Building High Performance Culture in a Greenfield Unit

Health Drinks Manufacturing Unit in North India

The company set-up its Greenfield unit in the year 2009. The primary objective of introducing Self-Managed Teams (SMT) concept was to insulate the plant from union formation (the other old unit of the company which is located in the state of U.P had faced several IR issues in the past) and also to work with lean manpower and achieve higher productivity.

The assignment involved hiring of the associates from class 12 qualification and subsequently as part of their induction / rope-in they were trained extensively on the basics of engineering, manufacturing and also on the soft skills essential for their performance as empowered teams. In a period of 12 months the plant could achieve significant improvement in the following areas…

• Stabilization of production lines as per the ramp-up plan
• Independent functioning of the associates with little dependency on the Line Engineers for execution of day-to-day responsibilities

After commissioning, when the plant was less than one year old the local political leader protested in front of the unit accusing the plant leadership for not giving employment opportunities to locals. The plant had adopted scientific selection approach (using psycho-diagnostic, aptitude tests) and the deserving were given the employment opportunity. After seeing the data and the transparency followed in selection the protesters withdrew.

All the associates from locals stood with the plant leadership during this protest – and that emotional connect was made possible through practicing SMT philosophy.