Difficult but Not Impossible to find out

8/2/2019 Difficult but Not Impossible to find out

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Difficult but not Impossible to find out

Suresh paused after the presentation on the works-value-chain. The O&M

conference hall was not even half filled. Few sectional heads promised for a

brief presence but finally no one turned out. The functional head of the o&m

had a sudden meeting with the collector. Had he been here no doubt all the

sectional heads would have been present in great numbers.

In such type of empty hall presentation people generally do not take much

interest and after taking tea and making a few light questions here and there

they disperse. Suresh was closing his laptop when heard this man .

Sir , what you said is not practical. See us during monsoon and you would

find how works get done here ! Most of those values you talked about just needto be bypassed to make the system up and running. The system has become

quite old today.

The man is two levels below manager in the coal handling plant and looks after

mechanical maintenance.

So the age makes the system difficult to operate ! Can anybody from main

plant operation would like to add to it ?, Suresh looked out for the operationengineers.

Usually when somebody counters a man higher in elevation (read here Suresh

himself ) nobody comes forward with additional arguments in the middle. The

culture here has encouraged only breeding of 'yes men' besides none of the

sectional heads are present to help them out.

OK then how come the main plant's plant load factor remains upward over the

last 4 years ? Aren't their machines equally old ? , Suresh paused for

reactions.

Sir that way we also have brought more coals over the last 4 years, even

recently we've made a national record of daily coal off take, The man seems

to have made the home run now.


2/9

Yes you have brought more coal , made national records but at what cost ?,

Suresh paused for more reaction now.

Sir, every records has a cost to be paid. Isn't it ?, A man from operation

section now replies.

Only if it just doesnt make you looser at the end of the day , it can be

justified else it is a charitable activity , Suresh was ready to elaborate it

further on the slightest demand but nobody ventured further.

The TQM man declares end of the presentation.

Suresh picked up his laptop and moved towards the door when this young mancame to him and after giving introduction asked him whether he could

elaborate the last point further.

Suresh had a field visit that afternoon so he asked the man to meet him in his

cabin after an hour.

Short term gains look & feel great , it also is appreciated by most common

people but behind short term gain the leader should always have a telescopeready to find out what is going to happen in a longer term vision. Many a times

short term gain hides the average health of an organization. Leaders also many

times hide their failures behind the glare of short term achievements .

But it's damn easy to find out the health of an organization from it's

expenditures. Before leaving for the site visit Suresh asked one of his planning

engineers to find out last 4 years expenditures of some major sections like

Turbine maintenance (TMD) , boiler maintenance (BMD), electrical

maintenance (EMD) and coal handling (CHP).

But how to compare then with each other ? Because each section is responsible

for a different type of output. Suresh remembers his learned friend Mana, once

told him that it's very easy to compare a big system when we look at it like a

box. Some resources goes in it and some product comes out of it.


3/9

So divide the output by input and that's the useful throughput per source

employed of the system. If the system is healthy and improving over the years

so will be it's useful throughput rate. The ratio will be improving over the

years.

For coal handling plant the input resources are many things - man , machines ,

materials. Here also Suresh employs a box theory and it's all become one

single important resource money. For every kind of inputs money is the main

resource to work behind.

However, for simplicity he is considering only the operating cost or the repair& maintenance cost. The plant was established 15 years back ,that time the

capital cost was very less compared to todays market value. Now for CHP the

out put is coal supplied to the boilers. So for each metric tons of coal supplied

to the boiler what is the R&M cost is the essential & comparable throughput

for the CHP.

Similarly for BMD , TMD and EMD it is the money input versus the electricity

generated. In fact these departments are all tied up one after another. BMD

produces steam in the boiler with which the TMD runs the turbine which in

turn runs the huge generators to produce electricity.

So in the 2nd half Suresh projected those cost figures on the overhead screen for

the young man.

----- ------- ------- ------- -------- -------- --------


4/9

But Sir, isn't the CHP is feeding the boiler also to produce electricity ? So the

same output may be considered for CHP also ? , The young man from CHP is

very inquisitive.

Yes fair enough but certainly there is a buffer called stack-yard in between.. ,Suresh tried to reason with him.

Unlike BMD , TMD or EMD the CHP has a huge stack yard where the

excess coal which the boiler cannot burn that day gets stored up. On the other

hand the electricity generated by the BMD-TMD-EMD in a row is all

consumed by the customers all at once. It cannot be stored anyway, Sushil

waits for his response.

Using coal the BMD produces steam energy in the boiler which the TMD

uses in the turbine to produce kinetic energy to run the Generator. The EMD

converts that kinetic energy to electric energy in the huge generator So

simple & all tied in a row, Sushil seems to have put everything in a big box

now.

The electricity thus produced travels a long distance to reach the consumers

and gets consumed all at once. No buffer and no stack-yard.

I got it ! while CHP has a store where their product can be stored other

sections have no buffer place as such , Tapan has got the full picture now.


5/9

So if we consider electricity as the final common product then the stack-yard

of CHP to be considered as well. The box theory now looks like this.

Now for every section the input resources are nothing but money.

But Sir, don't you think your measurements are subjected to errors at some

places Steam energy & Kinetic energy measurements are not perfect, Tapan

is very smart now.

Yes we have to live with that, only our electrical units produced are perfectly

measured but since these two outputs are purely energies we can use the final

output as well. We are mostly interested to find out the trend , Suresh seem to

be trapped by the young man.

In case we get measurement difficulty we will consider the conversion

efficiencies of generator & turbine to go back to turbine & boiler outputs ,

Suresh is more determined now.

MT stands for Million Tonnes ; MU = Million electric units.

Section Unit 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 Remarks

CHP Rs / MT 10.16 9.05 11.64 17.27 Increased alarmingly in last 2

years

BMD Rs / MU 11.06 10.05 14.45 14.65 Increased in 2 years

TMD Rs / MU 4.94 5.29 3.77 5.65 Stable

EMD Rs / MU 4.58 3.69 3.76 3.96 Stable

Unit - All Rs / MU 27.50 25.14 29.84 36.23 Increased in 2 years

So the chart shows it all clear. The CHP though they are bringing more coal for

the past 4 years their cost is going high. So is the BMD which is high for the

last 2 years. Perhaps because of these two sections the cost of the unit has been

increased 50% over last 2 years.

But this is something unbelievable ! This CHP has brought many accolades forour plant this year Highest ever weekly coal offtake , highest ever daily coal

offtake which is also a national record , professional circle awards, quality circle

awards and many more, Tapan was visibly shocked.


6/9

Yes , I know that even the other department BMD also has a National awardee

for doing complete roller replacement works in a day, they have record time for

attending boiler tube leakages ,more papers got published in the international

O&M conference ...., Suresh wait for Tapan's response.

- On the contrary if you see EMD, they are a mediocre department, no records ,

no awardee , Bosses bang them quite often for mediocre performance but they are

actually the star performer. They are keeping the long term perspective under

control the cost is maintained !

It's very easy to achieve a short term performance. But the real performance is

that which stands the test of time. For CHP if you see more clearly this year they

are yet to level last year's coal offtake despite making so many records in this

year., Suresh is more convincing now.

But their acts have been praised by the business unit head, some professional

magazines carried their story and sweet packets were distributed among all CHP

employees, Tapan was more amazed now.

That's another problem , If you see clearly, after making every record next few

days their throughput is reduced below average and the cost has gone high.Therefore, the ultimate throughput is reduced both ways - cost wise and quantity

wise . Yet the glare of short term record blinds everybody resulting in awardingwrongly for job done by wrong hands at wrong ways, Suresh is very critical.

But Sir every record has to have pay for it. Don't you see the Olympic 100 mtr

sprinters ? how do they stretch them sometimes even beyond limit !, Suresh is

now in the receiving end.

OK but at the end of the race that man becomes the richest one with the prize

money such that he can even retire for the rest of his life but here you are

becoming poorer because of the damages you are allowing to happen for creatingthe silly record !, Suresh is hyper now.

But Sir, you have to accept the fact that this year there was huge rainfall

which flooded the stack-yard resulted in high maintenance cost of the CHP ,

Tapan pleaded for team CHP.


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There are several power plants in this area who were unhurt in that torrential

rain except you ! How come they had solution you didn't ? , Suresh now put

Tapan off balance.

They could buy & keep huge tarpaulins in reserve well in advance to cover

the stack yard in case of unmanageable rains but here it was not done, not eventhe stack yard walls were repaired nor the drains were cleared before monsoon.

It's all percolates only one understanding Manage short term objectives and

neglect long term targets, Suresh paused for Tapan's reaction.

Sir, I'm really amazed at your analysis. You are so right. But you have been

here only for two months, how could you discover so many facts ?, Tapan ask

like a school children.

Tapan, It's really easy ! The one major parameter goes up is the cost . Being a

planning man I just started searching the reason for high expenditures and

everything gets exposed automatically like clear daylight, Suresh in one of his

eureka moments.

It was already 6PM . Suresh has to present his case study to the unit head at

6:30 PM so he folded the laptop last time promising him to call again.

----- ------- ------- ------- -------

There are three major fall out of this shortsightedness -

1. The important work is not done even though there is significant amount

of output derived out of the system. Though the short term result may

look great even stunning at times but no one is laying the ground work

for sustainable results.

2. Cost of every business transaction increases. The longer the term the

more the cost goes up.

3. People don't develop properly.


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Suresh knows that the men running the daily operations of the CHP or the

BMD cannot be held responsible for this extreme shortsightedness. It's their

managers or the sectional head who failed to give them directions. It's also

because of the faulty reward systems by the top bosses Behavior that is

rewarded is repeated.

Leaders today cannot afford to direct their efforts exclusively towards

generation of electricity or just bringing coal. Leadership at all level needs to

be multidimensional. Traditional one dimensional performance even if it

involves producing a great product or setting a huge record is not enough. A

broad range of results must be the goal of all leaders and it should resolve

around the followings.

Operating result (Generation of electricity , profit , coal off take, record timeto do a job etc.)

Customer result (Acquisition ,retention ,market penetration ,satisfaction of

internal customers & external customers, keeping eyes & ears open to see who

is doing what )

Leadership result (setting directions , communicating , developing people ,

setting short term standard as well as long term standards)

Management result (control who to do what work, quality or reliability of an

work, timeliness)

Relationships (working relationship, team play, internal & external

customers, business & government)

Social responsibility (Doing right for the community , government &

environments)

Suresh has not yet studied the BMD but he is sure what is he going to find

there. From sectional head to the managers all will be busy achieving the short

term goals grossly neglecting the important and sustainable works.


9/9

But why leaders don't do the job they are paid for ! - the question put forth

by young Tapan still rings in Suresh's mind.

The mismatch of work and pay may be endemic here and may be this

mismatch becomes How the works get done here in this culture. But when a

company accepts and institutionalize these mismatches true leadershipeffectiveness becomes difficult to achieve and a swirl spin of performance

deterioration goes deep inside everything.

Suresh paused after the long presentation on the CHP case study to the unit

head. Only he and a few other functional heads were presents at that fag end of

the presentation.

But how do you propose to correct the leadership vision alright at everylevel ?, The business unit head now asked him the most valid question.

I'm afraid Sir, I've not yet thought of that, Suresh tactfully bypassed the

major responsibility for his level.

Ok gentleman thank you . Mr Suresh please meet me tomorrow sometime

before lunch. My PA will set the appointment. You have very clearly shown the

problems now I've to find out a solution and I need your further help for that,The head now turns to his chamber in a frown head.

Suresh knows now his next day is not going to be same again.

..

S. Bera

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Difficult but Not Impossible to find out