Published on July 05, 2018
Tata Business Excellence Group (TBExG) recently organised the Tata UK Learning Mission from June 26-28, 2018. This Learning Mission, which focussed on two key people-oriented topics of Employee Engagement and Knowledge Management, was attended by 68 delegates from 32 companies across the Tata Group and BQF (British Quality Foundation) affiliated organisations, across the three days.
The event was hosted by Tata Steel Europe at their Port Talbot site on Day 1, followed by Jaguar Land Rover at their Solihull site on Day 2 and finally Airbus at their Broughton (Chester) site on Day 3. To broaden the inputs for the event, Day 1 was jointly hosted with BQF, whose member companies provided 5 speakers and 19 delegates from 14 organisations.
On Day 1, delegates were welcomed to Tata Steel Europe by Bimlendra Jha (CEO Tata Steel UK). Keynote presentations were then delivered, firstly on Knowledge Management by TBExG and Adecco, then followed by Jaguar Land Rover and TNT on Employee Engagement.
During the afternoon, presentations were made from Tata Group companies: Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Communications, Titan, Tata Steel Europe, Tata AIA and from BQF affiliated companies: NuGeneration, Arm, Homeserve. Additionally, to provide a flavour of the Tata Steel operations delegates were given a guided plant tour of the Port Talbot site, visiting both Blast Furnace #5 and the Hot Strip Mill.
On Day 2, delegates were welcomed to Jaguar Land Rover by Dave Owen (Operations Director, Solihull) and Wayne Killick (Manager, Business Excellence). After a short introduction to the rich heritage of the Jaguar and Land Rover brands, delegates were provided with an overview of the Solihull operations and the products manufactured at JLR’s largest manufacturing site.
Delegates were then taken on plant tours to four key facilities: Body-Shop, Paint, Trim & Final and Material Planning & Logistics, during which a number of TIC’s (Team Improvement Circles – which are a key employee engagement and personal development approach of JLR) presented their implemented projects to the visiting group. During lunch, the JLR team presented the delegates with a cake to celebrate the 10th year since the acquisition of JLR by Tata Motors. The day concluded with an exciting off-road driving tester in a fleet of Land Rovers (thankfully driven by professionals!) at the popular Land Rover Experience centre.
On the final day, delegates were welcomed by Katy Waidelich and Nigel Jones who introduced the delegates to the Airbus operations globally, within the UK and at the Broughton site. A presentation followed on various, both successful and unsuccessful, Employee Engagement practices at Airbus in Europe. The day concluded with another site visit, which gave the delegates an insight into the manufacture of wings for the A350, the newest product offering from Airbus, which incorporates new technology and ways of working.
Following the event, many delegates have provided very positive feedback on the 3-day Learning Mission experience, indicating that they found the event well-structured & organised and the variety of sessions extremely useful to identify key learnings which can be applied back at their own organisations.