Priority projects:

Projects having major opportunities for improvement impacting the company's performance towards achieving the goal of EVA+ will be categorized as priority projects. Every department will have to identify their set of priority projects. Black Belts or Green Belts will take up these projects. These projects will be time bound with specific targets and will be reviewed rigorously at different levels. Such ASPIRE Projects will follow the Define-Measure-Analyse-Improve-Control (DMAIC) methodology.

Though it is very important to follow the rigor of DMAIC, it is not mandatory to use any specific tool for any specific step. Selection of any tool at any phase should be based on its applicability, for which the trained facilitators like Green belts, Black Belts and Master Black belts provide necessary support.

ASPIRE Projects for Black Belts:

Priority project with high criticality, complexity, spread and impact can be taken up by a Black Belt. The main responsibility of driving these projects will lie with the Black Belt and should be completed within a time-frame of 4 to 6 months.

ASPIRE Projects for Green Belts:

All other priority projects will be handled by Green Belts. The main responsibility of driving these projects will lie with one of the Green Belts of the department and should be completed within a time-frame of 3 to 4 months.

Self Initiated ASPIRE Projects:

All employees have the right to initiate their own project, even if they are not on the priority list of the division, such projects will be called self initiated projects. These projects may or may not follow DMAIC rigor.

ASPIRE HIGHLIGHTS

ASPIRE program has completed 3 years in the month of May 2006. In these 3 years there have been different achievements by application of various elements of the program. These have been in the form of TPM, Suggestions, Knowledge Management, Supplier Value Management, DMAIC based Black Belt and Green Belt projects, Self Initiated projects and more recently the Theory of Constraints.

Under ASPIRE program we adopted DMAIC methodology as one of the key methodology for problem solving through Black Belt and Green Belt projects, with emphasis on data based rigor in analysis.

In 2004-05, a total of 326 Black Belt and Green Belt projects have been completed. During the same period more than 3000 Self Initiated project have also been successfully implemented. All these projects have contributed significantly to the bottomline of the company.

Since the inception of the program more than 650 Black Belt & Green Belt projects and more than 7000 Self Initiated projects have been completed. Around 600 live Black projects are still in progress in different divisions.