TVS group : smitten by Deming

27 November 2004

Threats and opportunities take TVS group companies into the rigorous world of absolute quality standards. Now, a couple of years after companies like Sundaram Clayton, SBL, TVS Motor have won the Deming medal, domainb.com talks to the senior management in these companies to find out how they evaluate their progress and how has implementing the suggestions made by JUSE helped their operations

Chennai: If there is one industrial group that has been infected by the `Deming' bug, it is the city-based TVS group. And it is happy about it.

Since 2001, one TVS group company figures in the prestigious Deming Application prize winners announced by the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE). Incidentally, group company, Sundaram Clayton Limited, became the first Indian company in 1998 to win the Deming medal. The company's brakes division became the proud recipient of the prestigious award.

Five pillars of TQM

Other group companies to have been awarded the Deming medal have been Sundaram Brake Linings Limited (SBL) in 2001, TVS Motors Limited in 2002 and Brakes India Limited's foundry division in 2003. And this year, it was Lucas TVS Limited, which kept alive the Deming's association with the group.

But winning a Deming is not akin to becoming ISO-certified. On the other hand the total quality management (TQM) process might even involve changing a company's corporate culture. According to JUSE, the Deming is awarded to companies or divisions, which practice TQM suitable to their management practices, their business and the industry they operate in.