Managing resources and improving quality simultaneously is what the industries are aiming across sectors today. ?But this can be achieved only by identifying the waste and reducing them effectively from the business processes,? says Richard Holland, Managing Director of TBM. TBM had started its operations way back in 1991. It introduced the concept of ?lean energy? for rapid improvement in performance for discrete manufacturers, continuous process companies, healthcare, financial services and the government.
?Lean is a way of learning what waste is and how to reduce waste?, says Holland. ?What I mean by waste is that when we produce something we contribute a lot for transforming the product into a consumer durable product. Suppose for the making of a car, we need to assemble a lot of machineries that would directly add value to the product. But in the process, we might have also done a lot of other things that would definitely not add value to the end product. For instance, we take a product and remove it from one place to another without making a change in it. In the process, we have spent money, man power, used space and resource but the net result is that there has been no change made. So then that is a waste,? points out Holland.
A careful examination of our day-to-day activity would reveal that a lot of energy is going into waste. TBM?s challenge is to motivate every individual employed in an organisation in identifying waste and reducing them, thus cutting-down cost and improving quality simultaneously. ?It is interesting to note that sometimes the lead time assigned for making a product is two to three months. But the actual time required for making a product is far less than the lead time. So careful management of time and resources is essential for making a company locally and globally competitive,? says Holland. Newly appointed as the Managing Director for India operations (beside the UK and the US), Holland has been meeting people from various sectors and would be back in January again with new concepts and strategies to implement lean energy practice in India thoroughly.
Though essentially on a business trip, Holland would love to go around the city of New Delhi. He would want to see the Qutab Minar and also, the Taj Mahal. He admires the countryside and hopes to see more of India when he comes with his wife and two children on a vacation. ?I stay in a country and I adore everything about countryside. I have a dog and would long to go for walk with my family and my dog.? He often goes for camping and stays in the tent. ?Canoeing and kayaking are my favourite pastimes and I would be keen to go paddling on the white waters once again. And India does have the scope for it.?
But now, business is all that he is looking for in India. With a large literate and skilled labour, Holland thinks that India would soon be able to make its presence known globally.
Moumita Chakrabarti