Post-Coronavirus: Love Mother Earth and Society

Coronavirus Lockdown

The lockdown has been extended to a fluidic 30 April. This was the firm sentiment of most of the Chief Ministers.

Districts with zero cases may be allowed to begin industrial activity, in stages. This was the view of most of the Health Ministers.

It will take 9 months to come out of the virus crisis. This is the voice of industry.

Being locked at home has made me realize that pre-coronavirus, we were driven by greed, hording, waste and hate. Do we want to return to this normal life?

My simple submission is that we need to use this lockdown opportunity to mend our normal life. We need to return, post-coronavirus, driven by love for Mother Earth and Society.

Some individuals, during the lockdown, have seen this period of silence as an opportunity to pursue a spiritual path. They believe we are human beings in search of a spiritual experience.

Or, in reality, are we spiritual beings having a human experience? We need to make our lives count.

Unlock a Supply-Chain

The basic needs of citizens in rural and urban India are: food, healthcare, education, transport.

In order to return to a new normal life, we must unlock supply-chain by supply-chain for each of food, healthcare, education, and transport.

Take the example of food supply-chain:

• Supplier 1 may be purchasing packaged grains or packaged vegetables or packaged fruit from Supplier 2.
• Supplier 2 may be purchasing grains, vegetables, fruit from farmers; packaging materials from factories; and  transport services from a logistics organization.
• Further, farmers may be purchasing fertilizers from PSUs; tractors from farm equipment manufacturers; two-wheelers from auto factories.
• In turn, farm equipment manufactures and auto factories may be purchasing sub-assemblies and components from MSMEs; as well as deploying contract workers.

The above example can be extrapolated to healthcare, education, and transport.

There are two more requirements for permanent normalcy …purchase only Green offerings; and create jobs for the local community.

While this analysis is not complete, does it provide a snapshot of the point I wish to make? Unlock a supply-chain for effectiveness. Efficiency will follow.

Zero Virus Districts

Now, if zero coronavirus districts are permitted to re-start industrial units, their immediate objective should be to eliminate chronic waste from their operations.

In order to achieve this objective, there is only one proven approach: Quality Management. It worked in Japan, post-World- War 2.

Quality Management involves:

• Quality Planning – to set the standard
• Quality Control – to maintain the standard
• Quality Improvement – to challenge the standard.

Quality Improvement delivers an invaluable by-product – reduced Cost Of Poor Quality (COPQ). COPQ in any organization is at least 20% of total cost.

Based on this glaring fact, each industrial unit should set a goal: Halve the COPQ in 3 months, post lockdown. This will go a long way in bringing back health into the organization, as well as help in the return of jobs.

We, in India, have a unique community of Certified Qualitists. With their inputs, India can become aggressively competitive.

Random Thoughts

1. Mother Earth is tender-hearted.
2. Will daily wage workers benefit?
3. Will MSMEs benefit?
4. Now that Mother Earth has put our backs against the wall, will we change?