some withdrawafter completion of formalities.

This, we term as leakage.

WWhhaatt,, iinn yyoouurr vviieeww,, aarree tthhee ffaacc--ttoorrss tthhaatt lleedd ttoo tthhiiss ssiittuuaattiioonn??The reasons are both within andwithout. There is certain criteri-on one has to fulfil in the policyapplication form, this is thenorm. When those criteria arenot fulfilled, obviously the appli-cation is rejected. These relevantpoints need to be informed tothe applicant and if it is not fol-lowed, while the application isrejected, the customer or the

applicant gets rejected too.

IItt aappppeeaarrss tthhaatt tthhee ssttaaffff oorraaggeennttss aarree nnoott wweellll vveerrsseedd wwiitthhtthhee rruulleess aanndd rreegguullaattiioonnss??No, it was not the case. In fact,there were multiple reasons andthat was the reason we initiatedproject Sankalp. This businessleakage was in Punjab. We usedSix Sigma DMAIC methodology.In the end it became a bench-mark for emerging markets. Thebusiness imp-act was a healthy`21.80 cr per annum.

“Six Sigma methods fixed the problems”

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

� High cheque-bounce cases in specific branchoffice or at sales managers.

� Acceptance of cash or demand draft only inthose specific branches.

� High turn around time in clearance and highprobability of up-country cheques bouncing.

� Non-acceptance of up-country cheques.

CONCERNS/ISSUES SOLUTIONS

� High free-look cancellations and no acknowl-edgement proof available.

� Despatch of policy directly to customer.

� Difficult to detect mis-selling data quality. � Difficult to detect mis-selling data quality.

� Office-wise performance including leakage wasnot getting shared with other offices and otheroffices are unaware of own performance in rela-tion to others.

� Branch-wise weekly score card.

� Mounting number of after enforcement cancel-lations and no proactive communication tosales for retaining the business.

� State level free- look cancellation report.

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

qci.qxd 4/28/2011 6:38 PM Page 4


Capgemini India isthe Indian arm ofthe global giantCapgemini head-quartered in Paris.

Every industry has its own uniquerequirements and challenges andCapgemini India, with its indus-try domain experts, works withIndian businesses to address theirunique challenges in makingthem competitive globally.

Capgemini believes in thephilosophy that people matterand results count. In today’s glob-al business environment, technol-ogy is sans border and competi-tion is indeed global. The key is torespond to the complex and unex-pected challenges. Thus, develop-ing customised business strategiesand technologies to helpingclients deal with changing busi-ness and technology issues itoffers contemporary solutions-based tools, methodologies andbeat practices developed overyears of experience. The collabo-rative business experience helpsdefine the rules and is central toCapgemini’s philosophy and a pil-

lar of service delivery. The fourdimensions of collaboration are: � Targeting Value: Exactly

understand what is to beachieved and establish targetsall along the path of the proj-ect.

� Mitigating Risk: Project fail-ure is a major concern. Thedimension reflects attentionpaid in understanding thestakes of an initiative and thelevel of risk inherent in theinitiative. Initiative managesthe risk and reduce the obsta-cles that otherwise reducevalue realisation.

� Optimising Capabilities:This dimension refers to two-way transfer of knowledgeduring the project and theefforts to ensure that theknow-how and supportrequired to sustain the valueof the project is in place tillcompletion of the project.

� Aligning the Organisation:Initiatives often fail to pro-vide lasting value becauseeither implementation fails oris delayed within the organi-

sation. This failure can resultfrom a number of causes.Knowing what might inhibitimplementation can shapethe nature of collaborationand accelerate the realisationof project value.

Capgemini group is one of theworld’s largest management andIT consulting firms. The key fea-tures of business are finance andaccounting, assurance, researchservices, engineering services,analytics, data management, anti-money laundering, supply chain,life sciences BPO and contentmanagement.

The current project isfocussed on master data manage-ment (MDM) process for one ofthe largest beverages company inthe world. Any delay or an error inthe process will impact businessrevenue and sales turnover, how-ever, Capgemini India’s operatingmargin was declining. Project: Pragati — Journeytowards excellence.

The objective was to improvethe beverages client’s master dataprocess and at the time of initiat-

��

Capgemini group isworld’s largestmanagement and ITconsulting firms. The keyfeatures of business arefinance and accounting,assurance, researchservices, analytics, datamanagement, anti-money laundering,supply chain, life sciencesBPO and contentmanagement.��

TTOOWWAARRDDSS AA QQUUAALLIITTAATTIIVVEEPPRROOGGRREESSSS:: The Capgemini teamrecieving prize from Arun Maira,Chairman, Quality Council of India,during the Sixth Conclave.

WHEN CAPGEMINI DISCOVERED IT WAS EMPLOYING A HIGHER NUMBER OF PERSONNEL FORCLIENTS BRINGING PROFITS, IT FORMED A SIX SIGMA TEAM, REPORTS NANDU MANJESHWAR.


Quality progress with

‘Pragati’

Capgemini.qxd 4/28/2011 5:52 PM Page 3


ing the project the average pro-ductivity was 60 requests per per-son per day. During due diligence(transition of process from clientto Capgemini), Capgemini agreedthe productivity of 96 calls perperson per day to meet client’sservice level agreement (SLA).The low-productivity resulted indeployment of more persons(headcounts) than contracted tomeet the client’s demand. Cur-rently, in a meeting client’sdemand 85 headcount wasdeployed against 50, 70 per centmore than the contract require-ment. Apart from extra headcountother 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 manualand only detection based.

� High-processing time in newcustomer master data cre-ation (16 min against the tar-get of 4.50 min per request).

� Low visibility on accuracy ofcustomer master database(75 per cent against the targetof 97 per cent).

� Highly person-dependentprocess (100 per cent in all

the six major process steps)The reason was too many processreferences and validation leadingto long-process time. Another rea-son being requests were unevenlyallocated due to manual allocationprocess and skill set restrictionsand also lack of excellent skills,poor error tracking and reportingmechanism coupled with highmanual dependent process.

Through the voice of stake-holders inference drawn wasthree main points — Need toidentify a solution to handle theworkflow with on time and accu-rate service delivery, actiontowards improving the opera-tional margin and improve thetechnical efficiency and ensureimprovement of transaction out-put. The improvement idea wasdiscussed with the client, keybusiness decision-makers andprocessing team. Voice of stake-holders confirmed the idea andagreed to drive the projectthrough Six Sigma DMAIC cycle.

Before launching project ‘Pra-gati’, key resources were identifiedand trained on the Six Sigmamethodologies and Lean con-cepts to resolve the problem.Appropriate tools and method-ologies were used during the proj-

ect. Critical to quality (CTQ) andsupplier, input, process, outputand customer (SIPOC) method-ology applied. In SIPOC high-lev-el understanding of the scope ofthe process was obtained. Clarityon the process, process owner andthe boundaries of the project wasagreed upon and provided a struc-tured way to discuss the processand get consensus on what itinvolves before the Team pro-gressed to the next stage.

The CTQ defined the cus-tomer requirement in relation tooperation definition. Creation ofmaster data with optimal process-ing time, efficiency and resourceswere critical performance stan-dards traced to critical servicedelivery, while correct master datacreation was confirmed to the crit-ical performance requirement forthe service delivery quality.

The Team used Lean (value -stream mapping) and basic tools(Fishbone and Pareto) to performthe root cause analysis and finallyfailure mode effect analysis(FMEA) to confirm the effect ofnew process. The value streammapping inference was most ofthe process steps were manuallyincluding intervention, the overallprocessing time 16 min, lead time

��

Before launchingproject ‘Pragati’, keyresources wereidentified and trainedon the Six Sigmamethodologies andLean concepts toresolve the problem.Appropriate tools andmethodologies wereused during theproject. ��


Raman Katyal, Director (Opera-tions), Capgemini India, on theinclusion of the strong Six Sig-ma team to lower the headcountand maintain delivery excel-lence.

WWhhyy wwaass tthheerree ssoo mmuucchh vvaarriiaa--ttiioonn iinn ssttaaffffiinngg ppaatttteerrnn ffoorr aa ssiinn--ggllee pprroojjeecctt oorr aa cclliieenntt??It was neither deliberate noraccidental. It was about addingvalue to our client. How we didand why we did that was thebasis of this project. Initially, we

had to deploy more people tomeet the client’s expectations asper the statutory requirementand meet the customer’s servicestandards. Later we identifiedthe gap and wastages since ouroperating margins were decreas-ing.

YYoouu hhaavvee cclliieennttss ooffffeerriinngg ddiiffffeerr--eenntt pprroodduuccttss aanndd ooppeerraattiinngg iinnddiiffffeerreenntt ddoommaaiinnss.. HHooww ddoo yyoouuoorrggaanniissee ssttaaffffiinngg??Yes, we do have a large clientbase. There are cross-functionalteams to deal with variousfunctions and clients. In thisparticular case, we had a com-mitment of 50 headcounts asper the service level agreementbut were employing 85. Wewere meeting client’s require-ment but internally it was toomuch and that was affecting

our operating margins.

HHooww ddiidd yyoouu oovveerrccoommee tthhiisspprreeddiiccaammeenntt ooff eexxttrraa ddeeppllooyy--mmeenntt ooff mmaannppoowweerr??In all our activities we alwayskeep a tab on our operatingprofit for each project and inthis case we found that ouroperating profit was decliningrather than catered for. In ourcontract with the client we hadagreed to run the business with50 headcounts but exceeded thatnumber though we were meet-ing client’s requirement, accura-cy and quality. Once we understood our draw-back, we formed a Six Sigmateam to streamline the opera-tion. Through this project weeliminated wastages and subse-quently brought a lot of stan-dardisation. In addition we

brought in technology solu-tions that we leveraged inbringing down headcountswithout compromising eitheraccuracy or quality or timelydelivery schedules.

HHooww wwiillll yyoouu mmaannaaggee ffuuttuurreecclliieennttss aanndd pprroojjeeccttss wwiitthhoouuttccoommmmiittttiinngg tthhee ssaammee mmiissttaakkee??Of course, this was a lessonlearnt in our eagerness to provethat we can do better in everyaspect like meeting deliveryschedules, accuracy and quality.Again this is lesson learnt inhandling clients from any sector-- be it telecom or retail orbanking, etc. We believe inglobal benchmarking and havea strong Six Sigma team tomanage the nitty-gritty andbelieve in the philosophy ofdelivery excellence.

“We believe in global benchmarking”



34.35 min, the request waits foralmost 15 min between allocationand before being acted upon 1sttouch and quality check beingdone post-delivery and found tobe totally non-value addition.

The cause and effect (Fish-bone) diagram inference wasidentified with the team’s causecategory based on the area of painand causes were listed in each cate-gory. The inference drawn by thedrill down analysis through boxplots indicated that Teams B andC performance was better thanTeams A and D: 70 per cent of thedata points of Team B and 65 percent of Team C indicated perform-ance above baseline while low per-formance observed in Teams Aand D were only 35 per cent and45 per cent, respectively, of thedata points above the baseline.Also, no significant correlation ortrend was observed in a day againstthe volume inflow (an average of4,824 request received in a day wasobserved from the historic data).Skill set matrix indicated that if anassociate well versed in all threestages of the process was consid-ered an ‘expert’, then in descendingorder ‘2’ was the intermediate and‘1’ the beginner.

The analysis through value-stream mapping, skill-set mappingand team-wise performance indi-cated gap between expectation andshortfall. This enabled the stepsthat had to be taken:� Develop an action plan for the

prioritised root causes with

person responsible and mile-stone to be achieved.

� Develop to-be (or proposedprocess) value stream processmap.

� Conduct cost-benefit analysisfor the identified actions andget the approval from sponsorand client-related changes tobe obtained from client.

� Collect data in the new formatfor understanding the impact.

� Consolidation of multiplesolutions.

The proposed process throughvalue-stream mapping inferenceswas implementation of work-flowmanagement tool to enable effec-tive and even the work allocation,effective and systematic cus-tomer master data processingsystem (CMPDS) validation

performed with minimal inter-vention and improve versatilityof the team to ensure processassociates understand and per-form effectively all stages of mas-ter data setup.

In control stage sustainingresults were important. Theclient’s target on service deliveryexceeded (from 97 per cent to98.5 per cent), process controldeveloped, business logics usedfor the development of CMPDSsystem documented and theresults and solutions trackedthrough Command Centre andMatrix Tracking System. Theresources (headcount) reducedfrom the earlier 85 to 43 (lowerthan contracted 50 headcount).The most visible benefits were:

� Improvement in productivityresulting in handling the vol-ume with less people.

� Standardisation and stream-lining of various sub-process-es leading to better control ofoverall process.

� Elimination of persondependency.

� Improved processing timefrom 16 min to 4 min on mas-ter data management(MDM).

The success of this productivityimprovement project is excellentfor replication across other regionswithin MDM process and found30 per cent improvement opportu-nities.

The financial benefit wasaround `2.59 cr per annum. �

Capgemini is headquartered in Paris and operates inmore than 35 countries and employs over 1,00,000 inNorth and South Americas, Europe and the Asia Pacificregion. In India, it has a dedicated staff close to 30,000working across seven cities and provides service toover 400 clients globally and in the Indian market. Capgemini India promises to be a true local businesspartner with focused capabilities and unmatched com-petencies which are committed to client’s business suc-cess. It offers full spectrum of services in consulting,technology, customised software, enterprise resourceplanning and system integration, infrastructure man-agement and business process outsourcing. Capgemini believes in honesty, boldness, trust, teamspirit and these values help in building innovative solu-tions for customers towards leadership position.

�Focus on competency

��

The Team used Lean (value -streammapping) and basictools (Fishbone andPareto) to perform the root cause analysisand finally failure mode effect analysis(FMEA) to confirm the effect of new process��


TTOOWWAARRDDSS HHIIGGHH PPRROODDUUCCTTIIVVIITTYY::The Capgemini team involves inbusiness srategies andtechnologies to improve theirperformance and satisfy customers.



Convergys India isthe Indian divisionof Cincinnati-based ConvergysCorporation, with

offices spread across NorthAmerica, Latin America, Europe,the Middle East and Asia,notable amongst them beingIndia, and the Philippines, andthe Pacific.The Corporation is a globalleader in sectors such as learning,development, billing, humanresources and customer care.Globally their clients are: SriLanka Telecom, Telecom Egypt,Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, Kmart,Time Warner Cable, GenralMotors, Palmetto GBA, DisneyMobile and many more. Includ-ing Convergys India, the compa-ny handles close to two millioncustomer and employee process-es everyday through electronicor live media. It also generates1.70 million bills on a daily basiswith its dedicated software.

Convergys India, operatingout of Bengaluru, Hyderabad,Mumbai, Pune, Thane and Gur-gaon, caters mainly to industrysegments like consumer prod-ucts, technology, communica-tions, financial consultancy, tech-nical support, healthcare, manu-facturing and transportation. Afew of the specialised servicesoffered are:� Revenue Management Solu-

tions: Rating and billing con-vergent services in a cost-effective manner, revenuemanagement solutions pro-

vide an unprecedented suc-cess rate, low latency, highavailability and flexibility tomeet today’s challenge.

� Customer Retention Solu-tions: The extreme businessenvironment creates an evengreater need to strengthencustomer relationship andmaximise customer reten-tion. By combining consult-ing-led strategy and opera-tional expertise with marketleading analytics andautomation technologyoffers highly effective cus-tomer retention solutions.

� Customer Acquisition Solu-tion: One of the ways toexpand business is throughacquisition and this solutionidentifies and attracts high-value consumers and busi-ness customers, maximisesales conversion rates andincrease revenue per cus-tomer.

� Multi-channel InteractionSolution: Communicationsand media service providerslook for expertise in businesssupport system. Theproviders can now deployand optimise mission-criti-cal, cost-effective billing andbusiness support systemstechnologies and services.

� Customer Back Office Solu-tions: Convergys has devel-oped a suite of solutions thatcan bring customer’s backoffice process to the fore-front, transforming disjoint-ed manual processes into an

efficient, smoothly runningmachine that can dramati-cally improve customer serv-ice.The BPO industry in India

has matured over the years and ismoving towards providing morevalue-added and high-end servic-es to the client. The high-endservice fetches 1.5 times for thecall centre work rate. With theobjective to set up a Center ofExcellence (COE) for call moni-toring by leveraging existing in-house capabilities, Convergyspitched for this service to one ofthe world leaders in telecommu-nication industry and won thedeal.

Project: Compliance tocommercial — An opportunityto grow.

In the recessionary period,BPOs came out with innovativesolutions to maximise operatingprofit. In this endeavour, Con-vergys had to leverage in-housecapabilities and set up COE forcall monitoring. A cross func-tional team was formed to set upCOE and used Six SigmaDMADV (define, measure,analyse, design and validate)approach.

The high-level projectincluded define (gathering voiceof customer and identifying criti-cal to quality), measure (prepar-ing benchmarking questions,conduct benchmark survey,analyse benchmark surveyresults, set critical to quality tar-gets, identify critical to processand set critical to process tar-

��

Duing the recession,BPOs came out withinnovative solutions tomaximise operatingprofit. In thisendeavour, Convergyshad to leverage in-housecapabilities and set upCOE for callmonitoring. A crossfunctional team wasformed to set up COEand used Six SigmaDMADV approach. ��

CONVERGYS BROUGHT IN INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS. ONE SUCH EFFORT WAS TO SET UP A CENTRE OFEXCELLENCE FOR CALL MONITORING, REPORTS NANDU MANJESHWAR.


Centre of Excellence for call

monitoring

Convergys.qxd 4/28/2011 6:00 PM Page 2


gets), analyse (company designoptions and select best designelements), design (design highlevel quality monitoring model,develop design elements andoperating model process map)and verify (conduct FMEA, pre-pare implementation plan, exe-cute implement plan and pre-pare and implement controlplan).

The voice of customer aside,the important issues were criticalcustomer requirement and, criti-cal to quality and critical toprocess. The critical to customerrequirement was that informa-tion should be accurate, shouldadhere to the schedule given andcalls should be selected random-ly from all centres. The require-ments for critical to quality(CTQ) and critical to process

(CTP) were accuracy, scheduleattainment and team balance inall centres.

In measure phase bench-marking was done both internal-ly and with best in class (exter-nal) service provider to accessvarious elements of call monitor-ing programme. A sample ques-tionnaire was prepared and thequestions in survey were for thefollowing areas in benchmarkingand tabulated below comparingConvergys India and external (in brackets).

Call Monitoring Process:� Follows random sampling

with additional monitoringfor low performers (followrandom sampling).

� 100 per cent monitoring forcall that got dissatisfied feed-

back from customer (ran-domly picks the calls and arenot aligned to client teams).

Training:� Process specific training (no

clearly defined and docu-mented training process).

Knowledge Management:� Central repository of knowl-

edge (does not exist anddepends on their client sys-tems).

Calibration:� Once a week, between

client, quality evaluator,team leader and agent (fre-quency can be reduced ifclient suggests so).

� Calibration variance onaccuracy, repeatability, abili-ty to re-produce is calculat-ed and managed (calibrationsession once a week).

Evaluation, Feedback & Per-formance Management:

� 100 per cent feedback onmonitored calls (direct real-time access to the monitor-ing scores as well as feed-back given by quality evalua-tors).

� Joint feedback by qualityevaluator and team leader(online and written feed-back for all calls monitoredby quality evaluators within24 hrs and attribute-wisestack ranking of agents isdone to support team leaderfor coaching).

Reporting:� Dedicated MIS team for each

programme for reporting.� Online system for efficiency

��

The voice of customeraside, the importantissues were criticalcustomer requirementand, critical to qualityand critical to process.The critical to customerrequirement was thatinformation should beaccurate, should adhereto the schedule givenand calls should beselected randomly fromall centres.��

Convergys Corporation, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, provides cus-tomer relationship management services, consulting and profes-sional services, billing services and self-care technology. It employsaround 75,000 professionals in more than 70 countries speakingmore than 35 languages in 85 sites spread across North America,Europe, the Middle East and Asia, most notably in India andPhilippines and Latin America.

The company grew from Cincinnati Bell Information Systemsand MATRIXX, both subsidiaries of Cincinnati Bell. Most of itsclients are companies in the telecommunications, financial servic-es, technology sector, government, and employee care markets.Convergys sold its Human Resource Management line of businessto Northgate Arinso in 2010. Its international clients includeDuPont, Whirlpool Corporation, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, Sri Lan-ka Telecom, Telecom Egypt, Disney Mobile, ESPN Mobile andTime Warner Cable.

�Meeting professional needs

CCAALLLL FFOORR EEXXCCEELLLLEENNCCEE::The Convergys team with the prizethat was awarded to it during the SixthNational Quality Conclave




metrics reporting (the com-pany urges online tool,which provides agent per-formance trending online).

Technology Infrastructure:� The company is able to sup-

port different call recordingsystem including Nice, Wit-ness, Ultra etc (able to sup-port more than 40 differentcall recording systemsincluding Nice, Witness,Variant, E-talk, i360 etc).

� Advantage of internal tech-nology team (facility to doonline selective call record-ings based on specificrequirements and can doreal-time live call barging formonitoring purposes).

From the tabulated format itcould be assessed that Conver-gys India was matching the bestin class and only in technologyinfrastructure, reporting andevaluation, feedback and per-formance management wereslightly lagging. Four alternateoptions for design elements wereconsidered. In each option thedesign element was either select-ed or flagged as will be used, ifrequired.

The initial objective beingcall monitoring the design of callmonitoring entails call selection

and centre and the team balance.In doing so each team will becovered by a minimum of twoquality evaluators to avoid biasand likewise total call to be mon-itored for centre will be equallydivided between Teams. Callselection is around the centres,team, and select calls as perschedule starting from first call,for all the intervals. Intervalswere assigned to quality evalua-tors (odd for one quality evalua-tor and even for other qualityevaluator).

The design element includ-ed training and certificationprocess. The new trainingmethod was conducted in asequence that 25 days forinstructor-lead classroom train-ing, five days practice session byquality evaluators, calibrationbetween quality evaluator andtrainer, two weeks of trainer inwhich first week is for practiceunder the calibration gate andthe second week for monitoringfor certification and finally twomonths of nesting.

The other elements indesign elements were knowledgemanagement process, calibra-tion, evaluation and feedback,reporting; call monitoring andreporting. The failure modeeffect analysis (FMEA), before

and after, was conducted onprocess steps, potential failures,potential effects, potential causesand current controls. In therevised (after) analysis improvedactions identified. The imple-mentation plan included sevenitems, from updating trainingprocess to control plan, descrip-tion of actions to be taken andresponsibilities allotted and alsotimeline for each.

The control plan detailedexactly the frequency checks ondaily, weekly and monthly ofactivities. The daily checksincluded team review and sched-ule reviews. The weekly checkactivities were calibration byclient, team leader, subject mat-ter expert, performance reviewand update discussions. Themonthly review entails monthlyprogramme performance reviewand calibration by team leader,subject matter expert and qualityevaluator.

Though the companiesalways look forward to financialbenefits but the processes devel-oped and its replication possibili-ties have a long-term effect. Therevenue earned (annualised) bythe new programme was $ 5.21million and revenue earned bytwo new programmes was $ 6.11million. �

��

Though the companiesalways look forward tofinancial benefits butthe processesdeveloped and itsreplication possibilitieshave a long-term effect.The revenue earned(annualised) by thenew programme was $ 5.21 million andrevenue earned by twonew programmes was$ 6.11 million.��


Hanumant Talwar, ManagingDirector and Country Manager-India, Convergys, on the useful-ness of monitoring client calls.

WWhhaatt ddooeess ccaallll mmoonniittoorriinnggeexxaaccttllyy mmeeaann aanndd hhooww ddooeess iitthheellpp iinn bbuussiinneessss pprroocceessss??It means in service delivery eachand every call that we receiveand also the outgoing calls thatwe monitor is to ensure whetherwe deliver quality service. When

the call is acted upon, in termsof accuracy and prompt deliveryof service, the client gets thebenefit and we are committed todeliver the highest-level cus-tomer service.

IInn wwhhaatt wwaayy ddoo yyoouu aasssseessss tthhaattccaallllss aarree rreessppoonnddeedd aanndd hhiigghhsseerrvviiccee lleevveellss aarree aacchhiieevveedd??We actually run and re-run thesecalls and log them on qualityevaluation sheets on multipleparameters like how the wordsare pronounced, response to aquestion, clarity or empathy withthe customer...It could range upto 50 parameters on which weevaluate. Based on the feedbackon the individual agent, we assessthe performance and decidewhether the agent requires fur-

ther training. Call monitoring isalso the basis for assessing ourquality of service.

HHooww ddiiffffiiccuulltt iiss iitt wwhheenn aannaaggeenntt hhaass ttoo aannsswweerr ccaallllss sseeeekk--iinngg ddiiffffeerreenntt pprroodduuccttss aanndd sseerrvv--iicceess??Processes are laid out before aperson is assigned to a particu-lar client. Before assigning aperson goes through a detailedtraining programme to under-stand that particular product ofthe client, the basics of the prod-uct and kind of queries wouldemanate related to the productand unless that person (agent)understands the statement ofwork it will be quite difficult towork effectively. So from anagent to a leader everyone has to

understand client’s requirementbased on statement of work.

HHooww ddoo yyoouu aacchhiieevvee tthhee iinntteenndd--eedd ttaarrggeettss wwhheenn yyoouu rreecceeiivvee ccaallllssffrroomm ddiiffffeerreenntt ppaarrtt ooff tthhee wwoorrlldd??First, it is about training whichcould span from one week to tenweeks before the person isassigned to a call and the train-ing also depends on the com-plexity of the call since we maynot know from which part of theglobe a call is made. That is whywe adopt global English andalso indulge in cultural commu-nication training. This is thereason that we do not patroniseany other accent. In fact, we aredoing a programme on globalEnglish for a global softwarecompany.

“Call monitoring assesses quality of service”



Firstsource is a providerof business processoutsourcing (BPO)services and is head-quartered in Mumbai.

In India it operates from Banga-lore Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar,Chennai, Coimbatore, Hubli,Indore, Jalandhar, Kochi,Kolkata, Mumbai, Siliguri,Tiruchirapalli and Vijayawada. Itwas formerly ICICI Onesource.The company also has offices inthe USA, the UK and Philip-pines. Firstsource provides cus-tomised business process man-agement to customer in thebanking and financial services,customer services, telecom andmedia and healthcare sectors.

The portfolio includes cus-tomer acquisition, customercare, billing and collections,transaction processing and busi-ness research and analytics. Ithas delivery model across 42world-class centres and is staffedby 24,000 professionals for time-ly, efficient and cost- effective

ways to meet clients’ demand.Founded in 2001, Firstsourcehas built a reputation for qualityservice. In their long list ofclients are 20 Fortune 500 com-panies, eight FTSE companies,nine out of top 10 US credit cardcompanies, two largest Indianbanks and one of top five UKbanks and over 1,000 hospitalsin the US.

The India BPOs havemoved ahead in creating valueaddition to their clients throughinnovative methods apart fromprompt delivery and qualityassociated with work. This helpsto stand apart from the otherBPOs. The company’s visionand mission was in consonancewith that objective in not onlymeeting the Australian client’sSLA but exceed the target. Project: Meet and exceed thetarget of 87 per cent on overallquality scores.

The project objectives haveto be in sync with the vision andmission of the company but it is

easier said than done. The startpoint is the person receiving thecall (every BPO has differentnomenclature from agent toassociate to headcount andmany more) and here it is advi-sor. As the front of the companyadvisor’s conduct, understand-ing of the query from a cus-tomer, resolution or otherwise ofthat query determines the suc-cess rate. The simple processmap, opportunities for error andproblem areas illustrates the flowand stages during the call con-tributing to maximum defects.

Of the many factors in theroot cause analysis there are cer-tain fundamental and basic faultsto be precise and these are (tak-en at random from root causeanalysis but experienced com-monly on 1800 calls):

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

caller.

��

Firstsource providescustomised businessprocess management tocustomer in the bankingand financial andcustomer services,telecom, media andhealthcare sectors. The portfolio includescustomer acquisition,customer care andcollections, transactionprocessing and businessresearch and analytics.��

EEXXCCEELLLLEENNCCEE EENNAABBLLEERR::The Firstsource BPO team receiving the award.

WORLD-CLASS DELIVERY AND CLIENT SATISFACTION ARE THE KEYCOMPONENTS OF FIRSTSOURCE. A REPORT BY NANDU MANJESHWAR.


Creating value addition

to clients


64 I Quality India I MARCH-APRIL, 2011

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

The control impact matrixillustrated high, medium and lowand whether the factors (X) arein or out of control. The factorshaving high, medium and lowimpact are:

High Impact� Lack of assurance - unaware

of verbiage (X1).� Lack of effective questioning

- not following support point(X2).

� Not offering further assis-tance (X3).

� Unable to build rapport withcustomer - due to culturegap (X6).

� Lack of active listening (X8).� Lack of confidence - lack of

product knowledge (X9).� Lack of confidence - not evi-

dent in the tone of voice(X10).

� Breach of privacy law (X14).

Medium ImpactThe medium impact factors are:Unnecessary credit applied sinceunaware of process updates (X4),not adding relevant notes due tohigh call volumes (X5), not usingcustomer name (X7), unneces-sary credits applied due to lack ofobjection handling skills (X11)and lack of active listening couldbe correlated advisor updatingnotes on the previous account(X12).

Low ImpactSounding monotonous (X13) isat times annoying to the cus-tomer.

The factors X1 to X12 wereprioritised for effective actionsand most of them were highimpact category. The causes havealso been indicated against of theX factors in the previous para-graphs. The deployment methodfor ideal call flow was formulatedfrom welcome to close and thesehave been with time spent in sec-

onds (in brackets): Welcome (5),issue description (40), question-ing (25), acknowledge, empathiseand assure (10), trouble shooting(240), reason for fault and cus-tomer education (20), offer fur-ther assistance (15) and close (5).

On completion of the projectthe company circulated whitepaper within the organisation toreplicate the best practices. On thefinancial front the impact cost sav-ing was `14,40,000 or Australian$ 36,000. �

��

The project objectiveshave to be in sync with the vision andmission of thecompany but it is easiersaid than done. Thestart point is theperson receiving thecall (every BPO hasdifferent nomenclaturefrom agent to associateto headcount and many more) and here it is advisor. ��


QQUUAALLIITTYY AATT IITTSS BBEESSTT::The principal objective of thecompany is client satisfaction.

The projected executed with appropriated solutions as under:

X Factors Counter Measures

Lack of confidence-not Soft skill refresher were evident in tone of voice. conducted.

Unnecessary credits applied- Product specific refresher wereunaware of Process updates. conducted.

Not adding relevant notes Common notes enabled wheredue to high volumes advisors can use them effectivelyof calls to reduce the wrap time and be

prepared for the next call

Unnecessary credits applied- Product specific refreshers wereunaware of objection handling conducted. skills.

Lack of active listening-advisors Common notes enable where updating notes on the previous advisors can use them effectively account. to reduce the wrap time and be

prepared for the next call.

Breach of privacy Product specific refreshers wereconducted.



The Chennai-basedSusira IndustriesLimited was set up in1976 as a proprietarycompany which was

later converted into a joint stockcompany in 2006. Initially, it start-ed as a job shop and through thatexperience Susira has become aworld-class manufacturer ofengine valve pushrods and relatedvalve train components. Over theyears with focus on commitmentto quality and reliability, the com-pany has occupied the top slot forits products within the countryand is moving towards a firm slotin the international market.

Susira supplies its products toall major commercial vehicle anddiesel engine manufacturers inthe country. Four out of every fivecommercial vehicles plying on theIndian roads are fitted with itsproducts. Twenty-five million‘zero defect’ supplies over theyears make the company a pre-ferred supplier.

It is a leading exporter tointernational original equipmentmanufacturers (OEM) like Cum-

mins Inc (USA, UK, Brazil, Mexi-co and China), Scania (Sweden),Iveco (Italy), Same-Deutz (Italy),Wartsila (USA) and Caterpillar(USA); and as a result one-thirdof its production is exported.

The domestic customersinclude Ashok Leyland, TataMotors, Force Motors, Avtec,Mahindra & Mahindra, New Hol-land Tractors, Same-Deutz Fahr,Tata Cummins, Cummins Indiaand Greaves Cotton. Project: Productivity improve-ment and cost reduction in induc-tion hardening.

The company was confront-ed with the problem of meeting1,00,000 pushrods per month tomeet the demands of global OEMand domestic customers withinthree months period. The parthad to meet the global standardsof induction hardening and tomeet that quantity the companywould require twice the numberof machines rather than presentlyused and also twice the workforce.It was apparent that an innovativebreakthrough in productivityimprovement was the answer.

A team comprising new prod-uct development, manufacturing,maintenance, and induction hard-ening operators along withmachine manufacturer was set upto carry out critical study of theprocesses. Through brainstorm-ing process activities wereanalysed, in enhancing productiv-ity, and the problems were cate-gorised:� Category A: Minimum

involvement of other depart-ments.

� Category B: Necessity ininvolvement of other depart-ments.

� Category C: Managementapproval and supportrequirement.

Category A: There were 12 prob-lems consisting of cup offset,quenching crack, control lengthundersize, ball flat oversize, totalrun out high in assemblypushrods, cup inner diameterblock spot, cup inner diameter pitmarks, low hardness, total lengthunder size, cup outer diametertool mark, gap between cup andball, and low weld strength.

��

A team comprising new productdevelopment,manufacturing,maintenance, andinduction hardeningoperators along withmachine manufacturerwas set up to carry outcritical study of theprocesses.��

TTHHIINNKKIINNGG BBIIGG:: MonikandanSusira of Susira Industriesreceiving citation during the 6thNational Quality Conclave.

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


Analysing processes to raise

production



Category B: The problems underthis category were less productivi-ty and low yield in 961 pushrods.Category C:Time and cost werethe constraints. The inductionhardening throughput time highand induction hardening cost washigh.

The company ranked theproblems, keeping in view effecton customer, effect on productivi-ty, effect on cost and effect ondelivery, Score-1 being very highseverity and Score-4 being lowseverity. Out of the problems list-ed 12 ranked very high severity.Then top three problems sum-marised 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 produc-tivity in induction hardeningmachine by 50 per cent. A plan-do-check-act (PDCA) was carriedout in identifying problems, whichare unsolved, selection of prob-lem, definition of the problem andits analysis and finally put throughcause and effect (Ishikawa) dia-gram for probable causes in mate-rial, machine, men and method.The process flow diagram (along-side) explains the whole processtill despatch. The probable causesat material end was induction

hardening at supplier end, atmachine side the causes weremachine design and designed forsingle end hardening only. Why-why analysis and its solution is:� Why: Less induction at sup-

plier end.� Why:Cycle time high.� Why: Single end induction

hardening.� Why: Machine designed with

single end induction harden-ing only.

� Solution: Machine to bemodified for double endhardening and additional fea-tures to reduce cycle time.

The significant cause has been theinduction hardening machine andthe cross functional team wastasked to identify additional fea-tures for new machine and designa new machine with the help ofmanufacturer incorporating fea-tures like conveyor, drop quench,channel type coil etc. The brain-storming session concludeddesign for new machine withimproved features. These aresimultaneous induction harden-ing at both ends, continuous feed-ing with adjustable feed rate, dropquenching, poka-yoke (a pneu-matic design) for holding thecomponents during power drop,power failure or heating stationtrip, independent heating controlfor cup and ball end inductionhardening and cycle time per

component at 9.3 sec. In order to validate the analyt-

ical findings the machine’s param-eters were set and trials were con-ducted before regular productioncommenced. The machine’s out-put was consistently monitored toensure it met with quality specifi-cations. The comparative study,indeed, is revealing. The produc-tion before and after (in brackets)are given:� Cycle time for in-house 48

sec/1 and 36 sec/1 for sub-contractor (cycle time of 9.3sec/1).

� The in-house induction hard-ening per shift is 600 (in-house increased to 3,100).

� The in-house componentinduction hardening is`4.00/1 and sub-contractor’s`3.75/1 (in-house compo-nent induction hardeningreduced to `0.97/1).

� The combined monthly pro-duction is 72,800 (the in-house production increasedto 1,61,200).

These measures have given thecompany boost in benefits both intangible and intangible terms. Interms of production it hasincreased to 6,200 from the earlier1,200 per day, cost per componentreduced from the earlier `4.00 to0.97 a saving of `3.03. This hasaccrued a saving of `27.30 lakhper annum for the company. �

��

In order to validate theanalytical findings themachine’s parameterswere set and trials wereconducted beforeregular productioncommenced. Themachine’s output wasconsistently monitoredto ensure it met withquality specifications.��


IINNNNOOVVAATTIIOONN:: An inside view of oneof the labs at Susira Industries.

Process Flow Diagram

Incoming material inspection

Cup end Forging

Ball end Forging

CNC Machining

Induction Hardening

Tempering

Inspection & Packing



Abilities India Pistonsand Rings Limited(AIP), founded 40years ago, manufac-tures and OEM sup-

plier of pistons and rings for auto-mobiles (two and three wheelers),chain saws, brush cutters, agricul-ture sprayers and compressors. Ithas to its credit nearly 200 modelsof pistons for chain saws andbrush cutters. In 1993, it bagged itsoverseas contract to export toFrance and Italy.

In the domestic market, itstarted as OEM supplier toEnfield and TVS Motor Compa-ny in 1982. Since then it haswidened its customer base to cover most of the domestic twoand three wheeler manufacturersas well as engine manufacturers.Their key customers are Husq-varna (in China, Italy and USA),Yama group (in China and Italy)Emak (Italy), Chinook (Italy)and in domestic market, GreavesCotton Limited and TVS MotorCompany.

AIP participated in INDEEBrazil 2009, an Indian engineering

exhibition held in Brazil. The com-pany is part ACMA (AutomotiveComponents ManufacturersAssociation) Advance Cluster andhas accredited with InternationalStandard ISO/TS 16949:2002. Ithas received export excellenceawards from ACMA as well asfrom the government. Its qualityobjectives are:

1. Provide on-time delivery andright quality products to cus-tomers.

2. Minimise customer com-plaints.

3. Reduce internal rejections.4. Continually improve all

processes and reduce costs5. Improve productivity, effi-

ciency, quality and capabili-ties.

6. Improve customer satisfac-tion.

AIP has quality circles in alldepartments and adopts 5S, Poka-yoke and Kaizen in daily activities.Its designing is performed on 3DCAD and uni-graphisCAD+CAM. A piston undergoes

18 operations in the machine shopbefore despatch to the customers.Recently Husqvarna (USA) pro-jected a demand for 10,752, Pis-ton PO-414 per week whereascompany’s current productionwas only 5,000. This steep jump of115 per cent increase in produc-tion would be a major challengefor any company in maintainingquality and quantity at the sameadhering to delivery scheduleevery week.

Project: Productivityenhancement of piston PO-414 inmachine shop line 2.

The first action was to dointernal assessment on the shopfloor as to understand the weak-nesses and where improvementswere required. It was observedthat there was a lot of wastage inthe manufacturing operations.The manufacturing workstationswere isolated and there was no lineconcept. Manual operations,almost 100 per cent, caused opera-tor’s fatigue. In addition, the rejec-tions were high and inventorypiled up at each work station.

Having analysed the weak-

��

The voice of customeraside, the importantissues were criticalcustomer requirementand, critical to qualityand critical to process.The critical to customerrequirement was thatinformation should beaccurate, should adhereto the schedule givenand calls should beselected randomly fromall centres.��

TTEECCHHNNOOLLOOGGIICCAALLLLYY AABBLLEE::Abilities India Pistons and RingsLimited team receiving prize fromArun Maira, Chairman, QCI.

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


Technological abilities of

Ability



nesses, it was apparent that tomeet the customer’s requirementthe manufacturing processes andsystems in the machine shoprequired radical changes. Produc-tivity improvement steps involvedwere PQ Analysis, calculation ofTakt time, cycle time studythrough video recording, separa-tion of man and machine timewith the help of standard workcombination table, identifying thebottleneck operations.

Takt time is a function of cus-tomer demand. In this case, forPO-414 Takt time available pershift was 480 min per shift andconsidering 85 per cent efficiencyand 10 per cent rejections netavailable time was 367 min. Thecustomer’s demand being 10,752pistons per week the requirementwas to produce 597 pistons pershift. In other words time taken ortakt time is 37 sec.

There are 18 operations car-ried and 11 operators work on inthe line. In order to find out theactual time taken, video shootingfor each work station was carriedout to capture the cycle time ofeach operation. The major ele-ments in the cycle are manualoperation time, machine time andwaiting and walking between oper-ations. Motion element analysiswas also done through video toprepare standard work combina-tion table. An average of five con-secutive pieces were calculated toarrive at the cycle time of the oper-ation.

Through these measures itwas observed that three operationslike fine boring, boss facing and

oval turning were taking morecycle time than the Takt time indi-cating the bottlenecks in theprocess. This needed to beaddressed to through standardwork combination chart. In thechart, activities such as loading,unloading, walking betweenmachines and waiting were plottedand the sum of manual timeworked out to 181 sec whereasTakt time was only 37 sec. The cal-culation dividing manual time byTakt time showed that only fiveoperators were required in the lineto meet the customer’s require-ment of 597 pistons per shift whilethere were 11 operators workingin the line.

A total of seven Kaizen wereidentified including three Kaizenfor bottleneck operations. Thisincluded three low-cost automa-tions to avoid fatigue to the opera-tor. The seven Kaizen adoptedand action taken to reduce cycletime was:

1. Fine Bore: Remove air clean-ing and start water cleaning byfoot switch.

2. Boss Facing: Reduce manualoperation and perform low-cost automation.

3. Oval Turning: Instead ofmanual air cleaning start watercleaning with foot switch.

4. Rough Head Facing: Designthe head button cutting fixtureto reduce height.

5. Rough Turning: Reduce man-ual work and do low-costautomation.

6. Lock-pin Drilling: Lock-pinpressing and lock-pin drilling

to be done on the same station.

7. Bore Chamfer: Avoid manuallabour and perform low-costautomation.

On implementing 7 Kaizen, itwas observed that there was imbal-ance in the line indicating thatwork content for some operatorswas less in comparison to otheroperators. As a result operatorswith less work content were idle.Kaizen for line balancing wasadopted. The operations such as(a) rough turning, casting boredrilling, (b) inner seating and sizeturning, ring grooving and (c) finehead facing which was done earlierby different operators could becarried by one operator.

Lock grooving and borechamfer were done earlier by dif-ferent operators could be per-formed by one operator. Similarlybore’s burnishing, boss facing andinternal bore chamfering could bedone by one operator instead ofthree different operators. The Takttime versus cycle time was plottedon the graph with respect to opera-tor’s work. Before operator balanc-ing, there were 11 operators andafter the operator’s work contentwas balanced only six operatorswere required to carry out thesame operations. This, however,was called for multi-tasking ofoperators. In the end, using qualitymanagement tools productivityimproved by 100 per cent, inven-tory reduced by 92 per cent, leadtime reduced by 97 per cent and infinancial terms the company bene-fited by `43.62 lakh. �

��

Though the companiesalways look forward tofinancial benefits butthe processesdeveloped and itsreplication possibilitieshave a long-term effect.The revenue earned(annualised) by thenew programme was$ 5.21 million andrevenue earned by twonew programmes was$ 6.11 million.��


MMOOTTIIOONN EELLEEMMEENNTT AANNAALLYYSSIISS::Video shooting for each work sta-tion is carried out to capture thecycle time of each operation.



Json Polymer Privater Lim-ited (Json) was set up in2009 though Laxman Jad-hav is a 17-year veteran inthe rubber industry. He is

experienced in formulation,moulding, extrusion, moulddesign and machine design. Thecompany was established withthe objective of becoming a sin-gle source supplier of automo-tive control cables. It manufac-tures and exports an assortmentof automotive and other indus-trial rubber components todomestic, Asian and Europeanmarkets.

Json’s products find applica-tion in different domains such asautomobiles, engineering, con-struction, steel plants, aeronau-tics, medical, refinery and elec-trical. In its short period of exis-tence, it has earned enoughappreciation and contractsmainly due to dimensional pre-cision, high performance, longservice life and quality. In addi-

tion, the products have tensilestrength, weather resistance aswell as resistance to extremetemperature and pressure,expansion and contractionresistance, durability and eco-friendliness.

The company upgrades itstechnology consistently and thefull-fledged laboratory keeps atab on various formulations thatis used in customised products. Ituses natural rubber and syntheticpolymers to meet specificdemands of customers. In sodoing, it constantly interacts withcustomers regarding special for-mulations for customisation ofproducts and samples are givenfree of cost. The company hastwo units to manufacture theproducts.

The demand of each indus-try is different and the productssizes, specifications, compoundsused are varied. The productrange includes:� Mechanical Seals Bellow:

These are used extensively indiverse applications requir-ing efficient transfer andcompression mouldingmachines. The products aremanufactured with differentelastomers.

� Metal Blended Compo-nents: Shock absorber bushand metal-rubber bondedparts used in trucks, buses,and other automobiles needto have high tensile strengthand durability during shockdampening.

� Axle Boots: This productshould be resistant toextreme temperatures, dustand oil. Its salient featuresare good elongation, tensilestrength and compressionset.

� Components for Tractors:Different types of rubbercomponents such as gasket,pads and grommets.

� Mechanical Rubber Cup:Various types of mechanical

��

The company upgradesits technologyconsistently and the full-fledged laboratory keepsa tab on variousformulations that isused in customisedproducts. In so doing, itconstantly interacts withcustomers regardingspecial formulations forcustomisation ofproducts and samplesare given free of cost.��

TTEEAAMM WWOORRKK:: Json Polymer teamreceiving prize for high perform-ance and consistency in quality

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


Reducing rejection

rates



seal L-ring rubber cups usedextensively in differentindustrial applications.

� 45o O-ring and Oil Seal:These rings and oil seals areused in automobile, heavyengineering and aeronauti-cal industries.

� Control Cable Parts: Auto-motive control cable partsare used as dust preventivecovers and these rubbercomponents are used forspecial purpose automotivecontrol cables.

� Rubber Matting: Usedextensively in the automo-bile industry.

� Rubber Pads: The productmay seem to be the simplestof all but these have torespond qualitatively tostringent specifications.

� Extruded Rubber Products:The product is ideally suitedfor those applicationsdemanding high as well aslow temperatures.

� Rubber Hose: The producthas wide application forsteam, air, gas, petroleum,water, acids, chemical andfor other liquids and consid-ering its varied usage the

specifications varies consid-erably.

Recently, the company faced apiquant problem of high rejec-tion rate in its product MR-161.The problem was in mouldingand de-flashing and the rejec-tions were 6.21 per cent 1.53 percent, respectively.

Project: Reduce rejectionrate in moulding and de-flashingand bring down overall rejectionrate to 1.50 per cent.

MR-161 is used in automo-biles and supplied exclusively toGeneral Motors. The defects offour types occur at the time ofmoulding, which could rangefrom short mould, cuts to air-traps. Though these are detectedin-house and segregated, eventhen there was customer dissatis-faction. Again at the finishingstage (de-flashing) there wererejections. The total in-houserejection amounted to 7.74 percent. A customer’s demand isalways a defect-free product whilethe company was incurring enor-mous costs in terms of productivi-ty loss and material costs. Theproject was to bring down rejec-tion level to 1.50 per cent from theoverall high of 7.74 per cent.

The SIPOC system wasadopted and a monthly cus-tomer schedule was maintainedfrom moulding compound tomould status to supplier, produc-tion department, de-flasher tofinal product followed by inspec-tion, packing and despatch. Criti-cal to quality (CTQ) was identi-fied and data collection planstarted. The data was collectedfor six continuous months andoperator-wise data was main-tained. In this operation sevenoperators were involved and onthe data collection sheet namesof each operator, machine used,quantity produced and quantityrejected due to cracks, shortmould, air-trap and de-flashingwere recorded. The rejectionpercentage varied to a low of1.41 per cent to as high as 9.98per cent.

A correlation chart for oper-ator and the machine was pre-pared to identify whether it wasthe operator’s inability or amachine’s malfunctioning. Simi-larly, data on de-flasher operatorwas also collected. In cause andeffect diagram, machine andenvironment, machine de-flash-ing operator (skill matrix), raw material and defects leadingto rejection were plotted. It wasapparent that machine operatorand de-flashing operator playeda crucial role in rejection percentage. In improved phasegeneral solution, solution imple-mentation using same mouldingand de-flashing operator were implemented. Operatorswere allotted to specificmachines and separate de-flash-er operators were assigned. Inboth moulding and de-flasher, the operators’ rejection rates felldown below one per cent.

In financial terms, the com-pany achieved a savings of`60,000 per annum. The otherbenefits:

� Similar methodology wasadopted for other productsas well.

� This developed team workand team unity.

� Standardisation conceptand value of quality wasunderstood by one and all. �

��

MR-161 is used inautomobiles andsupplied exclusively toGeneral Motors. Thedefects of four typesoccur at the time ofmoulding, which couldrange from shortmould, cuts to air-traps. The project wasto bring down rejectionlevel to 1.50 per centfrom the overall high of7.74 per cent.��


DDUURRAABBIILLIITTYY CCHHEECCKK:: Metal rubberparts being checked thoroughlyfor their tensile strength anddurability.



The World Health Day is celebrat-ed each year on April 7th. Thisyear, Quality Council of India(QCI) joined hands with IndianMedical Association (IMA) in

making it a memorable event. This year, theWorld Health Day assumes special signifi-cance since the theme announced by WorldHealth Organisation is “Combat Drug Resis-tance: No action today — No cure tomorrow”.At the function held in the auditorium of IMA,officials of National Accreditation for Hospi-tals and Healthcare Providers (NABH), QCI,IMA officials and medical professionals attend-ed in large numbers.

Dr Gayatri Vyas Mahindroo, Dr ZainabZaidi and Dr Bhawna Gulati of NABH, Dr DR.Rai, Dr Narinder Saini, Dr Ajay Lekhi, Dr VKNarang and Dr Ashwini Goyal amongst othersattended on behalf of IMA. Drug resistance isbecoming a serious concern around the worldmore so in India due to either overuse or misuse. The drug resistance, medically termedantimicrobial resistance, occurs when micro-

organisms such as bacteria, viruses, fungi andparasites change in ways that render the med-ications used to cure infections becomes inef-fective. When the micro-organisms becomeresistant to most drugs they are often referredto as ‘superbugs’. This is a major problembecause an infection that is resistant may kill,can spread to others and impose huge costs onindividuals and society.

Antimicrobial resistance is caused by inap-propriate use of medicines — either takingsubstandard doses or not completing a pre-scribed course of treatment as prescribed bythe doctor. Dr DR Rai, Honorary SecretaryGeneral, IMA, succinctly put across the rea-sons 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 tofriends and neighbours and not a doctor to use

a particular drug little realising the effects ofwrong medication nor following the full courseof medication,” laments Dr Rai. This malaise isspread across our country. As a result the per-son starts using stronger and stronger antibi-otics ending in person’s natural immunity anda stage comes when the person does notrespond to any medication. This is extremelyserious. Unfortunately most of Indian citizensare moving towards this destination.

Dr Girdhar J Gyani, Secretary General,QCI, pointed out, “Patient safety is the overallagenda this year under which focus is going tobe on infection control and judicious use ofantibiotics. As per IOM Report, 98,000 pre-ventable deaths occur every year in the USA.More than 50 per cent of this are on account ofmedication errors. Most of these are notpicked up nor reported. US recognises medicalerrors as public health issue. It is said that asmany as one in ten patients is harmed whilereceiving hospital care caused by range oferrors or adverse events in developed coun-tries. In the case of developing countries it is


QCI JOINS HANDS WITH IMA TO FOCUS ON INFECTION CONTROL AND JUDICIOUS USE OFANTIBIOTICS ON WORLD HEALTH DAY.

UUNNIITTEEDD WWEE SSTTAANNDD:: Speakers at the WHO day celebration organised by QCI and IMA.

Q NEWS

Towards a drug-free

society

World Health Day.qxd 4/28/2011 7:07 PM Page 1


even higher, as much as 20 times higher insome of the countries. As regard to the infec-tion, it is estimated that hospital-acquired infec-tion (HAI) is in the range of 5-25 per cent indeveloped countries and up to 40 per cent indeveloping countries.

In this context, the Indian scene is partic-ularly grim: In certain regions, antibiotics areunavailable and in other regions high levelsof resistance exist. The latter problem iscompounded due to lack of regulation in dis-pensing antibiotics at the pharmacy level asthese are sold like any other OTC drugs. Inaddition, susceptibility testing and drug reg-ulation in rural areas is difficult to enforcedue to sheer vastness of the country and inmany instances such facilities do not exist inremote areas.

Dr Gyani further added, “Unfortunately wedo not have data on our own country. The rea-son is simple — so far we are gripped by acuteshortage of healthcare facilities and emphasisobviously has been to provide minimal health-care first, admittedly this scenario is changing toa great extent and we see a larger participation ofprivate sector in supporting existing publichealthcare system. This obviously requires reg-ulation and quality monitoring.”

“Accreditation by NABH has to a largeextent established framework to define quality

as holistic measure in clinical as well as manage-rial terms. This also encourages hospitals con-tinuously monitor and measure clinical out-come and even some managerial indicatorsincluding capturing patient satisfaction. Weneed to emphasise accreditation in private aswell as in government hospitals to ensure

Q NEWS Quality IndiaSPECIAL ISSUE

HHEEAALLTTHH CCOONNSSCCIIOOUUSS:: A view of the audience atthe World Health Day celebrations.

Shalby Hospital, Ahmedabad, celebratedWorld Consumer Rights Day on March15, 2011. The Consumer Rights Day,which was celebrated around the world,was the historic address to the US Con-gress by the then President John FKennedy on March 15, 1962. Patients inhospitals seekinghealthcare havethe rights andresponsibilities asany consumer.Shalby Hospitalbelieves in Mahat-ma Gandhi’s say-ing, “A customer isthe most impor-tant visitor in ourpremises. He is notan interruption in our work. He is the pur-pose of it.”

Shalby Hospital accredited by Nation-al Accreditation Board for Hospital andHealthcare Providers (NABH), QCI, is

deeply involved in preservation of, care forand responsible for human lives. Thoughhealthcare as a service has grown, however,it has to be said that healthcare deliverysystem has not kept pace with the growthof this important services. Thus educatingcustomers (patients) is as important in

educating the staffin providing qualityhealthcare.

In this whole-day event therewere lectures andexhibition related toquality healthcare.The exhibitionshowcased qualityinitiatives practisedby the hospital. As

Neeraj Lal, Vice President (Quality andAcademics) mentioned, “It is the cus-tomers’ basic right to know about andmake informed decisions on the servicesbeing provided to them.”

Quality Council of India (QCI)and Bihar government signed anMoU on March 7, 2011, to setaccreditation standards for quality-good governance in state-ownedand aided secondary and highersecondary schools in the state. DrGirdhar J Gyani, Secretary Gener-al, QCI and Anjani Kumar, Princi-pal Secretary, on behalf of StateCouncil of Education Researchand Training (SCERT), signed theMoU. National AccreditationBoard for Education and Training(NABET), and QCI, havedesigned a special scheme andguidelines to the HRD depart-ment, in Bihar.

As per the MoU, QCI will ini-tially facilitate 10 schools for fulfill-ing the requirements for theaccreditation standards and thiswill be a continuous engagementthat would help in spreading thestandards to other schools. QCIwill also help their government incapacity building for implement-ing the standards through trainingprogrammes and workshops. Atthe outset this is a pilot project.Subsequently, SCERT will imple-ment the standards required foraccreditation in all the governmentschools in the state.

The Government of Bihar(SCERT) is the first state to takeon the offer for accreditationthough QCI has been in contactwith other states. QCI will recom-mend the name of the consultantsor consulting agencies that willguide and train the secondary andhigher secondary schools forimplementing accreditation stan-dards.

Accreditationfor schools

Patients’ safety and qualityhealthcare



patient safety. Let us take a resolution on thisWorld Health Day to build India as most-favoured destination for quality healthcare,”mentioned Dr Gyani.

Admittedly there is lack of control over theuse of antibiotics and importantly there is aneed to create community awareness on theissues involved in antibiotic therapy. This effortshould be coupled with stopping `open sale’ ofantibiotics in the pharmacies. The woes do not

stop here. Add the primitive infection controlin most of the hospitals in the country coupledwith slack sanitation enables conditions suit-able for transmission and/or acquisition ofantibiotic resistance. This is the root cause forenteric pathogens to spread unabatedly.

Being in India we are concerned aboutantimicrobial resistance but it seems to be aworldwide phenomenon. Though the clinicalresearch has kept pace with this phenomenon

in producing newer, potent drugs, these drugsare costlier. For the economical weaker sectionof the society it is a squeeze between cost ofdrugs and rampant resistance. World HealthOrganisation (WHO) is seized with the prob-lem. Dr Nata Menabde, WHO’s representativein India, mentioned that a new policy to helpgovernments in preventing misuse/overuse ofantibiotics. Accordingly antibiotic medicineswill be colour-coded on the basis of toxicity,efficacy and other parameters under the newlydrafted antibiotic resistance policy and in all536 antibiotics will be colour-coded.

The problem of antimicrobial resistance isa complex one and requires a comprehensiveresponse from policy-makers and a sustainedinformation campaign to create necessaryawareness among communities. Action need-ed is clear but in developing economies it hasbeen observed that there is a failure of commit-ment and accountability. In countries likeIndia, with poor awareness amongst communi-ties about drug resistance, coordinated NGOaction, sustained information campaigns andincentives for more R&D for new diagnosticsand medicines will go a long way in tackling themenace of drug resistance.

“QCI and IMA will take up the issue withthe government to bring about suitable regu-lation to curb the menace of antibiotic abuse,over the counter sale and measures to edu-cate chemists related to the abuse of antibi-otics. We will form along with QCI a stan-dard treatment protocol for certain diseases,”mentioned Dr Vinay Narang, National Presi-dent of IMA. �


Awards for entrepreneurs

Punjab Technical University’s (PTU) Gian Jyoti School of TQMand Entrepreneurship holds annual conventions and awards atMohali. The Seventh North-West Qual Tech Award ceremony was

held on Feb 26, 2011. KC Mehra, Chairman, National Board forQuality Promotion, QCI, was the chief guest at the ceremony. Theawards are given to manufacturing and service sectors. The manufac-turing 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 totalsavings were `27.09 crore through the structured quality improve-ment initiatives. Phillips Electronics India Limited, Mohali wonthe Vardhman Quality Navigator award for large business seg-ment, Trident Quality Pioneer award for medium businesses waswon by Winsome Textile Industries Limited, Badd. Whereas, inthe small industry segment Hycron Electronics, Baddi securedWinsome Quality Pathfinder award. In services sector, Tata Tele-services Limited, Mohali won Educomp Quality Innovator award.

Addressing a galaxy of corporate leaders and quality profes-sionals, KC Mehra mentioned that “Quality is not expensive, but itis priceless”. Mehra also announced QCI Chapter at Mohali inGian Jyoti School of TQM and Entrepreneurship. Quality, he reit-erated, is a must for national wellbeing and QCI has the agenda topromote and propagate quality as well as empower billions indemanding quality.



Illness and cure are two sides of the samecoin. As human civilisation progressedcuring illnesses took giant strides as well.In India, the science of medicine wasseen much earlier that than in other

countries. The earliest literature on Indianmedical practices appeared during the Vedicperiod. The Sushruta Samhita and the CharakaSamhita were the influential works on tradi-tional medicine during this era. Over the fol-lowing centuries, Ayurveda practitioners devel-

oped a number of medicinal preparations andsurgical procedures for the treatment of variousailments.

Around 2500 BC, two schools emerged:Atreya, the School of Physicians and Dhanvan-tari, the School of Surgeons. Two millennia ago,Sushruta not only wrote a treatise on surgerybut performed as well. Though documented inhis time, it was lost in the mist of history unlikethe precise documented form of the Westernworld that appeared many millennia later.

Ayurveda connotes “ayus” meaning life or longevity and “veda” meaning scienceor knowledge and to be precise the “scienceof life”. Ayurveda is grounded in the metaphysics of five elements that surroundus: earth, water, fire, air and ether all of whichcomprise the universe including the humanbody. The Western world instead of dubbingit a mere “alternative medicine” is graduallyrealising it is also a science of holistic healing.

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


Quality moves to promote wellness

tourism

NNEEXXTT SSTTEEPP FFOORRWWAARRDD:: Subodh Kant Sahay, Union Minister for Tourism, releasing the accreditation book along with other delegates.


In recent years, India has become a centrefor medical treatment for reasons of proficien-cy, quality of treatment, aftercare and, above all,affordability. Close on the heels are peoplereaching our shores for wellness, a genre thatcovers yoga to naturopathy, meditation tomassaging, spas to herbal treatment and every-thing to do with nature and that are natural; atreatment that controls all five elements andbrings balance in our body in curing ailments.

Marketers were sharp and saw an opportu-nity in “wellness business”. Judging from thenumber of wellness centres that have mush-roomed across the country it certainly is pay-ing. Though it is encouraging to see ourancient art being revived, it is equally worryingthat unregulated growth, operated by unquali-fied people could bring down the credibility ofwellness concept equally fast.

The government is equally aware of thepitfalls of such a rapid development andrecently held a workshop on the promotion ofwellness tourism. The workshop organisedjointly by Ministry of Tourism and Depart-ment of AYUSH (Ministry of Health and Fam-ily Welfare), saw representatives from thetourism industry, spas and wellness centres,hotels and standalone operators taking a keeninterest in the proceedings.

Inaugurating the proceedings Dr Girdhar JGyani, Secretary General, Quality Council ofIndia (QCI), questioned at the outset whyIndia attracted fewer tourists in comparison toeither Malaysia or Singapore or China. Indiaoffered so many attractive destinations in dif-ferent climatic and topographic locales, yet wehave been unable to create a niche in the inter-national market. On the other hand, we havemade a mark in the medical field, which is noweuphemistically called “medical tourism”. Insimilar vein, India could become a preferreddestination for those seeking wellness.

National Accreditation Board for Hospi-tals and Healthcare Providers (NABH)

of QCI accredits hospitals and health-care providers conforming to the criterion thatis internationally accepted. Foreign patientswhile looking for cost-effective treatment alsolook for high international standards. NABHhas started accrediting wellness centres andspas. Recently, the Philippines requestedNABH assistance for advice and accreditationof hospitals and wellness centres.

Wellness is part of country’s culture andAyurveda is all about wellness. In subsequentcenturies, other forms such as unani, siddha,homeopathy and naturopathy came up -- allaimed towards wellness. India has been theleader for centuries in this segment of treat-ment but now it needed regulation No countryhas this amount of abundant knowledge devel-oped and refined over centuries on wellness. “Itis time that we realise our strength and use it toour advantage,” he mentioned. QCI (NABH)is an institutional member of International SpaAssociation and accreditation by NABHwould be recognised throughout the world.

RH Khwaja, Secretary, Ministry ofTourism, agreed upon the comment made byDr Gyani on low arrival of tourists in our coun-try compared to Southeast Asian countries, “tounderstand that we have to do a bit of soulsearching”, he mentioned. Nature hasbestowed on us some of the most sceniclocales anywhere in the world; add to thatman’s creations as well. Why is it then we havenot created a niche in the world market? The answer lies in lack of quality inmost of things related to the tourism industryand inconsistencies because of which we arenot able to sustain and create a niche. Unlessthere is consistency and enhancement of quali-ty, people’s satisfaction will not. This is true forthe wellness sector too. He quoted a Urdu cou-plet Jaan hai, to jahan hai or world lives, whenwe live and to live well wellness is important.

Department of AYUSH has been promot-ing the Indian system of medicine. “We cannot

separate wellness from Indian systems of med-icine. All forms of stress is affecting people, ofall age groups, world over and now looking forsafe remedy and safe cure. Indian system ofmedicine offers holistic approach to life,” men-tioned Anil Kumar, Secretary, Department ofAYUSH (Ministry of Health and Family Wel-fare). The advantages of Indian system of med-icines are: inexpensive, requires no hospitalisa-tion and plant-based. He stressed the productshave to be standardised and there should bequality and as for the quality the Departmenthas 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 essen-tial for destinations to create unique travelexperiences on an emotional, physical, intellec-tual, and even spiritual level. Wellness has beenthe USP of Indian tourism.” He was of theopinion that wellness tourism was now creat-ing major opportunities for destinations,resorts, spas, hotels and other smaller business-es throughout the tourism industry.

Subodh Kant Sahay, Union Minister forTourism, emphasised on developing qualitytourism infrastructure at identified tourist des-tinations and circuits through convergence ofresources of various union ministries and stategovernments. Inaugurating the national workshop on promotion of wellness tourism,he said, “Wellness tourism is a global trend forthe health-conscious consumers seeking toenhance their wellbeing through their travelexperiences. A person who travels for wellnessis generally healthy, but seeks therapies tomaintain his or her wellbeing.”

The Minister was of the opinion that the increasing demand for this type of activityshows immense possibility for potentialinvestors in tourism. Underlining the impor-tance of safe and dignified tourism he said ini-tiatives in this regard would be taken to ensurethat Indian tourism followed international



DDEELLEEGGAATTEESS SSPPEEAAKKIINNGG OONN HHEEAALLTTHH:: R H Khwaja, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism; Anil Kumar, Secretary, Department of AYUSH; and Sultan Ahmed, Minister of State for Tourism.



standards of safe tourism practices, applicablefor both tourists and local residents.

Speaking on the sidelines of the function,the Union Tourism Minister informed that hisMinistry was in the process of sanctioning `25cr for developing tourism infrastructure in andaround Deoghar in Jharkhand. He said that aroadmap for developing the tourism sector ona large scale in Bihar was also under considera-tion of his Ministry.

The Minister also released the guidelinesfor wellness centres on the occasion. Theseguidelines have been developed by NABH andapproved by the Department of AYUSH. Thewellness centres accredited as per these guide-lines would give a level of confidence to touristsand those availing the services of wellnesstourism service providers that they were deal-ing with someone who had international stan-dards in place. Also, this would provide foreffective regulation of the functioning of well-ness centres.

Accreditation Standards for Wellness Cen-tres provide the framework for quality of carefor customers and quality improvement forwellness centres. The standards help build aculture of quality at all levels and across all thefunctions of the wellness centres. NABH Stan-dards has ten chapters incorporating 84 stan-dards and 396 objective elements. The Accred-itation Standards for wellness centres contain acomplete set of standards for evaluation ofwellness centres for grant of accreditation. Thestandards focus on all aspects of service deliv-ery like customer rights and education, infec-

tion control practices, trained and experiencedstaff, infrastructure, environment safety,processes and controls and statutory and regu-latory compliances.

The workshop on promotion of wellnesstourism was organised with the active partici-pation of Department of AYUSH and NABHto define the areas of development in the well-ness industry and strategise with the help of theindustry for defining the roadmap for the gov-ernment over the next few years.

More than 150 participants representingthe captains of the wellness industry attendedthe workshop to deliberate on the issues concerning ayurveda wellness centres, spas, skincare centres, cosmetic care centres,gymnasiums, fitness centres, preventivehealthcare centres and yoga centres. Theobjective of the workshop was to evolve a roadmap for formulating strategies fordevelopment and promotion of wellnesstourism to position India as the leading destination for wellness tourism, incorporat-ing 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 excellenceamongst those delivering the wellness experience.

The workshop was intended for partici-pants to understand the needs for quality andstandards in operating wellness centres. TheMinistry of Tourism and Department ofAYUSH would work jointly in promotingand marketing wellness tourism. In addition,the Department of AYUSH has been offering50 scholarships every year to overseas stu-dents for training in Indian systems of medi-cines. Said Anil Kumar, “They would go backto their countries as knowledge ambassadorsto spread the goodness of the system.” As forthe promotion, Department of AYUSH hasbeen taking part in several fairs abroad andnow the world is gradually taking note of itsimportance. �


AA WWAARRMM HHAANNDDSSHHAAKKEE:: Dr Narrottam Puri with Sultan Ahmed at the workshop on wellness tourism.

HHEEAALLTTHH TTAALLKK:: Audience at the workshop on wellness tourism.




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

The growth in the number of cor-porate hospitals, healthcarerelated issues and constantattention from the media haveled to a focus on patient’s rights

and protection. Varied agencies like regulato-ry bodies, scientific review committees, ethicscommittees, NGOs, etc. work for patientrights and protection.

One such hospital to have taken an initia-tive towards consumer protection was theNethradhama Super Speciality Eye Hospital,Bengaluru. In a move that promises to bringabout a sea change in the perception ofpatients, the hospital organised a special pro-gramme to celebrate World Consumer RightsDay on March 15, 2011. Hospital sourcespointed out, “At Nethradhama, we always strivehard to keep our patients highly satisfied anddelighted. To accomplish this goal ongoingprogrammes like World Glaucoma Day,World Quality Day and many more are cele-brated with great zeal among the staff andpatients of the hospital.” This year, however,there was an addition of one more patient-cen-tric programme: “Consumer Rights Day”.

To make Consumer Rights Day a success-ful event at the hospital, a number of activitieswere conducted. The most important one was

the awareness programme about the patientsafety solutions manual to all doctors conduct-ed by Quality Assurance Coordinator Dr.Savitha Arun. The significance, necessity, pre-ventive measures and implementationmethodology of various safety aspects werehighlighted. Among these were:

� Proper identification of patients beforeregistration and surgery;

� Identifying and implementing preventivemeasures for look alike and sound alikedrugs;

� Strict adherence to hand hygiene was rein-forced in hospital infection control meas-ures;

� 5R’s to follow at every point of treatmentso as to eliminate various kinds of errors.Performance of correct procedures at thecorrect body site;

� Communication during patient handover; � Assuring medication accuracy at transition

in care; and � Single use of injection devices.

In addition, a presentation on patientrights and education was given by the GeneralManager (Administration) to the staff. Thepresentation pointed out how patients had to

be made aware of their rights and responsibili-ties at Nethradhama through scrolling mes-sages and displays available at the registrationand admission areas and the notice board. Thedisplays are bilingual: in English and Kannada.

The approved tariff lists are displayed in allpatient areas and they are given written esti-mates for various procedures and surgeries thatdisplay the system of transparency policy of thehospital towards its patients.

The staff was also briefed about patient“Grievance handling mechanism” and report-ing verbal complaints in the complaint register.The importance of collecting patients’ confi-dential feedback for evaluation was empha-sised. The staff at Nethradhama is encouragedto proactively collect the feedback, so thatprompt action can be taken. This can only leadto an enhancement in patient satisfaction.

The Consumer Rights Day happened tocoincide with World Glaucoma week. Anawareness programme on Glaucoma played amajor role in sensitising general public aboutpatients and visitors rights during their visit toany hospital.

Nethradhama Super Speciality Eye Hospi-tal thanked Quality Council of India for themotivation and encouragement to celebratethe event. �

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

Enhancing patient

satisfaction


COMMENTS &

FEEDBACK ON TOWARDS QUALITY!

Keep it up!It was a good programme tounderstand the topics and itsimportance for personal andnational growth.

Ajeet Kumar Rai, Crema, New Delhi

The contents of the ses-sions were good. Howev-er, subjects related tomedical devices, productspecification, process STLmay be included.

Amitabh SharmaDNV Delhi

Money concession for students needto be below `1000.Overall good but more technology-related things can be included in thequality conference like what’s goingon in IT, Healthcare in the world.

Akshay SoniIHMR

Excellent programme!

Call professionals from the Indian

Statistical Institute and Bureau of

Indian Standards for presentation

on Quality Problems and Tech-

niques on QC/ TQM/SPC, etc.

Dr E K Jayanarayanan

Mohan Meakin Ltd.

The sessions were good and some of them werevery informative but the time allotted to them wasshort hence they could not completely deliver theconcept. This can be taken care of in future.The entire event was very productive and inform-ative. The three keynote addresses were veryenriching and has sensitised us to make up ourmind to pursue quality as a passion.

Dr P SaranyanSant Hirdaram Medical College of Naturopathyand Yogic Sciences, Bhopal

Congratulations! Keep up the excellent work.

Thanks!

I have a few suggestions: there should be ques-

tion-answer session where the queries of hospi-

tal under process of NABH can be addressed.

More NABH standards-based sessions should

be held.

Dr Deep Kamal

Deputy Medical Supdt.

PSRI, New Delhi

Well-arranged programme.

However, there should be

more focus on Ayush hospitals.

Dr Mahesh Pandit

Sant Hirdaram Medical Col-

lege of Naturopathy and Yogic

Sciences, Bhopal

The speakers were excellent and sowere the contents of the sessions. For next year’s theme and sessions,some more emphasis must be paid onhealth sector and education.

Dr S M Arif ZaidiJamia Hamdard, New Delhi

Overall the programme wasgood. For next year’s theme and ses-sions, ethics and core valuesshould be included.

Dr Sunil K KhetrapalIndian Spinal Injuries Centre

The programme covered challenging topics.But there should be more topics on thehealthcare sector. The healthcare sector mustbe focused on. It must have at least 75 percent of the sessions concentrating on health-care with senior speakers. My suggestion for next year’s theme: Imple-mentation of Quality — The challenge.Dr. Anusuya BoseQuality Coordinator

It was a well-organised programme.

A few suggestions. More open house

discussions should be included to

connect with the audience. The time

allocation to speakers should be as per the

topics to be discussed. Please pay special

attention next time.

Capt. (Mrs) Harjeet Pannu (Retd)

Pushpawati Singhania Research Institute

The programme was good.

The conclave was great and

valuable.

Ekta Sapra

DNV

I am interested in acquiring CDs

with PPTs of all speakers which may

please be provided, if not already

planned.

Dr P C Das

HLFPPT (Hindustan Lever

Family Planning Promotion Trust)



11 letter new grid.qxd 4/28/2011 6:35 PM Page 2

The programmewas excellent andvery informative.

Daisy RaniGodrej MemorialHospital

The speakers and the contents ofthe sessions were good. A smallsuggestion: The registration coun-ters need to be more organised.

Dr Minnie BodhanwalaBaroda Heart Institute &Research Centre

The conclave was good.

Participation certificates

should be issued and partici-

pants given abstracts of papers

presented. Overall the pro-

gramme was fairly good.

Shri G Jayakumar

Santhigiri Ashram

The conclave was excellent. Itwas very well organised and thetopics were well spoken. Verygood. Keep it up.

Prarthana SenguptaPushpawati Singhania ResearchInstitute

Overall the programme was good.There should be quality, safety,transparency and benchmarking ofinformation, communication andmedia (TV, newspaper industry).Some of the speakers were verynarrow in their vision and comments.Dr Garima TrivediPrivate Consultant

It was excellent! I feel challenges in

quality can be discussed widely in the

coming conclaves. Otherwise, the

programme was systematically

arranged.

Reshma S Mane

Godrej Memorial Hospital

The conclave was excellent. We

should keep the efforts on for this

sort of programme.

Rajesh Kumar Mehta

CREMA - New Delhi

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

Well-structured and arranged pro-gramme.For next year’s theme and sessions,please include topics for paramed-ical workers also.A small complaint: The food servedwas cold.

Dr Ashok RanaDHS (Govt. of Delhi)

Excellent contents of the sessions!Please arrange practical workshops on dif-ferent topics e.g. medical audit in the future.It will be good if you can please providePowerPoint presentations of all speakersand their email addresses.

Dr Rakesh J ShahSuperintendent, Hospital for MentalHealth

Karelibaug, Vadodara

The conclave was good. My company can bring aguest to speak. I would like to bring my CEO, TedWolfendale from NEVCO, Education, USA toaddress the audience about Quality Health Educa-tion through video-based programmes. There were very informative discussions. I wasvery impressed by Dr Vijay Kapur, IAS, IGNOU.Excellent addresses from all the participants. Pleaseinvite heated programmes on board to showcaseopportunities available.

W C Chhabra (Ex-USAID/ India)Professional Supports

The programme was very good.

Implementation of quality themes

should be more on technical and

vocational training institutions.

Overall the programme was nice.

T S Rajput

NSIC - Technical Services Centre,

Aligarh

The programme was good.

There should be quality assurance in

higher education in India keeping in

view the various technical institutes

coming up. The conclave was an eye

opener for us and we should make

India’s future better for our children.

Jasdeep Kaur

Guru Tegh Bahadur Instt. of

Technology



The programme was excellent and,

in fact, everything about the conclave

was excellent..

Radhika Anand

Mallya Hospital

11 letter new grid.qxd 4/28/2011 6:35 PM Page 3

QCI is glad to invite requests for advertisement in its bimonthly Quality India magazine. More than 5000 copies of Quality India distrib-uted to CEOs, top management representatives of organizations and quality professionals across the country. Quality India covers topicson Quality in various sectors that include industry, education, healthcare, environment and government. It is now recognized as a pre-mier magazine on quality in the country.

QCIQuality Council of India

Mr. Sunil Jaiswal / Mr. A RajuQuality Council of India

2nd Floor, Institution of Engineers BuildingBahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110 002

[email protected], [email protected]: 011-23378056, 57, Fax: 011-23379621

ADVERTISEMENT

ANNOUNCEMENT

The advertisement tariff for color advertisement (size of 16x25cm) is given below:

Ü Back cover (full page) Ø `40,000

Ü Inside back cover (full page) Ø `25,000

Ü Inside front cover (full page) Ø `25,000

Ü Any other page (full page) Ø `15,000

For further details and enquiries the following personnel may please be contacted:

Quality Council of India

QCI boards

chalk out future

course of action

QCIA QCI Publication

NABH GOES TO THE PHILIPPINES

p20

9/8/2010 3:11 PM Page 1

QCI Brocur 2_QCI Brocur 2.qxd 4/29/2011 1:27 PM Page 2

QCI_march_april2011

Documents

Transcript of QCI_march_april2011