Wipro Taking A Page From Toyota's Playbook

[idlisambar]

Wipro and other Indian info-tech companies are boosting efficiency by emulating the Japanese carmaker

A year ago, executives of Wipro Ltd. (WIT ) got a glimpse inside a Toyota (TM ) assembly plant. During a guided tour of the factory that produces Corollas near their headquarters in Bangalore, India, Wipro execs hoped to pick up fresh ideas for their businesses of developing software and handling clients' back-office operations.
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Today, Wipro's paperwork processing operations in Bangalore, Pune, and Chennai bear an uncanny resemblance to a Toyota plant. Day and night, thousands of eager young men and women line up at long rows of tables modeled on an assembly line. Signs hanging over each aisle describe what process is being handled there -- accounts receivable, travel and entertainment, and so on. Team leaders such as P.V. Priya, who oversees medical claims in Bangalore, set goals with their colleagues at the beginning of each shift. Just like in a Toyota factory, electronic displays mounted on the walls will shift from green to red if things bog down.
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The results are coming in. Since the program started, the group has improved productivity by 43% and reduced the percentage of transactions that had to be redone from 18% to 2%. Customers are reaping rewards, too. Look at E-OPS, a Miami startup. On June 14 it announced the country's first round-the-clock paperless mortgage-processing service. E-OPS had just six employees on Day One, and they focused solely on marketing. "It's amazing that you can run a national company with just a handful of employees, and Wipro does the rest," says E-OPS Chief Executive Joseph Machado.

Indeed, Wipro's paperwork-handling operations run with factorylike efficiency. There are two shifts -- 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and 6 p.m to 3 a.m. When each shift starts, the teams, which are organized by process categories, gather with their team leaders for 10 minutes to discuss the day's goals and divide up tasks accordingly. Then they scatter to their desks.

[doubleplusgood]

1. link ? n/t

[idlisambar]

2. whoops, here it is

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_34/b3948443.htm