Synopsis: Communication For Productivity Letters written to some 7500 Workers / Managers / Union Leaders, following a period of strike / Go slow / Murders (1979 - 1987), at Mumbai factory of Larsen & Toubro Ltd. This direct / open / honest communication led to a remarkable atmosphere of trust between Workers and Management, which, in turn, increased productivity at 3% per year (ave).

31 July 1986

To:

Dear Friends                        

THE NEW ALPHABET

In  department  2305  (Press  Shop  on  the  ground  floor  of Switchgear East), Mr. Dilip  Shinde and his  85 co-workers are learning a new alphabet.

It goes A, B, C .........  

Except that, here :   

A =   ALWAYS  

B =   BETTER .

C =   CO-OPERATION.  

Who is teaching them this new alphabet ?

May be Mr.  R.S. Nehra - the Shop  Manager - who, himself, may have learnt this new alphabet from the film,

"People & Productivity: We learn from the Japanese".

Or may be  Dilip learnt it when he  visited MARUTI car factory alongwith me, a couple of years ago.

It  is  not  important  who  learnt  it  and  when.   What  is important is  that they  are practising  it I   Following note from Mr. Nehra is the proof :

"   Dear Mr. Parekh,

Press  Shop -  Powai East,  Dept.  2305 have  achieved higher  labour productivity  of  87%  which is  higher than budget of 86.25% fixed in 1984 agreement. It is consistently higher in the last 3 weeks. This is for your information.

R.S. Nehra

(20.7.86)

Congratulations, Dilip

Congratulations, Nehra

and convey my congratulations to all your colleagues.

You are  showing the way  to the  rest of us  in Powai  - like Tanaji  Malusare  showed  to  his  soldiers  while  conquering Sinh-gadh !

"Where one man  can go, a hundred  can go and where  a hundred can go, a thousand can follow".

Even when  you build a  building, you  first build the  ground floor and then the first floor and then the second floor.

So, I  am not surprised that in the  Switchgear-East factory, the ground-floor is FIRST.

But then the first floor can become  second .' - and a group of 13 workmen from the .second floor can become the "lucky" third if they too practice the new alphabet.   Last week, I met them and asked them to go beyond A, B, C, and learn D, E.

D   =   Double

E   =   Effort

In the meantime, I am waiting for some more letters.

H.C. PAREKH

Synopsis: Communication For Productivity Letters written to some 7500 Workers / Managers / Union Leaders, following a period of strike / Go slow / Murders (1979 - 1987), at Mumbai factory of Larsen & Toubro Ltd. This direct / open / honest communication led to a remarkable atmosphere of trust between Workers and Management, which, in turn, increased productivity at 3% per year (ave).

28 July 1986

To:

Dear Friends                 

ECONOMY (CO-OPERATION) DRIVE

While  I am  waiting  to be  flooded  with  suggestions  - and decisions -  I took the opportunity  to explain  the "why" and "how" of the  economy drive to  the Works Committee  - on 13th July.

WHY ?

A.  Our profitability has been  declining continuously for the     past few years.

HOW ?

By  increasing all-round  productivity, of  all  resources and inputs.

"Productvity is a Many-Splendoured Thing"

TARGET

1.  Profitability        (PBT   )                       =     to go up to 15%                     

Sales                           (from 7.7% in 84-85)

2.  Wage Bill_________(Powai + Madh)  =     to come down to 15%    

   Stores crediting(at Sales                                 (from 26.0% in 84-85    

Value ) - (Powai + Madh)

I have  distributed some charts/data  to members of  the Works Committee.    If  he   does  not   volunteer  to   share  this information  with you,  go and  ask  him  (during lunch-break-surely  you  do   not  wish  to  waste  one   minute  of  your "productive-time" !).

If you do not  know who represents your  department/section on the Works-Committee,, ask your Foreman/Supervisor.

In the meantime, I have already shown,  to some 50/60 foremen/ supervisors, a film called,

    "PEOPLE & PRODUCTIVITY: WE LEARN FROM THE  JAPANESE".

I will be showing it to the rest within the next 4 weeks.

An in  case you are willing  to stay-back after  working hours in order to  see this film, just phone  cynthia/Manju on extn. no.  497 and   give your  name,  P.S.   no., and  cost-cent re/ department.   As  soon as  I  have  received  20 names,  I  am willing to  show this film to you personally  and discuss with you what we can learn from the Japanese.

H.C. PAREKH

A NON-PRODUCTIVE MACHINE ?

Synopsis: Communication For Productivity Letters written to some 7500 Workers / Managers / Union Leaders, following a period of strike / Go slow / Murders (1979 - 1987), at Mumbai factory of Larsen & Toubro Ltd. This direct / open / honest communication led to a remarkable atmosphere of trust between Workers and Management, which, in turn, increased productivity at 3% per year (ave).

28 Jul 1986

To:

Dear Department-Head                  

A NON-PRODUCTIVE MACHINE ?

In  one corner  of the  worker's Lunch-room  (LR-3)  in Powai West, stands a box-like structure.   At first glance it looks like a  steel cabinet for storing  grains -  (what else could you store in a canteen?).

But a  closer look  reveals that  it has a  3' X  2' frosted-glass screen, with a slide-projector housed inside.

And, of all the things, it stores information !

On the 22nd of this month,  our Chairman, Mr. N.M. Desai came to my cabin and said,

"Let us go and have lunch in the worker's lunch-room today".

During lunch, I pointed out the slide-projector  to Mr. Desai and said, "During  lunch-period, we  propose  to  show  to the  diners, slides on

-    Productivity (always first on my list! )

-    Safety

-    Housekeeping

-    Absenteeism

-    Suggestion-Scheme,     etc. etc.

In brief, we propose using this machine  for sharing with our employees,  all  kinds of  information  about  the  company's operations.

This projector-machine  is going to  be the  chief instrument of  our  Project Information  Share,  because,  I believe  an informed  employee makes  a better  employee.   We will  soon have a similar machine  in Powai-East worker's lunch-room and next year install similar machines in LR - 2".

While appreciating  the  idea behind  the project,  Mr. Desai added,

" I agree.   Sharing information about the company is  a good idea, and using  lunch-break for this  purpose may also  be a good  idea but  how about  using your  machine  for a  little entertainment as well ?"

I had to agree that this was an even better idea !.                           

So next  day, I handed over. to Inder Sethi  (extn: 451), some colour-slides which  I had  brought  during my  last visit  to Europe and U.S.A.

With economy-drive  (and things to  follow !) we  must confine our sight-seeing to colour-slides at the lunch-table!

So  I  approach  you   with  a  request.   If  you   have  any information,  about  -your departmental  operations  that  you would like to  share with employees - at - large,  please rush it to me-in     the  form of tabulations,  graphs, pie-charts, etc.  We will  make a 35mm slide out of  it, mention your name on  the  slide   as  the  "Source"  and  display   it  on  our "information-machine".   Tell  us  about  the  positive-trends which you want accelerated,  and the negative trends which you want  reversed.  Give a  3/5 word message  to inscribe  on the slide.

And you are welcome to send your sight-seeing slides as well -(these, of course, we will return to you in due course).

An unproductive machine ?

H.C.  PAREKH

ECONOMY (CO-OPERATION) DRIVE - I

Synopsis: Communication For Productivity Letters written to some 7500 Workers / Managers / Union Leaders, following a period of strike / Go slow / Murders (1979 - 1987), at Mumbai factory of Larsen & Toubro Ltd. This direct / open / honest communication led to a remarkable atmosphere of trust between Workers and Management, which, in turn, increased productivity at 3% per year (ave).

July 21, 1986

To:

Dear Friends                 

ECONOMY (CO-OPERATION) DRIVE

The first salvo has been fired :

Decision	Aimed at
All recruitment stopped	- Better utilisation of existing manpower (employee-productivity must go up ! )
Stop giving Calendars/Diaries	- Reduce Cost
No more gift-articles	- Reduce Cost
No more greeting-cards (our good wishes are always with them ! )	- Reduce Cost
VPs/GMs to travel by Economy-class	- Reduce Cost
10% cut in car-mileage of Covenanted Staff	- Reduce Cost
Cut down use of -      Stationery -      Telex/Telephone -      Hired cars/office cars	- Reduce Cost
In Canteen -      Eliminate Overtime -      Eliminate Wastage -      Reduce variety/frequency -      Substitute expensive items (without reducing quality)	-      Increase employee- -      productivity        ) -       ) Reduce Cost        )
If you must travel, use transit-houses (instead of hotels)	- Reduce Cost

Decision	Aimed at
Reduce Seminars/Conferences	- Reduce Cost
Stop/Reduce purchase of "indirect or supportive Capital Assets"	- Reduce interest-burden (less money to be borrowed from banks)
Stop purchase of photocopying machines	- Reduce interest-burden
Substitute (proposed) magnetic card attendance equipment with cheaper electro-mechanical equipment	- Reduce interest-burden on borrowed funds
Use "Standard" furniture	- Reduce Cost
Use cheaper quality of paper in all -      publications -      printed forms -      stationery	- Reduce Cost
Cut down copies of newspapers/magazines	- Reduce Cost
Postpone aerial photo of Powai	- Reduce Cost
Switch-off fans/lights/ air-conditioners when not required	- Reduce Cost
Postpone IR study-visits to other companies	- Reduce Cost
Reduce lunches hosted at Lunch cottage	- Reduce Cost
Reduce water consumption by throttling	- Reduce Cost
Apply only one coat of paint to buildings (in place of two)	- Reduce Cost

This list is not the "end" - the battle has only begun!

In the meantime I welcome suggestions from employees on

-      Cost-reduction (without sacrificing desired quality! -  very important)

-      Productivity improvement.

And I request Supervisors and  Managers to encourage employees to come up  to them and share their suggestions  - so that the same are implemented even before they reach me '.

And I request managers to tell me what they have  implemented successfully  in their areas -  so that I  can give these  wide publicity through my letters.  May be others can  do likewise.

"Therefore, with  determination, get up  and fight  - 0 Arjun" (Gita).

Hemen Parekh