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Anjali Prayag

BANGALORE, April 17

"SOME are wild thoughts, but we do not stop employees from expressing them because they could make a difference to the company's bottom line some day," says Mr R. Seshasayee, Managing Director, Ashok Leyland, describing his company's unique HR exercise.

`Improve', the annual event, is the culmination of the yearlong effort put in by all employees of the company with an aim to improve productivity and increase savings. "This year's saving is Rs 2.1 crore. Add that to the recurring savings of the previous year's which are Rs 2.9 crore and the total is Rs 5 crore," says Mr Seshasayee.

ALL initiated `Improve' in 1999 involving employees at all levels and departments. Employees form groups and quality circles that work on projects and processes that identify wastage, reduce it, increase productivity and enhance savings. At any point of time, there are at least 400 ongoing projects in the Rs 2600-crore company. `Improve' has a preliminary round of competition where each of these projects is assessed for its innovation, team spirit and financial savings for the company. The best six are selected to make presentations to the management and one among these gets picked as the winning project of the year.

According to Mr J.N. Amrolia, Executive Director, HR, ALL, "the groups working on such projects involve workmen, executives and a mix of both." The groups select the problem and find the solution themselves. "And only after the finance department certifies the savings or the increase in productivity, the project gets selected for the competition," clarifies Mr Amrolia.

The exercise could involve a simple task such as bringing accounting error to zero level or saving on electricity bills for the company, reducing fatigue or increasing safety of the shop floor employee. There are of course, some complex technological projects, like setting a new pressure for making panels or increasing the speed of production of certain components. Most of the ideas originate from the employees themselves, but some times, the company presents certain troublesome spots to the employees, forms task forces and missions and helps employees solve them.

Mr Seshasayee believes that each employee is a `knowledge sump' from where the company can draw information. The company has now made it mandatory for all employees to build a bank of their knowledge.

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