ACMA

The past year had been rough on many in the auto component sector as in other sectors of industry, but there were companies that had survived despite the recession mainly because of their focus on Exports. There were others who shifted their focus from set export markets to find other markets. Though the Export of auto component from India is a mere 2% of the world market, this particular segment had shown a growth of about 15% each year over the last five to six years. The potential to Export, therefore, was enormous.

Mr L Ganesh, in his address pointed out that though Industry was pulling out of the recession it had not yet, fully recovered. Further, he said, with the proven potential of the Indian auto component manufacturers, members stood a good chance of entry into export markets. Mr Ganesh, however, emphasised the need for companies to adopt (i) stringent measures in Quality (ii) thorough market analysis (iii) identification of key drivers in chosen segments (iv) staying with specifications given by the customer (v) paying special attention to packaging (vi) and practicing strict on time deliveries. These were six most important points to develop and judiciously practice in order to successfully compete in the world markets.
ACMA Members, successful in Exports willingly agreed to give time to share their success stories and more important, their strategy for the future. These were -

Sundaram Brake Linings Ltd with Mr G R Chandramouli, General Manager (Mktg) making a presentation on "Export Focus SBL Experience".

Susira Industries and Mr S Seetharamaiah, Managing Partner, presenting "Breakthrough in Exports - SSI Story"

Visteon India with Mr Mark Critz, Managing Director making a presentation on "Export Opportunities through System Supplier"

Harita NTI P Ltd and Mr N Sriram Manager presenting "Advanced Packaging Technology for Exports"

Geologistics Ltd has over 1000 service centres in 75 countries providing logistics solutions to exporters. Mr Andrew Birtley, Chief Executive Officer, made a presentation on "Logistics Support for Exports"

A CEOs Study Mission visited three Member Companies in Chennai to see some of the "best practices" being successfully implemented. The Mission was joined by Members from the North (3), East (1), West (2. Floods in Mumbai prevented Five others from joining the Mission) and 12 from the Southern Region, itself. The itinerary drawn up by the ACMA Regional Office took the Mission Members first to Brakes India Ltd where they were received by Mr S Viji, Joint Managing Director and his senior colleagues. The Company has been practicing Kaizen and benefited enough to have formed various Kaizen Teams that work towards continuous improvements. A superb presentation was made on one of their Kaizen activities by the Shop-floor Kaizen Team.

Rajsriya Enterprises, an SSI unit has most commendably adopted TQM Practices and has a very good Quality Circle. Mr P S Govindachari, Managing Director and his Team’s presentation on Quality Circle was excellent. This was followed by a visit to the Plant.

Next on the list of visits, was Rane Engine Valves Ltd whose forte is TPM. VIce President (Operations) Mr K A Ramani, presented the evolution of "TPM" in the Company over the last three years. The highlight of this presentation showed that TPM activity was initiated and driven by ‘total employment involvement’ without the assistance of any external consultants. A tour of the plant was made, after the presentation.

At the end of the day, the Mission Members found the Plant visits highly educative, informative and a tremendous eye-opener. The achievement of this Mission was that certain Members came away with the thought to adopt some of the Practices in their respective Organisations to bring about an overall Improvement. The message, as mentioned, was TEI which has to be "top driven" if success was to be the answer.

ACMA-UNIDO Meeting for Southern Region Project : 26-31 July 2000

ACMA-UNIDO Representatives had a second round of meetings with Vehicle Manufacturers and senior Office Bearers of ACMA, in Chennai and Bangalore. This meeting was in connection with the launching of the ACMA-UNIDO Partnership programme for Building Competitiveness in the Small and Medium Scale Auto Component Units in the Southern Region.