How synergy between the youth and the experienced solved a long-standing problem at L&T’s Hazira facility
A synergy between the youth and the experienced, and an openness to try out new ideas can work wonders for organisations and their people alike! And that’s what has fructified at L&T Heavy Engineering’s (HE) expansive equipment manufacturing facility at Hazira in Gujarat.
It was sometime back that HE formed a Youth Advisory Board (YAB) with a mandate to engage young professionals in a structured monthly interaction with the Business Head. Comprising employees up to 30 years of age, YAB seeks to give young professionals a platform to float innovative ideas for business growth and flag any impediment that they might be facing at the workplace.
And the YAB has now solved a workplace problem that had been there for a long time but had hitherto remained unaddressed.
HE’s equipment manufacturing facility, located at Gate 5 of A M Naik Heavy Engineering Complex (AMNHEC), is a workplace spanning 81 acres. Getting around such a large facility for work throughout the day is a challenge. Relying on fuel-powered vehicles increases carbon emissions, while walking was eating into productive time.
To address the issue, YAB mooted a hat-trick of a solution: it’s low-tech, it’s pollution-free, and it helps people meet their fitness goals! YAB proposed that bicycles be introduced for intra-campus commuting, and figured out that those can be rented from MYBYK at an annual cost-to-the-company as low as Rs 1,357 per cycle.
The HE management readily approved the proposal, and AMNHEC’s Central Services played a pivotal role in the roll-out of the bicycles through MYBYK in September 2024. To begin with, they put in place 50 bicycles that can be picked up by the employees from four designated hubs in the campus.
All a user needs to do is download the MYBYK app and register. Once the registration is accepted, s/he can start using the bicycles. In just a few months since the launch, the number of registered users has crossed 240, with bicycle utilisation exceeding 90%.
The employees using the bicycles save approximately 20 minutes of intraday commuting – effectively adding an extra productive day per month. The health benefit is the icing on the cake!
“This initiative is so much more than a convenient commute. It aligns with two of L&T’s major sustainability goals: achieving carbon neutrality and enhancing employee wellness. It fosters a more efficient work environment and demonstrates the power of bottom-up communication,” says an elated Anil Parab, Whole-time Director & Sr EVP – Heavy Engineering and L&T Valves.
