Ashley News / June 20091

The story of coral reefsThe story of coral reefs

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Earth hour

hEadstart in hythanE

EnginEsMining idEas

togEthEr

Ashok LeyLAnd empLoyees’ JournAL June 2009

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Coral reefs presenT a fascinating insight into instincts, resilience and adaptability of life forms.

Coral reefs are made up of tiny, soft-bodied corals, with sensitive tentacles that reach out for food and recede to escape danger.

Corals exist in partnership. each coral hosts many microscopic single-celled algae, inside its cell walls. The algae supply the by-products of photosynthesis which is raw material for the coral to produce proteins and carbohydrates. The coral provides the carbon, nitrates and phosphates the algae require for photosynthesis. It is truly a symbiotic existence.

Corals form large colonies that act as a single organism, each weighing tonnes and stretching as far as a kilometer. Importantly, the corals are linked to each other with a thin tissue, providing connectivity to the entire colony, truly making it a single entity that feels and reacts in unison. Coral reefs shelter and support a variety of marine life, a source of food and live-lihood for people. Coral reefs also protect sea shores from strong waves and storms. Coral reefs are value creators.

Using the energy supplied by the algae, corals produce calcium carbonate (chalk material) that forms a protective skeleton to retreat when predators threaten.

Then there is the clever architecture and plumbing to deal with rushing waves. The deep groves channel water back out to the sea where they neutralise the on-coming waves.

The latest findings show the adaptability of corals to survive global warming, with the help of heat-resistant algae. Coral reefs are so much like organisations, connected – and united – by a common cause.

Closer home, organisational responses to the economic slowdown have been: revenue augmentation from non-cyclical businesses, capex fine-tuning and cash conservation, even as planning for future through r&D and diversification JVs.

These pages tell the stories of how weather-resistant al-ites adapted in work life and personal life …

The story of coral reefs The story of coral reefs

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Bad times? any time is a good time to innovate, improve, reduce wastage and enhance productivity

CyClICalITy of The InDUsTry was nothing new to Ashok Leyland. But cyclicality coupled with a global financial crisis that decelerated the economy was something new that required novel, innovative methods to be tackled.

Overriding all other considerations was the need to bring down operating costs as much as possible. Falling demand forced production cuts that in turn increased non-working days and suddenly every-one found something that had been eluding all for very long – time! With that came more mind space and the freedom and the opportunity to seek and find ways towards work place improvements, waste reduction, productivity enhancement, all of which would result in reducing operating costs.

Lesser number of working days meant less pow-er consumption with resultant savings. However, not stopping there, agile minds sought and found other ‘out-of-the-box’ ways to wage the war on cost and captured here are some examples.

More than the savings, these team efforts have had a lasting and long-term benefit of improving the Company’s competitiveness when the market re-bounds.

RE-ENGINEERINGWhat if a particular model is not moving because of a lack of market demand for it? Re-engineer it into a saleable model. Simple! That’s how the issue of ris-ing inventory was combated: re-cycling non-moving vehicles, aggregates and parts into saleable units without affecting the dynamics or performance of the products. Rear axles, steering boxes, engines, gearboxes, flitches, fuel injection pumps were all

re-cycled. Across the Company, over a thousand vehicles were re-engineered to saleable units. Total inventories, in Ennore, through re-engineering were reduced by over Rs. 8 crores. In Hosur, over 180 vehicles were re-engineered, steering systems changed and over 1,000 engines, worth a whop-ping Rs. 11.33 crores, re-cycled into useful ones. In Alwar, over 400 chassis were refurbished while in Bhandara, almost 1,500 gearboxes were re-engineered which avoided inwarding and created savings to the tune of Rs. 1.03 crores.

At another level, savings were accrued through the phasing out or recycling of obsolete tools.

INNOVATIONIn a company, where the passion for innovation is so endemic, these difficult times have only provided another opportunity to fan that passion. The incisive thinking of the team working on the ‘H’ engine Fuel Injection Pump timing gears resulted in capacity enhancement from 44,000 to 71,000 units by mak-ing small but very effective machining changes. This

not only obviated the need for fresh investments in a process that was soon to become obsolete with the introduction of the new BS III norms but also brought down the cost of component by Rs. 30 translating into recurrent savings of Rs. 21.30 lakhs per annum (at peak volume).

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For the first time in Ashok Leyland, the fixed posi-tion layout assembly of tippers and 12 meter pas-senger chasses were converted to a conveyor type assembly. This piece of clever thinking at Hosur rolled out a lot of benefits: throughput time was reduced by 66%, productivity jumped 62%, lead time was cut by 68% and the Inventory Carrying Cost per vehicle was brought down by as much as 66%.

VALUE ENGINEERING If one looks around critically at one’s immediate surroundings, chances are high of finding ways and means to improve processes, systems and ways of working. A few bright minds in the Heat Treatment shop at Ennore realised that by interconnecting 2 of the 3 cooling towers, only 2 towers needed to be used to cool the 3 furnaces instead of running all the 3 continuously round-the-clock. With the task done, now the 3 towers are used in rotation. On very

similar lines, by introducing simple nozzle systems and using two-way pipelines, three Endo Gas (a mixture of LPG and air in 9:1 proportion) chambers that feed the furnaces have been inter-connected. With the result, these chambers can also be used in rotation. These two pieces of value engineering has resulted in the conservation of a most critical resource - electrical energy. As much as 4,23,756 units and Rs 20 Lakhs per annum can be saved when the Unit starts to work at full capacity.

The implementation of a host of value engineer-ing suggestions in Hosur has resulted in savings of Rs. 5.67 crores. These include the introduction of centrifugally cast liners in H-block, the commonisa-tion of castings at MOP (Modified Oil Pump) block,

the usage of 800 bar nozzle holder in place of the 1200 bar for H6 DTI 2N, to name but a few. Similar initiatives at Alwar and Bhandara have netted Rs. 7.5 crores and Rs. 1.5 crores respectively.

VALUE STREAM MAPPINGAll Units are rigorously following the Zero Inward-ing mantra. This can only be achieved when one is able to determine and work out a defined inventory for each and every part used in a vehicle. Value Stream Mapping aims at putting in place a system whereby the inventory of components is brought down to the barest minimum by working out the amount of ready stocks required on the floor, the amount required in the stores considering location of the supplier and thereby time taken for delivery; it also involves impressing upon suppliers to set up depots close to the Company’s Units so that transit time is further reduced.

The JIT (Just In Time) trigger, in Hosur, has been changed from a weekly to a daily basis, the LCL batch size reduced to 12 days requirement and lead time cut to one week and the Reduced Inbound Supply Chain has been reduced from 45 hrs to 23 hrs – in fact, in February it touched an all-time low of 14 days!

Ruthless reduction of inventories has resulted in substantial savings. Like Rs. 3 crores in Bhandara just by reducing gearbox inventories by about 40%.

QUALITY ARCHITECTUREThe process has put in place a matrix that indexes the criticality of a component against the capability

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Ashley News / June 20095

The hectic pace of project activities at UTK slowed down end 2008. For the young and energetic team at UTK, this gave some time to zoom out of the present and zoom in to the future of the Unit.

Deployment of resourcesFor some, this meant bonus learning from field experience. Assessing domain expertise and skill sets in hand, execu-tives were deputed to areas like Neptune, GENMOD and AMC for STUs like Delhi Transport Corporation, where more hands were required. Pooling the expertise the team has brought with them - some are lead auditors, black belts in their earlier jobs - nine cross functional teams have been formed. The IMS team is deter-mined to make the Unit ready for TS and EMS Certification by mid 2010, without external con-sultants. A resource conserva-tion committee is currently data mining in their ‘Lean Mission’.

of the process whereby requisite concentration is given to either a critical function or developing a cer-tain capability. The aim is to reduce defects to reach a level of 100 parts per million (PPM) defects.

Apart from these specific initiatives, the focus is clearly on conservation - be it energy or any other resource. All safety related initiatives have been taken up - mapping possible accident spots, intro-duction of sensors.

THE CHALLENGE IS TO KEEP A GOOD THING GOING “Innovations and improvements are nothing new to Ashok Leyland – it is very much a part of our DNA. Over t ime, we have had many brilliant and very unique suggestions from the

shopfloor that have resulted in both tangible and intangible benefits for the Company. The present scenario was ideal for a more con-certed effort in this direction. The challenge for us now is to continue this momentum that we have built up so that we are better armed to face an ever-demanding market” says B M Udayashankar, ED-Manufacturing.

All these company-wide efforts have only driven home the point that these are on-going, long-playing improvements and do not need the trigger of a slow-down or recession to be activated. It calls for awareness, a keenness of eye, a quick mind and, above all, the will to do and think differently. It also proves, yet again, that Ashok Leyland’s greatest strength lies in its software – its people!

UTK gets set …

Two Gembas have been formed in the chassis and CWP shops.

Knowledge SharingSessions on vehicle familiarisa-tion and supplier introductions apart, every Saturday a two-hour session on various subjects from auto emissions to grinding technology are organized, all with internal faculty. Executives also train new joinees in Best Practices. A team is working on developing tailor-made material to supple-

ment on-the-job training of the soon-to-be hired associates and a scheme to mentor them.

And, it is not work alone!The habit of doing 10-minute exercise in the morning before start of work is the result of the Sports Committee’s efforts. A Safety Committee has been successful in ensuring the use of safety appliances. And yes, the YE funsquad makes sure that families of employees are kept involved.

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Ashley News / June 2008

The past few months may have not been the best of times for business. But, does a lean schedule at work release time to realise long-deferred personal agendas? Do non-working days help employees pursue old interests or plunge into new adventures?

our guess wasn’t off the mark, going by the diary jottings of employees. While one discovered the rewards of teaching underprivileged children (“gives double satisfaction”), another found the time to fall in love – with his new car, for now. Taking one’s mother on a pilgrimage, bungy jumping as part of a wager – time found wonderful use. Dipping into the el balance for a holiday can also restore the work-life balance.

hope these diary jottings inspire you to respond with pride, when next time someone asks you:

“When was the last time you did something new?”

a r sureshkumar, DM-hr, hosur II“Thanks to my dear colleagues who encouraged me, I

have taken up a part-time MBA course at Adhiyamaan

College, close to our Unit. There are 45 students in

my batch – some not from corporate sector, but as-

piring to be there one day. Most of our sessions are

based on knowledge sharing. Apart from studies, we

also arrange get-togethers and picnics. Semester ex-

ams, assignments, daily log notes, presentations ...

I am now fully engaged from 8.00 am to 8.00 pm.”

Vinod K Dasari, WTD

December 28, 2008: Queenstown, New Zealand. I jumped from a bridge, into a deep ravine with fast flowing waters and jagged rocks…I had a rope tied to my feet. I did Bungy!!No, it was not because the economy was so bad. Just winning a bet!

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preetham sri Krishna Vignesh, DM-QC, hosur II

The ever green date in my diary would be November 1, 2008. That was the day when I was handed over the keys of my brand new Swift! One look at her was enough to fall in love! Thanks to more time on hand, I have already clocked 10,000 kms with her. And here is looking forward to more and more dates to, what else, floor the pedal, burn the rubber, own the road…!

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Ashley News / June 2009

Usha soman, DGM-Management Development

My daughter is reluctant to teach me IT skills since

she thinks I am a slow learner! I talked her into teach-

ing me how to start a blog. It was an enriching experi-

ence. I did not invite friends to visit my blog for I was

quite skeptical about people finding it interesting. But

I must admit when someone strayed into it and left

a comment, I was thrilled!! Since you promised free

publicity, here it is:

ushasoman.blogspot.com

B Murthy, Manager –

Internal audit, ennore:

February 9, 2009: Today, I am

all set to fulfill a long-time ambi-

tion of my mother: to go to Vara-

nasi, Haridwar and Rishikesh.

The glee on her face when I first

told her about the trip was just

priceless!

February 16, 2009: We came

back from a very satisfying trip.

For my mother, it was a moving

experience. For me, it gave the

huge satisfaction of having per-

formed a long-postponed duty.

Manoj nair, DM-pD

March 22, 2009. A group of us from office went to Queensland, an

amusement park in the outskirts of Chennai.

Everything was plain fun and smooth till we hit upon this monster

of a ride! Lining up in the queue, looking at the machine, I was

sure we were in for something. The setup had firm holding devices

which could only be released by the controller. We found ourselves

gripped on tightly. And then started the REAL fun: at first, it was

running at level ground and then it started ascending at an angle

at constant speed and then reached the ultimate 90 degrees to the

ground! All of us were screaming away like a bunch of school kids!

At the end of close to a minute, we came back to terra firma and

you bet I had a shiver running down my spine. What a ride!

n ramachandran, senior Manager, axles - hosur IMarch 29, 2008: For the first time in my life, I took an International flight. Along with my wife Savithiri, I went to Chicago to stay with our daughter for some time. When we landed in O’Hare – one of the busi-est airports in the world – the temperature was minus 3 degree Celsius. May 4, 2008: We were quite excited to see the Tulip flower show today - 5 lakh flowers at a time in a place called Hol-land (yes, there is a Holland in the US too!). May 24, 2008: Today, we enjoyed the ‘Maid of the mist’ – an up close and personal look at the mighty Niagara falls! December 26, 2008: It was my wife’s birthday and we cel-ebrated by offering lunch to the inmates of Padmam old age home in Chennai. I thanked God for the opportunity.

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sachin nair, DM-Marketing

Six of us from the Domain Experts Group - Pra-deep, Umashankar, Vidya Shenoy, B K Vikrama, Sunny Ghosh and I - had a very different outing one Saturday! We went deep sea ‘swimming’ off Kottivakam beach.

The day started with a representative from an adventure club introducing our ride: a fibreglass fishing boat, sitting pretty on the beach. Next, the fisherman who would take us into the sea arrived, with an assistant who brought the lifeguards - bright orange vests (with whistles). They strapped us in, and we bunch of landlubbers were all set to sail!

Launching a boat from the shore into the sea is a team sport, and a few other fishermen joined us in doing that. Once the boat was in knee deep water, all of us clambered in. A rather awkward exercise, mind you. All aboard, and they brought the engine to life (if you really must ask, it was a small Greaves kerosene engine, not one of our marine engines).

Puffs of black smoke and a frothing white wake behind us, we hit the waves. Riding the waves is interesting, a little like a roller coaster. The wave approaches faster than it seems, and lifts the boat up, nose first, and slams her down the same way. One moment, in front of you is the horizon, with a harmless wave somewhere out there. A second later, the wave is right in front, higher than your head! Half a second later, BAM, wave below, prow pointing skywards, and a second later, the prow is pointing down and the sky is replaced by the green ocean. That’s when we looked around and saw that all of us were drenched. WOO HOOO!!

Some distance from the shore, the waves are smaller, the sea gentler. Skipper stopped the en-gine, told us we were two kilometers from shore, and that we had reached the drop zone! Ah, six landlubbers, and only two can swim.

They threw a rope into the water, told us not to

worry – “Just get into the water and hold on to the rope”. Easy said, mate! The shore is two kilometers away, the sea stretches all around, you are wearing a jacket made of thermocol, and JUMP?

Well, jump we did! All of us, one by one, each one more awkward than the other…

And then, we floated. Just held the rope and floated. Vast sea below,

blue sky above. Nirvana must feel something like this. It is to be experienced. No words can exactly convey the feeling.

We tried swimming from one end of the rope to the other, posing for the camera and cracking jokes about everything and everyone. Suddenly, we were free from the initial fear of the sea, UV radiation from the sun, the vastness … everything!

For some reason, there were no fish. In hindsight, any marine life form would have made significant contributions to the general excitement. (As part of the initial briefing, they had mentioned there were no sharks in the Bay of Bengal. How disappointing!) The two members who did know swimming swam from the ends of the rope to the boat and back, thus enjoying the distinction of actually swimming in the sea.

Sooner than we would have liked it, the crew signalled that it was time to get back to shore. We reluctantly made our way back to the boat, and with one last longing look at the sea, clambered, crawled and were pulled aboard. Another burst of smoke from the engine, and we were heading shorewards. We were tired, but happy, and after a soft beach land-ing, clumsily jumped onto the beach. A last session of photos, a collection of seashells, and we went to the fisherman’s house for a change of clothes. The whole adventure had left us mighty hungry, and off we headed to a restaurant on the ECR for a massive lunch. It was a trip we will cherish for a long time.

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The entire business scenario was affected. The sluggish ex-ports followed by the drop in de-mand abroad slowed down the rate of freight movement. At the ports, truck yards/ terminuses, the sight of stranded trucks would leave me dumbfounded. Not in ones or two’s but in thousands. When I asked the drivers, their sad replies of “Maal nahi hai” (no goods) would reverberate for a long time.

An idle truck leaves its pur-pose unfulfilled. Naturally, it af-fects the money flow of the truck owners/drivers/agents and the whole universe associated with transportation.

Like a chain reaction, the mindset of vehicle owners also started changing. Their business suffered. The cash crunch directly affected their will to expend on the vehicles. The oil change pe-riods, maintenance schedules – all started getting prolonged, to save cash. A fleet owner re-torted: “Gaadi Khadi hai, Kishth Kaise Bharna Pata Nahi. Upar se Khadi Gaadi ka kaahe ka Mainte-nance?” (With vehicles not mov-ing, we cannot even pay interests on loans. Where is the question of maintenance?”)

Apart from customers, we also needed to look at our chan-nel partners who have grown with us in this business. Since their scenario also matches the mar-ket sentiment, they look forward to us to lead them through this tough time.

What does the situation demand from us, the Marketing folks?

We had our choices:A) Play the waiting game: Wait

for the tide to pass and then con-tinue what we were doing.

B) Innovate/ Augment our Product Offerings: Our speed has been slowed down. That gives us enough time for Market Research, the time for providing adept feed-back to our design teams and then we hit the market with some-thing truly great.

C) Improve our customer Inter-action: Never before did we have the time for conversation as eve-ryone was busy. My simple Mantra in this regard: Customer Retention is built on solid business relation-ships. You have to be empathetic more than ever, the situation has made the customers more vocal, we stick with them now, we gain their faith and in due course, we succeed in their retention. We get to communicate to the customer about the latest developments in our products, the After Sales Sup-port Offerings like the ESP/ EWS and AMC.

I got the opportunity to han-dle nearly 180 AMC Vehicles at the new dealership I was allot-ted. The nature of Post Warranty Maintenance is quite different from regular warranty. We needed the data related to the aggregate performance in the 2-3 years plus aged vehicles so as to forecast the life expectancy of aggregates. Barely 4 months into this, enough data had been gathered to see

Every twilight has a dawn coming …

which aggregates were perform-ing below par and the necessary corrective action was taken. Addi-tionally, we had a base to plan out the safety factor for future sales of AMC. This goes to prove that we can be successful with our service packages with the chan-nel support.

D) Develop our Channel Part-ners: this is the best time for the introduction of initiatives for devel-opment of network capability like the SQA (Service Quality Architec-ture), DMS for Workshops which proves to be an important tool for data collection and integration with BSC.

These Initiatives coupled with special programs like the “Pro-ductivity Improvement Program” conducted for the Works Man-agers/ JTO’s of our dealers have changed their perception of serv-ice business. Having seen their attitude shift towards the monitor-ing of earnings from part sales, labour, etc., it is encouraging to know that we have taken a step to-wards the redemption of “grease monkeys”.

The scenario in coming years is going to be tougher as there would be new entrants. We have to revolutionize our current func-tioning in order to keep up with the pace that is due to pick up.

I would like to conclude with an anecdote from the Film ‘Troy’. A Greek warrior named Achilles is called upon to fight a Giant “Boa-grius” and the messenger boy says: “He is the biggest man I have ever seen, I wouldn’t want to fight him”. Achilles replies “That’s why nobody will remember your name”.

It all takes place here in the market. This is where we com-pete. We are a brand in this busi-ness and we will keep fighting. We will be remembered. Together We Can!

Every twilight has a dawn coming.

– anand pai, DM-service

I was posted at the Financial Capital of India where we have seen yearly sales in excess of 10,000 vehicles. But come September 2008, a real shock was in store. The numbers dropped from 1000’s to 100’s and from 100’s to 10’s. It was too late to realise what was happening. The tide was sweep-ing us adrift. Since After Sales Business follows Sales, it was affected too.

Ashley News / June 20099