A relook on reports of studies and audits of puc certification through the concept of controllability”: An innovative approach

Purpose: Govt. of India, Ministry of Roads Transport & Highways (MoRTH) ; established PUC (Pollution Under Control) centers in all states, under their I&M (Inspection & Maintenance) program following CMVRs (Central Motor Vehicles Rules) 1989, to test on-road vehicle’s tail pipe emissions and issue PUC certificate to a vehicle which complies with BS IV or BS VI emission standards. The purpose of PUC is to control vehicular air pollution. The PUC centre could not function appropriately and failed to control the vehicular air pollution as brought out by studies and audits during the intense literature review. Various studies and audit reports gave observations and non-conformities (NCs) to PUCcentre. Had those observations and NCs been separated into management and worker controllable, then those might have been dealt with appropriately so as to bring improvement in the PUC certification process and kept vehicular pollution under control. Air pollution is recognized as a pressing sustainability concern. Design/Methodology/approach: Use of Concept of controllability paves the way for data of non conformances reported by study reports or audits to be separated into management controllable and worker controllable for their implementation. Secondly using relative authority levels and reporting lines, the organization structure is formulated to make it useful for coordination of employees in the PUC activity. In the Organization, Manager in any activity or function is responsible to put controls on the activity to produce a product or service which must be meeting fitness for purpose. Meeting fitness for purpose constitutes (i) Meeting customer needs (ii) Protecting human safety and (iii) Protecting the environments. Findings: The key findings are that (i) 20 to 30 % of non conformities are worker controllable and (ii) 70 to 80 % are management controllable. (iii) Existing org structure needs breakthrough as it lacks in depicting the means to manage across it like relative authority levels. Originality Of the study: Application of this concept for separation of defects/NCs into management & worker controllable, bring out performance gaps challenging the manager for actions which leads to improvement of performance. This is the uniqueness of this study that performance gaps appear which can be worked out for their remedy. Significance of findings: Regional Transport Office (RTO) is the management for 70 to 80% of non conformances of PUC. Remedy of these certainly improves air pollution control process. Similarly PUC Operator owes 20 to 30 % of defects. Removal of these leads him to do right certification of vehicle emissions. This innovative approach, even if, applied today may put PUC on the path of continual improvement thus saving human lives and protecting the environment.