Published on October 13, 2016
With the view to provide further impetus to the agenda of democratising the learning and sharing of best practices within the Tata companies, Tata Business Excellence Group (TBExG) facilitated a Mini Learning Mission on World Class Quality (WCQ) to Tata Motors Pune, on October 3 and 4, 2016. The 2-day session was attended by 37 Tata executives from 11 Tata companies. The sessions comprised of a classroom learning, followed by visits to Commercial Vehicle (CV) and Passenger Vehicle (PV) plant shop floors to understand WCQ concepts.
The programme started with a welcome address by Devraj Chattaraj, senior consultant, TBExG, wherein he spoke about the programme and the objective of organising the Mini Learning Mission. Anil Sinha, Vice President - Manufacturing Operations (PVBU), Tata Motors, then addressed the participants and shared his views on WCQ. Rajesh Deshpande, Head - Manufacturing, Pune CVBU, Tata Motors, and Anuradha Das, Head HR - Car Plant, Tata Motors, who followed, shared their experience of driving WCQ across the plant areas. Chetan Chawla, Head - CV Quality, Tata Motors and Manish Manek, Head - PV Quality, Tata Motors, shared the background of the initiative, the challenges faced, the details of various WCQ processes and measures, the cultural changes it had ushered in, and the benefits achieved by Tata Motors in both the business units.
The participants later visited the CV and PV plant shop floors to understand the implementation of WCQ concepts at the vehicle assembly lines, aggregate manufacturing areas, fundamental skill training centres, etc. Participants were enthralled to witness the level of people involvement in driving the initiative and the level of standardisation achieved across plant areas.
The feedback received from the participants was very encouraging. Participants expressed their intent to recommend the programme to their colleagues, several expressed interest in connecting with Tata Motors Quality team to better understand the implementation of WCQ. Nidhi Basu, Lead - Knowledge Management, Tata Motors, coordinated the events.
Voice of participants
This exposure was mind-boggling. If there is one real experience of People Involvement (PI) in World Class Quality then this visit to Tata Motors Pune is an eye-opener. The people participation in this journey is worth emulating. It has percolated down to the workers and is something unique!
— Gautam M. Balvally, Tata Projects Limited, SBU Quality Services
The Mini Learning Mission is a fantastic initiative by TBExG for sharing best practices on a group level. While most of the group companies are in different industry sectors, the interactions and site visits provide sufficient guidance for deployment of these best practices.
— Ramesh Shankar, Head Operations – New Bar Mill, Tata Steel Limited, Jamshedpur
"It was an excellent opportunity to understand Tata Motors' WCQ concept, structure, implementation methodology, best practices shared by employees, challenges faced by the organisation, milestones achieved and the way ahead. Thanks TBExG for organising the Mini Learning Mission for Tata Motors on WCQ and I look forward for many more of such learning missions in the future."
— Sudhir Laturkar, General Manager – WCQ, TACO Group
The Genesis of Learning Missions
TBExG facilitates knowledge transfer and learning dissemination across the Tata group with a view to help group companies achieve operational improvement and overall business excellence. To accomplish this goal of empowering Tata employees to learn and share knowledge, TBExG has developed one of the most advanced digital platforms EDGE, which promotes best practices sharing within the Tata group. TBExG set up the Learning Missions to have a judicious mix of digital avenues as well as face-to-face sessions. The initiative helps employees from different group companies to interact closely with each other through a face-to-face process that makes it simpler to internalise learnings and imbibe best practices. The initiative focuses on a few important but reasonably deployable topics across various functions and verticals.
About Mini Learning Missions
TBExG launched the concept of Mini Learning Missions to provide impetus to the sharing and transfer of knowledge and best practices within the Tata group and benefit Tata companies. An offshoot of the Learning Missions initiative run by the Best Practices team within TBExG, Mini Learning Missions have been designed to facilitate the dissemination and internalisation of best practices across Tata companies. It takes the Learning Mission initiative a step further, making it more accessible to a larger pool of group companies. Held at shorter intervals, the Mini Learning Missions provide a robust platform for companies to interact with each other and allow for greater knowledge transfer.
To know more about how your company can benefit from Mini Learning Missions, please contact Vinod Kumar at vinodkumar@tata.com or Devraj Chattaraj at dchattaraj@tata.com