Candida Moraes

With a work ethic that strives for excellence and a business strategy focused on process improvements, Tata Metaliks has achieved multiple targets and won plenty of accolades

If there is one holistic factor that can be the principal reason for Tata Metaliks’ (TML) growth and high performance in the past few years, it would have to be the company’s work environment. Set up in 1994 to produce pig iron, TML is reaching for the Rs1,000-crore turnover benchmark. Additionally, it has a slew of awards and industry distinctions under its metallic belt.

TML’s management attributes the company’s achievements to more than successful operational processes and practices; they point to congenial and healthy work atmosphere at the company’s plants and corporate offices. “We train and encourage our workers to be multi-skilled in all the processes, which make them capable of handling more responsibilities,” explains managing director Harsh Jha.

Achieving the extraordinary is a way of life at TML. In 1994, when the company decided to produce iron at its Kharagpur, West Bengal, facility, it had no previous experience. Over the years, TMLians mastered the art and science of iron making to the extent that the company grew from a fledgling Rs80-crore-a-year to being a Rs800-crore player. “We have the potential to stay ahead of the competition and that’s in tune with our vision of ‘reaching tomorrow first’,” says AK Mohanty, chief of human resources (corporate department) at TML.

TML’s units at Kharagpur and Redi (Maharashtra) will soon cross the Rs1,000-crore turnover mark following a proposed capacity enhancement of 30 per cent in the near future. “Process improvements have helped in removing bottlenecks in many operational areas at both units,” adds Mohanty.

Talent management
One of the major operational practices put into place at TML involves talent development. Future leaders of the company are selected through a well-established performance management system and the talent review mechanism.

TML’s ‘business opportunity group’ has conceptualised two new business models — for casting and for DI pipe-making — and has made rapid progress in both. It has also set up a value-added business stream, Tata Metaliks Kubota Pipes. “Our entire growth strategy has been made operational by in-house talent,” says Jha. “Besides, to keep pace with emerging realities of possible talent scarcity and to meet further growth aspirations as well as attrition, the company has planned to get fresh talent in key areas from campuses.”

To keep its work simple, TML organises its skilled and motivated workforce into teams, departments and task-oriented groups. “Until the early 2000s, our work and jobs were organised according to accepted industry practices. But today, we are progressively changing from ‘doing all activities ourselves’ to ‘reorganising to do core activities’ and outsourcing our non-core activities,” explains Mohanty. “Hence, our work system has gone through a series of ‘evaluation and improvement’ cycles, wherein we continue some practices and discontinue others.”

Flexible structures
In order to facilitate cooperation and empowerment, each team is responsible for its own scheduling and process improvement. The management of work is supported through a flexible matrix organisation structure.

The organisation structure has also been reviewed to meet changing business requirements. The structure has been flattened from 11 levels to four broad bands, making the hierarchy less visible and the organisation more agile. The company has also created two strategic business units — Kharagpur and Redi, and will shortly be setting up another, Castings — to tap new business opportunities in mergers and acquisitions, and castings.

TML believes that diversity is an asset and its selection process reflects this. The company sources new employees through campus visits, employee referrals, head hunters, advertisements and internet applications. “We believe diversity stimulates creativity, facilitates
problem-solving and provides better flexibility,” says Jha.

Challenge of growth
As the company grew, effective and timely communication became increasingly challenging. To address this, TML created a formal communication process last year. Training and education sessions, focus meetings, bulletin board postings, website postings and emails were targeted as modes of communication. A ‘communicator’ has been assigned responsibility for communication tasks.

Senior leaders focus on cross-functional interaction with regard to corporate goals and objectives. “Our knowledge dissemination process and the open-door communication culture of the senior leadership ensure communication across all our locations,” says Mohanty. Tata Metaliks follows a performance management system and has a reward-and-recognition practice. “By rewarding those who go beyond their day-to-day work patterns and take up higher responsibilities, we reinforce our value system,” he adds.

Safety and health are also crucial in the TML scheme of functioning. The company follows a clearly laid out environment, safety, health and quality policy. The approach on work environment is based on systems such as OHSMS, which are employed to maintain and improve matters on issues such as safety and ergonomics.

The year 2006-2007 brought unprecedented hurdles on the people front. “The main challenge was to populate the newly acquired Redi plant with enthusiastic and energetic fighters who would brave all odds to resuscitate and breathe new life into a dying plant,” says Jha. “The Kharagpur plant, too, faced a mammoth operational challenge. But TMLians rose to the challenge and succeeded.”

TML’s people policies have been a tremendous asset for the company, overcoming these and other challenges.

Uploaded in December 2007