Scaling up for Global Excellence - 2

Contd. from previous post:

Rajiv Bajaj, MD, Bajaj Auto, was the curiousity factor in the group as he usually does not attend such sessions. He turned-up at 8AM much before everyone else. He was wearing his factory uniform (at the Taj Palace Hotel!). When someone asked, he said, "I don't have a suit!".

When his turn came to present, he said, "'I shall not give any business projections or discuss management principles. I will talk about how we transformed our company by strengthening the firm from inside".

His presentation was titled "Inside Out" and he started with the quote:

Those who look OUTSIDE dream,
Those who look INSIDE awaken.
~Carl Jung

He went on to share how Professor S Yamaguchi guided him and his firm in the early 1990s. An interesting quote from the professor was:

Business starts when the customer say NO!

Professor S Yamaguchi is a TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) expert.

To deal with Bajaj Auto's "problems" at that point of time, they simply followed Yamaguchi's advice of "Do! Do! Do!" and from 1990-1995 they "Did what was Doable".

From 1995 onwards they did "What was UNEXPECTED" and unleashed the "Pulsar" by the turn of the century!

To those who are new to TPM, it has some similarities with Total Quality Management (TQM) and both share tools like empowerment, benchmarking and documentation.

TPM programs are aimed at maximizing production effectiveness by engaging people at all organizational levels and functions and simultaneously increasing employee morale and job satisfaction.

Equipment effectiveness is maximized by minimising unplanned stoppages. Maintenance is carried out to a pre-planned schedule, rather than waiting for the equipment to break down.

It targets zero downtime of machinery/equipment, zero defects and zero accidents by the pro-active identification of potential problems.