Chennai: DGP Natraj fired up over Six Sigma

CHENNAI: The United States Army and Navy swear by them. Now the Tamil Nadu Fire and Rescue Services (TNFRS) has taken the first step towards implementing the ‘Six Sigma’, aimed at ushering “process excellence” at the workplace.

By organising a workshop for its senior officers on what was so far thought of as a predominantly business philosophy, TNFRS could easily be the first government agency in the country to take a positive step towards enforcing the highest standard of discipline in a vital wing of the police department.

“The concept aims both at qualitative and quantum improvement in performance by making optimum use of the available resources,” DGP (Fire and Rescue Services) K Natraj told Express on Wednesday. Emergency response being the main concern for the fire services, planning is essential to ensure the best possible way that the available resources can be deployed, he felt. “I may want the moon, but do I have the means,” Natraj said. “I have to make the best use of the available strength in the target area.” And the target areas may be the industrial suburbs of north Chennai, where there are some 20 industries like Manali petro-chemicals and Madras Fertilizers, or south Chennai dotted with high-rise buildings, shopping malls and IT firms. “The two require a different kind of emergency response,” the DGP said.

‘Six Sigma’ aims at eliminating wastage by streamlining the work process, said Hariharan Ganesan of MGBS Inc, the international consultancy service that conducted the workshop.

Dr Shree Nanguneri, CEO of MGBS Inc, was the main resource person at the interaction.

“In a lot of companies, employees do what is inspected and not what is expected,” Ganesan said. “If the process is right and monitored properly, then there won’t be any mistakes.” The workshop saw some 30 officers - from DGP, joint directors to station officers - discussing the constraints faced by the services in achieving process excellence. They pointed to traffic snarls, water shortage, getting cooperation of the public, narrow lanes and mechanical failure as major roadblocks. “Hence, the exercise does not end here,” Natraj said.

The next step is to find a solution to the fire fighters’ problems, Ganesan said. “We have collected the data. We will analyse them and engage the services of experts in finding solutions and then go back,” he added.