73 participants from 43 organisations attended the two-day prestigious National Conference and Competition on Six Sigma, organized by CII Institute of Quality, with India Inc. pitching for Innovation through quality improvements across domains so as to beat the recession.
Inaugurating the two-day conference at the picturesque CII-IQ centre on the outskirts of Bangalore, Mr K V Rama Mohan, Group Head, IMS and BPO, Infosys Technologies Ltd. observed that “there is an immediate need to standardize Six Sigma Quality Concept so as to apply the tools more effectively to bring out changes in the process.” Since different companies interpret the Six Sigma concept in different ways, he called upon agencies and institutes like CII-IQ to bring in a standardized format so that the element of confusion and vagueness in applying this concept is completely eliminated. A word of caution was also sounded by Mr Amitabh Saxena, CEO Anexas over the use of Six Sigma concept as a concurrent tool to bring in changes. He said that once Six Sigma is rolled out no other quality tool like TMP, TQM or Lean should be engaged concurrently as it tends to hamper the end result. |
Pariticipating Companies |
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Amararaja Batteries
Behr India Ltd.
Brakes India Ltd.
Carborundum Universal Ltd.
Grasim
Harihar Polyfibres
Hospet Steels Ltd.
HSBC
ICICI Bank
ICICI Prudential
Infosys BPO
Kirloskar Oils Engines
Larsen & Toubro Ltd.
Max New York Life
Saint Gobian Crystals
Sundram Fasterners
Sutherland Global Services
TCS
TAFE
Wheels India
Wipro |
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Like TPM, TQM, Lean or Kaizen, Six Sigma is also a quality tool which primarily aims at reducing variations and streamlining various processes to achieve a product or service that is high on quality and satisfies the end-customer. Principal Counsellor and Head of CII-IQ Mr P Girish said that it is paramount for every company to ingrain the element of quality in every process that they initiate. He said that “at this hour, only Business Excellence will facilitate companies to quickly overcome the worst recession as this will help in pruning costs thereby improving bottomline and the quality of products and services.”
This year, 22 top organisations like TCS, Infosys, ICICI, HSBC, Sundram Fasteners, Brakes India among others, vied for the coveted trophy awarded annually by CII-IQ. In all there were 46 entries of which only 22 were selected for the competition broadly categorized under three segments –Bulk Materials and Utilities, Transactional Process and Discrete manufacturing. Each organisation made a presentation showcasing how the Six Sigma tools were applied to bring about visible changes in the re-engineering processes ultimately resulting in not only reducing variations, but also dolling out zero-defect products or services to the end-customers.
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Participants at the Six Sigma Conference |
The three-member jury comprising Mr Hitesh Kakkar, Godrej & Boyce Co., Mr D Ravindran, Vestas and Mr Malolan Sarangapani, Cognizant Technologies had a tough time zeroing on the firms as many were hot contenders for the top honours. Five broad selection criteria were set –effective use of tools, culture of Six Sigma across the company, benefits accrued; innovations and the way the presentation were made to the jury. While Discrete (Brakes India) and Transaction (Max New York Life) segments received awards, the jury felt that no company fitted the process for Bulk Materials. While handing over the awards Deputy Chairman of CII-IQ Mr M Lakshminarayan hinted that over the next five years, India is all set to witness dramatic and radical change as many companies have already put in quality tools into place. To make the quality movement even better, he provided a tip to India Inc. by saying that “at the point of design apply the quality tools which automatically will produce quality products or services.”
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Winner in Transaction category, Max New York Life Insurance.
From left: Ravindran Devarajan from Vestas, 2 participants from Max New York, Mr Lakshmi Narayan, who was the Chief Guest from Harman International , Mr Malolan Sarangapani from Cognizant Technology Solutions and Mr Hitesh Kakkar from Godrej & Boyce |
Winner in Discrete category, Brakes India.
From left: Ravindran Devarajan from Vestas, 2 participants from Brakes India, Mr Lakshmi Narayan, who was the Chief Guest from Harman International , Mr Malolan Sarangapani from Cognizant Technology Solutions and Mr Hitesh Kakkar from Godrej & Boyce |
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