NEWSLETTER Arête

Vol 22 August 2019

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Arête Vol 22.0

Dear reader, we are delighted to

bring you yet another edition of

Arête. We have endeavoured to

make each edition of Arête as fresh

and content rich as possible. This

time around we have added new

case studies and knowledge

nuggets, which we’re sure you will

find intriguing and enlightening.

Please feel free to share your

thoughts and views by writing to us at

knowledge@ssa-solutions.com.

Happy reading!

Case 1: Optimizing Commissioning Project process in Oman

Knowledge Nugget: SWOT Analysis

News 1: SSA launches international operations in Thailand

Chairman's desk

Lean Tip: Heijunka Box

Case Study 2: Optimization of Employee Training

Pragmatic Leader of the Month: Mr. Said Safrar - by Mr. NC

News 2: SSA at LEAN Management event organized by ICAI – Muscat Chapter

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Chairman's desk

Dear reader, welcome to a new edition of Arête. In this edition we feature two insightful case studies: One talks

about optimization of Commissioning process in an Electricity transmission and distribution company in Oman.

The other case study highlights a LEAN Yellow belt project – Optimization of Employee training – at a logistics

company in Oman . The knowledge nugget section features SWOT Analysis, a rather important project

management tool, especially used by business analysts while in the Lean tips section we talk about Heijunka

Box. I am immensely happy to share the news that SSA Group has expanded its horizons & launched

international operations in Thailand and I wish to congratulate all those who were involved in making this

successful!

Finally, for the Pragmatic Leader of the Month, I introduce yet another important leader, Mr. Said Safrar, CEO of

'Oman Investment & Finance Co. SAOG' (OIFC). Wish you a happy reading and, as always, I welcome your

feedback!

Situation: ABC is an Oman-based electricity transmission and distribution company. Delays in testing and commissioning of new transformers and transmission lines were impacting the company revenue, customer satisfaction and network reliabilities. Financial losses were estimated to be in excess of OMR 0.5 million per year.

Problem Statement: Of the 7 132kV-transmission projects that ABC undertook in 2018, 6 had been delayed. It was observed and analyzed that one of the significant reasons for the delay is the delay in testing and commissioning process.

Goal: To reduce the time delay in Testing & Commissioning by 100%

Case Study 1: Optimizing Commissioning Project process in Oman

Situation – deep dive

Of the 7 132kV-transmission projects that ABC undertook in 2018, 6 had been delayed. Preliminary data collection and analysis pointed out that a significant chunk of the

project delay time was attributed to the testing and commissioning process.

The process alone contributed to 56% of the total delay time.

Root Cause Analysis exercise revealed the following problems o Poor quality of internal test o Gap in communication and involvement between stakeholder o Non-availability of protection engineers

Solutions were identified in multiple brainstorming sessions by the project team.

Actions Taken – deep dive

RCA & Solution Identification

1 - Improve the process of choosing the project consultant 2 - Deploy outsource professional protection engineers 3 - distribute them as per region / project wise 4 - Establish commissioning depts

Availability protection engineers

1 - Approved checklist to be prepared by project department verifying that PE is following the SOP 2 - Improve SOP of concerned depts to enable End-user Engineer to be part of the process stages (Design &installation) 3 - Workshops prior to internal and witness test to be conducted

Involvement & Gap communications

between stakeholders 1 - Detailed plan & prequalification docs to be reviewed and agreed with concerned depts in a workshop 2 - Result of internal test to be reviewed by consultant with concerned depts 3 - Conduct final approval session

Poor Quality of internal test

Actions Taken – deep dive

All solutions accepted

SOPs were updated

Creation of awareness for stakeholders

Implement process

mapping

The solutions to the root causes as illustrated in the previous slide were accepted by the stakeholders.

Existing SOPs were updated, and new ones were put in place where necessary. All stakeholders were made aware of the process changes and new procedures. New process as per discussions were mapped and documented.

Revised SOP ensured more transparent process. Revenue upside of 0.5 million OMR post reduction in delay for 2019 projects with

new process, first project finishing up in Q4, 2019. Ensured adherence to annual capex delivery plan. Reduce over lapping of commissioning plans. Network reliabilities Avoidance of penalties.

Results Achieved and Benefits

Installation of Equipment Workshop Internal test Workshop

Client Witness Commissioning Energization

Re-engineered process

Knowledge Nugget: SWOT Analysis

A SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis is an effective strategic planning tool applicable to a business or project objective.

Strengths and weaknesses are identified with respect to the internal capabilities of an organization. They provide an introspective view.

On the other hand, opportunities and threats look outside the organization. Quite simply, the analyst tries to identify opportunities for the organization and threats to the organization.

When analysing a SWOT, the question to ask is, "How can the organization leverage its strengths or improve its weaknesses to take advantage of the opportunities while mitigating or eliminating the threats?“

An example of SWOT analysis is presented in the following slide.

S • Strength

W • Weakness

O • Opportunities

T • Threats

Source: The Certified Six Sigma Black Belt Handbook

Knowledge Nugget: SWOT Analysis - Example A private higher education institution experienced declining enrolment for four consecutive years, particularly from two major cities in the state where it is located. This declining enrolment impacted the profitability. The president is feeling pressure from the board of directors, which wants answers as to why the enrolment levels are declining. The industrial engineering department has proposed a Six Sigma project aimed at improving the enrolment rate for students from the two major cities. As the department prepares to make probability estimates, it produces the SWOT analysis as shown below:

Strength • High academic entrance requirements • Strong general education program • High % of full-time faculty • New endowments for faculty chairs • Fundraising goals are being met each year • Well-designed internship and study abroad opportunities

Weakness • Print communications for prospective students are

bland and generic • Recruitment staff too passive in contacting prospective

students • Uneven implementation of assessments and program

review methods • Student-centered customer focus is not recognized

Opportunities • Metropolitan area location has population advantage • Area corporations offer tuition reimbursements • Reputable business program with a global studies focus

is not marketed well as it could be

Threats • The number of traditional-age prospective students is

expected to decline • With the cost of education escalating, community

colleges have recently become viable competitors • Public universities have undertaken significant marketing

efforts to position themselves as comparable in experience to private colleges.

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Business Case: Most of ABC’s training needs are technical and Operational and cannot be developed in house, requiring the organisation to spend money on external training sessions that are very costly. By raising or training in-house coaches and trainers, ABC will be able to reduce the cost of investment on people in majority of core training needs.

Actions Taken: After thorough analysis of current & future training requirements and the current process of conducting training, the Business Excellence team ideated ‘Train the trainer’ program to harness employees’ skills to the most and optimize training expenses at ABC.

Goals: • Enabling ABC employees to become “experts” within their field to which they

can train other employees • Reduction in expenses on external training programmes

Case Study 2: Optimization of Employee Training

Situation – deep dive

On having discussions with the Business Excellence team and HR department at ABC, the following points were realised: ABC spends lot of money to hire outside trainers Training budget has increased substantially and at times, the cost has also exceeded the

budget. Internal capabilities of resources in the organization to train other resources and skill

building are under-utilized. Some of the trainings planned are unnecessary

Actions Taken

Classifying internal and external faculties

analysed

Possibilities of internal trainings without

compromising quality of training explored

Identified competent employees for ‘train

the trainers’ programme

Train the trainer courses facilitated by

highly skilled, professional and

experienced outsourced faculties.

Assessed the cost-benefit comparison

between internal and external training

programs

Savings arising out of skill building using internal trainers.

Trai

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Summary of benefits

Potential cost savings at OMR 129,000 (Rs. 2,38,94,400) per year & thus reduction in overall training budget

Skill building of internal resources

Development of best practices through in house training

In house training Centres / Venues to be developed

Conversion of courses into online coaching / E-learning

13900

12050 6250

13900

4440

500

Potential Savings OMR Customer Services

Leaderships Program

Competencies Development Sales & Marketing

HSE Program

MS Excel

Lean Tip: Heijunka Box

We have already understood Heijunka (or load levelling) in an earlier edition of Arête. Heijunka Box is one such method used to achieve Heijunka, i.e. levelling the mix and volume of production, by distributing kanban within a facility at fixed intervals.

The illustration alongside shows a typical Heijunka box. Each horizontal row is for one type of product. Each vertical column represents identical time intervals for paced withdrawal of kanban. The shift starts at 7:00 a.m. and the kanban withdrawal interval is every 20 minutes. This is the frequency with which the material handler will withdraw kanban from the box and distributes them to production processes in the facility.

Whereas the slots represent the material and information flow timing, the kanban in the slots each represent the time required to produce one pack-out quantity for a particular product type. Source: Lean Lexicon, LEI

News 1: SSA launches international operations in Thailand

SSA expanded its horizons kicking off international operations in Thailand in July 2019. SSA has associated with Leadership Partner Asia (LPA) Ltd. in this endeavor.

SSA organized a 2-day bootcamp to emphasize on the importance of ‘Profit Leadership’ for success in organizations. Top management of SSA and LPA were positive about providing services in Thailand and its neighboring countries.

News 2: SSA at LEAN Management event organized by ICAI – Muscat Chapter Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), Muscat Chapter organised an event on Lean Management at College of Banking and Financial Studies, Bawsher on 31st July, 2019. The main speaker for the event was Mr. Nandha Kumar, Country Manager – GCC , SSA International LLC.

Mr. Said Safrar, CEO of 'Oman Investment & Finance Co. SAOG' (OIFC) is our 'Pragmatic Leader' of the month. His vision for OIFC is commendable as he has foreseen the transformation in the utility outsourcing business well in advance and chosen several strategic interventions to re-engineer the business model. It includes Lean management systems for improving customer service, people mind-set change to align with Oman consumer expectations. He is a calculated risk-taker with deep customer services and tech industry knowledge. Safrar has championed ePayment services to his customers, applying the right type of technology in information management and customer interface which fuelling the industry-wide transition in online services. The tangible results achieved are significant through these interventions. SSA International & SSA Techknowlogies enjoyed teaming up with him in pursuing his vision. We appreciate his trust & confidence in SSA team and wish all the best for OIFC under his leadership.

Pragmatic Leader of the Month: Mr. Said Safrar - by Mr. NC

BUSINESS SOLUTIONS TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL SPECTRUM