Jamshedpur, Dec. 21: In an attempt to promote business excellence in industries, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has set itself a target of constituting 100 clusters of small and medium enterprises across the country in the coming one year.
Chairman of the CII national committee on quality Surinder Kapur, who was in the city to attend a conference, The Practice of Business Excellence in Industry, organised by CII?s Jharkhand council said the new initiative has been taken as a step towards achieving excellence in manufacturing and service quality.
According to Kapur, CII has offered to train 30 counsellors, who would help companies in the clusters achieve business excellence. ?Efforts are being made to induct 10 companies manufacturing similar products in each cluster,? he said, adding that each company in the cluster will have to spend Rs 1 lakh annually towards training and other expenses.
The counsellors would provide tips on development methodology in quality management, including product innovation, technology, management strategies, knowledge management and customer satisfaction to help increase business performance in small and medium scale industries.
Kapur who is also the chairman-cum-managing director of Sona Koyo Steering Systems Limited, a Gurgaon-based company which won the Deming Award this year for quality management, said CII is also making efforts to form similar clusters for larger companies. It has hired the services of S. Shiba, a professor of Massachussetts Institute of Technology, USA for the purpose.
Companies like Brakes India, Technova, TVS and Sreeram Fibres have shown interest in forming the first such cluster in the country, he said and added that organisations like ACMA Centre for Technology and the United Nations Industry Development Corporation have come forward to fund the project.
The speakers at today?s conference highlighted the use of various tools like total product management, total quality management and lean management as strategic means to achieve operation excellence. According to the speakers, today?s highly competitive and globalised market requires Indian firms to develop world class management systems and practices to make the best of emerging opportunities.
The conference was also addressed by S. Chakraborty, deputy general manager Thai Acrylic Fibre Company, Bhusen Raina, managing director of Tinplate Company of India Ltd, Sanjay Sethi, general manager, Taj Bengal and Anjali Kumar, general manager (operations), Apollo Hospital Enterprises, among others. About 70 delegates from various manufacturing and service industries attended the meet.
