Geared towards excellence
09 November 2005
Another Rane Group company, Rane TRW, achieves the Deming. S Krishnakumar, president, talks to V Jagannathan about it.
Chennai: Chennai, the Detroit of India, could well be termed as the country's Deming City. This year two Rane group companies — Rane TRW Steering Systems Limited and Rane Engine Valves Limited — figure in the prestigious Deming medal list awarded by the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (Juse). In fact the Deming medal has become the flavour of the season in this part of India.
Juse rates Deming applicant companies on the following criteria:
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Management policies and the deployment regarding quality management
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New product development and work process innovation
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Maintenance and improvement of product and operational qualities
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Establishment of systems for managing quality, quantity, costs, environment, safety etc.
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Collection of information on quality and utilisation of IT
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HR development.
Interestingly, three Indian companies figure in the 2005 Deming medal list out of four in the world and two of them belong to the Chennai-based auto component group Rane.
The Rs11.83-billion turnover group had introduced the Deming process in December 1999. While Rane Brake Linings Limited literally made a dash to the medal, which it won in 2003, (See The Deming dash) for Rane TRW and Rane Engine Valves it was a saga of steady progress.
Says S Krishnakumar, president of the Rs360-crore Rane TRW, "We started our total quality management (TQM) journey under the guidance of Prof.Y Washio of JUSE. He is an individual Deming Prize winner and an acknowledged authority in Japan in 'statistical process control' and 'new product development'. He held the first workshop in December 1999 and subsequently, visits us once in three months to provide guidance."
