News Coverage

09-JAN-12

SA recently concluded a very important Six Sigma project for one of the very well-known public sector fertilizers company successfully. For the past four and half decades, they are engaged in the production and marketing of various Nitrogenous, Phosphatic Fertilizers and various Industrial Chemicals. They were very keen on being on top of their performance and setting up a culture for continuous improvement across the company.

 

 

 

ABC’s (name changed) topmost goal has been to increase the national agricultural productivity by providing agricultural inputs and services; with least consumption and at least cost. In line with their journey towards achieving excellence, improving operational effectiveness and service level, they partnered with SSA Business Solutions.

 

 

 

• Under the thorough guidance of SSA, they kick-started the company-wide Six Sigma initiative, involving 75 people from our top management.
• SSA trained 25 Greenbelts to cover all aspects of Six-Sigma and enabled them to undertake Six Sigma projects independently thereafter.
• SSA not just armed the participants with necessary change management skills but also provided adequate project hand-holding as per their needs.

 

 

 

For SSA Business Solutions, this has been a breakthrough project as far as improvements and ROI is concerned. Its approach was very focused. Through champions training in their premises, SSA obtained the needed direction for Six Sigma deployment. The entire organization has hugely benefited from this entire project. It has been a great learning experience. Few of the benefits are listed below:-

 

 

 

• Team has a better understanding of the processes.
• There is great teamwork and synergy between different teams.
• Systematic approach to problem solving has been institutionalized within the organization.
• There are less rejections and rework.

 

 

 

ABC successfully instilled the Six Sigma culture in their organization through the roll out of Wave-1 under the support and guidance of SSA. And for SSA as well, this has been a phenomenal project.

 

 

Source: http://www.ssa-solutions.com/knowledge-network/news-article.php?main_id=30

09-JAN-12

SSA's Brand New Identity

 

SSA Business Solutions Pvt. Ltd, very recently, underwent a whole Logo Rejuvenation Exercise, in an effort to make it more modern and contemporary. This was a very conscious decision, following closely on the heels of SSA’s global expansion strategy.

 

 

The company was founded in the year 1999 and was formerly known as Six Sigma Alchemy. But its basket of offerings consisted of many more services apart from just Six Sigma. Not to be type casted as just ‘Six Sigma’ consultants, SSA made a cognizant shift from being a single tool-based company to being an overall business solutions provider. Six Sigma Alchemy, hence, re-branded itself to SSA Business Solutions to encompass its varied services, and to project itself as a comprehensive one-stop service-provider.

 

 

Though SSA’s logo was robust and displayed strong bondages and partnerships, Team SSA felt it was static and that it somehow lacked dynamism, especially when SSA is making its international foray. So in the recently concluded Brand workshop, we at SSA, brainstormed on the best ways to rejuvenate the existing identity of brand-SSA in a way that will govern the presence and appearance of the brand across all touch-points. Based on our ethos, we identified the five most-critical brand levers that best describe SSA: Passion, Expertise, Commitment, Partnership and Growth; exactly in that order. Keeping these five levers in mind, and also the fact that SSA has not just been a vendor but ‘THE ENABLER’ in true sense, the new identity was designed. The core thought of being ‘THE ENABLER’ was carried forward and translated into logo designing.

 

 

With SSA’s brand new identity, it has made the transition from being static to dynamic, from being product-based to being solution-based, from being a vendor to being a partner and from being a B2B company to being a B2B2C company. With this, we surely do hope to make our presence felt a little more strongly. And we vouch to keep evolving with the time. As the saying goes, ‘The only thing constant in life is change.

 

 

Source: http://www.ssa-solutions.com/knowledge-network/news-article.php?main_id=29

09-JAN-12

The big Leap forward!!

 

With more than a decade of experience in consulting and with over INR 400 crores of cumulative savings for its clients, SSA is now rearing to take the big leap. SSA has embarked upon it global expansion journey with renewed vigour. The entire team of SSA is geared up to make this journey successful.

 

 

As a step in the same direction, SSA is participating in IQPC-South Africa Conference on Process Excellence in the month of February, 2012. Our Founder and CMD, Mr. NC Narayanan has been conferred upon the honour of co-chairing the event, while our JMD, Mr. Naveen Narayanan is going to speak on a subject, sure to create an interest in many minds, “Creating a continuous improvement culture to deliver business benefits and ensure process progression", where he will be talking about an Integrated Strategy Management Approach, which is a thought leadership of SSA.

 

 

“Bad strategies are bound to fail, but good ones fail too. It is often difficult to pinpoint the reasons for failure. Despite the obvious importance of good planning and execution, relatively few management thinkers have focused on what kinds of processes and leadership are best for turning a strategy into results. Most firms are good at formulating a mid to long term strategy and have reasonable clarity on their strategic levers and thrust areas. The true challenge lies in time-bound & result-focused execution. Through its five phased approach of Strategy Planning, Program Management, Project Management, Process Management, and Performance Monitoring, the Integrated Strategy Management System (ISM)® aims to solve this management riddle and offers a robust execution model converting a management's vision into reality,” says Naveen.

 

 

SSA looks forward to this conference in bated anticipation and hopes to carve a niche for itself in the African market.

 

Source: http://www.ssa-solutions.com/knowledge-network/news-article.php?main_id=28

12-DEC-11

SSA Business Solutions recently ran a Champions training for the heads of various business units at a leading business house which was attended by their MD and SSA’s CMD Mr. NC Narayanan. The Group has been running Six Sigma in their Organization since the year 2002. They now wish to take it to next level by better aligning Six Sigma with the financial of their firm and by driving better operational efficiency.

 

 

They were very keen to explore the power of Lean and its relevance in giving them the competitive edge over other market players. Hence, this workshop facilitated by SSA, was more of an on-boarding exercise to align their senior Leadership team and to bring about a consensus on how to embrace Lean, and how to further leverage Six Sigma in the coming years.

 

 

Their MD shared his vision for Lean and Six Sigma for their organisation, and SSA helped them in charting a suitable roadmap for the same.

 

 

SSA also played a very important role in facilitating the dialogue and bringing the entire team on common ground to kick start the initiative. The program was very well received and SSA surely does hope for a long term association with them.

 

 

Source: http://my.indiamart.com/cgi/mynewspresscov.mp?modid=MY#

17-NOV-11

SSA Techknowlogies, sister concern of SSA Business Solutions Pvt. Ltd., has recently conducted a 2-days training program on “Design Failure Mode Effect Analysis (DFMEA)” for one of the divisions of a leading Manufacturing and Technology company in India. The training program was carried out on the 9^th & 10^th of November, 2011.

 

 

 

The lead trainer for DFMEA was Mr. NC Narayanan, Founder & MD of SSA Group of Companies. Dr. O P Jain, an associate consultant of SSA, facilitated the DFMEA along with NC. Mr. Mrunal Shaldar, a qualified Product Designer, assisted NC as a co-faculty for the training. The training program was attended by 25 participants from comprising of Senior & Junior Product Designers with experience ranging from 1 to 15 years.

 

 

 

Design Failure Mode Effects Analysis (DFMEA) is a technique to estimate and control possible failures specifically to product design. It is a paper-and-pencil analysis method used in engineering to document and explore ways in which a product design might fail in real-world use. A DFMEA documents the key functions of a design, the primary potential failure modes relative to each function and the potential causes of each failure mode. The DFMEA method allows the design team to document what they know and suspect about a product's failure modes prior to completing the design, and then use this information to design out or mitigate the causes of failure.

 

 

 

The program was a huge success and it instilled great degree of confidence in the Designers. As a result of these success stories, SSA is being roped-in for many other different training programs by the company.

 

Source: http://www.ssa-solutions.com/knowledge-network/news-article.php?main_id=26

21-OCT-11

SA Techknowlogies, sister concern of SSA Business Solutions Pvt. Ltd., has recently conducted their second 2-days training program on “Design for Manufacture & Assembly (DFMA)” for one of the 8 divisions of a leading Manufacturing and Technology company on 18^th & 19^th August 2011.

 

 

 

The lead trainer for DFMA was Mr. NC Narayanan, Founder & MD of SSA Group of Companies. NC’s contribution in the field of Business Leadership & Management is well known. NC’s Design career spanning 3 decades and donning pivotal roles of Chief Designer & General Manager-Technology in Auto-ancillary companies, makes him an ideal Guru for budding Designers. NC was assisted by the co-faculty Mr. Mrunal Shaldar who is a qualified Product Designer. The training program was attended by 25 participants comprising of Senior & Junior Product Designers with experience ranging from 1 to 15 years.

 

 

 

DFMA is a cost-reduction tool used in the New Product Development. It focuses on reducing the number of components in a product assembly. DFMA is carried out through 3 sequential analyses to design the part in the best possible way which is easy to assemble. DFMA further aides the designer with best practices for designing the part which is easy to manufacture.

 

 

 

Lucid manner of delivery, interactive session, chalk and talk method, organized course curriculum, regular recap session, test at the end of the program and classroom exercises coupled with knowledge sharing on other design parallels was very well acknowledged by the participants. Some of the comments by participants:

 

 

1. Very effective and useful. We got knowledge about proper and perfect assembly. This training is very effective for designers. So all must get the opportunity to attend this.
2. Excellent. Thanks to improve my imagination power of assembly and manufacturing process.
3. Good. I will recommend to more and more engineers. Managed well within time
4. The training given today was very helpful considering product (new) design. As the literature is good. NS's (sir) experience and presenting skills along with his in depth knowledge has made the session very interesting.

 

 

The program was a huge success and it instilled great degree of confidence in the Designers and it also was a high potential cost saving for the company. As a result of these success stories, SSA is being roped-in for many other different training programs in the company.

 

 

Source: http://www.ssa-solutions.com/knowledge-network/news-article.php?main_id=24

24-SEP-11
NC presents @ Bedekar College, Thane to a full house on the subject of 'Self Esteem'. His candour and an animated presentation style had the students glued to their seats. The young students walked away a little more confident on the conclusion of the seminar.

Source: http://www.ssa-solutions.com/knowledge-network/news-article.php?main_id=20

21-SEP-11

SSA Business Solutions Pvt Ltd. has an amazing close of Wave-1 Six Sigma deployment at one of India's leading electrical technology and solutions provider with spectacular results. It is a 1000 Crore electrical engineering company, which manufactures transformers, transmission towers and energy meters at 4 locations in India.

 

 

 

The close out ceremony was attended by their chairman and he expressed his delight about the engagement of their people and the outstanding results the projects have achieved. The highlights of the achievements are:

 

 

• 100% compliance to the project plan and timely completion.
• All 4 projects chosen were strategic in nature and the teams have achieved breakthrough results.
• The culture for continuous improvement was created in the mindset of employees at all levels.
• The Chairman appreciated SSA’s partnership model and called for a association roadmap, as a next step.

 

 

Following were identified as the key pain areas and adapted as four to-do projects:

 

1. Reduction in welding defects & Geometrical errors causing Customer Complaints
2. Reduction in cycle time for dispatch of transformer & accessories after Customer Inspection
   
3. Productivity Improvement - Rationalization of welding days in tank manufacturing cycle time of 160 MVA tank.
4. Reduction in Engineering Design through put time for 1st submission of Customer Drawings

 

 

Mr. Vijay Dhonde, Sr.VP-Operations, led Team SSA and brilliantly executed the entire project from start to finish with his unquestionable commitment and leadership, thus validating SSA once again as the most trusted partner.

 

 

RESULTS ACHIEVED

 

 

The results achieved for each of the problem areas were noteworthy; and are listed as below:

1. Welding rework reduced by 37% where as geometrical rework reduced by 25%. The production cycle time also came down due to reduced rework.
2. Average no. of days taken for dispatch works from the date of Customer Inspection was 18, which came down to 12 days after improvements. Dispatch of accessories took an average of 3.32 days but after improvement it took 0.97days.
   
3. Tag welding process improved by 5 days, Full welding process is improved by 2 days, entire process cycle of tag welding from start to full welding improved by 7 days and MT/Employee/Month improved by 31% as compared to the past.
4. No. Of Days Taken for 1st Submission of Customer drawings: Before Improvement Avg. 34 Days and After Improvement Avg. 11 Days.
   While DPMO before improvement was 924560 & corresponding Sigma Value was 0.1.,DPMO after improvement was 247670 & corresponding Sigma Value was2.15.

 

 

CONCLUSION

Additional profitability with breakthrough improvements (and without additional investment) was made possible through RDMAIC Approach, proper alignment of People and Processes was made with SSA’s constant guidance.

 

Source: http://www.ssa-solutions.com/knowledge-network/news-article.php?main_id=19