10 Feb We are going Digital

Catalydd is always one step ahead in its business offerings. Now we are going digital in our services. As a first step we have digitized our data management of inspection services.

The problems it solves

• Having Data Centralized at one location
• Data Modification/Changes once entered no possible In Forwards
• Dependency For Data Availability eliminated, data available in ne log in.
• Accountability Of “Efficiency” In the Inspection Process
• Complete visibility of “Consolidated Inspection Data” For Satellite Locations
•  “Process Mapping to The Defects “Through the Inspection Data
• Drastic reduction in Time and Human Effort for Analyzing Data on Different Parameters
• “Inspected OK part’s Data available on tips.

𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐅𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬

• Data entry through Mobile app/web browsing
• Offline data entry on the mobile app or through templates (scan and upload)
• Online PPAP documents / deviation / SOP / WI / 8D report submission and approval
• Capture defective part images
• First Time Right and reworked parts data can be seen separately
• Customization of reports
• You can also install at the supplier end to have better control on quality & quantity

20 Dec Why Having and Following Organization Structure is Essential

Why Having and Following Organization Structure is Essential

Don’t get surprised to know that, out of total industrial units in India, 90% are SMEs, with the whooping employment they are generating of around 100 million, which clearly indicates their contribution to the Indian economy.

In our engineering & consulting divisions, we come across many SMEs and yes some large organizations also, as customers. Specifically in consulting we have a few customers, whom we are guiding for business transformation. Through this experience and my past 27 years of experience, where we use to deal with the SME sector as a customer, one problem I have observed that

• “Organization structure” either does not exist, or
• it exists but it’s not followed or it’s not working.

When I try to discuss with the owners/senior management, they either do not believe or do not know the benefits of having a structured organization, let it be of 20-30 employees or 100—200 employees.

The negative impact of this is

• Owners or Senior managers are overloaded, so not able to work for development or the future.
• Owners or senior managers become constrained and most of the things get delayed at their end.
• High attrition rate and attracting talent is a big challenge for them.
• Middle or junior level team is always confused and demotivated and they always look for opportunities in MNCs or large organizations

We can completely understand the challenges of the SME sector, where cost pressures are huge, as comparative competition is enormous, but this same sector has issues on manpower retention, attracting talent, unclear working environment. To curb all these issues, the most important step is to establish a structured organization.

Many of the entrepreneurs feel that establishing a structured organization will lead to working in Silos and then they lose flexibility, which is essential in the SME sector. But, this is quite the wrong impression. Having a structured organization is nothing but to have an SOP for “Quality management”, “Write what we do and do what we write”.

One can have multiple responsibilities, and those can be defined in the organization structure. For example, a “Commercial officer”, can handle, admin, purchase,  finance, and can have MULTIPLE responsibilities clearly defined/delegated, but cannot have INFINITE  responsibilities undefined.

You can start with the Flat organization structure, where you can finish the structure in min 1 or max 3 levels, and as the business grows, the levels can be increased, the matrix can be implemented.

Another problem we see is, though the structure is defined, it’s not followed, either by senior management or by owners themselves. I interact with many mid/junior employees, who leave such organizations because, they do not know who is their boss and every SO-CALLED boss, expects them to perform in a different way (this is the scenario even in large businesses ).

So once we define the structure, it is essential that there has to be clarity, of who is whose Manager and this needs to be followed, especially when it comes to giving instructions.

One more problem, we see generally, that structure is in place, team members know their responsibility, but they are not EMPOWERED  to make decisions. We should not forget that, RESPONSIBILITY comes with the AUTHORITY, somebody TRUSTED US and gave AUTHORITY and that’s why we could GROW, we need to follow the same for our TEAM.

Author: Dr.Sagar Kulkarni

PS: This Article is written based on his real-life experiences while leading various organizations and now while consulting for SME sector

15 Nov Quality Assurance Outsourcing: The new Mantra for Being Quality Leader in The Industry

Quality Assurance Outsourcing: The new Mantra for Being Quality Leader in The Industry

The existence of Quality Management Systems has traces since the early years of the 19th century. Over the period of time Quality control has evolved dramatically and now at a broader level, we see it has two aspects, Quality control, and Quality assurance.

We strongly believe that Quality control is not “somebody else’s ” function, but the one who produces must ensure Quality control. This ultimately means the production department must take care of the Quality of the product they are producing.

Quality Control is not an impulsive process and it follows a lot of rules, procedures, standards, methods and the basket of all this constitutes “Quality Management Systems”, the function which keeps doing “Process Audit” of the Quality Control function and keeps mapping the adherence of procedures to the standards, under the umbrella of “Quality Assurance”.

 But Quality assurance is an “Audit” function and we know that the process owner, cannot be the Process Auditor, and hence the development of the separate Quality function, Quality Assurance, evolved, in the process of the Industrial revolution.

 By now most of the industries have separated Quality control and Quality assurance function, but the effectiveness is still missing, as both are controlled by the Same “Business operations”. Many businesses have kept reporting of the Quality Assurance function to the senior management, most of the time to the plant heads and in some cases to the CEOs. But these big positions are many times busy with strategic issues and then Quality assurance gets ignored or compromised.

Nobody in the organization deviates Quality Control process or for that matter any standard processes intentionally, but most of the time due to the business environment, customer pressures, missing resources, the Quality Control function is compromised, even with the presence of Quality Assurance function.

 This is where Catalydd Engineering, comes into the picture, where we take over the Quality Assurance function in your business and the function reports to our “project manager “and our “project manager” reports to the senior functions in your business.

What do we do?

1)we constantly conduct a “Process Audit” of your processes to ensure that, in the event of production pressure or missing resources, the Quality Control function is not compromised

 2)we periodically audit your procedures, formats and keep them updated with the latest version of the standard and latest processes changes.

 3)We track layered process audits and create a platform, where all deviations/abnormalities are discussed and closed with permanent actions.

 4)We also audit your Feasibility studies, PPAPs, APQP, FMEAs to ensure that all procedures are followed with the intentions for which those are designed and actions are in process.

 5)We also “Audit “the “Training” process, where either the existing or the new team members are constantly “Trained” to deliver “Quality Controlled” products 

 6)We also “Audit” the “Process” of recording, monitoring, and managing the Cost of Poor Quality.

Catalydd is very strong in managing Quality Assurance function and our experience with our customers tells us that, outsourcing of Quality Assurance function is giving, huge benefits to the Industry. In the elusive environment of Cost-saving, this may initially look like a little extra cost, but the return on the invested extra cost is very quick, and long-term benefits are incomparable.

 For Small and medium-sized businesses, we take over the entire “Quality” department, to ensure that the knowledge, performance, and resources gaps are taken care effectively.

Your business is to Develop and Sale the products in the most efficient way, our business is to help you to focus on that, without worrying about the “Quality” part of it.

Article Written By- Dr. Sagar Kulkarni

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sagarkulkarni1972

21 Oct How to Win the Job Interview

How to Win the Job Interview

There might be various categories in which interviews are conducted, but I basically see two types Formal & informal. Formal interviews are those where everything is structured, such interviews generally happen for big corporations or for highly technical positions and informal are the ones in which the structure is not fixed and generally the method of the interview depends on the person who is conducting it.

Irrespective of the type, the preparation has to be the same. I would like to share a few tips here, which might help the candidates and the industry.

1) Confidence: This is the one thing that every candidate must carry with them, irrespective of anything. Be confident, you are on a sales call, selling your those skills, about which if you are not confident, then how you can expect others to be?

2) Dressing & related: No matter what you are and in what situation you are attending the interview, your attire has to be very professional /formal. Different seasons bring different challenges to reaching the interview place, but we need to be prepared for facing any abnormalities and still reaching well dressed. If you are carrying some season protectives (raincoat, winter jacket, umbrella), make sure you do not carry them inside the interview office or conference room. If you have an office bag that is not very organized, just carry interview-related documents inside and leave the rest outside. If you are on a digital interview, make sure you are well dressed, in the proper environment, with good internet connectivity, headphones, and proper positioning of the phone or laptop.

3) Interview preparation: Every candidate carries some experience either from education (for fresher) or from a job if you are already working. Map your experience to the interview beforehand and make a script of what you would like to present and what relevant questions you may face. For experienced candidates, it is a must that at least about your current job, you must know almost everything about your company. Basic info like where the company is headquartered, what are product lines, customer base .at least whatever is available on the website. For a technical interview, you must thoroughly prepare the subject in which you are supposed to be an expert.

4) Info about the job and the company: It is very essential that you should know the company where you are being interviewed, so study the website beforehand. You must know the JD /profile for which you are being interviewed and map your skills to those requirements, as the interviewer will continuously map you against the profile for which you are being interviewed.

5) Info about self: This is quite surprising that 90% of the candidates do not know about themselves …yes, it’s shocking. Self-information is not information about your family, but it is about you. Your strengths, weaknesses, hobbies, why you selected your last job, your current profile or particular organization to work, or education of which you have a degree or sports you play. This is not only important for the interview, but otherwise, also this is very essential for any individual to introspect “why they exist the way they are”.

6) Finding the info about the interviewer: Most candidates do not care about who is going to interview them, but if you know it in advance and if you get a chance to study the linked in profile of the person it helps you to prepare yourself. If HR is going to interview, the questions will be more on the person and personal traits, if the functional head is going to interview the questions will be more technical

7) Facing the interview itself:

a) Be very patient and careful in listening to the questions and understanding those, do not listen to what you want, but listen to what is being said. If you do not understand, Ask, but do not answer assumed questions.

b) Try to read the person quickly who is interviewing you, as that is going to set the tone of the interview. Many interviewers like detailed answers or explanations, they are talkative, and they do interviews in an informal way. Here you need to be a little relaxed and pour the information as much you can. Some interviewers, like to be “to the point” and “objective”, here you need to be very specific and short. You need to learn the body language/facial expressions of the interviewer very quickly and based on that, change the way you are explaining each question. For some questions, you need to be quick for some elaborative.

c) DO NOT give examples unless you are asked to give them.

d) Be honest in accepting, if you do not know the answer, instead of camouflaging the wrong answer

e) Do not compromise on self-respect, and politely give it back, if some questions are offensive ..it could be a test to check your self-worth or otherwise a wrong guy conducting the interview.

f) Do not share the information of your current organization, which is not available in the public domain to impress the interviewer ..this could be a trick to check your integrity or you are being interviewed by a competitor just to get the information ..a professional interviewer will never expect confidential information about your current organization, though he may ask for same.

g) Very few interviewers give chance to ask questions to the candidate, so if you get this opportunity or otherwise also, keep your set of logical questions ready. It shows your interest in the interview/organization and also it helps to know your prospective employer better.

h) Even if you are giving an interview, not for getting the job but just to check your market value, do not show a casual approach ..the word of mouth spreads very fast.

Finally, be honest, sincere, and smart while facing an interview, you never know which interview will change your life. I am not the final expert in the field, but these tips are based on thousands of interviews I have conducted and few I have faced and I feel these tips will surely help the young generation who is trying to build their career, and eventually it will help the industry also.

SK

14 Sep 7 Step Thinking for problem solving… A leadership way.

MSEM Focused::
7 Step Thinking for problem-solving… A leadership way.

Huh …who takes 7 steps just for thinking? The problem is serious and needs to be quickly solved. It’s a very simple process, understand the problem and solve it. yes, that’s what we hear always, right?

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple, especially when it comes to business. Many surveys say that 50% of the problems in the business are not solved either on time or the way they are expected to be solved. Just because, the problems were either not understood correctly or analyzed correctly.

That is the reason 7-step thinking for problem-solving came in to picture .7 step thinking essentially, defines how should we communicate, understand, present, analyze and solve any problem.

Maybe not every time we need all 7 steps, but a few of them are required always. Let’s have a look at those 7 steps

1) Define the Present: When you have a problem, the most critical part is o define, what happening NOW, what’s the scenario NOW? If we can do this correctly 50% success is achieved in solving the problem. (How, Why ..through measurables )

2) Define the Expected Future: In engineering problems, it is easy to dine this step, as what is expected is generally crystal clear, but in other fields, this step could be very subjective, as the end result is expected in different forms by different people, even for the same problem.
(What… through measurables )

3) Define the problem: The gap between the expected future and present scenario is generally the problem. Again, this a difficult step, as many times the expected future and current scenario, are not measurable figures (though, we should try to make them measurable, as much as possible)

4) What can affect, the expected future or actions we will take to achieve the expected future: We all generally forget this step, as we consider that, the variables, we have considered now, will always remain the same, during the process of, implementing the actions to solve the problem, but generally, it’s not like that.

5) Alternate solution, with the evaluation of each alternative: For solving the same problem, we may times have alternatives and if we do not, then we should force ourselves to check the alternatives. Then we should evaluate all the alternatives. For strategic problems, we must make a business plan or commercial impact analysis for each alternative.

6) Take a decision and justify it: Based on steps 4 & 5, we should decide on the best alternative to solve the problem and countercheck, if it actually solves the problem.

7) Define action plan matrix: We generally end up writing the action plan, but what we need is a solid action plan matrix, which takes care of which action, who will be responsible, when, what support is required, what resources required, what should be reporting mechanism, how much budget, what should be review frequency, etc.

Imagine, such a systematic & logical way of solving the problem, and do you see a possibility of not being able to solve any problem?

Unfortunately, If it’s still yes, get in touch with our experts at sales@catalydd.com

09 Aug Challenges of #Electric Bikes manufacturers and #Catalydd offerings

Anytime you google “challenges faced by #EV industry In #India “you will get a series of links to understand the issues, but most of those are related to the infrastructure, a life of a battery, fast charging, etc…so ultimately everything related to the actual use of the #EVS.

When we spoke to a few #EV manufacturers, especially in the #twowheeler segment and NON OEMS ..the one who has entered to mobility business first time through #EVs..the challenges seem to be different.

After analyzing this market for quite some time, our analysis says that going forward, there is likely to be more LEMS “Local Electric Mobility Solutions” in the #EV segment, especially in the #twowheeler #mobility segment.

What is LEMS and what are the challenges for the manufacturers, these are something we are going to talk about.

As the technology is shifting from IC Engines to #electricmotor ..major change coming up, in #twowheeler #Electricalvehicle Industry is, there are now local solutions available, which means non-conventional manufacturers are getting in #twowheeler #Electricalvehicle Industry. The names you never heard of are now rising stars in the two-wheelers #Electricalvehicle Industry and also, and they are capturing the market very fast, they are innovative, flexible, and adaptive to changes.

Though these non-conventional manufacturers are the talk of the day, they have many challenges, and those challenges are not talked about openly, for various reasons of confidentiality, unavailability of the right platform et.

One of the biggest challenges we heard, about is adopting the quality norms in manufacturing and developing the right quality of the parts at the right price and right time. It is really important to notice that all these non-conventional #twowheeler #Electricalvehicle manufacturers are competing against the conventional legends in the same industry, who has a very strong foothold in the #twowheeler industry for decades.

Many of the non -conventional manufacturers have hired employees in critical areas from conventional legends, but still, the results are not coming, either because, this is not enough or the legends have their own policies to counter …and poaching cannot be a long-term solution.

We at #Catalydd, are trying to help these LEMS providers, all those services with our strong foothold in the #Automotive industry. Let it be establishing processes, as per conventional #automotive standards, developing parts, establishing dealers’ networks or auditing dealers or sales channels or auditing #vehicles, or many other services in the field of #qualitymanagement of either process or parts.

#Catalydd training division is also equipped to provide, engineering training required for #employeedevelopment #employeegrooming.

If you are one of those Local #Electric Mobility Solutions providers and if you are facing these challenges, feel free to write us at sales@catalydd.com, we will do handholding with your team and ensure alignment of required quality standards at desired processes. We know you are The Experts of the subject, but we can be a catalyst to speed up your processes.

Sagar Kulkarni

14 Jul Love and Passion

“Don’t love your company, love your job”, is said by somebody sometime back …..I am not sure but many of the employees in most the organizations, got inspired because of this slogan and we can rarely see employees loving their companies….the result is long-term associations are missing.

I have been discussing with many CEOs, CHOs, COOs and most of them say, that it’s very difficult to find employees who love their company, who has passion to work for the company …most of the employees have different agendas to work for any company. In recent surveys, it was an effort to find out, how many employees really express love for their company …and no wonder hardly 10-15% spoke about it.

Somebody works for just money, somebody works for position, facilities, Somebody works for distance from house, Somebody works as there is no other option available, Somebody works as there is a freedom to misuse facilities, Somebody works for good career growth, good brand. But rarely somebody loves the company they work for.

This is actually creating problems for many company managements to get desired or optimum output. As there is no love and passion, everything is happening by follow up or demand. “this is not in my profile ”  “I have never done this before ” “what do I get if I do this ”….kind of statements are now often heard. Every company has become a stepping stone to look for better company and “that so called better” company does not exists.

If I grow, I am not happy as finally I am not compensated   …if my salary is good I am not happy because I don’t see my future path clearly if everything is good, there is too much of stress ……there are reasons being found to not to love company and for not being passionate.

I feel unless we don’t love the work place where we work and unless we don’t have passion to work …we cannot love our job and we cannot deliver what is expected. We spend almost half of our time in our work place and if we don’t love that or if we cannot love that …we cannot love anybody. We are expanding on global horizon, new companies are setting up their units in India, many job opportunities are open …but if we don’t love the company where we work and if we don’t deliver the best …I am doubtful about the future of these new set ups as well the future of existing set ups.

As there are efforts to bring new businesses and investments, I feel government, education institutions, HR forums, and business schools should put efforts to bring that love and passion in the citizens, who finally run these business.

If not today this could be a serious problem for tomorrow …jumping jacks are successful only in movies and not in business life ….hope we understand this soon.

14 Jul Succession planning: The need of the Hour

I was recently reading news about ADMK Tamilnadu based political party…story after death of legendary Leader Jayalalithaa…and a storm of thoughts survived in my mind for long period. I started finding similar examples …what happened to Infosys after Narayanmurthy..TATAs after Ratan TATA…Shivsena after Balasaheb ..Ambani group after Dhirubhai….Congress after Indira Gandhi…I can list many more but..to touch the topic, these are enough.

The names of all the people I took above are supposed to be the great leader or they are known as great leaders ….but then what went wrong with all of them in delivering basic & very important requirements of being a Leader, and developing their successor.

We all know that “Leader develops successors and Boss develops followers” .. And its fundamental truth of life let it be personal or professional or political.

The examples of organizations where leaders had to come back after retirement are well known, but not all organizations are lucky like this and they fall apart.

When we all know that it is very important to have a succession plan and it’s very important to work on creating future leaders now…Why many organizations fail on this?

Most of the time the reason for not having a successor even worth a succession plan in place is ..

1)     The leader feels, he will live 100 years guaranteed so it’s too early to think of a successor

2)     or The leader fears to lose control on the organization by indicating that there is/ will be a successor and it’s not only ME ME& ME

3)      or the leader is scared of making other contenders in the race unhappy by indicating who is the successor  and fear of not able to manage that situation

4)     or the leaders do not have quality of developing a successor by being, in a mentor role at the same time when they are in the leadership role. (succession planning process absent)

A Survey of such top 50 organizations (corporates, political parties, spiritual organizations) across the world who failed on succession, dominantly shows the above reasons. Strange but true, as we expect some complex reasons behind such failures, whereas the reasons are pretty simple …human behavior or nature.

Many organizations are suffering because of a lack of proper/Real succession planning, the leaders and HR departments have to take this seriously, as this is not only affecting the stake holders but also the employees.

The process:

I remember meeting a Chairman of a big group who was the owner of the business and was out of the business at the age of 70 and handed over the business to a guy, who has been working for him for the last 15-20 years.

He told me that the process of succession started while he was 55-57 (or might be a little early) and it took him good 2 years to select the top 2 employees who he & the board felt can succeed him. While he initiated the process of his succession planning, he made sure that the succession planning of all the levels below also starts ….to the level of department head. At the age of 65, he clearly indicated who is his successor and promoted him to the CEO of the company and at the age of 70 he promoted as chairman and CEO and he himself got out of the business. During this process, the same progression was happening down the level….what a systematic approach to succession…nobody even realized that there was a changeover.

It looks simple and quick, but there is a big process behind it and more than process the determination to have future leaders …

The moral is, we need to focus on succession planning with the real intention of developing leaders. This will not only develop the future leaders, but this will also change the culture of the organization today and will make it more positive and motivating, as this will open doors of future growth to many& and it protects the interest of stakeholders too.

It’s worth repeating ……… the real leadership is in developing successors and not the Followers…

14 Jul Creating Leaders Within…

“We need a new trainee, the old one has became CEO”………..This was a tag line of a brilliant advertise by one company for job openings. Really motivating for the employees already working with them and for the ones who want to join them. But today the reality is different. In the race of growing more than the market or more than the competition and having aggressive targets, the HUMAN factor of the business is missing and it has just left into talks and jargons.

In the so-called cutting-edge technology world, hardly a few companies are doing research work on developing human resources and training them so hard that, the company creates leaders, who create a bright future for the company…..

More than 60% of companies still hire CEOs or senior positions from the market, simply because they do not have the time, method, and knowledge to create leaders or CEOs inside the company.

Forget about creating leaders, Tower Watson survey says that 91% of companies struggle to attract talent and 75% of the companies find it difficult to retain the talent…nurturing the talent further and creating leaders is still like a dream to most companies.

In the race of growing more than the market or competition, we have forgotten that we need to help grow our employees also, beyond market skills & beyond competition skills. We have forgotten that our employees who have been working with us for so many years, have the knowledge and skill to grow the company.

I recently met the CEO of the company and asked him the result of one consultant they have appointed recently, he was a little fussy in sharing it, but finally, he said, “not much, but they helped to develop communication with my employees and I could find huge talent inside the company to solve the problems we have and now I know why employees are leaving us”, strange but the truth.

It’s time to look back and check the reasons, why till the late 90s the average employee retention used to be 10-14 years has gone down to 5-7 years ..The growing market is not the only reason. Somewhere we have lost the balance between growth and race, which is forcing us to focus only of the Money part of the business and the Human part is straight away ignored.

The simple method of business which we have been following in the past needs to be readopted …may be as it is and without much dissection through so-called market experts.

 Creating a healthy work environment,

Giving future growth paths to employees,

Extensive Training,

Recruiting the right candidates for the right job,

Avoiding excess stress in the work environment (stress management is a stupid word …We should work on creating an environment which will not create stress, why should we learn to manage something which is harmful?),

Reviewing packages and benefits frequently …

And most importantly, creating a work culture where the human aspect remains on priority and profit/growth becomes a byproduct …these could be some ways to create leaders/CEOs inside and not run in the market for them.

Employees are not only the resource but they are the soul of the business, the day we learn this …that day we start creating leaders and CEOs inside the organization …

Everybody should have a chance to be the CEO of the company…Lets give it to them.

I am not the master of the subject, though has done a lot of study on the same and these are my personal opinions, with no intention to pinpoint any particular management style.

18 Jun Leadership In Personal Branding

Leadership In Personal Branding

I have been trying to study and share the philosophy of Branding …how Leaders develop a Personal Brand.

Irrespective of the product you are selling in the market or the ideas you are selling to your team …Personal Branding comes on priority …the way I understood.

Tata products are perceived by the Brand Ratan Tata(only simplicity and trust come in the mind ) , and Kingfisher is perceived by the Brand Mallya (only calendar girls and Beer come in the mind )that’s the Personal Brand value.

A brand is nothing but an Intersection of Perception and Reality . It’s the point, where what a Brand/ Leader tries to show as what he is and what he is actually ..meets up.

How a Leader creates Personal Brand?

1)Embrace your identity:

Let the people know, who you are and what you can bring to the table . Leaders are always direct, simple, and understandable.

2)Create perceivable value for others.

For a Leader, it’s important to create a brand, what others can actually perceive, and not only what the Leader feels is the best.

3)Grow yourself beyond money-making business.

Leaders are never only transactional. They try to reach out to people, also for sharing, serving, and learning rather than just earning.

4)Leaders Walk the Talk and Leaders Talk the Walk:

People do crosscheck the “Values of the Brand” leaders are projecting.

Leaders never go noticeably away, from reality while portraying the brand ..though some window dressing, is a part of the brand building process.

This is not all, to create a successful Leadership /Personal Brand ..but these are foundation principles which Leaders follow.