SERVICE PROCESS IMPROVEMENT OF ON-FIELD CONSUMER SURVEY FOR WATER METER INSTALLATION PROJECT OF AHMEDABAD MUNICIPAL CORPORATION

Presenter :Prateek GuptaMBA (2015-17)Roll No. 26

Under Guidance of:Dr. Anurag Singh(Asst. Prof IMS, BHU)Mr. Rahul Sanghvi(CEO, Dexter Consultancy)

– Morpheus, The Matrix (1999)

..and standing there, facing the pure horrifying precision, I came to realize the obviousness of truth

INDUSTRY ANALYSIS

Research and Consulting Industry Ecosystem in India.

Research and Consulting Industry, India

Management research and consulting industry in India is quite fragmented in nature. On one end of spectrum, we have the big four accounting firms (PwC, KPMG, EY, Deloitte) and on other end, we have freelancers or individual practitioners. In the middle, we have various large and small boutique firms (EPSOS, IMRB, Hansa Research, Dexter Consultancy etc.) providing consulting expertise in different geographies across India, industry verticals (healthcare, social sector, automobile, technology etc.) or industry horizontals (marketing, supply chain, information technology etc.). ASSOCHAM predicted that consulting market by 2013 will be close to ₹22,000 Cr and for near future this industry is likely to grow at 30% CAGR. Using these numbers, a ballpark number for 2016 is likely to be ₹48,334 Crores. Further, based on discussion with mentor, total market for small scale consulting projects appears to be around ₹16,000 Crores.Largest concentration of management consulting and research firms is in Mumbai (around 30%) followed by Delhi (around 20%) and then other metro cities. Few firms (such as Dexter Consulting) are also present in Tier 1 cities (such as Ahmedabad, Hyderabad etc.).

COMPANY ANALYSIS

Verticals in which Dexter Consultancy operates.

Dexter Consultancy Pvt. Ltd., Ahmedabad

Dexter Consultancy Pvt. Ltd. is a mid-sized research and consulting firm established in March, 2007. Headquartered in Ahmedabad, it has field presence in 29 states in India and has done more than 1500 projects across India and in Dubai. It has worked with clients such as Harvard Business School, The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Govt. of Gujrat, IIM Ahmedabad, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd., Lenovo, P&G, Sintex, UTV Bindass among others.Indian research and consulting industry is highly fragmented. In-between ‘The Big Four’ and region-specific or domain-specific mid-sized boutique firms, there is dearth of firms that have significant presence in tier-1 cities (like Ahmedabad, Pune, Indore etc.) and/or cater to SMEs on national level. Identifying this gap, Dexter Consultancy has strategically positioned itself as a pan-India and multi-domain firm. The management of company firmly believes that small-scale research, if done effectively, can lead towards meaningful and value-adding results. Dexter Consultancy has developed an extensive network of vendors, aanganwadi workers, gram panchayat workers and local NGOs, across India. This competitive advantage allows company to enjoy a much better hit-ratio (i.e. conversion rate of prospective customers) of 1:8 as compared to 1:20, which is industry average for boutique firms. Dexter Consultancy has also developed an expertise for market-research projects across Gujrat, maintaining a hit-ratio of 1:2 as compared to 1:10 industry average for regional boutique firms.

SWOT ANALYSISSTRENGTHS

Wide network of Professional and Personal Relationships across

Industries. Extensive network of vendors,

aanganwadi workers, gram panchayat workers, influencers, local NGOs

across India. Technology integration in Research

Process.

WEAKNESSES Excess of government projects in

company’s client portfolio leads to delayed payments.

Expanding in different verticals has resulted in loss of focus leading to decreased number of converted projects.

Lack of defined processes has created dependency on resource persons.

OPPORTUNITIES Lack of boutique firms serving SMEs at

national level across multiple domains. Next-Gen CEOs of family businesses

are open to small-scale research for decision making.

THREATS Medium-Sized global consulting firms

such as Ecovis are entering India. Emergence of Big Data and Data

Science poses a threat to conventional research firms.

PROJECT BACKGROUND

DEFINE

Scope of the problem, the criteria by which success will be measured and how project will be carried out.

REVIEW

Current situation, understand the background, identify and collect informationincluding performance, identify problem areas.

IDENTIFY

Improvements or solutions to the problem, required changes to enable andsustain the improvements, prioritize the improvements.

VERIFY

Check that the improvements will bring about benefits that meet the definedsuccess criteria, pilot the improvements.

EXECUTE

Suggest improvements and changes, plan implementation, implement, gather feedback and review.

Ahmedabad, selected as one of the first 20 smart cities in India, is set to get 24 hours’ water supply and water meters are to be installed, to measure usage and bill user accordingly. Dexter Consultancy Pvt. Ltd. received the contract for conducting a consumer survey for existing and potential consumption units. The survey is an extensive one, recoding information such as user details, consumption details, connection details etc. and mapping future requirements. My project was to improve the process of consumer survey.

Process improvement was carried out using DRIVE approach.

DEFINE Problem Statement: Dexter Consultancy Pvt. Ltd. has taken AMC’s ‘Consumer Survey’ project for

water meter installation. They have bid for project citing superior processes and faster results. Though, their Submission Rate (Number of surveys submitted to AMC per month) and Rejection Ratio (Number of surveys rejected by AMC per month: Submission Rate) are better than the competitors, they would like to improve them further. There are two components to this improvement: ‘Time’ and ‘Cost’.

Scope of the Project: The current project aims to improve ‘Time’ component while retaining ‘Costs’.

Success Criteria: Several KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) will be measured for sub-processes and whole-process. If whole-process KPI is improved as a result of this project, the project will be considered successful.

GANTT CHARTPROCESS IMPROVEMENT PROJECT: TIMELINE

Activities StatusMay (Weeks) June (Weeks)1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4

Define Define scope of project Decide success criterion

Done

Review Understand current process Divide into sub-processes Identify & measure current KPIs

Done

Identify• Identify & prioritize

improvementsDone

Verify• Design experiment• Execute experiment &

document new KPIsDone

Execute• Report findings and

suggestionsDone

REVIEW

Process flowchart for existing process is plotted using IOCR (inputs, outputs, controls and resources) methodology. A sub-process takes input and transforms it into output using resources and working within constrains.

PROCESS FLOW DIAGRAM: CURRENT PROCESS AND SUB-PROCESSES

IDENTIFIED KPIS & CURRENT MEASURES KPI 1: Structures mapped per man-day KPI 2: Total structures surveyed per man-day KPI 3: Average time taken in minutes to

complete one survey KPI 4: Total structures quality checked per

man-day KPI 5: Man-hours required for data cleaning of

100 structures KPI 6: Man-hours required for data validation

of 100 structures KPI 7: (Overall Process) Total structures

submitted to client per man-day

Mean of KPI 1: 104 Mean of KPI 2: 10 Mean of KPI 3: 23 Mean of KPI 4: 5 Mean of KPI 5: 0.58 Mean of KPI 6: 3.56 Mean of KPI 7: 9.58

IDENTIFIED KPIS & PRE-TEST MEASURES

IDENTIFY CAUSES 1: Map provided by AMC is old and AutoCAD plotted. 2: Single grid assigned to multiple persons lead to conflict. 3: Division of maps into grids is done on convenience rather than

logic. 4: Time taken to locate structures is quite high. 5: Extreme heat leads to exhaustion. 6: Location of lunch is quite far from site. 7: Time taken to locate markings on structure is quite

high. 8: Unavailability of respondents. 9: Extreme heat leads to exhaustion. 10: Repetitive data filling leads to wastage of time. 11: Text fields in App instead of options leads to time wastage. 12: Time taken by respondents to locate Tax Bill. 13: Time taken by respondents to answer. 14: Time taken to locate structures is quite high. 15: Distance between structures is very much. 16: Same address is noted using different spellings. 17: Case differences while entering text fields. 18: Auto checks are unavailable.

19: Time taken in discussions to resolve a logical error is high.

20: Sometimes information is filled by surveyor without asking the respondents.

21: Mismatches in types of structures. 22: Potential bottleneck exists between survey

and data cleaning sub-processes due to unavailability of permanent staff.

23: Bottleneck exists between mapping and survey sub-processes.

Fishbone diagram to analyse cause and effects of existing problems.

PARETO ANALYSIS OF CAUSES

IDENTIFY IMPROVEMENTS Improved survey app, with auto fill, options instead of text box, FAQs and GPS tracking should be used. AMC provided map should be superimposed with current Google map. While mapping areas to grids, it should be preferred to assign a closed area (by roads, a single sector of a

colony etc.) to a single grid. Single grid should be assigned to a single person to avoid mapping conflicts. Mapping sub-process should be further divided into two sub-processes i.e. pre-mapping and mapping. In

pre-mapping, an executive with vehicle should mark roads, landmarks, corner structures in a block. In mapping, all other structures should be marked.

Structures should be marked on specific, pre-decided spots on structure such as water tank, electricity meter etc.

Markers should be replaced with crayons to effectively mark structures. During quality check sub-process, structures to be checked should be located approximately with help of

their GPS location. For data-cleaning sub-process, improved excel sheet with auto-checks and auto-validations should be used. For data-validation sub-process, clear ‘if-then’ rules should be formed to avoid wasting time

discussing possible corrections. To avoid bottlenecks between sub-processes ‘mapping’ & ‘survey’, and between ‘survey’&

‘data-cleaning’, mapping executives should be assigned data-cleaning and data-validation task for 3 days at end of 2nd and 4th week of month.

VERIFY IMPROVEMENTS

OBJECTIVES: To ease any existing bottlenecks between sub-processes, if any. To improve KPIs for individual sub-processes. To improve KPI for overall process.HYPOTHESIS: H0: There is no improvement in overall-process KPI for new process.RESEARCH DESIGN: One-group pre-experiment with pre-test and post-test observations.SAMPLING: A sample of 5 interns (out of 13 executives, including interns) was selected using convenience

sampling for experiment and KPIs were observed.

EXPERIMENT DESIGN TO CHECK IF IMPROVEMENTS MEET SUCCESS CRITARIA

IMPROVED KPIS & POST-TEST MEASURES

IMPROVED MEASURES & HYPOTHESIS VALIDATION

Mean of KPI 1: 104 Mean of KPI 2: 10 Mean of KPI 3: 23 Mean of KPI 4: 5 Mean of KPI 5: 0.58 Mean of KPI 6: 3.56 Mean of KPI 7: 9.58

Improved Mean of KPI 1: 127 Improved Mean of KPI 2: 13 Improved Mean of KPI 3: 20 Improved Mean of KPI 4: 6 Improved Mean of KPI 5: 0.52 Improved Mean of KPI 6: 3.36 Improved Mean of KPI 7: 13

Hypothesis Testing:Since the overall-process KPI (KPI 7) has shown improvement as result of new process, hence null hypothesis H0 is rejected.

KPI 3, KPI 5 & KPI 6 : The lower, the better.KPI 1, KPI 2, KPI 4, KPI 7 : The higher, the better.

EXECUTE

KEY FINDINGS

KPI 1 (Structures mapped per man-day): It was improved from 104 to 127. KPI 2 (Total structures surveyed per man-day): It was improved from 10 to 13. KPI 3 (Average time taken in minutes to complete one survey): It was improved from 23 to 20. KPI 4 (Total structures quality checked per man-day): It was improved from 5 to 6. KPI 5 (Man-hours required for data cleaning of 100 structures): It was improved from 0.58 to 0.52 KPI 6 (Man-hours required for data validation of 100 structures): It was improved from 3.56 to 3.26 KPI 7 (Total structures submitted to client per man-day): It was improved from 9.58 to 13 Bottleneck exists between sub-processes ‘mapping’ and ‘survey’ with 36 structures mapped extra as

compared to those surveyed. Bottleneck may potentially exist between sub-processes ‘survey’ and ‘data cleaning’ as no dedicated

staff is assigned to data cleaning.

REPORT FINDINGS, SUGGESTIONS & LIMITATIONS

SUGGESTIONS

Improved survey app, with auto fill, options instead of text box, FAQs and GPS tracking should be used. AMC provided map should be superimposed with current Google map. While mapping areas to grids, it should be preferred to assign a closed area (by roads, a single sector of a

colony etc.) to a single grid. Single grid should be assigned to a single person to avoid mapping conflicts. Mapping sub-process should be further divided into two sub-processes i.e. pre-mapping and mapping. In

pre-mapping, an executive with vehicle should mark roads, landmarks, corner structures in a block. In mapping, all other structures should be marked.

Structures should be marked on specific, pre-decided spots on structure such as water tank, electricity meter etc.

Markers should be replaced with crayons to effectively mark structures. During quality check sub-process, structures to be checked should be located approximately with help of

their GPS location. For data-cleaning sub-process, improved excel sheet with auto-checks and auto-validations should be used. For data-validation sub-process, clear ‘if-then’ rules should be formed to avoid wasting time discussing

possible corrections. To avoid bottlenecks between sub-processes ‘mapping’ & ‘survey’, and between ‘survey’& ‘data-cleaning’,

mapping executives should be assigned data-cleaning and data-validation task for 3 days at end of 2nd and 4th week of month.

LIMITATIONS

Individual effect of each change in sub-processes can’t be measured because only one-shot experiment was performed due to lack of resources.

Process improvement is done only to reduce process time. Improvements to reduce costs were out of scope for current project.

Changes suggested are assumed to carry negligible costs. Since laboratory conditions can’t be arranged, effect of extraneous factors such as weather,

participants’ motivation and others on the result of experiment can’t be calculated and is assumed to be negligible.

CONCLUSIONCurrent process for ‘On-Field Consumer Survey for Water Meter Installation Project of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’ has scope for improvement. If suggested changes are implemented to improve the current process, number of surveys submitted monthly to client can be increased by up-to 35.7%.

LEARNINGS FROM INTERNSHIPSummer internship at Dexter Consultancy Pvt. Ltd., Ahmedabad has been an enriching experience for me. I learned about research & consulting industry, conducting field research, client presentations and managing teams. I also realized the importance of professional relationship networks and their importance in business, especially in B2B service industry. I worked along interns from IIM Raipur, KJSOM, IIM Sirmaur and Gujrat University which allowed me learn from them too. I have been left inspired by the enterprising culture of Gujarat, which made me appreciate the ancient Indian teaching of ‘Work is Worship’.

THANKS!References: http://www.dexteronweb.com http://www.businesstoday.in/magazine/corporate/family-business-india-seeking-mentors-outside-to-train/story/220539.html http://www.businesstoday.in/magazine/features/medium-sized-global-consulting-accounting-firms/story/194285.html http://www.greenbookblog.org/2015/02/09/10-predictions-about-the-future-of-the-market-research-industry-in-the-digital-age/ www.businessballs.com/dtiresources/TQM_process_improvement_tools.pdf

Credits: http://www.canva.com https://creately.com/ http://www.slideheros.com MS Excel