Dear Member, The twentieth century lies behind us and we are squarely up against the imperatives of the twenty first century. This is a time for making new-year resolutions and even set the tone for the millennium. And what better resolution can there be for the component manufacturers than to resolve to "be there" before the Year 2005.

Benchmarking has been a tool so far used only by the large companies who could afford the services of expensive international consultants. Most global MNCs do benchmarking studies as a regular activity. Benchmarking tells the companies where they stand as compared to their competitors, domestic or international. Once the competitive strengths and weaknesses are known, companies can devise specific measures to address the weak areas, while sustaining leadership in the strong ones. Indian industry, particularly the small and medium companies cannot hope to become world class without first understanding the performance gaps with their global competitors. This is the first hurdle and the key question is "what really is world class and how do I compare with them?"

The ITC Gauge has brought an international class and affordable Benchmarking Service specially designed for the small and medium auto-component manufacturers. The Gauge has been exclusively developed for the auto-component industry using the expertise of ACMA and its counterpart organizations from South Africa, Argentina, Turkey, Thailand, Brazil, Mexico, Italy, Malaysia, Zimbabwe. This Gauge was launched by the ACMA Center for Technology (ACT) in January '99 and since then more than 30 companies are availing its services.

If we really want to survive, many more companies in our industry need to embrace Benchmarking as an indispensable tool for corporate performance positioning and focused internal improvement activity.

V.K. Mehta
President