People Are Central to Everything'

Contd…I JOINED PHILIPS as a management trainee and the first job assigned to me was to cut the downtime of a computercontrolled testing and alignment station that would test colour television printed circuit boards as they come out of the assembly line. The stations had a downtime of close to 60% of production time because of which daily production targets were off track.The brief I was given and what I did in the first first 100 days at workI PRACTICALLY LIVED on the floor for 100 days, tracking every downtime, understand ing operator issues in using these stations, and the fixes being used by the maintenance team.After 30 days, I implemented a preventive maintenance schedule to ensure common issues don't drop up. After 60 days, we made some modifications in the software running the station to ensure the process was easier for the operator to understand and actually increased automation rather than reducing it, which was the original brief (resistance to automation was a major issue why the line was down so often).

Contd…In 100 days, we set up a small working group, which included the maintenance team and the testing station operators, to improve performance of the stations. A combination of preventive-maintenance, process flow corrections based on analysis and involving people in the improvement project reduced the downtime to the rated <5%.The worst mistake I madeIN MY ENTHUSIASM to solve the problem as a fresh engineer on the shop floor, I overlooked my team that was in-charge of maintenance. It was practically unheard of in the shop floor that a manager engineer would live that close to the workers directly.The unplanned benefit was that the operators were convinced and enlisted in improving the performance of the machines. The maintenance team also aligned itself gradually as it wanted to be part of the “management“ + “workers“ joint team that was solving the problem.

Contd…The best leadership lessons I learntPEOPLE ARE CENTRAL to everything -technology, process, delivery and even ensuring that “automation“ succeeds. If you go to the people involved directly, every person innately wants to do better and deliver more; this is universal and I am glad I learnt that early in my career.How I had fun at workTHE SHOP FLOOR at Philips was manned by 350 women (most of them older than me), as women are said to do well in a PCB assembly line. As a fresh engineering graduate from Chennai on his first job in Kolkata, my initial days helped me break the ice easily in terms of language, food, culture.

Contd…How I managed my work-life balanceFOR ME, DOING well at work and in my personal life are both essential parts of doing well in my overall life.The best times are those when they have both been very exciting and fulfilling, even one of them not going as well affects the other in a negative manner and I have had my fair share of those too.(As told to Varuni Khosla)My biggest innovationINVOLVING THE PEOPLE who are actually there every day, every minute. It isn't much of an innovation, but a huge leap for a fresh graduate stepping out of the education system which focuses on individual performance.

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Parveen Kumar Chadha… THINK TANK

(Founder and C.E.O of Saxbee Consultants & Other-Mother

marketingandcommunicationconsultants.com)

Email :-saxbeeconsultants@gmail.com

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