ERP is more about integration of minds

rather than the machines, mechanism or

the material databases.
Why 'COAL'?
Coal, the magic word which once kicked-off the industrial revolution by awakening the world
from darkness to roll out the steam engine to get the civilization going faster , powering the new
age machine shop to produce materials smarter which eventually triggered the next industrial up-
heavals of assembly line for procuring the right material at right time, with optimal mix of how
much to in-source and how much to outsource, the erstwhile MRP or Material Resource Planning
which again got further mutated to Manufacturing Resource planning or MRP-II fusing material
procurement with production planning and lastly galvanised other resources of enterprise like
marketing HR etc to give birth to the present the Big Beast in the system solution which is called
ERP or Enterprise Resource Planning. While the entry of ERP in the evolution of information sys-
tem is preconditioned by automation of the processes followed by distribution of information
with an institutional logic across every nook and cranny of it which this big beast once rolled out
will certainly scratch and shape , we kept the name of our ERP mouthpiece of Coal India as COAL,
the Common Operational Automation Logic to resonate this journey of the world’s best known
carbon compound completed from first awakening the world by powering its enterprises by
electricity to now amalgamating of its different systems, resources , processes by software suites
called ERP. We wish to have your views and voices further added to this resonance coming from
the word ‘COAL’ to get its pitch more powerful and more pervasive.
COAL — POWERED BY PASSION
March 2020, Volume 1, Issue 1

Editor’s Desk

CSF while Rolling Out ERP

Your Data, Your

Decision

Automate, Informate,
Transformate

Knowledge Osmosis

TKBP of the Month

ERP & YOU

Event Details

Infra—Connect
 From Editor’s Desk
Size does always matter, but shape matters more : When SAP redefines our growth trajectory
The time could have never been more right. Beginning its journey in
1973-74 while clubbing and coalescing thousands of splintered coal
mines with a mission to produce enough coal to fuel the nation’s
growth engine still reeling under the oil shock inflicted by OPEC
countries along with its pledge to care and cater to the welfare of
its employees , Coal India kept growing bigger and broader in tan-
dem with evolution of Indian economy in general , energy sector in
particular. First came BCCL closely followed by CCL, ECL then WCL ,
CMPDI and steadily MCL, NCL, SECL, the past journey of CIL is just
dotted with stories of unrelenting , irrepressible growth mostly
organic where by its dashboard with all those big facts and figures,
it certainly have been ruling the public sector landscape for last few
decades. One of the biggest employer in nation, selling almost one
and half lakh crore’s coal , remitting half a lakh crore to Indian ex-
chequer , catering to more than seventy percent of energy demand
of nation , once owned the biggest market capitalization accolade ,
Coal India kept streaming its result every end of the year which any
big conglomerate (transnational or multinational) feel jealous of.
Against all odds intrinsically embedded in mining (underground and
over ground both) to excavate and extract the fossil fuel to illumi-
nate every corner of the nation , CIL never falls short of its blame
and bashing also. A company by default has to dig deep inside the
earth , always has to bear the most accountability being the most
infamous source of greenhouse gas continuously depleting the
ozone gas layers and warming the globe more than any other cul-
prit waste gas emitting material. While it has to share the blame for
exploiting the mother nature (which it sincerely tries to reclaim
once work over), it has its other pain areas of which one is invaria-
bly connected with cost management . In its every performance
ratio while the numerator never ceases to grow (you say absolute
production) , so also the denominator which just gets multiplied to
send the whole efficiency indices haywire. The cost parameters
which basically rechristen any company from good to great or
prime to professional , just needed to be captured and controlled
right there. It is undeniable that if yesterday we could produce
more , or today we are producing much more but tomorrow we
certainly need to produce much more with much less . So the time
is now for CIL to switch over to its next laurels befitting a modern ,
new age company . Faster business cycle , better inventory manage-
ment , closer responsiveness to customers , CIL is just at its most
important inflection point in its almost nearing half a century of
existence of getting over to a smart , sleek , fast moving and furi-
ously competitive energy company of nation. Specially in the outset
of fast changing constitution of energy basket of nation with more
and more greener and cleaner energy alternate keeps pitching
along with widening threshold perimeter for global players in the
market redefined by Government to induce competition directly or
indirectly, earning of every farthing will be driven by our cost or
process management rather than price leverage as was the case in
earlier years for the company.
And we just got SAP now at this crucial juncture .A software suite,
normally called a big beast on roll (and so rampage in some sense)
in IT sector which get its potentiality to first rationalize then radi-
calize our existing business processes to its new avatar. The days of
price leverage thanks the status of monopoly by inheritance are
bygone , and as we are entering fast into the opening of the market
so also its competition , we are bracing for the new era where
profit will be defined by cost not price in any case. Naturally there
cannot be more ironic entry of SAP in our company which will just
empower us by giving us handle over every cost aka every index of
efficiency in the changed environment. Whether running a machine
with best utilization or rearing it to yield better availability with best
maintenance schedule , whether planning for production with right
material (explosive) qualitatively and quantitatively or using spares
with best share and swap inter or intra plants, areas and beyond,
Enterprise Solution called SAP will be there for optimizing our re-
sources and making our growth more sustainable in coming days.
By delivering on real time and with more realistic information , eve-
ry transaction and its associated data will be potential decision
making instrument once SAP will be in action.
We have grown from 80 Million Te to 607 Million Te (with further
ambitious fig of 660 MT this year) in our journey of last 45years
with our rich experience and so also expertise while our work force
got equally groomed with panache of using instinct , and intuition
so far to take some of the bravest and boldest decisions to expand
our empire of coal mining which was rightly ascribed and accredited
by our recently retired Chairman ,CIL , Mr AKJha to our sheer pas-
sion by which we the Coal Indian work against all those odds very
natural to coal mining arguably the most hazardous profession in
the world. Now we will go further and faster with the information
and its embedded intelligence of SAP and coincidentally the name
of this next stint of journey , the project of SAP is also PASSION. In
our conventional system the word “Passion” spoke about how
much our people , our warrior at different warfront of winning coal
showed their chivalry , valor and bravery to achieve every big num-
ber possible in its dashboard so far. In the new system the word
“PASSION” will speak about how far the strength of process inte-
gration , real time delivery , and information power will transpose
those absolute gain with much more efficient gain with both depth
(bottom line) along with its breadth (horizon) , the perfect recipe to
stay competitive and to stay competent to take every challenge
ahead in the new crossroad of change.
Till yesterday we mattered to the other world around us in size , our
expansion , our achievement in absolute figures , from tomorrow
we will be known by our shape , our efficiency , efficacy and effec-
tiveness illuminating our dashboard with much more indices bench-
marking ourselves against the best and beyond.
Our this newsletter which will be trying to capture this fervor of
change the whole Company is poised to embrace with implementa-
tion of Enterprise Tool called SAP. While at the core of such tool
there lies the basic standardization followed by automation of the
processes of winning of coal or managing its business across the
desks, across the departments , across the domains or divisions
which are integrated and interconnected by the institutional logic
driving the process onward while deriving its decision making
strength with more accuracy , more currency, we tried to abbrevi-
ate the whole narrative of transformation with the word COAL as
Common Operational Automation Logic. As we know historically
the coal fired the first growth projectile of industrialization in the
world ,this Newsletter COAL will keep firing every hearth of your
curiosity and knowledge about SAP onward.
Happy reading to all.
 Critical Success Factors while Rolling out ERP
Seeding the success story of ERP ? Then fertilize it with best training programme.
The Recent Experience from End User Training of 2300 trainees in WCL, MCL.
ERP the much touted integration software package hardly warrants
success without a lot of factors intertwined to work together and in
proper synchronization .These factors which are normally called
Critical Success Factors at different phases of implementation are
very much inter connected with each other in a dynamic way(one
gets changed with others). While in beginning selection of best
people as project leaders or project champions are as important as
to select the right software vendor or knowledge partner as well as
system integrator for successful roll out. Top management‘s sup-
port with committed time and attention (qualitatively and quantita-
tively )are as important as the organized, pure and clean data while
migrating to such a monolithic environment at one go or in stag-
gered phases. Change Management just prevails at the core of any
such all pervasive software suits which plays the most important
role to resolve the conflict or resist the opposition which follows as
a natural phenomenon with such total transforming technology.
But amongst all those factors, the most critical one which just spins
the cobweb to sensitize every end of the PAN Organisation imple-
mentation of such integration is the designing and developing ro-
bust training infrastructure with customized delivery of knowledge
bites of ERP at different layers and levels of the organization. May
be it on appraisal or for appreciation by the top management , may
be it is adoption and adaptation at users, process owners or module
owners , may be it is on coordination and supervision at the level
of project leaders , laying infrastructures , networking , making a
full scape training or learning layout at different phases and stages
of implementation is always of foremost importance. Amongst all
those data, people and leadership , the people issue simply is the
most predominant as the whole ERP deals more on integration of
mindset rather than integration of some servers or applications
where the departments , desks or the divisions will be ready to
share the platform, share the information and that also in real time
for faster and better decision making. Training in ERP is not just
about acceptance of the new technology or system , it is about
acclimatization with it , growing deep association with it and ulti-
mately proper appreciation of its benefits , tangible, intangible
both. In general training must precede even conceptualization of
any new initiative for first information report or first appraisal , best
awareness to comprehend the investment as well as impact in its
best possible views. So also in the case of ERP implementation
where training plays much more critical role considering its com-
plexity and all pervasive effect on the industry. As ERP is called a big
beast which keep scratching scraping and then scrubbing every
entity whether its process, project or people to get the dirt off, to
shed the flab off otherwise age old obese and outdated system to
make it a smart , sleek ,svelte and sophisticated one, while prepar-
ing mind , priming the apatite and perfecting both the aptitude
and attitude all these can only be imbibed by well concerted, well
synchronized training and teaching of all the stakeholders.
In the organization like ours where there so many age old activities
have been quarantined for decades in its own territorial bounda-
ries or departmental diktats and which never ever got tried or test-
ed in its new avatar of being process centric, the much aspired
change which will set in very fast at the core of the design of the
integration software need to be surely looked as a paradigm shift
occurring more in mind of people rather than the mechanism of
process or its enabling system.
The business processes will be suddenly viewed as its best prized
assets of the organization . The treasure trove of these reinvented
and to a great extent reengineered functional processes will be
ready for further expedition and exploitation to its full potentials .
This concept of building up process vault with its automating soft-
ware simply cannot come out of blue rather a very well structured ,
sincere organizational learning exercise to further percolate it ,
permeate it across the industry demanding more and more intense
training of the people associated with the system.
As the complexities of the system multiply with processes config-
ured , customized or reengineered as the case demands , the stake-
holders of it like user , process owners even technical staff needs
complete clarity of transition , confidence in use and the concrete
rationale behind the whole transformation. So a training need is
much more about ‘why’s , ‘where's , ‘who’s about the business
processes not only ‘how’s of the system. While taking cognizance of
the fact that ERP implementation is much more managerial and
people issue rather than the technical or application architecture ,
the right training with right resource people equipped with both
right style and substance can only warrant better implementation.
There is every chance that being in the industry for quarter of a
century , some ERP implementer (third party or system developer
themselves) normally goes in automode with a standardized ver-
sion of the training and push it down the organization pipeline even
before understanding the psyche of the company which got a huge
vulnerability of repulsion and rejection by the users. So customiza-
tion of training according to the level of information or technical
literacy is precursor of any effective training. Just paying a lip ser-
vice will certainly defeat the whole purpose of the training which is
at the core of success of implementation of any such complex mod-
ular software suite.
So what a training must aim for in ERP implementation?
While introduction to acronyms or taxonomies are the foundation
course of any enterprise software training, appraisal of the underly-
ing architecture (three tier), the level and logic of integration and
depiction of post implemented process flow as well as system with
changed impact (enhanced efficiency, faster business cycle , global
visibility , deeper understanding of customers etc) are the primary
motif of such intense training.
The next mission of ERP training is certainly to understand the rela-
tionship between the data, people and the application /system the
main three vertices of such solution. So at every point the readiness
is basic prerequisite of flagging off ERP implementation. Missing any
timeline to prime or prepare the incumbent
(data, people or system) will just end up in nothing but a recipe of
failure or disaster. The comprehension of this bondage which in any
case is very much mission critical and which is only possible by well
scripted training programme.
The ERP system which fast becomes the digital nervous system of
the whole company (with suppliers and customers aligned on com-
mon platform) needs a robust support system , which hardly be out-
sourced once the go-live or and ultimate sign-off occurs by the con-
sultants. Whether its about the maintaining server, running applica-
tion or occasional trouble shooting for users , the knowledge osmo-
sis is just indispensable.
Training enlightens mind , it smoothens the rough edges of any ma-
chine or mechanism, system or solution. The change management
which writes preamble of any enterprise system omnibus hugely
owes its vocabulary from training manual designed distinctively for
different layers/stakeholders of the system . The otherwise die hard
resistances deeply entrenched in any organization culture get its first
mitigated by meticulously designed , deftly delivered knowledge
bites in a slow but steady inception of psyche of individual as well as
institution or organizational.
Arguably ERP implementation is very much risk prone and long term
investment canvas is hardly dotted with any fast return or quickie or
low hanging fruits apart from some cosmetic changes in system ena-
bled process flow in an integrated way rather than age old (but not
all incompetent) legacies in isolation. The closest analogy normally is
drawn to describe such protracted investment in resources without
any fast gain in vision is like root canal surgery where situation im-
proves after the painful procedure a dental patient has to go
through as guided by the dentist . ERP implementation also follows
such procedure to make the people ready , mitigate their resistance
and mend their ways or work style all of which just as painful as
those surgery. It is like any caterpillar goes through the metamor-
phosis to become a lovely butterfly.
While appreciating training may be a very deciding issue of ERP
implementation , the success of training itself depends on how we
coordinate the whole exercise like choosing the focused group
whom we are going to train and the trainers who are going to train
these participants , whether they are end user or process owners or
technical team for future support .While doing the first always lies in
the client’s discretion and the organisation must put huge due dili-
gence to identify who it wants to train not en masse as training is
very expensive resource and demands redemption at every stage of
usage of any tool or implementing any solution, for the second i.e.
choosing the right trainers , any company normally depends on the
consultant or third party implementer. The issue with the consultant
company is always that they often confuse more between the devel-
oper and trainer or integrator and coach which normally mutually
exclusive breed altogether. Although not necessarily a good system
developer cannot be a good trainer but in most cases training is a
very specialist quality which gets groomed with further mutation of
technical acumen of the incumbent. The man in the podium or in-
front of the projector must be knowing his or her audience in the
gallery far better way to acclimatize them with new solution than
the man in the development center working out that( solution) for
them. To get an people attached to an extant process to be trained
to a new process reengineered or radicalized is always bigger chal-
lenge which should be handled very sensitively .A trainer must have
his own research of the industry and its behavior before preaching
the technical tit bits of the tool or technique to its client organisa-
tion. A very well structured presentation or demonstration centered
around the theme topic, continuous streaming of analogies, anec-
dotes and allegories with industry connect and disentangle the
whole dialogue from all those technical jargons to get into very lucid
delivery intelligible enough for naïve and newbies are the all of
which are demanded from an effective and efficient trainer.
The veracity of the above had been best tested in the recently con-
cluded End User Overview Training for SAP ERP in different Modules
across every area of MCL and WCL of CIL, the two lead subsidiaries
where SAP is getting implemented in its first phase. It was a very
ambitious programme to train almost 4000 End user of which 2300
from WCL and 1700 from the MCL as per the proposed licensees of
Professional Users distribution is concerned. The challenge as said
was right from the beginning to first identify the End User who must
be the employees or workers ( irrespective of executive non execu-
tive) and who actually will be using the tool once implemented in
their individual domain of operation. Challenge was more than ex-
pected as job profile whatever our people have while working in
different frontier of the company whether mine, project, siding or
maintenance plant , in planning or accounts has to be fitted or ra-
ther retrofitted with functionalities or operation in the way SAP
demands from the client organisation which is not necessarily same
rather deviates in many cases. The work portfolio of our people gets
further complicated as well as clumsy once the intervention of stat-
ute , post , position and power embedded in it at different working
level of the organisation is concerned. So it was a tough job to get
our people first earmarked with some work designate view in
changed environment of SAP. While in some places the resemblance
of new with the extant way of working in any process could be es-
tablished to certain extent , in many functions there is hardly any
match at least physically or from process view if not conceptually. It
was getting tougher when the incumbents designate need to work
on some completely new profile. While in some modules like HCM,
Sales and Distribution or FICO , the challenge was less thanks the
following of the standardized processes already being practiced
across the industries compared to Production Planning or Plant
Maintenance where the concept of integration and seamless com-
munication keeps varying with the change of industry or the compa-
nies thereof.
If identifying the prospective candidates was big issue , bigger was
always to find the best trainers who could give the first SAP mantra ,
the technology and its tenets to our people. Our System Integrator
as it happens are quite committed developer, implementor or at
best consultants to design the solution, but very few of them were
seasoned trainer specially when industry specific cases or its articu-
lation were concerned. So we had to groom a few while the other
few who sincerely got acclimatized a lot with our project and its
people (specially WCL lot) in last one year of camping in site led the
pack very aptly. Specially taking challenge to encapsulate all those
contents in a concise yet captivating way while explaining in its sim-
plest style was simply gargantuan task ahead when speaking of new
environment ,a complete make over of working style in IT enabled ,
integrated framework to our otherwise normally less IT inclined
people in the plant or project units. Walkthrough the modules with
some glimpses of organization change management , appraisal of
layout of roles and authorization network and last but not least
trying to accumulate the best inputs to develop the business ob-
ject /dashboard from ground level all had to be delivered in a single
day slot. Challenge was huge and so the concern from both side ,
how it will be delivered and how it will be organised. And as it al-
ways happened to the company like ours once challenged or got
hard pressed to deliver it just fast rose to the occasion and did deliv-
er the best , simply the best all of which were unimaginable , un-
thinkable in normal condition. Always at best of its coordination the
two companies WCL and MCL while complemented by a bunch of
young , energetic integrator cum consultant simply worked like two
maestros in big concert. The ‘jugalbandi ‘ the way these two compa-
nies and Tech M organised ,coordinated and delivered almost 75
sessions covering all the areas(10 in WCL and 12 in MCL) in a month
long travel and training involving almost 2500 trainees of 7 modules
just can be case study of any good MBA dissertation . All the area
training officers of WCL, MCL all the system officials there ,the Insti-
tutional heads in all the Technical and Management or Training
Institutes , Module SMEs(Subject Matter Experts) in the HQ and
areas, it was just a big concert in complete sync with each other
where everybody played its role with so precision and professional-
ism .The coordination at level of Project Leaders in both the HQ
were just overwhelming. While striking the ground level psyche and
stoking the curiosity of the end user incumbents for the first time,
CIL in general and MCL and WCL in particular suddenly could feel
the sudden buzz in the air , the buzz of change , its first fragrance
not so intense but very much definite and distinct. This is the fra-
grance of change , of the new transformation in the making. The
movement is now being felt at everywhere , the company HQ, the
area offices , the unit levels, project ,mine ,workshop, store, siding
everywhere. And the excitement , the enthusiasm about new sys-
tem can be hardly missed. Suddenly the year old implementation
which have been till date running in typical project mode kick start-
ed with huge momentum to touch and tilt everything conventional,
everything extant in the industry. The otherwise departmentalized
organization is fast getting shifted to a monolithic approach , a
shared platform where communication will be seamless and infor-
mation will move thick and fast in panoptic structure with federated
and distributed yet centrally monitored information system. The
organization which had travelled its big journey of more than four
decades showcasing some of the best and boldest instinctive and
intuitive decision making strength now crossing over to its new ava-
tar of information driven architecture and everybody is quite ap-
preciating it , desire to be associated with it. Thanks to the first ori-
entation got successfully completed , a chain reaction could be
triggered over the length and breadth of these two subsidiaries , the
initial bedrock of success of ERP could be carved out.
 Your Data Your Decision
Identity is very important. Defining of it has been always very tough, but
tougher is to design it with exclusivity.
Identity is where every individual reins in. Be it individual human
being , be it institutional bodies, be it material spare parts or pure
bred consumables , identity dwells in where the strength of the enti-
ty lies. It is by this identity one can preserve and perk it in right plac-
es and then put it to use in right time. Defining identity is basically
depicting its uniqueness , devising its integrated clusters to hold
them together. Uniqueness , the first and foremost trait of identity
can only be derived from multiple characters or the virtues on which
the entity functions or gets used . Be its usage pattern, be it its con-
stituting elements or materials , be it is particular measures , be it is
mechanism of functioning, uniqueness is the precursor before estab-
lishing identity. Any requisition or reference whether for some par-
ticular purpose or process just depends on how quick we can find it
out in clutter , how fast we can reach to it in the crowd and how
smart we can maneuver the list so that using it in just in time re-
quirement will never be an issue. If uniqueness is where every entity
defines its destination, then database is the place where these enti-
ties resides in for its real time reposition or retrieval . A closely knit
system with its functioning tenets or rules just defines how these
established exclusivity of each and every entity be clubbed , clus-
tered and cohabited together. Once inside this closet of database ,
the governance takes over to assure its (entity)
completeness, correctness of information with convenience of using
it at the same time. An identity never obeys any confinement and it
moves beyond generic class fo spares to service to space thus all
over the enterprise. In fact as identity workspace just lends its name
or uniqueness to its employees or working style , so the unique clas-
sification or segmentation just gives any item its necessary acquaint-
ance for further management (whether replacing or replenishing it
for real time usage).
A company like ours which got started from a forced unification (by
nationalization) of thousands of splintered ownership mines or coal-
fields normally being run with its huge granularity of its
style ,structure , shape of management can never be expected to go
by any common or coordinated business rules. Geographically
scattered across eight states , near four hundred mines most of
which have been brought up with inheritance of lots of past baggage
be it managing its resources or maintaining its inventories , be its
mobilizing its assets old and new ones or measuring its performanc-
es the extreme heterogeneity prevailed all over all the past years if
not decades. Extremely inconsistent and constant deviation in prac-
tices or sometimes no established practice at all , every entity
whether the employees or the store items , client data base or the
machines all were either captured in fabricated , fractured infor-
mation packs or just in fluid tenets which keep changing with every
mines and its concerned management. Added by continuous
growth , triggered by exponential demand from power plants , steel
and private sectors , the organization just kept adding on its assets
and expanding its material base with drafting new machine or re-
cruiting new technologies as and when required. No centralized
system , coordinated effort or enforceable constitution ever been
tried to hold these all disparate ways of managing or maintaining
entities across the hundreds of mines in particular thousands of
establishments in general.
The chaos and the crisis it inherited to certain extent and evolved it
to a great extent thanks to monopoly leverage to induce lazier faire
psyche yields to a long pending necessity for the integrative force , a
shared platform and real time delivery of information with depar-
ture from overdose of adhocism . In one way the organization got
expanded in every parameters , like horizon (turn over) , bottom line
(PAT), assets creation etc , and in other way the same organization
just keep multiplying the intensity of reactive or fire dousing style of
work culture which just put its all work force on a tenterhook to
somehow manage , manipulate or at best maneuver through the
lanes , by lanes of crisis, quandary and chaos. In such outset of mar-
ket distortion with so much supply constraints (the way it happens in
a monopoly environment) ,the competitiveness or competency have
never been the survival kit for CIL, the almost solo supplier of maxi-
mum fossil fuel in demand (more than 80% of nation’s need).
So in this outset the challenge to establish the identity of each and
every thing we inherited , we created or we consume or cater have
been quite anticipated. Specially in the implementation of enterprise
solution where clean , sanitized data with nil duplicity, nil ambiguity
and full currency are the basic fodder to the new system engine ,
the challenge gets multiplied thinking the history of almost half cen-
tury of running so many coal companies almost like independent
strategic business unit with a complete federated and decentralized
manner. And specially where there had not been any documentation
or chronicling any of the event or the exercise if ever been taken
before except one very feeble reference to some work done in
1987 , more than thirty years ago. While story (of some effort to
standardize the items code) was missing so missing the story teller
apart from just some word of mouth which just kept floating with
less clarity and more confusion while CIL took the job of codification
(cleansing, clustering ,and codifying and sometimes creating new
ones) two years ago as the run-up of ERP implementation.
It appears after a long hiatus the items are now being enliven on the
shelves first logically (book value) which will certainly be followed
physically which will again be surely another almost impossible task
if the extent of mismatch between the items on roll and items on
stock is considered. While spare parts or consumable are being dust-
ed off in the ledger, the consumables are being identified to get
their identity captured in singularity , the vendors are just tried to be
located by stripping of the closet of any duplicity if there. The as-
sets , the equipment, building and thus each and every entity sud-
denly got highlighted to understand their caste , creed , clan every
possible way to be further classified. The stratification of customers,
consumable or complementor (vendor of service and goods) just
get attention to make them standardized across the coal compa-
nies , to create a global visibility of inventory or customized focus
on customers or suppliers which were long overdue anyway. In a
company Like ours spread across more than 400 mines (of which
119 are big projects) working along thousands of establishments like
area office , central stores, hospitals, workshops , training centers
 Your Data Your Decision
Identity is very important. Defining of it has been always very tough, but
tougher is to design it with exclusivity.
generating data of consumption to dispatch, manpower to mainte-
nance for almost 19000 coal customers, service , goods provider
from 25000 vendors , more than 600000 spare parts being used in
HEMM Consumable around 65000 or E&M items of nearing 95000 –
100000 ,almost three lakh manpower, to cap and clean such a huge
data just is as ambitious as our company took the challenge to pro-
duce 1 BTe Coal in next few years. And while taking the gargantuan
job upfront , CIL codification team just left no leaf unturned , did
everything possible with sole mission to define and design identity
in the best way possible for each and everything of the Company. In
the last two years with unrelenting effort, travelling around the
subsidiaries , conducting series of workshops, meetings in Hq , Kol-
kata and Subsidiary Hqs , our people just went with all guns blazing
for establishing the same identity , uniqueness to each and every
entity. In case of materials once established (of which a good many
numbers were already cleansed , organised and codified ), every
data will just tell the truth .It will tell the truth about the quantity ,
stock and place to help us rationalize between the deficit and sur-
plus , reconcile between inventory cost and responsiveness to cus-
tomer , a global visibility of materials to make it present in right
time at right place , the destination set forth at the genesis of Mate-
rial Resource Planning in early sixties in twentieth century which
evolved in the next few decades to ultimately shape the solution
called Enterprise Resource Planning. In case of customers once es-
tablished these uniqueness will help to design our customer rela-
tions strategies to segment, target and position our product ie coal
as energy solution in its different ramification which will groom as a
marketer from the mere seller or supplier of coal in true sense spe-
cially in the forthcoming era when competition with other alternate
energy not just other coal companies are certainly be going to be
tougher .And in case of Manpower data , it will capture human just
not other capital but an ever appreciating asset for the company ,
grooming them, growing further with tailored programme and pro-
motional policies.
So truth is where the identity lies and so the data lies. And as always
said the data is the fuel, the oil of new economy, for forthcoming
SAP the ERP solution, data is just more than that, the main fodder,
the prime feed of the whole system. Onward the organisation is
going to recognize everything as a code , a data which once pro-
cessed through the system become a highly potent information to
decide and direct each and everything we will do while moving
seamlessly across the department ,desks or divisions. It’s said
among the main three vertices of any enterprise solution as people,
data and application it’s data which actually runs or ruins a system.
History says the pure, pristine and perfect data makes a system to
work successfully while any duplicity, redundancy or inconsistency
just breaks it outright. And catharsis of data is all about this identity.
Cleaning the data from the junks and obsolete , then gleaning the
information embedded in it sometimes written with specific traits
defining them sometimes just nothing obscuring it completely , it
has been always herculean task to get the data prepared , purified
and purged of all those misinformation, wrong information or disin-
formation. The job is complex ,cumbersome and team is working
untiringly to get it done in the given timeline , to make it ready to
migrate to system before rolling out in the subsidiaries. As they say
the truth is what it deserves it and in SAP the truth is just a singular
number, the task ahead to uphold that truth inside every data in its
singularity which we call identity.
 Automate, Informate, Transformate
Partnering with SAP to plan, process and perform on information:
(today inside, but tomorrow certainly outside also)
It was a huge gathering and the 500 seats auditorium of CIL HQ was
packed to hilt eagerly waiting for announcement of the annual
result of just passed 2018-19. Everybody in the office was upbeat
waiting to listen all those big figures CIL always keeps streaming at
year end with the bated breath. Specially to listen it from the Chair-
man Mr AK Jha who joined in the middle of the last year and the
man who permeated a sense of compassion and camaraderie
amongst all (very much befitting to work in a tough industry like
mining) was just another excitement everybody hardly could afford
to miss.
And the result came out. As it always happened CIL achieved anoth-
er notch above the preceding year. Two of its subsidiaries for the
first time crossed the figure 50 MT while three manages to produce
more than 100MT one of which crossed 150MT and one was just
nearing to touch it and so on amounting to be a total production
608MT growth of 4.8% over last year all of such achievements by
every parameter were huge. So ecstasy about the result was natural
and infectious at the same time. The exuberance was justified sans
a caveat and that caveat came from nobody else but the then secre-
tary MoC, Mr S Chaudhary, the Chief Guest in that gathering. While
being very indulgent in our celebration of achievement he just re-
minded how whole CIL team kept working extra hours, put forth
extra efforts in the fag end slogging hard to touch the target. He
also reminded how the whole energy value chain like power -coal -
rail and state agencies ,its every stakeholder worked in perfect co-
ordination cum synchronization to help CIL to achieve this fiat. And
in the full narratives of the Secy Coal under its apparent comple-
menting our achievement lied one blurred version of caution also.
Complementary because we could have achieved all and might
have done much more had we have our plan in right place not only
for our target but for the execution as well to achieve them much
more ahead ,where slogging in last lap was never needed if not
being laggard in first lap of the year. It was also cautionary in the
sense the integration of interest across the supply chain or logistic
must be a well thought strategy and needs to be refined further to
keep this win-win proposition in whole value chain where nobody
makes gain at the cost of anybody and where everybody works for
positive sum game not zero sum at all.
There cannot be better perspective by which ERP implementation in
CIL could have been explained. In agreement with above two obser-
vations if a single solution which can squarely tackle the both issues
upfront that is ERP in General and SAP in particular and nobody
else. Genesis of ERP has been always rooted to the long term plan-
ning or LTP which onward gets drilled down to monthly scheduling
and then converted to daily production planning. Closely following
the production planning comes planning for capital expenditure,
maintenance, manpower and thus every resources, a company
needs to operate. While every production target gets to be de-
mand driven and those demand get dotted with its own seasonality
and other factors, ERP once rolls out will just do it most perfect way
for us, planning for production in close integration with planning for
other resources in commensuration with market dynamics taking
into account of its fluctuation as well as seasonality from both side
supply as well as demand. The performance monitoring even at
shift level adjusted with system capacity addition in Real-time with
complete control over the cost parameters across the machines or
work centers, BPC or Business Planning and Consolidation tool an
evolution itself of SAP’s erstwhile Enterprise Performance Manage-
ment System will go a long way to plan, budget, forecast and con-
solidate our coal business on the whole.
If planning is one of the most integral part of ERP or SAP, the other
part is certainly be seamless communication between the processes
intra company when we speak of Coal India Limited and then inter-
company when we extend it to the whole enterprise, in true sense
of Enterprise Resource Planning to share the data across the whole
gamut of organisation which constitute the value chain members
like suppliers, customers, logistics provider and so on. While in
whole Enterprise Solution genre, ERP cares for its back office sup-
port software to integrate the intra organisation processes, its
younger sibling like CRM (Customer Relationship Management)or
SCM(Supply Chain Management) all these basically goes far beyond
the organisational boundary thus sharing information across the
stakeholders in the whole value chain. So it is more about con-
necting processes inside the organisation today with shared soft-
wares and connecting organisations inside the enterprise with
shared platform tomorrow is where ERP is destined to go. If today
internal resources in CIL like MM, HRM, Mktg, Production all are
being first standardized and then stitched together through SAP,
tomorrow will not be far away when being more matured the
same system will be integrated with our customers like NTPC, SEBs,
Rail and State Agencies, Ministries and so on to make data flow
across the industry to help and hone the best power of information
ie optimize the resources across the enterprise.
And here is where the clarion call from Mr S.Chudhary, Hon’ble Ex
Secy MoC and SAP which maintains a steady clientele of almost 70
% of Enterprise Solution Product for Fortune 500 companies and
which now CIL is to going to embrace are crossing the line. Planning
meticulously while integrating seamless inside the industry and
beyond is which sustains the coal business today and spearhead the
whole ecosystem of coal fueled energy sector tomorrow when CIL
will stride fast to its 1BT production in next few years.
 Knowledge Osmosis and the System Integrators
Embracing new age system: taking TechM on board to cruise it forward:
(what CIL expects from its Consultant cum SI for SAP)
The complexity of ERP or enterprise resource planning, the erst-
while IS solution on an integrated monolithic framework where the
information will flow thick and fast (seamless) across the depart-
ments, desks, domains and divisions is enormous. Any organisation
which grew its signature processes in its natural process of evolu-
tion over the years if not decades, got its enough excuses to be
obsessed with them however suboptimal they are in effectiveness
or efficiency in reality. While process owners and its users get too
possessive with their extant practices in such company, any IT sup-
port normally be requisitioned to oblige them as and when required
thus in most cases without any clearly defined long term IT strategy
or mission in alignment with main mission of the organisation .This
adhocism just gives rise to the sense of loose coupling between
business and IT in such organisation where IT department being
viewed as adjunct or ancillary department rather than as any core
functionality. In such organisation (which to certain extent includes
CIL also) it is very natural for IT resources or capacity being just
bolted with rather than been baked in the business processes , are
far below the knowledge level to implement such high end project
like ERP which needs to keep stitching our business processes
across every nook and cranny of the enterprise imposing a common
institutional logic.
The above pretext makes the way for recruitment of the consult-
ants or system integrators or third party implementor who along
with developers works with the client to develop the best system
for the company. In a company where IT department has never
been enough prepared to tackle such IT solution implementation
head on , nor business process owners also ever been evolved sym-
biotically with the concerned systems enabling them (processes) ,
the deep knowledge of the third party in the system as well as the
processes in general and industry in particular can hardly be under-
emphasized. In fact organisation history is replete with failure of
ERP implementation due to lack of in-house expertise , poor IT
infrastructure and difficulties in keeping with changing technolo-
gies. Because of these issues most organisation are highly depend-
ent on consultants to implement this enterprise software suite or
cluster , too expensive and difficult to be developed and imple-
mented in house. The management academia are awash with the
articles of one of the very critical success factor of ERP implemen-
tation ie vendor -client knowledge flow processes. Not only for
getting ERP successfully implemented, the deployment of best con-
sultant must be ensured the client organsiation also need to
demonstrate deep and cohesive relationship with it which further
defines the goal like acquiring the knowledge for operational ,
maintenance or training for next phase or new version onward in
future. And this knowledge should not necessarily be only about
what is the best know-how but also about which of them works
rightly for the organisation in the given circumstances or prevailing
constraints. As said above the obvious knowledge asymmetry be-
tween the client and consultant where the former knows the busi-
ness and later knows the technology always creates a knowledge
barrier that inhibits the adoption of the complex technologies. To
break this barrier what must be warranted ie the smooth and seam-
less knowledge transfer which has been always the big issues for
the organisation like ours where perennially IT has always been
acquired or developed as second fiddle for business processes not
any coherent strategic tool for evolution.
So what a consultant or system integrator is desired to have?
Whether the company is very much erudite and informed or
where the decision making are more often driven by instinct and
intuition rather than information , in all companies , the consultant
is basically required to possess the following:
Capacity to capture dispassionate view of the problems of the cli-
ents while listening to it followed by articulating/framing the prob-
lem , designing the analysis and gathering the data associated to
consolidate the first conjecture taken on the problem. In most cases
the client company gets too possessive with their age old processes
normally got tried and tested (with a certain success also) and so
entrenched inside their existing system to listen to any other view
or like any other perspective brought forth by the consultant on the
table. Being carried away by the emotion and obsession attached
with the processes they are used to for their whole tenure of their
work, they hardly love to subscribe to any rationale of benchmark-
ing them against the best practices prevailing in other companies
or other industries. While giving patient ear to all what its client
say , the consultant must come out of some inevitable entrapment
of sharing its instant judgment or supporting the irrational justifica-
tion(by the client) of any process studied to be found to work on
suboptimal level of efficiency. While showcasing the best sensibility
to deal and delve in to client’s narratives, a consultant must be free
from any irrational exuberance or emotional baggage while ex-
tracting the underneath truth at its most unbiased interpretation.
Apart from the technical acumen which is precondition of such
technical system integration required for SAP , a consultant must
have to certain extent the managerial skill both to extract the prob-
lem as well as to promote the solution. In any case ERP is much
more managerial and business functionality oriented rather than
just technical integration or system configuration. So it is expected
a solution architect must sell the future experience (rather than
just the solution) what a client will have once implemented the
solution .So while regulating the use of terminologies or acronym
sometimes appearing too repelling to connect with client’s psyche ,
a consultant must develop a more simpler narrative of his design of
solution he or she offers to promote it at different level like user,
super user, process owners and project champion.
In view of the above while proposing the solution , the consultant is
expected not to be only enough competent to develop the best
solution for the client but also be full assertive to follow through it
by the client. The irrational prejudice and possessiveness with ex-
tant practices by the clients may disrupt thinking process for best
interpretation of the problem. Same will be the case if the consult-
ant stick to the rule book without caring the ground reality to force
any solution through clients’ throat. Conviction ,buy in and confi-
dence are all needed at every step to go forward when any change
of system is more transformative rather than just transactional .
Implementing ERP invokes a transformative mindset as it normally
preceded by radicalization of different inefficient processes which is
called business process reengineering apart from customization of it
and due discourse of configuration of all these redefined processes
in the system. These all ask for a very commanding voice to mitigate
resistance from different level which is very obvious. Rather than
obliging with everything what client demands , the consultant must
come up with the best solution what the situation deserves. Going
into minute details of both the variables of solution and constraints
of implementation, the consultant must work jointly with client on
preparing the groundwork to get its best solution run rather than
dovetail it in the existing system compromising its effectiveness or
efficiency which end up delivering at suboptimal level.
A consultant or integrator is expected to know in advance what
inhibits and what influences any implementation. Specially in ERP
where the best practices around the world as captured and shared
through its rich process repository, get impounded in the organiza-
tion, it needs a huge synchronization across every corner of the
organization. The quality time and attention the top management
needs to pledge , the right selection of project leaders , champion
and team , the content and clarity of communication while manag-
ing the change, the currency and accuracy of data , the fodder to
good system and a laying out very robust and right infrastructure
compatible enough to sustain such deep and wide system configu-
ration all which must be ensured while implementing ERP success-
fully . Consultant or the system integrator must be aware of these
nuances so that it can accordingly prime or prepare the client indus-
try well in advance , after studying closely before carving out the
solution designed for it. With so many factors playing behind the
implementation which themselves are interdependent , the success
of ERP implementation is a moving target which gets every chance
of being elusive in short term instead of so many definite benefits
(tangible , intangible both) in the long run. So managing the de-
mand to keep the project on track and on time ,showing the imme-
diate impact as low hanging fruit to promote its quick return in the
short term while segregating them from long term change which is
more substantial and sustainable ,all these make any SI cum con-
sultant team quite reliable and credible which in turn raise the con-
fidence of the client organization in the new system they
implement.
While deciding on implementing ERP in CIL and its holding coal
companies , it was very incumbent on the ERP deptt to choose the
best vendor cum integrator who can go extra miles to showcase
their deep learning of the system implementation and share their
knowledge with us while supporting us to build the capacity for
future maintenance or operation as well upgradation as and when
needed . This capacity building although at first glance appears to
be too ambitious but grooming the core team to tackle any future
issues inhouse, educating them with right tool and empowering
them with strong business acumen are what basically desired from
any best consultant team.
So while selecting the best of the bidders , the different selection
criteria like experience , exposure and its all credentials, the follow
up of govt procedures of choosing the most compliant , the whole
scrutiny and scanning process was just overwhelming. And we se-
lected Tech M as our first phase integrator who will implement SAP
in MCL, WCL and NEC as well as CIL hq in Kolkata. It should be our
first experiment with off the shelf or vanilla system of ERP ie SAP
implementation and stake is certainly very high , specially from the
perspective ie in all its existence of last 45 years , CIL just grew in in
every sense but mostly in isolation or silo based strategies . Produc-
tion, marketing , finance , HR all just kept growing with its noble
mission to redeem its pledge of making the nation energy sufficient.
Last year it produced 610 MT , almost 8 times the year 1973-74
when CIL first began journey with thousands of splintered mines ,
inherited workforce mostly illiterate and semiliterate , and all those
mines which was literally skimmed by pre-nationalized owners with
full blown profit motif nothing else. While passing different inflec-
tion points like oil shock in 70s, opening up of economy in 90s ,
captive mining in early decade of twenty first century and now
again with opening up for FDI to win the coal or OGL to sell it out,
deviating far from inititial restrictive opening up of the sector, the
nation’s prime coal company is facing a huge challenge both inside
the industry and outside the industry. While competing inside the
industry will be tough provided the technology and cost leadership
surely be brought by the investor in new mines by transnational or
multinational , it will be tougher outside the industry where the
alternate energy is coming in a big way thanks to stigma of coal as
prime polluter of environment. In this pretext profit will be driven
by our cost rather than price leverage which will have onwards a
complete no-go in competitive terrain. And the best facilitator if any
which will shape up our future in this critical juncture must be tech-
nology intervention whether operational, managerial or techno
managerial. So we got SAP the world’s mostly used enterprise solu-
tion to integrate our processes , optimize the resources and deliver
the decision in faster (real time) and most reliable( realistic) way.
And we got Tech M as our partner on board in this journey to cross
over to a new age , information driven company . Stakes are simply
too high and so the company’s aspiration. As a new era for the com-
pany is beckoning , the coming days will say how the client-
consultant partnership is really working and how far the consultant
cum integrator can help this company to shape up its process cum
system make-over to fast enter into an 1 billion Tn coal company ,
the next benchmark already set by the nation for us.
 Choosing this month’s TKBP
(Technically Knowledgeable Business People)
At the heart of ERP, it’s the process which prevails supreme. In fact
the genesis of the ERP and the evolution of process orientation are
on the same space and on the same timeline. While Thomas Daven-
port , Michael Hammer , James Champy came out with a refreshing
definition of process which speaks of cluster of activities functioning
in sync to a defined and distinct destination , Enterprise solution or
ERP works to enable this functioning in a more wider and deeper
perspective. Wider in sense that in an integrated and extended
territory of different departments and domains (so also process
baked in them) and to speak of the depth means to the maximum
granularity level of the concerned process to its finest detail.
So in such process orientation and enabling the same , the best
proponents of such solution will be those who understand both the
manifestations related to it (solution) i.e. function as well as tech-
nology. While width is more relevant than the depth , the ideal
implementation community of such solution will be who compre-
hends the both to certain extent and can collaborate with the de-
veloper or the system integrator , third party consultant to come up
with best combination of it (with different levels and layers of cus-
tomisation , configuration or business process reengineering). Inci-
dentally Gartner the IT firm which normally predicts and depicts the
incumbent change in IT sector came up with its rechristening the
name of this community as Technically Knowledgeable Business
People or TKBP. In fact implementing ERP needs this type of people
in the industry to promote its different phase of implementation at
initial stage and to perform its different operation at later stage
specially in trouble shooting or fine-tuning whenever necessary.
The clarity in how the process and the system works together is
what this specialist force must be trained at. And while imple-
menting ERP pan CIL we will identify these personalities every
month , who orchestrate the tango of process and technology
while leading the transformation as the epicentre of change. Irre-
spective of their post , position or place of working , however lim-
ited their discretion of power they may have , their impact always
keeps cascading beyond the official fiefdom . Continuously in-
fecting their surrounding with their irrepressible energy and excite-
ment, they are themselves the change impersonated and so al-
ways set fission reaction for change to wherever they move. In this
column we will present these type of people whenever we will find
them whether in Hq, Area, Plant /Mine , Project or even in the shift
to spread the contagion of conviction and confidence about the
SAP through the veins and arteries of the organisation.
With the above pretext in this issue we present our Project Leaders
in the two lead subsidiaries WCL,MCL as our two Key Persons on
whom there lies so much stake of the successful implementation of
SAP. Specially with a string of activities like Mobilising Master Da-
ta , laying out the SAP Governance part Roles and Authorisation etc
in the project pipe line we are looking towards to their leadership
to spearhead the implementation of Project Passion across their
company with success and on schedule. We saw their power of
coordination in last One day Overview Training where the challeng-
es were huge to touch the user level for first time across the almost
22 areas and across more than 100 plants (mines/projects etc) in
two subsidiaries. And we saw how it has been so nicely executed
with two different strategies in two different subsidiaries. Mr A
Sarkar , PL, WCL took the whole responsibilities himself to expedite
the dates, logistics etc. and execute the whole programmes in all
the areas engaging his whole system department in coordination
with Area and Mine/Project Mgmt for recommending and releasing
the end user who sometimes attended in huge mass. Mr S K Bhan-
ja , PL of MCL just believed in delegation and distribution and got
engaged with training institutes, to make clusters bifurcating Tal-
cher and Ib valley coalfield for better coordination. While both the
strategies perfectly worked with the available training resources
and culture prevailed in both subsidiaries we were appreciating
more caution to choose the right participants in the follow up dis-
course ie UAT (User Acceptance Testing) having more depth where
the participants would get first training by hands-on exercise on
how to test different development done in Sprint 1 followed by
actual testing /validating it by the same. While in MCL training cum
testing of all the modules could be followed as proposed by SAP
consultant cum SI ie Tech M, in WCL in some modules it was con-
strained due to non availability of full slot, or scheduled participants
(specially for PP, PM and PS Module) as proposed , courtesy accen-
tuated work pressure etc. in this fag end of production year in every
mine. However we are excited enough to present these two lead
architects of ERP implementation as our Technically Knowledgeable
Business People or TKBP Section of this month’s issue. We are fur-
ther excited to present the thought of one of them Mr A Sarkar, PL,
WCL in this issue . In coming issue we will present the ideas and
thinking of the other one i.e. Mr SK Bhanja , PL, MCL.
 make all the stake holders as happy as possible. And why not? The
resources when managed with an aim to maximize happiness of
employees and the partners, it becomes a natural choice to pick for
sustainability and success.

The modules are so chosen, that are not only of importance but are
the building blocks of the Company as a whole. Our Company is big
not only in terms of size but also in terms of number of employees,
no of other stake holders, quantity of production, amount of mone-
tary transactions and even for varieties of disciplines and designa-
tions. Our Company is also big in terms of generating data. It is a
big task to link all these big things such a way that the output is also
a big smile. And this Big Smile is a matter of months only from now.

We are cruising with determination to surprise the World at large

with our rejuvenated approach, our super skilled manpower em-
powered with modern technology that can predict and take steps
well in advance not only to control wasteful expenditure but also to
achieve the target with planned and controlled approach. After all
by 2023-24 One Billion Tonne of Coal to be produced by our Com-
pany for meeting the Energy need of our Mother land, for which we
“The Project Passion is the project that is a sensation and a dream
are gearing up in advance with the power of IT in collaboration with
of over three lakh employees of the largest CPSU that is gearing up
the spirited partner TechM.”
for the Go-Live with collective effort from CIL and their IT Partner
TechM. As the Project Lead of WCL, the Subsidiary that is going to
make it happen in the 1st phase by Sep 2020, I am as proud as that
of our CEO and the Directors who are constantly providing the guid-
ance and support to make it happen that is going to change the IT
environment of the organization with a paradigm shift in use of
technology and determination.

Project Passion is as big as that of our Company itself. When viewed

from an angle, you find some crazy people arguing and investing
time that seems of little meaning, you will find that some very
young and energetic minds are concentrating to marginalize some
Gaps they discovered not on a road or building or a mountain but
on the papers that listed the steps of the present in comparison to
the road map for the future. Simply, a Journey map of IT of our
Company is made through by our IT partner, the TechM.

The ERP was a buzz words and was the most sought after IT Solu-
tion for organizations across the globe. The ERP still has the same
value as because it adds value to the organization, not only by
cutting cost or enhancing performance but also with ethical com-
mitments.

The present day scenario in the field of data transaction cannot be

termed as a very professional. It caters to the needs with difficulty
and with heterogeneous complexity. The standard SOPs are not
available, and if available, are not followed or are very old to follow.
The New IT technological happenings are not very common or are
not generally encouraged. The roles of the employees are not de-
fined, although, all are putting their best with skill level matched
with the best in the market. But then, missing link remained missing
for so many years. Now, is the time to forget the past and march
ahead with the technology with a new mission with a new project
the Project PASSION.

The missing link is our ERP, which will lead from the front and will
 ERP & You
Planning resources for Material to Manufacture to whole Enterprise
(PP Module: The smartest work assistant for a colliery manager)
At core of ERP there lies two things of which one is procurement or
material planning and the other is production planning (whether it
is make to stock or make to order) against demand management. In
fact the genesis of ERP was rooted very much to these two which
speaks of you to produce (out put which may be service or goods
for other) as per your demand and to procure as (of raw materials ,
ancillary etc.) much as you need . In the mid sixties of last century
two protagonist of Material Resource Planning one Mr. Joseph Or-
lickey the IBM engineer and Mr. Oliver Wright the Material Man-
agement Expert who were in search of a system to work for newly
evolved assembly line in Automobile sector when reindustrialization
hit the world production processes. It was all about how much to
insource and how much to outsource so accordingly maintain a
Safety Stock and create a ReOrder Point so that right material in
right amount can be assured in right place. Mr. Joseph Orlickey
named the system he developed as Material Resource Planning. In
fact after sixty years of evolution from MRP-I to MRP-II to ERP the
same Safety Stock and Reorder Point is at the core of whole system.
It assures that neither we should be stocked out so that loosing or
lagging our production or manufacturing ,nor we should keep add-
ing stock much more than the need (beyond safety stock), thus
picking up inventory cost of our production.
This concept of Material Resource Planning got further evolved by
another material management aficionado Oliver Wright into Manu-
facturing Resource Planning ie MRPII which started speaking about
game plan for capacity planning , work scheduling of production .In
fact here introduced the one of the strongest aspect of such plan-
ning ie Integration across the two capacities to begin with between
the production and materials which culminates to integrate other
resources also like HR, marketing and so on (when in early 1990s
ERP came into be).
While in the 1960s main competitive thrust was on cost , in 1970s it
was more on integration of production and planning. In1980s it was
on quality improvement like process control and specially on dy-
namic environment where the choice and demand of customer just
keeps changing without caring the suppliers’ capacity or planning.
So it was then simply intense human intervention to keep resched-
uling and changing reorders points needed to accommodate and
adjust the change in those early years enterprise solution.
And this above dynamism of market forces (demand and supply)
gave rise to new advanced system which is demand driven and
provides flexible , real time execution, feedback and control of large
number of manufacturing processes tightly integrated with market.
The system is named as ERP or Enterprise Resource Planning.
The term ERP coined by Gartner, the Global IT consultant cum strat-
egist firm to extend its strength of integration with more sophisti-
cated planning inputs and real time delivery beyond just material
and manufacturing (i.e. production of finished good and procure-
ment of raw materials for it), assimilation to other resources of
enterprise in particular and company in general. These resource
now includes HR, Marketing, Finance, Sales, and so on. So basically
the abbreviation ERP stuck from this era and now being carried over
the years . The main genre of this ERP is ES or Enterprise solution
which also includes Supply Chain Management, Customer Relation-
ship Management , Sales Force Automation and so on.
Incidentally the age of term ERP and the core component at its
heart Business Process Reengineering which is basically radicaliza-
tion of processes with complete overhauling rather than just incre-
mental change are almost same, which is 1993 .BPR( Business Pro-
cess Reengineering ) has been invented by James Champy and Gar-
ry Hamel while ERP has been coined by Gartner. In fact this BPR
precedes ERP which transform the whole organization where the
consultant and solution provider just impounds the best business
process knowledge (acquired by it while counselling and configuring
processes in different organisation) in the client’s platform defined
by single data structure and integration across the business pro-
cesses.
Now If we just transpose this new system to our coalmines , we can
easily see how it will transform, change the conventional produc-
tion process with the same integration tool which is the main
strength of ERP once be in action. In the existing convention a mine
manager is supposed to produce coal as per the annual plan distrib-
uted through action plan drilled own to month wise and then day
wise plan. In back end the same plan again being proposed through
the mine capacity planning worked along achievement figure picked
up from historical plus the anticipated figure (whether new project
coming up or new machines being drafted). In the front end the
whole plan again is more on make to stock which again is prede-
fined by the demand (already ECQ + newer ) against some certain
grade created or communicated from industrial demand through
MoC. Along with production the other materials are also budgeted
whether safety or explosive items or drilling items and so on what-
ever needed in execution process which includes drilling , charging ,
blasting , hauling and dumping of coal or such processes for OB
removal. All machineries are employed and so also the technology
or mechanisms (surface mining or blasting; SDL or LHD or continu-
ous mining ) are in place. Manpower being planned. Now in a con-
ventional plan all these are being done in isolation with some equa-
tion or calculation not through any close knit integration. Mostly by
manual intervention every items to produce the planned amount
of coal need to be ensured which got its every bit of vulnerability to
slip into culture of adhocism, a phenomenon always misfires or
backfires. The production can get hampered because of unavailabil-
ity or late availability of explosive or support or other items. The
annual plan may be impaired if the data feed is wrong or manipula-
tive and the budgeted materials may be stocked out if not be regu-
larly tracked as per demand either by phone, mail or physical visit.
More than that every time the production lags, the back calculation
is needed to find out the next schedule along with the demand of
its accessories. Hugely drawing room exercise with overdose of
instinct and intuition with some legacy system intervention in some
of processes that also in isolation and limited edition, these are all
which keeps a mine manager engaged all along, where cost of
different execution process or the machines engaged or the materi-
als consumed thereof or real time information of the production ,
dispatch etc. are beyond his access or comes in post facto basis. The
asynchronous nature of different jobs associated but hardly aligned
with production always keep the manager or the production people
on tenterhook. All of these just impede the process of right decision
in right time thanks the lacking of communication between differ-
ent department or domain operates more in silo than in sync.
Not any more, once SAP will be in action. The Production & Plan-
ning Module just picks up the demand from the BPC Or Business
Planning Consolidation tool which perfectly plan annually , monthly
and daily from figure extrapolated from the previous year by using
forecasting tool. Along with production other things also being
planned for other accessories like explosive and other materials all
associated for production. In fact planning, budgeting, forecasting
and consolidation all these activities which are being done in stages
involving so many desks and divisions will be done by BPC of SAP in
more real-time and integrated framework where data input in every
department gets updated in master data for planning in zero time
gap. Now once planning is done followed by scheduling , the execu-
tion begins as just another process (in SAP is called recipe or Mas-
ter Recipe) where the planned materials are preset with every
back end calculation (powder factor etc) for defined production
amount (called Bill of Material or BOM) and the combination of
Recipe and BOM where a fleet of machines are assigned (which is
called Work Center) will just create number of options available for
the particular mine (called Production Version). According to the
number of technology/mechanism available in the mines with ex-
clusive consumable earmarked for each of this option assigned for
consumption while being aligned with particular equipment to be
run, every mine got its single or more production versions for differ-
ent section or pit or bench. The Manager or the person in charge of
mine or the concerned process of production will just trigger the
chain of iteration before execution which will help him run or re-
strict them (iterations) according to the availability check , safety
stock of the items needed to produce the required quantity of out-
put material (coal). While integration with Material Management
will just ensure the planning for material or explosive in advance ,
by triggering there its own chain or processes of procurement once
below the safety stock , the health of production equipment or
work centers will be continuously assessed and so their availability
ensured by close integration with Plant Maintenance which just
keep working on scheduling its preventive maintenance or attend-
ing breakdown maintenance thus whole maintenance processes
(which again includes procurement of services and goods through
MM) triggered by utilization figures of machines in PP Module. The
availability or demand of coal will be triggered from SD through
MM Module against the batch of production for certain grade as-
signed in PP Module. And the HR module will keep on working in
supporting the availability of right manpower to the work centers or
equipment and its supervisory staff. And the FICO while assigning
the cost of processes and the components thereof just keep
streaming the figures to help to assess the real time figure of cost
incurred so that a control can be set by right intervention in time.
Thus a manager instead of being continuously time pressed with
pursuing (which ends up pestering so many times) every quarter/
desks of the project , now will be in a cockpit of the whole opera-
tion and just keep surveillance on every process on his radar to
intervene only where it gets impeded .And with great level of minia-
turization of SAP’s software packages he need not to move with
laptop or stick to desktop rather he can just do his surveillance and
supervision on the go by using hundreds of application called ‘Fiori’
developed on different modules on the smart phone or mobile .
And any interruption or impediment of running or releasing any
process will trigger the alert on its own to its concerned Module in
more proactive rather than reactive manner to reorganize or re-
structure themselves (procurement ,planning etc ) to help the man-
ager intervening for least time and in rightmost time. Thus he will
be free of hassles of managing or allocating resources in day to day
operation which is being taken care of by SAP PP Module integrated
with other Modules and backed by very robust and equally agile
planning by BPC. He will have enough time onward on high end
work of mine which demands his more attention and vigilance on
work like safety , planning more new machines, recruitment of new
mechanism and so many things. In some definition the word ERP
coined with the connotation that the high end resources which
surely are human resources should be released from operational or
execution work( which are now automated and system enabled )
and then be relocated in high end work like designing , rethinking
future strategy or vision. In fact literally ERP will just do that for the
mine management once implemented.
 ERP Events (Ongoing & Upcoming)
UAT Sprint 1
After the One day Overview Training for End User where almost
2200 end users got trained across 10 areas in WCl and two coal-
fields in MCL with almost 75 sessions , the project Passion which
entered in its crucial phase of realization has completed its the first
schedule of User Acceptance Testing in sprint1 of Project ‘Passion’.
While End User Overview was quite simpler one as it was the intro-
ductory orientation being broadly defined with its contents as well
as context , the UAT was a bit more complex by its depth and
breadth both. Seven Modules got its own schedule depending on its
extent of contents prepared /progressed in Sprint 1 specially on the
Processes configured, Process Instruction tables developed or re-
ports thereof generated. Different clusters followed in different
Module with its definite targeted audience of SMEs( Subject Matter
Experts) and the End Users representatives who would first get
trained on how to appreciate the development (whatever done till
the Sprint) and then how to test it. Different combination , cluster
were framed and followed in the two lead subsidiaries of which
last lap of UAT, FICO in MCL just concluded last week in Talchir
Field. A normal slot of 5 days +5 days for SMEs and End Users was
followed. Although work pressure were too high specially at the fag
end of the production year 2019-20 to release the right nominees
which are extremely needed for getting the software / system test-
ed on its ease, effectiveness and efficacy of use, the programme got
a good response from MCL and to certain extent WCL thanks the
coordination by the PLs, Module Leads, Area Management and
Mine/project Management and the different Training Institutes and
Tech M Trainers.
PM Module Workshop at NEC
One walk-through the PM Module and exercise on Master Data
templates and its collection was organised in Margarita NEC , the
third participant in first phase of implementation of SAP in CIL
(alongwith WCL and MCL) from 25th to 26th of February, 2020. The
excitement of the participants who joined the programme in hordes
were very much conspicuous. In fact of against so much odds of
constraints of getting clearances and their follow up compliances
the NEC are facing these days , the enthusiasm shown in the pro-
gramme by participants were quite infectious. Very soon , the next
of its kind on other Modules like PP, SD, PS , HR etc. will be ar-
ranged in a short while to align the whole NEC workforce with the
SAP system .
Master Data Collection
After UAT of first sprint of Project Passion , the next big issue is to
get the Master Data for different Modules which will help to profile
the plants in the Enterprise structure of different modules of SAP .
Already a string of workshops have been followed with the presen-
tation of it in every given chance of interaction with the End Users,
Area Management and Project Leads in different training pro-
grammes in WCL and MCL. Different strategies have been taken to
get all these data collected and collated at earliest. The two lead
subsidiaries MCL and WCL just needs to mobilize the full resources ,
set the module specific networks and nodes across the areas and
the plants (mine/project/areas/office/establishment) at earliest to
facilitate all these works (data collection and other jobs) in no time.
Roles & Authorisation Layout
One of the most crucial part of SAP implementation is to lay out its
governance network ie assigning the Roles and its embedded Au-
thorization to execute different works as per redefined profile of
our work force in the new system whether to handle or incorporate
master data , enter transaction data or deal with monthly settle-
ment , quarterly reconciliation etc. in PP and such other activities in
other modules also. The campaign for R&A has been already started
at different forum which will be intensified over the time while the
project gets rolled out further with more completion and integra-
tion with others and with better comprehension of the system by
mine/office management in its concerned department.
Organisation Change Management
A drive has been taken across the length and breadth of coal com-
panies WCL, MCL and NEC, CIL to orchestrate change which is cer-
tainly precursor of implementation of SAP anyway. As it is natural in
any organisation that resistance die hard , so the role of Organisa-
tion Change Management or OCM in brief should be all pervasive
where clarity in communication, mobilising the top management
support, garnering the buy-in or full conviction of the tool while
appreciating it’s more people ramification rather than technical
ones, must sensitise the every nook any cranny of the organistion if
we need to implement the new system successfully. An initiative
has been taken to precede any seminar, workshop or training with
full scape change management presentation while readying next
group of people across Hq, areas, plants at different nodes and level
who will spearhead the campaign further. Name it change champi-
on or change agent we need to establish the full network of these
names who will be pathogen of the change with their extra pas-
sion , leadership , authority and camaraderie irrespective of their
post and position to work on defining and designing the language ,
vocabulary dialects of permeating new system and its impact
across the vein and arteries of the organisation. We are in search of
such people at every level right from unit to HQ and every establish-
ment where SAP is implemented. We request our readers to identi-
fy the names whom they feel must take the lead at different do-
main, desks or department or divisions to explore different avenues
to hardcode the new system in the organisation.
UAT Sprint 2
While successfully ending up FICO's first lap of UAT at WCL drawing
huge response with the participation of 73 in numbers, in Sprint 1
of Project 'Passion', in Sprint 2 FICO module is now leading the pack.
Amongst all modules in Sprint 2 the UAT of FICO is getting started in
WCL from 06th April which will go on up to 17th April,2020.The
same participants who attended the Sprint 1 part , will be exposed
to the further development in their Module in Sprint2 to have
hands on exercise to review them (for further refining or redefining)
with their further insights or inputs.
 Infra-Connect

Infra-Connect Choreographing the best tango of hardware and

connectivity as any good ERP demands

In the first Industrial revolution we found electricity while in its second round we got swayed by information explosion, the third came riding
on the internet wave and now the fourth is being driven by data, fuelled by data and fed by data. Data is where the decision lies. In Enter-
prise solution data is the prime fodder of the business processes ,certainly the most modern assets of any organisation . So preservation ,
protection of these processes and its huge data feed are always at the core of the design or architecture of system. In ERP not only data re-
position or retrieval need to be smooth and seamless but must be real time also which demands the Data centres works 24X7, 365 days a
year. In its so called three tier architecture, the robust data centre with steady and strong system application (SAP symbolises it by its name)
and network of front end hardwares constitutes the most winning combination for successful implementation , which this days got rechris-
tened as Applistrcuture by some system providers when they entangle their hardware and software in their offer of service. Name it Network
Operation Centre , Security Operation Centre and Help Desk all works untiringly round the clock to make your software clusters or modular
system like ERP run trouble free and hassle free.

So what makes data centre the backbone of enterprise system which in turn becomes the digital nervous system of the organisation? In a
data centre anatomy we need to have our server , storage , back up system and networking infrastructure . We also must have the top secu-
rity framework to insure and immune our centre and its data reservoir from onslaught of infringement or invasion by hackers, malwares etc
or any unprecedented damage or deletion. And we need to have a full-scale service management system resources (tool, technology etc)
which will keep monitoring and mending it (this regiment of hardwares as well as rearing its closet of big data) through different forthcoming
glitches inevitable while running so wide and deep system like SAP. And last but not least we need to have the fast and steady connectivity to
warrant speedy and seamless communication across the system.

How far we had progress on this infra-connect what we say in establishing the compatible infrastructure and connectivity to complement our
ERP system at its best? And here is where we stand today:

 Complete IT infrastructure including necessary hardware, OS & amp; OS related SW, data centre and necessary managed services will
be procured from M/s. RailTel as OPEX.

 Work already got started (Tendering etc ) to procure the complete IT infrastructure as Cloud Services from M/s. RailTel.

 To make effective use of the Hospital management System the twin system with SAP to connect and integrate the Hospitals in CIL
and its services on a monolithic platform, hospitals are to be equipped with necessary IT infrastructure. Action has already been tak-
en to procure the necessary IT infrastructure at each hospital for implementation of HMS.

 And for Connectivity from Data Entry location to DC (Data Centre) / DRC (Data Recovery Centre) each subsidiary cos. will hire MPLS-
VPN services for accessing the DC/DRC.

 The MPLS service Provider has already been decided. M/s. RailTel & M/s BSNL will be the primary & secondary service provider re-
spectively.

 Technical Specification and Terms & conditions for hiring of MPLS –VPN services are framed by E& T Department of CIL and circulated
to Subsidiary Companies.

 Action has already been taken by subsidiary Cos. to hire MPLS-VPN services.
Thank you for reading the first edition of the quarterly Project PASSION Newsletter. We hope
the newsletter contains interesting information and useful resources – this is COAL for YOU.

Anything that you would like to read about IT?

Simply reply at erp.feedback@coalindia.in and let us know.

Ideas for news topics – as well as any other feedback – are welcome.

Best regards,

The Team COAL, Project PASSION, CIL.