The TPM process was initiated at the Valia complex in September 2000 under the guidence of Mathew Eipe, the president of Godrej industries. The AOS facility at the complex was selected as the managers' model plant.

Under the guidance of CII-TPM counsellor Charles Pinto, a painstaking and meticulous process of finding fugais (abnormalities) was started. Around 350 fugais were identified in AOS plant, of which 241 were attended to during a planned shutdown in May 2001. B S Mehta is the TPM process owner and B K Gupta is the TPM facilitator.

The design and development pillar cleared 20 kobetsu kaizen themes for implemention in the AOS plant during the May shutdown. The AOS plant has achieved 100 per cent capacity utilisation and work is underway to increase this to 115-120 per cent.

After observing the interest and dedication of the managers, the officers came forward and requested Mr Mehta to assign plants of the AO building as the officers' model plant. On November 10, 2000, TPM was initiated in the AO building. The results were very encouraging.