Members' Corner

ACT

STATUS ON BENCHMARKING PROGRAMME

During the months of July, August and September, companies that joined the Benchmarking programme for 1 or 3 years period met the ACT Counsellor, to discuss their performance results. A presentation was made on the analysis of the overall performance and the results in the four organisational elements of the companies, which are: Organisational & Management; Financial Control; Marketing, Sales & Exports; Production. The analysis was presented by means of over-head charts and highlighted the areas of strength in performance as well as areas of weaknesses that needed improvement.

The Companies were informed of the measures to be taken to bridge existing gaps between company performance and established world-class standards. The were shown how to monitor and implement the applicable measures for improvement. An action plan was to be developed, outlining measures and methods, e.g. 5 S, Kaizen, 7 Waste, etc. to be applied for achieving improvements with the target dates for accomplishing the individual action to be reflected.

A comparison of the of the company’s results with the achievements of the best companies of all participating countries, as well as with one particular country, made the participants aware of their position. The assembled managerial staff were very interested in the benchmarking analysis which resulted in an animated interaction during and after the presentation.

In the same time frame 13 SSI companies who had joined the benchmarking programme under the ACT–SIDBI scheme were also, met by the Counsellor, to enable discussion of the questionnaire used for assessing company performance. Two such Enterprises were to be visited by the end of November. All the SSI companies are from the Northern Region and five more will be selected from the SSI group in the North, to participate in the ACT-SIDBI programme open for a total of 20 companies.

ACT –CII PROJECT ON QUALITY AND PRODUCTIVITY IMPROVEMENT

A special project on Quality and Productivity improvement in the auto component industry has been jointly launched by ACMA Centre for Technology (ACT) and Confederation of Indian industry (CII).

The objective of this project is to improve companies to a level where they are able to: -

• respond to favourable and unfavourable market conditions competitively
• respond better to customers
• improve productivity and profitability

This is a 3 year project focussing on improving technological, managerial and operational capabilities through building competence in people. A detailed roadmap for the three years has been drawn which included the financial implications for participants. The projects would be best suited to companies in the breacket of Rs. 50-100 crores, at which level this model has been tried, tested and found to be most workable.

Counsellors from CII and experienced experts from leading Indian automotive component companies will be assigned to guide and train key employees of participating companies.

Only the most dynamic, eager -to –change and totally committed CEOs, who have a keen desire to rapidly transform their organisations into Lean, Mean and Globally Competitive entities, would be eligible. A final selection will be made by ACT.

Since the number of companies that may be accommodated under this project is limited to 20, Companies believing that improvement would further help their organizations and that their Corporate Team has the confidence to face challenges of improvement, should apply at the soonest.

So far 10 medium and large-scale companies have joined the Project.