A business process map helped define the whole business in six processes. Of these, the one that looked most like it could do with a change was the order-fulfilment process. Says Kumar, "low overall equipment effectiveness was a concern. The long set-up time too was a concern. Employee involvement and skills had to be upgraded." Adds the official, "The quality of products was not a concern at all. But other parameters such as inventory turn ratio and other productivity norms had to be addressed."

Satyam recommended the cellular design for the factory set-up. In other words, a factory within a factory model helped LGB improve in the areas causing concern. Here, IT played a role in getting up a Kanban manufacturing system, order management system hat integrated with the order fulfilment process, the equipment effectiveness monitoring system and the measures of a performance monitoring system. The highlight of the project was the input-output analysis of the process. This helped define the activities of the organisation into three types: value adding (VA), non-value adding (NVA), and wasteful. Satyam helped LGB look at the number of activities making up a process and the man-hours required for those activities. It then divided these activities into those that worked for the customer (VA), those that worked for the company but did not directly affect the customer and those that worked for nobody (wasteful). Says Kumar, "The idea here was to make sure that one maximised VA, by removing obstacles to performance, to minimise NVA and to eliminate waste."

It is easy to see what VA processes are. But NVA?

Kumar just jumps at the query and says, "Expediting or progress chasing are examples of NVA. Storing, warehousing, moving material in and out of the company, preparation of checks and controls documents and inspection also form part of the NVA."

And waste? Pat comes the reply: "Searching for a part or tool and reconciliation among documents is a classic case of wasteful activities. They add value to nobody."

In the case of the OFP, it was found that VA contributed to about 68.2 per cent of the activities and NVA contributed to 31.7 per cent while the rest was wasteful. The official says that most of the objectives were met. The redesign of the order generation process for industrial chains was as follows: the objective was to substantially increase the efficiency of the process. Satyam took up a market analysis to illustrate the actual position of LGB, to identify market needs, demands and customer expectations of LGB and to spot and analyse the gaps between customer expectation and delivery.

Satyam's analysis of the existing gaps indicated that there was no true standard operating procedure, several customer interfaces, not enough market intelligence, need for active business development, incorrect understanding of customer specifications and poor brand visibility.

Satyam came up with the following positioning strategy: based on market surveys, LGB had to have a solutions provider image that would help it best in the circumstances. The highlights of these were to have a single window for all chain-related requirements, strategic partnerships with customers and just-in-time deliveries. Action on these fronts resulted in a 184 per cent increase in the number of enquiries received, 169 per cent increase in enquiries quoted, 300 per cent increase in number of samples submitted and a 460 per cent increase in the number of approved samples.

For obvious reasons with regard to competition, neither the company nor the consultant was willing to reveal absolute figures. The highlight of the redesign of the product engineering process (PEP) was the recommendation for concurrent engineering. The objective of the PEP redesign was to reduce the cycle-time of the enquiry process and to reduce new product development time each by half.

One of the issues the consultant sighted as unproductive was the back and forth shunting of drawings from the sales force to the R&D for want of clear specifications.

The formation of a cross-functional team helped prevent unsuitable specifications creeping into the design at the concept stage itself. Industry-specific project leaders now came into the picture, thus helping the client himself decide what he wanted.

The Product Data Management component of the redesign used technology to reduce new product development time. LGB created a repository of design and related data that came in handy for re-use for future designs. A system that aided the online release of documents was also put in place. The company achieved its objectives on this front. Further, application engineers were brought in to ensure that accurate information was passed on between the customer and the vendor.

Would LGB do this differently now? What were the lessons it learnt? Says the official, "We would do it faster now, because of the learning that has accrued. Further, our priorities would be different now. For instance, we would look at new product development because that is crucial."

Finally, why an external consultant? Would you do this again all by yourself?

The official feels, "Satyam helped accelerate our progress. We might have been doing things on our own. Some were adequate, others not so. Further, bringing in Satyam helped us keep in touch with modern management and manufacturing trends. It is easy being in a state capital. But in a place like Coimbatore, we have to consistently keep deputing people to attend seminars or conferences where new issues are discussed, at state capitals or the national capital. Having an external consultant helps."

bharatk@thehindu.co.in

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