(49c) Structural Capital a Unique Management Tool for Achieving Higher Level in Quality and Safety

Reliance Industries Limited, India's largest private business house (turnover US $20 billion) and Fortune Global 500 list. Ranked among the world's ten most respected energy/chemical companies, its activities span oil and gas exploration cum refining, manufacturing petrochemicals and textiles and exporting to more than 100 countries.

To create product quality excellence, Reliance focuses on building capable processes using state-of-the-art technology and empowering employees through continuous learning. Reliance believes quality as inseparable element of performance and hence It makes available to the operating personnel tools and techniques, information and knowledge, success and failure learning lessons-- that keeps people ahead of problems.

Structural capital is main element of process management tool. With help from quality, training and line function professionals, created a unique Management System and calls it Structural Capital (SC) portal. SC is the knowledge, which remains within an organization when an employee leaves the workplace.

SC represents the knowledge assets that complement human capital to create value for all stakeholders. It involved significant change in terms of knowledge processes, mind- set and culture in the organization. It was considered as being represented by 3 prongs ? People, Process and Technology. The purpose of developing SC framework was to enable the organization move to successfully higher levels in Quality, Learning & Safety. It will also help the organization respond proactively to changes in technology and business environment.

SC portal connects people over vast geographical locations. Experts aim to enhance workplace performance by making knowledge available to the right person at the right time. For populating the Portal, knowledge is classified as Scriptural or Organic. SC portal at Reliance provides an integrated solution for scriptural information and operating knowledge updates to the employees for diagnosing root cause of safety problems and process capability & quality improvements. Successful incorporation and utilization of SC portal has proved that, this management system has a capability to remain a step ahead of potential problems with respect to process safety.

The purpose of developing Structural Capital was to capture not only the scriptural information documented in technology/vendor manuals but also the knowledge generated in the minds of experienced personnel as they experience success and failure learning. Less experienced personnel across multiple locations capture this knowledge. It empowers them take informed decisions to solve problems related to process upsets and equipment/systems failures, improvement in the effectiveness and efficiency of processes and systems, reducing wastage and improving product quality.

This practice was successfully designed, implemented, effectively utilized and its business impact measured in one world-scale plant 18 months ago. The effectiveness of the Learning Management System in that Plant improved to Level 5 (Return on Investment) from the earlier Level 2.Encouraged by the good results, the practice was replicated in 4 more World-scale Plants in the same location thereafter and the results have been uniformly encouraging.