Quality

“Quality, like integrity, is not negotiable”. These were the words of Mr. Azim Premji when Wipro launched the Six Sigma initiatives in Dec 1996. It re-iterated the ruthless and uncompromising approach that the organization follows towards quality.

The Quality initiative in WCCLG and Lighting comes under an umbrella called “Mission Quality”. The word “Mission” is consciously introduced and repeatedly stressed upon, to communicate the missionary zeal that was required to achieve a paradigm shift in our approach to quality. The philosophy was to make quality everybody’s business – not just in products but in every aspect of work.

In WCCLG, customer centric Quality is embedded at all manufacturing and distribution facilities. At the operational level, building in a culture of Quality consciousness is realized through ISO certification for processes and product certification for critical products.

Six Sigma - Genesis

To remain competitive in a globalised economy it was necessary to work towards becoming a world-class organization. This was the genesis of the Six sigma initiative under the Mission Quality umbrella. Top performers from the business were handpicked and trained for the black belt role thereby laying the foundation for a transformed gene pool for future leaders. Today, the practice has evolved to a level where we are providing consultancy on Six Sigma to other major corporates in the country!

Six Sigma - Initiatives in WCCLG

Six sigma is a project-based initiative. Through this initiative we work towards “consistently meeting customer requirements” and “maximizing resource utilization”. Projects are taken up to address all critical business processes like Manufacturing, Product design, Product quality, Cost reduction, Customer satisfaction and Employee satisfaction. The success of these projects, gauged by real savings in cost and time has only strengthened our resolve to bring even more focus and rigour to six sigma in our businesses.

Different methodologies are used depending upon the project objectives. The methodologies themselves were retooled and continually improved to keep pace with changing business requirement.

What makes this initiative so successful is the fact that there is a close alignment between Six sigma and WCCLG Vision, Objectives and Critical business processes – so much so that a leader cannot achieve his business objectives without meeting six sigma goals.

Institutionalization of best practices flowing out of six sigma projects is done through the ISO frame work and sharing of best practices is done through the corporate quality council.

What started out as a one-black-belt-four-project initiative way back in 1997 has now grown to about 150 projects per year with twenty black belts. Over 400 projects have been done till date resulting in annual savings exceeding Rs. 50 mn.

We are now in the process of infusing further rigor into decision making processes by embedding statistical tools available in the six sigma basket to strengthen the very fabric of the business.