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Our Bureau

Coimbatore , March 18

INDIAN Oil Corporation (IOC) has saved more than Rs 100 crore within six months of adopting the Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) programme — an indicator of the enormous savings potential for the country if the industry adopts such programmes, said Dr Surinder Kapur, Chairman and Managing Director, Sona Koyo Steering Systems Ltd.

At a function to launch the CII SME Coimbatore clusters on Friday, Dr Kapur said quality programmes were not just for the private sector. He said IOC has taken its TPM programme to all its plants and clusters, resulting in savings of Rs 108 crore within the first six months. He expressed the hope that all public sector companies would implement such programmes, as their cumulative savings would benefit the country.

The CII was discussing with funding agencies such as SIDBI, ICICI Bank and the World Bank for assistance in taking up the cluster programmes. The subsidy given was almost Rs 1 lakh a year for each company, but his personal view was that entrepreneurs should invest their own money so that they learn from the programme, he said.

Dr Kapur said the cluster approach was a mutual sharing and learning exercise, and some of the key parameters came right the first time itself. The SMEs participating in the cluster project have seen increased productivity by nearly two times, cost reduction by 20 per cent and fall in absenteeism.

Mr C.R. Swaminathan, Chairman, SME sub-committee, CII (Southern Region), said a survey on exports by the SMEs would be made so as to identify a group of exporters from the Southern region for assistance.

Mr N. Krishna Samaraj, Chairman, CII Coimbatore zone, said with quality parameters becoming common for both domestic and international markets, the small entrepreneurs should strive to reach high levels of quality.

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