Corporate Learning Series - 2/ Diary of an MBA

July 26th

I can't hold myself down. My FIRST day on the job!! And I like it already.

"Assistant Junior Deputy to the Vice Chairman - Manufacturing". My dad

was

thrilled when he heard my designation.

"What the f!@#!!!" were his exact words. Oh I love it when my parents are

happy...

Need to meet HR in half an hour. I can't wait to get my first Employee ID

Card and cubicle. I hope Parthasarathy Whatayblouse Crappers (PWC) is

the

beginning of great things.

P.S. I have brought my favourite textbooks back from the institute OD, OM

and HR should help me grow rapidly in the organization. And I will handle

soft issues before facing hard issues here at PWC.

July 28th

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Had a lot of fun with HR yesterday. The guy who had recruited me had left

a month ago. So they didn't know I was joining. We had a hearty laugh

over

that one.

I'll get my cubicle in a few days time. For the time being I am sharing a

nice one with Claire. She's with Corporate Communication.

The phone doesn't work though...

August 2nd

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Met my boss today. He spent a lot of time with my CV and then asked me

how

I managed to get a job with them. (Even he knows how lucky they are to

get

me..) He told me to review our material ordering system in the err...

umm... the... the "big yellow and blue noisy machine section" of the

plant.

Claire is working on an "Our Employees Love Us" campaign. The office

boy

had just resigned. So she got me to pose with an apron and a tray of

cookies for a photo. They are going to call me Ramon and use it for ads. I

am going to be famous.

August 7th

My first breakthrough. I have decided to order nickel ball bearings using

the EQO.. QEO... whatever formula. It takes into account item cost,

holding cost and weight of ball bearing I think. The purchase guy gave me

a funny look when he saw my annual requisition contract form. He is

obviously not an MBA...

Claire resigned today. She told me carry on with the "Our Employees Love

Us" campaign.

P.S. Lesson for the week. You cannot order 0.7564 of a ball bearing. It

has to be in whole numbers.

August 11th

I just got a shipment of 4384 ball bearings. I checked up with

Engineering. They said that should be enough for around 14 years of

requirement. I gave them 3 and stashed away the rest in a cupboard in my

room. If prices of ball bearings go up, I see a lot of potential savings.

I have decided to develop informal channels of communication. From

tomorrow I will spend a little time next to the coffee machine to

understand the unspoken messages within the underbelly of the firm.

(That OD book is good)

August 14th

I sent my first official letter today. It was to our Facilities manager

Merry Le Bian. She is a hottie. I told her that the Coffee Machine takes

too much time to reheat between refills. Wrote it in a WAC format and all

with a table of contents and everything. She is sure going to be

impressed!! I spell checked it in MS word and emailed it to her an hour

ago. No reply yet.

They scrapped the "Our Employees Love Us" campaign. The photo shoot

was

taking up too much time, and people were being forced to stay late without

extra pay. Someone finally went and vandalised the banner. It now reads

"Our Employers Shove Us". I offered to model for all the snaps and videos.

They called me a dickhead. I was delighted. Dickhead is internal slang for

"Big Stud". HR told me. Everyone calls me that...

P.S. One more shipment of ball bearings came. Again 4384. The contract

can't be changed now. I don't have too much space left in my cupboard.

August 25th

My letter came back. It had a pink post-it on it from Merry. "Please

proofread" it said. It was CC'd to my boss. How was I supposed to know

MS

Word would spell check her name and change it to Merry Lesbian????!!!!

Where's natural justice?

Today five minutes before a meeting the cupboard door broke open. It took

me ten minutes to pick up all the ball bearings from the floor. I had to

run to the board room for the meeting and slipped on a bearing which

rolled under the door. I fell on the coffee machine and tipped coffee

powder into the polymer mixing matching tray. No one saw anything.

P.S. Sorry for the long break. My computer crashed. There was a mail from

an old friend. She's now married into the Welchia family I think.

Crashed after that. Strange name that Welchia...

September 2nd

My boss told me I may not last the probation period. I was mighty thrilled

to hear that. Imagine!! Permanent in less than three months!!

That should be some sort of company record.

I made a presentation to all the staff yesterday. Some 300 people were

there. I think I sent good vibes. Everyone was smiling and nodding their

heads during the presentation. Someone later told me my fly was open the

whole time. But I don't think anyone noticed. The presentation was on "An

Open Culture: Let the feeling show!!"

p.s. 17156 ball bearings. I floated a scheme to give each employee a ball

bearing for every year of service. The HR manager immediately convened

a

meeting with my boss. Every suggestion counts here at PWC.

September 4th

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have been transferred to the office in Sub-Saharan Africa . I will be

heading the Room Heater and Hot Water Geyser products division.

They have

also told me to pay for all the ball bearings I bought. I think it speaks

much of the entrepreneurial spirit. I have been told to leave immediately

for Kujumbinana.

P.S. A foreign posting in under a year!!!

September 5th

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am in Kujumbinana. We don't have a branch here...

Corporate Learning Series - 1/ Focus on Job

FOCUS ON JOB

First-year students at Texas A & M's Vet school were attending their

first Anatomy class, with a real dead pig.

They all gathered around the surgery table with the body covered

with a White sheet. The professor started the class by telling them,

'InVeterinary Medicine it is necessary to have two important qualities

as a Doctor: The first is that you not be disgusted by anything

involving the Animal body'.

For an example, the Professor pulled back the sheet, touched his

finger in the mouth of the dead pig, withdrew it and put his

Finger in his mouth.

'Go ahead and do the same thing,' he told his students.

The students freaked out, hesitated for several minutes. But

eventually took turns putting their finger in the mouth of

the dead pig and tasted in
their mouth.

When everyone finished, the Professor looked at them and

said, 'The Second most important quality is observation.

I touched with my middle Finger and tasted on my index

finger.

Now learn to pay attention…

Moral of the story: Life is tough, but it's a lot tougher

when you'r work like an idiot

Motivation : Ego Massage!

Maslow`s Hierarchy of Needs is actually a perfect pyramid of Human Needs, but the least exploited in terms of Human Resources. It was only marketing, which time and again used the components of the pyramids to position its products based on the social structure of large group of people in the pyramid section. " Branding " then became the " Esteem " satisfaction of the Human Need. Much higher a value in the pyramid.

However, the pyramid was one true reflection of " Motivation" of a person at each layer of the management. Starting from the labor force, where the Basic Needs were of utmost importance, to Top Director, where the " Self Actualization " needs were more important then the pay cheque.

I would replace the Word " Esteem " from Maslow`s pyramid to , " Relative Pride" . This is something, which in an organizational set up, every single individual is trying to frame for himself. No matter, how ordinary or simplistic a job, but the person has " Relative Pride " attached to it. This is somehow the biggest accelerator of " Motivation " . On every job being done, a person continuously measures himself in the eyes of his supervisor for some approval rating. These simple confirmation of ok, itself is already a Big Motivator. However, the best motivators are when continuously the organization lays out targets and rewards in words and kind one person or team work.

Sometimes, there are no further ways of setting up targets, then it is the intangibles, that work. Here is a good example.

Most mills that I visit have women workers and all of them have a uniform to wear to the plant. One day, I told the CEO client of mine, that the biggest motivation of your workers is being killed by you, even before they enter a factory. In the name of equality and discipline or whatever, you have given uniforms.

A women by nature has her beauty more important then anything else under the sun. If you don't allow her to dress up as per their choice, you are already killing a very big natural motivator. Each women dresses to only show to another women. No men under the sun is interested in her dress, unless ofcourse it is well revealing. It is the relative pride of a women to show her new dress at work to her colleagues.

Next day, he called a meeting of the workers and took their opinion. As a measure of start, the company allowed " Choose Your Dress" policy for only one day in the week and the result was that the productivity zoomed. Girls looked more confident and there was a kind of new found freedom. Soon, the company budget for uniform was saved and girls looked butterflies all over the factory. ( Next advise, I am going to give the company is to hold Ms Company of the year xxx and then hold Inter company Ms Company competition).

Many a times, it is our mind, which is the biggest obstruction. I still tell all my friends, who wear a uniform to office to stop this nonsense. This Japanese / Korean/ Chinese culture in not worth. Guys and Girls look much nicer with the colourful dresses they wear and intrinsically motivates them for whatever it is worth.

There are many such intangibles ,which reflect the self esteem of a person, other then job approvals. Like boss telling the secretary, she is wearing a nice dress is already a very big motivator, then appreciating her work.

Another example is that putting up pictures of jobs that were uniquely executed with the name of the person. Mind, not the picture of the person. Most companies use pictures of the person and call it " Best Employee" etc etc. However, it is the job which merits the consideration and the person associated with it. It is always the work which a person wants to be identified with. His picture is anyway there in the minds of everyone, only needs the name highlighting. Pictures are sometimes embarrassing, if the guy/girl looks a little out of shape.

Third example was giving a " Beauty Break" to an employee with a voucher to encash at a beautician . And for men, it would be at a wellness centre .

There are hundreds of such ways, where " Relative Pride" gets massaged and acts like a motivator . I hope like Foot Massage and Body Massage, there will be soon outlets for " Pride Massage " and " Ego Massage " where girls will sing songs in praise of the guy on his abusing the boss and men will sing songs in praise of women on their beauty and shape ( winks).

Logistics

If in the Service Industry, something moved to the scale of perfection, then it was logistics. Here is one industry, which has been so good, that picks up consigment on a simple call, makes available the tracking of the consignment and delivers promptly.

In Europe, the only industry which thrives and grows is Logistics. More and more manufacturing got shifted to Asia, which ensured that the Logistics company had a larger roll to play for prompt refilling of shelf spaces in the retail markets.

At any given time, if you see around yourself in Europe, then it is largely the trucks and boxes moving goods from point A to Point B.

The extension of the same logic should have been supply chain standardization. Wherein the company could track its suppliers production online and take deliveries on either daily basis or weekly basis. This would have ensured total wiping out of working capital and most companies would have worked on suppliers money.

Visit a Supermall and you will find the same brands being sold by each of them with hundreds of these packets are stacked in linear shelves. This is practically the cost of carrying inventory of thousands of supermalls , and many a times, when the retailer is the same chain. The supermalls actually could have extended the store into a virtual store and offered deep discounts for slow moving products with home delivery. And sweet discounts for FMCG. This would have opened another channel of distribution. The logistics companies would have got themselves cobranded with the store

Technically, this is a waste and sooner or later, a virtual retailer without any overheads of rent , salaries, warehouse, delivery vans etc will outbeat the system and will deliver directly from the manufacturers warehouse to buyers home. Passing the savings directly to the consumer. If pizza can be delivered, so can soap and cola and so can tomatoes and potatoes. We all saw in our childhood, the milk bus delivering milk bottles enroute. Exactly, as what we see with the demise of Travel Agents, we would see the demise of big retailing, where Amazon will find more value in delivering detergents and colas, then books and CD. It is only the shopping experience, which virtual sites have to rebuilt, however, given the next generation of kids hooked to video games, will find online stores with sexy sales girls more charming then the real time stores.

For the textile industry, cotton, polyester, and all other industrial consumables have a huge logistics cost in the supply chain and delivery cost in the sales chain. In the good old days, the government in order to promote the railways, would run a railway track right to the middle of the mill and the railways would deliver cotton, coal etc etc. But railways connected to the industries is now a gone concept. However, with the oil price rising, one had to rethink on long distance hauling by railways and short distance deliveries by trucking. If only railways would be privatized in most parts of the world, one would see it as a good alternate to trucking . Infact , only if railways be given for the goods business to logistics companies, they would change the shape of railways and inland deliveries. Anycase, most logistics companies have planes for international deliveries, so trains for local deliveries should be the logical extension.

Logistics companies have so much more business coming their way. Over a time, they would be the largest companies in the world in terms of sales turnover and growth rate.

Interestingly, logistics companies are also the best source for Data Mining on International imports and Exports . Which for confidentiality purposes have though not been exploited, however , generic products can still be valued as commercial througput for the researchers.

European Vs Asian Machines/ Model Vs Wife

Mr MM Chaudhary ( Hereafter MMC) my ex colleague recently had a genius of a sales presentation.

How humor and wit works in favor of business is a classical example below.

Mr Chaudhary sells a simple humble Asian winder, which is 30% of the price of European Winder. His customer asked him, how he should decide, because he likes the European machine, but wants the Asian price.

MMC came out with a brilliant answer. If you are looking for a wife, then buy the Asian machine and if you are looking out for a Model, then buy the European machine. The model will be to show to the world, will have higher maintenance, poor performance ( In bed ) visually attractive, but physically weak, high resale value. On the other side, Asian machine will be like wife, shall do all the work, come out with nice production , low maintenance cost but will have low resale value etc.

Customer was so impressed that within minutes he signed a million dollar contract with him.

The moral of the story is that this Model Vs Wife dilemma crosses us almost everyday with our purchase decisions and how many times, do we take a sensible decision.

Recently, a customer asked me , if she should buy a German brand made in Germany or made in China . The price difference being double. I said no one will ask , if the production was made on machine made in Germany or Made in China, but they would still ask, what machine you have . So Brand will automatically cover her apprehensions, if any.

Drum Size For Larger Traverse of 165mm

In my post on Cone Size Error, I had spoken on the cone size to be modified to have better loading of a container , hence lower logistic cost.

The other better solution is ofcourse, increasing the traverse of the winding machine from end to end. This will ensure a larger package content and better efficiency in both winding and weaving. The logistics cost is automatically offset .

Most winding machines have a traverse of 6 inches, but the actual traverse is between 150 to 155 mm. All it needs is to have a drum of traverse 165 mm. This automatically then takes care of the cone size of 170 mm, leaving 2.5 mm on both ends.

The best results of this will be seen in an assembly winder, where the feed package goes into TFO. Say, drum winder supplies 900 gms package with 152 mm tube for 135 mm package dia pot. However, as soon as the tube size is changed to 165mm, the content automatically goes upto 1kg. which is 11% increase.

The flyer on the TFO can be adjusted to take up the tube of 165 mm. Similarly for large pot the content would be much larger.

Sometime, it is only these little common sense inputs that can make a huge change in your product offerings and efficiency of the system.

Textile Finish !

No matter, how expensive clothing you buy, the grace and charm of it is lost within the first 5 washes.

Somehow, the fabric finishes were never strong enough to sustain regular laundary. If a good fabric appeal was to be defined by

Texture
Handle
Feel
Drape
Reflectance
Novelty
Luxury
Hairiness

Then most fabrics would fail after the first few washes.

Two main reasons.
First, the quality of water and detergents, both are questionable. Levers and Proctor and Gamble , both could never make a detergent, which could retain the original qualities of the fabric finish. Inevitably , all your white shirt, become yellow over time. Partly on account of hardness of the water, partly on account of poor detergent quality.

However, the other flaw has been the finish quality of the fabric. After dyeing, the crease , handle and other finishes are imparted at the stage of Stenter. Most of the time, the chemicals at the application temperature just vaporize and only leave behind a small coating on the surface of the fabric. This coating gets washed away and hence the poor resultant quality.

Unless, the yarn or fabric finishes are applied at the stage of dyeing, the result will always be questionable. In case of dyeing, the dye diffusion in cotton takes place right till the secondary walls of the cotton fibre. It is only this time that the finishes can also move to the inner walls and retain their effect. Also, the grilling 8 hours dyeing cycle ensures that besides the dyes, the finish will find a suitable place on the yarn or fabric.

In case of polyester, it is still much easier. At the temperature of 130 deg, polyester is already very friendly and receptive to encase any dyes or finishes, willing to settle in its chain.

There are now many very good companies making good finishes, but the application chemistry has to be tweaked.

Yarn Hairiness

One of the biggest challenges for the Textile Industry is the Yarn Hairiness. With the increase in speeds, the productivity has gone up, but so has the yarn hairiness gone up.

Yarn Hairiness is such a mess , that on all modern looms, at high speeds the hair on the yarn is pressed first by the Reed Force and bulges out , giving a nice pilling effect . Even with the best of the fabrics, the pilling has now become a very big problem.

The yarn hair, unless singed always cause pilling and give a pathetic look.

Given the new technologies of heat and temperatures, it should have been possible to remove the hair either at the time of spinning on Ring Frames or during winding.

All it needs is a temperature source which would burn off the extra hair before the yarn winds. Singeing machines by itself is a process and is quite cumbersome. Needs fire burners, exhaust etc etc. A simple heater tube maintaing a temperature enough for the extra hair to get shaved would have been an idle solution.

Such a tube could have been fixed before the winding drum and with simple suction, the extra hair would have been removed from the system.

Another concept was to ensure that the protruding hair be pressed back into the yarn stream either with rollers or with air nozzle. In case of compact yarns, the compactness only marginally improves the yarn hairiness. It is still not an idle solution.

In case of air nozzle, the results are insignificant. The system did not take off at all.

Composites

While co polymers have been around for quite sometime. The composites have still not found a good market space.

Within the yarn spectrum, the comingled yarns exist, however, for apparel purposes the comingled yarns did not have any appeal.

For the first time, the composites are getting identified. This is the unique opportunity for the textile industry to explore all the areas of applications of such textile composites and position themselves into the Industrial Space.

The Textile composites would be like Teflon yarns with polyester yarns for the purpose of making fire proof furnishings. Carbon yarns with nylon yarns for making industrial ropes and fishing nets, glass yarns with carbon yarns for making safety belts, polypropylene with carbon yarns for making safety belts etc etc.

There are other composites like making fabric layers of one substrate and bonding it with another layer of another substrate. This will have defence applications.

Similarly with hollow yarns, it would be possible to develop filtration media.

However, the development of such composites has to be only done indigenoulsy by the company using its own R&D. Unlike for cave man textiles the composites industry will be highly technical and much advanced.

Technical Textiles is the future.

Technology Cell!

The rate of Technological obsolesces is so fast that unless one is updating himself continuously , the organization will be only as good or as bad as the knowledge resource of its people.

Unfortunately the updating of technology is still left to the employees, who largely fancy that, if they have the latest hand phones, or an apple computer ,then they are already technology compliant.

Technology is changing each and every area of our work environment and is changing very very fast. Unfortunately, there is still not a proper mechanism within an organization to keep itself abreast of the latest developments in the area of their business. They would await for someone to either come and educate them or till the technology has scaled to the level that they can adapt it without any risk.

It is about time, where each organization starts with a Technology cell, which continuously monitors the updates on technology in each area of manufacturing or service. This technology cell then periodically ensures that all its managers , supervisors are mapping the inputs to their job functions and the efficiency is clearly showing out in terms of cost reduction, quality improvements or better way of working etc etc. Budgets have to already incorporate upgrades in unforeseen technology and conducive environment has to be designed for easy adaption and exit of old technologies. Incentives have to be designed for any group, which embraces technology which would increase the thru put of the company or cuts a process down or infringes on manual or a mechanical system.

Eg: Each machine could now easily have a energy panel and all panels could easily link to give a consolidated report via wireless to the manager. Monitoring will ensure that the energy consumptions are linear through out the operations and will also show, which machines on account of poor maintenance or belt slippage or poor lubrication etc were consuming average more energy then other machines.

Many many such opportunities exist today to get the system into a technological loop. However, it needs first the right information, then correct mapping to your industry, finally exploiting to get the revenue advantages.

Technology monitoring is a full time job and needs inputs from the global feeds of products, services, developments, researches, etc etc. Smarter companies themselves will post their requirements on their technology needs and find quick solutions.

Textiles does not believe in technology. Machines are loaded with technology and only and only if the machine maker offers something unique, the user having confirmed multiple times will try it out. No one is aggressive enough to themselves design a machine.