Reimagining Operational Systems from the Ground Up

Design Thinking

Cross-functional collaboration

Operational innovation

2025

Background

Can operations teams redesign digital workflows without writing a single line of code?

Hindalco invited TinkerLabs to run a Design Thinking workshop for a cross-functional team tasked with improving internal operations.

A high-impact training sprint to enable Hindalco’s teams to tackle system-level challenges using Design Thinking and Behavioural Science

Kicked off with a 2-day in-person workshop, followed by 2 virtual coaching sessions over 8 weeks
6 cross-functional teams from Tech, ERP, Digital, Manufacturing, and Quality came together to solve live operational problems
Each team worked end-to-end: from research and behaviour diagnosis → to low-fidelity prototyping and pitch

Focus areas ranged from MES adoption to LIMS integration, e-logbooks, and automated coal sampling

Each team translated their insight into real, implementable changes:

E-Logbook: Unified platform for IT + Digital + ERP to collaborate without duplication → 50% faster delivery
MES Interface: Excel-like MES for production teams → 65% drop in reporting time
LIMS Integration: Real-time test certificate generation in Cast House → 70% faster processing
Enterprise Content Mgmt: Unified doc retrieval system → 60% faster access and 40% cost saving
Coal Sampling: Visualised logbook for daily trend analysis → Minutes instead of hours to make ops decisions

Each solution was co-created, tested, and refined with clear implementation and feedback plans.

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