STL won the “Best-In-Class Cross-Functional Teamwork Project” award, at the 12th edition of the Express Logistics and Supply Chain Conclave, held on October 4, 2018, in Mumbai.

For a particular raw material, the entire cabling industry was dependent on foreign imports owing to the absence of Indian suppliers, low availability and high TCO. The objective of the project was to re-engineer the recipe and process for this key raw material, utilising only Indian resources, ensuring zero investment, timely delivery, and high quality of performance.

STL’s supply chain team led the initiative with the specific PDCA approach. A cross-functional team consisting of internal departments like Quality, Design, Production, Process; external team 3 suppliers, and Subject Matter Experts. The teams utilized the Stage-gate model, brainstorming approaches, Ishikawa diagrams, root cause analysis, and multi-stage trials during the project. The biggest challenge was keeping performance consistency despite parameters changes, as all the steps in the overall process were interlinked. However, with persistence, the team could eventually achieve their goal with complete precision.

The successful outcome of these efforts has now led to the high quality manufacturing of the raw material within national boundaries with abundant supply, and an end to the monopoly of foreign suppliers. Reduction of time and elimination of custom-duty are further added advantages.