Operation Management

Project Report

Quality Management System (QMS)

Business Information Technology System

in Mahindra Finance

Submitted By:

Pramod Paswan

Roll No.: 092137

Submitted To:

Prof. A. B. Raju

Submitted on: February 26, 2010

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………..2

2. IT Infrastructure in Mahindra Finance – Gujarat…………………………………….4

3. ISO 9001:2000 concept………………………………………………………………4

4. The benefits of implementing ISO 9001……………………………………………..4

5. Requirement and Maintaining ISO 9001:2001 Standards in Mahindra Finance –

Business Information Technology System (BITS) .............…………………………5

6. Quality Management System ……………………………………………………..…5

a. General Requirements……………………………………………….………5

b. Documentation requirements…………………………………….………….5

7. Management responsibility…………………………………………………….…….6

a. Customer focus………………………………………………………………6

b. Quality policy & Planning……….…………………………………………..6

c. Responsibility, authority and communication……………………………….7

d. Management review…………………………………………………..……..7

8. Resource management…………………………………………………….…………7

a. Provision of resources…………………………………………...…………..7

b. Human resources……………………………………………………...……..8

c. Infrastructure……………………………………………………………..….8

d. Work environment…………………………………………………………..9

9. Product Realization Requirements…………………………………….……………..9

a. Planning of product realization…………………………………..………….9

b. Customer-related process…………………………………………….….…10

c. Purchasing………………………………………………………………….10

d. Production and service provision……..……………………………………10

e. Control of monitoring and measuring device…………………..………….11

10. Measurement, analysis and improvement requirements…………………….……12

a. General……………………………………………………………..………12

b. Customer satisfaction……………………………………………..………..12

c. Internal audit………………………………………………………………..13

d. Monitoring and measurement of processes…………………….…………..13

e. Control of nonconforming product…………………………………………13

f. Analysis of data……………………………………………………….……15

g. Improvement……………………………………………………….………15

11. References……………………………………………………….…….…………16

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Introduction

Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Ltd (Mahindra Finance) is one of

India's leading non-banking finance companies focused on providing

finance for utility vehicles, tractors and cars in the rural and semi-urban

sector. Mahindra Finance is a subsidiary of Mahindra & Mahindra, a

leading tractor and utility vehicle manufacturer. The company has

positioned itself between the organized banking sector and local

moneylenders, offering customers competitive, flexible and speedy

lending services and has customized packages for customers’ every need.

Mahindra Finance has a network of over 2500 employee and 443 branches

covering more than 80% of the districts in India. It has entered into more

than 600,000 customer contracts and has disbursements of around Rs.

20000 crore since inception. Maruti Udyog has an agreement with MMFSL

to extend its services for their products. Besides, HPCL has also chosen to

partner with the company to establish MMFSL outlets in selected petrol

stations owned or franchised by them. Mahindra Finance has CRISIL

rating of FAA+. Almost all the top mutual funds in the country have

reposed their trust in the company and have invested in it. Mahindra

Finance listed on National Stock Exchange of India Limited and Bombay

Stock Exchange Ltd. on March 17, '06.

Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services, with its business cemented in

rural and semi-urban India, wanted to expand its reach and quicken the

delivery of its services across remote areas of the country. Its 300

branches across India are online and connected through lease line, VSAT

and ISDN connectivity. Its IT department named “Business Information

Technology System” played a vital role to reach its rural customer and it

has been certified by ISO 9001:2000 for its quality service.

Instead of setting up more branches to cover rural India, BITS team

transformed about 3,000 of Mahindra Finance's on-field workforce into

roaming mini-branches. Armed with wirelessly online handhelds, this

mobile workforce ensures that Mahindra Finance reaches the doorstep of

its consumers, living in far-flung villages or semi-urban locations. They

also act as mini-branches equipped to conduct financial transactions and

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update the central servers at the company's headquarters in Mumbai, all

in a jiffy. The IT team enabled the enterprise to increase Mahindra

Finance's 300-odd fully networked branches to a whopping 3,000 in less

than nine months. And that was achieved - without any investment in

brick-and-mortar infrastructure or headcount. This networked mobile

workforce initiative promised to take care of all Mahindra Finance's

problems. About 2,800 employees were equipped with Wi-Fi and GPRS

enabled, VisionTek handhelds, running Linux as an operating system, and

weighing about 750 grams. The handheld was pre-loaded with

indigenously developed custom-made, multi-lingual business application

modules to capture on-site data and update the central servers directly

through the Internet.

With handhelds at their disposal, a collection executive gets details of the

consumers beforehand, enabling him to plan his time and route

appropriately. Once on-site, he can either issue receipts to the consumer

from the attached thermal ink printer after collecting an EMI payment. He

can also create information trails, address business queries, record

customer commitments and note relevant information for further follow-

ups, undertaken with the customer at his doorstep.

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IT Infrastructure in Mahindra Finance - Gujarat

Including these Mahindra finance has 250+ computer systems, 50+

laptops, 60 handheld machines, 15 MFPs, 50 printers along with WAN

devices with 33 branches (28-online). Some of the executive have PDAs.

Managing these IT setup is quite challenging and in is most when to

maintain ISO standards. We are providing 24 hour service support for any

of these gets down. The toughest job is to give support to remote location

where field executive are use to carry the handheld (mobile) GPRS

enabled devices. The data they use should be updated on daily basis. Any

downtime will lead to great disaster in collection and may reflect in

reports too.

In Gujarat, these 33 branches have around 500 employee who are

accessing data and information form these IT resources, so it need to be

up most of the time.

ISO 9001:2000 concept

ISO 9001 is the internationally recognized standard for the quality

management of businesses. It applies to the processes that create and

control the products and services an organization supplies. It prescribes

systematic control of activities to ensure that the needs and expectations

of customers are met. It is designed and intended to apply to virtually any

product or service, made by any process anywhere in the world.

The benefits of implementing ISO 9001

Implementing a Quality Management System will motivate staff by

defining their key roles and responsibilities. Cost savings can be made

through improved efficiency and productivity, as product or service

deficiencies will be highlighted. From this, improvements can be

developed, resulting in less waste, inappropriate or rejected work and

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fewer complaints. Customers will notice that orders are met consistently,

on time and to the correct specification. This can open up the market

place to increased opportunities.

Requirement and Maintaining ISO 9001:2001 Standards in Mahindra

Finance – Business Information Technology System (BITS)

There are some terms and policy for maintaining ISO standards to follow

it. Mahindra Finance is also following the same ISO 9001:2000 standards.

These are described below regarding each of the policy, terms and

measurement.

The requirements of the ISO 9001:2000 standard are organized into the

following five sections:

1. Quality Management System

1.1. General Requirements:

The Quality Management System (QMS) is the collection of processes, documents, resources, and monitoring systems that direct the work of an organization regarding product and service quality. The organization needs to establish, document, carry out, and maintain this system to meet the requirements of ISO 9001:2000. Mahindra Finance’s BITS have all the necessary documents, recourses and monitoring

system.

1.2. Documentation requirements:

BITS have all the IT policy documents like, e-mail creation,

deletion, modify. User access policy like who will access

which data or resource, what rights they have. Internet

usage policy including who will allowed to access internet and

what is the requirement for accessing those, which websites

they require to use. For e.g. HR will access recruitment &

consulting sites whereas marketing people would access to

research sites. Apart we need to keep purchase record,

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quotes, asset details, vendor proposal and sales report in

case of disposed asset. We also have various IT quality

manuals like what dos and don’t. These documents are

available in both soft as well as hard form.

2. Management responsibility

2.1. Customer focus

Top management is also involved in the activities going on.

They are supposed to se the QMS report and analyze how

effective things are going on. For this purpose we have some

reporting method for everyday activity. They have web portal

consists of a dashboard where they can see the consolidated

report. The basic purpose is to satisfy the in-house customer

i.e. the users which are accessing the IT resources. We use

to resolve all the calls which come from users across Gujarat.

Here is one of the examples (fig. below) of that. Most of the

calls are soveld in less than 30 minutes. Our call resolution is

around 99.7%

2.2. Quality policy & Planning

Regular analyzing and reviewing the policy is very essential

for effective usage and maintaining ISO standards. Plan the

QMS so that the quality objectives are met and so the system

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continues to work as it is changed to incorporate

improvements.

2.3. Responsibility, authority and communication

Role and responsibility are very well defined for each

individual. The authority they have is well defined and is

communicated regularly from higher authority if any

amendment needed. Our immediate authority are responsible

for the monitoring the reports and processes which we follow.

2.4. Management review

Top management is required to regularly review certain

aspects of the QMS to make sure that the goals are being

achieved and to look for ways to improve the QMS. The

review must cover suitability, adequacy, and effectiveness of

the QMS. We have monthly review with our immediate senior

and in discuss the points which are covered are: internal

audit results, Customer feedback, How well processes have

been working, How well products have been meeting

requirements, status of previously identified problems, Items

identified for follow-up in previous management reviews,

Planned process or product changes that could affect quality,

recommendations for improvement generated through the

operation of the QMS

3. Resource management

3.1. Provision of resources

All the IT resources are for utilizing efficiently and

maintaining better QMS. An in case for requirement of new IT

asset than we use to purchase through proper policy. These

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all are for maintaining better QMS and these are building and

maintaining the QMS, continually improve the effectiveness

of the QMS, and to meet customer requirements.

3.2. Human resources

People performing work affecting product and service quality

must be competent to carry out that work. This competency

is attained through a combination of education, training,

skills, and experience. In Mahindra Finance few are the

initiatives are taken in terms of training are:

Identify the talents, skills, knowledge, and capabilities

each person needs to carry out their assigned

responsibilities,

train or otherwise assist people to meet these identified

competencies,

assess the competency of each person to carry out their

responsibilities,

Make sure each person understand how their work

contributes to the quality of products and services and to

meeting quality objectives.

keep records of each person's education, training, skills,

and experience

3.3. Infrastructure

The infrastructure for a QMS includes the building,

workspace, equipment, and the supporting services involved

in creating the organization’s products or services. The

organization will need to determine, provide and maintain the

infrastructure needed to achieve the planned results. In

Mahindra Finance we have well setup and fully furnished

infrastructure, specially BITS. Latest system and respective

software along with their license are available.

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3.4. Work environment

The work environment of the organization must not interfere

with the ability of employees to perform effectively in order

to meet quality requirements. The BITS department of

Mahindra Finance is quite separate with other department as

it has very critical devices. It is infect beneficial for BITS to

not get interference from other department.

4. Product Realization Requirements

4.1. Planning of product realization

Product realization is the term used to describe the work that

the organization goes through to develop, manufacture, and

deliver the finished goods or services. An effective Quality

Management System (QMS) includes a comprehensive

approach to getting from the product concept to the finished

product. This approach, sometimes called a quality

plan, includes the following:

product requirements and quality objectives,

creation of the processes, documents, and resources

needed for product realization,

required verification, monitoring, inspection, and test

activities,

The records to be kept.

In Mahindra Finance we have some sort of process &

procedure for IT purchase, delivery, usage, after sales

support (services) etc. We also have quarterly internal

audit of IT assets which includes how much of IT

resources are in use, idle, out of order, disposed,

purchase orders copy, invoice copy, delivery chalan and

SLAs with vendors.

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4.2. Customer-related process

Customer means in BITS are the in-house users who are

accessing these resources. The Standard requires the

organization to determine product requirements. These

requirements can come from the customer, may be

mandated by laws or regulations, and include generally

accepted standards within your industry or market.

Requirements are established by standard contracts or oral

agreements that the sales department uses in discussions

with customers, and other sources. The customer

requirements are reviewed regularly and communicating to

the users who have generated the requirement. We have

proper channel from requirement processing to purchase,

estimation, delivering, development, services and support.

4.3. Purchasing

We (BITS) needs to ensure that purchased products and

services meet purchasing requirements. The purchasing

group must establish criteria for how they evaluate and

choose suppliers. These criteria must be based on the

suppliers’ ability to provide products and services that meet

order specifications, especially product and service quality

requirements. The extent of the controls depends on the

importance of the purchased goods in the finished product.

Finally, records must be kept showing how purchased

products and services were evaluated.

We collect quotations and prices from other regions and

negotiate form vendor for optimal price. We also see is there

any more requirement of same material in any other region

than we further negotiate form vendor. We also widely look

across the after sale service support from vendor through

SLA. If require, we also test some of the product or material

on pilot project basis.

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4.4. Production and service provision

In Mahindra Finance BITS we have plan production,

installation, and service processes and provide an

environment where work can proceed in an orderly fashion.

These controlled conditions may include:

information regarding product specifications,

written instructions for carrying out the work,

suitable equipment,

adequate tools for monitoring and measuring process and

product characteristics,

activities for monitoring and measuring process and

product characteristics,

criteria for product release,

delivery and post delivery servicing activities

Process validation demonstrates that operation of the

processes achieves the planned results. When it is not

possible to verify the finished good or service through

monitoring or measurement the QMS must require validation.

Validation is particularly important where deficiencies are not

identified until the product is in use, or the service is

delivered. When validation is required, the QMS must define

the criteria for the following:

review and approval of the process,

approval of the equipment used,

competency of the people who operate the process,

specific methods and procedures used,

records to be kept,

ongoing assessment of the process validation

The standard which we requires to preserve the product,

including identification, handling, storage, packaging,

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protection, and delivery of parts and products throughout

all processes.

4.5. Control of monitoring and measuring devices

Any measurement worth taking is worth taking correctly. The

standard requires the organization to identify the inspection,

test and measurements taken, their required accuracy, and

the equipment used to make the measurements. Procedures

must describe how measurements are carried out.

Measuring equipment must be carefully cared for, including:

timely calibration to national standards,

identification with a calibration label,

preventing adjustments that would invalidate the

calibration,

preserving the equipment accuracy during handling,

storage and use.

Measurements taken with equipment later found to be

inaccurate must be assessed and corrected.

5. Measurement, analysis and improvement requirements

5.1. General

Plan and carry out the inspection, test, measurement,

analysis, and improvement activities needed to:

assure product meets product requirements,

assure the QMS works as planned,

improve the operation and results from the QMS.

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5.2. Customer satisfaction

We frequently monitor the end customers' opinion of your

product and service. Determine how to gather and use this

information. We have online feedback form which users have

to give his opinion monthly.

5.3. Internal audit

Internal audits are verification activities performed by trained

auditors within the organization. Their purpose is to

determine how well the plans making up the QMS are being

followed. The Standard requires internal audits be carried out

regularly in each area covered by the QMS. Audits address

conformity with the QMS, the requirements of ISO

9001:2000, and the effectiveness of the implementation.

Audit plans address:

Audit criteria, and extent,

Frequency, and methods used,

Responsibility for conducting the audit

Auditors are trained, objective, and never audit their own

work. Identified problems are quickly resolved by the

manager responsible for area being audited.

5.4. Monitoring and measurement of processes

Monitor and measure the performance of the processes that

make up the QMS. Compare these actual results to the

planned results. Take corrective action to make sure the

product or service meets requirements

5.5. Control of nonconforming product

Nonconforming product is any product or service that does

not meet requirements. Have documented procedures to

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identify nonconforming products and to make sure they are

not used by accident. Define who is responsible for deciding

what to do with a bad product. One of the following three

actions must be taken:

fix the product as if the problem never happened,

ask the customer to accept it, perhaps on new terms,

discard it or clearly mark it as unsuitable for its original

use.

Keep records of nonconformities.

Re-inspect any corrected products according to the

procedures for new products.

Mitigate potential losses, perhaps by recall, from any product

that has been found to be defective after its release to the

customer.

5.6. Analysis of data

The standard requires the organization to collect information

on the functioning of the QMS. This information is then

analyzed to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of your

system and to identify opportunities for continual

improvement of the QMS. Information collected and analyzed

relates to:

customer satisfaction,

meeting product requirements,

process characteristics and trends,

product characteristics and trends,

supplier performance.

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5.7. Improvement

Make use of the quality policy, quality objectives, audit

results, data analysis, corrective and preventive actions and

management review to improve the QMS. When problems

occur, fix the underlying process responsible for the defect.

The thoroughness of each solution depends on how costly or

unsafe the actual or possible problems are.

Create written procedures for:

satisfying customer complaints

investigating and solving reported product and process

problems,

identifying the underlying cause of these nonconformities,

understanding how to eliminate the cause of

nonconformities,

making sure corrective actions are carried out,

keeping a record of corrective actions,

following up on corrective actions.

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REFERENCES

1. Wikipedia “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_9000”

2. ISO 9001:2000 from www.iso.org

3. http://www.isoqar.com/iso9001/qualintro.htm

4. http://www.mahindrafinance.com/pdf/Mahindra%20AR2008_PublicVersion.pdf

5. http://www.citrix.com/English/aboutCitrix/caseStudies/caseStudy.asp?storyID=13399

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6. http://whitepapers.techrepublic.com.com/abstract.aspx?docid=382067

7. www.citrix.co.uk/site/resources/dynamic/.../Citrix_CS_Mahindra.pdf

8. http://www.cio.in/case-study/mahindra-finance-expands-its-reach-handhelds

9. http://www.ciol.com/Enterprise/News-Reports/Citrix-inaugurates-sales-office-in-

Bangalore/22908110689/0/

10. http://www.mahindrafinance.com/media/press_release/mf_connect_3000.html

11. http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=54350

12. http://www.mahindra.com/Enewsletter/Apr-Jun07/html/sector11.html