Starpoint Pvt Ltd.

Starpoint’s journey began in the early 1950’s as a manufacturer of medical beds, gradually
moving to an upward direction to become a solutions provider. Their manufacturing unit is
located at Umbergaon, Valsad district of Gujarat, which is approximately 160 kms away from
Mumbai, the commercial hub of India.

Starpoint’s foundation is built on strong value systems, business ethics and continued to get
stronger with the partnership and alliance with Starpoint Corporation, USA. Starpoint, an
established company in US, having a legacy of 100 years, acquired Starpoint in December
2014.

Starpoint has a strong desire to retain the position as No. 1 in B2B segment of medical bed
supplies. In the Indian market, Starpoint is a well-known brand and stands out for quality
products. Indian healthcare market is booming and attracts foreign multinationals to invest
and export similar category products however, the manufacturing base of these multinationals
remain abroad. Aggressive propagation by the central government on “Make in India”
campaign, the probability of multinationals opening up their manufacturing unit in India
would be yet another challenge that they would encounter in the years to come. The business
dynamics keeps them to bring in the best talent on board to compete with the international
brands.

The Business strategy determines the overall organizational vision and goals, setting up
direction and path for the future both short term and long term. Business strategy determines
the talent required to achieve these goals – Plan to launch /expand end result. Once the
business strategy is decided, talent strategy from manpower forecasts, planning, hiring with
roles and hierarchy, career pathing, performance management, competency assessment,
Learning & development and succession planning constitutes the entire HR framework.

VISION
Starpoint will be a recognized leader in the Healthcare segment and a solution provider in
India, offering products and services to ensure efficient and effective care through
innovation and will expand its operations in South Asia, Middle East and Africa.
VALUES
Integrity, Individual Dignity, Sustainable Growth, Safety, Innovation and Customer
Delight
The overall business environment for this industry is very volatile and challenging. Going
back to basics of the business and their core operations, it is imperative for the manufacturing
facilities to be working towards one hundred percent safety and zero defects. Their
manufacturing team is recognized not only for production achievements but for risk-taking
ability/ innovation/ creating Kaizen’s (method adopted for continual improvement in
reducing the gaps and lead time), ensuring teammate and factory safety. Benefits to the shop
floor or a production floor teammate is another factor that encourages the shop floor
teammates to produce the required numbers with average lead time. Apart from
manufacturing, the other core activity of the business is Sales/ service.

The hiring takes place for specific roles and jobs however, interventions to engage small
groups in projects that excite them are assigned; they lead small projects so to have an
experience of early successes. Few such examples are:

(i) During their move to Oracle based ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) across all
functions, ample opportunity was provided to the new and existing teammates at
different functions, an edge on operations and execution, that the implementation
and the utilization reached its highest. Cohesiveness and active participation was
visible during this execution process.

(ii) “Starpoint Production System” (MPS) is one of the philosophy practiced

organization wide. This system is primarily and largely used for the production in
the manufacturing facility with major three guiding principle – i.e. Reduce cycle
time, Eliminate waste, Improve quality. However, they have spread this
philosophy in their corporate office and other support functions as well which is
rare in the industry. High performers and potential teammates gain this
experience for period over from 2 weeks to 3 months at their international facility
at US. Below are sited few illustrations and examples, where this activity is
proven teammate engaging platform.

Eg one: Starpoint manufacturing units at both locations functioned without the Shift-in-
charge for many years. As the production capacities were intensified, the need arose to have
shift-in-charge for two units/ 2 shifts. In the normal course, it would have been a better choice
to bring in, an experienced talent through hiring. They adopted the approach of training and
developing the GETs (Graduate Engineer Trainees) in MPS under the able guidance of MPS
coach (certified internal trainer who graduated through training at Starpoint facility). A batch
included minimum six trainees on the floor whose supervisory and technical skills were
developed and were placed as Shift-in-charge. This pragmatic approach constantly allowed
them to develop new incumbents right out of college with zero experience to a supervisory
role providing them career growth in a shorter span of time. Teams are engaged on Kaizen
activities not only on shop floor but also, in the corporate functions.

Eg two: The process improvement at customer support functions where the typical job is to
book orders. Invariably, it was observed that the teammate activity is interrupted while
booking orders. In MPS philosophy, this is called as “Fluctuation” which is interrupting the
flow of conducting operations which increases their cycle time of order booking. The
Observer’s role is to find out the root cause of the fluctuations and eliminate/reduce the
fluctuating time for operational efficiency and thus cross functional teams are engaged in
continual improvement activities.

With the whole world having got impacted with the COVID 19 situation since December
2019, the key roles especially on the manufacturing facility and in the sales department have
got badly hit and negatively impacted which has in turn affected business outcomes and
business results. Looking forward, Starpoint needs to revise the Job Descriptions, Job
Specifications, Performance Management Systems and Talent Management Strategies for
these key roles.

Instructions for the group project –

1) SHIFT IN CHARGE is the key role for the Manufacturing facility for E div
2) SALES IN CHARGE is the key role for the Sales Division for F div
3) State your assumptions clearly

Please note -

Source of this case - This case is an edited version of a case published in a book, “Talent
Management” by Dr. Gowri Joshi and Dr. Veena Vohra, 2017, Cengage Publications. The name of
the company has been masked to protect its identity.