Helping Tata Chemicals establish

Lean Six Sigma as a common

business language and an enabler
of high performance
Narrator: Tata Chemicals is a 2 billion dollar international business. The companys wide
range of productsfrom water purifiers and food additives to crop seeds and bio-fuelshelps
billions of people meet their everyday needs. Since its founding in 1939, the company has
grown to become the second-largest producer of soda ash in the world and is a leading
player in the crop nutrients and crop protection markets. Tata Chemicals is also Indias leading provider of branded iodized salt and has been recognized as Indias number one food
brand for more than five years.
Accenture: Sandeep Biswas

TCL: M Ravindranath

TCL: Anand Sodha

Chemical companies operate in a complex business environment. Competitive threats increasing regulations
growing concerns over climate change
and sustainability... and the need to
tap new markets all call for new
ways of creating value for their
stakeholders. To succeed, companies
need to work faster and smarter than
ever before.
Lean Six Sigma deployment at Tata
Chemicals is a great example of
achieving execution excellence
through simplicity, speed and discipline

Continuous improvement culture is

not new to TCL. We have been doing systematic process improvements
for over a decade now. However, over
the years, we have grown through
acquisitions. Our need for a consistent
method of managing and improving
our processes had become ever more
important. What we needed was a
continuous improvement program that
would enable operational excellence
and, at the same time, introduce a
common business language across our
global operations.
For us, the answer was Lean Six
Sigma. We believed that this business
management strategy would help us
improve our processes and decisionmaking. We were hopeful that it would
be the best logical extension of our
previous improvement program leading
to development of our future leaders.

To get going with Lean Six Sigma,

we knew we needed to partner with
a consultant who really knew how to
apply the methodology, had global
experience and deep process skills,
and could train us to build a continuous improvement capability in-house.
That partner was Accenture.

Accenture: Vishwajit Joshi

TCL: Anand Sodha

TCL: Bharat Bhushan

Khatpalia

From the beginning, Tata Chemicals

wanted to put in place what many
companies implementing Lean Six
Sigma fail to do: A clear vision statement for the Lean Six Sigma program
and a well-defined set of success
measures. So our first step was to help
Tata Chemicals executives create a vision for the program that would guide
the training and implementation.

Once we decided what we wanted

to accomplish, we moved to training. With Accentures help, we trained
nearly 500 of our professionals across
our four main locations.
Each group of participants was taught
a specific set of skills needed to optimize what Lean Six Sigma offered.
Executive Leaders, for example, learned
how to empower their teams. And our
Black Belts learned how to apply the
LSS (full form required) methodology to carry out specific improvement
projects. All Accenture trainings were
based on simulations, games, interactive exercises, teach-backs and exit
tests and helped our employees refine
their analytical and execution skills

Accenture: Vishwajit Joshi

TCL: Satyajit Roy

TCL: PM Patel

Tata Chemicals has demonstrated what

is possible when a company is focused
and committed to Lean Six Sigma.
In just 9 months, the company was
able to train 500 of its employees and
complete improvement projects that,
together, produced savings of 4.6
million dollars.

Right from its commissioning, the

monohydrate dense ash plant has been
operating at lower than its design
capacity. We wanted to significantly
increase the utilization of our plant.
After preparing a detailed value
stream map, we found issues with
our Measurement system. We standardized loss booking definitions and
introduced periodic GRR studies. In the
analyze phase we found root causes
for FBD and lump crusher jamming
and achieved quick wins through
design change and MOC change. In the
Improve phase, we optimized parameters like light ash bin temperature
and steam pressure. After introducing
the visual controls and control charts
for process parameters, we not only
achieved highest one-day production
but also managed a 20% higher average daily production consistently.
Doing the VSM myself and GRR have
been great learnings for me personally.

Since the demand for salt is very high

in the market, we had to increase the
throughput from our salt plant. Data
analysis revealed seasonal variations,
process losses & mechanical losses
as the biggest loss contributors. We
addressed these problems through
specific process improvements and set
up of controls. Recirculation of settling
overflow and mixing with weak Brine
during the Monsoon season was a
quick win while the regression analysis
showed 50# steam and, 20# steam as
two critical process parameters which
needed to be optimized. The results
were significant. Our annual throughput has increased by 9000MT. I enjoyed
working with the data during regression analysis and I also feel that LSS
has changed the way we view, understand and work with data

When it came to putting our training

to use, we worked with Accenture to
identify and prioritize improvement
projects based on the business impact
and efforts required. We launched 25
projects in Wave I that tackled a wide
range of issuesfrom cost reduction to
capacity utilization.

TCL: Suresh Patel

TCL: Hitendra Padh

Accenture: Vishwajit Joshi

We were not able to achieve the

targeted cement throughput due to
lower OEE of the cement mill section.
Our analysis revealed that the Cement
Mill, Clinker Weigh feeder, Mill Bucket
elevator and Air Separator were the
major contributors to unplanned down
time the biggest problem in the first
place. We implemented over 90 jobs
during the plant shutdown for bucket
elevator replacement. Then we also
implemented qualifier logic to prevent
faulty tripping of the mill, optimized
process parameters like separator rpm
and % opening of damper. We strived
for efficient planned maintenance
activities using SAP. These efforts
have resulted in improving OEE by 8%
resulting in increased throughput of
5000 MT per month

Daily we handle tons of raw material and fuel which leads to very high
material handling cost. Our aim in
Lean Six Sigma project was to reduce
the material and fuel handling cost by
10% We started with a detailed VSM
and Spaghetti diagram which greatly
revealed the amount of excessive
handling we used to do. We identified a quick win in form of using
un-stacked material for charging. Then
we streamlined the planning process
between plant and suppliers. The supply is now controlled depending on the
consumption pattern and silo levels,
This has also helped us to improve our
housekeeping at MHY and created
more space for un-stacking material.
The changes are implemented in SAP
ensuring sustenance and 8% reduction achieved in raw material and fuel
handling cost. Other thing is even
after my transfer to other department,
the improved process and systems are
still followed - truly the change has
institutionalized!

Such savings are just the beginning.

Currently, Accenture is helping Tata
Chemicals deploy another 100 improvement projects globally in areas
such as marketing, operations, supply
chain, finance and human resources.
The potential cost savings of those
initiatives is expected to be 15 million
dollars over the next 18 months.

TCL: M. Ravindranath
Lean Six Sigma has given us the capability to apply process improvements in
every sphere of work. Accentures focus
on results and flexibility in delivery has
helped us tremendously in bringing
about the change we desired and in
helping us make Lean Six Sigma a way
of life.

Narrator: We are pleased to be on this journey with Tata Chemicals. Its always rewarding to
work with companies that not only recognize the need for change, but are also prepared to
take decisive action. Its Tata Chemicals willingness to change that has always distinguished
the company from its peers. And it is the companys commitment to continuous improvement that will enable it to cross new and exciting milestones in the journey to high performance. We are proud to continue partnering with TCL on every step of that journey.

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