This, in turn, is expected to translate into an approximate annual recurring benefit of Rs 13.5 crore from the year 2000-2001. Improvement in manufacturing yield is already in the range of four per cent, while throughput has increased by more than 13 per cent. But perhaps the most precious gain for the company is an intangible one: a change in the mindset and approach of its people towards the business.

For, it was around two years ago that PCB did a comparative study of its cost structure vis-a-vis international players and found that the latter had a $80 to $100 per tonne advantage. The commodity chemicals business, meanwhile, also witnessed a sharp fall in duties makingthe company even less competitive in the global market.

Says S Sahgal, president, PCB: ``The cost of operations had to be brought down and kept low.'' Though the need for cost reduction was the prime issue, PCB also wanted to use this opportunity to reconsider and rectify the way it managed its business-and bring in a new orientation in its employees.PCB also had to contend with the fact that like any typical medium-sized company, it had pockets of excellence-which now needed to be institutionalised. According to Sahgal: ``A lot of changes were known to us in a vague manner but we had to get people to accept that these changes and issues were real.''

As a first step, therefore, Andersen Consulting was brought in for a strategic cost reduction project. But right from day one, it was clear: no cost reduction plan would succeed in the long term without addressing the attitudes of PCB's management and employees.

To get the big numbers, therefore, required putting in place small improvements on the shopfloorand identifying the burning issues. Says Andersen Consulting's Ramkumar Akella: ``Our role was to facilitate the identification of areas of big savings through a collaborative approach and enthuse the operating heads to take ownership.''

n Looking for a better way: The company began looking for benefit opportunities within PCB. Consider a case in point. The company had a rich mix of personnel who had worked at international plants. In a focussed group discussion- consisting of a group of 15 to 20 operating personnel, no senior than a deputy manager-managers were given three hours to put down their views on formats that facilitated their thought process. Participants also put down the differing operating parameters in other plants as well.It was then noticed that on certain critical parameters such as air pre-heat and oil pre-heat temperatures, PCB was operating at lower levels. The project team then analysed the feasibility and commercial impact of operating at higher temperatures. The results of theimplementation were staggering. Says Sahgal, ``This single opportunity has shaken up the organisation and many myths have been broken. Our people got charged up to enhance efficiencies and the net result was substantial improvements in yield and throughput.''

There were also many state-of-the-art ideas in PCB which were not being put into use because they were considered complex. According to Sahgal, ``While PCB had grown in a family-run business environment, with no focus on cost, we had never slipped on bringing in technological assets.'' However, such technical assets were not being utilised effectively.

For example, a linear programming model had been developed for the sourcing of products from the three plants to maximise the margins--but was not being used as it was perceived to be too cumbersome. Through Indradhanush, a simple spreadsheet-based tool was developed to aid in minimising the total delivered cost. The users were taken into confidence and all misconceptions were thrashed out in aday-long closed-door meeting. The eye-opener was the revelation that PCB could save about Rs 30 lakh every month by using the model.

Attitude changes are critical: While target-setting at PCB was important to achieve cost-reduction in the context of the current competitive framework, the initiative had to be led by the company's employees--so that they could take it forward as and when the business environment changed. Says Andersen's team leader for Indradhanush, Sudarshan Sampathkumar, ``The management change had to be beyond the numbers game.''Sahgal therefore, set about trying to get rid of the dictatorial attitude which exists at the plant level. Through a series of workshops at factories, PCB is now using frontline leadership development skills to address the issue further: around 250 staff out of PCB's total strength of 800 have been covered through these workshops.``The churning process has helped us to realise that improvement is constant and not a mere top-down approach,'' says Sahgal. PCB,therefore, keeps trying to shift from being a moribund organisation to a movement where each employee acknowledges his role and responsibility in the change process. And that perhaps, is PCB's brimming pot of gold which will never be empty.