Three jobs at Sigma, and they are all the same job
Keep the Smart Factory moving, take the products to customers outside India, and make sure Sigma stays a company people want to work for. Everything below is what I am personally spending my weeks on.
Speaking at the MCCIA Industry 4.0 event, Pune.
Leading the transformation day to day
For the last decade I have led Sigma's Smart Factory work myself, and most of that work is about mindset rather than machines. From design to delivery, we are building one digital experience for everyone who touches Sigma: our own people first, then vendors, then customers.
- Daily improvement ideas from every employee, scored by a mentor
- Design, production and delivery on one set of numbers
- Technology chosen after the problem is understood, never before
Taking India's toolings to markets that do not know us yet
Sigma is India's largest manufacturer of specialised custom toolings. The next step is international. I am working on technology tie-ups, on a base of dealers and agents who are technically competent rather than just commercial, and on a value chain that can hold quality and delivery dates across borders.
- Technology partnerships that add capability, not just catalogue
- Dealers and agents who can talk to a customer's engineer
- A supply chain built for on-time delivery to export markets
Making the company hard to compare with
As Sigma grows in India and abroad, my job is to keep us clearly different from the competition. I want customers to expect more from us than they would from anyone else, and I want us capable enough to deliver on that expectation. This is ongoing work and my priority for the next two years.
How I lead
People before platforms
A dashboard nobody trusts is a screensaver. We change how decisions get made first, then buy the software that supports it.
Start with the intolerable
Every step of our transformation began as a problem somebody could not live with any longer. That is a better starting point than a five-year roadmap.
Swim against the tide
I question conventional practice even when it is popular, and I expect my team to question me the same way.
Mentor both ways
Senior leaders are paired with younger, more digitally fluent colleagues. Both sides teach, and both sides are uncomfortable at first.
Score the small wins
Twelve small improvements a month from each person beat one big project a year. Our Karma 2.0 system makes them visible.
Give it away
Anything we learn goes out through talks, the book and the community. Indian manufacturing gains more from a movement than Sigma loses from sharing.
The team that runs it
“Add one sentence from Afsar about what changed in production.”
“Add one sentence from Salman about the technology side.”
“Add one sentence from Mangesh about the culture change.”
“Add one sentence from Ramashankar about finance and people.”
Titles as listed on the current site. Replace the four lines above with one sentence each, in their own words, about what changed in their part of the factory.
Recognition
Change Maker of Indian Manufacturing
December 2022.
TLC Gaurav Sanman Excellence Award
Bronze, 2021. Sigma was picked from 1,600 TLC member companies.
MCCIA Industry 4.0 event
Sigma's Smart Factory work was appreciated at the MCCIA Industry 4.0 event in Pune.
If you are building a Smart Factory, we should talk
Whether you are an Industry 4.0 leader, a plant head halfway through a rollout, or an owner still deciding where to start, send me a line about where you are stuck.