Visit to Wipro GE Whitefield, Bangalore..

On 24 March 2023 students of MBA sem4, sem 3 and sem2 Operations of ASB were to get the best surprise of their lives. They were inside the college bus that took them to Whitefield at 8 15 am from the Anekal campus. By 10 am we were at the Xray unit of Wipro GE in Whitefield. Our visit to the more latest Computerised Tomography unit was about 5 kms away. Though we had issues with our college bus  transportation, we managed to reach the newer GE CT unit right on time. 

One of the groups of 28 were taken to the Ultrasound machine and ECG mfg unit while the other group of 22 were taken to the more advanced all-women CT assembly unit. 

After an initial updating by the Environmenr Heath and Safety group on what to do in case of an accident / mishap and how to move inside the plants, we went to the shopfloor visits. In the CT assembly unit, we were taken to the raw material store. The process of assembly was explained to us by our visit-in-charge Akshatha. It was interesting to see the present Value stream map (VSM) and future VSM of the CT assembly process. Since we were not allowed to take any pictures, we could not capture those excellent moments of discovery and understanding for us inside the plant. 

Two great industrial titans - Thomas Edison  (L) of GE and Henry Ford of Ford Motor co.

The other great learning was on the visual system in place on the GE shopfloor. More than great learning it was the discipline and rigour, concern for safety of shopfloor employees that struck us most. Since the production quota for the month was already over, there was no work pressure on the shopfloor. The explanation of the Kaizens on the shopfloor to improve the storage in the warehouse and the later assembly was great learning. 

The visit took us next to the second and older plant in the campus manufacturing Ultra sound machines and ECG equipment. The small 14" size monitor size compact ECG was also demonstrated to us. The detailed explanation of the construction of the different probes for the utrasound scanners took us back to the world of contact transducers. 

Lean six sigma concept was introduced to the world by General Electric though Six sigma concept was introduced by Motorola. All the production lines on this shopfloor were Lean Six sigma certified. On the shopfloor we were shown how the DMAIC process takes place and how the different lean tools like 5S, identification of the 7+1 wastes, Gemba walk etc.are deployed. Also, the coloured arrows on the GE shopfloor aisles reminded us of our visit to the world's top lean shopfloor of Toyota Kirloskar at Bidadi, Bangalore, to ensure smooth employee movement on the shopfloor. Since we were not wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) we could not go near the assembling machines. 

Personal Protective Equipments (PPEs) are protective gears designed to safeguard the health of workers by minimizing the exposure to a biological agent.  (in this case Xray radiation). Components of PPE are goggles, face-shield, mask, gloves, coverall/gowns (with or without aprons), head cover and shoe cover.

The green VSM on the shopfloor was a great learning as it exposed us to integrating environmental practices to the traditional Value Stream Mapping and how the Carbon footprint of the different processes in the assembly / manufacturing were being reduced. All the assembly was for the Indian market, except the CT machine which was exported to China for final assembly.

The stress on safety inside the plant cannot be overstated. Safety, quality and delivery on time are the greatest points in lean six sigma inside GE.

The visit was a great learning for the students on the superlative lean six sigma practices at GE which they will never forget in their whole lifetime. This Kadugodi facility of Wipro GE heathcare is relatively new. With Revolution Aspire, the 64 slice CT machine being assembled here, it is totally a Make in India product.

Since the cost of each of these CT machines could go in the range of INR 2 - 4 crores, all the products are made-to-order based on customer orders. The innovative way in which the engg stores was organised is a measure of GE commitment to lean six sigma practices on the shopfloor. 

A big heartfelt thanks to the Plant in-charge Saravanan and our guide Akshatha, besides our Operations PhD student Karthi (former GE employee) who was the great driving force to see the visit getting fructified. GE global turnover now at $75 billion is getting stressed as nimble and agile startups in the Industry 4.0 sector are giving a real run for for money for GE. 

We were really surprised at the low levels of digital transformation that was happening on the GE shopfloor. Hopefully GE with a labour strength of 1,75,000 globally is too big an elephant to make swift nimble moves keeping new startups at a hands distance.

Will GE, the giant tech company that started global operations in 1872 with Thomas Alva Edison in US, whom all global tech and manufacturing companies respect, revere and look upto, transform itself to grow into a nimble and agile large tech company in the next ten years ? With rumours that GE may hive off GE Heathcare (a big loss to the world of advanced global diagnostic medical equipments) and GE Energy this year and focus only on GE Aviation in the future, we have to wait and see what happens to GE in the near future. Click here..Hope that news is not true. 

Can the elephant rise and be flexible and dexterous once again ?

George 

Lean Six Sigma tools and SIPOC diagram

Leab Six Sigma - The innovative Six Sigma method incorporates data-driven, statistics-based tools and techniques designed to facilitate lean manufacturing, better process management, and continuous improvement.  

The SIPOC model is a part of the Six Sigma methodology. In process improvement, a SIPOC is a tool that summarizes the inputs and outputs of one or more processes in table form. It is used to define a business process from beginning to end before work begins. The acronym SIPOC stands for suppliers, inputs, process, outputs, and customers which form the columns of the table. Wikipedia

Difference between Process map and SIPOC : The tool is called “High Level Process Map” because, unlike other processes wherein we put every requirement of the process and also more detailing is done, SIPOC only offers the brief level of information in form of Suppliers, Input, Process, Output and Customers.

Click here for Seven basic Quality Tools

Six Sigma was developed with a very specific goal: reduce variation and defect rates in production processes through statistical analysis. To do this, Six Sigma uses one of two, 5-step approaches – either the DMAIC or the DMADV method.

    DMADV (Define—Measure—Analyze—Design—Verify)

    Measure and identify critical-to-quality characteristics of the product,                       service or process. This includes risk and production capabilities

The Lean method, on the other hand, is entirely focused on eliminating waste, providing maximum value to customers with the lowest possible amount of investment.

Playing the Paper Folding SOP game in class ..

Playing games influence learning in the management business school ..

On Monday 20th of March 2023, I engaged the topic of Standard Operating Procedure with the fourth sem MBA operations students of Alliance School of Business  Bangalore through a game. Playing games can have several positive effects on learning in management business schools. Few ways in which games can influence learning are given below :

1. Increased engagement: Games can increase student engagement and motivation by making learning more fun and interactive. When students are engaged in a game, they are more likely to remember the information they are learning and apply it to real-world scenarios.

2. Active learning: Games can also promote active learning, where students are actively participating in the learning process instead of passively listening to lectures or reading textbooks. This can help students better understand complex concepts and retain information.

3. Decision-making skills: Many games require players to make decisions based on limited information and in a limited amount of time. This can help students develop critical thinking and decision-making skills, which are essential for success in business and management.

4. Collaboration: Some games require players to work together to solve problems or achieve a common goal. This can help students develop teamwork and collaboration skills, which are important in business settings.

5. Simulation of real-world scenarios: Games can simulate real-world scenarios, allowing students to practice and apply their knowledge in a safe and controlled environment. This can help students prepare for future management roles and develop skills that will be useful in their careers.

Overall, incorporating games into management business school curriculums can be an effective way to enhance learning and develop important skills for success in the business world - OpenAI.

As usual this time in the Lean Operations class we brought in the activity style of pedagogy to teach an important concept in lean operations - Standard Operating Procedure.

Standard Operating Procedure - A standard operating procedure is a set of step-by-step instructions compiled by an organization to help workers carry out routine operations. SOPs aim to achieve efficiency, quality output, and uniformity of performance, while reducing miscommunication and failure to comply with industry regulations. Wikipedia

On Monday 20th of March 2023, we introduced the topic of Standard Operating Procedure with the fourth sem MBA operations students through a game. Earlier I had introduced the topic of Kaizen and continuous Improvement with the straw game.

Since the class strength was about thirty I asked for ten volunteers who were asked to stand with A5 paper in the different corners of the large classroom. It was the paper folding game. 

• Initially the students were intentionally given vague instruction on folding the sheets of paper and tearing off the corners. 
• The results were highly variable, we got as many as 5 separate designs with each design taking not more than a frequency of 3. 
• The high variability in designs progressively got reduced from 5 to 4 to 3 as I gave more detailed instructions to the volunteers in different stages of the game. The students and volunteers were eagerly waiting to see what would happen next
• Finally in the last and fifth stage the volunteers were clearly explained the terminology, what was meant by corners, edges, long edge, short edge etc and when the instructions were properly given, all the 8 volunteers gave an identical uniform design, ie. zero variability.
• This led to high uniformly consistent quality of output

The learning from the game was that if proper Standard Operating Procedure is given and followed by the workers  (if all the terminology in the SOP is properly understood by the workers), 

• there is very less probability of workers committing mistakes errors or defects
• all the output will be similar with zero variability, leading to high quality uniform output 
• zero costs are incurred for rectifying defects, leading to high profitability
• uniformity in output leads to great customer acceptance and satisfaction
• high customer satisfaction leads to repeat orders and business growth 

There was no other way to practically demonstrate to the students other than through this practical insightful simple game on how SOPs can bring quality to the process and enhance customer satisfaction.

George..

Talk on Data Science by Ms. Mariam Naqvi in Alliance School of Business Bangalore.

Monday 6 March '23 at 8.30 AM, the students of sem 4 MBA Operations were introduced to the field of Practical Data Science by Ms. Maryam Naqvi who is the Director of OPIS, a Dow Jones listed Data Science company in US.

Amazon and Google are the two large global organisations in the present day world that have large humungous amounts of data to analyse, study and to draw insights from.  Amazon describes Data Science as -

the study of data to extract meaningful insights for business. It is a multidisciplinary approach that combines principles and practices from the fields of mathematics, statistics, artificial intelligence, and computer engineering to analyze large amounts of data

The interaction on understanding Data Science was very timely and appropriate for the students. Amazed up with all theoretical inputs with less business insights, this interaction will get the interested student all charged up. The interactions from the practicing industry expert Ms. Naqvi started with what were the basics and aspects of Data Science that a student planning to join this field should look for.

• what data is being managed or handled
• the eye for detail
• how is the competition operating and
• what is the level of customer satisfaction the organisation can provide. 

Once this question is answered naturally everyone would be interested in knowing how can Machine Learning help humans and society ?

Machine Learning can help us in many ways, the foremost being

• in modeling decision making
• improving customer experience
• improve the efficiency of the process
• reducing costs
• supply chain optimisation and product innovation

The different domains in which data science / AI can help us is varied the most prominent ones being 

• travel, 
• marketing, up-selling, cross-selling, identifying lifetime value of customers, 
• area of health care in image analysis, 
• social media analytics, 
• HR in identifying the means and ways of motivating the workforce, 
• improving the pace and effectiveness in the learning industry,  
• credit, insurance industry in fraud prevention etc..

Benefits of learning Data Science include

• gaining customer insights
• inform internal finances / reporting to senior leadership / enabling decision making
• predict future market trends
• streamline manufacturing and 
• increase security of operations 

Ms. Naqvi also spoke at length on how interdisciplinary collaboration can be implemented. It includes having good

• data understanding
• business understanding
• communication across the organisation
• implementation of the collaboration plan and
• evaluation of the collaboration plan

Ms. Maryam spoke of how  collaboration between technology and business experts can benefit organisation specially by

• creating functional teams
• joint problem solving / ideation
• ongoing communication
• training and education and 
• shared language of technology / interactions etc 

Ms. Naqvi spoke on the trends in the data science area that any student should focus on if he / she is interested in having a future in the data science area

• scaling and operationalisation of AI
• rise in AI adoption
• rise of new roles and responsibilities
• up-skilling
• increasing engagement with the customers and 
• delivering more personalised experience to the customers 

Finally she spoke to the students on how they can develop a plan for their Data Science future

• develop strong foundation
• develop critical thinking
• apply data insights
• communicate with technical and non-technical people
• choose an area of specialisation - specialise in whatever small domain partnering with others or as team
• seek out internships
• network with industry professionals
• gain additional certifications
• practice Data Science tools for daily work 

The speaker did talk of the security, bias, certification aspects of Data Science as answers to student queries. Bias could be avoided by training the ML model on truly varied collections of data across demography, classes, races, time zones etc. She was of the opinion that getting the required certification in the area from the Data Science Society of US had maximum weightage and would take students in the right trajectory. Ms. Naqvi also recommended the text book Data Science for Business by Tom Fawcet.

The session ended on a very positive note when AI would impact al areas of human activity and listed out the future trends and promise of AI interventions in almost allareas of human activity. 

She made it a point to stress that mundane repetitive no-brain actions will all get eliminated in no time with the arrival of chatGPT and other AI tools, the only activities that will remain are the creative, innovative and cognitive activities requiring emotional intelligence and empathy.

George..

Adoption of Lean Operations across Industries ..

Though Lean Principles have been around for at least the past three decades, its adoption across all manufacturing and service shopfloors has not been very enthusiastic. Studies have been done in this regard and the following points have been highlighted. These are several major impediments that can hinder the adoption of lean principles across industries:

• Lack of awareness : Even though many in the industry are to this day aware of the Lean Operations paradigm, it has not still sunk deep enough in the minds of employees to make them seriously and sympathetically view them as great opportunity to bring value to customers and reduce waste

• Short term vision : not looking at the bigger picture, instead looking at  a short future, often stymies long term commitment at change and improvement

• Resistance to change: One of the biggest impediments to lean adoption is resistance to change. Lean requires a fundamental shift in the way organisations think about their processes, operations, and people. Many organisations may resist this change because it challenges the status quo and requires a willingness to abandon traditional ways of doing things.

• Lack of leadership support: Lean implementation requires strong leadership support to drive change and encourage employee buy-in. If leadership is not fully committed to the lean transformation process, it can be difficult to make progress.

• Inadequate training and education: Lean requires a different mindset and approach to work, and employees need to be trained and educated to adopt these principles successfully. Without adequate training and education, employees may struggle to understand and apply lean concepts, leading to resistance and slow adoption.

• Limited resources: Implementing lean can be resource-intensive, requiring time, money, and personnel. Organisations with limited resources may struggle to invest in the necessary infrastructure, technology, and training to support lean adoption.

• Cultural barriers: Different cultures may have different values and beliefs that can impact the adoption of lean principles. For example, some cultures may prioritise hierarchy and formal structures, while lean emphasises collaboration and flexibility.

• Lack of proper metrics to focus on: Other than Overall Equipment Effectiveness, (OEE) we do not have a sufficiently deep or dynamic metric that captures relevant data to measure Lean adoption. Without being able to measure objectively the progress, lean adoption can mean delay in implementation

• Lack of focus on customer needs: Lean is focused on delivering value to customers through continuous improvement. Organisations that do not prioritise customer needs and preferences may struggle to adopt lean principles effectively.

• Lack of understanding to reduce waste in the system: Waste appears in the eight different ways in a manufacturing or service setup, focusing on this reduction needs total commitment from the operations personnel.

• Lack of a visual mind setup: The visual setup on the lean shop floor often ensures easy and fast adoption of lean principles across the shopfloor and its absence often causes delay and lack of commitment.

• Suppliers not being lean - suppliers being an important element of the system, lack of lean adoption from the supplier can impact overall lean adoption

• Lack of ownership of system : workers do not feel like owning the system as much to give their best to it

Overall, the successful adoption of lean requires a commitment to change, strong leadershi

Lean Operations and environmental Sustainability..

Lean Operations and environmental Sustainability

Lean operations and environmental sustainability are related in several ways:

1. Waste reduction: Lean operations aim to reduce waste in all forms, including material waste, energy waste, and time waste. This directly contributes to environmental sustainability as it reduces the consumption of natural resources and lowers the carbon footprint of operations.

2. Continuous improvement: Lean operations focus on continuously improving processes and reducing inefficiencies. This can lead to better utilization of resources, more efficient use of energy, and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

3. Stakeholder engagement: Environmental sustainability involves engaging with stakeholders such as customers, suppliers, and communities to reduce the environmental impact of operations. Lean operations similarly prioritize engagement with stakeholders to identify areas of improvement and reduce waste.

4. Life cycle assessment: Lean operations often involve conducting life cycle assessments to understand the environmental impact of products and processes. This helps identify areas where sustainability improvements can be made and informs decision-making on material selection and production processes.

5. Innovation: Lean operations encourage innovation to drive efficiency improvements and reduce waste. This can lead to the development of new, more sustainable products and processes that reduce environmental impact.

Overall, the principles of lean operations can be applied to achieve environmental sustainability goals and reduce the environmental impact of operations.

Future of Lean Operations

The future of lean operations and manufacturing is promising, as more and more organizations are recognizing the benefits of implementing lean principles and methodologies. Lean is a continuous improvement philosophy that aims to optimize production processes by reducing waste, improving efficiency, and maximizing value for customers.

Here are some potential trends and developments in the future of lean operations and manufacturing:

1. Integration of Lean and Industry 4.0: Lean principles are already being integrated with Industry 4.0 technologies, such as automation, robotics, and the Internet of Things (IoT). This integration is expected to continue in the future, with companies using these technologies to improve production efficiency and reduce waste further.

2. Increased use of Data Analytics: Data analytics is becoming increasingly important in manufacturing, and this trend is expected to continue. Lean organizations are likely to use data analytics to identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions that optimize their processes.

3. Expansion into Service Industries: While lean was originally developed for manufacturing, it has since been applied to a variety of industries, including healthcare, logistics, and government. In the future, we can expect lean principles to continue expanding into service industries, where they can help organizations improve efficiency, reduce costs, and deliver better customer value.

4. Greater Emphasis on Sustainability: Lean principles are already aligned with sustainability, as they aim to reduce waste and use resources more efficiently. In the future, we can expect lean organizations to place even greater emphasis on sustainability, as concerns about climate change and environmental degradation continue to grow.

Overall, the future of lean operations and manufacturing looks bright, with organizations expected to continue adopting lean principles and methodologies to improve efficiency, reduce waste, and deliver greater value to their customers.