THE HR INTERVENTION AT ROURKELA STEEL PLANT: INVOLVING PEOPLE IN QUALITY-DRIVEN IMPROVEMENT CULTURE (This case is based on report in the print and electronic tnedia. The case is meant for academic purpose only. The ivviter has no intention to sully the reputations of the corpo- rations or the executives involved.) BACKGROUND Rourkela Stee! Plant is an integrated steel plant located in the sate of Orissa with an efipoyee strength of around 24.000 anda production capacity of 1.67 million tonnes of saleable ‘soolner year Seamtid eter 50, the plant is a unit of Stel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), a public.sector hold- ing company consisting of seven manufacturing plants con tributing to the nation a total of 12 million tonnes of steel and having a turnover of INR 19 billion p ree annum. The company hasa country-wide marketing network, a cluster of ore ‘mines Providing the raw materials, a Research and Development Centre and a Management Development Centre, besides the Trining and Development Centres operating in each of the Plants, Rot samai lu iversi- fedrange of sophisticated stel products such as plates, coil, pes, ete. The plant concentrates its efforts always on Bing its best outmut through cost-effective and quality-een- a ined vo Prof Pilavendran, former executive of Rowkela Plant, fo permission to reproduce this case study. ‘tticnmersses. A positive work culiurc.prsails in the pla and a close penle-origntation is evident in the various mat agerial initiatives aa time to time P formance ofthe plant, During the 1990s, Rourkela Stee! Plant igguctesbsav Tosses_cvery-vear due to various factors such as market slump, stiff comnetition fom pthersteel producers ig the ‘market, high input cost, interest nen on the jusesiane's made for modernization of the plant and other Tass J However, ‘ince D00T, the dynamie CEO” OF the plant launched a series of initiatives for involving people in a around drive. The major initiative w cs itjative was somasadnnsse comm n exercises 01 ities of the plant's per- formane: direct interaction of the CEO with grass-root employees, batch by. patch, covering the entire ‘workforce. Bullaihe upon the motivating climate created through the involvement.of emplayees in these mass-scale Communication exercises, the top management furs? interventions which Taunched specific improvemet tions Whi gave results leading tothe company’s evi jn a period of two years. NEW INTERVENTION initiative taken ripening Ta at Rourkela Steel Plant against inervention ‘Scanned wih CamScanner446 BUSINESS ETHICS —AN INDIAN PERSPECTIVE foxauninve Quali: Improvement Brosess through ete ty participation of employees in building a culture ous improvement Keeping in view the imporsanceof au asa oT aieess factor for winning competitive adva the plant had already adopted the Quality Assurance System underISO.9001. Certification. However, in the wake of the ed for this turnaround initiatives, the plant identified the new initiative of Quality Improvement Process for bringing about core ee je work culburs and sustaining quality improvements in all the productivity-related areas of per- —_—_—eo—— forman EMENTATION (TRAINING, TEAM EFFORTS, IPROVEMENTS AND MONITORING) The plantassosiated vith a consultant organization reputed for its specialization in quality management and having track record of serving its elient organizations in initiatives for achieving culture change, reducing cost, improving busi- ness pracess.and building srateBTOaeMagement systems The objectives for the intervention were formulated keeping in view and communicated across the organizational needs the organization. T so be addressed were to create in the a common language and understanding of qualit company, Sere eee ete Tooringall improvements under one common otganization-wide project by involving people as quality improvenfent teams working on various micro-level improvements. raining was the first step initiatéd to ensure an effective impfemgntation process. Since ownership ofthe initiative by top leadership was essential for achieving the objectives, a special.nrozramme..was organized for the CEO and the sen- ior ves heading the different functions. A scries of training noerammes on the Qua wvement Process was also organized for theskey m: ervisors and employees working inthe areas idl fomnrowoment The basics of the envisioned Quality Improvement Process were explained in the programmes. It was emphasized that people should demonstrate. commitment tothe achievement, of quality efficiency, learn to work as effective teams, and Sheetal cael ate et ‘The inputs were focused on identify F quality deviations, calculating the losses due to deviations, selecting projects for improvements to-arrest.the loss, constituting.the project teams and methodology of implementation. The programmes decuntosl a heli eee tetera panyaln addition, managers from the different departments were selected and trained as trainers who in turn conducted training on Quality Improvement Process for employees of their respective areas.! ‘These training efforts enabled the human resource pre- paredness for the intervention undertaken by the organization, ‘The emplovees got.acquainted with, the concepts of quality i ‘iden- sae or quality improvements eat thet respon. e in the process of > plans and participate in the p implemen to the pl : lity culture, inculcating they 2° eftetvel Forpuiing a quai ul ; fetes in he commer meson the mins of emp penta The training facilitated ths po°ess by emp ing that quality isthe responsTBMty of Cveryone inthe orp ing ta ee TeCESTT np Te succes open of Qual Trent Process, & sense-OT COMMITMEN should. ane TETTRONTN individual and eam ations fr quay dmprovemepts. The training furusrhclosdLin building ng, mmapetencies required forthe participants in wor sat) # ent teams, identifying eee quality improve ems, exploring solutions/improve =a TESTS TINE arcas of productivity eee ee these for concrete results profifability. af ing by suitably structured internal committees as prerequisite for ensuring effective implementation, 4 set-up was provided by constituting plans fi Improven three-tier monitori the following SA Quality improvement teams in the different work areas; «Committee at the level of the Works Head; and Y Apex Steering Committee at the CEO’ level r 's were carried out by the HRD reofthe Plant and the functioning of the teams/commit- ment eS was, cogunaiedebiadies Tota QualiieMasag: jent. The momentum of day-to-day implementation departm at the WOFKplace was kept up by the continuous support and guidance of the line managers and heads of departments. ‘Wein cach of the departments, the quality improvement teams inclyded employees from pzaduction, maiptenance and seryices sections. The heads of department evided and supported the teams. The teams met every week and delib- cred oniespeciicsespmblescausingighpric of quality non-conformance. Based on the solutions identified aerate Giscussions, the teams launched quality improve- ment rej ards Fi nop.sonoemae= cost. The projects were aimedat achieving tangible produc- tivity gains on various fronts such as the techno-economic parameters related to a steel plant (e.g., improving yield of output, reducing demurrage incurred in transit.of mater within the plant through railway wagons, reducing. consump- tion of power, steat and energy resource utilized in the plant activities), quality norms of process and output (¢ reducing diversions and down-gradations in respect of prod- ‘ucts such as coils and sheets) and equipment health/upkeep (€-g., proactive-maintenance modifications for reducing downtime of machines). The quality improvement team took the suggestions of the grass-root employees connected with the area of project and pale wired the process of 1 ittee chaired by the Works Head along with as needed for the stratezic initiatives and learnt, tify the elements of Quality Improvement Process, develop the senior zonal-Level in-charges as members met every fot ‘Scanned wih CamScannernd reviewed the performance of the departmental he coummitee discharged the respo 4 sibilities of up- oe eS ith necessary resources and cross-un stance for_impTemematior ‘ * foal ‘for_impTeMeMfation of the projects, a pity ares Tor new projec and zapgnizing rates oT sees am projets , ee ts Me Apex Level Steering Committee headed by the C a ‘vith the functional executive pee ee verte ener oe ed ovezalirgetion 10 the organization-wid 8 ganization-Widksjnitiative Hey undertook macrorTevel asessmentabativites nd jis, The committee suggested the tpadmap for the ati improve and key iqnnnoyement param- efor measusne the progress ofthe Process. revived weeress of the process deployment m the organization ough the quality improvement projects identified road. fhooks and extended support to the teams, and monitored ijn on investment in the whole process. The committee ‘month, devised strategis mrounee e ding the quality miqure widche across the company and gaye digestions for Fpeasing improvement efforts in Key areas such as increasing capacity uti rons olin co Teducing cost oF production, improving maintenance, system heSs, improving housekeeping and aualtyof wor, enhancing customer satisfaction, and aessing further scope areas Tor reducing cost of qual- itynon-conformance IMPACT The efforts of the employees were. suitably recognized theugh group awards for the syecesful projects Te cence ere BTN ‘the house iournal. The sering committee provided « motivating Dltform for the sentatigns on their quality improvement teams f0 mi I mpjess before the CEO and senioresssite ‘cel proj siete CEO a ssl ration of a spree mprovemens Palen tive home the dimensions ofthis intervention the captive power plant of the companys the diversion of high-pressure steam generated as energy TeSOure? ‘was high and resulted in a heavy loss tothe tune of INR 11.6 million per i ae quality improvement ream. of De pte pri sav reducing diversion oF high Press™ steam, identified the root causes (8 coal jamming, leakage of ‘boilers ete.) .d the corrective “actions! modifica ad implemen Tisigrove=n explored and imple og isi ht tions inthe equim down the steam iversionsn almost ee aaa a of industral fans was moa rote ‘brations in fans, to the dust ‘he project by the actions such team enabled as regular cleaning: improvement initiative | the reduction of production The success oft more initiative efforts were conti improvement cult challenges were ac in new areas and d for in degree of motivation. ‘The very a ac mnplishing imp ure, The top leadership was movement Customer-orientation was inbu practices of the Quality Impro of achieving zero-defect in ‘vas uppermost in the minds of everyor pose of initial facilitation, was exter the consultant, During the coursg.oit project teams developed selfeliance, and the p maintained Serpette exp n built tor levelopm onsite experjgnces in the execution qLuioiss ‘The results have reinforced that peop|¢ "aaa? the challenge: ‘4 re make a big difference at experiment was taken up not as an isola ‘as a part of the core change fnterrentions faunched b top leadership to achieve turnaround of ths sors SSatematie manner, This integration of the uals 68s" ‘vith the organizational performance was 8 decis' for leading the interyention towards lonsiez People in te process developed asenss.0> ride hada rote in making their organization a better ‘work in by their improvements KEY WORDS Integrated stel plant « Holding company * Clusiet of ore mines © Quatity-centic-positive work culture * Market Slump » Grass root employees’ » Plant-wide interventions $ rumnavound initiatives Culture change © Quality mPFC” srearproves Strategie managementsjtems Qual de Hone. Inculeating the right beliefs + Quality nor: ‘conformance Quality flux «Initial faciitation DISCUSSION QUESTION 1. Musto wit suitable examples how the HR sree ol the judicious involvement of workers i the mT ‘of Rourkela Steel Plant worked wonders. Do you ‘thin! hig kind of strategy can be replicated inthe cases 9 finer loss making public sector enterprises? He ‘Scanned wih CemScanner