HR & BUSINESS wealth out of waste An initiative byAshok Leyland & its CEO. ne of the most illuminating sights from a football match on television is that of the coach at the sidelines. As his team strives and succeeds, he can only wring his hands and then jump up in jubilation. It is his, team that has (0 play in co-ordination, tackle attack, create goal-scoring opportunities and deliver. At Ashok Leyland’s Pant Nagar unit, teams are about (o play. Their playfields are their 'Shop Floors’, the production line in-charges and shop Managers will take up the role of a facilitator or a coach, ‘The ALL! Pant Nagar facility that seeks to bridge the divide between unemployment and unemployability and address to industries’ bug bear - lack of skilled labour, has opted to convert this challenge into an opportunity for implementing its new strategy of setting up an integrated work force. It launched a programme called ‘BLESSING’ - building leaders of Excellence for Social Sustainability through Inspiring & Nurturing Gennext. The objective of this programme is to enhance the prospects of sons of the soil by empowering them with attitude, skill and knowledge which would qualify them both academically and with hands-on skills to become practicing executives and to grow to positions of higher responsibilities in future. To translate this vision Ashok Leyland signed an MOU with NTTF - to offer a four year tailor made certificate program leading to a Diploma in Manufacturing and a Chennai based HR Consultancy, Centre for Excellence in Organisation who are pioneers in the concept of High Performance Work ‘Teams is roped-in to implement this Self Managed ‘Team initiative. SMT is a specific combination of HR practices, work structure, processes that maximizes employee knowledge, skill, commitment and flexibility tis an organizational architect that brings together work, people, technology and information in a manner that optimizes the congruence and fit among them. In order for the aspect of teamwork to function in any organization, there must be a system in place that doesn't undermine the entry-level workers, and only sees the workers who have proven experience. Every single person within any organization is erucial. Their 50 = February 2011 job is significant because it serves a purpose. In the first step towards building Self Managed Teams, the students are enriched with sixty hours of Behavioral ‘Training, the training is done on ten carefully selected topics like Self awareness, Values & work ethics, Time management, Focus, Communication, Planning & organizing, Analytical skills, Interpersonal skills, Team work and Creativity & innovation, Classes are spread over for a period of one month, with an objective to channelize the student's energy in a positive way and to sensitise them on the behavioral characteristics required to lead a healthy and successful personal and professional lie. It’s always said since Plato that "necessity is the mother of invention” but the students of NTTF - Ashok Leyland has rewritten this as "creativity has become its mother". The students as a part of their Behavioral ‘Training have discovered a lot of WEALTH OUT OF WASTE. Yes, the WOW initiative driven by Centre for Excellence in Organisation has created a wave in Ashok Leyland, Pant Nagar. In order to kindle the flame of creativity and also to make the students think out of the box, they were assigned to make a ‘hand-made miniature truck model’ out of scraps and wastes. The rules of the game were fixed and it was so simple that the students can take the materials from the seraps only; no tools will be provided except for a pair of cutters, a manual driller, aluminium foils and some ‘small nuts & bolts. It was also agreed that the models that they are going to roll out from their class room should be proportionate to the regular one. The students were divided into five equal member teams, the time span is twelve hours which is spread over for a period of six days ie 2 hours / Team in a day. ‘These students who are all at their teenage with absolutely no experience in working as a team took everybody into surprise by demonstrating team spirit and brotherhood. There is a visible change in theit personality, they started seeking and accepting responsibilities. Within the teams they formed different sub-sections like Planning, Procurement, Production and even R&D, the effective co-ordination amongst themembers of the section was also ensured. Unlike their ‘counterpart in Chassis Shop these students who are working in the Engine Shop does not possess any idea of how the truck will be in the different stages of manufacturing. They ran left and right inside the shop floors of various SBUs to take the measurements, note critical information and to collect any material that they find will fit in their dream. Everybody wants to note something extra that their friend didn’t observe, there was a healthy competition happening, After measuring the lengths and breadths of the truck a proportionate of 1:10 was derived i.e. FSM of a regular truck is 10.7m in length but the handmade truck's FSM will be 1 meter and all the other parts like wheel, cabin, axle and differentials are all reduced to a fixed proportionate, At some point we could see our students in all corners of the factory looking for materials from scrap or from waste. There was a paradigm shift in terms of their thought process, all these days they were working in the production line under the supervision ofa line in-charge but now they started caring for information, setting their own time targets and reviewing. There was an immense resource crunch, in terms of materials and tools but they were all determined to ive life for their dream truck!! This needs a lot of determination and guts to face a challenge but the students with this exercise learnt in a great deal to face challenge and to give life to a dream. Creativity, intuition, and flexibility are the key to successful operation of ‘organizations today; People who are in good spirits are more likely to be productive, The work is not mere producing numbers itis a joy and a something to be enjoyed this exercise inculeated a feel of joy of work among the students. Some among them held the cutters, drillers and paint brush for the first time in their life but they learnt the art quickly and taught others on how to use them with minimal effort The energy came from within, the students saw what the other team is doing and there was always a benchmarking happening, They even started from the scratch; it was an amazing experience for us 10 get a first hand feel of the healthy effects of peer pressure. The entite exercise was well received amongst the students; they could complete the assignment in the said time frame, they even took photographs of their work (0 be shown to their parents and friends, "The best truck model will find a place in my office", this HR & BUSINESS \was the statement given by the Mr. Alok Gupta, the Plant Head of Ashok Leyland, Pant Nagar. This itself shows the determination of the Management to foster an environment of creativity and innovation, It was an exercise not only to inculcate the importance of group communication but also to make their work force realize their own potential By inculcating the logic that there is a wealth in the scrap, the company can achieve an exemplary change in the mind set of the operating front line work force. This will in tum have a direct impact in scrap reduction, problem identification and increased participation from the employees on the whole. This exercise is in line with Ashok Leyland's vision of achieving leadership in domestic Commercial Vehicle market by reducing the operating cost with highest value-to-cost ratio. The Pant Nagar plant which has the State-of-the-art manufacturing technology and ‘most of the production lines are automated is at present aiming on 'Autonomation’ (humanized automation) and is also well aware of the fact that the empowered workforce can alone drive any new initiative with zeal The message of handmade miniature truck was spread to all parts of the factory, by sixth day the training room started receiving a lat of surprise visitors like shop in-charges, executives and even SBU heads. ‘Students welcomed the Engine shop executives with loud cheer and standing ovation as for them they are the role model. To every visitor the students explained about their work in pride. Mr. Sandeep Chandna, the SBU head of Cab Weld during one of his visits stated that “the creativity can be self rewarding. It also develops the flexibility to adapt to changes in the marketplace; that same flexibility can make a business more agile and better able to compete in a constantly changing business world Anup Bhatt, Executive Director - Production took everybody into a surprise by making a visit to the training centre and was amazed to see the works of the students. He said "creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking the rules, making mistakes and having fun, The competitive edge in the ‘coming decades will be held by those individuals and ‘companies who can tap into new life- driven sources of inspiration, creativity and vitality”, Truly the WOW assignment will remain evergreen in the minds of the student Building an empowered workforce is possible, Empowerment for these students simply means to inspire a burning passion that will not fick lightly or die out against a raging wind. If we value one thing which is people for who they are, and give them a chance to be much more than they imagined with ‘opportunities set before them, and show them by our ‘examples of greatest and leadership that they to have a stake in the path, and a voice of authority to share in the process of creating dynamic, productive, and profitable enterprises as an employee, we will have empowered workers from the top to the bottom. Ashok Leyland’s BLESSING programme has a long wa travel but its success can well be predicted. February © 51