A journey, not a destination
As part of the renowned Tata Group, Voltas Limited has improvement in its DNA but as its vice president of Business Excellence Prashant Karkare explains to John OÔÇÖHanlon, its definition of this word extends far beyond financial results and reaches deep into Indian society at large.
Voltas is a diverse engineering group, publicly quoted and IndiaÔÇÖs largest exporter of electromechanical projectsÔÇörecent major examples include the worldÔÇÖs tallest building Burj Khalifa, where Voltas installed HVAC, plumbing and electrical systems, and FerrariÔÇÖs massive new theme park in Dubai where the company won the $330 million contract for the electromechanical work.
Within India, Voltas is a leading OEM in the field of air conditioning and commercial refrigeration; and additionally designs, manufactures and supplies forklift trucks, warehousing equipment and cranes. It represents the major global mining equipment and textile machinery manufacturers. Its newest fledgling business unit, destined to grow into a substantial division, is involved with water treatment and purification. In addition it is also a leading and well-known room air conditioner brand.
Though it runs modern manufacturing operations at its plants in Thane, Dadra near Mumbai and Pantnagar in Northern India, where the air conditioning, refrigeration and materials handling equipment is made, these employ only around one tenth of the companyÔÇÖs 8,000 employees. ÔÇ£Our core skills lie predominantly in project management, value engineering and the timely completion of projects with a focus on quality,ÔÇØ explains Business Excellence head Prashant Karkare. Voltas is a systems integrator, supporting its operations with manufacturing where appropriate (except for its star-rated Vertis brand air conditioning products which lead in the Indian market and present a great potential for export to Africa and the Middle East).
Voltas, then, is one of IndiaÔÇÖs most successful businesses. It and its parent group Tata are making a profound impact on the global economy as they reach out into new markets, and it is worth looking in some detail at how they have achieved thisÔÇöafter all, few people can be unaware of TataÔÇÖs acquisitions in the steel and automotive markets. A significant factor has been the companyÔÇÖs Business Excellence model, which is known as the Tata Business Excellence Model (TBEM) across the Tata Group.
TBEM is based on the framework of the Malcolm Baldrige schemeÔÇöthe formal Business Excellence measure recognised in the United States. ÔÇ£Every year, the Tata Group companies undergo an assessment by a qualified team of assessors conversant with the Baldrige model,ÔÇØ Karkare explains. ÔÇ£At Voltas, we use TBEM as the basic framework for carrying out process and systems level improvement.ÔÇØ
Continuous improvement starts with the leadership, so it is not a question of introducing lean practices on the shop floor simply to cut costs, though cost reduction initiatives across Voltas have paid off in the recent recession. Total productive maintenance (TPM) is seriously being pursued to enhance operational efficiencies at the manufacturing plants; and lean manufacturing practices will be introduced sooner or later. ÔÇ£Continuous improvement is part of our DNA, and we encourage all our people to think of ways they can improve not just their work but the whole of their lives,ÔÇØ says Karkare (we will come to that later).
The corporate culture has always encouraged personal development and business excellence. The tools are the best the world has to offer. Last year for example, seven six sigma projects were launched with the help of Motorola University. ÔÇ£We teamed up with their local representatives, designed a six sigma programme, identified projects and married these up with the training,ÔÇØ he says. ÔÇ£We have targeted up to 20 six sigma projects in the current phase and will do a lot more in the coming year and develop some black belts too.ÔÇØ So far, eight projects have been completed and other projects are at various stages of the DMAIC methodology of six sigma.
5S, kaizen and daily work management (DWM) have been introduced at all the manufacturing plants; however, that is just the beginning of the story. ÔÇ£You have to sustain these improvements or you have lost the game! Success comes from grass roots involvement, not from coercion by managementÔÇöwhen people feel that the changes belong to them, they are stimulated to achieve more.ÔÇØ
There is no better way to illustrate VoltasÔÇÖ corporate culture than to look at its social programmes. Starting from its engineering core, it has supported an impressive number of IndiaÔÇÖs life changing social organisations. Examples in Mumbai itself include the Joseph Cardijn Technical Institute and the Bosco BoysÔÇÖ School, where Voltas conducts a course in maintenance of room air conditioners. Both these institutions help underprivileged boys who have left school early and are at risk of sinking into poverty and even criminal behaviour. In a similar manner, Voltas is partnering with GMR Varalaxmi Foundation in Hyderabad. ÔÇ£These institutions do fantastic work and we run classes for them, bear all the expenses of training, uniform and fees, design the course and provide equipment and teachers. Some of our employees, including retired ones, go and teach there.ÔÇØ When trained, Voltas tries to place the students with their dealers or franchisees, he adds.
More than 1,000 Voltas employees are involved in voluntary work, with the full support of the company. ÔÇ£We want to bring a smile to the faces of old people, widows, mentally challenged children; and bring change into their lives.ÔÇØ The company helps the volunteers with training or by bringing in outside agencies and the like. Akanksha, an NGO which mainstreams underprivileged children in education, operates from VoltasÔÇÖ Mumbai office and company volunteers provide a mentoring programme for the children. The ANZA Special School for mentally and physically challenged children in Mumbai is another institution Voltas has adopted. Voltas volunteers support income generation workshops by arranging to sell handicrafts made by the children, and also support workshops for parents on how to cope. Our LadyÔÇÖs Home is an orphanage for boys, where Voltas volunteers teach mathematics and science and organise educational trips.
The Voltas Organisation of Women (VOW) is a registered trust comprising women employees and spouses of male employees and has been in existence for over four decades. VOW provides medical and educational relief to the underprivileged, as well as financial assistance to womenÔÇÖs self-help groups (SHGs) for vocational training. It also organises seminars, workshops and street plays on issues such as human trafficking, domestic violence, girl-child infanticide and health and hygiene. Currently, VOW is looking at the possibility of giving a facelift to the Shepherd WidowÔÇÖs Home for Old Women and strengthening the SHGs for tribal women.
What relates these projects to business excellence? Consider them alongside VoltasÔÇÖ customer and employee relations strategies. ÔÇ£Of course we want to improve our customer satisfaction scores but in the last year we have moved our focus from customer satisfaction to customer engagement,ÔÇØ says Karkare. This calls for a higher level of interaction and is paralleled by a similar shift in the companyÔÇÖs employee relations. It is typical that the company has an Affirmative Action programme, to remove the disadvantages experienced by reason of caste or ethnicity.
In addition, Voltas has recently completed a carbon footprint mapping exercise and abatement strategies towards reducing its carbon footprint are being worked out. The company has also undertaken focused steps towards safety in all operations, through implementing safety practices based on the OHSAS 18001 standard. Within the manufacturing operations, ISO 14001 is being seriously pursued in respect of environmental matters. All these initiatives show that Voltas is well on the path towards corporate sustainability.
Clear succession management, streamlined work processes, training and personal development and knowledge sharing all have their place; but Voltas appreciates that thereÔÇÖs more to life than work. ÔÇ£We are developing work-life balance with fun initiatives that defocus people from the job.ÔÇØ Celebrations, dance and talent contests are among the ideas coming from ÔÇÿfun committeesÔÇÖ. As Karkare says, ÔÇ£We try to create an outside-in rather than an inside-out organisation.ÔÇØ
While strategic planning, knowledge management, innovation, a balanced scorecard approach and other sophisticated tools and metrics are employed to the full at Voltas, it is perhaps this deep-seated sense of engagement within the business and with the community at large that has enabled the company to double its turnover from Rs.1,800Cr in FY06 to more than Rs.4,000Cr (around $900 million) in FY09. Before the recession, Voltas openly said it would like to hit Rs.10,000Cr in FY11.
But however this year turns out, the Indian companyÔÇÖs success in landing contracts not only in the Middle East but as far afield as Hong Kong and Singapore can only mean rapid growth and more opportunity.
