ACT - INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS GAUGE

ACMA Center for Technology (ACT) has, for some months provided a special tool to small and medium enterprises. This is the International Competitiveness Gauge (ICG) which assess, analyses and compares the overall organization of a company to the specific standards existing in world class companies. Because of this comparison, the Gauge is also known as the Benchmarking Tool.

Mentioned in an earlier issue of the Auto News, was news of the International Competitiveness Gauge being developed by the International Trade Center UNCTAD / WTO (ITC) in Geneva, Switzerland, together with ACMA under the collaboration of relevant industry associations from Argentina, India, South Africa, Venezuela, Malaysia, Turkey and Zimbabwe. Being custom designed, this Gauge is 'an exclusive' for the auto component industry and offers affordable Benchmarking Services which will be particularly useful for the SMEs.

The ICG, focuses mainly on the following areas for evaluation and then goes on for a general assessment of the overall performance of a company.

• Marketing, Sales and Export
• Management and Organization
• Financial Control
• Production

The analysis reflects the individual performance of each element and its specific characteristics in comparison to the best possible figures and values a company can obtain, thereby, revealing the gaps that need to be bridged through the application of appropriate measures.

The additional and exclusive service provided by the benchmarking tool makes it possible to compare your company with -
• all the enterprises included in the Gauge
• with all companies in any one particular country
• with the top five companies among all countries included in the Gauge
• with the top five enterprises in any participating country.
• Comparison of company performance with its own past performance.

The present strength of the membership is a 180 enterprises from the countries listed above, while a further six countries (Brazil, Chile, Italy, Spain and Tunisia) are expected to join soon. The Indian companies participating in the Gauge are a total of 45 of which 16 companies have taken membership for a period of one to three years. It is suggested that a longer time-frame in membership would provide better means to compare the latest results, efforts and improvements with assessments from previous exercises.

The details of the program and the modalities to join the Gauge are contained in a separate brochure available with ACMA CENTRE FOR TECHNOLOGY.

For further information please contact, Mr Klaus Goehring, Counselor in ACMA Centre for Technology (ACT) at the ACMA address, telephone/fax number or e-mail address.

UNIDO PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM " COMPETITIVENESS THROUGH PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP".
The Partnership Program " Competitiveness through Public-Private Partnership" was started about 10 months ago by UNIDO, together with ACMA and other partners:

• Government of India (Ministry of Industry)
• Fiat S.P.A. (through Magnetti Marelli, the group's automotive component system company)
• Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI)
• European Institute for Management (INSEAD)
• Prince of Wales Business Leaders Forum (PWBLF)

The Objective of the program was to enhance the performance, towards global standards, of small and medium scale auto component manufacturers. Twenty companies were selected from the Western Region to study under Experts who used a demonstration approach to provide classroom training, shop-floor assistance and hands on training. The selected companies are from the metal, plastic and rubber sectors.

Four overseas Experts - two from metal machining/ processing, one from the plastic sector and one from rubber - began the training programme, soon after a base - line seminar held by UNIDO, in March '99, at the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), Pune.

The training programme had three stages with the Expert spending up to 3 days visit, with each company. Emphasis was to be placed on production capacity improvement, quality control, inventory management and housekeeping issues. The time between visits, was used by enterprises to complete tasks determined, mutually, with the Expert and contained in the action plan. These 'tasks' were issues related to correct treatment of machinery, workers' health and safety, instruments and techniques to enable workers and plant supervisors to carry out visual control, measures leading to easy identification of problems / waste centres, etc…

Mid-way in the training, a review meeting and workshop took place between partners and participating companies, in ARAI, Pune, at the end of July '99. Presentations were made by UNIDO Experts on TQM, Lean Manufacturing, Health and Safety, etc… A lean manufacturing exercise was conducted by one of the Experts who had the participants of the programme in two groups, showing the differences and benefits of single production versus batch production.

On 17 September '99, Sundaram-Clayton Ltd, winner of the prestigious Deming Award, was visited by the CEOs of the Programme's Member Companies and on 25 September '99, the management staff of participating companies, came together for a visit to Kirloskar Oil Engines Ltd - winner of several 'excellence awards' from organizations and associations in India. Both, 'World-Class' companies, left an outstanding impression on the visitors.