n the recently conducted Indizen 2014— 5th National Convention on Operational Excellence by Kaizen Institute of India (KII), The Akshaya Patra Foundation won the award in the category of 'Continued Commitment to Operational Excellence'. The convention is aimed at entities that pursue operational techniques like LEAN, Kaizen, TPM and other approaches in their functioning to improve performance. The Case Study Competition in which Akshaya Patra won the award was among the three prime tracks that Indizen conducts.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation had designed a Six Sigma Project on Optimization of Cooking Gas Cost in its Surat kitchen unit. The goal statement of this project was "Reduction of Cooking Gas cost by 10 per cent from the current level in The Akshaya Patra Foundation, Surat". With a whopping total cost saving percentage of 63 per cent, the goal was over-achieved.

The organisation recorded over a few months, the consumption of gas against the quantity of Atta (wheat flour) to make Rotis. The recordings showed a remarkable decrease in the level of gas consumption after the Six Sigma project was implemented. A detailed case study of this achievement, highlighting aspects like month-wise gas consumption, process modification and cause-effect diagram was created.

The project yielded some more tangible benefits like reduction in wastage and breakdown cost and appropriate time management by manpower. Intangible benefits like improvement in delivery quality of food, drop in production hours including packaging and loading were also achieved.