Published on July 22, 2020
Tata Teleservices aims to develop a robust improvement culture. Accordingly, to learn more about the deployment of cross-functional teams, it approached Tata Steel for guidance since the latter had found success with its Shikhar25 programme.
An EPIC best-practice sharing session, facilitated by TBExG, on April 24, 2020, saw Bharat Garg, Business Performance Enhancement - Raw Material, at Tata Steel, elaborating on the programme.
Launched in FY15, Shikhar25 carried a clear objective of achieving a sustained EBITDA of 25%, at the market price of raw materials.
This programme covers the entire steel value chain and involves all sections of the workforce in driving improvement projects for enhancing performance. The programme focuses on aspects like:
- Delivering superior product quality
- Optimising product mix
- Improving operational efficiency to lower carbon footprint
- Reducing waste generation and improving its utilisation
- Maximising energy and material efficiency
- Improving Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)
- Effective utilisation of material
- Spend reduction and supply chain optimisation
During the session, Mr Garg explained a crucial four-step process to monitor the progress of ideas. In the first step, value pool identification process comprises:
1. Identification of improvement areas through belief audits
2. Analytics and benchmarking
3. Hypothesis generation
4. Estimation of financial value that can be generated
The information acquired is then used to conduct four types of ideation workshops. Through these workshops, levers are identified to impact key performance indicators, including production, cost, or profitability. The workshops also help in identifying the priority ideas, which are then acted upon.
Shikhar25 uses a five-stage-gate classification system which tracks the implementation roadmap of the selected ideas, developed as projects. Every project passes through the stage-gates, from D0 to D4, gaining maturity from ideation to implementation. All the projects are tracked in the impact centre in all the stages to ensure faster implementation and resource deployment as per requirement. At the impact centre, the idea team participates in a 30-minute project review. It examines:
- Information about governance
- Star value of the ideas (ideas that give maximum value in D3 stage)
- Countermeasures
- Lag indicators
- Initiative tracker
- Lead indicators
- Collaboration and internal audit
Finally, a mentor typically checks if the project is leading to the planned benefit or whether further enablers would be needed to achieve the desired project objectives.
The success of Shikhar25 can be gauged from the fact that in FY19, 427 projects were implemented, and all the financial savings were validated for impact on EBITDA.
TTSL acquired valuable lessons from the session. It would be deliberating internally to incorporate some features of the programme into its continuous improvement framework.
Customer Speak:
The EPIC session with Tata Steel helped us understand the Shikhar25 programme and how they implemented it. We are currently in the process of evaluating how and what to implement the same in our organisation. We will be in touch with Tata Steel process owners to help us with the same.
About the EPIC Programme
EPIC (Excellence Practice Implementation Champion) carries forward the Tata Best Practices Programme by helping companies adopt best practices from the group through a structured collaborative process, under the guidance of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) from Best Practice organisations. EPIC is a platform that brings together the provider and the receiver companies together to enable successful adaptation and implementation of best practices.