Published on December 23, 2019
In order to achieve its vision to be a ‘world-renowned airline of choice esteemed for its exceptional customer service’, Vistara decided to enlist Tata Business Excellence Group’s (TBExG’s) support in leveraging business excellence. For exchanging best practices with group companies in the area of data collection and usage, in November 2019, a cross-functional team from Vistara visited Tata Power Delhi Distribution’s (Tata Power-DDL’s) Centre for Engineering Network & Technology, for a day-long Excellence Practice Implementation Champion (EPIC) session.
The session started with a welcome and an orientation session on “Best Practices” by Deepak Deshpande (Relationship Manager for Vistara) and Bilal Ahmad, followed by an opening address by S Padmanabhan, Executive Chairman, TBExG, via video conference, where he highlighted specific areas that Vistara and Tata Power-DDL can collaborate and share best practices.
Shenbagam Manthiram, Chief Operating Officer, Tata Power-DDL, spoke about how business has transformed by integrating technology and ensuring strict adherence to the safety standard operating procedures. He also spoke about the company’s benchmark practices of planning and forecasting of power.
Discussing in detail about the transformation, Ajit Maleyvar, Head of Department - Business Excellence, and Corporate Quality Head, Tata Power-DDL, took the participants through the company’s corporate presentation. He emphasised on the benefits the company reaped through the transformation and turnaround.
Lalit Wasan, Head of Department - Power System Control, Tata Power-DDL, also enlightened the audience about operations, unique and intricate aspects of the power sector, its challenges, and technology deployed. He focused on the phenomenon of power theft and how the company reduced it by accurately forecasting power demand. He also took the participants through the integrated control centre of the company and explained how dashboards are interpreted.
Tata Power-DDL’s IT infrastructure and its integration into the business was covered by Dharmendra Kumar from the company’s IT team. He spoke at length about laying an exclusive IP/MPLS-enabled fibre network to self-developed, tailor-made ERPs for business and HR with SAP as the foundation, and then integrating them.
The day came to an end with a vote of thanks by Mr Deepak Deshpande, commitment to keep the engagement on in the future also.
Vistara found the interaction to be extremely beneficial and foresees an opportunity for the two companies to explore synergies for Artificial Intelligence-based predictive models for forecasting, automation/digitisation of processes and integrating data from different systems for faster and better decision making. As a follow-up measure, Mr Wasan will visit Vistara’s Integrated Operations Command and Control, after which the two companies will further explore the feasibility of replicating best practices exchanged.
Participant Speak (Vistara team)
The EPIC session is a one-of-its-kind intervention that opened the learning vistas for me about a different industry to learn about its best practices, challenges, solutions and innovations. It was a day well invested in appreciating the fantastic work that Tata Power-DDL is doing. Thank you TBExG and Tata Power-DDL.
Vikrant Bhatnagar, AVP - Talent Management & Development
The visit to Tata Power-DDL during the EPIC session added to my pride of being a part of the Tata group when I learnt about their contribution to the enhancement of India’s ranking in ease of doing business and the Prime Minister himself crediting Tata Power-DDL for it. It was also a great learning to see how two different industries like airlines and electricity distribution can have similar operation processes leading to the same outcome in different scenarios. The passion, involvement and deep desire to make an impact visible in the Tata Power-DDL team was contagious. I am happy to have been a part of this EPIC learning mission.
Deepa Chadha, Senior Vice President - HR and Corporate Affairs
The way Tata Power-DDL has brought down losses from 52% when they took charge from DVB to 7.9 % now has been an achievement. Technology has helped them and has become a significant contributor in achieving this. A similar approach can be taken by other companies like us to increase productivity, reduce manpower and enhance customer experience.
Jagbir Singh, DGM Corporate & Operations - IT
It was a delightful session and the focus of the organisation on developing in-house IT solutions and moving to a single vendor to solve their integration issues was interesting to note.
Capt. Vikram Dayal, Chief Pilot
About the EPIC Programme
EPIC (Excellence Practice Implementation Champion) carries forward the Tata Best Practices Programme by helping companies adapt 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.