The Hindu Business Line : `Global practices must be adopted at shop floor level'

`Lean manufacturing'
Improve value addition per employee.
Adhere to the plan, do, check, action cycle.
Focus on quality, effectiveness of workers.

Coimbatore , Oct. 13

The need for adopting global practices at the shop floor level by the manufacturing sector to meet international competition has been stressed by Mr Vikram S. Kirloskar, Vice-Chairman, Toyota Kirloskar Motor Private Ltd.

Inaugurating a conference on `lean manufacturing', organised jointly by the CII and Young Indians (YI) in Coimbatore on Friday, he also advised the manufacturing sector to improve value addition per employee in order to face the challenge from the IT industry.

He said global competition has had a significant impact on India and innovation has become a key driver of growth. Due to increasing competition from global players, it was necessary that international practices were adopted at the shop floor level.

PDCA CYCLE

Mr Kirloskar said the manufacturing industry should adhere to PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Action) cycle for continuous improvement. Eliminating waste for creating value, being responsive to change while focussing on quality and increasing the effectiveness of the workers were some of the key elements of the `lean' way of doing business.

Mr Jayakumar Ramdass, Chairman, CII, Coimbatore Zone, said while the East European nations were posing a threat to India in its export markets, the increase in input costs were eroding the cost competitiveness of Indian exports.

`Lopsided growth'

He said the `lopsided growth' of IT industry in relation to the jobs created compared to other industries in the country has pushed up the employee expectations and cost of living. He said `matching that in a short time causes cost escalations without corresponding productivity increase'.

He said lean manufacture and automation had become critical and the traditional dependence on manual labour should give way to knowledge-based management.

Mr S.K. Anand, Head-Economy Focus Area, YI Coimbatore Chapter, said `lean' was a systematic approach to reduce the time between receipt of order and its shipment by eliminating waste (non value-added activities).

Mr Ashwin Chandran, Chair, YI Coimbatore Chapter, explained the activities of his organisation in Coimbatore.