The Hindu Business Line : Maruti saves over Rs 66 cr from employee suggestions

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Maruti received and acted upon 1,08,885 suggestions, a 29% rise in the number of suggestions over those received the previous year, yielding a 30 per cent increase in savings over the same period.

Alka Kshirsagar

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Pune, May 9 Maruti Suzuki Ltd has saved a net amount of Rs 66.5 crore during the 2007-08 fiscal by implementing suggestions made by employees to cut down on wastage in the manufacturing process, making it one of Corporate India’s top achievers on this count, according to the Indian National Suggestions Scheme Association (INSSAN).

During the year, MSL received and acted upon 1,08,885 suggestions, a spokesperson for the company revealed. This indicates a 29 per cent rise in the number of suggestions over those received the previous year, yielding a 30 per cent increase in savings over the same time. The net savings during the 06-07 fiscal was Rs 50.9 crore.

“We encourage all employees to develop the kaizen (improvement) attitude,” Mr S. Y. Siddiqui, Managing Executive Officer, MSL, told Business Line. “In addition to induction of new employees to kaizen, existing employees get a refresher course, while we also impart training on how to implement kaizen,” he said, adding that the across the board participation from shop-floor workers, blue collared as well as management staff had increased substantially over the last two years.

Making a difference

On the kind of suggestions received, Mr Siddiqui said, “It is not a huge suggestion that will change the fortunes of the company. They are small improvements over existing processes. It could be as small as changing the position of the bins by the side of the assembly line. If movement can be saved even by a few seconds, it can make a huge difference. The accumulated gains in terms of time, manpower, first time quality check etc can be very large.”

According to Mr V. K. Srivastava, General Secretary, North India chapter of Mumbai-headquartered INSSAN, in addition to MSL, the top achievers in the country for savings through employee suggestions, included Tata Motors (Lucknow), BHEL Haridwar and NTPC.

MSL employee strength which was 4,925 at the end of March 2007 has grown to 6,500 a year on. The average number of suggestions (to improve productivity, cut costs and remove wastages from respective work areas) an employee was 26, which is marginally up from 24.19 in the previous fiscal.

All those who make suggestions are acknowledged every month, their ideas are evaluated and the top 100 are rewarded, with the first three getting Rs 5,000, Rs 3,000 and Rs 2000 respectively, and the others getting Rs 500 each.

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