Published on October 16, 2023
Tata Chemicals operates in two main verticals – basic chemistry products and specialty products. The company’s basic chemistry product range supplies essential ingredients to global leaders in glass, detergents, pharma, biscuit manufacturing, bakery and various other industries. It also operates the largest saltworks in Asia, and ranks as the third largest soda ash and sixth largest sodium bicarbonate manufacturer globally.
Established in 1927, Tata Chemicals has its biggest manufacturing facility in Mithapur, Gujarat, India. As part of its endeavour to be a top-tier sustainable chemistry company, Tata Chemicals wanted to revisit its asset management processes. It wanted to measure itself against industry leaders and adopt a data-driven approach to asset management.
To support Tata Chemicals, Tata Business Excellence Group (TBExG) conducted a Deep Dive exercise in collaboration with a team from Tata Consulting Engineers (TCE). It involved improving the asset management processes at Tata Chemicals to a benchmark level, enabling the company to build robust practices in the area. TBExG invited Asaman Patnaik, General Manager, TCE, to join the session due to his expertise in implementing asset management frameworks, which was deemed vital for ensuring the effectiveness of the recommendations for Tata Chemicals.
The exercise commenced with a comprehensive assessment of the current asset management procedures and framework at Tata Chemicals. This involved a series of interactions with the Tata Chemicals team, including an on-site visit to its Mithapur facility. The subsequent phase involved a thorough benchmarking of these processes against established industry standards, such as the ISO:55001 framework for asset management, and identifying key improvements areas. The team then presented Tata Chemicals with a set of recommended improvements based on these identified areas.
The team also interacted with various Tata group companies to understand various asset management practices and learn the potential benefits of aligning Tata Chemicals' practices with those. After a series of brainstorming sessions, discussions and studying various practices, the team shortlisted and recommended the most high-impact practices in asset management to Tata Chemicals.
The recommendations included areas of reliability centred maintenance and a revised asset management framework and policy. These also covered aspects of optimised cost, increased reliability, use of data for analytics and predictive maintenance.
The senior leadership found the recommendations extremely useful and expressed their commitment for deeper engagements with these companies to gain a more comprehensive understanding of their practices.
As next steps, Tata Chemicals would be getting into deeper conversations with companies to understand the recommended practices closely, with a focus on implementing the same at its facilities.
The company is also currently working with TBExG on improving their order-to-cash and procure-to-pay cycles to continue their endeavour of being a world-class organisation.
Participant Speak
TBExG team has delivered splendidly on the NeXelence journey we have undertaken. Thanks to the team members for the passion invested
— Dr. Richard Lobo, Head - Innovation, CQH and Chief Ethics Counsellor at Tata Chemicals