The Hindu Business Line : Suresh Krishna tells industry to aim high

THINK BIG: (From left) Mr Kinjirou Nakano, Executive Vice-President and Board Member, Master TPM Consultant, JIPM-Solutions Co Ltd; Mr Suresh Krishna, Chairman and Managing Director, Sundram Fasteners Ltd; Mr Surinder Kapur, Chairman, TPM Club India and Chairman and Managing Director, Sono Koyo Steering Systems Ltd; and Mr N. Srinivasan, Director General, CII, at the 6th TPM National conference in Chennai on Tuesday. - Bijoy Ghosh

Chennai , March 7

A man found an eagle's egg and put it under a brooding hen. A few weeks later, the egg hatched. The eaglet grew up among the chickens. One day it saw an eagle flying high up in the air and, admiring the eagle's flapless and graceful glide, asked its `mother' if it could also fly like the bird.

"Well, that's an eagle, it can fly high. We are chickens, we cannot," the hen said. The eaglet grew up believing that and died without ever attempting to fly.

Mr Suresh Krishna, Chairman and Managing Director, Sundram Fasteners Ltd, narrated this little story at a seminar on Total Productive Maintenance, and added, "We Indians are like that. We have been told that we cannot fly and hence we believe we cannot." Calling upon the Indian industry to think big, Mr Suresh Krishna passed on a few tips from the experiences of his company. Have a clear vision, communicate the vision to employees repeatedly, set well-stretched but practical goals and aim high, he said. "India has to be built by Indians. You cannot say, `FDI will come and save India'," Mr Suresh Krishna said, spontaneously evoking a thunder of applause.

In his special address, Mr Kinjirou Nakano, Executive Vice-President, JIPM-Solutions Co Ltd, said that India has the second largest number of TPM companies in the world outside Japan. Highlighting the importance to groom people for sustaining and maintaining the TPM excellence, he said that the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance (JIPM) can send the experts to visit Indian companies that have TPM programmes and help them identify the gaps.

Earlier welcoming the participants to the seminar organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry - Southern Region, Dr Surinder Kapur, Chairman, TPM Club India and Chairman and Managing Director, Sono Koyo Steering Systems Ltd, said that about 30 Indian companies have received the award for excellence in TPM in 2005 and over 50 companies have kick started the TPM practices during the current year.

He said that Indian companies that have ongoing TPM practices have realised Return on Investment (RoI) of Rs 20 for every Re 1 invested in TPM. In order to share the good practices from all the companies, the TPM Club India and CII Institute of Quality is aiming to compile one lakh Kaizens, the methods that resulted in continuous improvements in production processes.